From KCRW, I'm Kim Masters, and this is The Business.

Producer Jerry Bruckheimer has had credits on some of the biggest hit movies and TV shows of the past few decades.

Flash dance, Beverly Hills Cop, Pirates of the Caribbean, the list goes on.

If there's one thing he's learned, it's that the business is unpredictable.

Even he couldn't have guessed that Top Gun Maverick would not only be a breakout hit,

but would bring him his first Oscar nomination for Best Picture.

We knew we made it very entertaining, really good movie.

We had previews, and the previews went very well, but they weren't through the roof.

Things changed.

Previews can be deceiving. There's a lot of Hollywood stories about previews that't through the roof. Things changed. Previews can be deceiving.

There's a lot of Hollywood stories about previews that went through the roof and the studio

tried to buy out the talent and the movie tanked.

He just don't know.

Bruckheimer talks about his day's co-producing hit after hit with the late Don Simpson,

how Tom Cruise saved Top Gun Maverick from premiering on Paramount Plus, and how the military actually didn't jump at the chance to make the first Top Gun.

But first we banter. Stick around. It's the business from KCRW.

I am joined by my sidekick and banter. Matt Bellany. Hello, Matt.

Hi there.

So, as you know, James Gunn, the filmmaker,

and his partner, Peter Saffron, revealed to the world their plan for DC, the unit they oversee

at Warner Brothers Discovery, DC being Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, all these big properties

that Warner's four years has done various iterations of,

...