The all-new Hollywood Reporter offers unprecedented access to the people, studios, networks and agencies that create the magic in Hollywood. Published weekly, the oversized format includes exceptional photography and rich features.
If Walt Disney Studios cochairmen Alan Horn and Alan Bergman were in a Las Vegas casino, they’d be accused of card counting. The company’s jaw-dropping hand in 2019 resulted in record-shattering winnings: an estimated $11.1 billion worldwide — including seven films that soared past $1 billion, and a soon-to-be eighth, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. That’s north of $13.1 billion when accounting for the Fox and Fox Searchlight titles it inherited in the March merger (Disney set the previous industry record of $7.6 billion in 2016 and has been No. 1 since). The 2019 deck was carefully engineered to coincide with the November launch of Disney+, CEO Bob Iger’s top priority. What better value proposition than to offer streaming customers access to a bevy of branded blockbusters, including Avengers:…
Greta Gerwig After opening on Christmas Day, the director’s critically acclaimed Little Women takes in $37 million domestically as of Jan. 2 as it looks to gain momentum in the awards race. Tom Hooper The Cats director’s star-studded gamble to bring the Broadway musical to the big screen will be a money loser for Universal to the tune of $50 million to $75 million. Harry Styles The singer’s new album Fine Line spends its second week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart with 89,000 equivalent album units after launching with 478,000 units. Travis Knight The Bumblebee helmer becomes the latest director to exit the video game adaptation of Uncharted, which has stars Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg attached. Showbiz Stocks $6.31 (+17%) GAMESTOP (GME) Down 70 percent…
Domestic revenue tumbled behind both 2018’s record $11.88 billion and 2016’s $11.38 billion, according to preliminary estimates. Yet global ticket sales narrowly set a new record, due to an uptick at the international box office. Source: Comscore estimates.…
The prevailing wisdom that a Hollywood tentpole needs China to become a blockbuster was upended in 2019 as a cluster of pics did more business — or almost as much — elsewhere as they did in the Middle Kingdom (including Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, which should cross $1 billion in the coming days). Joker is among only a few films to have joined the billion-dollar club without playing in China at all. And Japan, Germany and Latin America saw big gains, while emerging markets such as Indonesia impressed. “I couldn’t find one territory where Joker didn’t overperform,” says Warner Bros. international distribution chief Andrew Cripps. “There are a lot of cinemas outside of China, and a lot of people.” ALADDIN Worldwide gross: $1.05B International gross: $695.1M JOKER Worldwide…
In 2019, Disney collected $11.1 billion, a 50 percent spike over 2018 ($7.3 billion). And that tally swells to $13.2 billion when including the Fox titles it has released since late March. Every other major studio was down from the previous year in terms of worldwide revenue — save for Sony, which made its best showing domestically since 2012 and came in third in market share. Universal had a solid year, considering its only live-action franchise installment was Fast & Furious spinoff Hobbs & Shaw. Paramount had a rough go after Rocketman; ditto for Fox.…
No segment of Hollywood feels the pressure from Netflix and other streamers more than the indie film business. It’s harder than ever to pull off a platform release and build a film slowly, which resulted in a new $20 million quasi-ceiling in 2019. The biggest such hit was Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite — not just because of its earnings, but because it is already one of the top foreign-language films of all time at the U.S. box office, and Oscar nominations are yet to come. Neon, home of the critically acclaimed pic, also prospered with several documentaries, including Apollo 11 (overall, docs receded from the success they enjoyed in 2018). Among specialty distributors, Universal’s Focus Features led the pack for the third year in a row with an all-time best…
