Brooks Barnes

“Stuber,” an R-rated buddy flick starring Kumail Nanjiani and Dave Bautista that cost about $25 million to make, also raised new questions about the theatrical viability of modestly budgeted comedies in the Netflix age. North American moviegoers have given a cold shoulder to one such comedy after another this summer, including “Late Night,” “Long Shot,” “The Hustle,” “Shaft,” “Poms” and “Booksmart.”

As usual, franchises dominated multiplex marquees over the weekend. The No. 1 movie was “Spider-Man: Far From Home” (Sony Pictures), which collected about $45.3 million, for a 13-day domestic total of $274.5 million ($847 million worldwide). “Toy Story 4” (Disney-Pixar) was second, generating about $20.7 million in ticket sales, for a four-week global total of $771.1 million, according to Comscore.

Among new wide releases, “Crawl” (Paramount) did the best, capitalizing on surprisingly strong reviews. A horror movie about alligators on the loose during a hurricane, “Crawl” took in roughly $12 million, enough for third place. Paramount spent $13.5 million to make the R-rated movie, which the studio supported with a shrewd marketing campaign that positioned the film as a frothy summertime diversion.

“Stuber” arrived in fourth place. It collected $8 million.

Distributed by Disney, which took over the Fox movie factory in March, “Stuber” had a marketing campaign that cost at least $30 million. Disney aggressively went after men, releasing trailers during WrestleMania and the NBA Finals. Disney-owned ESPN was a marketing partner. The film’s crass tagline: “Saving the day takes a pair.”

“Stuber,” about an Uber driver named Stu who picks up a detective, received largely negative reviews, according to the criticism-aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes. David A. Gross, who runs Franchise Entertainment Research, a movie consultancy, called it “an extremely weak entry.”

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/14/movies/stuber-spider-man-far-from-home-box-office.html" id="97d6a47d-00b5-338d-a4b2-949bf2e87500">The New York Times</a>.

'Stuber' stalls, dealing another setback to comedies and Disney's Fox

LOS ANGELES — “Stuber” stalled at the box office over the weekend, accentuating a problem with movies coming off the 20th Century Fox assembly line: They aren’t very good.

The hardworking lizard, trudging back to wide release in North American theaters for a fifth time in “Godzilla: King of the Monsters,” managed to sell about $49 million in tickets over the weekend, enough for first place. But the Legendary Entertainment sequel will nonetheless go down as the first big-budget disappointment of Hollywood’s summer season.

“King of the Monsters” cost at least $170 million to make, not including $100 million (plus) in global marketing costs. Initial ticket sales in the United States and Canada fell behind those for its series predecessor by 47%, according to Comscore data. Critics were not kind. “Beyond the awesome destruction, it’s not easy to build the character, story, emotion — the glue that sustains a series — when it’s all about the monster,” said David A. Gross, who runs Franchise Entertainment Research, a movie consultancy.

But there is no rest for the weary in today’s franchise-fixated film business, in part because monsters still draw big crowds overseas, where Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah and pals collected about $130 million over the weekend. “Godzilla vs. Kong” has already been scheduled for release in March.

“Aladdin” (Disney) was a strong second in its second weekend. It took in about $42 million at theaters in North America, for a new total of $185 million ($446 worldwide).

The R-rated musical fantasy “Rocketman,” about Elton John’s breakthrough years, collected an estimated $25 million in third place for Paramount Pictures. The studio said that the zany bio-musical took in an additional $19 million in 40 overseas markets, lifting its international total to $31 million.

Also opening in wide release over the weekend was “Ma,” a horror movie starring Octavia Spencer. The movie, made for about $5 million by Blumhouse and Universal, sold about $18.3 million in tickets, according to Comscore.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/02/movies/godzilla-rocketman-box-office.html" id="a7263a34-f800-3e28-a0b3-55124d4b60a7">The New York Times</a>.

'Godzilla' sequel disappoints, but leaves a bigger footprint overseas

LOS ANGELES — Even Godzilla needs a rest.

“John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum,” which finds the title’s super-assassin (Reeves) on the run from other contract killers, collected about $57 million at theaters in the United States and Canada over the weekend, according to comScore. The R-rated Lionsgate series has grown remarkably more powerful with each installment: “John Wick: Chapter 2” had $30 million in initial ticket sales in 2017, improving on the $15 million that “John Wick” collected over its first three days in 2014.

Lionsgate said Sunday that “John Wick: Chapter 3” collected an additional $35 million in partial release overseas. The film received strong reviews from most critics. David Gross, who runs Franchise Entertainment Research, said the results put the series “on outstanding footing going forward” and said it was now “an elite action thriller franchise.”

“John Wick: Chapter 3,” which stars Halle Berry in a supporting role, cost an estimated $75 million to make and roughly $40 million to market. The last time Reeves had a No. 1 opening was in 2008 with “The Day the Earth Stood Still.”

Two other new wide-release movies sputtered in their debuts. “A Dog’s Journey,” an Amblin sequel that was released by Universal, collected $8 million in North America, or about 56 percent less than “A Dog’s Purpose” had in its first weekend in 2017. (“A Dog’s Purpose” was a surprise hit, taking in a total of $205 million.)

“The Sun Is Also a Star,” a low-budget romantic drama starring Yara Shahidi and Charles Melton, was booked into more than 2,000 theaters by Warner Bros. and only managed $2 million in ticket sales.

'John wick chapter 3' puts Keanu Reeves back on top at the box office

LOS ANGELES — The third “John Wick” movie arrived to stronger-than-expected ticket sales, returning Keanu Reeves to the top of the box-office chart for the first time in 11 years and giving Lionsgate a much-needed shot in the arm.

'John wick: chapter 3' puts Keanu Reeves back on top at the box office

The No. 1 movie in the United States and Canada — as could have been predicted a year ago — was the Disney-Marvel juggernaut “Avengers: Endgame,” which collected roughly $146 million. Total domestic ticket sales for the all-star superhero movie stand at $620 million, according to Comscore. The film has collected a jaw-dropping $2.2 billion globally since arriving in theaters less than two weeks ago.

That left three new movies to compete for scraps.

“The Intruder” (Sony) did the best. A thriller aimed at African American audiences and directed by Deon Taylor, “The Intruder” took in about $11 million, a respectable debut for a lightly marketed movie that cost just $8 million to make.

Lionsgate, which has been experiencing a box office drought, tried to compete with “Long Shot,” an R-rated comedy starring Seth Rogen and Charlize Theron. Despite strong reviews, the movie lived up to its title, selling about $10 million in tickets. “Long Shot” cost roughly $40 million to make and another $30 million to market. Lionsgate said on Sunday that it expected “Long Shot” to find a broader audience over the next month, with the Mother’s Day and Memorial Day weekends holding promise.

The studio is one of a handful of smaller ones that have been struggling as streaming services have moved aggressively into their territory — midbudget action-adventures, comedies and dramas. Lionsgate had held up “Long Shot” to Wall Street as one of a handful of movies that would signify a turnaround for its film division. (Another was “Hellboy,” which bombed last month.) The studio will try again with “John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum,” which arrives in theaters on May 17.

Another small studio, STXfilms, had an even gloomier weekend. In partnership with Alibaba Pictures, it rolled out “UglyDolls” — hyped before its release as the start of a franchise — to disappointing ticket sales of about $8.5 million. The poorly reviewed film, directed by Kelly Asbury and based on a line of plush toys, cost at least $45 million to make and $30 million to market.

STXfilms had lined up more than 100 promotional partners, including McDonald’s and Walmart, to generate interest in “UglyDolls,” an animated musical featuring the voices of stars like Kelly Clarkson, Pitbull and Joe Jonas.

STXfilms and Alibaba hope the film will perform better in China, where it is expected to be released this summer. An “UglyDolls” series is also in the works for Hulu.

This article originally appeared in <a id="030f6101-093e-3a95-a231-5c07d35ae197" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/05/movies/avengers-endgame-box-office.html">The New York Times</a>.

'Avengers' muscles out competition to maintain box office lead

The weekend’s box office totals laid bare the have and have-nots of Hollywood in brutal fashion.

“The Intruder” (Sony) did the best. A thriller aimed at African-American audiences and directed by Deon Taylor, “The Intruder” took in about $11 million, a respectable debut for a lightly marketed movie that cost just $8 million to make.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/05/movies/avengers-endgame-box-office.html" id="030f6101-093e-3a95-a231-5c07d35ae197">The New York Times</a>.

'Avengers' Muscles Out Competition to Maintain Box Office Lead

For those reasons and others — a decade of stagnant attendance, studios that only seem to make sequels of sequels (of sequels) — movie theaters are seen as a dying business. Why trudge to a theater when Netflix is available in your pocket anytime you want?

Yet almost every multiplex on the planet was gridlocked over the weekend. “Avengers: Endgame” took in $1.2 billion worldwide, arriving as the No. 1 movie in at least 54 countries. The euphorically reviewed movie collected a record-breaking $350 million in the United States and Canada, zooming past “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” (2015), which had opening-weekend sales of $248 million, or about $270 million in today’s dollars.

“It shows the power of theaters — the ability, even in a hyperfragmented culture, to deliver that wildly big communal experience,” Megan Colligan, president of Imax Filmed Entertainment, said in an interview.

It also shows that Hollywood is increasingly reliant on spectacle to jolt people away from Facebook, Fortnite, Hulu and Netflix and into movie theaters.

All kinds of movies used to break through at the box office. In 1998, the top 10 grossing movies of the year included an Oscar-nominated war epic (“Saving Private Ryan”), three comedies, a couple of science-fiction extravaganzas (“Armageddon”), the comedic drama “Patch Adams” and a smattering of family films (“Dr. Doolittle”). Last year, there were no comedies and only one drama: “Bohemian Rhapsody,” which doubled as a musical. Big-budget fantasies and animated movies took up eight slots.

When the industry’s new strategy works, it works big.

Demand for “Avengers: Endgame” was so astronomical over the weekend that AMC Theaters, the largest multiplex operator in North America, added 5,000 last-minute showtimes in the United States, lifting its total number to more than 63,000. Nineteen AMC locations played the film around the clock. On Saturday alone, 2.3 million people turned up at AMC cinemas.

“Young moviegoers will remember where they were when they saw ‘Endgame,’ who they saw it with and what it felt like,” John Fithian, president of the National Association of Theater Owners, wrote in an email. “That will pay off for years to come in the same way that moviegoers who grew up in the ’70s and ’80s still talk about the impact that ‘Star Wars’ had on them.”

Disney’s “The Lion King,” a retelling of the animated musical using photo-realistic visual effects, arrives in July and is generating runaway advance interest. In December, Disney will release “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” the final chapter in a nine-part saga. Also coming this year are giants like “Toy Story 4” (Disney), “The Secret Life of Pets 2” (Universal), “Spider-Man: Far From Home” (Sony) and “It: Chapter 2” (Warner Bros.).

Even so, concerns about the health of theatrical business are unlikely to abate, at least behind closed doors in Hollywood. In some ways, “Avengers: Endgame” could add to them.

People like Steven Spielberg worry that the film business is headed toward a bifurcated future where megamovies play in cinemas and everything else gets squeezed onto streaming-service screens. Given the film industry’s current trajectory, there could soon come a day when you can see popcorn movies like “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” in theaters but must watch more sober fare like “Lincoln” online — to take just two of Spielberg’s films as examples.

To that end, there is heated debate in Hollywood over what constitutes a movie. Should the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences try to protect the big-screen experience by blocking films — like Netflix’s award-winning “Roma” — that are primarily distributed on the internet from competing for Oscars? Last week, members of the academy board debated what to do, ultimately deciding to keep weighing the options.

Media analysts have also sounded alarms. Doug Creutz, a managing director at Cowen and Co., wrote in a report last month that “the market is concentrating into fewer, but bigger, successful films.” Creutz noted that the top 10 grossing movies last year accounted for 35% of total annual ticket sales. At the start of the decade, the contribution from the top 10 was about 27%.

“Avengers: Endgame,” which cost roughly $350 million to make and $150 million to market worldwide, played in 4,662 theaters in North America over the weekend. In another show of Marvel’s dominance, the No. 2 movie of the weekend was “Captain Marvel,” which took in $8 million at 2,435 theaters in its eighth week, according to comScore Inc., which compiles box-office data. The weekend’s third-best performer, the horror movie “The Curse of La Llorona” (Warner Bros.), collected about $7.5 million from 3,372 theaters.

Hollywood has long expected “Avengers: Endgame” to be a sensation. When tickets became available for presale on April 2, the demand crashed AMC servers. In addition to its own ads, which began running late last year, Disney secured promotional partnerships worth an additional $200 million. Ziploc started selling Avengers-themed sandwich bags; McDonald’s, teaming with Marvel for the first time, introduced 24 Avengers toys.

“We wanted it to feel like an epic, important, seminal, can’t-miss event,” said Asad Ayaz, president of marketing at Walt Disney Studios. Ayaz and his lieutenants devised a strategy in which Disney spent massively on television ads around a few important moments (the day tickets went on presale, for instance) and then went completely dark for a week or more.

“The idea was to stun and surprise people with new creative messaging and then leave them wanting more,” Ayaz said.

The movie ended up defying all kinds of conventional wisdom — that sequels are not supposed to be critical darlings, that there is no center of the culture anymore, that marathon running times (three hours in this case) drive people away, that every studio has hits and misses. Marvel is now 22-0 when it comes to the box office.

Alan Horn, chairman of Walt Disney Studios, called the results “monumental” and noted that Marvel had challenged “the notions of what is possible at the movie theater.”

About 44% of the global total came from 3D screenings, according to the technology company RealD. Disney said Sunday morning that the movie set a record for the largest opening weekend in 44 overseas markets, with Imax theaters contributing an outsized portion of ticket sales, particularly in China.

Ticket sales for “Avengers: Endgame” were assuredly helped by improvements that multiplex chains have introduced in recent years. For instance, after the subscription-based ticketing service MoviePass proved to be popular with millennials, AMC and other theater operators created their own subscription programs. Apps like Atom Tickets and Fandango have made buying tickets in advance more popular, which helps to create buzz and reduce the need to wait in line at box-office windows.

But the movie, directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, arrived as a cultural and commercial thunderclap because of the expert way in which Kevin Feige, Marvel’s president, built the “Avengers” series to a storytelling climax. In the last installment, “Avengers: Infinity War,” a lantern-jawed villain named Thanos (Josh Brolin) snapped his fingers and turned half the creatures in the universe to dust, including a vast number of superheroes. “Avengers: Endgame” finds battered survivors like Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Captain America (Chris Evans) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) joining together in one final attempt to restore order.

“It is likely to be the last film with the original — and beloved — Avengers cast,” Creutz said.

If so, plenty of people made sure they were there to see it. And they appear to have been satisfied: In CinemaScore exit polls, ticket buyers gave the film an A-plus grade.

This article originally appeared in <a id="26137bd5-98c7-3c8f-a974-3aaebdbbfcd6" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/28/movies/avengers-endgame-box-office.html">The New York Times</a>.

'Avengers: Endgame' Shows Movie Theaters Can Still Be on Top of the World

LOS ANGELES — Audiences have splintered into a million personalized subsets. Streaming services are sprouting like mushrooms. Attention spans are now measured in seconds.

'Avengers: Endgame' shows movie theaters can still be on top of the world

For those reasons and others — studios only seem to make sequels of sequels (of sequels) — movie theaters are seen as a dying business. Even Steven Spielberg is worried about the future of the theatrical experience. “I want to see the survival of movie theaters,” he told The New York Times last week. Yet almost every multiplex on the planet was gridlocked over the weekend, as “Avengers: Endgame” arrived to record-breaking ticket sales.

The superhero movie — the 22nd in a series from Disney’s Marvel Studios — collected roughly $350 million in the United States and Canada, according to Comscore, which compiles box-office data. That easily beat “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” (2015), which had opening-weekend sales of $248 million, which translates to about $270 million in today’s dollars.

“Avengers: Endgame,” which received euphoric reviews from critics, took in a $1.2 billion worldwide, arriving as the No. 1 movie in at least 54 countries. About 44 percent of the global total came from 3D screenings, according to the technology company RealD. Disney said Sunday morning that the movie set a record for the largest opening weekend in 44 overseas markets, with Imax theaters contributing an outsized portion of ticket sales, particularly in China.

“It shows the power of theaters — the ability, even in a hyper-fragmented culture, to deliver that wildly big communal experience,” Megan Colligan, president of Imax Filmed Entertainment, said in an interview.

Scrambling to keep up with demand, AMC Theaters, the largest multiplex operator in North America, added 5,000 last-minute showtimes in the United States over the weekend, lifting its total number to more than 63,000. Nineteen AMC locations played “Avengers: Endgame” around the clock. On Saturday alone, 2.3 million people turned up at AMC cinemas.

People like Spielberg worry that the film business is headed toward a bifurcated future where megamovies play in cinemas and everything else gets squeezed onto streaming-service screens. To that end, there is heated debate in Hollywood over what constitutes a movie. Should the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences try to protect the big-screen experience by blocking films that are primarily distributed online from competing for Oscars? Last week, members of the academy board debated what to do, ultimately deciding to keep weighing the options.

“Avengers: Endgame,” which cost roughly $350 million to make and $150 million to market worldwide, played in 4,662 theaters in North America over the weekend. To compare, the horror movie “The Curse of La Llorona” (Warner) collected about $7.5 million from 3,372 theaters, according to Comscore. The faith-based drama “Breakthrough” (Disney) collected $6.3 million from 2,913 locations.

But the movie, directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, arrived as a cultural and commercial thunderclap because of the expert manner in which Kevin Feige, Marvel’s president, built the “Avengers” series to a storytelling climax. In the last installment, “Avengers: Infinity War,” a lantern-jawed villain named Thanos (Josh Brolin) snapped his fingers and turned half the creatures in the universe to dust, including a vast number of superheroes. “Avengers: Endgame” finds battered survivors like Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Captain America (Chris Evans) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) joining together in one final attempt to restore order.

If so, plenty of people made sure they were there to see it. And they appear to have been satisfied: Ticket buyers gave the film an A-plus grade in CinemaScore exit polls.

'Avengers Endgame' conquers the world with a $12 billion opening

'Avengers: Endgame' conquers the world with a $1.2 billion opening

“Avengers: Endgame,” which received euphoric reviews from critics, took in an astounding $1.2 billion worldwide, arriving as the No. 1 movie in at least 54 countries. Disney said Sunday morning that the movie set a record for the largest opening weekend in 44 overseas markets, with Imax theaters contributing an outsized portion of ticket sales, particularly in China.

Scrambling to keep up with demand, AMC Theaters added 5,000 last-minute showtimes in the United States over the weekend, lifting its total number to more than 63,000. Nineteen AMC locations played “Avengers: Endgame” around the clock. On Saturday alone, 2.3 million people turned up at AMC cinemas.

“Young moviegoers will remember where they were when they saw ‘Endgame,’ who they saw it with, and what it felt like,” said John Fithian, president of the National Association of Theater Owners. “That will pay off for years to come in the same way that moviegoers who grew up in the ’70s and ’80s still talk about the impact that ‘Star Wars’ had on them.”

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/28/movies/avengers-endgame-box-office.html" id="26137bd5-98c7-3c8f-a974-3aaebdbbfcd6">The New York Times</a>.

LOS ANGELES — “Avengers: Endgame” arrived to record-breaking ticket sales over the weekend.

'Avengers: Endgame' Conquers the World With a $1.2 Billion Opening

“We really want these movies to stand on their own, with filmmakers best suited to the characters,” Toby Emmerich, chairman of the Warner Bros. Pictures Group, said by phone on Sunday morning. “We’re all feeling deservedly really good.”

“Shazam!” was the No. 1 movie in North America, collecting $53.5 million over the weekend, according to Comscore, which compiles box-office data. Paid previews in partnership with Fandango in late March, designed to prompt positive chatter online, added $3.33 million. “Shazam!” also had a solid start in countries like Mexico and Russia.

Second place at the domestic box office went to a remake of “Pet Sematary” (Paramount), based on the novel by Stephen King. It took in an estimated $25 million. Disney’s big-budget “Dumbo” trundled along in third place, selling $18.2 million in tickets, for a sad two-week total of $76.3 million.

“Shazam!” was made by New Line, a division of Warner that focuses on lower-cost films that often serve as counterprogramming. Made for about $100 million — about 40 percent less than most superhero movies — “Shazam!” tells the story of a teenage boy (played by Asher Angel, known for Disney Channel’s “Andi Mack”) who can turn himself into a hero with an adult body (Zachary Levi) and unique powers.

“New Line always thought that ‘Big’ as a superhero movie was a great idea, a way to make the genre feel fresh and different,” Emmerich said.

Warner has spent the better part of a decade trying to get its act together with movies based on characters from its DC Comics division — an imperative given the runaway success of rival Marvel Studios and the film industry’s increasing need for spectacles that audiences see as worth a trip to theaters. Part of the problem was that Warner stuck for too long with a dark vision for its superhero universe, set by filmmaker Zack Snyder, that was clearly not working. That led to creative and financial messes like “Suicide Squad” and “Justice League.”

But the studio, having largely jettisoned Snyder’s plans and shaken up its executive ranks, including promoting Emmerich, has started to deliver superhero home runs on a consistent basis: “Wonder Woman” from Patty Jenkins, “Aquaman” from James Wan, and seemingly “Shazam!,” which was directed by a relative newcomer, David F. Sandberg.

Where the PG-13 “Shazam!” will end up at the box office remains a bit of a question mark given the impending arrival of “Avengers: Endgame.” Ticket buyers gave “Shazam!” an A grade in CinemaScore exit polls, an indication of staying power.

This article originally appeared in <a id="6596e26f-be17-4b57-b717-c76a4c448c47" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/07/movies/shazam-box-office-pet-sematary.html">The New York Times</a>.

'Shazam!' solidifies a superhero turnaround at Warner Bros.

LOS ANGELES — Warner Bros. has finally earned back the benefit of the doubt when it comes to its all-important superhero movies: “Shazam!” became the studio’s third nonsequel comic-book hit in a row over the weekend, arriving to applause from critics and stout ticket sales of nearly $156 million worldwide.

Warner has started to deliver superhero home runs on a consistent basis: “Wonder Woman” from Patty Jenkins, “Aquaman” from James Wan, and seemingly “Shazam!,” which was directed by a relative newcomer, David F. Sandberg.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/07/movies/shazam-box-office-pet-sematary.html" id="58d28f62-191b-36aa-abc6-e3310d947004">The New York Times</a>.

'Shazam!' Solidifies a Superhero Turnaround at Warner Bros.

The tweets by Gunn, who wrote and directed the Marvel superhero film “Guardians of the Galaxy” in 2014 and delivered a smash sequel in 2017, contained jokes about pedophilia, AIDS, rape and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Two far-right provocateurs, Mike Cernovich and Jack Posobiec, threw a spotlight on the comments — written between 2009 and 2012 — after Gunn harshly criticized President Donald Trump online.

Disney executives seemed to acknowledge Friday that they made a misstep of their own in almost immediately firing Gunn in the aftermath: At the time, “Guardians” cast members condemned the decision as an overreaction to the “mob mentality” of the internet. If nothing else, the reversal reflects the challenges that Hollywood studios face as they contend with online furors over past behavior in response to the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements, all while trying to protect billion-dollar film properties.

Walt Disney Studios revealed Gunn’s reinstatement as the director of “Guardians of the Galaxy 3” in an article on Deadline.com, a trade news site. Disney declined to comment further, except to confirm the report’s accuracy. In a statement on Twitter, Gunn called himself “incredibly humbled” and “tremendously grateful” to those who had supported him in recent months.

“I am always learning and will continue to work at being the best human being I can be,” he wrote. “I deeply appreciate Disney’s decision.”

Alan F. Horn, chairman of Walt Disney Studios, decided to rehire Gunn — several months ago — after a series of meetings with the director. Horn, who reached out to Gunn, had been impressed with his public apology on the day Disney fired him. Gunn repeatedly took responsibility for his words, which he called “stupid, not at all funny, wildly insensitive and certainly not provocative like I had hoped.”

“Regardless of how much time has passed,” he had added, “I understand and accept the business decisions taken today.”

Gunn’s response stood in contrast to how other stars have reacted in similar situations. Kevin Hart, for instance, was initially defensive when his past anti-gay comments on Twitter resurfaced in December after he was named host of the Academy Awards telecast. Hart did not apologize at first, instead posting a video online in which he said: “Guys, I’m almost 40 years old. If you don’t believe that people change, grow, evolve as they get older, I don’t know what to tell you.”

Six hours later, he stepped down as Oscar host and offered a perfunctory apology.

It was unclear to what degree Disney was influenced by blowback from “Guardians” fans over Gunn’s ouster. Hundreds of thousands of people signed a Change.org petition asking Disney to reconsider.

“Guardians of the Galaxy” is a crucial property for Disney. The first two movies, starring Chris Pratt as Star-Lord and Zoe Saldana as Gamora, and featuring fan-favorite creatures like Groot and Rocket raccoon, collected roughly $1.6 billion at the global box office. Disney also sells “Guardians” merchandise and is counting on an expensive new “Guardians” attraction at Epcot in Florida to sell theme park vacations.

Fans greeted Gunn’s official return to the Marvel universe with euphoria. Cernovich, for one, was not happy. The far-right blogger, author and YouTube personality wrote on Twitter, “If you think Gunn getting rehired hurts me rather than children, you’re a sick person and part of the problem.”

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/15/business/media/james-gunn-guardians-of-the-galaxy.html" id="b00f895d-a882-3d13-a674-adfbfa9b8233">The New York Times</a>.

LOS ANGELES — Disney is taking back James Gunn, the creative force behind its “Guardians of the Galaxy” movie franchise, reversing its contentious decision in July to fire the filmmaker for offensive jokes he wrote on Twitter several years ago.

Disney Rehires 'Guardians' Director After an Online Outcry

His death, following years of Parkinson’s disease, was confirmed by his son, Jonathan.

Sheinberg was for much of his career the forthright top deputy to Lew Wasserman, the chairman of MCA, a conglomerate that encompassed Universal. The ultimate mogul, Wasserman defined power in Hollywood in the decades after World War II.

But Sheinberg, openly intimidating as president and chief operating officer, kept the gears turning. When the two men left MCA in 1995, Sheinberg had worked for the company for 36 years, the last 22 as president.

During that time he helped transform Universal into an international entertainment giant, complete with a sprawling theme park empire.

He played a major role in pivotal films like “Back to the Future,” in 1985 (and a few hall-of-fame flops, like “Waterworld” 10 years later), and turned Universal into a television superpower. The company had the No. 1 show in 1970 with “Marcus Welby, M.D.,” about a kindhearted physician starring Robert Young, and churned out 20 movie-of-the-week projects annually.

Sheinberg was also credited with seeing opportunity in music — he led MCA’s purchases of Motown in 1988 and Geffen Records in 1990 — and putting Universal into a competitive position with Disney in the global theme park business.

Sheinberg relished a court battle, sparring about copyright issues with Sony over the VCR and with Nintendo over its “Donkey Kong” game.

“Sheinberg dealt with all people like a battering ram: Do it his way or get out of the way,” Dennis McDougal wrote in the 1998 biography “The Last Mogul: Lew Wasserman, MCA, and the Hidden History of Hollywood.”

Most important, Sheinberg discovered Spielberg. It was 1968 and the director, in his early 20s, had just completed a short film, “Amblin’,” a love story about hitchhiking hippies. Based on what he saw, Sheinberg put Spielberg under contract and gave him a job directing television shows. An episode of “Marcus Welby” was one of the first. In 1971 came “Duel,” Spielberg’s thrilling TV movie about a commuter terrorized by a truck driver.

With a line that has come to epitomize loyalty in the often fickle movie business, Sheinberg told his protégé at the time: “A lot of people will stick with you in success. I’ll stick with you in failure.”

Sheinberg, who could be as tender as he was prickly, was the one who allowed Spielberg to make “Jaws,” giving him a budget of $3.5 million (about $17 million in today’s money). A problem-plagued shoot pushed the cost to more than twice as much.

But Sheinberg, developing a father-son relationship with Spielberg, continued to support the film, which went on to become the prototype for the wide-release summer blockbuster.

“Sid created me, in a way, and I also re-created Sid, in a way,” Spielberg was quoted as saying in The New York Times in 1997.

Under Sheinberg’s watch, Universal released two more hits from Spielberg, “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” (1982) and “Jurassic Park” (1993). It was Sheinberg who handed Spielberg Thomas Keneally’s novel“Schindler’s List,” which the director turned into his masterpiece of the same title. Released in 1993, it won seven Academy Awards, including best picture.

“My heart is broken,” Spielberg said in a statement Friday. “For now, let me just say that Sid had a big personality and a tender heart. He was the tallest, most stand-up guy I ever knew.”

Sidney Jay Sheinberg was born on Jan. 14, 1935, in Corpus Christi, Texas, to Harry and Tillie (Grossman) Sheinberg, Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. They ran a dry goods store that catered mostly to Mexican-Americans.

As a teenager, Sheinberg worked as an announcer and occasional disc jockey at a local radio station. He graduated from Columbia University in 1955 and enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin for law school.

But he later transferred back to Columbia to earn his law degree after a dispute with Texas administrators over their treatment of black students. It was a demonstration of his concern for discrimination that would lead him to become involved with Human Rights Watch and prompt him to push Hollywood studios to provide same-sex benefits, landing him on the cover of the gay magazine The Advocate in 1991.

“I sat in his office as he made those phone calls, and it was not a quick ‘Yes, yes, yes’ from everyone” at those studios, said Skip Paul, a senior adviser at the investment bank Centerview Partners, who was groomed by Sheinberg at MCA. “When Sid believed in something or somebody, he didn’t just have your back — he pushed on your back.”

In 1956 Sheinberg married a Columbia classmate, Lorraine Gary. They settled in Southern California, where she had grown up and would become an actress, starring in “Jaws” and its sequels. He accepted a teaching job at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1958. The next year, he joined the legal department at Revue Productions, a television subsidiary of MCA, which eventually became Universal Television.

As he rose in MCA’s television business, Sheinberg drew the attention of Wasserman. Though not similar in style — Wasserman was smooth and diplomatic, while Sheinberg had rough edges — the men bonded over their backgrounds: They were both sons of families who had fled Eastern Europe’s anti-Semitism and settled in Middle America. (Wasserman, who died in 2002, grew up in Ohio.)

“Lew took note of Sid because he was one of the very few people who would stand up to him,” director and actor Jerry Adler said in “The Last Mogul.”

Sheinberg’s brashness sometimes brought him into conflict with filmmakers. A fight with Terry Gilliam over the final cut of “Brazil” (1985) was particularly dramatic, involving warring ads in Variety. Sheinberg also pushed Robert Zemeckis, unsuccessfully, to change the title of “Back to the Future” to “Space Man From Pluto,” a name that “has heat, originality and projects fun,” Sheinberg wrote in a memo to Zemeckis in 1984. Zemeckis was mortified.

Spielberg stepped in, firing back a missive of his own on his fellow filmmaker’s behalf: “Thanks for your most humorous memo. We all got a big laugh out of it. Keep ′em coming.”

After he left MCA — having helped orchestrate the company’s sale to the Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. in 1990 for more than $6 billion — Sheinberg, with his sons, Jon and Bill, started a Universal-based production company called the Bubble Factory. The name came from a moment when Sheinberg was in his backyard blowing bubbles with his grandchildren.

The venture was a disaster. The company made only a handful of movies, and most were bombs, including “McHale’s Navy” (1997).

Sheinberg’s survivors include his wife and sons and a sister, Alice Schenk.

In his time as MCA president, Sheinberg’s competitive streak was never more pronounced than when it came to Disney, and it sometimes revealed a biting sense of humor.

When he opened the first Universal theme park in Orlando, Florida, in 1990 — in a race against Disney, which was building a movie-themed park that is now called Disney’s Hollywood Studios — Sheinberg and his team incorporated one of Disney’s mouse-ear hats into the “Jaws” ride.

The ears bobbed in the bloody water.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/08/obituaries/sidney-sheinberg-dead.html" id="41425cd2-a6c2-3b9d-a488-bf8a956ac2d3">The New York Times</a>.

Sidney Sheinberg, an irascible Universal Studios executive who discovered and nurtured Steven Spielberg, putting “Jaws” into production and helping to turn Hollywood into a blockbuster-focused business, died Thursday at his home in Beverly Hills, California. He was 84.

Sidney Sheinberg, Mogul Behind Universal and Spielberg, Dies at 84

<h1>LOS ANGELES — For 14 years, Tyler Perry has been Lionsgate’s secret weapon. As the rest of Hollywood underestimated the appeal of his movies time and again (and again), Perry served up 20 films to Lionsgate, selling more than $1 billion in tickets and pouring profits into the studio’s home entertainment coffers.</h1>

That partnership came to an informal close over the weekend with the release of Perry’s low-budget “A Madea Family Funeral.” As ever, box-office analysts misjudged interest. “A Madea Family Funeral,” ostensibly marking the final big-screen appearance by Perry’s gun-toting grandmother, sold an estimated $27 million in tickets at 2,442 North American theaters, or roughly 30 percent more than analysts had predicted.

The turnout was enough to challenge “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World,” the megamovie in the marketplace, for first place at the weekend box office. In the end, “Hidden World” (Universal) pulled ahead to collect roughly $30 million at 4,286 cinemas, for a two-week domestic total of $97.7 million, according to comScore. The big-budget animated sequel has collected an additional $277 million overseas.

Universal also had a good three days with “Green Book,” the contentious winner of best picture at the recent Academy Awards. “Green Book,” the feel-good story of a white chauffeur and his black client in segregation-era America, took in about $5 million, more than double what it collected the previous weekend. “Green Book,” which got off to a poor start at the box office in November, has now collected $188 million worldwide for Universal and Participant Media.

Even so, the most significant weekend results involved Lionsgate. The studio urgently needed a hit following a string of flops that included “Robin Hood” and “Hunter Killer.” Last year, Lionsgate released 19 movies through various labels and took in a total in North America of about $379 million, its worst annual showing since 2007.

In 2017, when Lionsgate had breakouts like “Wonder” and “La La Land,” domestic ticket sales totaled $884 million.

The studio expects to turn a corner starting next month, when it will release a new “Hellboy” movie. A third chapter in the “John Wick” action series and “Long Shot,” a comedy starring Seth Rogen and Charlize Theron, will arrive in May.

But Lionsgate can no longer rely on Perry. Going forward, Paramount Pictures has exclusive first-look rights to his movies as part of an overarching deal with Viacom, its corporate owner.

“Tyler Perry is an incomparable talent, and our door is always open to him,” Lionsgate said in a statement. “We look forward to doing more projects with him in the future.”

“It’s been a great experience to work with Lionsgate over the course of 20 films,” Perry said. “I couldn’t have asked for a more collaborative team to help bring my stories to audiences.”

This article originally appeared in <a id="3a011bda-f57f-4f9d-9461-8818a727f6d5" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/03/movies/a-madea-family-funeral-box-office.html">The New York Times</a>.

Tyler Perry gives Lionsgate one last hit as Madea says goodbye

That partnership came to an informal close over the weekend with the release of Perry’s low-budget “A Madea Family Funeral.” As ever, box-office analysts misjudged interest.

A spokeswoman for Perry said he was unavailable to comment about his run at Lionsgate and whether he might reunite with the studio down the road.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/03/movies/a-madea-family-funeral-box-office.html" id="7e85cf79-05b6-3e1d-a541-c69a8d75d946">The New York Times</a>.

LOS ANGELES — For 14 years, Tyler Perry has been Lionsgate’s secret weapon. As the rest of Hollywood underestimated the appeal of his movies time and again (and again), Perry served up 19 films to Lionsgate, selling more than $1 billion in tickets and pouring profits into the studio’s home entertainment coffers.

Tyler Perry Gives Lionsgate One Last Hit as Madea Says Goodbye

<h1>LOS ANGELES — “Green Book,” about a white chauffeur and his black client in segregation-era America, won best picture and two other trophies at the 91st Academy Awards on Sunday night, overcoming a series of awards-season setbacks and mixed critical notices.</h1>

In backing “Green Book,” voters slowed the rise of Netflix, which had aggressively pushed “Roma” in the best picture race. Netflix made significant inroads, however, with “Roma,” about a domestic worker in 1970s-era Mexico City, winning three Oscars, including best director and cinematographer for Alfonso Cuarón.

In many ways, the ceremony at the Dolby Theater — the first hostless Oscars in 30 years — played out like the more populist and less prestigious Golden Globes: veering in multiple directions as voters sprinkled their attention among a half-dozen pictures, with no film walking away with a commanding sweep.

“Bohemian Rhapsody,” the blockbuster biopic about Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, received the most Academy Awards — four — with wins for Rami Malek’s lead acting, editing, sound mixing and sound editing. “Black Panther” went home with three Oscars. The Dick Cheney biopic “Vice” received one, for hair and makeup. “The Favourite,” which had 10 nominations going into the night, tying “Roma” for the most, also left with one Oscar, for Olivia Colman as lead actress.

“We made a film about a gay man, an immigrant, who lived his life just unapologetically himself,” Malek said. “We’re longing for stories like this.”

In a major shift from the #OscarsSoWhite years of 2015 and 2016, this year’s ceremony, which lasted a little over three hours, was notable for the diversity of honorees. Two “Black Panther” crew members, Hannah Beachler (production design) and Ruth E. Carter (costumes), became the first African-Americans to receive Oscars in their respective categories.

Asian-Americans were represented in victories for “Free Solo,” which was named best documentary, and for “Bao,” which won best animated short.

And Spike Lee (“BlacKkKlansman”) won a competitive Oscar for the first time in his celebrated career — albeit for writing and not directing. It was the lone award for the film, about an African-American police officer who infiltrates the Ku Klux Klan with the help of a Jewish surrogate.

This article originally appeared in <a id="d8381c52-92ae-44e0-8486-092052af6ece" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/24/movies/oscars-academy-awards.html">The New York Times</a>.

In backing “Green Book,” voters slowed the rise of Netflix, which had aggressively pushed “Roma” in the best picture race.

'Green Book' takes home best film award

<h1>LOS ANGELES — The first hostless Academy Awards in 30 years took its lead from the Grammys, opening Sunday with a rowdy rendition of “We Will Rock You” by Queen, the supergroup chronicled in the blockbuster best-picture nominee “Bohemian Rhapsody.”</h1>

“Welcome to the Oscars!” shouted Adam Lambert, who has taken over for Freddie Mercury as Queen’s frontman in recent years, as a waterfall of sparks fell to the Dolby Theater stage.

Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph then took the stage and — while explaining they were not the hosts — gave a mini-performance that drew relaxed laughter from the audience and seemed to make the case that the three women should be hired to co-host next year, pronto. In a quick segue, they began presenting the Oscar for best supporting actress at the show’s eight-minute mark. Last year, it took the show 18 minutes just to get through Jimmy Kimmel’s monologue.

Regina King won the trophy for the lyrical art film “If Beale Street Could Talk.”

“I’m an example of what it looks like when support and love is poured into someone,” King said, composing herself after breaking into tears.

— Historic Wins for ‘Black Panther’

Two subsequent awards also found African-American women called to the stage. Ruth E. Carter won best costume design for her Afro-futuristic “Black Panther” attire. Carter, a three-time nominee (“Amistad,” “Malcolm X”), was the first African-American winner in the category. Hannah Beachler made history herself as the first African-American to win in the production design category, also for her work (with Jay Hart) on “Black Panther.”

“When you think it’s impossible, just remember to say this,” Beachler said, reading off her phone during an emotional speech. “I did my best, and my best is good enough.”

Another early trophy went to Cuarón, who won the Oscar for cinematography for “Roma,” making him the first director to win for shooting his own film. “Roma” also won best foreign-language film.

“Free Solo,” about a daring rock climber, took the prize for documentary feature.

“Thank you National Geographic for believing in us, and for hiring women and people of color,” said one of its directors, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had pressed the producers of this year’s ceremony to dramatically reduce the running time. Last year, the Oscars stretched to almost four hours — beyond the endurance of viewers, with ratings dropping to a record low. In one abandoned plan, the academy wanted to award four Oscars, including hair and makeup, during the commercial breaks, with the winning moments edited and aired later in the broadcast.

Perhaps as a protest, intentional or not, the three winners for hair and makeup, honored for their work on “Vice,” took their time at the microphone. In an awkward and halting set of thank yous, they fumbled with a piece of paper containing names and went way over their allotted 90-second time. Producers started the playoff music and ultimately cut sound to the microphone.

— No Mention of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ Director

For much of the first half of the ceremony, the Oscars played out like the more populist and less prestigious Golden Globes — veering in multiple directions as voters sprinkled their attention among a half-dozen pictures, with no film walking away with a commanding sweep.

“Bohemian Rhapsody” picked up Oscars for sound editing and sound mixing. John Ottman also won the Oscar for editing “Bohemian Rhapsody.” None of the winners thanked Bryan Singer, who was fired as the film’s director because of erratic behavior on the set and has been dogged by sexual misconduct allegations.

“Green Book” got on the board with a supporting actor victory by Mahershala Ali, who plays an erudite musician in the film who hires an unrefined white man as his chauffeur and body guard. It was Ali’s second supporting actor win in two years. (He previously won in 2017 for his role in “Moonlight.”) Ali became the second African-American man to win two Oscars for acting, joining Denzel Washington

“I want to dedicate this to my grandmother, who has been in my ear my entire life telling me that if at first I don’t succeed, try, try again,” Ali said from the stage.

“Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” won best animated feature for Sony Pictures, as expected. The win was a blow to Disney and its Pixar studio, which have dominated the category since its creation in 2001 and had two nominees this year, “Incredibles 2” and “Ralph Breaks the Internet.”

Peter Ramsey, one of the three-credited “Spider-Verse” directors, spoke about the importance of inclusion in animated films. “We see you, we’re powerful,” he said to fans who identified with the diverse characters in the film.

This article originally appeared in <a id="82e200cc-babf-4b62-af9e-79c5f25c68e5" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/24/movies/oscars-academy-awards.html">The New York Times</a>.

An Oscars where all (or most) bets were off

“Welcome to the Oscars!” shouted Adam Lambert, who has taken over for Freddie Mercury as Queen’s frontman in recent years, as a waterfall of sparks fell to the Dolby Theater stage.

<h1>LOS ANGELES — “Green Book,” about a white chauffeur and his black client in segregation-era America, won best picture and two other trophies at the 91st Academy Awards, overcoming a series of awards-season setbacks and mixed critical notices.</h1>

In honoring “Green Book,” voters slowed the rise of Netflix, which had aggressively pushed “Roma” in the best-picture race. Netflix made significant inroads, however, with “Roma,” about a domestic worker in 1970s-era Mexico City, winning three Oscars, including best director and cinematographer for Alfonso Cuarón. (Netflix had previously received only one Oscar for a feature-length film.)

In many ways, the ceremony — the first without a host in 30 years — played out like the more populist and less prestigious Golden Globes: veering in multiple directions as voters sprinkled their attention among a dozen pictures, with no film walking away with a commanding sweep.

Brooks Barnes

Articles written by the author

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