Editor’s note: Dade Hayes and Jonathan Bing are co-authors of Open Wide: How Hollywood Box-Office Became a National Obsession. Hayes is Deadline’s Business Editor and Bing is Chief Communications Officer at Vice Media Group. The more things change, the more the Hollywood studios stay the same. At least that’s one of the surprising lessons of
Analysis
EXCLUSIVE: Moulin Rouge! The Musical, based on Baz Luhrmann’s 2001 luscious pop classic movie starring Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor and Jim Broadbent, has recouped its costs — not only the $28 million Broadway price tag, but it also recouped sizable sums in London’s West End and Australia. Luhrmann tells me that it’s “so gratifying that breaking
When it comes to the road to blockbuster glory, some projects are willed, some happen instantaneously, while others go through a long development hell. That’s just what happens when you’re perfecting toward a hopeful billion-grossing title. In the case of Mattel’s Barbie, it was arguably a 14-year journey that began at Universal. It stands to
What was it W. B. Yeats wrote, that line Joan Didion lifted and twisted in her essay “Slouching Towards Bethlehem,” about West Coast chaos in 1967? Things fall apart; the center cannot hold. That’s how it felt on Thursday, a few minutes before lunch with some seasoned film executive-friends at the Academy Museum (Salad Niçoise
Comedy is back; Super Mario Bros has proved that laughs are good for a half billion dollars. The antihero business is intact. Both Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 and John Wick: Chapter 4 hit their marks. But affairs of the heart are still suffering at the movie box office. Love Again is the latest
Watching Jesus Revolution surge past $45 million in ticket sales for Lionsgate—matching or besting The Fabelmans, The Banshees Of Inisherin, Tár, Women Talking and Triangle Of Sadness, combined—it finally seems safe to say it. The faith-based audience is back. Between Covid and the culture wars, it’s been a rough few years for those who make,
While tentpoles resuscitated moviegoing this past summer with pics like Top Gun: Maverick, it’s true that more adult-skewing fare is having a much harder time now. Nowhere was this more true than with David O. Russell’s Amsterdam, which rivals believed had a shot at opening to $12 million-$15 million this past weekend based on the
Predictions are always a hazardous thing. And I truly hope this one is wrong. But it sure looks like the movie box office, disastrously low in September, will be stuck on the bottom again this month. September is rarely a great month for ticket sales, but last month is better left undiscussed. Putting aside the
Yes, exhibitors, it is cold out there. Despite a 91% rebound in the annual summer domestic box office, from $1.755 billion in 2021 to $3.35 billion per Comscore (that’s through Aug. 30), and a 90% explosion in admissions for the May-Labor Day period per EntTelligence, from 153M to 291M over the same period, some feel