CBS FILMS: MOONVES ADMITS IT GIVES NETWORK A BLACK EYE

The strategy behind CBS Films had been simplicity itself: make a small number of quality low-budget movies and hope that a few of them would generate excitement — and ticket sales — at the box office. The problem is that after four years, the company has yet to have a hit — and its last movie was released way back in March. At a meeting of the Hollywood Radio and Television Society in Los Angeles on Thursday, CBS chief Les Moonves defended the strategy. “I don’t think it was the wrong strategy; it was the wrong films,” Moonves said. “We’ve only released five films and three of them have broken even. But they aren’t movies that I’m proud of.” When Moonves went on to remark that television “is a much better business than the movie business,” moderator Brian Lowry of Variety asked what he predicated that conclusion on. Replied Moonves: “predicated on how well our TV divisions are doing and how bad our movie business is.”