Here is a look at this week’s newsletter – you can read the whole thing here – and subscribe as well by clicking the top left button.
There are two worlds happening right now – one is the streaming world, where shows like Unbelievable are stirring debate – and the movie world where all of a sudden Downton Abbey, the movie, is a box office smash. For fans of the show, this comes as no surprise, but for anyone who didn’t watch it the success of the film is surprising.
The film earned a whopping $31 million opening weekend, with the Brad Pitt space movie, Ad Astra, coming in at second, just edging out Rambo, with $19,210,000 where Rambo is 19,015,000. Downton Abbey‘s opening weekend numbers and A Cinemascore ensures it’s going to make a lot of money. How much money can it make? Can it become a phenom headed for the Best Picture race? Who’s to say. If it earns $200 million how can the Academy not nominate the film? What we have is the movies mirroring television, and television kind of mirroring the movies, Fargo, etc. It is all circular where a no-risk investment is concerned. That’s why Broadway is mostly pre-awareness projects to bring in ticket buyers. They seem much more willing to invest in what they think is a sure thing rather than take a risk that whatever they’re seeing will be bad. … Best Actor and Best Actress – Why the Imbalance The Best Actor race is almost always more crowded than the Best Actress race, though recently that has seemed to shift a little bit. The main reason seems to be that most films in general are driven by a male lead, but Oscar films especially. For instance, the strongest films for Best Picture right now feature a male lead: |