Peter Chernin on ‘Backrooms,’ Sequel Fatigue, and Hollywood Mergers

**Peter Chernin** (0:00)
I have no legacy. I'll be dead. That'll be that.

**Kara Swisher** (0:03)
Sir, you greenlit Titanic and Avatar. You did.
Hi everyone from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. This is On with Kara Swisher and I'm Kara Swisher. The indie horror movie Backrooms is one of the big surprise hits of the summer. The film is directed by 20-year-old YouTube creator Kane Parsons. It so far grossed more than $135 million domestically and more than $200 million worldwide. For context, it had an opening weekend on par with the last Star Wars installment despite costing a fraction of the price to make. But behind Backrooms is someone with a well-established reputation for making things people want to see, Peter Chernin. He's one of the producers on the film and his production studio, Chernin Entertainment, co-financed the film. Chernin was Rupert Murdoch's longtime second-in-command at News Corp, which is where I met him a long time ago.
He was also the head of Fox Movie and TV divisions where he greenlit major blockbusters like Titanic and Avatar.
You might have heard of them. In 2010, he founded his own private equity firm, The Chernin Group, to invest in digital media companies. He also recently sold the global content studio he founded, North Road, to the French entertainment giant Media One. I love Peter Chernin. I'm not going to pretend. I always used to go to him because he always told to me straight, even it was not in his interests. He was always very smart and very honest about the entertainment industry. Of course, I was always wary because of the Murdoch Park, but he was very different, actually very liberal in his politics, and at the same time was always focused on quality and just smarts. I just think when he went into digital media, I thought he did it right. I think a lot of Hollywood people didn't, and he also makes the Planet of the Apes movies, which I love. Anyway, he's just a really sharp person and he really is willing to try things and I really appreciate that. All right, let's get to my conversation with Peter Chernin. Our expert question comes from Ari Shapiro, co-host of the CNN Culture Podcast, Engagement Party, Don't Go Anywhere.

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Peter Chernin, thanks for coming on On.

**Peter Chernin** (4:13)
It's my pleasure. How are you doing?

**Kara Swisher** (4:15)
Good. Let's start with what's happening now. Congrats on the success of Backrooms. It's now A24's highest grossing domestic film ever. They co-financed the film alongside Chernin Entertainment and the film is directed by Kane Parsons. He was a teenager when you greenlit the movie.
Talk a little bit about Chernin Entertainment, maybe for people who don't know what you've been up to because it's been a wide range of things. And what stood out to you about this film? Because you've done lots and lots of traditional films. I mean, Planet of the Apes, things like that.

**Peter Chernin** (4:44)
So, Chernin Entertainment is a 15-year-old film and television production company, ranging from Planet of the Apes to New Girl, to Ford versus Ferrari, et cetera. But it's interesting, when I did Planet of the Apes, people came to me immediately. It was the first movie we ever produced and said, you should brand the company, you should become the next action producer, you should run the next big. And I said, yeah, that's a good idea, but I don't want to. I want to make a wide range of movies. The next movie we made was a little searchlight movie called The Drop. We did a family comedy, we did some animated movies. And I've always been interested in doing a wide range of content. And Chernin Entertainment, which I guess at this point has produced 35 movies, has done a wide range of things.