Bruckheimer: "Business Is Business"

Few Hollywood producers have mastered their profession with as much success -- and as much box-office mojo -- as Jerry Bruckheimer. He's the one-time advertising producer behind such blockbusters as Top Gun, the Beverly Hills Cop movies, and last summer's megablockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, which generated more than $654 million in worldwide box-office revenues and sold more than 18 million DVD units (see BW, 05/31/04, "Jerry Bruckheimer: Hollywood's Most Wanted").

The 58-year-old Detroit native, who broke into Hollywood as an associate producer on the forgettable film The Culpepper Cattle Co., is currently renegotiating one of the industry's most lucrative deals to stay at Disney (DIS ), which he first joined in 1990 after a decade at Paramount Pictures. Bruckheimer, known for his glossy, fast-paced films, has also branched out into TV production. In 2000 he produced CSI: Crime Scene Investigation for CBS (VIA ), which quickly became TV's top-rated drama. This September, CBS will air Bruckheimer's sixth show for the network and second CSI spinoff, CSI: New York. Four of his current five shows are in Nielsen's top 18 among total viewers, and their popularity has helped catapult the Tiffany Network over NBC in total weekly viewers.