Jeremy Bernstein has been promoted from sr. VP/group creative director to executive VP, group creative director at Deutsch NY. His colleagues at the agency, Matt McKay and Jeffrey Vinick, have both been upped from exec VP/group creative director to executive creative director….Partners Grant Richards, Scott Aal and Kim Kline have changed the name of their agency Engine Company 1 to Chemistry Club. The quirky new moniker comes on the heels of recent account growth and reflects the agency’s passion for exploration and experimentation….Elastic has added designer/director Patrick Clair to its studio roster. For his first project with Elastic, Clair created the evocative opening title sequence for HBO’s highly anticipated drama, True Detective. He is also currently working on the main title for Halt and Catch Fire, a new drama about the personal computing boom in the 1980s premiering later this year on AMC….Click 3X has appointed Mauricio Aguayo as director of digital strategy. In this newly created role, Aguayo will guide the studio’s efforts in identifying and creating digital solutions for its clients. Prior to joining Click 3X, Aguayo worked at full-service digital agency, ROKKAN, and earlier at social marketing agency, M80, specializing in social strategy for global CPG, automotive, healthcare and lifestyle brands….
Lessons From A Theater Near You; What The Box Office Taught Us In 2024
Movie ticket sales took a bit of a hit in 2024. The annual domestic box office is expected to end up at around $8.75 billion, down more than 3% from 2023, according to estimates from Comscore.
It's not as dire as it was in the pandemic years, but it's also not even close to the pre-pandemic norm when the annual box office regularly surpassed $11 billion.
This is the year the business felt the effects of the Hollywood strikes of 2023, the labor standoff that delayed productions and releases and led to a depleted calendar for exhibitors and moviegoers. And yet it's not as bad as it could have been, or at least as bad as analysts projected at the start of the year.
"This has been a really incredible comeback story for the industry," said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. "Just a couple of months ago it was a question of whether we would even hit $8 billion for the year."
Hollywood continues to learn lessons about what moviegoers really want, what works and what doesn't. Here are the biggest takeaways from 2024.
The strike fallout was real
The Hollywood strikes might have ended in 2023, putting productions back into full swing and sending stars out on the promotional circuit again — but the ripple effect of the work stoppages and contract standoffs showed their real effects on the 2024 release calendar.
The first two quarters were hit hardest, with tentpoles pushed later in the year ("Deadpool & Wolverine," for one) or even into 2025 (like "Mission: Impossible 8"). With no Marvel movie kicking off the summer moviegoing season, the box office was down a devastating 27.5% from 2023 right before "Inside Out 2" opened in June.
"It's an unpredictable business but it... Read More