Maybe gym freaks will love “Magazine Dreams.”
The Jonathan Majors drama which was dropped by Searchlight last year is in 815 theaters today.
Majors was canceled after he was arrested for domestic abuse a week after the 2023 Oscars. Disney’s Searchlight had picked up the movie a couple of months earlier. If it hadn’t been for the arrest, Majors and the movie would have had an Oscar push.
Majors’ arrest was such a scandal he lost all his jobs including a huge one — playing the chief villain in the next “Avengers” series from Marvel, which — like Searchlight — is part of Disney.
Once Majors was found guilty on two misdemeanor charges in a domestic violence case — assault in the third degree and harassment in the second degree — there was no going back to Disney. It didn’t matter that the jury found Majors not guilty of intentional assault in the third degree and aggravated harassment in the second degree. Or that he skipped jail time.
Searchlight shelved “Magazine Dreams.” never to be seen again. The movie languished until it was moved to Briarcliff, recent home of “The Apprentice.”
Briarcliff’s Tom Ortenberg told the WSJ he paid nothing for it, just had to cover marketing and distribution expenses. The price tag is a low $2 million.
Rotten Tomatoes has “Magazine Dreams” at 81%, higher than I might have thought. I watched it via the virtual Sundance portal in January 2023, before the arrest. I really didn’t link it. It’s a grim movie about a wannabe weightlifter who keeps juicing up, hoping to became a star of fitness magazines.
I can’t imagine the appeal for theaters unless, again, everyone from Gold’s Gym goes to see it. (Do they go to theaters? Can they eat candy?) It should be a perfect streaming movie, something you choose late at night and fall asleep to.
What will happen to Majors? Despite his 50/50 conviction, his career is stopped. The promise of becoming a highly paid famous and beloved actor is quashed because of the incident, which is too bad. He was convicted by the public before a jury ever got to him. Can he ever recover? I met Majors at the 2023 Oscars the week before the assault and he seemed like a nice guy. It remains to be seen what happens to him next.
