Hollywood

…the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences has launched a $500 million fundraising initiative in an effort to offset the Oscars dramatic drop in viewership – which went from nearly 44 million in 2014, to just 19.5 million in the latest ceremony, according to Statista.

The Fall Guy stumbled out of the weekend box office well below expectations for the start of the summer movie-going season. This drove the year-to-date box office down 43 percent compared to 2019.

Worse case projections had Fall Guy opening at $30 million. Best case predicted as high as $40 million. Nope — $28.5 million. Worldwide, it grossed just $65.4 million. Break-even is likely around $450 million, and there is zero chance of that.

h/t DS

The Disney Grooming Syndicate released four of last year’s five biggest flops and lost $628 million.

Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of leches.

It platforms mediocrities and makes great comics boring.

Recently, in an article about the latest Netflix outing featuring the spectacularly unfunny comedienne Hannah Gadsby, I wrote the following: “The best 10 or 20 or 30 stand-ups in the English-speaking world could never get anywhere near the stage of a Netflix comedy special because, by definition, they use their wit to ridicule establishment orthodoxy, not affirm it.” I’m afraid that I now feel obliged to withdraw that remark, or — let’s put it this way — qualify it.

Our nation is divided over these two big issues.

War in the Middle East, surging inflation, the Republican Speaker of the House clinging to a one-vote majority, a presidential election campaign stumbling toward what is certain to be a photo-finish conclusion, with one candidate doddering in senility and the other being hounded in courtrooms by witch-hunt persecutors — these are but a few of the many crises facing the United States in the Year of Our Lord 2024. The list could be almost infinitely extended, but we ought to at least mention rampant crime, an unprecedented influx of illegal aliens, and fentanyl overdoses soaring to catastrophic levels. Amid all these woes and worries, however, it would be negligent to overlook the two most important issues in America, Sydney Sweeney.

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s another reboot from someone other than the original creators—though not for a lack of trying.

Even before the 30th anniversary of “Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult” last month, die-hards of the spoof genre’s trilogy have acknowledged its non-coincidental uptick in availability on cable and streaming of late.

Due for release on July 28, 2025, the fourth “Naked Gun” will see Liam Neeson play the lead character Frank Drebin Jr.; Seth MacFarlane of “Family Guy” fame as producer; and Akiva Schaffer from comedy trio The Lonely Island as director.

A new phenomenon known as “serial churners” spells trouble for streaming services wherein people subscribe only temporarily to watch a given show before canceling.

A new report from the New York Times showed that Americans have become “increasingly impulsive about hitting the cancellation button on their streaming services.”

It turns out for pedophiles in Hollywood, "It's A Small World After All." pic.twitter.com/4qUtOhXZYL

— Bill Maher (@billmaher) April 20, 2024

You don’t need to be a movie buff to know that toxic relationships should end.

The movies are full of painful breakups. But if you haven’t been paying attention to the box office over the past few months, you may have missed a fascinating development: Hollywood and China are now having a breakup of their own. It’s about time.

I think it’s too late.

Last month, the Disney Grooming Syndicate told stockholders the company has “generated a 2.9 times return on the purchase of Lucasfilm.” According to Forbes, that’s a big, fat lie.

Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the movie set weapons handler who loaded a gun for actor Alec Baldwin before it fired and killed a cinematographer has been sentenced to 18 months in prison.

The armourer, 26, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in March.

She was found not guilty of a second charge – tampering with evidence over the 2021 shooting of Halyna Hutchins on the set of Rust.

The sentence Ms Gutierrez-Reed received is the maximum possible.

Major Hollywood studios are panicking as video piracy is once again on the rise, with the industry’s main lobbying organization demanding that Congress take action against piracy sites that are eating into studio profits at an ever-increasing rate.

A hundred minutes into writer, director Alex Garland’s Civil War, I was hit with a wild case of déjà vu. Since the movie wasn’t engaging, I had plenty of head space to explore this feeling. What is this? Where is this déjà vu coming from? Maybe it has nothing to do with the movie. Maybe this is how everyone feels after eating a bag of licorice purchased at Big Lots?

Then it hit me.

From Hollywood’s first rupture with American audiences in the early 2000s, it didn’t take long for identity politics to destroy the industry.

I’ve been writing for years about the steep decline of cinema — in fact all art and media — this century. My very first article for this fine publication (fortunately for my integrity, a true statement rather than a transparent bid for a raise) a shocking six years ago explored how even a moderately good action picture like 2008’s Taken was beyond the capability or intent of 2018 Hollywood. Because the idea of a loving tough-guy dad rescuing his helpless teen daughter with manly “certain skills” while his gorgeous ex-wife frets realistically became anathema soon afterward. Hollywood had not yet fully mutated into Hollywoke, but it devolved fast.