Understanding the film business / Awards

[jo]

[jo]

How can indies compete under this requirement? The producers will need more financing for the distribution plan. They will also need more promotion/advertising to let the public know that the film is playing in the 15-20 top USA markets?


Jo

[jo]

The speculation is that this move, if approved, is meant to favor cinemas/theaters...as well as to encourage streamers like Netflix to show their commissioned movies in cinemas in large numbers.

Jo

[jo]

A good move on the part of AMAZON in its movie business to consider a slate of theatrical releases before going to streaming.

Please click on the NYTimes link ( it is a free read) --

www.nytimes.com/2023/04/07/business/media/amazon-air-movies-theaters.html?unlocked_article_code=00FmJYHx7Yug_CTwUWk-HsY7fhULLuQvCLTIjIUoxzAJwPZ8pABPwF7H24S2k7oygYkUpDJku1EcBkecgvyuAb2Z7YsHkWMIQZk7t40S4HBMQ5YprcwjY3B4GzPRUetuycKOVXDzPWPMhLvYGAS0Psynal2W2AXYLnn8aFFEdZ-VR_-Skpy__LBrDsHW7sovv0Xde77aOZaoxqGihFTjhKbVp6qaQ2ADdQ9z1W4x7vlaMU3hAJ9e7uO2Uwawryn5sEFSoMnO2QB2h1vIHkFD62BzIxUVQvkpmQhspNyxoOFfdtOgT8mp-wPEPgye9HdzsKcg6EGv1K1psciOh5XMzJWhgXVO0sVNRX-O&smid=url-share


Maybe Hugh should also consider this strategy of tying up to an Amazon-cinemafirst-before streaming when choosing a film project?

JO

[jo]

The AMPAS has laid down the rules to ensure inclusivity & other rules related to it are incorporated in films that are submitted for Oscar consideration. Deadline's Michael Cieply provides his view of the rule implications.

deadline.com/2023/04/dont-doubt-film-academy-inclusion-allies-change-business-1235325726/#recipient_hashed=72ca4aed6874bfae2e059db98140cd49360e2420824a86754459ba401fd9fa6a&recipient_salt=68027bd484d1678f0b8bc53fff2c2dab04bfbeaf22950983f3c67599999d5f5a

In the final analysis -- will the box office ( the movie audiences) show its approval or its denial of the validity of those rules when artistry of a movie is being judged.

Jo

[jo]

Does that mean that movies financed by Netflix will no longer be available other than streaming? Here, the Netflix lineup is very limited - not the same as the USA.

Jo

[jo]

Re the new inclusivity requirements to get a chance for Oscar recognition --

Richard Dreyfuss, a very fine actor ( and whom I was privileged to see perform in Neil Simon's comedic play PRISONER OF SECOND AVENUE in London) has very strong feelings against the rules.

www.msn.com/en-us/movies/oscars/jaws-star-richard-dreyfuss-blasts-hollywood-inclusion-standards-they-make-me-vomit/ar-AA1aPvp5?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=a90cf244425041ba852ae14d4e043396&ei=26

[njr]

I understand where he’s coming from - I guess this will mean a movie with all black people in it, like Wakanda Forever would be excluded for not being diverse enough? It’s ridiculous!

Nancy

[jo]

One actor said that only gays should play gays on screen.

The replies are so funny

The best one -- only dead people should play historical figures


What about aliens -- no more movies about deep space


Jo

[jo]

Er... I wouldn't mind seeing a biopic of Hugh Jackman --

*life as Wolverine

*life as triple-threat Broadway star

*life as dramatic actor -- in a Broadway play or a Zeller dramatic movie.

*life as a foodie, nature-loving, art-Connosseur, multiple-advocate/supporter, husband & Dad New Yorker.


Jo

[jo]

variety.com/2023/film/features/warner-bros-christopher-nolan-film-execs-new-strategy-interview-1235642666/

It looks like WARNER BROS is rising from the controversies of the last few years, with the installation of 2 new bosses as FILM CHIEFS. Michael de Luca is well-known and very experienced.

Btw, he was a producer of REMINISCENCE. He knew what the movie suffered in terms of release strategy.

Hope they tap Hugh for movie projects ( he did star in PRISONERS/ THE PRESTIGE/ THE FOUNTAIN & REMINISCENCE for the studio.

Jo

[jo]

Variety

HOME
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Jun 19, 2023 12:22pm PT

Superhero Fatigue Is Real. The Cure? Make Better Movies Than ‘The Flash’
You can feel it in the box office, and in the collective response to the same old, same old tropes.


By Owen Gleiberman

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The Flash
Everett Collection

“Superhero fatigue” is a phrase that tends to make devoted movie lovers swoon with rapture. If you’re someone who cares about movies, who cares about cinema, the very prospect of superhero fatigue inspires you to think: Yes! There’s hope! People will get tired of this shit!

But let’s be honest — that’s probably wishful thinking. In the last 20 years, led by Marvel but by no means limited to Marvel, comic book movies have infiltrated our culture and our consciousness to the point that they’re now part of who we are. If you ask any number of people, especially dudes of a certain generation, to name their favorite film, they will look at you and say “Star Wars,” often with a smirk that’s really saying, “’Star Wars,’ of course!” These aren’t just “Star Wars” fans. They’re “Star Wars” fundamentalists, who built the seedbeds of their imaginations on the original trilogy.



Oppenheimer Biographer Still ‘Emotionally Recovering’ From Christopher Nolan’s Film: It’s a ‘Stunning Artistic Achievement’
We don’t think of movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in quite that way, because there’s no one movie we can all agree upon that generated the pop-cultural earthquake that “Star Wars” did. Some remember the 1978 “Superman” that way, but even that film, at the time, seemed to emerge from the escapist-fantasy shadow of “Star Wars.” The very nature of comic-book moviegoing, with its serial sprawl (something that was built into the comics themselves and that was there from the early-’80s days of the “Superman” sequels), is that it’s driven by a more-is-more multiplicity. And we’ve now reached a superhero moment of such omnipresent moreness (the films, the TV series, the brain-bending or maybe headache-inducing symbiosis of the two, depending on your vantage) that for people who’ve grown up in this era, comic-book spectacle almost literally defines what entertainment is. In that sense, the war is over. The juggernaut won.

Yet for the first time, I would say, since the launch of the MCU, which was 15 years ago last month (when “Iron Man” was released in the U.S.), superhero fatigue is palpable. You can read it in the numbers, notably the post-pandemic figures, when we don’t have to put an asterisk next to a film’s box office performance: “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” opening huge ($106 million) only to collapse and underperform to the tune of $214 million; the tanking of “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” ($57 million); or this weekend’s strikingly ho-hum numbers for “The Flash” (the studio publicity, in floating a prediction of $70 million, was already scaling back expectations). You can feel it in Chris Hemsworth’s blithe willingness to trash last summer’s “Thor” sequel — not something movie stars are in the habit of doing, especially when the film in question was a hit. You can feel it in the reviews: the jadedness of critics when it comes to sitting through another warmed-over version of these tropes, that CGI, all that interconnected multiverse busy-ness, with less at stake each time.


And in a funny way, you feel it in the lack of pushback against the critics. Superhero movies have long been an arena in which popular tastes don’t necessarily sync up with the priorities of reviewers. Yet the bone-weary cynicism with which critics have greeted recent superhero films now appears to mirror, more than it doesn’t, the sensibility of the audience.

After being saturated in this stuff for so long, why wouldn’t we all have superhero fatigue? Every genre gets old, the way that even the most invincibly popular TV shows get old. That’s why movies are always changing. The big splashy Hollywood musical was a form that once seemed eternal… until it wasn’t. In the age of comic-book movies, it often seems like comic-book movies will be big forever. The truth is: They’ll be big… until they aren’t. Are we now at the tipping point of that moment?

It’s possible, but with a major caveat, a qualification that lovers of cinema should actually embrace. And that is: Good comic-book movies, though they don’t happen every day, will still bring out audiences and excite them. One need look no further than to the success of “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” a movie innovative enough, as image poetry and as storytelling, to restore one’s faith in the human idiosyncrasy of the comic-book genre. The film’s box-office performance is a striking contrast to that of the movies I mentioned above. “The Batman” was a major movie that majorly connected, and while I’m no big fan of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” there’s no question that it’s a success. I would argue that the affection for the “Guardians” series is so intense that that concluding chapter will go down as one of the last of the old-school comic-book-film triumphs.

The future is sure to bring too many comic-book movies to count. Disney’s many-tentacled masterplan will see to that, and James Gunn, of course, is just revving up his vision for the new age of DC. Yet if a number of the films continue to underperform in a notable way, the logic of the marketplace will rule. That “The Flash” was hyped at Cinema Con as some sort of genre masterpiece, only to be met with a collective shrug from critics and audiences, indicates that even those in the business, numbly mistaking product for art, have entered their fatigue phase. I liked “The Flash” for a while (when it’s a “Back to the Future” Ezra Miller speedfest), but I felt the exhaustion kick in during the second half, as the film became buried in layers of bombastic pablum. That’s what everyone is tired of: when a comic-book movie looks and feels like every other damn comic-book movie. And the more of them that come out, the more that will happen.

[jo]

Jun 30, 2023 1:39:45 GMT -5 jo said:

How will a potential double strike ( writers and actors) affect DEADPOOL filming, if it happens.

tribune.net.ph/2023/06/29/hollywood-braced-for-double-strike-as-actors-deadline-looms/

[jo]

In addition to the WGA strike, industrial action from SAG-AFTRA is on course after no deal was reached.

www.nbcnews.com/news/hollywood-actors-sag-strike-action-contract-negotiations-fail-aftra-rcna92038

[jo]

What if the industrial action does not end after a few months - what happens? Will SAG-AFTRA still be existing if the actors are forced to look for other acting jobs elsewhere, such as in foreign films like British films ? Are there opportunities for the stage?

Can someone like Hugh Jackman go back on a concert tour? Or do a play on Broadway? Or do work with Brit companies ( Working Title is a Brit company which produced Les Miserables and many other successful movies) or Brit TV or the West End?

Maybe even work on an Australian film project with Baz Luhrmann ( the DGA are not on strike)?

Will the government eventually intervene or mediate more strongly?

[jo]

A perspective from the producers - Bob Iger of Disney.

[jo]

FERRARI is set to premiere at Venice (late August to early September)

At least, Hugh is no longer in the cast.

The Italian Grand Prix ( at Monza), one of F-1's celebrated races, is being held in the first week of September. The film premiere was likely scheduled to coincide when Monza, Italy hosts the race


Jo

[jo]

Statement from AMPTP

Here is the AMPTP’s full statement:

AMPTP member companies entered the negotiations with SAG-AFTRA with the goal of forging a new, mutually beneficial contract. The AMPTP presented a deal that offered historic pay and residual increases, substantially higher caps on pension and health contributions, audition protections, shortened series option periods, and a groundbreaking AI proposal that protects actors’ digital likenesses for SAG-AFTRA members. A strike is certainly not the outcome we hoped for as studios cannot operate without the performers that bring our TV shows and films to life. The Union has regrettably chosen a path that will lead to financial hardship for countless thousands of people who depend on the industry.

Here are some of the components of the Producers’ offer that SAG-AFTRA has chosen to forgo in favor of a strike:

The highest percentage increase in minimums in 35 years
76% increase in High Budget SVOD foreign residuals
Substantial increases in pension and health contribution caps
Groundbreaking AI proposal which protects performers’ digital likenesses, including a requirement for performer’s consent for the creation and use of digital replicas or for digital alterations of a performance.
58% increase in salaries for major role (guest star) performers wages on High Budget SVOD Programs.
Limitation of self-tape requests, including page, time and tech requirements. Options for virtual or in-person auditions.
11% pay increase in year 1 for background actors, stand-ins and photo doubles, an additional 17% increase for background actors required to do extensive self-styling, and an additional 62% increase for stand-ins required to deliver lines during a run-through and photo doubles required to memorize and deliver lines on camera.
First-time-ever fixed residuals for Stunt Coordinators on television and High Budget SVOD programs.
Shortened option periods for series regulars earning less than $65,000 per episode on a half-hour series or less than $70,000 per episode on a one-hour series.
Dancers will now receive the on-camera rate for rehearsal days.
Additional payments of 25% for dancers required to sing on camera during principal photography, as well as for singers required to dance on camera.
First-of-its-kind provision establishing rates, terms and conditions for High Budget Programs made for AVOD.
Hair and make-up consultation for performers of all complexions and hair textures.
Limits on the amount of initial compensation that can be advanced or prepaid as residuals.
More to come…

:

[jo]

Barry Diller, erstwhile producer for The Music Man as well as being a former Hollywood Studio chief has some pragramatic look at the strike impact--

www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/barry-diller-executives-stars-25-percent-pay-cut-strike-1235537951/

One must note though that in the present environment, the lead actors also do a lot of promoting a movie ( which in most cases pushes its box office potential). No such thing for actors below the line and most writers ( except for some).

How is this balanced with Diller's suggestion?

In the case of TMM, it was obvious that Hugh Jackman's name accounted for a huge chunk of box office receipts( I remember when he was diagnosed with Covid & Max had to substitute for him, gross receipts went down by about 50%).

Jo

[jo]

www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2023-07-16/bob-iger-shifts-from-building-an-empire-to-a-disney-yard-sale

Excerpts:

Yet the accelerating decline of cable TV has limited Iger’s options. He thought he’d solved this problem with Disney+ and Hulu, his two mass-market streaming services. But his streaming business is expected to register a loss of about $800 million in the company’s just-ended third quarter.

It looks bleak for the future of Disney and thus a rebalancing of assets is being considered, per Bob Iger.

Disney had a different business model compared to Netflix in the streaming business. In simple terms, Disney acquired film libraries ( like the Fox assets) at a very expensive price while Netflix is doing it by simply paying for the use of films to stream. A similar trend occurred with Warner Bros which sacrificed cinema revenues in favor of streaming ( WB has fired that executive who pushed for it and is also rebalancing its revenue sources).

[jo]

www.forbes.com/sites/willskipworth/2023/07/13/disney-might-sell-off-tv-assets-like-abc-bob-iger-says/?sh=30b4d857f016

TOPLINE Disney CEO Bob Iger did not rule out selling off some of the entertainment giant’s linear TV assets in an interview on CNBC Thursday, as the company struggles to transition from the traditional television model to streaming.

Disney owns a number of TV properties including broadcaster ABC and cable networks like National Geographic and FX, which Iger left open the possibility of selling.

Iger said the properties “may not be core to Disney” and that the company would be “objective” about their future—though he didn’t explicitly say the networks would be sold.

Iger, who previously worked as a senior ABC executive, said linear TV “clearly is a business that’s going to continue to struggle” and the business model is “definitely broken.”


However, Iger made an exception for ESPN, the sports media giant Disney has owned since 1996, saying “we’re looking at (ESPN) very differently.”

He explained that many of the transformational forces brought by new technology that have rocked the television industry have had a much different effect on ESPN, which he said actually benefited from the changing industry.

KEY BACKGROUND
Iger’s interview comes amid a transformational period for the TV industry. In July 2022, streaming services like Netflix, Disney+ and Peacock overtook traditional linear TV as the most common way people consumed television, according to data from Nielsen. A forecast by PwC released in June predicts that the industry will lose $30 billion in subscription and advertising revenue by 2027, as more viewers tune out and payments from cable companies decline. However, the transition to streaming could be rocky: The company’s streaming services still lose money while its linear networks remain profitable, though streaming losses have narrowed somewhat, and flagship service Disney+ faces stiff competition from other platforms. Disney is also negotiating to buy Comcast’s 33% stake in Hulu, giving it full control over the streaming service. Meanwhile, Iger’s statements on ESPN could work to silence rumors and predictions from analysts, following calls from one activist investor to spin off ESPN.

SURPRISING FACT
Iger’s interview on CNBC comes the morning after Disney announced it was extending his contract by two years through 2026. Iger first became CEO in 2005, but retired from the position in 2020. However, after a tumultuous two years with Bob Chapek as CEO that ended when Disney abruptly ditched him, the company brought Iger back into the fold. Iger officially returned as Disney CEO in November. His extension was hailed by analysts as a positive for the company. Bank of America analysts led by Jessica Reif Ehrlich wrote in a Thursday note to clients that Iger's "focus on more efficient content spend bodes well for future profitability.” The analysts cited Iger’s recent decisions to raise the price of Disney+ and make $5.5 billion in cost cuts, among others, as reasons for their assessment.

[jo]

The Behind-the-Scenes Players Seeking a Path to Hollywood Peace
Amid growing fears of a lengthy standoff between talent unions and studios, a handful of seasoned negotiators — including federal mediators Javier Ramirez and Jimmy Valentine and power agents Ari Emanuel and Bryan Lourd — are working in the shadows to find a way forward.

BY KIM MASTERS

JULY 18, 2023 9:46AM
SAG-AFTRA members and supporters protest as the SAG-AFTRA Actors Union Strike continues in front Amazon/HBO at 450 33rd Street on July 18, 2023 in New York City.
SAG-AFTRA members and supporters protest on July 18 in New York City. DIA DIPASUPIL/GETTY IMAGES


Every labor dispute involves posturing and hyperbolic language: One side denounces the other as evil incarnate and the other does the same — until a deal is done. But this time, with two major guilds pitted against the studios, the anger is so intense that it’s hard to see how peace will be restored.

In the simplest terms, both the writers and actors guilds say the suits are greedy and trying to destroy their livelihoods, while the suits blame the actors and writers for failing to grasp the dire state of an industry still recovering from the pandemic and struggling with streaming losses. SAG-AFTRA members point to the jumbo compensation of the top suits; the top suits point to the jumbo compensation of top SAG-AFTRA members. (Barry Diller suggests they both should take a 25 percent pay cut.)

And it’s not just studios versus actors and writers. Some top agents also seem to be furious — not with the studios but with their own clients. “The WGA and [SAG-AFTRA] leadership just aren’t good,” says one. “I don’t think either of them understands the fragile state our business is in. In the words of Logan Roy, ‘These aren’t serious people.’” (This person acknowledges that many agents are still embittered by the Writers Guild’s 2019 move to ban packaging fees and requiring agencies to drop their affiliated production companies. “All that packaging money that was saved? Not one dollar went to them,” this agent says. “Studios kept it. And [the writers] pay us commissions now.”)

With everyone mad at everyone, how can the breach be mended? Gone are the decades when MCA chairman Lew Wasserman was the godfather who could decide when enough was enough. At this point, there is no such player in the Hollywood firmament. “The one guy you would think [could do it] would be the guy who set himself on fire,” says one top studio executive, referring to Bob Iger’s scolding of the guilds in a CNBC interview during Allen & Co.’s billionaire summer camp. “I adore Bob, but that didn’t go well.” Though the subsequent pile-on couldn’t have been fun, another source deeply involved in the conflict says, “I bet he’s relieved because he’s now been told to pay attention to his own business” and doesn’t have to wrangle with the warring parties.

An equally powerful executive at another studio says no Hollywood godparent could make a difference now. “Do you seriously think SAG would care about Lew Wasserman right now?” he asks. “What gets you out of it is not Lew Wasserman coming back from the dead. The way to get out of it is to eliminate all this rhetoric and propaganda and super-heightened emotionality and just deal with the facts.”

But it’s not so easy even getting to clarity on the respective positions of the warring parties. Take the question of artificial intelligence. SAG-AFTRA states that studios “want to be able to scan a background performer’s image, pay them for a half a day’s labor, and then use an individual’s likeness for any purpose forever without their consent.”

But a top studio exec says that’s “a flat-out untruth,” and that the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers’ position would give performers the same protections over the use of their images that they already have in other contexts. In other words, the studios could only make a deal for use of an image for one project at a time. It seems the guild based its position on the belief that producers would certainly offer coercive contracts that would give them free rein, simply refusing to hire anyone who didn’t consent. That may be, but you could hardly blame anyone for thinking the studios had literally proposed a provision allowing them to do whatever they pleased with background players forever.


The two sides can’t even agree whether meetings were canceled, with SAG-AFTRA negotiation committee member Anthony Rapp saying they were — repeatedly — in the days before the strike was called, and the AMPTP saying that is “simply untrue.”

So eliminating the rhetoric and propaganda may not be so simple. But that doesn’t mean there’s nothing going on behind the scenes. Sources say both CAA’s Bryan Lourd and Endeavor’s Ari Emanuel, not normally the best of friends, have been working to prod the studio chiefs to make peace with SAG-AFTRA — but with the writers, not so much. Lourd and Emanuel declined to comment.


Another industry veteran with strong negotiating experience is also involved with the same goal. The hope for this person is that officials from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) can mediate and conciliate this epic fight. The FMCS is a neutral third party. The agency can’t force parties back to the negotiating table. But some in Hollywood feel that in a few weeks, when tempers may have cooled, both sides will be ready to look for a resolution.

The Hollywood Reporter has learned that Javier Ramirez — President Biden’s choice to be director of the FMCS — and Jimmy Valentine, an FMCS commissioner based in Glendale, have had meetings with the parties for weeks. (The AMPTP’s seemingly last-minute call for mediation, in other words, was not as last-minute as it appeared.) Both men are agency veterans who have dealt with more dire situations than the current one between the talent and the studios — like a hospital work stoppage in which patients had to be relocated.

Whether this plan can work is obviously yet to be determined. But that angry agent has bone-chilling words of warning about what the industry is facing if people don’t get back to normal relatively soon. “The existential, real threat is TikTok, and the next one,” he says. “What kids see as premium content is different, and we are in a battle to keep them paying and watching. Film and TV are in for real competition for the first time. It can still be a great business, but there is a gathering storm.”

[jo]

But that angry agent has bone-chilling words of warning about what the industry is facing if people don’t get back to normal relatively soon. “The existential, real threat is TikTok, and the next one,” he says. “What kids see as premium content is different, and we are in a battle to keep them paying and watching. Film and TV are in for real competition for the first time. It can still be a great business, but there is a gathering storm.”

[jo]

On a related matter -- it looks like Broadway/touring shows may also be facing a work stoppage.

playbill.com/article/iatse-calls-strike-authorization-vote-could-halt-broadway-and-touring-shows-as-soon-as-friday

[jo]

A word of advice from Chris Nolan on which is the better viewing format!