Paramount is taking no chances with “Top Gun: Maverick.” They’re ensuring a record breaking opening night and weekend with the widest release ever in movie history. The Tom Cruise starrer is playing in 4, 735 theaters. Who knew there were that many?
Thursday total:$19.3 million. If the movie makes $20 million every day this weekend, that’s $80 million, and $100 million through Monday. Maybe the weekend will bring more. We’ll see…
There are still some great music nights in New York.
Last night Sting, one of the biggest rock stars on the planet, took over the famed Blue Note jazz club in Greenwich Village. The occasion? To present his pal, Shaggy, the great reggae star, singing Frank Sinatra songs with a jazz- reggae beat and rich, brassy horns that would make Memphis musicians cry.
Sting has produced a just released album he came up with: Shaggy’s “Com Fly Wid Mi.” On a break from touring in Oslo, Sting heard Shaggy idly singing along to a Frank Sinatra CD and came up with the idea to produce a whole album. Sounds crazy but it works. As Sting told the packed crowd at the Blue Note last night: “He has the same voice as Sinatra, a baritone tenor, same range as Sinatra. And I had an idea, the kind where a neon light goes on over your head, Shaggy Sings the Sinatra Songbook produced by yours truly.”
Some of the album was produced in Jamaica, and Miami, but a lot of it was done at Capitol Studios in LA, where Sinatra recorded many of his greatest records.
“When you hear this thing, you will smile. Shaggy is in his own eco-system of reggae,” Sting said.
And the truth is, Sting is right. Shaggy’s voice — which most people know from “It Wasn’t Me” — fits these songs perfectly. Plus, Sting’s production swings, with those gorgeous horns and charts, and a reggae beat reminiscent of The Police accented and fleshed out. As Shaggy noted on stage: “Most reggae has just two chords, but these records have at least five.”
He added: “This album was born out of boredom [during the pandemic]. We hate boredom.”
On the album, and live on stage, Sting — who should be producing more albums for himself and others — gives the vocalist a place to shine but retain his natural rhythms. So on standards from “Witchcraft” to the single, “That’s Life” to “”Luck Be a Lady Tonight,” Shaggy brings out a whole new dimension to his career. Not all the songs Sting chose are big hits, too. My favorite last night was Shaggy’s rendition of “Angel Eyes,” a deep track in the Sinatra catalog from his famous 1958 album, “Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely.”
About mid set, Sting was persuaded to jump on stage and sing background vocals with Shaggy on “You Make Me Feel So Young.” They even included some cute Rat Pack-like patter that came across like Frank and Dean Martin at the Sands circa 1960.
The crowd, which included a lot of radio people, Sirius execs, Sting’s discerning wife Trudie Styler, and three of his six children. was pretty impressed. I think Shaggy was, too. He said, “I never ever expected to be doing this.” He added: Reggae, you just don’t hear it. You feel it. I’m happy to be pushing edge of reggae.”
Pour yourself gin and tonic. Sit on the desk and sunset, and listen
Terrible: beloved actor Ray Liotta, star of “Goodfellas” and many other movies and TV series, has died at age 67.
Liotta was shooting a new movie in the Dominican Republic. Reports say he died in his sleep.
Liotta broke out on TV in 1980 on the NBC soap, “Another :World.” He went right into movies and prime time and never looked back. I knew him back then and whenever we saw each other we laughed about his wild life in that decade. He was a hard partyer and a good guy. This is really tragic.
Ray had a great career as a leading man turned character actor. He appeared in a lot of beloved movies like “Field of Dreams,” “Something Wild,” and “Corinna Corinna.” He was most recently was in Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story.”
I am so sorry. Condolences to his family and friends. This is much too soon.
The Tony Awards are set for June 12th on CBS, with Hugh Jackman, Patti Lupone, and a slew of stars. The devoted Broadway audience will tune in, and it should be a terrific show.
So it only makes sense that ABC has decided to schedule the Time 100 Awards, a ratings loser last time around, for its network return at the exact same time. You’d think they’d have a sports special, some kind of counter programming to the Tonys. But no, the network that already has a lot of crappy ratings shows on its hands, is going for broke. They will destroy the Time 100 Awards on their own!
The Time 100 is hosted by actor Simu Liu, from ABC-Disney- Marvel’s “Shang Chi and the Legend of the Rings” hit. Right away, the show is dead. Other guests include Mary J. Blige and Miranda Lambert, and appearances by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson and “Abbott Elementary” star Quinta Brunson.
In 2020, ABC scored just 2.4 million viewers with the Time 100. My advice is they include among this year’s winners Tucker Carlson and Donald Trump. who each made the list. That should halve that 2020 rating pretty nicely.
PS Doesn’t billionaire Marc Benioff pay for this show as owner of Time? Couldn’t he buy a better time slot?
Tom Cruise — we got to know him 40 years ago in “Risky Business.” It was a hit, and so were his subsequent movies.
But Cruise, recently billed as “The Last Movie Star” (ridiculous), has never had a $100 million opening weekend.
He’s come close. “Mission Impossible 2” debuted with $97 million. “War of the Worlds” took in $96 million. But never that magic number.
That may all change beginning tonight. “Top Gun Maverick” has had the marketing, publicity, and reviews to make it his biggest blockbuster of his life.
He’s worked hard and had a star making machinery behind him the whole time. But the truth is, Cruise has not had that many $100 million films, period. Aside from the “Mission Impossible” series, Cruise rarely gets to that level with individual films. There were good ones like “American Made” and “Jerry Maguire.” There were some real clunkers like “Valkyrie,” “The Mummy,” “Oblivion,” “Vanilla Sky” and the 2nd “Jack Reacher” movie in 2016. But Cruise’s heyday of hitting just $100 million, a studio trick created by keeping a mediocre film in theaters until the last drop is squeezed out of it, is long over.
“Maverick,” followed by two “Mission Impossible” movies, is probably going to rewrite his opening weekend history. Indeed, the trailer for “MI 7,” which will play before “Maverick” starting tonight, should juice up the audience for a whole new Cruise generation — one that may not even associate him with Scientology.
We’ll see how things look tomorrow morning. PS “Opening weekend” is a broad statement here. “Maverick” will really get a five day weekend, opening night, then again tomorrow night, and adding Memorial Day Monday.
Elvis Presley’s daughter, granddaughter, and ex wife are praising the new Baz Luhrmann movie, “Elvis,” movie very publicly. I’m sure they really love it, but they also need it to be a hit more than ever, and more even than Warner Bros.
The whole world of Elvis, once a financial powerhouse, needs a supercharge to get it going again. The movie is a godsend of publicity for them. Priscilla, Lisa Marie, and Lisa Marie’s actress daughter, Riley Keough, are surely praying for a big hit when “Elvis” opens June 24th.
That’s because the state of Elvis needs to be reinvigorated and fast.
For one thing, Lisa Marie’s finances are in shambles after years of lawsuits and litigation over tens of millions in losses. Years ago she sold the rights to the Elvis estate to the now-deceased Robert F. X. Sillerman. But instead of great investments turning that money into a bigger pot of gold, Lisa Marie says her business manager ripped her off. They’ve been in court for a long time.
There are many other issues. Elvis record sales are in the toilet. His generation of addicted fans has aged out. They own every record they need. A new generation has not been forthcoming, a la the Beatles or Rolling Stones. Elvis is thought of as a 50s act, or a Vegas performer. He didn’t write his own songs, so all those hits played on the radio are generating money for the writers and publishers but not Elvis. (This is why the fight continues in Congress for a performers’ radio royalty, which radio conglomerates are vehemently against.)
Sales of the actual records are minimal these days. According to Music Connect,yeat to date sales of all Elvis records including streaming comes to just 1.4 million. The top 3 selling singles so far in 2022 are “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” “Suspicious Minds,” and “Jailhouse Rock.”
The best selling Elvis album, “Essential Elvis,” has sold just 144,000 copies so far this year.
So the success of the Baz Luhrmann movie, it’s hoped, will spur all these sales. A soundtrack album is coming, but it’s full of newly recorded versions of old Elvis hits. The new artists get paid, but Elvis doesn’t — he didn’t write the songs. The Presleys have to hope that fans will go back to the originals and want them in their collections.
According to Forbes, Elvis’s net worth as a dead celebrity in 2020 was $23 million –not much compared to modern blockbuster stars like Madonna or Justin Bieber. Revenue comes from merchandise and ticket sales at Elvis’s famed home, Graceland. But the last two years have hit attendance hard. Graceland was closed for two months in 2020, and is only operating at limited capacity because of the pandemic. Again, the movie should drive new, curious tourists to this famed destination.
Revenue garnered just from the movie’s PR should help the once great Elvis Presley Family Foundation, which used to give huge donations to Memphis charities. In the last few years, the foundation has dwindled down from its prior status. Read my stories here from 2017 and 2018.
Viva Elvis! And “Elvis”!
Stephen Sondheim is smiling in heaven.
“Company,” as I told you yesterday, is booming right now with Patti Lupone, Katrina Lenk and co.
Now the Encores presentation of “Into the Woods” is moving to Broadway for six weeks beginning June 28th. It just wrapped at City Center.
The whole all -star cast is making the transition, too. That’s Sara Bareilles as the Baker’s Wife, Brian D’Arcy James as the Baker, Tony Award® winner Patina Miller as the Witch, Phillipa Soo as Cinderella, Tony Award winner Gavin Creel as the Wolf/Cinderella’s Prince, Joshua Henry as Rapunzel’s Prince, Ta’Nika Gibson as Lucinda, Annie Golden as Cinderella’s Mother/Grandmother/Giant’s Wife, Albert Guerzon as Cinderella’s Father, Brooke Ishibashi as Florinda, Kennedy Kanagawa as Milky White, David Patrick Kelly as the Narrator/Mysterious Man, Julia Lester as Little Red Riding Hood, Cole Thompson as Jack, David Turner as the Steward, Jason Forbach, Mary Kate Moore, and Cameron Johnson. Additional casting will be announced at a later date.
This is like a Murderers Row of Broadway talent! PS DId I mention David Rockwell is the designer?
Tickets went on sale this morning at 10am, and they will be all sold out very fast.
Justin Timberlake is cashing his chips in at the window.
Timberlake has sold his music catalog to Hipgnosis Music funded by Blackstone. Justin is only 41, making him the youngest of all songwriters to sell his catalog in its entirety.
In the last year we’ve seen Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Sting, and many others sell the rights to their songwriting catalogs and even recordings to big money endeavors. The result is a pay out of anywhere from $100 million to $500 million. The artist no longer receives royalties, they get the lump sum. Then the new owner goes out and aggressively places the music in commercials, movies, and other projects for big licensing fees.
The average age of the artists who’ve done this is 70 years old. Timberlake is not in that generation. But his sale is a sign that hed like his money now, please, rather than wait until he’s 70 and there is no more business. Justin has his name as a co-writer credit on all his solo material, including his biggest hit, “Can’t Stop the Feeling.”
Justin is also not prolific. He hasn’t released an album of new material since 2018’s Man of the Woods. His back to back smash hits, “20/20,” volumes 1 and 2, came in 2013. Married, with two small children, he obviously has an eye on financial independence and estate planning.
Hipgnosis has been very splashy in the last couple of years, especially using a huge investment from Blackstone to buy up catalogs. There have been whispers of some quiet changes within the company recently, but so far their ship keeps sailing with confidence.
As for Justin, it won’t be long before we’ll be hearing all his songs pitching various products. One of his hits was called “Sexy Back,” and soon we’ll hearing some product is ‘bringing sexy back.’ It could be a car, a liquor, or a detergent!
As you probably know, Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis” starring Tom Hanks and Austin Butler opened at Cannes yesterday.
There was a 10 minute ovation, noted. But Cannes is famous for thunderous standing ovations unless a movie is a total stinker. So this expression of delight is not a surprise. (Also, the movie is 2 hours 39 minutes. Some people may have just wanted to see if their blood was still flowing.)
Critics, however, have given the much anticipated film muted praise so far. “Elvis” has an 82 on Rotten Tomatoes with just 17 reviews filed so far. The film will get a real Elvis press junket at Graceland on June 11th.
The reviews are what I would call a “B” so far. Most of the critics who’ve filed liked it, with reservations. Some really didn’t care for it. Those would include Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair and David Ehrlich of Indie Wire. Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian in London had little use for it too.
But Justin Chang writes for the LA Times: “To complain that “Elvis” is basically a compilation of musical-biopic conventions is a bit like complaining about a greatest-hits album; it also misses… [Luhrmann’s] ability to suffuse clichés with sincerity, energy and feeling.”
Owen Gleiberman of Variety really liked it: “A fizzy, delirious, impishly energized, compulsively watchable 2-hour-and-39-minute fever dream — a spangly pinwheel of a movie that converts the Elvis saga we all carry around in our heads into a lavishly staged biopic-as-pop-opera.”
So, stay tuned. I had heard from early screenings that “Elvis” was very stylish but didn’t penetrate the myth of Presley beyond what we already know– and that if you don’t know much about the subject there’s not a lot to learn here. Personally, I’m fascinated and can’t wait to see it.
No one knows why “Paradise Square” received 10 Tony nominations. No one except Tony nominators who were clearly not in touch with reality.
The musical received terrible reviews. It’s also a bust at the box office. And oh yeah it’s produced by Garth Drabinsky, an ex con.
Last week, “Paradise Square” — despite the Tony nominations — made just $241,952. With a huge cast and orchestra, not to mention theater costs, the musical is bleeding red ink. It’s a Dead Musical Walking. It’s playing at just 57% of its capacity.
The Tonys are on June 12th. “Paradise Square” will not win anything. If box office continues at this pace — same as it’s been for weeks — the end will be announced in short order.