I’m trying to stay optimistic. It takes some effort, as just about everyone seems to think the film business is a mess–strike-thinned schedule, cultural chaos, streaming models in flux. But, hey, the Golden Globes audience was up by half, never mind critical reaction to the show. There are still signs of life out there. So
Commentary
As my colleague Anthony D’Alessandro has noted, the domestic movie box office, starved of product by overlapping strikes, will likely be trimmed by a billion dollars in 2024. So here’s question worth pondering: Would the film industry be healthier if most of that pruning occurred at the very top? There’s a case to be made.
Disney CEO Bob Iger blames the pandemic effect as part of the reason for the dismal box office results on The Marvels. Speaking at a New York Times business summit earlier this week, Iger said the studio needs some revitalization. ″The Marvels was shot during Covid,” he explained. “There wasn’t as much supervision on the
Six months in, the strikes are over. Ten days out, the holidays begin. As for the movies—unfortunately, the most exciting part of the year is already behind us. It’s disconcerting to realize that there is no unavoidably dazzling, must-see, pop cultural event film on the schedule for the rest of 2023. Certainly, some fine pictures,
With guild agreements being signed and production ramping up, Hollywood hopefully awaits a moment of youthful innovation. Oops: The most newsworthy films set for imminent release are directed by filmmakers in their 80s – grizzled veterans who understand their muscle but, like the neophytes, are perplexed by the chaotic landscape. Will this become a Back
The film festivals can always be counted on to deliver surprise hits at this time of year, but meanwhile Hollywood must deal with another issue: Its Barbitude hangover. Barbie’s billions will importantly impact upon how decision-makers frame future strategies on budget, content and promotion. The megahit could also cast a pink cloud over awards season:
Editor’s note: Dade Hayes and Jonathan Bing are co-authors of Open Wide: How Hollywood Box-Office Became a National Obsession. Hayes is Deadline’s Business Editor and Bing is Chief Communications Officer at Vice Media Group. The more things change, the more the Hollywood studios stay the same. At least that’s one of the surprising lessons of
It was a magnificent movie weekend. Barbie, Oppenheimer, Sound of Freedom. All hits, a blow-out! So what else have you got? The question sounds obnoxious, like its near-cousin, the always infuriating: “What have you done for me lately?” But it’s an honest query, and an important one for a strike-bound, streaming-bent, pandemic-emergent industry that is
The mysterious sanctuary hidden away in the Jemez mountains was known only as Box 1663 in the mid 1950s. The mission of its 13,000 residents was to create “the gadget.” Living there was a challenge. “It’s a prison camp for eggheads,” whispered one scientist. As a young newsman, I decided I had to find a
What was it W. B. Yeats wrote, that line Joan Didion lifted and twisted in her essay “Slouching Towards Bethlehem,” about West Coast chaos in 1967? Things fall apart; the center cannot hold. That’s how it felt on Thursday, a few minutes before lunch with some seasoned film executive-friends at the Academy Museum (Salad Niçoise
“Show me the money” was the memorable battle cry in Jerry Maguire, the 1996 movie about a sports agent who must “deliver” for his manic client. Matt Damon, the negotiator at the center of his and Ben Affleck’s new movie, delivers big time for his client, and so does the film. Air is an angry,
Watching Jesus Revolution surge past $45 million in ticket sales for Lionsgate—matching or besting The Fabelmans, The Banshees Of Inisherin, Tár, Women Talking and Triangle Of Sadness, combined—it finally seems safe to say it. The faith-based audience is back. Between Covid and the culture wars, it’s been a rough few years for those who make,
Can we finally talk about movies for a minute? I mean, those of us who aren’t full-blown, always on-it awards professionals. The Republicans have had their Speakership brawl. The Democrats have observed their J6 vigil. The Twitter Wars have settled into the usual trench exchange between Left and Right. And the weary nation having survived
It was fascinating to see my good colleague Valerie Complex describe, in her review of the Antoine Fuqua/Will Smith slavery drama Emancipation, having almost walked out of the film, not because it was unworthy, but because she found the depiction of Black suffering and death almost too much to watch. In the end, Complex stuck
When a film as heavily promoted and well-regarded as Universal’s She Said gets body-slammed at the box office, it’s wise to pay attention. This weekend, the journalism procedural drama, about the pursuit of sexual predator Harvey Weinstein by two reporters from The New York Times, will take in perhaps $2.27 million in 2,022 theaters. That’s
Editor’s note: Deadline presents the 40th episode of its video series Take Two, in which Pete Hammond and Todd McCarthy tackle the artistry of films just opening in theaters every weekend. Each has reviewed and written about the craft for decades and built a remarkable breadth of knowledge of films past and present. What we hoped for
Editor’s note: Deadline presents the 39th episode of its video series Take Two, in which Pete Hammond and Todd McCarthy tackle the artistry of films just opening in theaters every weekend. Each has reviewed and written about the craft for decades and built a remarkable breadth of knowledge of films past and present. What we hoped for
Predictions are always a hazardous thing. And I truly hope this one is wrong. But it sure looks like the movie box office, disastrously low in September, will be stuck on the bottom again this month. September is rarely a great month for ticket sales, but last month is better left undiscussed. Putting aside the
OK, Ausiello, you were right. Heartstopper was amazing. Beyond. When my boss told me to watch Netflix’s teenage romance, insisting that I’d like it, I said what I usually do when he makes suggestions — “Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, you betcha” — with every intention of ignoring him. But this week, I gave it a shot. Dunno
“Deliver a good entertainment, and the audience will come.” That’s what the venerable director Robert Wise told me after defying Hollywood doubters with his hit musical West Side Story (yes, the 1961 version). Courtly and gracious, Wise also was a tough realist who, following his success, decided to turn to disaster movies like The Hindenburg and
My good colleague Pete Hammond tells us the film awards season is in full swing, live and in-person. Screenings. Panels. Parties. Lunch with the stars. Just like 2019. Now, if the audience would only catch up. This weekend, an extremely important connection got missed, as Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, meant to be a crowd-pleaser,
At the exit to a gallery in the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is a display of opinions about the future of cinema. For example: “THE FUTURE OF CINEMA IS INCLUSION NOT EXCLUSION” –Kimberly Steward
It’s fascinating to watch local governments—New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New Orleans—rush to enact Covid vaccine requirements for entry to the publicly accessible spaces of private business, including, yes, movie theaters. I’m not equipped to judge the ultimate propriety or efficacy of such mandates. Frankly, the complexities posed by breakthrough, uncertain vaccine longevity, variants,
It’s thrilling to watch Lionsgate make a run at the box office top spot with The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard, a grown-up comedy. Not a kiddie fantasy, like Peter Rabbit 2 or Cruella. Not a Covid-era placeholder, like The War With Grandpa, or a streaming event, like Borat Subsequent Moviefilm. But a rough, raucous, R-rated action
On Wednesday morning, studio executives and exhibitors will rally at AMC’s Century City 15 multiplex to cheer the return of movie theaters that had been closed by the pandemic. “The Big Screen Is Back,” they’ll declare. Glad to hear it. That’s great, as far as it goes. But those movers and shakers should probably charter
Long before former Hulu chief Jason Kilar became disruptor in chief at WarnerMedia and put the entire 2021 Warner Bros slate on HBO Max, Fredric Rosen began changing the way concert tickets were sold as the Ticketmaster president/CEO, when the service became the leading computerized ticketing company in the world. He would become co-CEO of
RELATED STORIES True-crime TV has found its new obsession: The twisted saga of the NVIXM cult, with famous followers like Smallville alum Allison Mack and salacious accusations of sex slavery, has inspired not one but two long-form TV documentaries, along with a number of one-off investigative specials. HBO’s The Vow, which premiered in August, was
What a great time not to be a movie marketer. Theaters half-closed, with COVID-19 again rising. Pipeline dried up. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences asking, in a survey that was due last week, how the pandemic is affecting your craft. Or what’s left of it. But movie promoters on the whole are an
Last week, just before the President’s diagnosis consumed us, Hollywood leaders joined in asking that Congress send coronavirus relief funds to exhibitors. Those were described as a life-and-death issue for theaters. A mortal threat. And who can doubt it? If the White House isn’t safe, movie houses are certainly still a question mark. But the
Watching Wayne Wang’s Coming Home Again, set for a virtual release (online, but through individual theaters) by Outsider Pictures on Oct. 23, delivered a jolt. Like getting nicked by a live wire. The picture is so small–shot in just over three weeks on a micro-budget. So personal: The story is about a young Korean-American man