Tag: Patrick Goldstein

Patrick Goldstein looks at the strategies and sensibilities of producer Neal Moritz… Neal Moritz is the kind of producer who leaves nothing to chance. Even though “Battle: Los Angeles” was on track for a strong opening this past Friday, he spent a morning the week before the film’s release huddled with top marketing executives at Sony Pictures, examining 15- and 30-second TV commercials the way a dentist studies X-rays of a patient’s teeth, looking for a cavity. “Battle: Los Angeles,” which debuted at No. 1 this weekend, making $36 million, is a cross between a war movie and an alien invader saga, with a plucky group of Marines battling a seemingly unstoppable array of spindly extraterrestrials who look like “Transformers”-style robots after a weight-loss program. After Moritz watched one commercial, which showed the Marines — many of them Latino and ...