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September 3, 2017
Angelina Jolie Speaks to ‘Very Dark Time’ in Current Culture at Telluride Panel
At this year’s Telluride Film Festival, the “Wonder Woman” effect continues to send ripples throughout the industry. Case in point: Saturday’s hugely attended “Wonder Women” panel, moderated by director Peter Sellars and boasting a panel that included actress and filmmaker Angelina Jolie, lauded chef and restaurateur Alice Waters, tennis champ Billie Jean King (the subject of the Telluride premiere “Battle of the Sexes”), and actress and filmmaker Natalie Portman.
Jolie was at the annual Colorado film festival to bow her latest directorial effort, “First They Killed My Father,” which debuted the night before the panel. It will be available on Netflix later this month, after screening at TIFF next week.
In our review, Eric Kohn praised it as being “a more focused, involving work than any of her earlier efforts, a taut wartime tale about surviving the Khmer Rouge that’s rooted in a child’s perspective rather than a simplistic, westernized gaze. Despite a few missteps, it’s the clearest illustration of her filmmaking talent to date.”
Jolie, who has long been outspoken in her political beliefs and currently serves as a Special Envoy to the UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, spoke out about the “very dark time” unspooling in current culture. For Jolie, the parallels between the current political climate and other historical instances that have seen countries and groups devolve into hatred (and worse) was top of mind, as her latest film is centered on the true-life stories of Cambodian refugees who were massacred by the Khmer Rouge.
“First They Killed My Father”
The film is based on the non-fiction book of the same name, penned by Loung Ung, who was just 5 when Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia. As Jolie noted, that horrific period of history is “not unlike even some situations we can recognize today: there’s a country [arming itself] on the border; there are bombs that enter the country; there’s a vacuum left; ideologies rise; hate rises; and [there’s] a lot of lies and encouraging people to come together and rise up against outside influences.”
She added, “But in doing so, they are also rising up with a certain kind of ideology that is very hateful and aggressive.”
As horrific as the experiences of Ung and her family were, Jolie also pointed out that not only did Ung survive, she has thrived, and in one of the few places where a displaced immigrant could accomplish so much: America.
“She was forced into labor camps. But she and some of her brothers and sisters survived, and she is extraordinary, and she came to America,” Jolie said. “And this morning I heard her thank America for embracing her as an immigrant and explain how much she hopes she has given back to America, and remind us all what is the best of America.”
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Source: IndieWire film
September 1, 2017
Please Join Us in Supporting Hurricane Harvey Relief Efforts
As the world now knows, earlier this week Hurricane Harvey hit the Texas Gulf Coast and left a wake of destruction.
Much of Houston and its surrounding communities are under water. The American Red Cross and volunteers from around the country are working around the clock to evacuate and provide safe shelter and comfort for tens of thousands impacted by this devastating storm. No one knows how long it will take for the floodwaters to recede and the recovery will take months, if not years.
SXSW has made a donation to the Red Cross. If you haven’t already, we encourage you to do the same at redcross.org/sxsw.
Over the years, we’ve tried to harness the unique power of the SXSW community and its selfless interest in helping others. We invite you to join us in making a donation to help meet the immediate and long-term needs of the millions of people affected along the Gulf Coast. Let’s see how much we can raise as a collective community of caring creative people.
If you are looking for other ways to contribute, The Texas Tribune has put together a comprehensive list of how to get help and how to give.
The post Please Join Us in Supporting Hurricane Harvey Relief Efforts appeared first on SXSW.
Source: SxSW Film
September 1, 2017
The Power of Shooting with a Shallow Depth of Field
Here’s how shooting with a shallow depth of field can immerse your audience like nothing else.<p><i>Top image via Hollywood Reporter.</i><p>Choosing how you will …
Source: CW’s Flipboard Feed
August 31, 2017
#TBT: 25 Years of SXSW Film – Sarah Gertrude Shapiro
To commemorate the 25th edition of the SXSW Film Festival, we continue our spotlight on the careers launched, artists discovered, powerful performances, and more from our alumni with this week’s featured artist, filmmaker, and television writer Sarah Gertrude Shapiro.
When Shapiro came to the 2013 film festival with the short, Sequin Raze she was inspired by her experiences working on the wildly popular reality television series, The Bachelor. Shapiro’s twisted and unsettling film received the SXSW Film Honorable Mention Jury Award and landed her a series on Lifetime along with Marti Noxon at the helm. UnREAL, their original and innovative drama, had it’s world premiere at the 2015 SXSW Film Festival in the Episodics section. The series delves into outrageous world of unscripted television.
We’re honored to share Shapiro’s #SXSWFilm25 journey with you.
“SXSW changed my life by…everything! It introduced me to the industry as someone to pay attention to, helped me get an agent ( I came back to LA after winning honorable mention and had meeting at every agency in town), introduced me to friends and community of filmmakers, and helped get my television show (UnREAL) green lit The wonderful jurors of the short’s program went out of their way to make me feel welcome and seen – and one of them (Jonathan Lisecki) is still a great friend.
I honestly would not be where I am without the support and community of SXSW. I will be forever and ever grateful and encourage anyone I know with a project worth seeing to submit and participate. They also have immense loyalty and premiered my TV show at SXSW. I consider SXSW family (Janet and Claudette especially ) and love their mission and dedication to filmmaking craft and storytelling over all. They are a great American institution and we are lucky they persevere and exist.”
The third season of UnREAL is slated to premiere in 2018. Stay tuned to SXSW each Thursday for more 25th anniversary stories.
Join Us For SXSW 2018
Join us for SXSW 2018 – register to attend by Friday, September 8 for the biggest savings of the season. Make your hotel reservations through SXSW Housing & Travel for the best available rates. Grab your Film Badge today for primary access to all SXSW Film events including world premieres, roundtables, workshops and parties. We hope to see you in March!
Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and SXSW News for the latest SXSW coverage, announcements, application tips, and updates.
UnREAL world premiere at SXSW – Photo by Dustin Finkelstein/Getty Images
The post #TBT: 25 Years of SXSW Film – Sarah Gertrude Shapiro appeared first on SXSW.
Source: SxSW Film
August 31, 2017
Say yes to vertical video
If there is one takeaway from Internet video in 2015, it might be this: vertical video is here to stay.<p>Services like Vine, Snapchat, and Periscope …
Source: CW’s Flipboard Feed
August 30, 2017
Filmmaker in Focus: A Life in Waves, Kim Dotcom, and Mission Control: The Unsung Heroes of Apollo
The month of August brings several new SXSW Film Festival Alumni documentary releases to wider audiences, including the riveting true stories of a female music pioneer, an expose on the Internet’s “most wanted” man, and a paean to a group of people vital to the success of the Apollo mission. Check out the directors’ inspirations and aspirations for these remarkable nonfiction films.
A Life in Waves
Brett Whitcomb is an award-winning filmmaker from Houston, TX. His credits include, The Rock-afire Explosion, GLOW: The Story of the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, and County Fair, Texas. Most recently, Brett served as producer on Peter Berg‘s 10-part docu-series, QB1: Beyond the Lights.
Q: Tell us a little about your film?
BW: A Life in Waves explores the life and innovations of composer and electronic music pioneer, Suzanne Ciani. The film is a journey into Suzanne’s mind, offering a feminine glimpse into the often-complicated worlds of composition, electronic music, and advertising.
Q: What motivated you to tell this story?
BW: We were initially inspired by Suzanne’s music. Her album “Seven Waves,” in particular, is an electronic album like no other. Once we discovered her early innovations with modular synthesizers, and the hundreds of sound effects she created for commercials and films throughout the 80s, a wave of nostalgia hit us. Here were these commercials we’d seen many times throughout our childhood, yet we had no knowledge of the woman behind the sounds. It’s like she infiltrated popular culture with her synthesizers, long before most people knew a thing about electronic music.
Q: What do you want the audience to take away from this film?
DE:We want audiences to be inspired by Suzanne’s journey and by her spirit. She pioneered and excelled in an art form that is consistently male-dominated, and turned her art into a career without compromises.
Kim Dotcom: Caught in the Web
Annie Goldson, PhD, ONZM, is an award-winning Kiwi documentary filmmaker whose feature-length documentaries – including Punitive Damage, Georgie Girl, An Island Calling, and Brother Number One – often examine political and human rights issues through exploring personal stories. Goldson’s films have screened worldwide, garnering multiple awards.
Q: Tell us a little about your film?
AG: Five years, Kim Dotcom, the notorious ‘mega-pirate’ and founder of MegaUpload, was arrested in a high-profile militarized police raid in Aotearoa, New Zealand. The raid was conducted jointly with the FBI following an indictment issued by the US Department of Justice. Since then, Dotcom and his fellow coders have been stuck in Aotearoa facing extradition to the US where they could face up to 80 years in prison.
But after his arrest, rather than hiring PR experts and disappearing from sight, Dotcom doubled down, generating a thicket of court cases, starting political parties, throwing raves, cutting albums, re-launching websites, holding the Moment of Truth (with Edward Snowden and Julian Assange) – and promoting his ‘conspiracy’ that the US and NZ Governments have ganged up against him at the behest of powerful lobby groups, aka Hollywood and the film and media industries. Kim Dotcom: Caught in the Web traces Dotcom’s personal story from being a teenage hacker from the wrong side of the tracks to a multi-millionaire and the “most wanted man online”. But at the same time, the film addresses a series of issues that exceed the Dotcom case – how we consume media, entertainment and knowledge in the digital age; privacy and surveillance; and national sovereignty.
Q: What motivated you to tell this story?
AG: We saw the film as an opportunity to tell a rollicking good story about a colourful figure, one that has left a rich trail of archives behind him. It is hard to explain to those outside Aotearoa New Zealand the impact Dotcom has had on this small group of islands, nestled in the South Pacific. But the story is also able to raise issues that are important to us all. I have puzzled over the issue of infringement and copyright and having the Piracy King marooned in this country gave me a good opportunity to explore the heat and fever behind the ‘copyright wars’.
Q: What do you want the audience to take away from this film?
AG: Entertainment and brainfood.
MissionControl: The Unsung Heroes of Apollo
David Fairhead has been working in film and television since 1984. He’s edited numerous award-winning films that have been distributed worldwide. In 2015, Fairhead edited The Last Man on the Moon, which had its North American premiere at the SXSW Film Festival. The film follows Apollo astronaut Eugene Cernan.
Q: Tell us a little about your film?
DF: At the heart of the Apollo space program was the team in Mission Control. They came from the farms, smokestack towns, and cities of post-war America. But from these humble beginnings came the extraordinary team who helped put a man on the moon.
Q: What motivated you to tell this story?
DF: As a film editor, I have cut a number of films about the Apollo program, but mostly from the viewpoint of the astronauts. This was an opportunity to tell the story from a different angle with a different cast of characters.
Q: What do you want the audience to take away from this film?
DE:That ordinary people can achieve extraordinary things, especially when they work as a team.
All of these documentaries are currently available to watch, A Life in Waves is in theaters, Kim Dotcom is playing On Demand, and Mission Control is streaming on Netflix.
Join Us For SXSW 2018
Join us for SXSW 2018 – register to attend by Friday, September 8 for the biggest savings of the season. Make your hotel reservations through SXSW Housing & Travel for the best available rates. Grab your Film Badge today for primary access to all SXSW Film events including world premieres, roundtables, workshops and parties. We hope to see you in March!
Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and SXSW News for the latest SXSW coverage, announcements, application tips, and updates.
The post Filmmaker in Focus: A Life in Waves, Kim Dotcom, and Mission Control: The Unsung Heroes of Apollo appeared first on SXSW.
Source: SxSW Film
August 30, 2017
‘Neurotica’: IFC’s Web Series About a Dominatrix With OCD Slaps the Funny out of ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ — Watch
Among the many folks who rolled their eyes at the “Fifty Shades of Grey” phenomenon, there exists a surprising faction of critics: The proudly kinky. Not only did the books and subsequent films get a lot of things dangerously wrong about BDSM, they say, but “Fifty Shades” was seriously devoid of the joy or playfulness that leads many practitioners to don leather bodices and ball gags. That questionable lack of humor is what led Jenny Jaffe to write “Neurotica,” a bite-sized series about a dominatrix with OCD currently running on IFC’s Comedy Crib.
The idea began percolating for Jaffe around the time that “Fifty Shades” started taking off. “It was so self-serious and dour,” she said. “There was clearly an appetite for stories about kink, but I found it really strange that the topic gets approached with this really heavy hand. Human sexuality is so expansive and funny, and when it’s good, it’s really fun.”
Jaffe plays the main character, Ivy, who runs a mom and pop dungeon in her small town of Mapleton, New York. She has a steady flow of satisfied customers who submit to her whims, including the particulars of her OCD and fear of germs. Jaffe wanted Ivy to be sexually confident, rather than using sexuality as a point of anxiety, which she said is often a “shorthand” flaw for female comedy characters. “A lot of times a female character in her twenties will be anxious around sexuality or uncomfortable with that aspect of herself,” said Jaffe. “It’s more interesting to make a character very sexually confident, and her anxiety and neuroses come out of something else entirely. I like a confident female comedy character, I think that’s a sort of rarity.”
Only in her mid-twenties herself, Jaffe comes to “Neurotica” with impressive comedy credentials. She began writing professionally at College Humor when she was just a senior at NYU, and wrote for MTV’s short-lived “Nikki and Sara Live.” Jaffe found a home for her quirky positive humor at IFC’s Comedy Crib, an online incubator series the network started to help writers develop their voices and find an audience. “IFC was very supportive from the beginning of how really silly it is. It’s got a very particular sense of humor, and they were just incredibly supportive of that.”
Jaffe had initially envisioned the series as a pilot, which was much more grounded, but she soon found the short format creatively liberating. “The web series allowed it to be so aggressively silly in a way that I think a sitcom probably wouldn’t, and that’s just a lot more in line with my comedic voice. It’s such a nice calling card, more than anything else I’ve done it’s really an encapsulation of my voice.”
“Neurotica” doesn’t take itself too seriously, and the juxtaposition between Ivy’s unflagging optimism and a subject matter normally seen as dark or subversive makes the series stand out. Jaffe credits that unique tone with her own sunny disposition, as well as her two major comedic influences, Amy Sedaris and Stephen Colbert’s “Strangers with Candy” and “The Mighty Boosh.” “Those are both shows that have dark streaks running through them, but are weirdly positive. Even when that’s not how that character should be feeling, it’s just this outrageous optimism, which I think is funnier.”
You’d be hard-pressed to find two more worthy comedic influences to be emulating, and “Neurotica” certainly hits the mark (and leaves some, too). Watch the first episode below, or on IFC Comedy Crib.
Source: IndieWire Digital TV
August 30, 2017
Announcing SXSW Keynote Ta-Nehisi Coates and 24 Featured Speakers Including Hasan Minhaj, Elaine Welteroth, and Mark Cuban
SXSW is excited to reveal the addition of Keynote Ta-Nehisi Coates, a national correspondent for The Atlantic, and the latest round of Featured Speakers to the 2018 SXSW Conference lineup. These speakers highlight some of the industry’s most inspired thinkers and diverse visionaries across 24 tracks of SXSW-curated programming.
“Ta-Nehisi Coates continues to explore America’s complex history of inequality with a voice that is both powerful and passionate,” said Hugh Forrest, Chief Programming Officer. “His unique perspective highlights an important aspect of SXSW – sharing new ideas to common challenges in order to drive change.”
Coates joins previously announced Keynotes Barry Jenkins (Film Keynote), Esther Perel (Interactive Keynote), and whurley (Convergence Keynote).
Featured Speakers announced today include entrepreneur and investor Mark Cuban, ABC News co-anchor and author of 10% Happier Dan Harris, songwriter and producer Savan Kotecha, Chief Scientist of Google Cloud Fei-Fei Li, The Daily Show correspondent Hasan Minhaj, CBS This Morning co-host and 60 Minutes correspondent Charlie Rose, Teen Vogue editor-in-chief Elaine Welteroth, and many more.
Register to attend SXSW by Friday, September 8 to save $500 on the walk-up rate. Dive into our speaker lineup below and get ready to explore what’s next in the worlds of film, culture, music, and technology during the 2018 SXSW Conference & Festivals from March 9-18 in Austin, TX.
Keynote
Ta-Nehisi Coates (Convergence Keynote) – Ta-Nehisi Coates is a national correspondent for The Atlantic where he writes about culture, politics, and social issues. His book Between The World And Me won the National Book Award in 2015. He is also the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship. Coates’ forthcoming book, We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy will be available on October 3.
Featured Speakers
Dave Asprey (Health & Wellness) – Dave Asprey is the founder and CEO of Bulletproof 360, a high-performance coffee and food company, and creator of the widely popular Bulletproof Coffee. He is a two-time New York Times bestselling author, host of the Webby award-winning podcast Bulletproof Radio, and has been featured on the Today Show, Fox News, Nightline, CNN, and dozens more.
Jocelyn Conn, Akash Goyal, Ramin Hedayati, Hasan Minhaj, and Matt Negrin (Featured Session | News & Journalism) – Jocelyn Conn is the Senior Coordinating Producer for The Daily Show. Akash Goyal is the Vice President of Multiplatform Content Strategy at Comedy Central. Ramin Hedayati is the Supervising Producer and oversees Digital Expansion at The Daily Show. Hasan Minhaj is a Daily Show Correspondent, and a comedian, actor and writer in New York. Matt Negrin works on The Daily Show‘s Digital Expansion team and social media channels.
Mark Cuban (Startup & Tech Sectors) – Mark Cuban is an American businessman, investor, author, television personality, and philanthropist. Cuban is the owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, chairman and CEO of AXS tv, one of ABC’s “Sharks” on the hit show Shark Tank, and an investor in an ever-growing portfolio of businesses.
Jeff Fager and Charlie Rose (News & Journalism) – Jeff Fager is the Executive Producer of 60 Minutes, now entering its 50th season, the most-watched news program in America. Charlie Rose is the co-host of CBS This Morning and contributing correspondent to 60 Minutes. Rose continues to serve as executive editor and host of “Charlie Rose,” which appears nightly on PBS.
Audrey Gelman (Workplace) – Audrey Gelman is co-founder and CEO of The Wing, a company that builds co-working and community spaces for women. Prior to founding The Wing, Gelman worked in politics and public affairs in New York and Washington D.C.
Kristina Halvorson (Brands & Marketing) – Kristina Halvorson is the CEO and founder of Brain Traffic, a content strategy consultancy; the founder of Confab Events, a content strategy conference series; and the author of Content Strategy for the Web. Halvorson is an expert in creating content strategies that fuel exceptional customer experience.
Dan Harris (Workplace) – Dan Harris is the co-anchor of ABC’s Nightline and the weekend editions of Good Morning America. Harris wrote a book about his journey into meditation, 10% Happier, which became #1 on the New York Times best-seller list. His success led to his creation of a meditation app and the 10% Happier podcast.
Steve Huffman with Christine Lagorio-Chafkin (Startup & Tech Sectors) – Steve Huffman is CEO and co-founder of Reddit, a social news site and the home of conversation online. At 22, Steve co-founded Reddit with college roommate, Alexis Ohanian. Christine Lagorio-Chafkin is the senior writer at Inc. whose work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and more.
Dean Kamen (Startup & Tech Sectors) – Dean Kamen is the founder of DEKA Research & Development and FIRST® and has contributed to society through his prolific inventions and innovative contributions. Kamen’s newest mission, as Chairman and Executive Director of the Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute (ARMI), is ushering in a new era of regenerative medicine and creating a manufacturing industry for human tissue and organs that will benefit the health of millions.
Savan Kotecha (Music Industry) – Savan Kotecha is a Golden Globe and Grammy nominated songwriter. Kotecha has been the recipient of 9 BMI Awards, and 15 ASCAP awards. His songs have achieved number-one status all over the world with artists such as The Weeknd, Ariana Grande, One Direction, Usher, Maroon 5, Katy Perry, Ellie Goulding, and many more.
Dr. Fei-Fei Li with Joanne Chen (Intelligent Future) – Dr. Fei-Fei Li is the Chief Scientist of Google Cloud, AI/ML. Li continues to hold her position at Stanford University as an Associate Professor in the Computer Science Department, and as the Director of the Stanford AI Lab and the Stanford Vision Lab. Joanne Chen is a partner at Foundation Capital where she works with passionate entrepreneurs who leverage data assets to disrupt business functions.
Joseph Lubin with Laura Shin (Intelligent Future) – Joseph Lubin is co-founder of blockchain platform Ethereum, a decentralized application platform incorporating a virtual machine that executes peer-to-peer contracts paid for via micro-payments of the cryptocurrency ether. Laura Shin is a Forbes senior editor managing crypto and blockchain technology coverage. Shin is also the host of the Unchained: Big Ideas From The Worlds Of Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Podcast.
Tim O’Reilly (Startup & Tech Sectors) – Tim O’Reilly is the founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media, Inc. O’Reilly Media delivers online learning, publishes books, runs conferences, urges companies to create more value than they capture, and tries to change the world by spreading and amplifying the knowledge of innovators.
Steven Pinker (Intelligent Future) – Steven Pinker is an experimental psychologist and one of the world’s foremost writers on language, mind, and human nature. Currently the Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, Pinker has also taught at Stanford and MIT. His upcoming book is entitled Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress.
Alisa Vitti (Health & Wellness) – Alisa Vitti, HHC (Holistic Health Counselor), is a functional nutritionist, women’s hormone expert, and the best-selling author of WomanCode. She is a pioneer in the fem tech industry. Vitti is the founder of The FLO Living Hormone Center and of FLOLiving.com, a virtual health center that supports women’s hormonal and reproductive health.
Elaine Welteroth (News & Journalism) – As editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue, Welteroth leads Teen Vogue‘s editorial vision, while also expanding the brand’s presence through new consumer experiences and products. Welteroth is largely responsible for the expansion of Teen Vogue‘s coverage to include a wide range of feminist, social-justice, and political topics, alongside fashion, beauty, and entertainment news.
Join Us March 9-18, 2018
Registering for SXSW is the only way to experience these high-profile sessions. With expanded access to events for all registrants, attendees will receive primary access to programming associated with their badge type but now also enjoy secondary entry to most other SXSW events.
Let us be your SXSW spirit guide – take the Tracks Quiz to select SXSW Conference programming tracks and SXSW Festivals that most interest you to discover the perfect badge for you.
Book your hotel with SXSW Housing & Travel to get the best available housing rates and selections. Great downtown accommodations are still available for all SXSW dates.
Stay tuned as we continue to announce more exciting programming throughout the season! Sign up for SXSW Event Updates and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to stay in the SX know.
2018 SXSW Conference Keynote, Ta-Nehisi Coates – Photo by Gabriella Demczuk.
The post Announcing SXSW Keynote Ta-Nehisi Coates and 24 Featured Speakers Including Hasan Minhaj, Elaine Welteroth, and Mark Cuban appeared first on SXSW.
Source: SxSW Film
August 27, 2017
Why the Weekend Box Office Sank to Historic Lows
Talk about the dog days of summer. This weekend marked the worst box office in this century.
If “The Hitman’s Bodyguard” (Lionsgate) holds on to the top position for a third time next week, it would mark the lowest gross in memory to repeat again. The actioner dropped a ho-hum 53 per cent, boosted by the absence of any real competition. Count stars Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson among rare winners at the moment.
Domestic theaters grossed around $65 million in movie ticket sales this weekend. (That doesn’t count the revenue for closed circuit live showings of the Mayweather/McGregor fight which would have placed it in the Top Ten.)
That’s about seven million tickets sold total. The number is easily a record low for this century. And you have to reach back to World War II to match the attendance numbers. More people went the movies the weekend after 9/11. Theaters were even busier the days after November 22, 1963.
This weekend moviegoers stayed home in droves. Yes, the-pay-per-view broadcast (which brought in around a half billion dollars in the U.S., as big as any movie in theaters total all year) had a big impact. Regionally Hurricane Harvey closed theaters in Gulf Coast Texas (about five per cent of the population, but weather often affects local box office weekends). And like late August weekends on other years, the start of high school football season in many communities and getting ready to go back to school also hurt.
But these factors weren’t unique this weekend. They’ve all happened before. But not with this impact. Ever.
It’s the summation of a summer that started positively with the usual Marvel success (“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2”) and a strong June with “Wonder Woman” leading the way. Then the market plummeted in July and collapsed in August. Partly, that was because the studios to a greater than usual extent vacated the final month (these days Disney can vacate the scene for four months between releases).
“Leap!”
Even with no particular strength from recent releases, three new openers — Weinstein’s release of “Leap!” (a redubbed French animated film), the China-financed Bruce Lee biopic “Birth of the Dragon” (BH Tilt), and Sony’s 846-theater release of the faith-based story “All Saints” — could together only draw $9 million!
The vacuum drew in return dates for established successes. “Wonder Woman” added 1,400, “Baby Driver” added 1,000, and even indies “Ingrid Goes West” (Neon) and “Good Time” (A24) hopefully broadened to multi-hundred numbers, yielding muted interest at best.
“Wind River”
The rare positive note was struck by the rapid expansion (already over 2,000 theaters) for Weinstein’s “Wind River,” which managed $4.4 million. It’s a risky strategy. The similar “Hell or High Water” (“Wind River” is directed and written by “Hell” Oscar-nominated scenarist Taylor Sheridan) in exactly the same weekend last year grossed $3.5 million in fewer than half as many theaters. “Wind” now is way above the total that “Hell” played on any given week in its run. It remains uncertain whether the quicker release pattern here (consistent with past Weinstein successes historically) will see it match the $27 million total and not coincidental later awards traction last year’s film received.
“Leap” led the openers with $5 million, not an impressive number for a wide animated release even without a brand involved. Any new release targeting the kids’ market without a glut of competition normally does better than this.
“Birth of the Dragon”
“Birth of the Dragon” (which premiered at last year’s Toronto) did half as much in 1,618 theaters. At least it made the Top Ten. Sony, often successful in the world of faith-based Christian movies came in lower than usual with “All Saints” at $1,550,000. It played in under 1,000 theaters, but nearly all that normally support similar films at higher numbers.
Steven Soderbergh’s “Logan Lucky” had a decent second weekend hold (off 42 per cent) after its disappointing start. It still will fall short of the director’s hopes in overseeing its distribution and marketing, but still with an ultimate domestic total ahead of what it appeared opening weekend.
The Top Ten
1. The Hitman’s Bodyguard (Lionsgate) Week 2; Last weekend #1
$10,050,000 (-53%) in 3,377 theaters (no change); PTA (per theater average): $2,976; Cumulative: $39,614,000
2. Annabelle: Creation (Warner Bros.) Week 3; Last weekend #2
$7,350,000 (-%) in 3,565 theaters (+23); PTA: $2,062; Cumulative: $77,880,000
3. Leap! (Weinstein) NEW – Cinemascore: A; Metacritic: 49; Est. budget: $30 million
$5,016,000 in 2,575 theaters; PTA: $2,575; Cumulative: $5,016,000
4. Wind River (Weinstein) Week 4; Last weekend #10
$4,411,000 (+48%) in 2,905 theaters (+1,401); PTA: $2,105; Cumulative: $9,841,000
5. Logan Lucky (Bleecker Street) Week 2; Last weekend #3
$4,367,000 (-42%) in 3,031 theaters (no change); PTA: $1,441; Cumulative: $15,034,000
6. Dunkirk (Warner Bros.) Week; Last weekend #4
$3,950,000 (-40%) in 2,774 theaters (-497); PTA: $1,424; Cumulative: $172,479,000
7. Spider-Man: Homecoming (Sony) Week 8; Last weekend #7
$2,725,000 (-36%) in 2,122 theaters (-219); PTA: $1,284; Cumulative: $318,843,000
8. Birth of the Dragon (BH Tilt) NEW – Cinemascore: B; Metacritic: 37; Est. budget: (unknown)
$2,501,000 in 1,618 theaters; PTA: $1,546; Cumulative: $2,501,000
9. The Emoji Movie (Sony) Week 5; Last weekend #6
$2,350,000 (-47%) in 2,374 theaters (-417); PTA: $990; Cumulative: $76,432,000
10. Girls Trip (Universal) Week 6; Last weekend #8
$2,267,000 (-42%) in 1,777 theaters (-233); PTA: $1,276; Cumulative: $108,072,000
Source: IndieWire film
August 27, 2017
Candid Photos of 1940s Moviegoers Offer a Striking Glimpse Into the Past
These days, you’re lucky if you can make it through two hours in a movie theater without 20 minutes of previews, your neighbor’s cellphone going off, or some bizarre attempt at immersion forcing you to sit in a vibrating seat. As exhibitors struggle to make the theatrical experience more special and worthy of your hard-earned dollars, take a moment to recall a much simpler time courtesy of some striking images taken by Weegee.
A photographer who captured the moviegoing experience way back in the 1940s by using infrared film and a filtered flashbulb, he took pictures of audience members at a New York theater paying various levels of attention to what was flickering before them on the screen. Some sit up in rapt attention, others fall asleep, and others still get as close as they can to their date.
“Weegee made it his task to look closely at the ways we look, and in so doing forged a deeper understanding of our appetite to see what we aren’t supposed to,” observes the Timeline article that first published the photos. Find them all here and hope your next movie date is as whimsical as those on display here.
Source: IndieWire film