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This issue exists thanks to a lunch I had in the fall with a comedy agent. His client (a known name but not someone considered A-list) would clear $30 million in 2017, he boasted. Not from studio movies or TV backend or Netflix specials. This was just from touring, doing his 90-minute stand-up set in the U.S. and abroad, old-fashioned live comedy. And this comic was hardly alone. Maybe it’s the unfunny state of the world or the emergence of global star-making platforms like Netflix, but audiences are devouring comedy these days. Attendance at comedy clubs in the U.S. is up 20 percent since a decade ago, and, as Live Nation’s Geof Wills puts it on page 59, top acts can pull in up to eight figures. Lots of magazines…
After taking digital courses taught by comedic icons, writer Tom Chiarella penned a Master Class analysis (page 88). And the results? “They’re convincing,” says Chiarella, a former writer at large at Esquire magazine and retired creative writing professor at DePauw University in Indiana. Comparing the teaching styles of Judd Apatow and Steve Martin, Chiarella notes their fearless “simple and pragmatic” approach to comedy explaining. “In the end,” he says, “all comedians find structure — even those who eschew it.” Known in large part for her 6-year marriage to comic Mitch Hedberg — a surrealist stand-up whose fans include Steve Martin and David Letterman — Lynn Shawcroft reflects on her late husband’s legacy and the trove he left behind (page 90). The Canadian comedienne, who now resides in Los Angeles, is…
Over the course of a few days in early June, Netflix invited Hollywood’s major talent agencies to assemble, one by one, on a rented soundstage at Raleigh Studios. For five hours, dozens of reps were given a rare peek behind the curtain of a secretive company. Ostensibly, the panels were about disproving criticism that films and series without major marketing campaigns are getting lost on the service amid its $8 billion-a-year content splurge. But the pitch also served as an admission: Netflix knows it isn’t the only game in town. If one company has the resources and ambition to compete for the future of streaming content, it’s Amazon. And that future is coming into greater focus under new Amazon Studios chief Jennifer Salke. After taking the top content post in…
The surprise star of Sundance isn’t quite putting up Black Panther numbers. But Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the subject of Julie Cohen and Betsy West’s doc RBG, is now a box-office force. The film, which plays like a superhero origin story that traces Ginsburg’s arc from young mother and Harvard Law standout all the way to the Supreme Court, has nabbed $9.2 million since opening May 4. That makes RBG, bought for less than $1 million by Magnolia Pictures and Participant Media, the highest-grossing acquisition of the festival. The next best Sundance film is The Orchard’s American Animals, which has earned just $417,089 (though a number of high-profile titles like Sam Levinson’s Assassination Nation and Keira Knightley starrer Colette will open later this year). The secret to RBG’s success could be…
How many Joker movies are too many? That’s one question that Walter Hamada, named president of DC Entertainment-based film production at Warner Bros. in January, needs to figure out. With the recent departures at DC — the studio said June 6 that Diane Nelson, who’s been on leave, is not returning as president, and THR revealed June 11 that top exec Geoff Johns is moving into a producing pact — Hamada is even more firmly in charge of the film reins. The exec, who successfully oversaw the Conjuring movies at New Line, inherited a slate in disarray and has quietly spent months sorting through projects. “He walked into a shitshow, and he’s trying to clean it up,” says one insider familiar with the scene. In the wake of Wonder Woman’s…
There’s no guarantee that the future of TV will be mostly online, but the major broadcast news outlets are preparing for that possibility. The latest is NBC News, which is readying an over-the-top streaming service targeted at a younger audience and will begin experimenting with online shows this summer. News chairman Andrew Lack has said the service — which is described in job postings as an “Authentic. Voicy. Unexpected” offering — is “important” for the company and will have the resources to succeed. Meanwhile, Christy Tanner, who runs digital for CBS News, says the majority of people who watch the network’s CBSN streaming service don’t watch the linear channel. CBSN, which launched in 2014, drew more than 280 million live streams in 2017 from a predominantly young audience — the…
