Kevin Hart is giving credit to film producer Will Packer for his position in business and his career.
Where It All Started
The comedian turned actor first met Packer in 2007 at the Los Angeles airport, according to the Chicago Sun Times. Hart remained on Packer’s radar, and he eventually called the actor to work on their first movie together, “Think Like A Man.” At the time, Hart was booking mostly cameos which included “Scary Movie 3” (2003), “Soul Plane” (2004), and “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” (2005).
Learning Packer Was “The Real Deal” While On Set
When it came to landing more screen time, Hart had become accustomed to empty promises. Landing the gig and working with Packer was all the proof Hart needed to ensure the Will Packer Productions founder was “the real deal.”
“When I first met Packer and ‘Think Like A Man’ was [brought] up, he came to me first and said, ‘Listen man, I’m going to make this movie happen, but I’m not going to go forward and pursue, if I don’t know that I have you,’” Hart recalled on the “Rickey Smiley Show.” “‘I feel like you are a very valuable piece and if I can put you in it, I think that I can get other actors and actresses that we can put around, and its going to become a great movie.’”
He continued, “I’ve heard things forever. I’ve been promised movies forever. This is like the first real big one that somebody’s telling me that I’m a star in at a point in my career where all I was doing was major cameos. ‘Alright brother you say you gonna do it, I guess, go ahead and do it.’ He left. I thought nothing else of it. The man was very persistent and contacted me after, and before I knew it we were shooting ‘Think Like A Man.’ I then realized that this guy was the real deal.”
Box Office Hit
“Think Like A Man,” which also featured Michael Ealy, Meagan Good, Regina Hall, and Taraji Henson released in 2012, earned at least $33 million in its opening weekend, mentions The Washington Post. In total it earned $91,547,205 domestically and $113,373,764 globally off a $12 million budget, stats show.
Building A Partnership
Following the success of Hart and Packer’s first project, it should come as no surprise it sparked further collaborations which included:
- “Ride Along” (2014)
- “Think Like a Man Too” (2014)
- “About Last Night” (2014)
- “Wedding Ringer” (2015)
- “Ride Along 2” (2016)
- “Night School” (2018)
“I’m realizing he was never content. He kept going. So what I did was, I became a student,” Hart told Rickey Smiley. “I learned from the way that he was moving, and now you’re looking at two guys that are now partners… The man helped me grow and gave me the knowledge, so now I can become a producer as well.”
Packer’s Industry Experience
Packer is well respected in the entertainment industry. He has a portfolio worth over $1 billion, including 10 films that debuted at the top spot, according to Variety. What’s more, he accomplished this without the backing of Hollywood. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, his first film “Chocolate City,” had a $20,000 budget, and it made $100,000 from the support of college students.
“So we made this tiny little movie about college life and we got some level of success,” he said at the 2023 AFROTECH™ Conference held in Austin, TX. “Now, it wasn’t like we got Hollywood success. And that’s something that is one of the foundations of my story, it’s the fact that I found success by defining it for myself.”
He continued, “I made a small independent movie. A lot of people make small, independent movies. I sent it to Hollywood. Hollywood could care less. That’s the story of a lot of filmmakers. That may be the story of a lot of people in this room with whatever business that you have. But who did care about that movie were those kids at Florida University. They hadn’t seen themselves on screen like that. So, I found a way to tap into that.”
Packer continued to bank on the support of his audience and drove to various cities to promote his projects. As he strengthened his footprint as a director, his budgets also increased over time.
“My first movie had a $20,000 budget. My next one was $75,000. After that was a couple hundred thousand,” Packer detailed. “So I worked my way up to the point where soon I was making movies that had million-dollar, multimillion-dollar budgets. The only way I did that was because each time I was able to turn in a profit margin, made it for X and it made YY, which was bigger than X. So, the math made sense at the end of the day.”
He added, “In Hollywood, people think it’s a creative industry driven by artists. Really, it’s about the bottom line, the bottom dollar. And I think that is a message that will transcend no matter what industry that you’re in, that you have to stay the course, that you have to sometimes swim against the grain, against the current. And that you have to stay true to what you believe. And I can tell you for myself and so many others.”
Many of Packer’s works are being released through Will Packer Productions. He also operates Will Packer Media with Digital Media Executive Alix Baudin, in partnership with Discovery Communications and Universal Pictures, which is in agreement to produce “episodic scripted and unscripted series across television and digital platforms, compelling content for brand clients, and its own operated platforms,” the company website mentions.
The Blueprint
His mantra has been an inspiration to Hart, who continues to work alongside Packer to this day. Their most recent film is titled “Fight Night,” which can be viewed on Peacock.
In 2009, Hart launched HartBeat Productions in Encino, California, with a small team that later grew to nearly 40 a decade later, reports Business Insider. In 2017, Hart’s streaming platform Laugh Out Loud made its debut in collaboration with Lionsgate.
He merged both ventures to form HARTBEAT in 2022 and raised $100 million in the process from Abry Partners to support content, the expansion of brands, and growing its team, as AFROTECH™ mentioned.
Even with time, Hart maintains that his strides in career and business would not be possible without Packer.
“I don’t get to where I got in career or business without the information and relationship of Will Packer,” Hart said on a Sept. 6 episode of “The Breakfast Club.” “When it came to producing and when it came to development or it came to packaging, Will Packer is the guy that was the definition of what that was… He put action behind the words, everything he said he would do he did. He got the people. He wrangled the directors, the actors, the actresses, the producer, partners, writers, etc. He figured a way to formulate and activate… Will taught me how to do it, and as I progressed I never forgot who he was and what he was.”
The comedy star shared that their relationship today is built on the principle of never forgetting their beginnings. “You don’t forget the real side of success attached to just care. He gave a f–k about me then, he gives more a f–k about me now, in return, I double down on my level of give a f–k about him, so I don’t want to win if I can’t figure out a way to win with my brother.”
