| | | | What's news: Happy Juneteenth! Chicken for Linda! won the top prize at Annecy. Netflix has renewed the Arnold Schwarzenegger action series FUBAR. Rapper Big Pokey has died. Elemental had the lowest opening for a Pixar film since Toy Story in 1995. — Abid Rahman |
Disney Succession: Will a New CFO Have Keys to the Kingdom? ►The chosen one. THR's Alex Weprin writes that at Disney, the CFO job has long been intertwined with rumors of succession. In an earlier era, former CFOs Tom Staggs and Jay Rasulo grappled over who would become second-in-command to Bob Iger. Now a search to find Christine McCarthy's replacement only adds speculation that Iger may stick around in the top job past 2024. The analysis.
—🏆 Winner, winner, Chicken for Linda! 🏆 Chiara Malta and Sébastien Laudenbach's French-Italian kids feature Chicken for Linda! won the Cristal award for best film at the 2023 Annecy International Animation Film Festival. Four Souls of Coyote, a 2D feature about Indigenous creation tales, from director Áron Gauder, took the jury prize, while Japanese feature The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes, from director Tomohisa Taguchi, took the Paul Grimault Award. The winners.
—The slow crawl back to normalcy. Global cinema admissions will reach 7.2b in 2027, at a lower level than pre-pandemic 2019, which counted around 7.9b admissions, according to a new report from accounting firm PwC. The annual Global Entertainment & Media Outlook report forecasts that, helped by higher ticket prices, global cinema revenue will finally reach pre-COVID pandemic levels by 2025, when it is predicted to hit $46.5b, followed by further growth to $52.1b in 2027. The story.
—Cord-cutting to continue. Among other big takeaways from PwC’s Global Entertainment & Media Outlook report, the firm forecasts that global TV subscription revenue will fall to $173.6b in 2027, from nearly $200b just a decade earlier. And the number of U.S. pay-TV homes will further drop to 49.9m homes in 2027 amid continued cord-cutting, reducing pay TV’s presence to just 38 percent of U.S. households. The story. |
THR's Reality Roundtable ►"This was one hot mess." THR's award-winning Roundtable series continues, with the reality stars up next. Lisa Vanderpump (Vanderpump Rules), Keke Palmer (Password), Karamo Brown (Queer Eye) and Ellie Kemper (The Great American Baking Show) join Mikey O'Connell for a lively discussion that covered Scandoval, hosting, being themselves on camera and their most awkward moments that made it to air. The roundtable.
—Tragedy. Houston rapper Big Pokey, a founding member of the Screwed Up Click collective, has died after collapsing onstage. He was 45. A cause of death was not immediately known. Pokey, whose real name was Milton Powell, died after collapsing during a performance in Beaumont, Texas, late Saturday night. A video circulating online and on social media shows Pokey taking the microphone in front of a crowd. He takes a breath and then falls backward. The story.
—"Creating long-lasting change." To coincide with Juneteenth, NBCUniversal said on Monday that Group Black, a company that invests in Black-owned media companies, will sell ads in Black-led content and programming that amplifies Black voices on its Peacock streaming service. Group Black, a Travis Montaque-led collective launched in June 2021 with a $75m fund from investment company GroupM, was created with a mission to bring more investment to Black-owned businesses. The story. |
DC's 'The Flash,' Pixar's 'Elemental' Bomb ►Double disaster. Warner Bros. and DC’s The Flash earned an estimated $55.1m for the three-day weekend and a projected $64m for the four-day Juneteenth holiday, well below expectations. THR's Pamela McClintock writes that The Flash had hoped for a three-day start of at least $70m, but it came in behind the disappointing opening number for DC's Black Adam, which collected $67m.
Overseas, the superhero tentpole also faced challenges. It opened to $72m from 79 markets, for a global opening of $130m through Sunday. The studio’s leadership has been hyping The Flash for months, with WBD CEO David Zaslav proclaiming it is the greatest superhero movie he’s ever seen. Many critics didn't agree with the assessment — the pic currently has a 67 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes. A bigger problem: Audiences gave the movie a mediocre B CinemaScore.
It was also a dismal holiday weekend for Pixar's Elemental, with the animated feature bombing hard with an estimated $29.5m for the three-day weekend, the lowest wide weekend debut ever for a Pixar title outside of Toy Story, which started off with $29.1m nearly three decades ago, not adjusted for inflation. Toy Story, of course, went on to make cinematic and box office history. Elemental isn’t expected to do the same. Overseas, Elemental earned an anaemic $17m from its first 17 markets. The box office report.
—More pain. There wasn't any good news for The Flash and Elemental in China, with both films getting off to a slow start. The Flash opened in first place with $13.8m, including previews, while Elemental debuted in third with just $5.3m. Local ticketing giant Maoyan currently projects The Flash to top out at about $27m and Elemental to finish its run with around $18m. The China box office report. |
How 'The Last of Us' Depicted Love During the Apocalypse ►"I swear to you that I’ve never read anything like that in my life. It was so rich and full of hope and life and love." "Long, Long Time", the critically acclaimed third episode of HBO's The Last of Us upended viewer expectations with a flashback-filled story centering on the lifelong romance of two survivors played by Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett. THR's Carolyn Giardina spoke to series editors Timothy Good and Emily Mendez about how they shaped the emotional story of Bill and Frank in "Long, Long Time." The interview.
—"When the opportunity to take on that particular trope came across my desk, I was more than happy to participate." THR's Brian Davids spoke to The Blackening star Antoinette Robertson about the new Tim Story-directed horror comedy. After years of largely avoiding horror as an audience member, Robertson found herself at the center of the feature parodying the age-old trope that Black characters are the first to die in horror films. The interview.
—"It does bring up a moral dilemma." THR's Sydney Odman spoke to Based on a True Story star Tom Bateman on playing a satirical serial killer in the new Peacock dark comedy thriller. The British actor, who puts on an American accent in the show, notes that the project was his first major TV series in America and shares his hopes for a second season. Warning: Spoilers! The interview.
—"Sometimes people want to call Brooke a hot mess, or put characters in a box like that, and I’m like, ‘Do you have it together?'” THR's Ashley Cullins spoke to The Other Two star Heléne Yorke about the challenges of season three and what to expect from the finale. The actress also discusses her character Brooke Dubek, a former professional dancer who’s searching for her purpose and examining her identity after her youngest brother becomes a pop sensation overnight, and being a fan of her own show. The interview. |
Linda Hamilton Joins Final Season of 'Stranger Things' ►🎭 The unknown future rolls toward us 🎭 Linda Hamilton will be part of the final season of Netflix's Stranger Things, the streamer announced Saturday at its Tudum fan event in Brazil. Details on the Terminator star’s role are being kept quiet for now. Hamilton joins fellow 1980s icons Winona Ryder, Cary Elwes, Matthew Modine, Sean Astin, Paul Reiser and Robert Englund in signing on to star in Stranger Things. The story.
—🎭 New faces 🎭 Squid Game, Netflix's most-watched series ever, unveiled new and returning cast for its wildly anticipated second season at Tudum. The surviving stars of season one — Lee Jung-jae, Lee Byung-Hun, Wi Ha-joon and Gong Yoo — will all be back for more. Coming in for season two are Im Siwan (formerly of K-pop group ZE:A), Kang Ha Neul (Midnight Runners), Park Sung Hoon (The Glory) and Yang Dong Geun (Connect). The story.
—Dê um trocado pro seu bruxo. The Witcher stars Henry Cavill, Freya Allan, Anya Chalotra and Joey Batey took the stage in Brazil for Tudum to premiere an exclusive clip from the series’ upcoming third season. The nearly three-minute video shows Geralt of Rivia (Cavill), Cirilla of Cintra (Allan) and Yennefer of Vengerber (Chalotra) join forces against Jaskier (Batey). Together, they use their powers to defeat the Viscount de Lettenhove and his group of fighters. The story.
—A little tease. Zack Snyder gave us a glimpse of Rebel Moon, his space feature due out from Netflix at the end of the year. In a behind-the-scenes featurette revealed during Tudum, Snyder pulled back the curtain on his movie, which is set on a distant planet, whose inhabitants must fight back against the armies of a tyrant who would take their resources. The story.
—He'll be back. Also at Tudum, Netflix revealed that it had renewed FUBAR for a second season. The pickup comes about three weeks after the show’s premiere. FUBAR stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as a CIA operative who discovers that his daughter (Monica Barbaro) also works for the agency. The series premiered on May 25 and became Netflix’s most watched show for that week. Since its release it has amassed 219m hours of viewing worldwide, according to the streamer’s internal metrics. The story. More from Tudum...
—One Piece trailer: Iñaki Godoy and his crew set sail in Netflix’s live-action adaptation
—Gal Gadot, Jamie Dornan face global destruction in trailer for Netflix's Heart of Stone
—Netflix reveals 3 Body Problem trailer from Game of Thrones creators |
Inside 'The Flash' Ending and That Cameo ►Chapeau for that reveal. Hollywood secrets have become notoriously hard to keep, but Warner Bros. and the filmmakers of The Flash pulled off a doozy with the final moments of their DC film. In a fascinating piece, THR's Borys Kit reveals that the troubled film had three separate endings, each overseen by different Warner Bros. regimes, spanning Walter Hamada to James Gunn and Peter Safran. The story. In other news...
—Netflix’s new releases coming in June 2023
—CNN sets premiere date for LeBron James-produced docuseries See It Loud: The History of Black Television
—Kourtney Kardashian says she’s expecting baby with Travis Barker
—L.A. went from having zero lesbian bars to two new ones this year
—WBD unveils 3 HBO originals in Thailand
—Material from the Indiana Jones movie set is part of a new luxury bag collection
What else we're reading...
—Wes Davis reports that Spotify continues to do nothing as Joe Rogan peddles vaccine misinformation [Verge]
—With shows like The Idol and Russian Doll filled with chain-smoking characters, Daisy Jones asks why TV dramas are trying to make cigarettes cool again [Guardian]
—Heather Schwedel is of the opinion that Netflix's Never Have I Ever was really sending up the trope of geriatric teenage characters with token hot-guy character, Paxton Hall-Yoshida [Slate]
—With the news of a "final" AI-assisted record from The Beatles, Arwa Haider wonders whether we should be bringing singers back from the dead [BBC]
—Stephen L. Carter writes that Tucker Carlson can’t just ignore the noncompete clause he signed with Fox News which he has blatantly violated with his new Twitter show [Bloomberg]
Today...
...in 1987, the comedy Roxanne hit theaters. Steve Martin, who also wrote this adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac, starred as a big-hearted and big-nosed fire chief who falls in love with a beautiful astronomer. The original review.
Today's birthdays: Kathleen Turner (69), Zoe Saldana (45), Robin Tunney (51), Paul Dano (39), Hugh Dancy (48), Phylicia Rashad (75), Jean Dujardin (51), Paula Abdul (61), Jessica Alexander (24), Mia Sara (56), Aidan Turner (40), Ashly Burch (33), Poppy Montgomery (51), Gena Rowlands (93), Lauren Lee Smith (43), Chelah Horsdal (50), Samuel West (57), Chuku Modu (33), Virginia Hey (71), Mía Maestro (45), Sadie Frost (58), Giacomo Gianniotti (34), Dylan Playfair (31), Robin McLeavy (42), Vanessa Martinez (44), Lisa Chandler (38), Chris Larkin (56), Ken Davitian (70) |
| Carol Higgins Clark, an actress in several television movies and best-selling author of the Regan Reilly series, died on June 12. She was 66. The obituary. |
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