Innholdsfortegnelse for July 26, 2023 i The Hollywood Reporter

The extraordinary success of Barbie and Oppenheimer was a needed shot of adrenaline for Hollywood and theater owners as domestic box office revenue hit $311.1 million over the July 21-23 frame, the fourth biggest weekend of all time. Never in history has one movie opened to $100 million or more, and a second one to more than $50 million. Greta Gerwig’s Barbie strutted to a stupendous $162 million, while Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer earned an equally stunning $80.4 million, well ahead of all expectations for a three-hour biographical drama. But will it be the last major cinematic event of 2023 if the actors and writers strikes aren’t resolved in the coming weeks and studios consider relocating the big fall and winter tentpoles? The box office ecosystem is still incredibly fragile and…

Would you like to speak with the Emmy-nominated ADR mixer?” Their work is pivotal, of course, but as Hollywood interviews go, it’s not exactly the sexiest offer. Yet with all the striking actors and many of the striking writers off the playing field this summer, that’s the kind of promotion the platforms and studios are relying on in the approach to the second round of Emmy voting. This next phase of the TV awards calendar — the final round of Emmy voting begins Aug. 17 — is plagued with uncertainty, and not just because the date of the telecast itself is still very much up in the air. “This is a day-by-day situation unlike we’ve ever seen,” says one top awards strategist, still awaiting marching orders from some corporate clients.…

Inside View The Bear Takes a Big Bite HULU 18 Episodes 853M Minutes Viewed Though season one of The Bear was a word-of-mouth breakout, the FX-produced series didn’t make a huge dent in the publicly available streaming rankings. Season two, however, is a different story. The Emmy nominee for best comedy series (and 12 other categories) amassed 853 million minutes of viewing for the premiere week of season two, according to Nielsen — more than double its largest (and only) entry in the original streaming series charts during season one. The jump in viewing time also jibes with FX noting a 70 percent increase in streams of The Bear during its opening week compared with season one.…

It’s a hot summer day, the car AC is on turbo and the radio is blasting Miguel’s “Sure Thing.” My 8-year-old nephew is singing along happily — until I tell him the song is older than he is. He’s extremely puzzled. But it’s true. “Sure Thing” was released in 2010 and was named Billboard’s No. 1 R&B/hip-hop song of 2011. But TikTok resurrected the melodic track this year, and the platform thrust it to higher heights on the pop charts, as streaming platforms added it to current playlists and radio stations began replaying the song 13 years after its release. Taylor Swift’s “Cruel Summer” was released in 2019, but the addictive bop became a favorite on her ultra-popular Eras Tour, and now it’s in the top 10 of the Billboard…

In executive suites all over Hollywood, the conversation has turned to whether to air or shelve content. In the wake of SAGAFTRA’s July 13 decision to join the Writers Guild of America on strike, television executives, like their film counterparts, have found themselves thrust into this debate. Without any clear sense of how long the work stoppage will last, the question becomes: Do you really want to run through what ammo you have so early in the fight? And, for that matter, is it worth rolling out series without stars available to promote them? At multiple streamers, discussions are already underway about potentially moving certain fully shot (but undated) series to early 2024, if not simply benching them until the dual strike ends. In at least a few cases, executives…

For the first two years, Harry [Clein] and I worked from the basement of his house, and we had one assistant and basically no overhead — and we made the same money in those early years as we did when we had 20 employees and two offices 10 years later,” says Bruce Feldman, a veteran film publicist who, with his late partner Harry Clein, ran one of the top Hollywood PR firms of the ’80s, Clein + Feldman. “What I concluded then, and still believe to be true, is that there are two ways to succeed in the movie PR business: One is to stay extremely small and fly under the radar, and the other is to get very big and become part of a larger organization. It’s the people…

Fishback couldn’t decide whether to watch the Emmy nominations announcement July 12. There was a strong expectation that the 32-year-old actress — a critical darling after roles in Judas and the Black Messiah opposite Daniel Kaluuya and The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey opposite Samuel L. Jackson — might land a nod for her ferocious turn as an obsessed fan in Prime Video’s Swarm. But, like anything in the unpredictable Emmys game, nothing is guaranteed. “I thought maybe I would just wait for somebody to call or text me,” Fishback tells THR. “But I decided to watch and invite a couple of friends to come over and be with me either way. We had just gotten my computer situated when we realized it was my category, because they said Jessica…

SUCCESSION Look, it’s all but guaranteed that Succession will add to its haul of 13 Emmy wins when the awards finally roll around. The HBO drama about the fight for control of Waystar Royco was the leader in nominations this year, with 27, and is expected to virtually sweep every category it is in. WINS SO FAR 13 NOMINATIONS THIS YEAR 27 BETTER CALL SAUL If there’s an Emmy underdog, it’s Better Call Saul. The Breaking Bad prequel was critically loved but has not yet won an Emmy during its run (it has earned 53 noms overall). Could it pick up a win this year? Possibly. But it has to go up against HBO’s cultural juggernaut, Succession, which will make victories difficult. WINS SO FAR 0 NOMINATIONS THIS YEAR 7…

If you’ve ridden the Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland even once, you’ll recognize many of its key elements in the new Disney film based on the iconic attraction. And if you’ve ridden it multiple times, you’ll have trouble keeping up with the myriad of Easter eggs paying visual tribute to its inspiration that are scattered throughout the movie. And that’s about as much fun as most people will have at Disney’s third attempt at bringing the ride’s spooky charms to the screen, after 2003’s lamentable Eddie Murphy starrer and 2021’s enjoyable Muppets Haunted Mansion streaming special. Woefully short on the necessary laughs and scares that would have made it a potential blockbuster franchise like the Pirates of the Caribbean series, Haunted Mansion only makes you ponder how much better it…

The ongoing actors and writers strikes are creating a paradox for major studios and streamers, one that will become more apparent over the coming months, when each company reports quarterly earnings. As the impasse wreaks havoc on the entertainment economy, the companies that SAG-AFTRA and the WGA are striking against will see their cash flows rise and their profit margins (or losses) improve. It makes sense, after all: With the vast majority of film and TV sets shut down, the companies are keeping cash in their treasuries that normally would be funding those productions. And with Wall Street analyst firm MoffettNathanson estimating that total media industry content spend in 2022 was nearly $135 billion, there’s going to be a lot of cash sitting idle. In fact, the impact of the…

World Harvest Food Bank Offers Free Groceries to Striking Actors and Writers Inspired by Drew Carey’s pledge to cover meals for striking WGA members at two restaurants, SAG member (and Pulitzer finalist) Kristina Wong wanted to do something similar for picketing actors. Wong figured such a gesture would be prohibitively costly given that SAG has 160,000 members compared with WGA’s 11,500. Still, she had a hunch that pal Glen Curado at World Harvest Food Bank might be able to help those struggling with food insecurity. “He responded, ‘Let’s do the whole system with a big cart of groceries for free until the end of the strike as long as they need it,’” Wong says of the offer that just requires members to show their SAG card. (World Harvest usually offers…

Weddings Jay Burnley, head of film finance at Slated, married Frankie Shay, studio manager at Melanie Grant Skin, on May 13 at the Houdini Estate in Laurel Canyon. The couple followed the ceremony with a honeymoon with stops in Rome and the Amalfi Coast. Births Matthew Shreder, founder and CEO of Concourse Media, and wife Samantha Shreder, a teacher at Laurence School, welcomed Fallyn Hayes Shreder on April 21 at Providence Cedars-Sinai Tarzana. Lisa Stein, vp corporate communications at UTA, and Khalil Kinsey, chief curator and GM of the Kinsey African American Art and History Collection, welcomed Haise Hayim Kinsey on April 18 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Congrats Cindy Holland was tapped as CEO of Elisabeth Murdoch’s production company Sister on July 14. Warner Bros. Discovery appointed…

Why did he do it? That’s the question many in Hollywood have asked in the wake of Bob Iger’s now-infamous July 13 interview with CNBC in bucolic Sun Valley. What possessed Iger to pick such a place and time to express his “disappointment” with the demands of the striking talent guilds? Not only was he at the gathering known as “billionaires’ camp,” but just the day before, Disney announced that his contract was being extended to 2026, meaning his estimated net worth ($690 million in 2019, according to Forbes) was going to go up millions. A question about the strike was completely predictable, and so easy to deflect: “I won’t discuss an ongoing labor dispute, but I hope we reach a fair settlement soon and get back to making top-notch…

Like many independent filmmakers, Anthony Gomez has some quibbles with his own work. He wishes he’d had more time to shoot. His lead looks natural on camera but the voiceover delivery is stiff. A friend came through with some original music, but the post process was crazy. The usual stuff. What’s unusual is that Gomez, 26, made his most recent film, a short documentary about working out, while living inside San Quentin State Prison. “It’s the first time I’ve had my parents say they’re proud of me since I graduated from high school,” Gomez says of the videos he has directed, starred in and contributed to while inside San Quentin. Among the highlights is a series of mockumentary shorts inspired by The Office. Staring deadpan into the camera after the…

Williams refused to let anyone in her house watch the Emmy nominations announcement live. “I told everybody in my house, ‘We’re just going to sit on the couch and kind of stare at each other,’” says the actress. “And it was silent. And it was very weird. And then I got a call from my publicist, and we just started screaming.” First-time nominee Williams is recognized for her work on Apple TV+’s Shrinking, where she plays upbeat psychotherapist Gaby. She effuses that the call from her publicist alerting her of the news came as a total shock: “I just couldn’t believe it,” she says. “So many great actors and actresses didn’t even get nominated, even though they deserved it also. So I feel really lucky.” Previously known for her work…

With its rave reviews and 24 Emmy nominations, HBO’s The Last of Us gave all subsequent game-to-screen translations an exhilarating new freedom. It’s no longer necessary for such adaptations to bear the weight of an entire subgenre’s credibility. “Greatness” has been achieved, and it’s now fully acceptable for a TV series version of a video game to simply be “decent.” Huzzah! Peacock’s new show based on the venerable and versatile Twisted Metal franchise is — and I mean this generally as a compliment — quite decent. Both as colorful and deep as a shimmering oil slick on a sweltering stretch of abandoned blacktop, Twisted Metal lacks the budget and ingenuity to consistently live up to the game’s sense of unrelenting mayhem. But its limitations make room for a solid character-based…

On July 5, the major crew union IATSE, which reps 160,000-plus entertainment workers from grips to animation to makeup artists, unveiled a set of “core principles” for applications of artificial intelligence and machine learning in its members’ work ahead of its 2024 contract talks with studios. The list set off a debate among union members on how they’re already encountering AI in their day-today work — and what to do about it in the future. “At least everybody that I’ve talked to, we don’t want AI to be a tool,” says animation writer and comedian Joey Clift, a member of IATSE local The Animation Guild (TAG). “We just don’t want it to be a part of our creative processes because the second you start using it as a tool is…

The “double strike” of 1960 — the last time the Writers Guild and SAG marched shoulder to shoulder in a labor action against the owners of the means of production and, crucially, distribution — is the clear precedent to the ongoing reboot. Yet for all the parallels between the two walkouts, the differences are stark. Today, the tone is more rancorous, the stakes more serious. The connecting thread is the upheaval wrought by a new communications technology. In 1960, the disrupter was TV; today, it’s digital streaming. In both instances, the new revenue source for the producers makes the old terms of service for the talent look like a pact with the devil. Then, as now, the artists seek a bigger slice of the pie, or crumbs really, parceled out…

Owners of restaurants near studios are ready to pop antacids. Nearly three months into the writers strike, with SAG-AFTRA also joining picket lines July 14, L.A. eateries with the greatest customer exposure to the entertainment industry are already experiencing economic domino effects. They tell THR that, while the impact wasn’t immediate after the WGA and its 11,500 members went on strike May 2, they’re now seeing between 5 and 20 percent declines. The losses are particularly noticeable during lunch service and in dwindling day-of takeout orders for large groups, such as production crews and office staff. “There was a lag time before it kicked in,” says George Metsos, who owns Toluca Lake diner Patys, a neighborhood stalwart for below-the-line workers at Warner Bros., Universal and Disney. “At first there was…

Oppenheimer’s New York premiere was among the first major events to be impacted by the SAG-AFTRA strike — which bars both on-camera work and promotional activity for actors — as Universal scrapped the A-list red carpet in favor of a filmmaker-centered celebration screening at AMC Lincoln Square on July 17. In place of the starry cast — who just barely completed press at the film’s London premiere before the strike began — director Christopher Nolan was in attendance alongside producers Emma Thomas and Charles Roven, composer Ludwig Göransson, costume designer Ellen Mirojnick, production designer Ruth De Jong, production manager Thomas Hayslip, production sound mixer Willie D. Burton and Kai Bird, co-author of the book that inspired the film. Got tips? Email rambling@thr.com…

Filmmaker Justin Simien was the main attraction at the July 15 red carpet premiere of his latest effort, The Haunted Mansion. But it wasn’t because he arrived in a floor-length cape, his tribute to the movie’s costume designer. It was because the hours-old SAG-AFTRA strike prevented his starry cast — LaKeith Stanfield, Tiffany Haddish and Jamie Lee Curtis among them — from joining. “‘Bittersweet’ is probably the best word for it,” the 40-year-old director explains two days later in his modest Los Angeles office. “I’m glad we got to show the movie [out July 28] — but with the strike and the Bob Iger comments, I feel like I crash-landed into [the event].” Simien, like so many in Hollywood, is playing professional Whac-a-Mole this summer. Paramount TV suspended his Culture…

If it’s lonely at the top, it’s a lot lonelier when you’re a woman,” says Lindsay Kaplan of the realization that moved her and Carolyn Childers to start Chief, a private membership network focused specifically on female executives. Kaplan, a former vp at mattress company Casper, and Childers, a onetime senior vp at home-improvement marketplace Handy, created Chief “as a way to connect and support executive leaders,” says Kaplan, adding, “There are a lot of amazing organizations out there for women in business, but we felt like the executive woman was overlooked because she often became the de facto mentor or the speaker on panels at those organizations.” Since launching in 2019, the group is now at 20,000 members, welcoming female execs from the likes of Disney, Netflix, Paramount, Shondaland,…

They want us to stop certain things and for us to lose money to show support, but if the roles were reversed, would they do the same?” wonders Emanuel Rodriguez, whose 8-year-old son Logan Winter is a superhero-centered content creator who frequently does partnerships with Marvel and DC. Rodriguez is now among the sea of influencers wondering how to move forward during the actors strike, after SAG-AFTRA released a strict set of guidelines for influencers when the work stoppage began July 13. The rules state that “influencers should not accept any new work for promotion of struck companies or their content” at this time and should even refrain from posting about struck work in an organic, nonpaid capacity (though if “already under contract to promote struck work, then the influencer…

Speaking to THR just days ahead of the SAG-AFTRA strike, five first-time Emmy nominees reflect on their entries into the Television Academy’s top honors — which were not top of mind when they filmed their projects The first time Chastain went to an awards ceremony — the 2012 Golden Globes, where she was nominated for The Help — Josh Brolin approached her and suggested she play country singer Tammy Wynette in a movie project he was also interested in joining. Over the next decade, that film morphed into a limited series, and Brolin segued from costar to executive producer — but Brolin’s vision of Chastain as the country music legend was realized in Showtime’s George & Tammy, and now she is nominated for her first Emmy for her portrayal. “Getting…

At this point, White’s Emmy-nominated work on The Bear feels distant. “I almost feel unfamiliar with the work done 18 months ago that the show is being honored for,” he tells THR. The first season of the FX series streamed on Hulu in 2022. Since then, an entirely new season of the food-centric show has premiered to another round of acclaim. Still, for White, the recognition takes him back to when there was less riding on this story of a chef returning to his hometown to run the Italian beef sandwich restaurant his dead brother left behind. “That’s when there were no expectations for the show,” he says. “That was when we were really working in this bubble and making something cool and interesting, but we really had no idea…

The Roku Channel’s Weird: The Al Yankovic Story has all the trappings of your typical rock n’ roll biopic: A young musician yearns for fame and fortune, sees a meteoric rise to stardom despite all of the odds against him, and narrowly avoids personal ruin when ego and hubris blind him from what really matters in life. But what sets Weird apart from other entries in the genre is its parody of the rise-and-fall plot structure and how it takes creative license with recent pop culture history. In Weird, it’s Michael Jackson who rips off Yankovic’s “Eat It” by recording his megahit “Beat It.” Madonna seduces the accordion player in hopes he will parody “Like a Virgin.” And drug kingpin and Weird Al superfan Pablo Escobar is killed by Yankovic…

Disney’s 2003 version of Freaky Friday would have looked quite different if the original leads hadn’t been swapped out. Annette Bening and Michelle Trachtenberg were first cast as mother and daughter in the remake of the 1977 film that saw Barbara Harris and Jodie Foster switching bodies on Friday the 13th. But Trachtenberg couldn’t get out of her commitment to shoot Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Bening dropped out shortly before production began — followed by Tom Selleck, who had signed on to play Tess’ fiancé, Ryan, a role that eventually went to Mark Harmon. Producer Andrew Gunn recalls that Nina Jacobson, then president of Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group, saw Jamie Lee Curtis in True Lies and suggested her for the updated role of the therapist mom Tess, who…