Brooks Barnes

The No. 1 movie in the United States and Canada — as could have been predicted a year ago — was the Disney-Marvel juggernaut “Avengers: Endgame,” which collected roughly $146 million. Total domestic ticket sales for the all-star superhero movie stand at $620 million, according to Comscore. The film has collected a jaw-dropping $2.2 billion globally since arriving in theaters less than two weeks ago.

That left three new movies to compete for scraps.

“The Intruder” (Sony) did the best. A thriller aimed at African-American audiences and directed by Deon Taylor, “The Intruder” took in about $11 million, a respectable debut for a lightly marketed movie that cost just $8 million to make.

Lionsgate, which has been experiencing a box office drought, tried to compete with “Long Shot,” an R-rated comedy starring Seth Rogen and Charlize Theron. Despite strong reviews, the movie lived up to its title, selling about $10 million in tickets. “Long Shot” cost roughly $40 million to make and another $30 million to market. Lionsgate said on Sunday that it expected “Long Shot” to find a broader audience over the next month, with the Mother’s Day and Memorial Day weekends holding promise.

The studio is one of a handful of smaller ones that have been struggling as streaming services have moved aggressively into their territory — midbudget action-adventures, comedies and dramas. Lionsgate had held up “Long Shot” to Wall Street as one of a handful of movies that would signify a turnaround for its film division. (Another was “Hellboy,” which bombed last month.) The studio will try again with “John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum,” which arrives in theaters on May 17.

Another small studio, STXfilms, had an even gloomier weekend. In partnership with Alibaba Pictures, it rolled out “UglyDolls” — hyped before its release as the start of a franchise — to disappointing ticket sales of about $8.5 million. The poorly reviewed film, directed by Kelly Asbury and based on a line of plush toys, cost at least $45 million to make and $30 million to market.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/05/movies/avengers-endgame-box-office.html" id="030f6101-093e-3a95-a231-5c07d35ae197">The New York Times</a>.

The weekend’s box office totals laid bare the have and have-nots of Hollywood in brutal fashion.

'Avengers' Muscles Out Competition to Maintain Box Office Lead

The superhero movie — the 22nd in a series from Disney’s Marvel Studios — collected roughly $350 million in the United States and Canada, according to Comscore, which compiles box-office data. That easily beat “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” (2015), which had opening-weekend sales of $248 million, which translates to about $270 million in today’s dollars.

“Avengers: Endgame,” which received euphoric reviews from critics, took in an astounding $1.2 billion worldwide, arriving as the No. 1 movie in at least 54 countries. Disney said Sunday morning that the movie set a record for the largest opening weekend in 44 overseas markets, with Imax theaters contributing an outsized portion of ticket sales, particularly in China.

“It shows the power of theaters — the ability, even in a hyper-fragmented culture, to deliver that wildly big communal experience,” Megan Colligan, president of Imax Filmed Entertainment, said in an interview.

Scrambling to keep up with demand, AMC Theaters added 5,000 last-minute showtimes in the United States over the weekend, lifting its total number to more than 63,000. Nineteen AMC locations played “Avengers: Endgame” around the clock. On Saturday alone, 2.3 million people turned up at AMC cinemas.

“Young moviegoers will remember where they were when they saw ‘Endgame,’ who they saw it with, and what it felt like,” said John Fithian, president of the National Association of Theater Owners. “That will pay off for years to come in the same way that moviegoers who grew up in the ’70s and ’80s still talk about the impact that ‘Star Wars’ had on them.”

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/28/movies/avengers-endgame-box-office.html" id="26137bd5-98c7-3c8f-a974-3aaebdbbfcd6">The New York Times</a>.

LOS ANGELES — “Avengers: Endgame” arrived to record-breaking ticket sales over the weekend.

'Avengers: Endgame' Conquers the World With a $1.2 Billion Opening

“We really want these movies to stand on their own, with filmmakers best suited to the characters,” Toby Emmerich, chairman of the Warner Bros. Pictures Group, said by phone on Sunday morning. “We’re all feeling deservedly really good.”

“Shazam!” was the No. 1 movie in North America, collecting $53.5 million over the weekend, according to Comscore, which compiles box-office data. Paid previews in partnership with Fandango in late March, designed to prompt positive chatter online, added $3.33 million. “Shazam!” also had a solid start in countries like Mexico and Russia.

Second place at the domestic box office went to a remake of “Pet Sematary” (Paramount), based on the novel by Stephen King. It took in an estimated $25 million. Disney’s big-budget “Dumbo” trundled along in third place, selling $18.2 million in tickets, for a sad two-week total of $76.3 million.

“Shazam!” was made by New Line, a division of Warner that focuses on lower-cost films that often serve as counterprogramming. Made for about $100 million — about 40 percent less than most superhero movies — “Shazam!” tells the story of a teenage boy (played by Asher Angel, known for Disney Channel’s “Andi Mack”) who can turn himself into a hero with an adult body (Zachary Levi) and unique powers.

“New Line always thought that ‘Big’ as a superhero movie was a great idea, a way to make the genre feel fresh and different,” Emmerich said.

Warner has started to deliver superhero home runs on a consistent basis: “Wonder Woman” from Patty Jenkins, “Aquaman” from James Wan, and seemingly “Shazam!,” which was directed by a relative newcomer, David F. Sandberg.

Where the PG-13 “Shazam!” will end up at the box office remains a bit of a question mark given the impending arrival of “Avengers: Endgame.” Ticket buyers gave “Shazam!” an A grade in CinemaScore exit polls, an indication of staying power.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/07/movies/shazam-box-office-pet-sematary.html" id="58d28f62-191b-36aa-abc6-e3310d947004">The New York Times</a>.

LOS ANGELES — Warner Bros. has finally earned back the benefit of the doubt when it comes to its all-important superhero movies: “Shazam!” became the studio’s third nonsequel comic-book hit in a row over the weekend, arriving to applause from critics and stout ticket sales of nearly $156 million worldwide.

'Shazam!' Solidifies a Superhero Turnaround at Warner Bros.

The tweets by Gunn, who wrote and directed the Marvel superhero film “Guardians of the Galaxy” in 2014 and delivered a smash sequel in 2017, contained jokes about pedophilia, AIDS, rape and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Two far-right provocateurs, Mike Cernovich and Jack Posobiec, threw a spotlight on the comments — written between 2009 and 2012 — after Gunn harshly criticized President Donald Trump online.

Disney executives seemed to acknowledge Friday that they made a misstep of their own in almost immediately firing Gunn in the aftermath: At the time, “Guardians” cast members condemned the decision as an overreaction to the “mob mentality” of the internet. If nothing else, the reversal reflects the challenges that Hollywood studios face as they contend with online furors over past behavior in response to the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements, all while trying to protect billion-dollar film properties.

Walt Disney Studios revealed Gunn’s reinstatement as the director of “Guardians of the Galaxy 3” in an article on Deadline.com, a trade news site. Disney declined to comment further, except to confirm the report’s accuracy. In a statement on Twitter, Gunn called himself “incredibly humbled” and “tremendously grateful” to those who had supported him in recent months.

“I am always learning and will continue to work at being the best human being I can be,” he wrote. “I deeply appreciate Disney’s decision.”

Alan F. Horn, chairman of Walt Disney Studios, decided to rehire Gunn — several months ago — after a series of meetings with the director. Horn, who reached out to Gunn, had been impressed with his public apology on the day Disney fired him. Gunn repeatedly took responsibility for his words, which he called “stupid, not at all funny, wildly insensitive and certainly not provocative like I had hoped.”

“Regardless of how much time has passed,” he had added, “I understand and accept the business decisions taken today.”

Gunn’s response stood in contrast to how other stars have reacted in similar situations. Kevin Hart, for instance, was initially defensive when his past anti-gay comments on Twitter resurfaced in December after he was named host of the Academy Awards telecast. Hart did not apologize at first, instead posting a video online in which he said: “Guys, I’m almost 40 years old. If you don’t believe that people change, grow, evolve as they get older, I don’t know what to tell you.”

Six hours later, he stepped down as Oscar host and offered a perfunctory apology.

It was unclear to what degree Disney was influenced by blowback from “Guardians” fans over Gunn’s ouster. Hundreds of thousands of people signed a Change.org petition asking Disney to reconsider.

“Guardians of the Galaxy” is a crucial property for Disney. The first two movies, starring Chris Pratt as Star-Lord and Zoe Saldana as Gamora, and featuring fan-favorite creatures like Groot and Rocket raccoon, collected roughly $1.6 billion at the global box office. Disney also sells “Guardians” merchandise and is counting on an expensive new “Guardians” attraction at Epcot in Florida to sell theme park vacations.

Fans greeted Gunn’s official return to the Marvel universe with euphoria. Cernovich, for one, was not happy. The far-right blogger, author and YouTube personality wrote on Twitter, “If you think Gunn getting rehired hurts me rather than children, you’re a sick person and part of the problem.”

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/15/business/media/james-gunn-guardians-of-the-galaxy.html" id="b00f895d-a882-3d13-a674-adfbfa9b8233">The New York Times</a>.

LOS ANGELES — Disney is taking back James Gunn, the creative force behind its “Guardians of the Galaxy” movie franchise, reversing its contentious decision in July to fire the filmmaker for offensive jokes he wrote on Twitter several years ago.

Disney Rehires 'Guardians' Director After an Online Outcry

His death, following years of Parkinson’s disease, was confirmed by his son, Jonathan.

Sheinberg was for much of his career the forthright top deputy to Lew Wasserman, the chairman of MCA, a conglomerate that encompassed Universal. The ultimate mogul, Wasserman defined power in Hollywood in the decades after World War II.

But Sheinberg, openly intimidating as president and chief operating officer, kept the gears turning. When the two men left MCA in 1995, Sheinberg had worked for the company for 36 years, the last 22 as president.

During that time he helped transform Universal into an international entertainment giant, complete with a sprawling theme park empire.

He played a major role in pivotal films like “Back to the Future,” in 1985 (and a few hall-of-fame flops, like “Waterworld” 10 years later), and turned Universal into a television superpower. The company had the No. 1 show in 1970 with “Marcus Welby, M.D.,” about a kindhearted physician starring Robert Young, and churned out 20 movie-of-the-week projects annually.

Sheinberg was also credited with seeing opportunity in music — he led MCA’s purchases of Motown in 1988 and Geffen Records in 1990 — and putting Universal into a competitive position with Disney in the global theme park business.

Sheinberg relished a court battle, sparring about copyright issues with Sony over the VCR and with Nintendo over its “Donkey Kong” game.

“Sheinberg dealt with all people like a battering ram: Do it his way or get out of the way,” Dennis McDougal wrote in the 1998 biography “The Last Mogul: Lew Wasserman, MCA, and the Hidden History of Hollywood.”

Most important, Sheinberg discovered Spielberg. It was 1968 and the director, in his early 20s, had just completed a short film, “Amblin’,” a love story about hitchhiking hippies. Based on what he saw, Sheinberg put Spielberg under contract and gave him a job directing television shows. An episode of “Marcus Welby” was one of the first. In 1971 came “Duel,” Spielberg’s thrilling TV movie about a commuter terrorized by a truck driver.

With a line that has come to epitomize loyalty in the often fickle movie business, Sheinberg told his protégé at the time: “A lot of people will stick with you in success. I’ll stick with you in failure.”

Sheinberg, who could be as tender as he was prickly, was the one who allowed Spielberg to make “Jaws,” giving him a budget of $3.5 million (about $17 million in today’s money). A problem-plagued shoot pushed the cost to more than twice as much.

But Sheinberg, developing a father-son relationship with Spielberg, continued to support the film, which went on to become the prototype for the wide-release summer blockbuster.

“Sid created me, in a way, and I also re-created Sid, in a way,” Spielberg was quoted as saying in The New York Times in 1997.

Under Sheinberg’s watch, Universal released two more hits from Spielberg, “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” (1982) and “Jurassic Park” (1993). It was Sheinberg who handed Spielberg Thomas Keneally’s novel“Schindler’s List,” which the director turned into his masterpiece of the same title. Released in 1993, it won seven Academy Awards, including best picture.

“My heart is broken,” Spielberg said in a statement Friday. “For now, let me just say that Sid had a big personality and a tender heart. He was the tallest, most stand-up guy I ever knew.”

Sidney Jay Sheinberg was born on Jan. 14, 1935, in Corpus Christi, Texas, to Harry and Tillie (Grossman) Sheinberg, Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. They ran a dry goods store that catered mostly to Mexican-Americans.

As a teenager, Sheinberg worked as an announcer and occasional disc jockey at a local radio station. He graduated from Columbia University in 1955 and enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin for law school.

But he later transferred back to Columbia to earn his law degree after a dispute with Texas administrators over their treatment of black students. It was a demonstration of his concern for discrimination that would lead him to become involved with Human Rights Watch and prompt him to push Hollywood studios to provide same-sex benefits, landing him on the cover of the gay magazine The Advocate in 1991.

“I sat in his office as he made those phone calls, and it was not a quick ‘Yes, yes, yes’ from everyone” at those studios, said Skip Paul, a senior adviser at the investment bank Centerview Partners, who was groomed by Sheinberg at MCA. “When Sid believed in something or somebody, he didn’t just have your back — he pushed on your back.”

In 1956 Sheinberg married a Columbia classmate, Lorraine Gary. They settled in Southern California, where she had grown up and would become an actress, starring in “Jaws” and its sequels. He accepted a teaching job at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1958. The next year, he joined the legal department at Revue Productions, a television subsidiary of MCA, which eventually became Universal Television.

As he rose in MCA’s television business, Sheinberg drew the attention of Wasserman. Though not similar in style — Wasserman was smooth and diplomatic, while Sheinberg had rough edges — the men bonded over their backgrounds: They were both sons of families who had fled Eastern Europe’s anti-Semitism and settled in Middle America. (Wasserman, who died in 2002, grew up in Ohio.)

“Lew took note of Sid because he was one of the very few people who would stand up to him,” director and actor Jerry Adler said in “The Last Mogul.”

Sheinberg’s brashness sometimes brought him into conflict with filmmakers. A fight with Terry Gilliam over the final cut of “Brazil” (1985) was particularly dramatic, involving warring ads in Variety. Sheinberg also pushed Robert Zemeckis, unsuccessfully, to change the title of “Back to the Future” to “Space Man From Pluto,” a name that “has heat, originality and projects fun,” Sheinberg wrote in a memo to Zemeckis in 1984. Zemeckis was mortified.

Spielberg stepped in, firing back a missive of his own on his fellow filmmaker’s behalf: “Thanks for your most humorous memo. We all got a big laugh out of it. Keep ′em coming.”

After he left MCA — having helped orchestrate the company’s sale to the Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. in 1990 for more than $6 billion — Sheinberg, with his sons, Jon and Bill, started a Universal-based production company called the Bubble Factory. The name came from a moment when Sheinberg was in his backyard blowing bubbles with his grandchildren.

The venture was a disaster. The company made only a handful of movies, and most were bombs, including “McHale’s Navy” (1997).

Sheinberg’s survivors include his wife and sons and a sister, Alice Schenk.

In his time as MCA president, Sheinberg’s competitive streak was never more pronounced than when it came to Disney, and it sometimes revealed a biting sense of humor.

When he opened the first Universal theme park in Orlando, Florida, in 1990 — in a race against Disney, which was building a movie-themed park that is now called Disney’s Hollywood Studios — Sheinberg and his team incorporated one of Disney’s mouse-ear hats into the “Jaws” ride.

The ears bobbed in the bloody water.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/08/obituaries/sidney-sheinberg-dead.html" id="41425cd2-a6c2-3b9d-a488-bf8a956ac2d3">The New York Times</a>.

Sidney Sheinberg, an irascible Universal Studios executive who discovered and nurtured Steven Spielberg, putting “Jaws” into production and helping to turn Hollywood into a blockbuster-focused business, died Thursday at his home in Beverly Hills, California. He was 84.

Sidney Sheinberg, Mogul Behind Universal and Spielberg, Dies at 84

That partnership came to an informal close over the weekend with the release of Perry’s low-budget “A Madea Family Funeral.” As ever, box-office analysts misjudged interest. “A Madea Family Funeral,” ostensibly marking the final big-screen appearance by Perry’s gun-toting grandmother, sold an estimated $27 million in tickets at 2,442 North American theaters, or roughly 30 percent more than analysts had predicted.

The turnout was enough to challenge “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World,” the megamovie in the marketplace, for first place at the weekend box office. In the end, “Hidden World” (Universal) pulled ahead to collect roughly $30 million at 4,286 cinemas, for a two-week domestic total of $97.7 million, according to comScore. The big-budget animated sequel has collected an additional $277 million overseas.

Universal also had a good three days with “Green Book,” the contentious winner of best picture at the recent Academy Awards. “Green Book,” the feel-good story of a white chauffeur and his black client in segregation-era America, took in about $5 million, more than double what it collected the previous weekend. “Green Book,” which got off to a poor start at the box office in November, has now collected $188 million worldwide for Universal and Participant Media.

Even so, the most significant weekend results involved Lionsgate. The studio urgently needed a hit following a string of flops that included “Robin Hood” and “Hunter Killer.” Last year, Lionsgate released 19 movies through various labels and took in a total in North America of about $379 million, its worst annual showing since 2007.

In 2017, when Lionsgate had breakouts like “Wonder” and “La La Land,” domestic ticket sales totaled $884 million.

The studio expects to turn a corner starting next month, when it will release a new “Hellboy” movie. A third chapter in the “John Wick” action series and “Long Shot,” a comedy starring Seth Rogen and Charlize Theron, will arrive in May.

But Lionsgate can no longer rely on Perry. Going forward, Paramount Pictures has exclusive first-look rights to his movies as part of an overarching deal with Viacom, its corporate owner.

“Tyler Perry is an incomparable talent, and our door is always open to him,” Lionsgate said in a statement. “We look forward to doing more projects with him in the future.”

A spokeswoman for Perry said he was unavailable to comment about his run at Lionsgate and whether he might reunite with the studio down the road.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/03/movies/a-madea-family-funeral-box-office.html" id="7e85cf79-05b6-3e1d-a541-c69a8d75d946">The New York Times</a>.

LOS ANGELES — For 14 years, Tyler Perry has been Lionsgate’s secret weapon. As the rest of Hollywood underestimated the appeal of his movies time and again (and again), Perry served up 19 films to Lionsgate, selling more than $1 billion in tickets and pouring profits into the studio’s home entertainment coffers.

Tyler Perry Gives Lionsgate One Last Hit as Madea Says Goodbye

Nope, the segregation-era road-trip movie has it locked up.

It’s going to Spike Lee’s Ku Klux Klan-infiltration flick.

Or could the Marvel blockbuster actually pull it off?

Forget the office Oscar pool. For the first time in memory, Hollywood truly has no idea what movie will win best picture at the Academy Awards. “Roma,” “Green Book,” “Black Panther” and “BlacKkKlansman” are all plausible victors, studio executives say. The prize could also go to a dark-horse contender — “Bohemian Rhapsody,” perhaps — because of a voting system in which best picture nominees are ranked one through eight, and the second- and third-place positions can carry as much weight as first place.

Usually one movie dominates at pre-Oscar galas, signaling where the race will end up. But not this year. “Roma,” mostly seen on Netflix, was named best film by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. “Green Book” collected the big trophy at the predictive Producers Guild of America ceremony. The powerful Screen Actors Guild threw its weight behind “Black Panther.” “BlacKkKlansman” has aggressively campaigned.

Adding to the atmosphere of uncertainty is the Oscars broadcast itself. For the first time in 30 years there will be no host — Kevin Hart stepped down amid new scrutiny on his past anti-gay ramblings on Twitter. And the academy has bounced from one fracas to the next during preparations. Will the 91st ceremony at the Dolby Theater ultimately go smoothly, as producers have promised? Or will the telecast go down as Rob Lowe and Snow White: Part 2?

— An Especially Competitive Year in the Actress Categories

Improving roles for women across Hollywood has led to a particularly competitive year in the best actress and supporting actress categories.

After wins at the Golden Globes and the SAG Awards, Glenn Close, nominated for playing a subjugated spouse in “The Wife,” is the favorite to win best actress. There is a feeling among many people in Hollywood that Close — the most Oscar-nominated living performer never to win — is overdue for her turn on the stage. This is her seventh nomination. But hot on her heels is Olivia Colman, a first-time nominee for playing a lonely Queen Anne in “The Favourite.” Colman won the BAFTA.

Professional prognosticators are split on supporting actress. Variety’s awards columnist expects voters to support Regina King, nominated for her forceful mother in the art-house drama “If Beale Street Could Talk.” The Hollywood Reporter, on the other hand, called this race for Amy Adams, singled out for playing Lynne Cheney in “Vice.” Like Close, Adams has never won, despite racking up six nominations over the years.

— Could This Be Spike Lee’s Year?

Alfonso Cuarón, the force behind “Roma,” which is based on his childhood in Mexico City, could easily win best director. He previously won in the category in 2014, for “Gravity.” If his name is called, it will be the fifth time in six years that a Mexican filmmaker has triumphed in the category. Besides Cuarón, Guillermo Del Toro and Alejandro González Iñárritu have been victorious.

But some people in Hollywood think that Lee, who directed and co-wrote “BlacKkKlansman,” also has a chance. Lee has never won a competitive Oscar in his singular career — this is the first time he has even been nominated for directing — and he has campaigned hard, making a smattering of television appearances as voting went into its final stretch.

— ‘Spider-Man’ vs. Disney

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences started awarding an Oscar for feature animation in 2001, and one company — Disney — has won 70 percent of the time, including the last six years in a row.

But best animated film could slip away from the studio this year.

Sony Pictures, which has been working hard to build up its animation operation, is poised to win for its stylized “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.”

Disney could, however, pull off an upset. “Incredibles 2,” from the company’s Pixar division, is also a strong contender.

Whatever the outcome for feature animation, Disney is unlikely to leave the ceremony without at least a little gold. Pixar’s “Bao,” featuring a dumpling that comes to life and directed by Domee Shi, will almost surely win best animated short.

— Certainty Amid The Chaos

There are some sure bets out there. Rami Malek, for instance, is the favorite to win best actor for his turn as Freddie Mercury in “Bohemian Rhapsody,” having collected one trophy after another on his way to the Oscars. Look for the Queen musical drama to also pick up best sound mixing.

There is little doubt that Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson and their fellow “Shallow” songwriters will be called to the stage for best song. Gaga, also nominated for her lead acting in “A Star Is Born,” will perform “Shallow” during the ceremony, with her co-star Bradley Cooper, a multiple nominee, joining her.

The trio of experts who transformed Christian Bale into Dick Cheney in “Vice” are expected to win Oscars for achievement in makeup and hairstyling.

— The Nominees Are Diverse. Let’s See About the Winners.

Part of the reason that the Academy Awards have become harder to predict involves the organization’s membership, which has been expanding rapidly — particularly overseas — in an effort to make the voting pool less awash with white men. Academy leaders are thrilled by their progress, which could lead to a more inclusive group of honorees.

A win for Lee would be the first time that a black filmmaker has taken home the best director Oscar. Hannah Beachler, nominated for her “Black Panther” production design, and Ruth E. Carter, a costume design front-runner for “Black Panther,” could end the night as the first African-Americans to win in their categories.

And “Roma,” filmed in Spanish and Mixtec, would be the first foreign-language movie to reign as best picture.

— All Eyes on Netflix

In many ways, this year’s best picture race has become a referendum on Netflix, which has never won.

The streaming giant’s new in-house campaigner, Lisa Taback, mounted a colossal get-out-the-vote push for “Roma,” turning off some academy members. Other voters do not believe that Netflix movies should be eligible for Oscars in the first place — that “Roma” should be considered a made-for-television movie because the internet has been its primary home. Netflix offered theaters only a three-week period of exclusivity to show the film (three months is standard), resulting in a boycott by multiplex chains. “Roma” was ultimately booked into about 250 smaller theaters in the United States, but Netflix has refused to disclose ticket sales.

Not everyone in Hollywood sees Netflix as the enemy — certainly not when the company has revved up its moviemaking operation, countering a downturn at traditional studios like 20th Century Fox. Going forward, Netflix intends to release roughly 90 films annually, including documentaries. Maybe specialty films like “Roma” don’t need a wide theatrical release? The cultural tide has clearly swung toward streaming.

“Roma,” with 10 overall nominations, is not the only Netflix film vying for Oscars. “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,” from writer-directors Joel and Ethan Coen, is competing in the adapted screenplay, song and costume design categories. And a Netflix documentary short called “Period. End of Sentence.,” which counts Taback as a producer, could collect a trophy. The film follows women in rural India who fight menstrual stigma by making sanitary pads.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/24/movies/oscars-academy-awards.html" id="c5ed2e90-77fa-3c2a-a9d6-6adfe9595910">The New York Times</a>.

LOS ANGELES — It will be the disruptive foreign film.

Oscars 2019: What to Watch For

The nominees are diverse. Let’s see about the winners.

Officials from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences were on the line. They told her that they were bowing to pressure and abandoning their plan to shorten the ceremony by awarding four trophies during commercial breaks, with the winning moments being edited and aired later in the show. Gigliotti would have to quickly retool the broadcast so that every Oscar was presented without edits, in the traditional manner.

And the officials had a question: Could she still deliver a three-hour telecast — max? Pretty please?

“The answer was no,” Gigliotti said over the weekend.

The film academy has been fighting over how to keep the Oscars to a reasonable running time since at least 1987. The reason is simple: protecting television ratings. After three hours, academy research has shown, people on the East Coast go to bed, dragging down overall viewership numbers. People on the West Coast also move on. Three hours of watching Hollywood celebrate itself — last year’s show was nearly four, not counting red-carpet coverage — seems to be most people’s limit.

The need to rethink the telecast has become a top priority since last year, when only 26.5 million people tuned in, a drop of nearly 20 percent from the previous year. Just a few years prior, the Academy Awards had an audience of 43.7 million viewers. Every potential solution the academy has announced, however, has gone down in flames.

Plans to add a category for achievement in “popular” film were canceled after pushback from academy members. After cries of protest, the academy backtracked on its decision to rotate a few categories into the commercial breaks, as award shows like the Tonys have done in the past.

So where does that leave Gigliotti?

“It would make for a good story if I had a nervous breakdown,” said Gigliotti, who began her Hollywood career as an assistant to Martin Scorsese and went on to work for Harvey Weinstein and Barry Diller. “But any producer worth her salt is used to these kinds of things. You find a new way.”

She continued, “We were hired to deliver a shortened show. How do we do that so you’re not seeing award, award, commercial, award, commercial, award? So boring. People at home want to be entertained.”

Dawn Hudson, the academy’s chief executive, said in an email that the organization would “continue to discuss how the Oscars can evolve — to keep engagement strong, to reflect the increasingly global nature of the film business and our membership.” She added, “If we have learned anything over the last few months it is that people feel very connected to the Oscars. Everyone has an opinion and a passion.”

Gigliotti and Glenn Weiss, the telecast’s co-producer and director, would not estimate how long the Feb. 24 show would stretch, except that it would almost certainly be more than three hours. But the event (aired by ABC) will still move much faster than last year, they said, in part because there is no host.

After an initial choice for the job, Dwayne Johnson, was unavailable, and their eventual selection, Kevin Hart, stepped down after his past anti-gay ramblings on Twitter were rediscovered, the producers decided to go hostless for the first time since 1989.

“Ultimately we decided to try and use the host situation as an opportunity — a way to get to that three-hour mark,” Weiss said. Last year, for instance, Jimmy Kimmel served as host and gave an 18-minute monologue, with commentary about the #MeToo movement and jibes about President Donald Trump. This time around, the producers expect the first award to be handed out around the six- or seven-minute mark.

The producers would not say how the show would open. “We have a very strong plan,” said Weiss, who won an Emmy in September — and asked his girlfriend to marry him during his acceptance speech — for having directed the 90th Oscars.

But they did disclose a few tidbits about what to expect from the broadcast. Brief presentations of the eight best picture nominees, for instance, will be “sprinkled” throughout the show, Weiss said. (Last year, the best picture presentations were condensed into a single four-minute montage that aired just before that category was awarded.) Eight people from outside the world of entertainment will give the presentations, speaking about what the films mean to them; Williams will give the one for “A Star Is Born.”

“Along with inclusion, which we definitely want to embrace, the big theme of the show is about movies connecting us — not in this theater but in a big, sweeping, cultural way,” Gigliotti said as she walked through a chilly Dolby Theater, wearing a puffy winter coat. “There are so many things to balance. Some viewers want to see glamour. You have to pay attention to where there is humor and where there is music. When do we guess that people at home might get up to make popcorn in the kitchen, and what can we have on right after that to bring them back?”

Gigliotti, who won an Oscar for producing “Shakespeare in Love” and has been nominated three other times (“Hidden Figures,” “The Reader” “Silver Linings Playbook”), said that there were no plans to incorporate regular people into the show, as Kimmel did in recent years. “I love everyday people,” said Gigliotti, who lives in Manhattan. “I ride the subway with them every day in New York. Everyday people don’t get me ratings.”

Stars like Angela Bassett, Melissa McCarthy, Jason Momoa, Chris Evans, Awkwafina, Charlize Theron, Chadwick Boseman and Daniel Craig have been lined up as presenters. Jennifer Hudson, Lady Gaga, Bradley Cooper, Bette Midler, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings will perform nominated songs.

Oscar viewers will also notice a very different stage design. Instead of the over-the-top jewel box look of recent years, the proscenium is one color — gold — and curves and swoops like a Frank Gehry building, extending out into the theater. It was designed by David Korins, who is best known for his work on Broadway (“Hamilton,” “Dear Evan Hansen”).

“We wanted it to feel different,” Weiss said from Row C in the theater, gazing upward.

“It almost comes out and hugs you,” Gigliotti said.

Work to revamp the telecast so that all of the 24 Oscars are presented live started immediately Friday afternoon, Gigliotti said. A couple staffers were “running around with their heads spinning around,” she said. “But mostly we just got to work. It’s just about rebalancing the flow.” The four categories were cinematography, live-action short film, editing and makeup and hairstyling.

Gigliotti and Weiss returned to the theater at 9 a.m. Saturday. He headed to the stage to work on camera angles. She holed herself up in the bowels of the theater to keep tinkering with the telecast master plan, which was laid out on a colossal whiteboard, every minute mapped out using color-coded magnets. “Right now, I’m feeling pretty good,” she said.

She wasn’t the least bit rattled? How was she keeping her focus amid the seemingly endless online dust-ups that have surrounded the Oscars this year?

“Easy,” she said. “I don’t know how to use Twitter.”

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/17/movies/academy-awards-broadcast.html" id="e775f80f-c478-3e2e-aaf3-3bd474a61197">The New York Times</a>.

LOS ANGELES — The lead producer of the 91st Academy Awards, Donna Gigliotti, was in high spirits Friday morning. Serena Williams had been confirmed to appear on the telecast in a moment involving “A Star Is Born.” Thousands of red roses for the set were en route. With nine days until showtime, everything seemed to be coming together.

Inside the Scramble to Make the Oscars Shorter

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said Friday that it would abandon its contentious plan to award four of its 24 trophies during commercial breaks, with the winning moments edited and aired later in the broadcast. The organization, which has become an internet punch line for its whipsawing decisions and frequent brouhahas, said in a statement that it had “heard feedback from its membership.”

“All Academy Awards will be presented without edits, in our traditional format,” the statement said.

The four categories were cinematography, editing, live-action short film and makeup and hairstyling. Next year, they were to return to the live show, with other categories rotated into the breaks.

Nothing was to be cut from the winning moments except the time spent walking to and from the stage — assuming the acceptance speeches did not go over the standard 90 seconds, the academy promised.

The academy’s 54-member board of governors, which includes luminaries like Steven Spielberg, Laura Dern and Rory Kennedy, had approved the plan as part of an effort to keep the show to three hours instead of four.

“We sincerely believe you will be pleased,” the academy’s seven elected officers said in a letter to members on Wednesday.

But by then, the academy was facing a mutiny. The American Society of Cinematographers rebuked the organization in an open letter signed by dozens of industry figures, including directors Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino. As movie fans blasted the academy on Twitter, stars joined in.

For an organization filled with public relations experts — its marketing and P.R. branch has more than 400 members — the academy has found itself in nonstop tempests in recent years.

Its responses to the #OscarsSoWhite uproars of 2015 and 2016 drew criticism. On a smaller scale, it has been roughed up over its coming museum, the adoption of a code of conduct, leaks about an internal sexual harassment investigation, the creation and dissolution of a popular-film award, a stumble over whether to invite back Oscar winners from last year as presenters, a brouhaha over who will sing what nominated songs during the ceremony and the implosion of Kevin Hart as host of this year’s show.

The 91st Academy Awards will be broadcast Feb. 24. There will be no host.

Whether its remedies are correct or not, the academy’s leaders know they have to take some kind of drastic action: A record low of 26.5 million people watched last year’s telecast, a drop of nearly 20 percent from a year earlier. As recently as four years ago, the Academy Awards had an audience of 43.7 million viewers. Traditions are wonderful, the organization’s leaders have said, but the television ratings may fall so low that the organization cannot meet its financial obligations.

The Oscars telecast is a big business, generating 83 percent of the academy’s $148 million in annual revenue. ABC controls broadcast rights until 2028 at a cost of roughly $75 million a year. The network sought as much as $2.8 million per 30-second commercial for last year’s telecast.

A nose-dive in the ratings threatens all that income, not to mention an erosion of the position of the Oscars in comparison with the more freewheeling Golden Globe Awards. With a few more years of declines, the Grammys and the Golden Globes would be higher-rated shows.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/15/business/oscars-academy-awards-categories.html" id="80d3c136-3173-336e-a2e6-03576cdb7f48">The New York Times</a>.

LOS ANGELES — So much for a three-hour Oscar telecast.

All Oscars Will Be Shown Live, Academy Says, Quieting Uproar

The organization, which has become an internet punch line for its whipsawing decisions and frequent brouhahas, said in a statement that it had “heard feedback from its membership.”

Whether its remedies are correct or not, the academy’s leaders know they have to take some kind of drastic action: A record low of 26.5 million people watched last year’s telecast, a drop of nearly 20 percent from a year earlier. As recently as four years ago, the Academy Awards had an audience of 43.7 million viewers.

Traditions are wonderful, the organization’s leaders have said, but the television ratings may fall so low that the organization cannot meet its financial obligations.

LOS ANGELES — The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said Friday that it would abandon its contentious plan to award four of its 24 trophies during commercial breaks, with the winning moments edited and aired later in the broadcast.

In a perfect world, each voter would approach the task with solemnity, taking time to watch all the nominated films and putting aside biases to consider the degree of artistry on screen.

To a large degree, Oscar voting is about personal prejudices and petty grievances. (Just read the anonymous voter columns The Hollywood Reporter has published in the past.) It is about who has the most pals in the voting pool, which remains 69 percent male and 84 percent white despite years of diversification efforts. It also involves Hollywood’s changing business landscape — namely, whether Netflix should be embraced by the industry or kept out of the club as long as possible, regardless of the quality of the films it serves up.

So, as an experiment, I called 20 academy members (none directly associated with any of this year’s nominees) and asked for utter candor: How are you evaluating the eight candidates for best picture?

None would speak for attribution, but their answers said a lot about the Oscars in particular and Hollywood in general. (High school with much, much more money, indeed.) Here is an amalgamation of their comments.

‘Black Panther’

One vinegary older voter compared superhero films to “the stuff that oozes out of dumpsters behind fast-food restaurants.” Then he confessed that he hadn’t yet seen “Black Panther.”

But many of the people I called said they would place this comic-book blockbuster near the top of their ballots — citing its commanding performances, sumptuous production design and overall cultural importance. (The academy uses a complicated “preferential” voting system for best picture, in which nominees are ranked 1 through 8, and the second- and third-place positions can carry as much weight as first place.)

The problem, at least for a few voters: “Black Panther” was made by Marvel, which is owned by Disney, which has turned every other studio into a box office also-ran. It will be even worse when Disney completes its takeover of 20th Century Fox. “And now we’re also supposed to give Disney the Oscar for best picture?” one voter from a rival studio told me.

‘BlacKkKlansman’

Directed by Spike Lee, “BlacKkKlansman” drew praise for its originality and intellectual heft. As one person put it, “BlacKkKlansman” is the kind of film that holds up in the history books. There will be no “Did we really vote for this?” regret in a couple of years. (See: “Shakespeare in Love.”)

On the downside, movies that win best picture usually connect with voters on an emotional level. At least in my little sample, “BlacKkKlansman” fell more into the “deeply admire but don’t feel the need to watch it again” zone.

Lee could be the ceremony’s best hope for a viral moment, however. Some people relished the idea of seeing him stride onto the Oscar stage and excoriate studios for sidelining minorities. (He’s never been one to mince words.) “Can you imagine?” said a voter who is a member of the academy’s writers branch. “People would have to be hauled out on stretchers.” (Lee is also nominated for best director for the first time in his career.)

‘Bohemian Rhapsody’

This Queen biopic, directed by Bryan Singer (at least until he was fired for erratic behavior), ranks as one of the more puzzling best picture contenders in memory. (And that’s saying something, considering that the talking-pig movie “Babe” was a contender in 1996.) Voters used words like “superficial” and “messy” to describe the film, which received lukewarm reviews from critics and prompted an outcry for soft-pedaling gay plot points.

Almost everyone admitted that “Bohemian Rhapsody” was a guilty pleasure to watch, however, as Rami Malek turned in an Oscar-worthy performance as Freddie Mercury. (All 20 people I contacted said Malek had their vote for best actor.)

In a surprise — or not, given the way that Hollywood likes to sweep problems under the rug — most voters said they would not hold Singer’s involvement against the film. The director has long been trailed by accusations of sexual misconduct and new claims about sex with underage boys that surfaced in The Atlantic the day after Oscar nominations were announced. Singer denied wrongdoing and labeled the article “a homophobic smear piece.”

‘The Favourite’

Voters like being on the winning team. And this dark comedy set in the court of Queen Anne (circa 1710), while widely admired for its performances, script and costumes, has mostly been a loser at the big pre-Oscar ceremonies. “I love this nasty little movie, but I don’t want to throw my vote away,” one person told me, adding that she was waiting until the British Academy of Film and Television Arts awards to make her decision. (“The Favourite” won seven BAFTAS on Sunday, but lost the big prize to “Roma.”)

Others seemed unsure whether “The Favourite” sent a positive message about women (Olivia Colman, Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz lead the cast) or ultimately reinforces a “Mean Girls” stereotype (they scheme, double-cross and manipulate).

‘Green Book’

Nobody thought this period segregation comedy was perfect. Could we please have a touch of nuance? And that fried-chicken scene makes everyone cringe. But “Green Book” tugged hard on a lot of voter heartstrings. One producer in his late 60s said the movie’s feel-good ending made him “absolutely melt.”

Peter Farrelly, who directed “Green Book” and was one of its writers, has also proved to be an effective campaigner, a couple of voters noted, with his self-effacing speech at the Producers Guild Awards in January as Exhibit A. “When you make ‘Dumb and Dumber,’ you never expect to get an award,” Farrelly said, referring to one of his early films. “I’m damn thankful.”

One voter, a studio executive in his 50s, admitted that his support for “Green Book” was rooted in rage. He said he was tired of being told what movies to like and not like. (Much of the public debate about “Green Book” has turned on its handling of racial issues, which some see as woefully retrograde and borderline bigoted.)

‘Roma’

Directed by Alfonso Cuarón and distributed by Netflix, “Roma” seems to be prompting a crisis of conscience.

Do we vote for “Roma” because we think it’s the best? Or do we withhold our support — regardless of the film’s artistic merit — because we see Netflix as a threat to moviegoing? Although the company pushed “Roma” into about 250 independent theaters in the United States, on par with many foreign-language releases, the streaming giant mostly bypasses cinemas. There are voters in both camps. A couple of those in the anti-Netflix group told me they would vote for Cuarón for best director as a way to assuage their guilt.

The chief complaint about “Roma” involved its leisurely pace. One voter in the acting branch described the period black-and-white film as important but boring.

‘A Star Is Born’

It’s a long, bumpy road to the Oscars. And this blockbuster remake — a front-runner for best picture late last year — went kerplop somewhere along the way.

Some voters said they lost their zeal for “A Star Is Born” after the film converted only one of its five Golden Globe nominations into an award (best song). Others faulted Lady Gaga, who plays the main role, for giving speeches on the awards trail (the Globes, National Board of Review) that struck them as cloying. A few older voters said they had gone back to watch the 1954 version of “A Star Is Born,” with Judy Garland, and come away with the belief that the current version wasn’t as good, especially in its second hour.

LOS ANGELES — Voting for the 91st Academy Awards ends Tuesday, with roughly 8,200 movie industry insiders using a private website to mark their choices. Just what goes through their minds when they point and click?

Brooks Barnes

Articles written by the author

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