This is an interesting article on the state of Hollywood today. Check it out from LATimes.com:
The stars are not twinkling bright this summer.
Hollywood’s movie studios, hopeful that marquee-name actors would push their summer box-office receipts to record levels, are finding that the heavyweights aren’t winning over audiences like they used to. With all but a couple of big-budget films already opened, the summer of 2009 is shaping up to be one of the worst on record for Hollywood’s A-list talent.
The studios stocked this summer’s release schedule with so-called star vehicles, including “Land of the Lost” with Will Ferrell, “Year One” featuring Jack Black, the comedy “Imagine That” with Eddie Murphy, and Denzel Washington and John Travolta in a remake of “The Taking of Pelham 123.” But rather than igniting ticket sales, the star-studded movies have dramatically underperformed.
The brightest stars of the lucrative popcorn season — which typically accounts for about 40% of annual ticket sales — instead have turned out to be mostly movies with no-name actors — or no actors at all on screen.
So far, the summer’s most profitable film has been Warner Bros.’ surprise hit “The Hangover,” a $35-million-budget R-rated comedy about a bachelor party in Las Vegas that boasts not a single household-name actor but has reached $183 million in U.S. ticket sales since its June 5 opening and is expected to exceed $200 million. Other summer hits like J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek” and Michael Bay’s “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” showcase eye-popping visual effects along with up-and-coming talent.
And, the highest-grossing summer movie so far? Walt Disney’s Co.’s “Up,” the Pixar-animated movie starring the voice of . . . Ed Asner.
The studios, which for years have banked on richly paid stars to open their movies, are now witnessing a new reality: even the most reliable actors can be trumped by what Hollywood executives like to call “high concepts” (a bachelor party gone awry), movies based on brand-name products (Hasbro’s Transformers toys), and reinvented franchises (not your father’s “Star Trek”).
“I think we’re seeing a transformation in what the value of the star system represents,” said Marc Shmuger, chairman of Universal Pictures, which will take a significant loss on Ferrell’s “Land of the Lost,” which cost $100 million to make and tens of millions more to market and distribute. There’s also an “incredible hunger among audiences for something new and different,” he said.
Indeed, that was the appeal of the buddy comedy “The Hangover.”
“Movie stars still hold an incredible value both creatively and financially,” said “Hangover” director Todd Phillips. “But it’s getting to be more about the movie and whether it delivers on the promise of its trailers and commercials.”
Internet plays a role
Moreover, in the Internet age, word of mouth about movies spreads instantly.
“There used to be a free weekend where marketing departments could open a movie and if it didn’t work, word didn’t get out until Monday, but that’s evaporated with Facebook and Twitter,” Phillips said. “The water-cooler effect is much more immediate.”
Even before a major movie hits the big screen, Twitter users and bloggers are weighing in — which can help or hinder a studio opening a movie.
“The world has changed, throwing conventional wisdom out the window,” said former studio marketing executive Peter Sealey. “The star-power opening is fading in importance and the marketing and releasing of movies is going into new territory where the masses are molding the opinion of a movie. People no longer say, ‘It’s a Tom Cruise movie, let’s go see it!’ With social networking, you know everything about a movie before it comes out.”
Doug Belgrad, production president of Sony Pictures Entertainment, whose studio is behind “Year One” and “Pelham,” said stars alone no longer can compete against the draw of franchise movies and sequels like “Transformers” and “Harry Potter” that come with a high degree of public awareness.
“Movie stars in the right films provide a certain amount of value from a marketing point of view,” he said. “But there is no star power that you can throw at a movie that gives you the kind of brand awareness you get from pre-sold titles.”
This summer’s woes come at a time when studios are already battling the climbing cost of making and marketing movies as well as a decline in DVD sales, which have long supported the economics of the film business.
A telling test case will come this week when Johnny Depp, one of the biggest movie stars in the world, appears as 1930s gangster John Dillinger in Universal’s crime saga “Public Enemies, which cost $100 million to produce.”
Given the poor performances this year of dramas targeted to adults, the prospects of the Michael Mann-directed film gaining mass audience appeal appear dim.
Wow, looks like Jakes all grown up!
Not exactly scientifically proven, but the numbers suggest a lot.
Brad Pitt? George Clooney? Nope.
It’s the Fresh Prince.
Not one of his last 8 films have made less than $135 million. NOT ONE! That’s a crazy track record especially when you consider that some of those 8 movies really sucked and didn’t look good from the beginning either.
From Yahoo Movies:
Indiana Jones unearthed box office gold at domestic theaters with a performance that puts the film on track to become the second biggest Memorial Day movie opening ever, according to studio estimates Sunday.
The fourth installment of the whip-cracking professor’s exploits, “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” grossed an estimated $101 million from Friday to Sunday, plus $25 million from its opening Thursday, distributor Paramount Pictures said. The company expects it to earn another $25 million on Monday.
That would put it behind only “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End,” which had a Friday-through-Monday total of $139.8 million, in the pantheon of Memorial Day weekend blockbusters.
Including Thursday’s receipts, “Indiana Jones” was expected to collect $151 million over five days, slightly behind “Pirates,” which took in $153 million with a partial Thursday included.
“‘Indiana Jones’ did incredibly well for a film that comes 19 years after the previous installment,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of tracking firm Media By Numbers LLC.
The adventure flick received a lackluster reception from critics at the Cannes Film Festival, but audiences thought otherwise.
Box office estimates grew from $25 million on its opening Thursday through $37 million on Saturday, suggesting strong word of mouth, Dergarabedian said.
“This is the definition of a summer movie from two of the architects of the summer movie season George Lucas and Steven Spielberg,” he said. “These guys have it down to a science and audiences want to go along for that ride.”
The first three Indy movies took in $1.2 billion worldwide.
Disney’s action sequel, “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian,” slipped to second place with $23 million, for a total of $91.1 million over two weeks. The company expected the movie to continue to play well as school lets out.
“Once you start getting the mass number of kids out of school, it turns into some serious money,” said Chuck Viane, president of distribution for Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.
Marvel Studios’ “Iron Man” clinched another $20.1 million, bringing its domestic total to $252.3 million. A sequel is set for release in 2010.
The 20th Century Fox comedy, “What Happens in Vegas,” continued to roll with $9 million in its third week, for a total of $54.2 million.
Fox senior vice president Bert Livingstone said high gas prices were encouraging people to see movies rather than take long trips away from home.
“This is the last great bargain,” Livingstone said.
But movie receipts were about 16 percent smaller than last year’s Memorial Day weekend, and revenue for the year to date is down nearly 4 percent at $3.3 billion, with attendance off nearly 7 percent.
By this time last year, there were seven movies that grossed over $100 million: “Pirates,” “Shrek the Third,” “Spider-Man 3,” “300,” “Wild Hogs,” “Blades of Glory” and “Ghost Rider,” according to Media By Numbers. This year, there are only three: “Iron Man,” “Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who!” and “Indiana Jones.”
“It’s no wonder that we’re down in terms of revenues and attendance,” Dergarabedian said. “You don’t get out of a deficit like this overnight.”
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Tuesday.
1. “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” $101 million.
2. “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian,” $23 million.
3. “Iron Man,” $20.1 million.
4. “What Happens in Vegas,” $9 million.
5. “Speed Racer,” $4 million.
6. “Made of Honor,” $3.4 million.
7. “Baby Mama,” $3.3 million.
8. “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” $1.7 million.
9. “Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay,” $900,000.
10. “The Visitor,” $800,000.
Pretty cool, interesting and odd timeline of box office success over the past 20 years.
Check it out here.
Disney has released its calendar for 2008 movie releases:
February 1, 2008 HANNAH MONTANA & MILEY CYRUS: BEST OF BOTH WORLDS CONCERT 3-D
February 14, 2008 STEP UP 2 THE STREETS (Touchstone Pictures)
March 7, 2008 COLLEGE ROAD TRIP
May 16, 2008 THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: PRINCE CASPIAN
June 27, 2008 WALL•E
Summer 2008 SWING VOTE (Touchstone Pictures)
Fall 2008 SOUTH OF THE BORDER
Fall 2008 MORNING LIGHT
Fall 2008 MIRACLE AT ST. ANNA (Touchstone Pictures)
November 26, 2008 BOLT
December 25, 2008 BEDTIME STORIES
TBD CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC (Touchstone Pictures)
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - When Cameron Diaz signed on to lend her voice to Princess Fiona in 2001’s animated fairy tale “Shrek,” she earned a modest six figures for the work. But after the third installment of the Paramount/DreamWorks Animation franchise earned more than $320 million domestically, Diaz saw her paycheck balloon to more than $30 million, thanks to her generous share of the film’s profits.
But even though actress salaries seem to be bigger than ever, the news this year is not how large the paychecks of Hollywood’s hottest female stars have become, it is how low they are prepared to go to fill in their schedules.
While Angelina Jolie and Reese Witherspoon are now asking for $15 million-$20 million per movie, they frequently agree to “no-quote deals” — deals in which the studios actually pay them far less than their usual fee.
Jolie, who is believed to have made more than $20 million (including profits) for pictures like 2005’s “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” earned around $8 million for her latest release, “Beowulf” — the reason being that she played a supporting role in Paramount’s picture, involving only a few weeks of work. Similarly, Witherspoon took a major pay cut to star in New Line’s “Rendition,” but asks for — and gets — more than $15 million per picture when she headlines a comedy. (Sources strenuously denied reports that Witherspoon is being paid as much as $29 million for her next movie, Universal’s “Our Family Trouble.”)
While Hollywood’s list of the 10 highest-earning actresses includes only names that have dominated the screen for several years, a few promising stars are climbing up the pay scale, including Katherine Heigl, Rachel McAdams and Jennifer Garner.
Click HERE for the annual breakdown of the 10 highest-paid actresses in Hollywood from Yahoo! Movies.
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From Norman Bates to Hannibal Lector, we have seen some awesome baddies - I mean, Batman (Christian Bale) even played the part in American Psycho - how can you top those performances?
It’s a big statement. Got all the respect in the world for Michael Caine, but perhaps if he wasn’t in the film, I’d take his words to heart a bit more. But then again, that picture is enough to turn any gay-cowboy haters into scared, little girls.
“He’s fantastic. He’s gone in a different direction than Jack (Nicholson) … Jack was like a really scary old, nasty old uncle with a funny face. Heath is like the most murderous psychopath you’ve ever seen on the screen.”
Check out the teaser. Does look pretty freakin’ awesome.
LOS ANGELES, July 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - IMAX Corporation and Warner Bros. Pictures today announced that Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix continued its box office reign, posting a record-breaking second weekend at IMAX® theatres throughout the world. After shattering virtually every opening box office record at IMAX® theatres during its debut, the digitally re-mastered IMAX release grossed $2.8 million on 91 domestic IMAX screens - with 58 of the 91 domestic IMAX theatres reporting opening week box office records - and $1.18 million on 40 international screens, from Friday, July 20 through Sunday, July 22.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: An IMAX 3D Experience opened on 126 IMAX screens worldwide on July 11, which made it the largest opening in IMAX’s 40-year history. The worldwide IMAX box office total has now climbed to $17.5 million, contributing to the film’s overall box office of $560.8 million through the weekend, and it is scheduled to open in 13 additional international IMAX theatres in the coming weeks. The international results for the past weekend were the second best weekend in IMAX’s history, following the record-breaking opening weekend, and the film also set a new record international per screen average for the week at $75,400.
“We continue to be thrilled by the results from this film and believe the immersive nature of the IMAX release, including the 3D finale contributed to the box office success in IMAX theatres,” said Dan Fellman, President of Domestic Distribution at Warner Bros. Pictures. “We look forward to further success of this ‘Harry Potter’ in both formats.”
“The incredible success of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix An IMAX 3D Experience indicates how seeing event films in IMAX has become a very real part of the movie audience’s landscape,” said IMAX Co-Chairmen and Co-CEOs Richard L. Gelfond and Bradley J. Wechsler. “We are so pleased to partner with Warner Bros. Pictures on another Harry Potter installment and share the magic of this film with IMAX patrons around the world.”
“It’s a thrill to see the international audiences respond in such a positive way,” said Veronika Kwan-Rubinek, President of International Distribution, Warner Bros. Pictures. “The excitement of the IMAX format and 3D finale in a ‘Harry Potter’ film will keep interest in this title high throughout the summer season.”
“There’s nothing quite like the magic that ‘Harry Potter’ and The IMAX Experience produce, and the box office results are a testament to this winning combination,” said Greg Foster, Chairman and President, IMAX Filmed Entertainment. “Ticket sales continue to produce record results, and it’s clear that this film will have strong legs throughout the summer, and be something that fans of Harry Potter and IMAX can enjoy again and again.”
More information on the Company can be found at www.imax.com.
BURBANK, Calif., May 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Walt Disney Pictures’ epic adventure, “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End,” from Jerry Bruckheimer Films, landed in the global box office record books and laid claim to the biggest opening in industry history, with an unprecedented gross of $401,000,000 in its first six days of release, it was announced today by Mark Zoradi, president of Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Marketing and Distribution. This figure surpasses the previous record of $382 million set by the six-day opening of “Spiderman 3″ earlier this year. “Pirates” continues to please audiences around the world with exceptionally strong exit polls.
Domestically, “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” raised its weekend estimate to $156 million (including Thursday night showings). The film set a new record for the four-day Memorial Day Weekend with its gross of $142 million (including Monday estimates), surpassing the previous high of $122.8 million set by “X-Men: The Last Stand” in 2006.
At the international box office, Disney’s latest “Pirates” adventure shattered records from Russia to Japan with its phenomenal $245 million cume through Monday (including Monday estimates). The film had record-breaking openings (figures are through Sunday) in their respective markets in the following countries: Korea ($18.4 million), Japan ($15.9 million; US Productions only), Russia ($13.7 million), Spain ($11.6 million), Taiwan ($4.5 million) and Netherlands ($2.8 million). It also set new Walt Disney Studio records in the U.K. ($26.6 million), France ($17.7 million), Germany ($16.8 million) and Australia ($9.9 million). With its six-day tally of $245 million, “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” has set a new international record that surpasses the previous six-day high of $232 million set by “Spiderman 3″ a few weeks ago. “Pirates” still has a few markets yet to open including China and India.
Commenting on the announcement, Zoradi said, “We knew that audiences all over the world were excited to see Johnny Depp and the rest of the fantastic ‘Pirates’ cast in this latest adventure, but this record-setting response at the global box office has been nothing short of incredible. ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End’ now has the distinction of having the biggest opening in movie history, and we’re extremely proud of that achievement. Credit goes to the multitude of talent both in front of and behind the camera. Jerry Bruckheimer, Gore Verbinski and their exceptional teams as well as the creative minds of writers Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio have proven to be the perfect recipe for success.”
“Pirates” which rolled out on over 29,000 screens worldwide, showed on a record number of digital screens both domestically (1,064) and internationally (414) bringing the global total to 1,478. The film has already become the Studio’s 54th release to join the $100 million club internationally and the 53rd film to reach the $100 million plateau domestically — unprecedented in the industry.
“Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” picks up where the record- breaking 2006 smash hit left off, with our heroes Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) allied with Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) in a desperate quest to free Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) from his mind-bending trap in Davy Jones’ locker. With the terrifying ghost ship, The Flying Dutchman, and its commander Davy Jones under the control of the East India Trading Company, there is havoc on the Seven Seas. Navigating through treachery, betrayal and wild waters, the heroic trio must forge their way to exotic Singapore and confront the cunning Pirate Sao Feng (Chow Yun-Fat). Now headed beyond the very ends of the earth, each must ultimately choose a side in a final titanic battle — as not only their lives and fortunes, but the entire future of the freedom-loving Pirate way hangs in the balance.
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