Jeff Labbé has departed Leo Burnett USA, Chicago, where he was a senior VP/creative director, to pursue directing….Director Sam Cadman has come aboard bicoastal Tool of North America for U.S. and Canadian commercial work….Bicoastal Headquarters has signed director Laurence Thrush for U.S. spot representation….Guzman, a directing team consisting of Russell Peacock and Connie Hansen, has come aboard Cielo Films, Santa Monica, for exclusive spot representation in the U.S. The New York-based duo is already well established in the European ad community, with representation via Premiere Heure, St. Cloud, France…. Noted DP Ivan Bird is now directing commercials via Serious Pictures, London. Bird will be handled in the U.S. by Paul Muniz of PMI Management, New York, who will rep him on the East Coast, and by Michel Waxman of MBW Represents, Venice, Calif., on the West Coast….Curious Pictures has added director/designer Josh Graham for commercial, music video and broadcast design work….Mother, London, has hired Linus Karlsson and Paul Malmstrom as creative directors of the agency’s as-yet-unopened U.S. outpost. The pair had previously been at Fallon, New York….Mallary Weintraub has been named head of production at San Francisco-based kaboom….Suzanne Rieger has been named executive producer at The Well, New York. She succeeds Wendy Bryant, who left to move back home to Portland, Ore. Rieger’s previous industry roosts include 89 Editorial and Final Cut, both in New York….Venice-based broadcast design house Stardust Studios is going bicoastal with the addition of a New York office slated to open Sept. 1. Company principal/president Matthew Marquis will executive produce for both offices, while his partner, creative director Jake Banks, will relocate to New York. East Coast staff also includes designer/2-D and 3-D animator Peter Conlon and producer Jenn Dewey. Meanwhile, added to the West Coast staff are art director Jason Doherty and designer/animator Neil Tsai….Rhythm Café, Chicago, has added Ralph Beerhorst for exclusive representation as a composer, producer and performer of music for TV and radio 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