Indiana Jones fedoras, E. T. dolls and leather jackets are only a few of the items of movie paraphernalia that have been licensed by Amblin's merchandising division. Mr. Spielberg claims that many of the goods were pirated and that he finally stepped in to license E. T. only to protect the quality of the toys and T-shirts. Terry Semel recounts that as far back as 15 years ago, when they were both bachelors blue-skying about their futures, Mr. Spielberg told him he wanted to build a big business. Although his greatest love is making movies, Mr. Spielberg has been much more than a director. When viewed as a package, the T-shirts that Mr. Spielberg merchandises, the dolls, comic books and his theme park rides reflect an entrepreneur's acute instinct for what consumers want.
People like to take things from movies.
It's like souvenirs. And Beyond Mr. Spielberg has become so successful in business that some in Hollywood believe that it may be getting in the way of his art. He wants to do things other than what he's done, but he's businessman enough to know that what he's done works and he should keep on doing it. In the last two years, Mr. Spielberg has stopped doing the hands-on producing for Amblin's movies. One of the reasons, he suggests, was conflicts with directors.