Robert Fernandez is coming aboard bicoastal Moxie Pictures as partner/executive producer. Fernandez, who’s enjoyed a long tenure at bicoastal/international @radical.media, will succeed Gary Rose. A month and a half ago, Rose exited Moxie to become an executive producer/partner at bicoastal Go Film (SHOOT, 3/7, p. 1)….Public Domain, the bicoastal production house headed by executive producer Steve Shore, has entered into a strategic affiliation with Czar Films, the European shop headquartered in Amsterdam. Per the deal, Public Domain will provide U.S. representation for Czar’s directors, while Czar will handle Public Domain’s helmers in the European spot market….Will Vinton, founder/ chairman of Vinton Studios, Portland, Ore., was laid off last week from the company that bears his name. The move came just days after he resigned from the studio’s board of directors. Vinton and several others were let go as part of a corporate restructuring; however, the exact reasons behind the end of Vinton’s 27-year tenure at the company weren’t clear at press time….Director Stephen Kessler has come aboard Venice, Calif.-based Trio Films.….Industry vets Michael Raimondi, Werner Mayes and Ron Moler have launched Union Editorial. The Santa Monica shop’s roster includes editors Nico Alba, Einar, Jay Friedkin and Ira Klein. Additionally Rye Dahlman is cutting projects under the Union banner….Editor Mike Douglas has joined ChicKönKey, New York. He comes over from MacKenzie Cutler, New York….New York-based Cine/drsa international has signed UK director/still photographer Harry Rankin for commercials….Kyle Cooper, a co-founder in bicoastal design company Imaginary Forces, is departing the shop to pursue live-action work and feature films, as well as projects for the film and commercial industries….Executive producer Justin Corsbie has launched Synthetic Pictures. The Austin, Texas-headquartered production shop opens with directors Richard Kooris, Robert Strack, Gary Perweiler, Rich Carroll, Ken Lewin, Joe Piccirillo, Walter Pawluk, Eric Pham and Dennis Fagan on its roster….Culver City, Calif.-based barton: holt has signed songwriter/record producer Mike "Smidi" Smith for spot work….Jason Menkes has joined Sacred Noise, New York, as producer. Menkes was most recently executive producer at the New York office of bicoastal tomandandy….Jonathan Airale has been promoted to dailies colorist at Bobine Video, the Santa Monica-based telecine boutique owned by colorist Jais Thierry Lamaire and producer Julie Airale. Jonathan Airale had been Lamaire’s assistant for the past six-plus years…Steve Solomon, a co-founder of the New York Production Alliance (NYPA), has joined the organization’s executive committee. Solomon, who is a principal in New York law firm Hutton & Solomon, replaced Marva Topham, who has retired….
“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