Laundromat to Entertainment Legend
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A story about how Thomas Tull built a multi-billion dollar entertainment company by applying data analytics to the movie business.
"This guy is a legend - a stealthy billionaire. He starts his career in laundromats, shifts to auto repair shops, then shifts to buying small accounting practices. He does a roll up and ends up with 500 worldwide locations for his accounting business.
He becomes famous because he takes that same data philosophy and applies it to the movie business - a business that never had it. He does 'Moneyball for Movies.' He raises $500 million, which he says was the hardest thing he'd ever done, and partners with Warner Brothers to co-finance 30 movies.
His first insight was that bigger is better. Most movies that fail are these mid-market movies that cost a medium amount but don't have guaranteed slam dunk appeal. He focused on commercial appeal with elevated content - like Dark Knight and Inception.
His second insight was focusing on international appeal, specifically China. He partnered with China Film for distribution there. The third was data analysis - the Moneyball side. They had a 50-person applied analytics team - that's 49 more than every other movie producer. They would do things like test 50 versions of a trailer, use facial biometric readings and heart rate monitors to see how people react.
He built Legendary Entertainment, which produced movies like Batman series, 300, The Hangover, Dune, and then sold it for $3.5 billion to the richest man in China. Now he's shifted into defense tech, investing in companies like Anduril and Shield AI."
Shaan Puri
Host of MFM
Shaan Puri is the Chairman and Co-Founder of The Milk Road. He previously worked at Twitch as a Senior Director of Product, Mobile Gaming, and Emerging Markets. He also attended Duke University.