Indholdsfortegnelse for December 4, 2024 i The Hollywood Reporter

As a young woman in Hollywood, Sherry Lansing was mainly mentored by men. Back then, in the 1970s, most of the mentors around had Y chromosomes; very few women had ascended the heights that Lansing scaled as she climbed her way to becoming, in 1980, president of production at Fox, the first female in history to run a major studio. Four and a half decades later, one could argue that the majority of America’s cultural output is overseen by women. Bela Bajaria at Netflix, Jennifer Salke at Amazon, Dana Walden at Disney and Donna Langley at Universal, along with scores of other powerhouse women — many of them taking bows in THR’s annual Power 100 list (see page 61) — can today claim credit (and, occasionally, blame) for a huge…

Sports docs are suddenly everywhere. Feature films, docuseries, access shows — every streaming platform has them, and, as reliable viewership drivers, every TV channel that televises live sports wants more of them. And no one is cashing in more than the NFL, the undisputed king of sports media. One big beneficiary is NFL Films, which was founded in 1962 by Ed Sabol and his son, Steve, and can be credited with helping to create the sports doc format that we know today (not to mention things now taken for granted, like instant replay). But the company — which operates as a league-owned Hollywood-quality production studio — has no qualms about breaking with its own traditions. So with the demand for sports content never higher, NFL Films is changing how it…

Donald Trump’s victory on Nov. 5 left many in what the incoming president has called “liberal Hollywood” stunned and soul-searching. As the dust settles on the election results and Democrats rethink their use of celebrities, some political liaisons in the business predict that the industry’s advocates will shift their focus to shoring up Democratfavored policies and/or progressive legislation down-ballot and sometimes closer to home. “I do think that the approach will be much more micro than macro this time around,” says Hannah Linkenhoker, the chief engagement officer at the industry law firm Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole. “The work a lot of us are looking to do is protecting vulnerable communities [and] fighting for the preservation of rights or policies that are under threat.” Adds Natalie Tran, the executive director…

In the fall of 1958, syndicated Hollywood columnist William H. Mooring needed a vacation from the hubbub of Tinseltown. He drove down the coast to the palatial Hotel Del Coronado, on the beach across the bay from San Diego. His stay proved far less peaceful than he’d hoped. “As the bellboy carried in my bags,” Mooring wrote, “someone motioned us aside and Marilyn Monroe came tripping down the steps.” As he was soon told, director Billy Wilder had taken over much of the property to shoot a period comedy called Some Like It Hot. Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, “wearing ludicrous earrings, and Marilyn in quaint, period dress, attracted neck-craning crowds.” Morrison had sought a reprieve from Hollywood. “Instead of escape, I ran right into it!” He ought not have been…

From industry malaise to that election, keeping one’s cool has never been more difficult — but these pros have tips for sweet, sweet distraction “Online shopping. I memorize credit card numbers faster than lines.”Mindy Kaling “Seeing The Eras Tour. Eight times.”Erin Westerman “Watching The Great British Baking Show.”Amy Reisenbach “Avoiding cable news.”Jennifer Lawrence “Late night binge sessions of shows with people living messier lives than I do (aka Housewives). And a healthy dose of denial in between.”Nina Rosenstein “Watching ASMR videos of middle-aged women flipping through crinkly old magazines and tiny women eating entire sheet cakes in one sitting.”Nikki Glaser “Two hours a night disassociating on TikTok.”Simran Sethi “Only giving myself nine hours of daily screen time.”Jen Statsky “People are calm right now?”Daria Cercek…

No one could have bet that Million Dollar Baby would hook audiences the way it did 20 years ago. Clint Eastwood, hot off the success of 2003’s Oscar-winning Mystic River, directed the boxing drama and co-starred as coach Frankie, who begrudgingly takes fighter Maggie (Hilary Swank) under his wing. Written by Paul Haggis and based on a short story by late boxing manager F.X. Toole, Million Dollar Baby struggled to land financing. In the end, Eastwood’s regular studio, Warner Bros., agreed to cover half of the roughly $25 million budget, with Lakeshore Entertainment picking up the rest. Eastwood was uncertain whether Swank, an Oscar winner for 1999’s Boys Don’t Cry, had the right physical build. “She was like a feather,” Eastwood said back then. “But what happened is, she had…

In the storied 15-year history of The Hollywood Reporter’s Women in Entertainment Mentorship Program, some mentor/mentee relationships have truly stood the test of time. One of the most noteworthy is the pairing of Paola Franco and Jennifer Salke in the 2013-14 cohort. At the time they were matched, Salke, now boss of Amazon Studios, was president of entertainment at NBC and Franco was a student at City Honors Preparatory High School in Inglewood. “Getting to see Jen in her element was truly life-changing for me,” Franco says of being paired with Salke in the program, which THR administers in partnership with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Los Angeles. “It’s trite but true: In order to dream it, you first have to see it. Shadowing her through the program gave…

The Thanksgiving box office feast of 2024 was nothing short of sizzling, proving that the marketplace can expand beyond expectations when the chefs of Hollywood deliver dishes that appeal to varied appetites. Led by Walt Disney Animation’s family film Moana 2, Universal’s musical adaptation Wicked and Paramount’s epic Gladiator II, domestic revenue for the long five-day holiday weekend soared to an all-time, jaw-dropping high of $425 million — far outstripping the previous record of $316 million set in 2018. Domestic box office revenue for the year had been down 10.6 percent from 2023 despite the launch of Wicked and Gladiator II during the Nov. 22-23 weekend, a grim reminder of the dramatic slowdown in product because of the labor strikes and lingering impact of the pandemic. Post-Thanksgiving, annual revenue is…

DEC. 4 THR’s Women in Entertainment Gala The annual breakfast, presented by Lifetime, will honor Nicole Kidman and Selena Gomez (above) and hand out more than $1 million in scholarships. Paley’s Prizes Tyler Perry will be recognized at the Paley Center for Media’s L.A. event, with close friends Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on the host committee. The Shoe Oscars The Footwear News Achievement Awards honor A$AP Rocky, Martha Stewart, the WNBA’s Angel Reese and more in NYC. DEC. 6 American Cinematheque Awards Jessica Chastain and Charles Roven will be feted at the event, which supports film programs at the Los Feliz 3 Theatre, Egyptian Theatre and Aero Theatre. iHeartRadio Jingle Ball The annual show, this year featuring SZA, Katy Perry, Gracie Abrams, Shaboozey and Meghan Trainor, will roll into…

The Kids Are Alright The Hollywood Reporter and Instagram co-hosted a celebration of the industry’s next generation on Nov. 20, recognizing Hollywood’s hottest young stars, rising content creators and top 35 executives under 35 featured on THR’s coveted Next Gen lists. The event, sponsored by Waymo and held at West Hollywood’s Soho House Holloway, welcomed Next Gen talent Kaia Gerber, Josh Rivera, Ryan Destiny, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai and Aaron Pierre for a night that began with a sit-down dinner on the roof and ended with a party downstairs. The guest list also included up-and-comers Dominic Sessa, Kathryn Newton, Benito Skinner, Brian Jordan Alvarez, Charlie Hall and Ava Phillippe. “We’re surrounded by so many people who really care about this thing,” mused The Penguin’s Rhenzy Feliz of this thing called entertainment. “People…

*Coqodaq is an exclusive Resy booking in New York’s Flatiron district.…

They say this town is ruled by fear. They say it’s all gloom these days when not outright doom. They say Hollywood just isn’t what it used to be. Not warm, not wild, not fun. They may be right. But they obviously aren’t spending time in proximity to Colleen Camp, the if-you-know-you-know fairy godmother of the film business. A veteran character actress turned social networker extraordinaire turned indie producer, she’s close friends with seemingly every bold-faced name in the industry — from Jerry Bruckheimer to Da’Vine Joy Randolph (who name-checked her in her Oscar acceptance speech this year) — and who has in recent years built a reputation as one of Hollywood’s most influential awards-season players. Camp’s intimate, no-press-allowed screenings, high-powered parties, star-studded dinners and assorted taste-making receptions have already…

DAVID ROONEY Almost invariably when we start digging into our annual chat about the most memorable performances of the year, I look at my notes and find the women far outnumber the men. That doesn’t mean there wasn’t outstanding work from male actors, but several women pulled off astonishing high-wire acts that I’m still thinking about, in some cases many months after seeing the films. At the top of the heap, I’d have to put Marianne Jean-Baptiste’s snarling turn in Hard Truths, her reunion with Secrets & Lies director Mike Leigh. Her Pansy is on constant alert in early scenes, ready to flare up with rage at the slightest annoyance, and Jean-Baptiste pushes her sourness to frequently comic heights. But almost imperceptibly, with only the subtlest softening, the actress starts…

Karla Sofía Gascón’s dual role in Emilia Pérez is the buzziest performance of 2024, but Tilda Swinton’s more restrained turn in Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door as a woman dying of cancer could prove an upset. In the doc category, No Other Land could benefit from its look at the hot-button topic of Israel and Palestine, but it will be up against Mati Diop’s exploration of colonialism, Dahomey (left), which won Berlin’s Golden Bear for best film. Ralph Fiennes’ subtle and gripping performance in Edward Berger’s Vatican conspiracy thriller, Conclave, is the one to beat, but look to Lars Eidinger’s barnstorming turn in German drama Dying as a potential competitor.…

TOTAL SUBSCRIBERS Jimmy Donaldson’s channel grew by an estimated 108 million subs thanks to videos of extreme stunts like being buried alive and extravagant giveaways like a private island. Twins Alan and Alex Stokes — whose channel is built on pranks and challenges such as buying banned or discontinued products and testing out dangerous rides at theme parks — saw growth of about 67 million subs. Star power still sells. How else could Cristiano Ronaldo, one of the greatest soccer players of all time, amass more than 66 million YouTube subscribers after being on the platform for just a few months? It helps that Ronaldo has been savvy with how he uses the channel, teaming up with MrBeast on videos. A former NASA engineer, Rober is the king of science…

The headlines around a certain cable news network’s astronomical drop in viewership are harrowing: In the weeks since the presidential election, the network’s primetime audience has fallen by about half, sparking scores of stories about a troubled operation. MSNBC in 2024? Yes — but also Fox News in 2020, or CNN in 2016, and all three in 2012. The drop in viewership at MSNBC is very real: In the three weeks after the Nov. 5 election, the network averaged 661,000 primetime viewers, fewer than half of what it drew each night in October. Lost among the headlines and hand-wringing in media circles, though, is the fact that — to some extent, at least — craters like this pop up after every presidential election. Since 2004, primetime ratings for CNN, Fox…

Ralph DeLuca has carved out a rare niche for himself as the go-to art adviser of Hollywood’s A-list. The no-nonsense New Jersey native is on first-name terms with most major gallerists and counts blue-chip celebrity collectors like Sylvester Stallone and Leonardo DiCaprio as clients as well as friends. Other top-tier advisees include Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino and Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw. If you’re heading to the Dec. 6-8 Art Basel, keep an eye out for him: He’s the bushy eyebrowed, shaven-headed force of nature squiring boldfaced names to the best booths in the fair. DeLuca, 47, started out on Wall Street before pivoting to collectibles more than 20 years ago. It was legendary dealer Tony Shafrazi who suggested he upgrade to art. DeLuca proved a natural: curious, unflappable and…

If you happen to be one of Elon Musk’s 206 million followers, you probably know the world’s richest man has been mulling the possibility of purchasing MSNBC. Or at least that he was joshing about it with Donald Trump Jr. in a series of pre-Thanksgiving posts on X that seemed custom-built to ruin Rachel Maddow’s holiday. “Hey Elon, I have the funniest idea ever,” the president-elect’s son quipped about a (false) rumor that the liberal-leaning cable news channel was for sale. “How much does it cost?” Musk bantered back in what most observers assumed was a joke. But, of course, many a true word is oft spoke in jest (as Shakespeare once put it in less than 280 characters), and some sharp-eyed Musk watchers noted that the rocket tycoon posted…

A poll among the Power 100 reveals the hours (and hours and hours) they’re checking email each day Go to bed, already. Six women confess to communicating well after midnight, but fewer manage to unplug before 9 o’clock. “Please only use these responses if they are truly anonymous,” requested one assistant. “She doesn’t want her children horrified.” The morning spectrum is equally wild, with five of the earliest birds catching their digital worms starting at 4 a.m. (Surprise: These are also the night owls.) The real power move, however, is the woman who claims she doesn’t even open her inbox until 10 a.m. Nice work if you can get it!…

From building 14 blocks of ancient Rome and filling it with 2,000 extras for Gladiator II to ensuring Sing Sing’s cast of formerly incarcerated actors was comfortable shooting in a prison, the producers behind this year’s best picture contenders had to navigate everything from the Arabian Desert to nervous studio executives. Lucy Fisher (Gladiator II), Mary Parent (Dune: Part Two), Amy Pascal (Challengers), Samantha Quan (Anora), Tessa Ross (Conclave) and Monique Walton (Sing Sing) came together in Los Angeles for The Hollywood Reporter’s annual Producer Roundtable to talk about getting stuck in mud (literally) while sticking it out in Hollywood. Says Parent, “So many people are driven by fear right now. Everyone’s jumping ship. As a producer, you can never jump ship.” What did your first job as a Hollywood…

Some moguls may look at everything before Nov. 5 as a prelude to the frenzy of dealmaking to come if the new Trump administration turns out to be as amenable to M&A as it is widely expected to be. And yet, even before Election Day, dotted lines were signed for the sale of Paramount Global, two theme park giants teamed up to fight Universal and Disney in the lucrative experiences world, Gerry Cardinale and Jeff Zucker rolled up film and TV production companies, and Lionsgate became the first major studio to jump on a deal to train AI on its massive film and TV library. Not to be outdone, Netflix nabbed WWE ratings driver Raw while the NBA inked a set of multibillion-dollar rights deals that will set the league…

Back in 2010, Chinese actress Chen Zhixi was performing in a supporting role alongside Xu Zheng, one of China’s biggest comedy stars, in the popular period drama series Li Wei the Magistrate. The show was a hit and a significant role for her, but Chen already had grown restless with her acting work and was pondering other paths through the industry. “Being an actor requires you to be a bit passive because you always have to just hope that you’ll get that callback,” she tells THR during a Zoom interview conducted with an interpreter. “I’m not the kind of person who likes to wait to be selected. I’d much prefer to be the one who makes the rules rather than follows them.” In Zheng, she says she recognized a comedic…