Noted still fashion photographer Elaine Constantine has come aboard bicoastal Moxie Pictures for U.S. spot representation. She is no stranger to the ad arena, having helmed commercials for the Japanese and U.K. markets. At press time, she was slated to embark on her first American spot, a Moxie-produced job for Tillamook Cheese out of agency Four Stories, Portland, Ore…. Acterna Corp., the publicly traded Germantown, Md.-headquartered holding company for such entities as da Vinci Systems, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. The company reported that it is preparing a reorganization plan with certain key lenders. Da Vinci Systems, headquartered in Coral Springs, Fla., is the manufacturer of the popular da Vinci color correction systems used in many commercial postproduction houses in the U.S. and abroad. A da Vinci spokesperson said that the company is operating business as usual with no impact on customers….Chris Graves has been named executive creative director at Team One Advertising, El Segundo, Calif. He is slated to start there on June 15 and will fill the position vacated by Tom Cordner, who exited the agency in January. Graves comes over from TBWA/Chiat/Day, Los Angeles, where he made his mark as a creative director for the Nissan and Infiniti accounts….Mike Pethel, co-president of Company 3, Santa Monica and New York, has signed a long-term renewal of his contract with the boutique, part of the Ascent Media Group family of companies….Richard Andrews has been named president of Technicolor Creative Services (TCS), which offers postproduction, sound and distribution services, with offices in New York, Montreal, London, Rome, Singapore, Hollywood, Burbank and Glendale, Calif. Most recently, Andrews served as president of TCS’ Distribution Services division, which he joined nearly a year-and-a-half ago when Glendale-based Vid-film was acquired by Technicolor. Andrews had spent the prior 25 years of his career at Vid-film; his last role there was president….FilmCore, San Francisco, has added editor Tim Fender, who had been with Bob ‘n’ Sheila’s Edit World, San Francisco….Treehouse Animation, New York, has expanded its staff by three. Julie Shevach, formerly of Black Logic, New York, joins as producer; Karl Turkel, who was a senior art director at J. Walter Thompson, New York, will serve as director; and Antoine Veliz comes aboard as designer….
“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