Orianne Cevey had claimed Collins owed her $20 million from...
Saturday, August 27, 2022
Horror Pic ‘The Invitation’ Leads Worst Weekend At This Summer’s Box Office, All Pics Grossing $54M - Deadline
SATURDAY AM UPDATE: The bowels of the summer box office have been reached, with Sony’s new C CinemaScore horror movie The Invitation leading with $6M-$7M at 3,114 theaters. Like the late Andy Rooney, I get a lot of mail from sources. But in this instance, it’s about why it’s important to be gentle when covering the box office: We’re still in the pandemic, we’re not back yet, it’s not good for our business to be nasty, blah blah blah.
However, simply putting random movies in theaters without any great P&A spend doesn’t do the box office, or exhibitors, any favors. This weekend will rank as the lowest-grossing weekend to date of summer, with an estimated $54M for all titles (some even have it lower). If it makes anyone feel better, it’s not the worst weekend of the year. That belongs to Jan. 28-30, when all titles made $34.9M, per Box Office Mojo.
On some level, I get it: It’s late August. A majority of kids are back in school (Comscore says 32% K-12 were out yesterday, with 38% colleges on break), and Sony traditionally has had a horror film during this latter part of the summer. Don’t Breathe was a wonderful hit for them back in late August 2016, opening to $26.4M and ending its run at $89.2M.
But let’s be honest, the more you spend, the more you gross. True, the diagnostics here on this period vampire thriller at a 29% critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes and 53% audience score doesn’t warrant a studio to spend wads of cash to open it. But we’ve seen Sony do better with less: Their August 2018 movie Slender Man, which had a D-, 8% critic score, and 17% audience on RT, opened to $11.3M and had a 2.7 multiple for a $30.6M domestic end game.
Social media chatter on The Invitation wasn’t horrible at mixed-leaning positive, according to RelishMix, with “fans comping and calling-out Vanilla Sky, Ready or Not, Twilight, Meghan Markle and Jordan Peele films, too. Chatter wonders how these ingredients look right for a wild date-night vampire outing.”
Let’s get away from the pandemic excuse that people don’t want to go back; it’s simply about product. Disney proved that last year by opening a Marvel movie over Labor Day weekend with Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings to holiday record results of $94.6M. Great movies will get people out at any time of year.
Yes, theaters need that, that being product. But let’s put some umpf behind it if we’re serious about the theatrical window and the longevity of this part of the business. What’s sad as exhibitors’ Covid bailout money runs out is they’re desperate for anything, and are powerless when it comes to a major studio dictating that the first big franchise title of the summer, Halloween Ends, goes theatrical day-and-date. Let’s not be morons, that maneuver will siphon grosses. Enough of this widest audience crap between streaming and theatrical. Peacock is starving for paid subs.
It’s not like the PG-13 rated The Invitation is some older-skewing movie: It’s aimed right at the 18-34 crowd who’s attending movies right now, that demo repping 57% of the pic’s ticket buyers to date. Like the run-of-the-mill PG-13 horror title, The Invitation skewed more female at 57%. Those under 35 repped 70% of the crowd with diversity demos showing 44% Caucasian, 23% Latino and Hispanic, 18% Black, and 15% Asian/other. The Jessica M. Thompson-directed movie was accepted the most on the coasts and in the South. Seven of the top ten runs were in LA, which leaned toward Latino and Hispanic moviegoers.
And not to pick on Sony, but of late, yes, you, Lionsgate, are guilty of shortchanging P&A on YA film Fall, which opened to $2.5M, and stands at $5.9M, and with diagnostics of 74% critic reviews on RT and 78% audience score, along with B CinemaScore. With results like that, there seems to be money left on the table there. That pic could have potentially grossed more. In sum, let’s stop with the cutesy economic slide rule games at the box office, and how we’re profiting off less B.S., and really commit to theatrical. Can we do that, studios? Obviously, if it’s a bad movie, send it to to the home market, just like they used to do with movies like The Last Seduction II. Sending terrible movies to the home market isn’t some brand new business model.
Given the lack of product this weekend, MGM/UAR went significantly wider than anticipated on George Miller’s Cannes Film Festival premiere 3,000 Years of Longing, which, off of a 67% Rotten Tomatoes and B CinemaScore, is opening to $2.9M at 2,436 theaters. Guys actually showed up for this Idris Elba-Tilda Swinton genie romance, with 51% between 17-34, and 48% over 35. Diversity demos were 55% Caucasian, 16% Latino and Hispanic, 13% Black and 16% Asian/other. Pic’s ticket sales are from the big coastal cities, with AMC and Alamo owning the top ten runs.
But, hey, Amazon, why aren’t going wide on a Sylvester Stallone movie? When are you guys going to grow up, realize you bought MGM and start releasing wide theatrical titles and reporting box office? I mean, like the tentpole kind of ones!? Cherish and behold the theatrical studio you bought, don’t squander it!
Why in God’s name is the movie direct to service? The last Stallone movie Rambo: Last Blood opened to $18.8M. That’s a diamond mine by pandemic box office standards. I agree with Warner Bros Discovery Boss David Zaslav on this one: Why are you shedding the patina (and future ancillaries) of a theatrical movie by sending it straight to homes? Did it occur to you that perhaps more toilet paper could be sold off a title with a theatrical window than merely dropping it on the service? I mean, you have the billion-dollar cost of Lord of the Rings: The Power of the Rings series next weekend (the rights alone were scooped up by the streamer for $250M). That alone should trigger an early Christmas season for the marketplace site. On Rotten Tomatoes, audiences love Samaritan at 82%.
RelishMix noticed the online convo for the film, and believes Samaritan coulda been a contender at the box office, with fans expressing “absolute adoration for Stallone, everything that he represents in the film industry, and the heroic characters that he’s played,” to those who “are also intrigued that this aging superhero project is not a Marvel or DC production and that in of itself has fans interested in a unique way.”
The objective is to get people to leave their homes, not stay at home.
Top ten films for the weekend:
1.) The Invitation (Sony) 3,114 locations, Fri $2.6M, 3-day $6M-$7M/Wk 1
2.) Bullet Train (Sony) 3,513 (-268) theaters, Fri $1.54M (-31%), 3-day $5.5M (-31%)/Total $78.1M/Wk 4
3.) Top Gun: Maverick (Par) 2,962 (-7) theaters, Fri $1.35M (-13%), 3-day $4.9M (-17%), Total $691.3M/Wk 14
They have to get this to $700M. C’mon!
4.) Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero (Cru) 2,941 theaters (-77), Fri $1.3M (-88%) 3-day $4.83M (-77%)/Total $31M/ Wk 2
5.) Beast (Uni) 3,754 (+11) theaters, Fri $1.3M (-70%) 3-day $4.3M (-63%)/Total: $19.5M/Wk 2
5.) DC League of Super-Pets (WB) 3,284 (-253) theaters, Fri $1.065M (-25%), 3-day $4.3M (-24%)/Total $74.1M Wk 5
7. ) 3,000 Years of Longing (UAR) 2,436 theaters, Fri $1.16M, 3-day $2.9M/Wk 1
8.) Minions: Rise of Gru (Uni) 2,494 theaters (-160), Fri $670K (-29%), 3-day $2.73M (-27%), Total: $354.77M/Wk 9
9.) Thor: Love and Thunder (Disney) 2,450 (-305) theaters, Fri. $694K (-35%), 3-day $2.65M (-35%)/Total $336.5M/Wk 8
10.) Nope (Uni) 1,909 (-472) theaters, Fri $630K (-40%), 3-day $2.19M (-39%), Total $117.6M/Wk 6
11.) Where the Crawdads Sings (Sony) 2,216 theaters (-392), Fri $650K (-28%), 3-day $2.15M (-31%)/Total $81.7M/Wk 7
Horror Pic ‘The Invitation’ Leads Worst Weekend At This Summer’s Box Office, All Pics Grossing $54M - Deadline
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Shia LaBeouf reveals name of his and Mia Goth's 5-month-old daughter - Page Six
Five months after becoming a father, Shia LaBeouf has finally revealed his daughter’s name.
“I have a little girl, Isabel,” the actor, 36, wrote in an email published by Variety Friday.
“She is five months old and just beginning to develop the last half of her laugh; it’s AMAZING,” LaBeouf went on to write.
The “Even Stevens” alum also praised his on-again, off-again partner, Mia Goth, in his email to Olivia Wilde.
“My wife & I have found each other again & are journeying toward a healthy family with love and mutual respect,” he gushed.
Goth, 28, gave birth to their baby girl in March, with news of the infant’s arrival breaking the following month.
While LaBeouf and the actress had kept the newborn’s sex and name private up to this point, he chose to speak about their family following Wilde’s allegations that she had fired him from her upcoming film “Don’t Worry Darling.”
The former Disney Channel star alleged in his email that he “quit” the project because he “couldn’t find time to rehearse,” requesting that Wilde, 38, “correct the narrative.”
His response came after the “Booksmart” director claimed to Variety that she had dismissed LaBeouf from the project to “protect” his co-stars and keep them “safe” from his “combative energy.”
LaBeouf acknowledged that while he was accused of abuse by ex FKA Twigs in 2021 and subsequently sought treatment, there is a “time and place” to deal with that “fundamental and real” scandal.
However, he wrote that Wilde’s allegations “will never have a court date,” adding, “If lies are repeated enough in the public they become truth. And so, it makes it that much harder for me to crawl out of the hole I have dug with my behaviors, to be able to provide for my family.”
LaBeouf, whom Harry Styles replaced in the movie, also shared screenshots with the magazine of text messages Wilde allegedly sent him in August 2020 about his exit.
In one message, the former “House” star purportedly wrote to LaBeouf that it “doesn’t feel good to say no to someone,” thanking him for his “honesty.”
She also allegedly told the “Disturbia” star in a video that she was “not ready to give up” on him playing Jack in the film.
Wilde asked whether there was any “hope” for his return if he and lead actress Florence Pugh could “make peace,” hinting at discord between the almost co-stars.
“I too am heartbroken and I want to figure this out,” Wilde allegedly said in the footage. “I want to know if you’re open to giving this a shot with me, with us.”
News of LaBeouf’s denial comes one day after the “Honeyboy” star’s YouTube interview with Bishop Barron, in which he revealed he was suicidal over past scandals and converted to Catholicism after filming “Padre Pio.”
“I didn’t want to be alive anymore when all this happened,” he shared. “This was the last stop on the train. There was nowhere else to go — in every sense.”
“Don’t Worry Darling” hits theaters Sept. 23.
Shia LaBeouf reveals name of his and Mia Goth's 5-month-old daughter - Page Six
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Friday, August 26, 2022
Britney Spears teams up with Elton John on 'Hold Me Closer,' her first release in six years - CNN
(CNN)The Princess of Pop is back!
After a six-year hiatus, Britney Spears made her musical comeback on Friday with the release of "Hold Me Closer," her collaboration with Elton John.
The song, which is an EDM reimagining of John's 1971 hit "Tiny Dancer," marks Spears' first new release since the legal victory last November that freed her from the 13-year conservatorship that controlled her career and personal life.
Last year, Spears revealed she stepped away from music and performing after the conservatorship "killed my dreams." Her last album, "Glory," arrived in 2016.
Before the release of "Hold Me Closer," Spears tweeted that she's learning "everyday is a clean slate to try and be a better person and do what makes me happy."
She added that she wanted to be "fearless like when I was younger."
John said he was inspired to join forces with Spears by his husband, David Furnish, adding that he believes their duet will give her a much-needed confidence boost after such a "traumatic time."
"I'm so excited to be able to do it with her because if it is a big hit, and I think it may be, it will give her so much more confidence than she's got already and she will realize that people actually love her and care for her and want her to be happy," he said in an interview with the Guardian newspaper.
A quick scan of social media and it looks like fans are delighted by the joint release.
"Such a cool, beautiful song, you guys make a wonderful team! We have missed you so much Brit, you can't imagine how happy it makes me to hear you singing again," one fan wrote on Twitter.
Another said: "welcome back!!!! Hold me closer is freaking fantastic! You sound so good!"
Among music critics, however, opinion was more divided.
Awarding the song a four-star rating, the Guardian's Michael Cragg notes that Spears "throws in a few playful 'yeahs', ad libs that feel like actual yelps of joy rather than the robotic manoeuvres of someone being shuttled from studio to waiting car."
He adds that "Spears seems to hint at finding that for herself again in music. Even if this is a one-off -- and who can blame her if she doesn't want to return to pop full-time -- that feels like enough."
According to Vogue's Christian Allaire, "There's something about Britney's voice and a dance track that just go extremely well together -- like red wine and a basket of bread. She does things with her vocal tone that all the other pop girlies simply can't. That's why she's the true princess of pop."
Writing in the UK's Times, however, reviewer Will Hodgkinson was not as enthusiastic. While saying "the return of Britney Spears should be welcomed with open arms," he described "Hold Me Closer" as a "bloodless remix" that "gives no space for Spears to shine while also killing the magic of the original."
Britney Spears teams up with Elton John on 'Hold Me Closer,' her first release in six years - CNN
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Thursday, August 25, 2022
R. Kelly trial: Woman testifies on contact with underage goddaughter - Chicago Tribune
A former girlfriend of R. Kelly’s sobbed in a federal courtroom Thursday as she testified that Kelly’s longtime business manager told her in 2007 they should have killed her instead of paying her to return an incriminating videotape of Kelly having sex with her and a 14-year-old girl.
Lisa Van Allen, 42, took the witness stand on the ninth day of Kelly’s federal trial in Chicago, where the disgraced R&B star and two associates, Derrel McDavid and Milton “June” Brown,” are accused of conspiring to pay off witnesses and buy back sex tapes to hide years of Kelly’s sexual misconduct.
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Van Allen testified that in the late 1990s, she had sexual contact with Kelly and his underage goddaughter at the behest of the singer, who also filmed and directed their encounters. After she took one of the tapes and sent it to a friend in Kansas City, Kelly offered her $250,000 to get it back, she said.
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Near the end of her direct examination, Van Allen broke down in tears as she described how McDavid threatened her at a lawyer’s office in Chicago after she had failed a polygraph test about the tape.
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“He said that I failed (the test), and that they should have murked me from the beginning” — that is, they should have killed her.
After that, at McDavid’s behest, she made a false statement to a lawyer denying she ever had any sexual contact with Kelly’s goddaughter, who testified earlier in the trial under the pseudonym “Jane.”
“He told me to say it and I was afraid not to do what he asked,” she said, then broke down crying, bowing her head as she held a shaking hand over her mouth. “I never knew they were thinking about killing me.”
Van Allen said she was upset about that comment, and told McDavid she would tell Kelly about it. “He said Rob knew everything that was going on,” she said, in an emotional voice.
At the defense table, McDavid pursed his lips and turned to Kelly, who was seated behind him, and shook his head slowly.
In a vigorous cross-examination Thursday afternoon, Beau Brindley, an attorney for McDavid, confronted Van Allen about her claim she was threatened, pointing out that McDavid was Kelly’s business manager and suggesting it was all a lie.
“You didn’t have any reason to believe that he was some sort of murderous accountant did you?” Brindley said.
Brindley asked why, if Van Allen’s goal was to keep people from seeing the sex tape, she didn’t just destroy it after she stole it.
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“I could’ve if that thought had crossed my mind,” she said. She also denied taking the tape because she wanted to use it to extort Kelly for money.
In perhaps a preview of McDavid’s promised testimony later in the trial, Brindley alleged there was never a tape of Kelly having sex with Van Allen and Jane — instead, Van Allen actually turned over a tape of herself having a threesome with Kelly and his wife. Van Allen flatly denied that.
Brindley also suggested that Van Allen is a serial liar and manipulator.
“A person who feigns emotion while lying to try to manipulate others, is that a person you should trust?” Brindley asked. Van Allen said she didn’t know what he was talking about.
In past statements, Van Allen has consistently said she was 17 when she first met Kelly. On the witness stand Thursday, however, she said that while she thought that was the truth at the time, she now recognizes that she was actually 18.
Brindley accused her of lying about being underage to get attention.
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“You wanted to be a victim!” he said. “To sell books!”
The allegation started an uproar of reactions and commentary in the courtroom. On the witness stand, Van Allen shook her head and rolled her eyes slightly.
Brindley also repeatedly questioned Van Allen about discrepancies in statements she’s made about the tape over the years. At one point, when he started asking her about her testimony to a federal grand jury in 2019, Van Allen started to cry.
Brindley asked, sarcastically, whether there was “anything particularly sad” about asking her about her grand jury testimony. “Yes! I’m tired of you asking me whether I watched child pornography!” she cried. Brindley scoffed.
At least twice, prosecutors objected to the questioning, saying Brindley was harassing the witness. And Judge Harry Leinenweber repeatedly told him to move things along more quickly.
To illustrate his points about Van Allen’s potentially inconsistent statements, Brindley displayed for jurors a clip from the “Surviving R. Kelly” docuseries. And for a time after the clip was finished, the screens stayed frozen on an establishing shot — so Van Allen was testifying with the Chicago skyline in the background.
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Jurors watched much of Van Allen’s testimony intently, with many taking notes and some leaning forward in their seats, resting notebooks on the bench in front of them.
Van Allen was a controversial witness at Kelly’s first criminal trial in Cook County 14 years ago, which ended in the singer’s acquittal. Like then, Van Allen was testifying Thursday under a grant of immunity from prosecutors.
Van Allen testified she met “Jane,” Kelly’s goddaughter, in 1998. Jane would have been around 14 years old at the time, but Kelly told Van Allen she was 16, Van Allen said.
The three of them had three sexual encounters over the next three years, Van Allen testified, and Kelly filmed all of them. Van Allen used her hands to mime for the jury the way Kelly would set up the tripod and video camera.
At the beginning of her testimony. Van Allen was calm but somewhat nervous, swiveling in her chair and pausing often to sip from a water bottle. When she began to discuss the sexual contact with young Jane, her face grew very somber.
During the second filmed threesome, in 1999, Van Allen began crying because she did not want to participate, she testified.
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“(Kelly) said ‘what was he going to do with this?’ ... I guess ‘cause it wouldn’t have been good footage to watch if I’m on there crying.”
An encounter in 2000 was interrupted by Kelly’s team, Van Allen said. Kelly ordered “Jane” to hide in the bathroom, she testified, a request he did not make of Van Allen.
That same year, Jane told Van Allen that she would be getting a PT Cruiser for her 16th birthday. Van Allen was upset since she had been under the impression Jane was 16 two years earlier, during their first sexual encounter, she testified.
After that, Van Allen said, “I didn’t want to do any more threesomes. I didn’t want to do the first ones, but I definitely didn’t want any more encounters. Because she was 14! She had to be 14.”
Kelly would carry his sex tapes with him in a duffel bag, Van Allen testified. And at some point around the year 2000, she realized she was alone with that bag, and went looking for any tapes she was on.
“I didn’t want him in possession of them,” she said. “I didn’t want him looking at them or having them in his possession.”
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Van Allen gave the tape to her friend Keith Murrell, she testified.
It wasn’t until 2007 that she heard there might be copies of the tape for sale, and she grew worried, she said. She did not want it out there, and thought Kelly would help her get it back, she testified.
“He had an upcoming trial for a similar tape, and on this one it actually said how old she was,” she said.
Van Allen met Kelly at his Olympia Fields mansion, where Kelly got in a hot tub with her before offering to give her $250,000 to get the tape back. He also told her to deal with McDavid “from this point forward,” she testified.
After that, she and Murrell brought the tape back and took a series of polygraph tests, she said. They got some of the money from McDavid in return, and Van Allen was told they would get the rest after Kelly’s trial, she said.
After McDavid told her she had failed the third polygraph, she testified, he made the comment about how they should have just killed her.
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Van Allen testified Thursday that she met Kelly in 1998, when she was 18. She was introduced to him at a video shoot and not long afterward began traveling to meet him in Chicago, she testified.
Soon afterward, she moved to Chicago outright and began a romantic relationship with Kelly, she testified. Kelly kept making her miss her flights when she visited, she said.
“I told him ‘I couldn’t keep missing my flights, I’ll get fired,’” she testified. “He asked me what did I make and I told him. He ended up just giving me the cash.”
Kelly would direct her on what to do and what to say during their sexual encounters, she testified, and would often videotape them having sex, particularly when they had threesomes, she testified.
Kelly did not allow her to speak to or make eye contact with other men in his presence, she said. He would hit her if she didn’t “listen to Daddy,” she said.
Kelly, 55, is charged with 13 counts of production of child pornography, conspiracy to produce child pornography and conspiracy to obstruct justice. McDavid and Brown, according to the indictment, schemed to buy back incriminating sex tapes that had been taken from Kelly’s collection and hide years of alleged sexual abuse of underage girls.
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Jurors in the closely watched case have so far heard from 14 other witnesses, including Jane, who testified last week Kelly videotaped sexual encounters with her when she was just 14, then pressured and ultimately paid off her and her family to remain silent. Clips from three of those videos were shown to the jury on Friday.
This week has been dominated by another key prosecution witness, Charles Freeman, a Kansas City merchandiser and who told the jury Kelly and his associates agreed to pay him up to a million dollars in the early 2000s to hunt down other incriminating videos before they could be made public.
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R. Kelly trial: Woman testifies on contact with underage goddaughter - Chicago Tribune
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DC’s Kevin Feige Found? Producer Dan Lin in Talks to Take Control of Film, TV for Superhero Arm - Hollywood Reporter
Has the new head of DC has been found?
Dan Lin, the executive-turned-producer who counts hits such as the live-action Aladdin, The Lego Movie, and the It horror movies among his credits, is in talks to take the role of DC chief, multiple sources tell The Hollywood Reporter.
The role would encompass overseeing not just film but television as well, with Lin reporting directly to Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, according to sources.
The proposed structure would bypass three separate division heads — Warner Bros. Pictures’ heads Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy, HBO/HBO Max chief Casey Bloys, and Warner Bros. TV chair Channing Dungey — and put control of DC in the hands of one person.
Walter Hamada, the current head of DC Films, would transition out of the role, according to sources. A Warners insider says that no negotiations are taking place and no official offer has been made, although other sources say the parties are discussing salary, reporting structure and the future of Lin’s prolific production company, Rideback.
If any deal does close, it would cap off one of the most intense executive searches in recent memory, one that faced scrutiny by rival Hollywood producers and executives as well as DC fans.
Zaslav has said he was searching for Warners’ own version of Kevin Feige, the famed Marvel executive who has steered the rival comic book company’s movie slate, and then later its TV portfolio, transforming it into a multibillion-dollar pop culture juggernaut.
That is a nigh-impossible ask, but it didn’t stop executives’ names from surfacing. Emma Watts proved to be an early contender, while in recent months, names such as Amy Pascal, Matt Tolmach, Sean Bailey and Greg Berlanti were rumored to be taking meetings or pushed by canny agency heads.
Lin’s name appeared late in the game, but he has a champion in Warners adviser Alan Horn, the former Disney chair who ran Warners as president and COO in the aughts. It was during that latter tenure that Lin worked for Horn, starting as a junior exec and rising to senior vp production. He struck on his own as a producer in 2008, but not before shepherding movies such as The Departed and 10,000 BC He also oversaw the infamous and aborted Justice League feature that was to have been directed by George Miller. (The 2007-08 Writers Guild of America strike and tax credit complications were factors in its derailing.)
Lin is a respected producer known for his smarts and, in a town full of hype and egos, his willingness to find experts on the fields that are not his forte. He has worked on franchises — the Robert Downey Jr.-starring Sherlock Holmes features, the four Lego movies — as well as the wildly successful two-part adaptation of Stephen King’s It. His résumé ranges from big offerings, such as the billion-dollar-grossing Aladdin, to intimate dramas, such as the Oscar-nominated The Two Popes. He is coming off of the early August release of Universal’s Jo Koy comedy Easter Sunday.
And he also has TV experience, a key factor for the new position. Lin and his company executive produced the Lethal Weapon show that aired for three seasons on Fox and Walker, the reboot of Walker, Texas Ranger that will begin its third season on The CW this fall. He and his company are in postproduction on the big-budget live-action series take on Avatar: The Last Airbender for Netflix.
Lin has also shown ambitions beyond the screen. His banner, Rideback, has a nonprofit arm and several initiatives and fellowships that aid BIPOC and rising entrepreneurs. It is unclear what would happen to Rideback, but one scenario, according to sources, is that Warner Bros. Discovery would take some sort of stake in the company. Rideback would also continue to operate as a production entity and be run by current president Jonathan Eirich.
If Lin takes over, he will replace Hamada, who joined DC in 2018, a time when the brand was looking to reset after Justice League (2017) bombed. Hamada, who had a reputation as an amiable collaborator, kept a much lower profile than Marvel’s Feige, who is very much the face of the franchise. Though rival Marvel Studios has a closely connected universe, DC under Hamada explored some stories that took place in separate universes, including the $1 billion-grossing, Oscar-winning Joker (2019) and Matt Reeves’ The Batman (2022), which brought in $769.2 million globally. Sequels to both are in the works.
Hamada built relationships with talent such as Marvel favorite James Gunn, who directed The Suicide Squad (2021) and created the HBO Max spinoff Peacemaker and has other projects in development at DC.
However, Hamada’s tenure also underscored the public pressures that come with leading DC. For the past two years, Hamada has found himself the subject of critical tweets from Justice League actor Ray Fisher, which put the executive in the unusual position of running a film division while being publicly criticized by one of its stars. In the summer of 2020, Fisher accused filmmaker Joss Whedon of abusive and unprofessional behavior on the set of 2017 reshoots for Justice League, which Whedon oversaw after director Zack Snyder departed. Though Hamada was not at DC during the production of Justice League, Fisher accused the executive of attempting to throw Whedon as well as producer Jon Berg “under the bus” in order to protect Geoff Johns, another Justice League producer Fisher said enabled Whedon. Hamada was cleared in the studio’s investigations of any Justice League interference.
Hamada was gearing up to release three or four films a year between theaters and HBO Max when the Warner Bros. Discovery merger occurred. Some see his exit as coming only partway through his DC course-correct, while other observers believe he did not get enough internal support from the previous AT&T regime.
Lin would join DC at a time in which Zaslav has vowed to reshape DC with a 10-year plan he hopes will allow the brand to compete with Disney-owned Marvel Studios, which has built the biggest film franchise in history.
“We’ve done a reset. … We think we can build a much stronger, sustainable growth business out of DC,” said Zaslav in an earnings call Aug. 4, just two days after he scrapped the $90 million HBO Max Batgirl film that Hamada presided over. “As part of that, we are going to focus on quality. We are not going to release any film before it’s ready. … DC is something we can make better.”
Aaron Couch contributed to this story.
DC’s Kevin Feige Found? Producer Dan Lin in Talks to Take Control of Film, TV for Superhero Arm - Hollywood Reporter
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Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck enjoy luxury shopping spree on honeymoon - Page Six
Maybe love does cost a thing.
Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck enjoyed a luxury shopping spree during their second honeymoon in Italy.
Paparazzi caught the “Jenny From the Block” singer, 53, and the “Argo” actor, 50, stopping by the Brunello Cucinelli store in Milan.
Lopez and Affleck also checked out duds at Valentino, where a horde of fans waited outside for a glimpse of the newlyweds.
Lopez — who wore an all-white ensemble showing off her enviable abs — waved hello to the pair’s admirers.
Meanwhile, Affleck — dressed casually in jeans, a T-shirt, a button-down and black sweater — managed to crack a slight smile at times.
As Page Six previously reported, Affleck was perturbed by the photographers who trailed him and Lopez during their first honeymoon in Paris. The duo enjoyed a romantic — and heavily documented — French getaway last month after their surprise Las Vegas “I dos.”
“Ben was a little freaked out in Paris,” a source told us at the time. “This was a whole new level.” Adding, “an almost Princess-Diana level.”
Bennifer received unprecedented media attention back in 2002 during their initial run as a couple.
They even had to postpone their first planned wedding in 2003 after they were forced to go so far as to consider having “decoy brides” on their doomed big day.
In a statement released the day before the original nuptials, they said, “Due to the excessive media attention surrounding our wedding, we have decided to postpone the date.”
Lopez and Affleck never rescheduled, but eventually reignited their romance in 2021. Following their Sin City ceremony, the two exchanged vows yet again at Affleck’s Georgia estate on Aug. 20.
It wasn’t long before they jetted off to Italy. While Lopez and Affleck were photographed enjoying a leisurely lunch at the Grand Hotel Tremezzo in Lake Como, the Oscar winner was caught staring at pictures of his bride on his phone, according to photos obtained by the Daily Mail.
Lopez and Affleck have also been photographed in Italy enjoying a private boat ride and shopping for home goods.
Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck enjoy luxury shopping spree on honeymoon - Page Six
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