Did You Hear? is a weekly examination of headlines in the entertainment industry and a take on what they could mean for the future of the industry and (often), the little geeky bubble that we occupy.
“Us” Tops the Thursday Box Office
Jordan Peele has earned a lot of respect from the movie consuming community after his debut Get Out. Yesterday Peele’s sophomore horror offering Us opened and dominated the Thursday box office topping at $7.4 million and leaving it over $2 million ahead of the previous Thursday winner in the genre – The Nun.
Projections are putting it at between $38 – $45 million for opening weekend. As long as it clear $33 million it will best Get Out and likely go on to enjoy the same lengthy theatrical run as its predecessor.
The financial success of Us in another step in the continued proving grounds of several things:
- Horror movies as quality cinema
- Diversity in leads
- Female led projects
Winning Thursday doesn’t guarantee Us will win the weekend, although it is certainly a strong indicator. My prediction is I’ll be back here next week writing about this very same thing at the top of this article.
Disney Destroys Fox
Ever since Disney purchased Fox Studios in a $71.3 billion deal discussions in the fan spheres have centered around when some of our all-time favourite Marvel properties are finally going to get back together. Within the industry, discussion has turned more toward when people people were going to be laid off and just how many people were going to wind up losing their jobs as a result of the merger.
The announcement was made yesterday on the Fox Lot in Century City, California that thousands of Fox Studio employees would be getting the axe.
A round of layoffs began yesterday and will continue over the course of the year. It’s safe to assume that higher ups and executives will be fine (read as: given new jobs or incredibly desirable severance packages), and lower tier employees, support positions, et cetera will be the ones buffing up their resume even as I write this.
Per Variety:
The ax fell at the film division with brutal efficiency, wiping away much of the senior leadership at Fox’s marketing, distribution, and consumer products arms. Some staffers, who had been engaging in gallows humor for weeks, burst into tears when they received the word in one-on-one meetings with human resources reps that their positions were being terminated.
Losing employment is very much a reality of being employed, but perhaps why the cutting of these Fox jobs hits so hard is because of the huge swath of people it is going to effect. The news seems to be breaking quite suddenly …
… and the results like Disney in charge of 25% of the current film industry. Think on that for a spell.
Deadwood Movie Trailer is Here!
Some thirteen years after Deadwood went off the air at HBO we have a trailer for the higher anticipated movie adaptation:
Despite the release of the trailer very little is known about the Deadwood movie except it was in production hell for ages:
All of these people worked hard to get this together. It’s been a logistics nightmare getting all the cast members’ schedules together, but we are there.” HBO Programming President Casey Bloys told Variety.
Series creator David Milch is returning to write the film with Daniel Minahan directing series regulars Ian McShane, Timothy Oliphant, Molly Parker, and John Hawkes who are all reprising their roles.
If Deadwood and Breaking Bad can pull off the transition to movies then the notion that television series don’t really end in the streaming age will hit home even more than it already has with the salvation of shows like The Mindy Project by streaming platforms. The potential success of this movie also opens the door for yet another wave of reboots and relaunches rather than the creation and development of new original ideas. Mixed page of possibilities overall, but the trailer has delighted Deadwood fans and appears poised for high viewership.
