Arnold as entrepeneur: Exaggerated reputation?

[Jack Rabbit]

Arnold Schwarzenegger has listed entrepeneur high on his credentials in his quest to become Governor of California. "I've signed paychecks," he decalres in his telvision ads. However, an examination of Schwarzenegger the entrpeneur shows that his experience and success in this field is exaggerated.

Mr. Schwartenegger's best known business venture is the restaurant chain Planet Hollywood. The chain was actually founded by Robert Earl and Keith Barrish. In 1996, Planet Hollywood went public. Earl and Barrish gave Schwazenegger and three other Hollywood personalities -- Bruce Willis, Demi Moore (Mrs. Willis at the time) and Sylvester Stallone -- shares of stock in exchange for backing the enterprise. If effect, Earl and Barrish ran the operation while the Hollywood celebraties fronted for it.

Planet Hollywood has filed for bankruptcy twice, most recently last year. On both occasions, Earl and Barrish took the heat for the chain's woes. It is not known exactly when Schwarzenegger divested himself from Planet Hollywood, but his financial disclosure report filed when he took out papers to run for governor show that he no longer has any connection with the chain.

Schwarzenegger has been given the producer's credit for one film, The 6th Day (2000) and as executive producer for another, The Last Action Hero (1993). Both films bombed. The 6th Day made $34.5 million in box office revenues; in spite of opening in over 2000 threatres, it was down to about 700 by its fifth week. Reportedly, the film cost $82 million to make. Figures on The Last Action Hero are more difficult to come by, but it is universally discribed as a box-office flop.

Schwarzenegger is also the uncredited co-producer in the car-chase scenes for Terminator 3.

Schwarzenegger apparently handles his personal finances well. He is a wealthy man. He has made money as a celbrety first in body building (which reportedly made him a millionaire in his early twenties) and later as a film actor. His reported income for one year was $35 million. However, this research does not reveal him to be the entrepeneur that his campaign biography would have California voters that he is.

[Name removed]

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[ComerPerro]

4. Surely you aren't suggesting that we should admire this asshole

I mean, come on. He made millions in bodybuilding and dumb action movies. And what does he do with his millions? He uses it to buy a governorship, help businesses like Enron (at least help the CEOs), and promote Republican agendas that screw over every except the top 1%.

To hell with him.

[Jack Rabbit]

5. My good sir . . .

I am not disputing that Mr. Schwarzengger has made money. He is one of the ten wealthiest celebraties in Hollywood.

I am disputing his self-described reputation as a businessman. He claims that his success in business qualifies him to be governor of California. I haven't been able to find him doing anything but investing his money in enterprises that are for the most part handled by others. I can do that, too, but on a much smaller scale.

[ComerPerro]

6. good point

Its sort of like how when people try to claim that Smirk is smart and a good businessman, and as evidence cite the fact the he is very rich.

Yes, he is rich, but he is dumb as a post and a horrible failure at business.

[Blouson]

7. You haven't heard about Arnold's real estate holdings?

You don't get to be among the ten richest in Hollywood by acting in movies and then putting it in the stock market. The man is and has always been a shrewd investor. Perhaps you don't call investments of that scale a business, but I certainly do. Business are more than a guy behind the counter of his own shoe shop nowadays. This isn't 1900.

[Jack Rabbit]

9. Schwarzenegger's Assets

Here are a list of Mr. Schwarzenegger's assets, according to the San Jose Mercury News (August 11).

No, I don't call real estate investment being an entrepeneur. I call being an entrepeneur someone who lays the foundation for a business, takes responsibility for its growth and actually works at it. Bill Gates, like him or not, is a better example.

You seem to know more about Mr. Schwarzenegger's real estate dealings than I. Is he personally involved in these business dealings? Or is this something managed for him by third parties? Does Mr. Schwarzenegger run these businesses himself? Does he make the day-to-day decisions about the business?

It doesn't surprise me that Schwarzenegger invests his money. If I had that kind of money, I wouldn't sit around waiting for it to hatch, either. However, making money in sports or entertainment and then investing it in enterprises managed by others does not make one a entrepeneur. I certainly wouldn't call his relationship with Planet Hollywood entrepeneural. He put money into a business and took it our before it went sour.

[spooky3]

12. it would not have been difficult for any person with average intelligence

and with millions to invest in real estate, to have made money in the past 2 - 3 decades, particularly in California.

[papau]

8. "I make more money from one movie than I'll ever make from this."

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/real_estate/article/0,1299,DRMN_414_2203983,00.html

Rocky Mountain News

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/real_estate/article/0,1299,DRMN_414_2203983,00.html

Schwarzenegger had big plans for local property
By John Rebchook, Rocky Mountain News August 23, 2003

Developer Bill Denton still remembers the day in April 1995 when he was expecting to meet with the president of Planet Hollywood, which he hoped would help anchor his planned Denver Pavilions restaurant, retail and entertainment center.

Instead, after a long weekend in Puerto Vall-ar-ta, Mexico, with his wife, Denton opened the Denver newspapers and saw photos of Arnold Schwarzenegger walking down the 16th Street Mall with the heads of Planet Hollywood, Niketown, Virgin Records and AMC Theaters - all tenants he was wooing.Schwarzenegger had envisioned a $100 million redevelopment at Stadium Walk near Coors Field that included a movie theater, housing, offices, restaurants, a sporting goods store and a grocer. "I think at the time I told reporters that I would start worrying about Arnold as a competing developer when he would start worrying about me as a star of action films," Denton recalled on Friday in Denver after a trip to visit the Pavilions.

"The end results speak for themselves," Denton said. "Pavilions got the tenants and he didn't. But in Arnold's defense, he does an excellent job of using his celebrity status. Even though I think all of those tenants just wanted to have a ride on Arnold's private jet, his visit cost me six months." Denton had to reassure his lenders that his tenants were going to Pavilions and not to Schwarzenegger's proposed project at 18th, 19th, Blake and Wazee streets. And it cost AMC the theater deal, Denton said. When AMC officials wouldn't publicly confirm they were close to inking a deal with him and not Schwarz-enegger, Denton called locally based United Artists and signed a deal in three days.

Schwarzenegger no longer has an ownership in the Stadium Walk project.After almost two decades of ownership, about three years ago Schwarzenegger terminated his role at Stadium Walk, selling his interest in the property at the top of the market to his partner, Santa Monica- based restaurateur Al Ha-ran-guer. <snip>

The story goes that billionaire Marvin Davis, who at the time owned Twentieth Century Fox and lived in Denver, told Schwarzenegger that he was going to develop a second downtown in the Central Platte Valley behind a new convention center by Union Station and advised the star to buy land in the area. Although voters killed Davis' plan for the convention center, Schwarzenegger held onto his land, even as other nearby speculators with less deep pockets lost their property to foreclosures. <snip>

Schwarzenegger left the staff with his trademark line:
"I'll be back."
It didn't happen.

[e-mail] or 303-892-5207
Copyright 2003, Rocky Mountain News. All Rights Reserved

[Socialist Worker]

2. I heard something about Arnold

and real estate on the news. Got anything about that?

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

3. Got google?

Arnold is a developer. Davis signed legislation that makes it difficult for developers to develope without making sure adequate water supplies are available.

[slor]

10. Do not forget how he got into Real Estate...

you know, with his chimney reconstruction services.

[MaryBear]

11. In reading these posts,

about Ahnold, I take away an impression of a person who has money; and who has learned to grow that money well. I agree with you, Jack, that this knowledge in no way prepares Ahnold to govern a state like California. More to be expected, in the unlikely event he is elected Governor, is that the position would aid him and his cohorts in earning even more money for themselves, to the detriment of the rest of us.