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If “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” had played in say 3500 theaters for a month, it might have set records at the box office.
But Netflix sent it into very limited release last week– just 700 theaters — and for a short time, just til this Thursday.
Then if you want to see “Glass Onion,” you’ll have to watch it on Netflix.
In its theatrical release, “Glass Onion” is a huge hit. It’s made $13 million and will finish with upwards of $15 million. With its all star cast including Daniel Craig and Kate Hudson, not to mention scene stealer Janelle Monae, “Glass Onion” could have been huge not only in box office but as a draw to get people into theaters.
Now that opportunity is lost. People with whom I’ve spoken in the business are disappointed, and some even angry. Movie theaters are fighting for customers. Very few movies this season are hits. “Glass Onion” could have been a salve to a lot of problems. Instead, it’s an irritant.
And what about the Oscars? The first “Knives Out” received only a screenplay nom for director Rian Johnson. The new one could get another screenplay citation, plus supporting actress for Monae — but not if Hollywood feels cheated about the release.
It is with great sadness that I report the death today at 92 of a legend, Freddie Ross Hancock. Freddie was a larger than life member of the international show business community. A Brit, she lived in America for 50 years, brought BAFTA — the British version of the Academy Awards — to New York, received an MBE (presented by then Prince Charles), and counted dozens of celebrities and high profile companies as clients and friends.
In the UK some will recall Freddie as the second and final wife of a very famous British comedian, Tony Hancock. (From the mid 50s for a decade Tony Hancock was the number 1 star on British TV.) They were together for 11 tempestuous years until Tony’s death age 44 in 1968. The marriage part of it was only about three years at the end, as Hancock — who was like the Sid Caesar of England — was a raging alcoholic who could not find solace. A year after his death, Freddie published a bestselling memoir in the UK called “Hancock” with respected theater journalist, David Nathan.
Nathan wrote of Freddie in his preface: “One of London’s top show business PR experts, she was a familiar figure in the film and theater circles in which I increasingly worked. She was more respected than most of she told the truth about her clients, and if that was not always possible, she at least did not invent stories to get publicity for them.”
Freda Ross was born in London in 1930. Before going out on her own and managing Tony Hancock in the 1960s, Freddie worked for two years at the Holland America Line, learning public relations. She went on to become Assistant Head of Publicity at Universal Pictures’ UK offices where she worked with stars of the time like Shelley Winters and Rock Hudson. When she started her own PR firm she became the primary promoter of foreign films in England. She also began helping to promote British films in the US. Her clients included every well known star of the time, from Julie Andrews to Sean Connery, Sophia Loren and husband Carlo Ponti, Jim Dale, Topol (star of the film version of “Fiddler on the Roof’), and Theodore Bikel.
After Hancock died, Freddie moved to the US and began consulting for US movie companies exporting their films to the UK, and vice versa. When Miramax became very involved with British films, it was Freddie who gave advice how to position them, from Merchant Ivory films to ones like “Mrs. Brown”starring Judi Dench. In 1995 she brought BAFTA to the States, giving it a higher international profile. In 2002, she was thanked for her work by Queen Elizabeth with an MBE (Member of the British Empire). She worked on countless projects with big names including Masterpiece Theater’s Alistair Cooke (pictured here with Freddie), whose 80th birthday party in New York she organized with James Galway and Leonard Bernstein performing. She got then-president Ronald Reagan to send a video greeting, and Reagan responded with a thank you to Freddie.
Freddie filed for divorce and the ink was almost dry when Tony Hancock committed suicide in 1968. Although she was technically his widow she received not a dime from his estate. (She was portrayed in two different UK television movies.) She told an interviewer in 1996: . “When Tony was alive, people used to say to me: “do you have children?” I used to say: “yes, just one.” “How old?” “Quite old – 44.””
She never remarried. Instead she was a pioneer, a trailblazer as a woman making it on her own in show business. This was not easy, but her biting wit and insistent loyalty to clients stood her in good stead around the world. Others whom she counted as close friends ranged by British race car superstar Stirling Moss to Tony and Oscar winning composer Marvin Hamlisch.
Tony Hancock and FreddieRoss Hancock, 1964
In the 1990s and 2000s she also worked as Senior Vice-President of Acquisitions for the movie distributor American Video Films, where she was a beloved presence at the Cannes Film Festival. Besides founding BAFTA, she was also Vice-Chairman of the US wing of the Royal Television Society.
Freddie really had a brilliant mind. Even into her 80s she never stopped screening films for BAFTA, giving shrewd advice about how to market them. She also had a devilish sense of humor and knew, as we like to say, where all the bodies were buried. Thanks partly to a longtime friendship with gossip columnist Cindy Adams (and with whom she shared an exact birthday month), Freddie was current on every subject til the end. There was nothing I could tell her that she didn’t know. It was very frustrating!
Firmly ensconced in the US with no immediate family nearby, Freddie Ross Hancock wisely handpicked a group of younger friends whom she chose her adopted family. It was a wise move. This group on this side of the Atlantic is counted as her survivors, most especially CNN correspondent Richard Quest, who acted as a devoted surrogate son, and many others. (She was still linked in the UK to her beloved sister-in–law, Shannie Ross, to whom she spoke every day for 50 years.) We could not have been luckier than to count her as our friend. She will be sorely missed and never forgotten.
So now we know definitely cannibalism is not a topic for a hit movie.
“Bones and All” from A24 and director Luca Guadagnino and starring Timothee Chalamet is a huge flop. It made $3.7 over a five day holiday period.
There will be gnashing of teeth at MGM, which has also killed the “Till” movie about Emmett Till. It’s not like they didn’t have fair warning. Another cannibalism movie, “Fresh,” was closed this spring after getting an F rating from diners.
“Bones and All” will cost MGM something since it’s playing in 2,727 theaters. Someone has to pay that rent.
But audiences gagged at the idea of devouring this ridiculous movie. Yesterday I ran into a long time movie publicist who told me she walked out right away after the munching began. I’m sure she was not alone across the country.
Well, MGM is famous for murdering movies in cold blood. Last year’s pile corpses included “Licorice Pizza,” “House of Gucci,” and “Respect.” This season “Till” features a Best Actress performance by Danielle Dedwyler. There’s even a supporting performance lurking in there from John Douglas Thompson. But MGM or UA or whatever they are have done such a bad job this movie is out of theaters and playing for 19.99 on VOD.
As for “Bones and All” in the theaters, let the purging begin.
You’ve got to watch this video. Last night at “The Music Man” Nicole Kidman donated $100,000 to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. She and star Hugh Jackman have been friends for 30 years. But this is extraordinary generosity. Nicole says she loved the show, too. Bravo!
Alan King, Don Rickles, Jackie Mason, Shecky Greene. They were among the legendary giants of Borscht belt Jewish humor. What was the Borscht belt? It was the group of hotels and clubs in the Catskills to which Jews flocked in the 50s and 60s.
These comedians were so funny they spilled out onto The Ed Sullivan Show. Some went on to even bigger things. Others remained tied to their core audience. The greatest of these guys was Freddie Roman. He’s been ill for a long time, living in Florida. On Saturday he died at age 85.
Freddie worked the circuit of clubs, events, and so on. He was a beloved act in Las Vegas and Atlantic City. He also picked up the torch at the Friars Club when Alan King died and served two terms as Dean. (That Friars Club is now a memory, it’s dead. People keep asking me, and I can tell you, it’s gone.) Freddie was a toastmaster, a genial presence who unlike Rickles didn’t insult anyone. His jokes just hit home and you loved him for it.
Freddie conceived and wrote a hit Broadway show, “Catskills on Broadway,” that played 453 performances from 1991-93. The audiences couldn’t get enough of it and the show cemented Roman’s place in comic history.
Here’s the thing about Freddie Roman. You could call him at home and book a date. He was a mensch, always accessible. God bless him. I’m sure he’s already doing shtick with Alan King, and asking for lean pastrami at the Carnegie Deli in the sky. Freddie, you were a treasure and you will be missed.
Balthazar restaurant owner Keith McNally is famous for his candid Instagram posts. A few days ago he reprinted his manager’s report from the great Soho eatery. Leonardo DiCaprio came in with his manager (maybe Rick Yorn) with his trademark baseball cap clamped down on his head so he could be incognito. But everyone recognizes him, the hat draws more attention. Here’s the report. And below, a photo of Leo at Martin Scorsese’s 80th birthday party from last week. Scorsese’s daughter Francesca, also celebrating a birthday, posted a pic of Leo and also one of herself Jennifer Lawrence and Margot Robbie.
The report:
“One of the highlights of the day today was that Leonardo DiCaprio came in as a walk-in today just after we finished brunch service. His agent checked him in at the door and I seated him and his guest for transition on table 61. He came in disguise with a mask and a baseball cap. Despite being incognito, he was still very recognizable. Especially by starstruck guests. Some of the staff including me (I’m embarrassed to say!), wanted to do something VERY SPECIAL for Leonardo, but you were quite adamant that we do Absolutely Nothing for him, so we didn’t. Which is kind of a pity, but you’re boss. (FOR NOW!) Just joking!”
Friday’s box office laid out a path to glory for “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” Steaming past $300 mil domestically, “WF” was actually up 1% over last Friday. Nature abhors a vacuum and that’s what we’ve got since Hollywood is offering nothing for counter programming.
The only movie that would fit that bill is the George Clooney-Julia Roberts romcom, “Ticket to Paradise.” An unlikely hit, the travelogue is up around $65 million despite being available on video on demand. Not bad!
But everything else, all the small movies that would be part of awards talk, have failed. Universal has had a bad time with “Tar,” ” She Said,” and “Armageddon Time” — the latter made just a million bucks and is already out of circulation. Disney’s “Strange World” is doing no business, and the cannibal movie, “Bones and All,” is probably causing some executives to be chewed out.
Two successes, though: “The Fabelmans” went up to 600 theaters and hit its numbers. And “The Menu” from Searchlight is a hit.
Irene Cara has died at age 63 in Miami. Cara rose to fame quickly with the Alan Parker movie, “Fame.” She sang the theme song, which became a massive hit that has lived on and on for over 40 years. Lightning struck twice when she recorded the theme to “Flashdance (What a Feeling)” which became an even bigger hit soon after and is still played every day. For that song, Cara won an Oscar, Grammy, and Golden Globe.
Cara co-wrote the lyrics to “Flashdance” with famed producer Giorgio Moroder and drummer Keith Forsey. For a couple of years after, Cara had minor hits, but her chart days were over by 1985.
But Cara didn’t write “Fame” so there was not much money in it for her beyond the initial sales of the records. With “Flashdance,” she split the writing credit three ways. When “Fame” and “Flashdance” are heard on the radio, only the writers get paid. For commercials she would have been paid a small fee if anything. And that made her career an uphill battle. Legislation is constantly being proposed to get performers their royalties. Imagine what her life would have been like if that had been the case.
This is the absolute worst part of being a publicist. I can’t believe I’ve had to write this, let alone release the news. Please share your thoughts and memories of Irene. I’ll be reading each and every one of them and know she’ll be smiling from Heaven. She adored her fans. – JM pic.twitter.com/TsC5BwZ3fh
I am so sorry to hear of the death of the great Charles Koppelman. He was one of the true stars of the music industry, a mogul who shunned the spotlight but had a great impact on the culture. My condolences to his family including son Brian, who writes and produces “Billions,” daughters Jennifer Hutt and Stacy Koppelman Fritz.
You will see long obits for Charles because he started out in the era of the Brill Building as a writer-producer-publisher. Eventually in the mid 70s he became a huge publisher through his firm. The Entertainment Company, in which he partnered with Marty Bandier (late the CEO of Sony Music Publishing). The Entertainment Company logo was printed on dozens of hits at Columbia Records including Barbra Streisand and Donna Summer’s “Enough Is Enough.”
Let me jump ahead here. In the late 80s Charles’s wife, Bunny, heard Phoebe Snow singing what became an iconic Bloomingdale’s commercial on TV. Phoebe’s career had been in a lull for some time. Charles had started SBK Records with Bandier, and signed her up. The result was a comeback album called “Something Real.” SBK also piled on hits from plenty of other artists including Smokey Robinson and Boy George. The publishing side of the business was so successful that they sold SBK Entertainment to EMI for $300 million (SBK had been formed from the ashes of what was then called CBS Songs).
Charles was a music publishing visionary and so respected that when Michael Jackson ran into real trouble in the early 2000s, he chose Koppelman to co-manage him. Koppelman and his partner, Al Malnik, almost rescued Jackson until he was conned by brother Randy and the Nation of Islam into a convoluted deal. But it was Charles who helped me navigate Michael’s business dealings in those days and I will always be grateful to him. Years later Charles also helped manage Prince’s interests. He also at different times ran Steve Madden’s shoe business when he was in jail and Martha Stewart’s Omnimedia.
Charles Koppelman was one of the great gentlemen of the music business, and he will be sorely missed.
Jennifer Lopez, aka JLo, won’t get the message. She’s a great dancer, an ok actress, but recording star?
Her last album, released in 2014, sold just 81,000 copies. That should have been a sign.
But no, JLo persists. She announced today she will release a new album in 2023 called “This is Me…Now.” So get ready.
“This is Me…Now” will be released on LA Reid’s Hitco Records, possible via Warner Music. The announcement today comes exactly 20 years after her last actual hit album, “This is Me…Then.” Since then she’s recorded several albums that have sold an average of about 250,000 copies apiece or less.
Lopez is not a great singer. On TV shows, at least, she’s famous for lip synching. On records, she’s often been accused of mixing her voice with other singers to make it sound better. That was certainly the case years ago when Ashanti was her singer on “I’m Real,” her big hit with Ja Rule.
There’s a tracklist of upcoming songs, but no credits yet (they will all have Lopez as co-writer, don’t worry). One of them is called “Letter to Ben,” because the marriage to Ben Affleck must be exploited in some way.
