Love that Goldman quote. I read his entire book Adventures in the Screen Trade after learning that that's where it appears.

Goldman later tried to clarify it with this, but it really doesn't change the meaning:

"It’s funny, [my quote] ‘nobody knows anything’ has caught on—and what I meant by it was nobody has the least idea what will work. I mean, the big movie that’s opening this weekend is Sex in the City 2—the first one was a freak hit and people loved it, and now they’ve done the sequel. (And sequels are whore’s movies, the only reason to do sequels is to make money.) And nobody has the least idea if it’s going to be a phenomenal success or if it’s going to tank.”

William Goldman

Writers Guild Foundation interview from 2010

Scott W. Smith on WordPress on December 3, 2018