Showbiz Sandbox 649: Hollywood’s Superhero Movie Problem
February 27, 2024
The superhero movie is facing its biggest enemy yet – audience indifference. “Madame Web” is just the latest superhero flick to open to poor reviews and/or bad box office. Entertainment journalist Geoff Boucher, who has covered the comic book world for over two decades and is a bigwig at ComicCon, discusses the declining popularity of superhero films and his belief that there are better times ahead for the genre.
Meanwhile, Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery are facing their own existential threats, especially when it comes to their declining ad revenue, soft earnings and overwhelming debt.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including Beyoncé making history on the country music charts, revenues soar for concert promoter Live Nation thanks to some big tours and artificial intelligence upends the expansion of Tyler Perry’s studio.
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Showbiz Sandbox 520: Writing Hollywood’s Obituary… Again
December 8, 2020
The film industry is facing an existential crisis due to the COVID pandemic; film productions are struggling to continue, cinema chains have become burdened with debt and studios are sending their blockbuster releases directly to streaming services. In fact, last week Warner Bros. announced that its entire 2021 slate of movies would be released both in theatres and on their streaming service HBO Max, at least in the United States.
Brooks Barnes, a reporter for the New York Times, recently wrote a feature story detailing the death of Hollywood…again. Literally the headline used the word obituary. Barnes joins us to discuss the unprecedented challenges and disruption the industry is facing and helps us understand their overall ramifications.
Of course we also cover some of the week’s top entertainment headlines including why Disney is putting the Fox film library back in its vault, Bob Dylan sells the publishing rights to all of his songs and an all-Spanish album tops the Billboard charts for the first time in its 64 year history.
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Showbiz Sandbox 519: A Year Without A Blockbuster Comic Book Movie
December 1, 2020
Though 2020 saw DC Films launch a Harley Quinn vehicle and Marvel finally released an X-Men spin-off “The New Mutants,” neither film set the world on fire. As “Wonder Woman 1984” heads to a hybrid streaming and theatrical release, it’s the final gasp of almost an entire year without any big comic book movies.
We ask veteran entertainment journalist Geoff Boucher whether we needed a break from all the cinematic heroics. As someone who has hosted countless CinemaCon panels, Boucher explains whether, after an endless stream of blockbuster Marvel and DC films, a year without a major comic book movie is such a bad thing.
Of course we also cover some of the week’s top entertainment headlines including this year’s Grammy Award nominations, Conan O’Brien is ending his late night talk show and why Quentin Tarantino’s next release may be headed straight to libraries.
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Showbiz Sandbox 513: How Can Movie Theaters Survive Without Movies?
October 6, 2020
Studios are pushing movie releases into 2021, with the latest James Bond thriller abandoning it’s scheduled November date in cinemas. Now major theater chains are shutting their doors once again. We’re joined by Patrick von Sychowski, the editor of Celluloid Junkie, to help us break down the present and predict the future of the cinema industry.
Meanwhile in China, movie theaters are not only open, they are bringing in big audiences who are off work during the country’s Golden Week. More than two films earned over $100 million at the Chinese box office this past week, proving cinemas can reboot after a coronavirus shutdown.
Of course we also cover some of the week’s top entertainment headlines including new charges against disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, some good news for junior players at United Talent Agency and some bad news for 28,000 former Disney employees.
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Showbiz Sandbox 498: Comic Book Industry Fights For Survival, Meanwhile China and US Simply Fight
June 16, 2020
While the coronavirus has shut down movies, concerts and live theater, it has absolutely decimated the comic book industry. Pop culture journalist Geoff Boucher joins us to look at the future for comic book stores and comic book movies. Spoiler alert – one of these is in dire straits.
Currently, Boucher is co-authoring a book on the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Marvel Studios. And this week he’s launching another his own podcast hosted by the legendary comic book magazine Heavy Metal.
Meanwhile, Chris Fenton, a longtime exec in Asia and the author of “Feeding The Dragon,” wrote a piece for Real Clear Politics saying Hollywood and China are headed for a divorce…but he explains why they should make certain it a conscious uncoupling.
Of course we also cover some of the week’s top entertainment headlines including how media companies are jumping on the Black Lives Matter bandwagon, SAG-AFTRA reaches a new deal with producers avoiding a strike and the Oscars update their rules for the Best Picture category.
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Showbiz Sandbox 465: Ang Lee’s Latest Science Project
October 14, 2019
Filmmaker Ang Lee is arguably one of the best directors to ever step behind a camera. He’s made acclaimed films such as “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” “Brokeback Mountain” and “Life of Pi,” winning three Oscars along the way. However Lee’s latest efforts have been more concerned with filmmaking technology than their script.
That was certainly the case with “Gemini Man,” an action film that stars Will Smith playing an assassin opposite a digitally de-aged version of himself. Geoff Boucher of Deadline spoke with Lee about the challenges of making the film, which was shot in high frame rate at 120 frames per second.
Meanwhile, China deleted “South Park” from the airwaves (and the internet) after a new episode mocked the country’s human rights record. Then China canceled the broadcast of an NBA basketball game being played in Shanghai after a league executive showed support for anti-government protestors in Hong Kong. We discuss what this means for all the businesses that want a piece of the Chinese market but don’t want to damage their brand worldwide.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including the Nobel Prize for Literature is awarded to a controversial writer, a new K-Pop supergroup storms the music charts and Apple launches an in-house production studio with some big name talent.
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Showbiz Sandbox 446: How the B-Team Grew Into the Marvel Cinematic Universe
April 29, 2019
When Kevin Feige, the President of Marvel Studios, set out to launch a movie franchise based on the company’s comic books he hired an erratic actor with a history of drug addiction to play a superhero hardly anybody knew and a director whose last film bombed. At the time, Geoff Boucher, now the genre editor of Deadline, wrote an article headlined “Here Comes The B-Team”.
Well, 12 years and over 22 films later the Marvel Cinematic Universe has become a $20 billion franchise whose latest entrant, “Avengers: Endgame,” made $1.2 billion in its open week. Boucher joins us to discuss how Feige managed to oversee one of the most profitable movie properties of all time.
Meanwhile, the Writers Guild is nowhere near reaching an accord with the Association of Talent Agents over packaging fees. Even some of the smaller agencies, who don’t package television series and don’t have affiliated production companies, are unwilling to sign the proposed code of conduct.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including the moviegoing subscription service Sinemia shuts down, the Chinese government grows a little wary of the TV smash hit “The Story Of Yanxi Palace” and Steven Spielberg doesn’t actually hate Netflix.
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Showbiz Sandbox 438: The Oscars Play It By The Book
February 26, 2019
In a year when diversity took center stage at the Oscars, with people of color and women taking home some of the major prizes, the Academy awarded Best Picture to “Green Book,” a film partially about race relations that has been faulted by some as being whitewashed. Anne Thompson, Indiewire’s Editor-at-Large, attended the Oscar ceremony and joins us to discuss all the winners, including how “Green Book” managed to overcome a number of obstacles to walk off with the top award.
Though “Roma” was a frontrunner throughout the Oscar race, and wound up winning three awards including Best Director for Alfonso Cuaron, it didn’t win Best Picture to the relief of some in the industry who did not want to reward a film which shunned a traditional theatrical release. The film caused quite a stir when it took home the top BAFTA award earlier in the month.
Meanwhile, in China, the Lunar New Year box office was extraordinary but it came at a price: record grosses and record ticket prices were matched with record piracy.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including the layoffs at Activision Blizzard, why Celine Dion parted ways with her long-time agent and millions attend a virtual concert on the video game Fortnite.
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Showbiz Sandbox 429: Remembering the Genius of Stan Lee
November 13, 2018
In a career that spanned over six decades, Stan Lee became one of the most influential creators and publishers of comics that ever worked in the medium. He helped build Marvel Comics by creating dozens of superheroes including most notably Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk and X-Men. Geoff Boucher, the new genre editor at Deadline Hollywood, joins us to discuss how Lee’s enduring work has heavily influenced the modern pop culture landscape.
Boucher also tells us how he got the exclusive story on Fox’s plans to release a PG-13 version of “Deadpool 2” in the midst of the holiday season. You might be interested to hear how this led to the kidnapping of actor Fred Savage, best known for his role in “The Wonder Years”.
Meanwhile a team from China just won the 2018 “League of Legends” World Championship. Though 110 million people in China play the game, it’s the first time the country has ever captured one of the most prestigious prizes in e-sports.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including how we’re headed toward a record year at the North American box office, why Fox News is chastising some of its hosts and pay TV loses over one million subscribers in the third quarter.
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Showbiz Sandbox 416: Superheroes Have Never Been More Popular, Just Not In Comic Books
July 16, 2018
Meanwhile the Emmy nominations were announced last week and despite expanding their Best Drama and Best Comedy categories to eight nominees, there were still complaints about shows being left off the list. Welcome to Peak TV! With 400 shows to choose from, there’s no way to please everyone.
Subscription movie ticket service MoviePass has instituted its peak pricing policy which seems to apply to the first weekend of any movie, no matter how popular. And we’ll give you a first hand account of what happens when the company thinks you’re breaking their terms of service.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including how Drake has claimed seven of the top 10 singles on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart, why Scarlett Johansson won’t be playing a transgender person in a new movie and plans for “Downtown Abbey” movie have officially been announced.
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