Michael Ovitz built the most powerful agency in Hollywood by making...
David Senra@davidsenra
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Nov 26, 2025
~1 min read
Michael Ovitz built the most powerful agency in Hollywood by making learning from history mandatory.
He lived below Martin Scorsese, who screened films every night. Ovitz brought takeout and questions and absorbed knowledge about every director.
Then he made his agents do the same thing.
He required every CAA agent to watch every Academy Award winner—Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Writer—from the first ceremony forward.
While competitors chased meetings, CAA agents showed up fluent in 80 years of cinema.
That pattern recognition let them see what others couldn't: packages beat single clients. IP beats talent. Ownership beats commissions.
Ovitz called it "past is prologue."
"If you know history, you pretty much can predict the future."
David Ogilvy called it a "teaching hospital."
Same idea: Make excellence institutional.
x.com/davidsenra/sta…
He lived below Martin Scorsese, who screened films every night. Ovitz brought takeout and questions and absorbed knowledge about every director.
Then he made his agents do the same thing.
He required every CAA agent to watch every Academy Award winner—Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Writer—from the first ceremony forward.
While competitors chased meetings, CAA agents showed up fluent in 80 years of cinema.
That pattern recognition let them see what others couldn't: packages beat single clients. IP beats talent. Ownership beats commissions.
Ovitz called it "past is prologue."
"If you know history, you pretty much can predict the future."
David Ogilvy called it a "teaching hospital."
Same idea: Make excellence institutional.
x.com/davidsenra/sta…
