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2023 Hollywood Business (Box Office, Streaming Services, etc...)


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2 hours ago, Zimbra said:

Haha, this sucks man.

"Oversight," sure.

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Warner Bros. Discovery’s newly launched Max lumped film directors and writers under a single “creators” heading — a change that prompted a backlash from filmmakers and Hollywood’s directors and writers guilds. Now the company says it is reverting the listings back to how they were presented on HBO Max, blaming the issue on a technical “oversight.”

“We agree that the talent behind the content on Max deserve their work to be properly recognized,” a Max spokesperson said in a statement to Variety. “We will correct the credits, which were altered due to an oversight in the technical transition from HBO Max to Max and we apologize for this mistake.”

https://variety.com/2023/digital/news/max-film-credit-listings-change-directors-writers-backlash-1235624049/

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If you want to read something and get mad today...

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ANTIBES, France—Against a cliff-top view of the Mediterranean, on the surface of one of the most famous pools in the world, classic film scenes rippled in and out of view—watery ghosts of Hollywood’s happier past.

Hollywood’s present, as the writers’ strike rages toward a second month, felt more than a few pool-lengths away.

At a party co-hosted by Warner Bros. Discovery chief executive David Zaslav and Air Mail founder Graydon Carter, a nostalgia for old Hollywood was not just ambient—it was formally on the menu, alongside stuffed zucchini blossoms and copious Dom Pérignon. The toast’s occasion was a century of Warner films amid the 76th Cannes Film Festival, which concludes Saturday.

But the fantasia of Cannes, bursting with American debuts including a fifth “Indiana Jones” and a Martin Scorsese film, has clashed bitterly this year with real-world conflict, including the Writers Guild strike, French pension reform and Ukraine-war protests—heightening the drama at one of the most lavish events on the film calendar.

“This is what a recession looks like,” said one guest at the party, gesturing to two megayachts moored off the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc, the party’s venue beloved by F. Scott Fitzgerald. “There used to be 20 of these.”

French pension-reform demonstrations, meanwhile, have roiled at the festival’s edges. The night before the party, a Ukraine war protester on the red carpet doused herself in fake blood.

Even so, Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Scorsese, Scarlett Johansson, Sting, Jason Statham, Fan Bingbing, Boy George and several European royals showed up, with some cordoned off in a VIP area while Zaslav worked the room.

“This is where we celebrate the great filmmakers and the great storytellers,” he said in an interview, clad in a light beige suit and blue shirt and characterizing the soiree as the studio “making a statement.”

“Cannes is the celebration of the greatest storytelling on earth, which is the motion picture,” Zaslav said. “Everybody comes together, the phones go off. You’re with your friends, with other people. It’s a shared experience. The lights go out and it’s magic. And there’s no magic like Cannes.”

The evening’s magic was of a gauzy, Hollywood-heyday variety, with custom ashtrays and lampshades festooned with Warner-movie stills—entertaining totems of its other co-host, Carter, a veteran of Cannes events since his days running Vanity Fair. “It’s the 100th anniversary, and it’s great for him,” Carter said, in an ecru linen jacket and sporting a ruddy tan. “David loves this sort of thing—he’s much more social than I am.”

Retro signage and other party trappings, which included a customized 1960s-style Renault party bus, left guests wistful and “a little nostalgic,” said one Hollywood publicist. “We’ve all missed this.”

Since Zaslav became chief executive of the combined Warner Bros. Discovery, he has ushered in a new chapter for studio chiefs while seeming nostalgic for the old.

In 2020, he bought the Los Angeles estate previously owned by early Hollywood star Greta Garbo and later by Robert Evans, the former production chief at Paramount Pictures. While running Paramount, Evans greenlighted titles that came to embody the heyday of studio Hollywood: “Rosemary’s Baby,” “The Godfather,” “Chinatown.”

Zaslav might have the same house, but he’s working in a different Hollywood. He took over the Warner Bros. operation after several tumultuous years of ownership by AT&T—a tenure marked by the decision to simultaneously release all of the studio’s 2021 films in theaters and on its streaming service. The plan, dubbed “Project Popcorn,” was hatched as a solution to Covid-19 closures, but disenchanted many members of the Hollywood creative community.

Zaslav’s early days seemed to confirm fears that the studio behind “2001: A Space Odyssey” and “The Shawshank Redemption” was focused chiefly on shareholders—most notably when he killed two movies in production, “Batgirl” and a “Scooby-Doo” installment. He pulled shows from the HBO Max service that weren’t attracting viewers. But such disappearing is now standard practice at Zaslav’s rivals—last weekend, actor Bryan Cranston urged his Instagram followers to watch his friendly gorilla story “The One and Only Ivan” before it leaves Disney + “as early as next week.”

For months, Zaslav has told acquaintances that the rest of Hollywood would have to catch up to him as streaming-service budgets are curtailed. But he seems to have been singled out specifically by the Writers Guild of America, who trumpet his annual pay packages ($246.6 million, including a large options grant, in 2021) as proof that the studios can find cash in the couch cushions.

“The heart of our business is storytelling,” Zaslav said of the negotiations at Tuesday’s party, saying he’d been an advocate for fair writer compensation long before the strike. “I hope it gets resolved soon. It’s complicated because the world has changed, and we’ve got to strive to create an environment where they can feel valued and emboldened to create great stories.”

On Sunday, a day before he walked the red carpet at Cannes with Lily-Rose Depp, Zaslav gave the commencement address at Boston University.

“Figure out what you like about a person—there’s always something—and do whatever it takes to navigate their challenges,” Zaslav urged the graduates. Many in the audience likely couldn’t hear it, though, when students started chanting in response: “Pay your writers.”

Days later at the Hotel du Cap, it wasn’t clear to all guests that Zaslav and Carter’s party was a centenary. Singer Moses Sumney, who appears with Depp in HBO’s forthcoming “The Idol,” paused to think when asked what the party was for.

“Capitalism,” he quipped.

Edited by Dolphman 3000
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Yup, these are the moves that are gonna make the difference.

Seriously, the fact that someone who has a golden parachute leads a multi-billion dollar company in this fashion is so amazing.

Maybe some of the braintrust needs to be culled to save real money, but we know that won't happen because that's not the true goal.

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Fun fact: I have to do some leg exercises a few days a week to keep my achilles from turning on me, so I generally put on a 15 or 30 minute show to watch while I do so. My current one is likely up in a few weeks and there was a pretty good chance Metalocalypse was the next show up. Oops.

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  • 2 weeks later...
9 minutes ago, Mister TV said:

I would think if they're still members the Scott Baio and guy who played syndicated Hercules in the 90's types.

Scott's busy working on his new reality show with Trump, "Phony Loves Chachi."

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I doubt the 2% who voted no have any unified ideological or political affiliation. It's much more probable they've got gambling debt or a coke bill due.

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15 minutes ago, jaedmc said:

I doubt the 2% who voted no have any unified ideological or political affiliation. It's much more probable they've got gambling debt or a coke bill due.

robin-williams.jpg

"If on your tax form it says '$50,000 for snacks' - MAYDAY!"

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On 6/6/2023 at 2:07 PM, jaedmc said:

I doubt the 2% who voted no have any unified ideological or political affiliation. It's much more probable they've got gambling debt or a coke bill due.

ALIMONY!

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Again I am amused I find this out via the WON

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Peacock, which had been offered free to Comcast Xfinity customers, which was supposed to end this month, wrote to customers saying they can keep the service for free through June 25, 2025, if they sign up for it now, rather than spend the $4.99 per month that it was assumed they would have to pay starting in a few weeks

 

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