Box Office: 007 Money and 2021's Highest Grossers

All you need to know about this very strange ecosystem shift in moviegoing is that an Icelandic language film (Lamb) made the overall top 10 despite having a per screen average of just $1,715. These are odd times we're living in when only blockbusters are making bank and even those aren't operating at close to full strength. There used to be 25-30 movies in wide release at any given time but there were literally only 8 in release this weekend here in the US. One wonders how the economics will all play in the future decade since streaming isn't as profitable as the traditional theatrical market and films have always been budgeted for pre-COVID realities. Will we see production values decrease in the next decade as Hollywood starts trying to make things on the cheap or just much higher subscription prices for streaming services?  What did you see this past week/weekend? More notes are after the jump.

Weekend Box Office October 8th-10th 🔺 = new or expanding / ★ = recommended
WIDE RELEASE	PLATFORM TITLES
No Time To Die	Lamb
1 NO TIME TO DIE 🔺  $56 Deborah's Review	1 LAMB 🔺 $1.0 in 583 theaters Cannes Capsule
2  VENOM LET THERE BE CARNAGE  $32 (cum. $141.6)	2 THE JESUS MUSIC [DOC] $150K in 270 theaters (cum. $857k)...

Click to read more ...

Links: Sally Sings, Scarlett Settles, and Sorkin Speaks

• /Film If you're in Los Angeles, there's a live-to-film concert of Nightmare Before Christmas coming on October 29th and 31st. Billie Eilish will be doing "Sally's Song"
• Vulture Best Actress will cause even bigger than usual stan-wars this season
• Vanity Fair Aaron Sorkin finally breaks his silence about his long working relationship with disgraced bully producer Scott Rudin

• Letterboxd an interview with Melanie Lynskey for her new film Lady of the Manor
• Tom & Lorenzo Maggie & Jake at the Lost Daughter premiere at NYFF
• The Guardian why haven't there been more black queer love stories post Moonlight?
• The Times Jake Gyllenhaal interview
• Uproxx a really fun perceptive review of Venom: Let There Be Carnage
• Variety a report on the "Power of Women" dinner in Beverly Hills
• FSR a brief history of Marcia Lucas and Star Wars

Finally... According to Variety Scarlett Johansson and Disney have settled their Black Widow dispute out of court AND Disney has added that Tower of Terror starring Scarjo is back on. This all obviously means that Scarlett was paid handsomely enough for everyone to make nice again. Deadline, in a follow-up piece, suggests she received an additional $40 million for Black Widow. Good for her again for reminding the mighty Mouse House that a contract is a contract and they can't treat people this way. Especially not people with the means to fight back so Scarlett did everyone in Hollywood a service. (The millions of obnoxious people calling her greedy online should burn their latest paycheck without cashing it -- just one to put their money where their mouth is -- and then clock how they feel about not being paid for their work as promised). The new streaming frontier has thrown Hollywood economics into disarray and that's particularly true for the talent. They used to make lots of money in residuals for example... sort of an accidental pension plan but streamers have not been structured to pay people more if their show happens to be a success (unless it's a long running tv series of course and they need to renew contracts). Eventually all this will be ironed out but until then its safe to assume that the corporations are not willingly sharing the new wealth since they're not yet expected to. Expect a lot more battles over paydays and, one assumes, the actors union getting a little more wise to the new streaming economy, contractually speaking.

1937: Lucille La Verne in "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs"

The 1937 smackdown arrives on Sunday October 3rd. Before each Smackdown Nick Taylor suggests alternates to Oscar's Supporting Actress ballot. 

by Nick Taylor

The Evil Queen of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is the first character in any animated feature to speak on screen. Her voice is provided by Lucille La Verne, a storied theatre actress who’d gone on to have a wildly successful career in silent cinema, and who would ultimately give her final performance for this film. It’s about as iconic a farewell as one could hope for. Her rendering of the Queen is one of the many achievements that would make Snow White an instant classic, and Walt Disney Animation into a medium-defining juggernaut. With so much of The Queen’s impact derived from Snow White’s groundbreaking visual elements, there’s a degree to which the character would shine even without such a commanding voice. Yet, by the same token, La Verne’s contribution would flourish even in a less auspicious version of this tale, endowing her Evil Queen with a ruthless, unrepentant menace and villainous glee. Her look is immortal, but where would she be without her laugh?

It’s almost beside the point to offer any kind of plot summary on Snow White, but allow me a brief retelling...

Click to read more ...

We stand with Scarlett!

by Nathaniel R

As you may have heard, Scarlett Johansson has sued Disney for breach of contract. She may have lost up to $50 million in bonuses on Black Widow. The very simplest way to explain it is that expensive movie stars (and some key directors) tend to earn "points" based on box office performance. A-listers like Johansson can reap hefty sums each time a movie passes certain agreed-upon thresholds. Disney, eager to beef up their Disney+ service, didn't regenotiate with her about her Black Widow contract before opting to place it on their streaming service for $30, thereby undermining its traditional box office and cutting Scarlett out of the significant $ of Disney+ purchases...

Click to read more ...

1998: What if there already was a Best Animated Feature Oscar?

by Cláudio Alves

Mariah Carey and Whitney Huston perform a song from THE PRINCE OF EGYPT at the Oscars.

Before implementing the Best Animated Feature category, the Academy gave out three special awards over six decades honoring individual achievements in the art of feature-length animation – Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, and Toy Story were the honorees. It was only in the new millennium that AMPAS finally buckled to rising pressures and created the official prize. In 2001, this Oscar was finally established. As we ready ourselves for the Supporting Actress Smackdown of 1998, it's easy to wonder what would have happened if the category had been around a few years earlier…

Click to read more ...