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A24 is one of the best branded film companies ever.
Indeed, their branding has been so effective that they managed to get an Oscar for Best Picture for “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” a movie no one in the Academy liked.
But can their unique marketing overcome audience apathy?
Their new release, “The Materialists,” has debuted with a $5.1 million opening including previews. Critics love it. But there’s a hitch.
Despite a strong cast — Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal, Chris Evans — “The Materialists” has earned a B minus Cinemascore. On Rotten Tomatoes, the audience rating is just 71%. Clearly, people who saw it didn’t like it when asked upon exit.
Going, audiences were probably coming based on director Celine Song. Her “Past Lives” was wonderful, a true indie hit, charming as ever. “Past Lives” got an Oscar nomination and many others, as well. It was one of those left field hits no one could predict.
But “The Materialists” may be immaterial. Box office experts will be watching receipts tonight and tomorrow to see if A24 can overcome poor word of mouth from regular people.
Donald Trump appeals to his base because he’s illiterate.
Proof: he can’t spell the word ‘parade.’ See below. This morning he posted to Truth Social and made it ‘perade’ with an e.
It’s not the first time Trump has misspelled words in his posts. It’s not like spell correct did it, either.
Trump may think a rainy parade is fun, but it won’t be for all the soldiers marching for his birthday — many against their wishes. Not only is rain expected but the humidity is 75%. Imagine marching in those conditions for no reason. This is Trump not caring about the military at all. They’ll be soaked inside and out. Trump, however, will be in AC. Otherwise, his makeup will run!
UPDATED It’s not clear who showed up last night for the one night only screening of Miley Cyrus’s “Something Beautiful.”
Trafalgar Releasing has not reported box office numbers.
It couldn’t heve been good. The album, “Something Beautiful” has turned into something awful for Miley.
In its second week, “Something Beautiful” has sunk to number 25 on iTunes and 21 on amazon. Total sales are only 77,000 according to Luminate.
All the singles from the album have disappeared, too. That includes songs that should have been hits like “More to Love,” and “Easy Lover.”
But things are even worse. The album does not appear at all on the HitsDailyDouble.com Top 50. The magazine had a projection of 12k with 4k of those CDs and downloads, down 85% from the first week. Projected streams were 9.7 million, down from 21 million last week. But it wasn’t published because Columbia didn’t confirm.
Columbia did confirm 44,274 for Addison Rae, so we know they’re at leave alive.
It’s not like “Something Beautiful” is a bad album. There’s just been a total miscommunication in the marketing.
What happened? Miley squandered her incredible success from the song, “Flowers.” Like Katy Perry, she either insulated herself from reality or just has poor management. Her mother is her manager, which may explain a lot.
What a shame. She coulda been a contendah. Her YouTube release of singing “More to Lost” just with a piano is pure gold.
Miley has also said she doesn’t want to big tours anymore. I guess she’s made good investments from past work. Because without hit records, her income would be touring. She and Dolly Parton should do a limited tour — “sit downs” in four or five cities. They’d sell out like crazy!
MSNBC really rode rough shod over CNN on Monday and Tuesday.
Jen Psaki clobbered CNN’s Kaitlin Collins both nights, bringing 1.1 million twice.
There was a lot of planted negative publicity about Psaki’s ratings, saying she’d lost a lot of Rachel Maddow’s viewers. But Psaki is smart and engaging, and it takes time to build an audience. Now she’s up and running. Good for her.
Meantime, Jake Tapper faces the fact that he will never exceed MSNBC in total viewers. On both Monday and Tuesday, MSNBC took him to task with bigger numbers. Tapper has a slight edge in the jey age demo, but not much. And it’s not like either cable news network is getting quality ads for younger demos.
Tapper has finally stopped flogging his book every night. Sales are a disaster. Even CNN can see that. Time to cut bait and move on!
And guess who’d doing the best? Lawrence O’Donnell at 10pm. He’s averaging 1.4 million viewers a night. I guess he solved his contract problem back on June 4th. MSNBC can’t afford to lose him!
Tony Macaulay was finally inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame last night.
It took at least 20 years to get him in. His name used to be on every nomination list, and he was always overlooked. Mariah Carey got in before him!
Congrats to Tony. He wrote or co-wrote many pop classics including “Build Me Up Buttercup” and “Baby Now That I Found You,” for the Foundations “Last Night I Couldn’t Get to Sleep at All,” for the Fifth Dimension, “Smile a Little Smile for Me” and “Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes,” and “Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling Again.”
Tony had a nasty fight with music publishers in 1974, winning the right to be able to sue them. That may be one reason he was never inducted in the past. The SHOF is controlled by music publishers.
A Brit, Tony is 81, and managed to live long enough to get into the Hall of Fame. Bravo!
PS The Fifth Dimension, which introduced countless famous songwriters, still has no award from the SHOF. Ridiculous. They were innovators. Their back up band were musicians from Phil Spector’s Wrecking Crew, for god’s sake.
First the good news: as a tribute to Brian Wilson, fans have sent 13 Beach Boys singles to the iTunes Top 100.
They’ve also sent 5 Beach Boys albums and 2 Brian Wilson albums to the top of the albums chart. “God Only Knows” is the number 1 single, and “Pet Sounds” is the number 1 album.
But fans are missing out on Brian’s solo albums, “Love and Mercy,” and “Imagination.” They’re also not picking up the Beach Boys’ “Holland” and “Surf’s Up.” The title track of the latter is a masterpiece.
Brian’s cousin Mike Love and sometime co-songwriter– who he loathed — and who sued him long ago — grieved in his own special way last night. The day after Brian died, Mike showed up to get an award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame. And he performed. The man has no shame. He proved only the good die young. What a tool.
(His appearance reminded me of when Joseph Jackson brought a Michael Jackson impersonator to the BET AWards in 2009 four days after Michael died.)
HBO put on the dog last night, as they used to say before PETA.
For season 3 of “The Gilded Age,” the cabler took over Cipriani 25 Broadway and filled it with exotic flowers and delicious food.
This was a sold out screening at the Tribeca Film Festival of Episode 1, and a Q&A with creator Julian Fellowes and the cast moderated by a sock-less Frank Di Lella of Spectrum One.
On stage: Cynthia Nixon — looking the most glamorous I’ve ever seen her, Christine Baranski (always glamorous), Carrie Coon (Beautiful and very funny), Denee Benton, Louisa Jacobson, and Morgan Spector wearing a Lanvin top Liberace would have adored.
Spector’s famous actress wife Rebecca Hall was in the audience with their very cute 7 year old daughter. So was co-star Kristine Nielsen, taking a night off from Broadway’s “Smash.” (“Gilded” fans would never know from her straight laced German cook in the show how hilarious she is on stage.) And when the remaining cast and crew were asked to stand up, the enormous number of them got thundering ovations.
Also in the audience: the great S. Epatha Merkerson from “Chicago Med” and previously “Law & Order” for hundreds of seasons. She’s able to be home in New York for a bit during the “Med” hiatus, and loving it. Just the sight of Epatha (Ep-AY-tha) on endless reruns on TV is a comfort. A great, underrated actress.
I predict this is the breakthrough season for “The Gilded Age.” Unlike “Downton Abbey,” “Gilded Age” is full of humor and laughs juxtaposed with the drama of New York society in 1883. The production value has also increased with a richer color palette that will resonate on the small screen.
Fellowes, who’s sidelined in a wheelchair right now with back issues, was erudite and full of fun. We laughed because all anyone asks him or the cast — just as with “Downton Abbey” — “What will happen next?”
(At the Q&A, Carrie Coon almost blurted something out, but Fellowes reprimanded her before she could reveal anything.)
“This is all they ask!” he cried with mock exasperation, and shook his head. When I told him there are at least two more seasons left in this sparkling production he said: “I agree. We’re finally at the point where there’s less exposition. Everyone knows the characters, has favorites, and they’re rooting for them.”
I’ve seen the whole season, and I can tell you that Baranski and Nixon are like US Tennis pros as their characters struggle for domestic dominance in their mansion. They reminded me of Maggie Smith and Penelope Wilton in “Downton.” Nothing better!
The great and amazing Mel Brooks is turning 99 years old on June 28th.
He just announced he will reprise his original character of Yogurt in a sequel to his hit, “Spaceballs” on its 40th anniversary.
Remember, at the end of “Spaceballs,” there’s a card that reads: “Coming soon Spaceballs: The Search for Money.” It’s taken all this time, but they’re doing it!
Bill Pullman and Rick Moranis, who were in the original film, will return as well. Moranis is coming out of retirement.
The movie is set for release in two years when Mel could be 101 years old.
Brooks is famous for playing the 20 Thousand Year Old Man with Carl Reiner in a classic stand up routine. Now it may come to fruition.
The new “Spaceballs” is directed by Josh Greenbaum from a script by Benji Samit, Dan Hernandez, and Josh Gad.
The likelihood is that Gad will play the John Candy role of Barf (or his son) from the original movie.
While the title, plot details, and rest of cast are being kept under wraps, the film has been described by those who have not yet read the script as “A Non-Prequel Non-Reboot Sequel Part Two but with Reboot Elements Franchise Expansion Film.”
Everything must now be done to make Mel makes this premiere. Put him in a Ziploc bag, freeze him, bubble wrap him. He’s a national treasure!
Melania Trump may actually be granted her wish, sort of.
Everyone knows Melania is furious she hasn’t been on the cover of Vogue. She’s the only first lady they’ve ignored. Jill Bide, Michelle Obama, and Hillary Clinton have often had that distinction.
Now the new editor of Vanity Fair, an unknown named Mark Guiducci, could make Melania’s dream come true. Guiducci, according to sources, told the staff at a meeting this week that he wanted to feature “The Real Housewives of Mar-a-Lago.”
He also said Joe Rogan, conservative podcaster, would be a good subject as well.
This might fall in line with Wintour’s recent visit to the White House. She and a couple of fashion execs met with Chief of Staff Susie Wiles to discuss the huge tariffs Trump has placed on their products. For Wintour to even set up such a meeting is unusual considering her fealty to the Democrats.
But Wintour is a practical person. Vanity Fair is fading. If she could horse trade a fawning cover of Melania for lower tariffs, she’d do it in a minute.
Melania did appear on the cover of February 2017 Mexico Vanity Fair. The picture showed her dining on diamonds.
Meantime, insiders say Conde Nast employees are furious over the Guiducci hiring. Wintour, they say, interviewed 50 more qualified candidates to be global editor but had no intention of hiring them. They say she always knew that Guiducci, who has only had Vogue bylines about Anna, would be her choice. Some are claiming his hiring is in violation of HR rules.
And what is Guiducci’s salary? As of June 7th, the job was still being advertised for $136K- $166K. I wrote about it in April and the ad is still up. Since Graydon Carter used to make $2 million, and Radhika Jones must have been paid $500K a year, this is bargain basement.
CNN has wasted a lot of time on Jake Tapper’s book.
“Original Sin” sold just 8,500 copies in its third week. That’s about half of what it sold the prior week.
Total sales come to 79,645 according to NPD Book Scan. On amazon, the corrupt account of Joe Biden’s time in office has fallen to number 42. It should be out of the top 100 by next week (amazon moves slowly).
Tapper and co author Alex Thompson constructed a hypothesis that Biden was a dottering old fool who couldn’t run the White House. They put him a wheelchair and suggested he couldn’t remember names. Of course, at the same time, Biden was giving cogent off the cuff remarks, interviews, and riding his bicycle. The book was fiction.
And still CNN pushed it on every segment for over two weeks, over and over. They co-opted other news personalities to debate it and promote it. But the real world rejected it. Even Jimmy Kimmel canceled a whole show just to dump Tapper from an interview.
