Helen MacKenzie has been named head of production, commercials, at Framestore CFC, London….Doner, which is headquartered in Southfield, Mich., is closing its Baltimore outpost at the end of August….Homestead Editorial, New York, has opened aWounded Knee, an independent film division. The new entity has already completed the features Ash Tuesday and The Lucky Ones, both of which were showcased at the recent Tribeca Film Festival. Homestead editors are Chris Hellman, Skip Duff, Sam Welch, Charly Bender, Lisa Barnable and Greg Dougherty. Company principal is Lance Doty….Cine/drsa international, New York, has signed director Rodrigo Ortuzar for exclusive representation in the United States….Mono-monikered editor Shrader, formerly of Red Car, Santa Monica, has joined Union Editorial, Santa Monica….Noted special effects coordinator Allen Hall (Forrest Gump, Backdraft, How the Grinch Stole Christmas) has been named CEO of Special Effects Unlimited, Hollywood. He is looking to expand the shop’s commercial and special events divisions, while continuing its work in features and TV….Grammy Award-winning art director Tommy Steele, well known in the music industry, has been named director of design at Team One Advertising, El Segundo, Calif. Steele formerly served as VP, creative director at Capitol Records….Director Justin Harder has come aboard the roster of Transistor Studios, Hollywood, a shop maintained by Backyard Productions, Venice, Calif., and Chicago. Transistor specializes in cross-platform branding and entertainment, creating design for broadcast, the Web, DVD and print.… RavensWork has promoted Chris Canning to audio mixer. He had been an assistant mixer with the Venice, Calif.-based shop, which provides audio post services, sound design and music composition for commercials….
“Mickey 17” Tops Weekend Box Office, But Profitability Is A Long Way Off
"Parasite" filmmaker Bong Joon Ho's original science fiction film "Mickey 17" opened in first place on the North American box office charts. According to studio estimates Sunday, the Robert Pattinson-led film earned $19.1 million in its first weekend in theaters, which was enough to dethrone "Captain America: Brave New World" after a three-week reign.
Overseas, "Mickey 17" has already made $34.2 million, bringing its worldwide total to $53.3 million. But profitability for the film is a long way off: It cost a reported $118 million to produce, which does not account for millions spent on marketing and promotion.
A week following the Oscars, where "Anora" filmmaker Sean Baker made an impassioned speech about the importance of the theatrical experience – for filmmakers to keep making movies for the big screens, for distributors to focus on theatrical releases and for audiences to keep going – "Mickey 17" is perhaps the perfect representation of this moment in the business, or at least an interesting case study. It's an original film from an Oscar-winning director led by a big star that was afforded a blockbuster budget and given a robust theatrical release by Warner Bros., one of the few major studios remaining. But despite all of that, and reviews that were mostly positive (79% on RottenTomatoes), audiences did not treat it as an event movie, and it may ultimately struggle to break even.
Originally set for release in March 2024, Bong Joon Ho's follow-up to the Oscar-winning "Parasite" faced several delays, which he has attributed to extenuating circumstances around the Hollywood strikes. Based on the novel "Mickey7" by Edward Ashton, Pattinson plays an expendable employee who dies on missions and is re-printed time and time again. Steven... Read More