Hey, when you think about it, 2023 started off strong, right? “M3GAN” was fun. Ariana Debose reminded us that “Angela Bassett did the thing.” The Oscars were an “Everything Everywhere All At Once” celebration. There were great new shows such as “The Last of Us” and “Poker Face.” Taylor Swift and Beyonce were going on massive tours. Life was good! Wasn’t it? Well, maybe not. Perhaps the god-awful “Secret Invasion” should have been a warning.
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After the high wore off, much of 2023 was stressful for anyone whose lives were connected to Hollywood. After much of the town believed the Writer’s Guild of America strike wouldn’t happen or would be short (it wasn’t), things took a turn when the Screen Actors Guild went on strike for the first time in 37 years, and the entire town shut down. Producers and directors were walking red carpets instead of stars. And there were layoffs. And global tragedies. But, hey, there was also “Barbie.” There was “Oppenheimer.” There was that cameo scene with Kim Cattrall in “Just Like That.” There was…” Blue Beetle”?
As we trek into the great unknown of 2024, let’s look back at some of the major entertainment stories of the past 12 months and ponder what’s next.
SAG And WGA Go On Strike
A lot has been written about both the WGA Strike, the SAG Strike, and the DGA making a deal when, well, maybe they shouldn’t have. The strikes gave SAG president Fran Dresher a powerful “Norma Rae” moment. It made embattled AMPTP president Carol Lombardini a household name (well, at least in Hollywood) and found California politicians doing their best to appear involved but not really getting involved. The bullet points are: The combined six months of strikes are conservatively estimated to have cost the California economy $6 billion dollars. The studios and streamers (the AMPTP) thought both the writers and the actors would blink. They didn’t. The studios tried to pit the trade publications against the unions. It didn’t work; public sentiment was overwhelmingly on the unions’ side. The big issues were residuals and writer’s rooms, sure, but artificial intelligence became a sticking point that brought lawyers from both sides into the mix trying to nail down terminology the government hasn’t even standardized yet. The heads of Disney, Paramount, Warner Bros, Netflix, Sony Pictures, and Universal Studios spent weeks in boardrooms with each union to get a deal done. The “tea” from those meetings (some true, some exaggerated) is already legendary (guess who didn’t like the coffee at the WGA headquarters?). But when it came down to it, both unions landed historic deals. The work stoppage resulted in layoffs (something the media corporations were only happy to do). Found actors unable to promote their films there, affecting theatrical releases (we’re looking at you “A Haunting in Venice” and “Dumb Money”) and, to the horror of the television industry, saw numerous projects canceled or “unrenewed.” Hollywood is a cyclical business, but this was a painful period, and it will take a significant amount of time for Tinseltown to return to its pre-strike output.
What’s Next: Oh, look at that. The IATSE, Teamsters Local 399, has a contract covering 60,000 workers that runs out on July 31. They haven’t gone on strike in their 125-year existence. The studios know they have to make a deal right? Right?
Barbieheimer image courtesy of designer Sean Longmore.
The Barbenheimer Phenomenon
A comedy about a 64-year-old doll and a drama about “the father of the atomic bomb” opening in wide release on the same day. Not necessarily the formula you’d predict for a combined $2.4 billion worldwide at the theatrical box office. But despite Universal at one point hoping the Greta Gerwig comedy would move off the July 21 release date (a traditional date for a Christopher Nolan release), two movies that some media pundits could both be bombs created something completely unexpected. The contrast in the two films led to “Barbenheimer,” an organic social media movement where moviegoers attempted to see both films on the same day or subsequent days. Conversations revolved around what order you would see the movies in and whether you would dress up in Barbie pink or wear an Oppenheimer fedora to the screening. Opening weekend saw tracking projections for both movies thrown out the window, and soon, both studios were even acknowledging the phenomenon on their individual social media accounts. The idea initially started from fans online as a meme, but at the end of June, “Barbie” star and producer Margot Robbie, along with Gerwig, stood in front of an “Oppenheimer” poster with tickets for their competition. They also were supporting the new “Mission: Impossible” installment, but it was a public endorsement of “Barbenheimer.” By the time opening week rolled around, both star-filled casts (Ryan Gosling, Michael Cera, Issa Rae, Robert Downey, Jr., Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh, and Matt Damon, among others) were fielding questions about both films as they traveled to multiple premieres around the world. No one could ever remember the last time anything similar occurred, and despite talent pleading, it’s unlikely to happen again anytime soon.
What’s Next: The two films will vie for the Best Picture Oscar in March. “Oppenheimer” star Emily Blunt and “Barbie’s” Ryan Gosling headline “The Fall Guy,” which hits theaters this summer. Neither Gerwig nor Nolan have formally announced their next projects (and a “Barbie” sequel for the former is currently not on the agenda).
James Gunn Announces DC Universe Slate: “Gods and Monsters”
After taking over Warner Bros. DC properties in film, television, animation, and gaming in 2022, James Gunn announced their first slate of projects for the “new,” interconnected DCU. On the TV side, the animated “Creature Commandoes” will arrive first, followed by “Waller,” once again played by Viola Davis. Gunn has written and will direct “Superman: Legacy,” which will arrive in theaters in 2025. Up next is expected to be an HBO series, “Lanterns” (in the “True Detective” vein). The first movie after “Legacy” should be “The Authority,” which is based on the B-level superhero team in DC comics. Then, a Wonder Woman-influenced television series, “Paradise Lost.” The DCU’s Batman will arrive in “The Brave and the Bold,” about the Caped Crusader and his son, Damien Wayne. Also, a “Booster Gold” TV series, a “Supergirl” movie, and a “Swamp Thing” flick. Before the SAG strike, David Corenswet was cast as Superman and Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, among others, including Isabela Merced (Hawkgirl), Edi Gathegi (Mister Terrific), Nathan Fillion (Guy Gardner) and Anthony Carrigan (Metamorpho). In November, Nicholas Hoult, who had auditioned for Superman, was cast as Lex Luthor.
What’s Next: Outside of rumors that Jason Mamoa will go from playing Aquaman in the old universe to the outer space outlaw Lobo, the only other real news is that actress and playwright Ana Nogueira, with no screenwriting credits, will write the script for “Supergirl.” Even taking the strikes into account, no directors or screenwriters have been announced for any of the other projects (outside of “Waller”) 11 months after the initial announcement.
“The Flash” and the DCU’s Final Year Is A Disaster
Despite multiple delays and star Ezra Miller’s disturbing legal woes, Warner Bros. Discovery president and CEO David Zaslav called “The Flash,” “The best Superhero movie I’ve ever seen.” James Gunn also endorsed the DCEU project, echoing much the same: “It’s one of the best superhero movies I’ve ever seen.” Warner Bros. was seemingly so confident they screened it over six weeks before its release for theater owners at CinemaCon. There was massive hype about all sorts of cameos. Sasha Calle was universally praised for her version of Kara Zor-El (Supergirl). The movie even featured the return of Michael Keaton as Tim Burton’s Batman, a dream many fans never thought could come to pass. And then the reviews came out (mixed, at best) and by its opening weekend, the reported $200 million budgeted tentpole opened to just $55 million in the U.S., missing tracking projections significantly. By the end of its theatrical run, the movie earned only $270.6 million worldwide. That was almost half of the “disappointing” $476 million Marvel Studios’ “misfire” “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” earned a few months earlier. The stink got so bad on director Andy Muschietti’s passion project that by December, even George Clooney was disavowing his brief cameo at the end of the flick.
While “The Flash” was the biggest and loudest DC flop of 2023, it wasn’t the whole story. DC endured four flops in a row in 2023 (five in a row when you count “Black Adam” in late 2022). “Shazam! Fury Of The Gods” was all but forgotten upon release in March 2023, “The Flash” tripped up in June as detailed above, and does anyone remember that “Blue Beetle” came out in August? And then there’s “Aquaman: The Lost Kingdom” currently in theaters. It opened lower than “The Marvels” (already seen as the big superhero flop of the year) with a paltry $27 million domestic opening, and it’s currently grossed all of $107 million worldwide. Sure, it’s only been in theaters nine days, but reviews are dreadful; the film was expensive and featured a lot of costly reshoots, and it’s expected to be one of the more giant blockbuster bombs of the year.
What’s Next: As long as Gunn and Peter Safran are in charge, you’re never going to see any of these actors ever play any of these characters again. They, and WBD, simply want to forget it ever happened. What’s coming in 2024? Only one DC Studios film, and it’s the “Joker” sequel, totally unconnected to what Gunn and Safran are building.
Taylor Swift And Beyonce Make An Unprecedented AMC Theaters Deal
Two of the biggest music acts of the 21st century dominated stadiums across Europe and North America for almost six months. Both tours were so popular they were credited with helping to keep the United States economy out of recession. When Taylor Swift’s “The Eras Tour” ended its 2023 U.S. leg in September, she could have sold the inevitable concert film to a streamer like Netflix or HBO. Instead, with films moving out of the October window due to strike delays, she went around the studios and made a 50/50 deal with AMC Theaters. The theater company worked with its competitors to book “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” across the country, and boy, did her fans show up. The movie earned $100 million in global pre-sales a week before its October 13 release. On its opening weekend, it took in $92.9 million in the U.S. alone and $123 million worldwide in its first week. The previous record for a concert movie was $99 million for “Justin Bieber: Never Say Never” in 2011. “The Eras Tour” smashed that in a series of days. By the time “The Eras Tour” left theaters, it had taken in $250 million worldwide. A remarkable tally considering Swift wouldn’t allow weekday night showings, so her young fans would do their…homework. Looking to replicate some of Swift’s magic, AMC made a similar deal with Beyonce for her own concert film (more of a documentary), “Renaissance: A Film By Beyonce.” Despite being dropped on one of the worst weekends of the year, “Renaissance” opened to $21.8 million and has earned $42.4 million globally so far.
What’s Next: AMC has said their phone is “ringing off the hook” for similar deals after the relative success of both releases.
