Fear. That’s a major reason why major Hwood movie studios abide by a ‘similar by different’ mindset when it comes to the acquisition and development of material — at least that’s what I suggested in this post.

My focus in the post was about the fear of greenlighting projects that bomb. However, there is another source of that fear — passing on a project that becomes a huge hit elsewhere. That’s the angle of this story in The Wrap:

Even two months after the release of “Twilight” — the mania-stirring movie about teen-vampire love– the mere mention of the film’s name on the Paramount lot induces cringing.

“It’s still very much an open wound,” said one Paramount source.

Paramount’s pain, of course, stems from the fact that the studio once had the rights to Stephanie Meyer’s best-selling novel (upon which the movie is based) securely in its vaults – only to turn them over, in a series of fumbles, to Summit Entertainment, the indie studio that released “Twilight” in November, and has been making out like bandits ever since.

“Twilight” cost just $37 million to produce. Yet it has grossed more than $300 million in worldwide ticket sales, making it one of the most profitable movies in recent Hollywood history. A sequel, naturally, is in the works.

Let’s see, hit movies that studios passed on. Off the top of my head, there’s Star Wars, E.T., My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

How has Paramount attempted to right their wrong?

But in one sign that Paramount does not want to make the same mistake twice, Greg Mooradian, who in 2004 brought Meyer’s unpublished manuscript to the attention of David Gale, then head of Paramount’s MTV Films division, was hired last week as a senior vice-president of production under Adam Goodman, who runs production with Weston.

Being a studio executive is a really tough gig. They work ridiculously long hours, oversee a slew of movies in development at any given time, have to worry about pre-production, production and post-production on their projects, and there’s always pressure to make the right decisions. It’s not surprising that their primary instinct is to say “No” to any given project, but because each studio has a distribution network that costs money to support, the simple fact is the studios must makes movies to survive — so they have to say “Yes”… sometimes. The difference between when they say Yes and No… well, that’s the difference between a $300M hit like Twilight and an “open wound” like at Paramount.

What other hit movies do you know that major studios passed on?