-30-
May 1, 2022
"Netflix, the great disrupter whose algorithms and direct-to-consumer platform have forced powerful media incumbents to rethink their economic models, now seems to need a big strategy change itself. It got me thinking about the simple idea that my film and TV production company Blumhouse is built on: If you give artists a lot of creative freedom and a little money upfront but a big stake in the movie’s or TV show’s commercial success, more often than not the result will be both commercial (the filmmakers are incentivized to make films that will resonate with audiences) and artistically interesting (creative freedom!). This approach has yielded movies as varied as Get Out (made for $4.5 million, with worldwide box office receipts of more than $250 million), Whiplash (made for $3.3 million, winner of three Academy Awards), The Invisible Man (made for $7 million, earned more than $140 million) and Paranormal Activity (made for $15,000, grossed more than $190 million).From the beginning, the most important strategy I used to persuade artists to work with me was to make radically transparent deals: We usually paid the artists (“participants” in Hollywood lingo) the absolute minimum allowable by union contracts upfront, with the promise of healthy bonuses based on actual box office results—instead of the opaque 'percentage points' that artists are usually offered. Anyone can see box office results immediately, so creators don’t quarrel with the payouts. In fact, when it comes time for an artist to collect a bonus based on box office receipts, I email a video clip of myself dropping the check off at FedEx to the recipient."
Jason Blum Sees Room For "Scrappier" Netflix
| April 30, 2022
"As a critic Gavin was entertaining, wry, questioning, sensitive, perceptive"
Critic-Filmmaker Gavin Millar Was 84; Films Include Cream In My Coffee, Dreamchild
April 29, 2022
Disney Executive Geoff Morrell Out After Less Than Four Months
| April 29, 2022
Netflix Lays Off At Least 10 At Tudum Fan Site
Ryan Faughner, Los Angeles Times: "Netflix, which has been the envy of the entertainment business for several years, saw its stock fall 35% after the company said it lost 200,000 subscribers in the most recent quarter and, worse, projected it would lose an additional 2 million in the current one. Between competition and password sharing, there’s plenty of blame to go around for Netflix’s woes. A bigger concern, though, dragged down the share prices of Netflix’s rivals too: What if the market for subscription streaming just isn’t as big as people thought?"
| April 28, 2022
Another $356 Million In Damage Slated For BBC Production Budget
| April 28, 2022
"With the support of every member of MGM’s production team, and with our filmmaking partners by our side, we were able to get back to making movies and ultimately put in motion a deep bench of films, from filmmakers including Ridley Scott, Paul Thomas Anderson, Joe Wright, Channing Tatum and Reid Carolin, Ron Howard, George Miller, Billy Porter, Sarah Polley, Chinonye Chukwu, Cory Finley, Zach Braff, George Clooney, Michael B. Jordan, Emma Seligman, Luca Guadagnino, Zoe Kravitz, Rachel Morrison and many others, with the goal of creating a lineup of movies that would appeal to every kind of audience. Included among our slate are several films from Orion Pictures, which we relaunched under the leadership of Alana Mayo in August of 2020 amid the long overdue examination of America’s relationship with race, with the goal of making films exclusively focused on – and brought to us by – underrepresented voices."
MGM Execs De Luca, Abdy Resign After Amazon Absorption
| April 27, 2022
Twitter will be acquired by an entity wholly owned by Elon Musk for $54.20 per share in cash in a $44 billion transaction; once complete, Twitter will be a privately held corporation.
The notably litigious Musk says the vast investment supports his interest in "free speech." The Washington Post, owned by the world's second richest man, reports that the deal will "put Twitter in the hands of the world’s richest man and one of its most popular users, with more than 83 million followers." MSNBC's Chris Hayes: "Become pretty clear over the past few years that Musk, like Trump, has one true gift perfectly suited for the age: getting attention. The Twitter acquisition makes a lot of sense." CNN: "Musk has repeatedly stressed in recent days that his goal is to bolster free speech on the platform and work to 'unlock' Twitter's 'extraordinary potential.'" Economics blogger Joseph Politano: "The clear financial benefit for Elon Musk doesn't come from Twitter's returns per se but from his ability to leverage social media to get retail investors to pile into Tesla and his other holdings." Bloomberg Opinion's Tim O'Brien: "Musk's Twitter deal math is sketchy—he's going to saddle it with billions of dollars of debt, possibly suffocating it. More important: He isn't up to the task of running a social media company in an era of dangerous and divisive viral propaganda."
Robert Reich: "Musk’s real goal has nothing to do with the freedom of others. His goal is his own unconstrained freedom–the freedom to wield enormous power without having to be accountable to laws and regulations, to shareholders, or to market competition.” Journalist Judd Legum of Popular Information: "I have no idea if Musk will be able to buy Twitter and, if he does, how Twitter might change. But it underscores the importance of making sure you do not rely exclusively on algorithms controlled by tech companies to get your news. Take control of your information flow now."
| April 25, 2022
"“We are definitely starting to see positive signs,” says Kevin Holloway, president of Landmark Theaters. “The biggest thing for us is to continue to get product availability. There’s no question some of these movies can be expensive to market and get out for theatrical release in a meaningful way, so many of them can often be shifted to a truncated window or day-and-date strategy.”"
Can Indie Moviehouses Survive?
| April 24, 2022
Wachowski Collection Of Watchotkes At Auction
April 23, 2022
"In the wake of TWC’s collapse, many of Weinstein’s victims feel cheated out of proper remuneration, while several of his alleged enablers have walked away from the rubble virtually unscathed. And, thanks to shady deals that allowed some TWC insiders to quietly pocket projects from the company’s 250-title library as it was headed for bankruptcy, those insiders may wield more power and reap more profit in Hollywood today than they did before Harvey’s downfall."
"'Yellowstone' has formed the bedrock of 101 Studios, a company co-founded in January 2019 by former TWC COO David Glasser—who was sometimes described as the so-called third Weinstein brother—with $300 million in funding from a handful of investors, including Ron Burkle."
Weinstein Company Insiders During Ill Reign Of Harvey And Bob Still Making Lots Of Money (subscriber content)
| April 20, 2022
-30-
May 1, 2022
"Netflix, the great disrupter whose algorithms and direct-to-consumer platform have forced powerful media incumbents to rethink their economic models, now seems to need a big strategy change itself. It got me thinking about the simple idea that my film and TV production company Blumhouse is built on: If you give artists a lot of creative freedom and a little money upfront but a big stake in the movie’s or TV show’s commercial success, more often than not the result will be both commercial (the filmmakers are incentivized to make films that will resonate with audiences) and artistically interesting (creative freedom!). This approach has yielded movies as varied as Get Out (made for $4.5 million, with worldwide box office receipts of more than $250 million), Whiplash (made for $3.3 million, winner of three Academy Awards), The Invisible Man (made for $7 million, earned more than $140 million) and Paranormal Activity (made for $15,000, grossed more than $190 million).From the beginning, the most important strategy I used to persuade artists to work with me was to make radically transparent deals: We usually paid the artists (“participants” in Hollywood lingo) the absolute minimum allowable by union contracts upfront, with the promise of healthy bonuses based on actual box office results—instead of the opaque 'percentage points' that artists are usually offered. Anyone can see box office results immediately, so creators don’t quarrel with the payouts. In fact, when it comes time for an artist to collect a bonus based on box office receipts, I email a video clip of myself dropping the check off at FedEx to the recipient."
Jason Blum Sees Room For "Scrappier" Netflix
| April 30, 2022
"As a critic Gavin was entertaining, wry, questioning, sensitive, perceptive"
Critic-Filmmaker Gavin Millar Was 84; Films Include Cream In My Coffee, Dreamchild
April 29, 2022
| January 24, 2022
DP/30 Audio: Bombshell, Jay Roach
| December 13, 2019
DP/30 Audio: The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Jonathan Majors
| December 4, 2019
DP/30 Audio: The Mustang, Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre
| December 4, 2019