Hollywood's new holy grail: Non-Disney hit movies
Man cannot live by tent poles alone. We need to find something original or surprising that will work for our audiences.
LAS VEGAS: Like millions of Americans every year, Tim and Donna Barnes made the pilgrimage to Las Vegas, hoping to land a jackpot shimmering just out of reach.
In their case, a hit movie that’s not a Disney-style franchise - the kind that can bring in scores of customers.
“Man cannot live by tent poles alone,” said Tim Barnes, who with wife Donna owns three movie theatres in New Hampshire, using the Hollywood term for big-budget branded movies. “We need to find something original or surprising that will work for our audiences.”
CinemaCon is the annual April convention where movie studios peddle their films to the
Tim Barnes, theatre owner
people who control the country’s 40,000 movie screens. Known as exhibitors, they gather in a cavernous casino theatre normally given to Celine Dion and James Taylor residencies in order to watch footage, endure studio-executive hype, take in star patter and make booking decisions for the next year, the moviegoing future by way of the laminated-badge set.
Yet the four-day event, which ended Thursday, took on a more urgent tone this year. With its Fox acquisition, Disney is now the kind of indomitable force the business has not seen in generations. On Wednesday, the studio cemented its heavyweight status by promoting Fox productions like the ‘Dark Phoenix’ X-Men film, alongside Disney projects ‘Aladdin’, ‘Avengers: Endgame’, ‘The Lion King’, ‘Frozen 2’ and ‘Toy Story 4’.
But to many exhibitors - and rival studios - this only heightens the importance of finding nonDisney hits. They are wary of one company gaining too much power, fearing what it can mean for their negotiating position. And Disney releases comparatively few movies. “‘The Avengers’,” Barnes said, “can’t carry us through 12 months of business.”
The question is: Where to find them?
Paramount Pictures executives were among those who believe they’ve found the answer. On Thursday, the company made the case to exhibitors that sequels to ‘Coming to America’ and ‘Top Gun’ were part of the solution to Disney fatigue. So was a Jim Carrey-starring comedic adaptation of vintage Sega game ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’. And they posited that an original sci-fi thriller called ‘Gemini Man’, which unites Will Smith and Oscar-winning director Ang Lee, could be the start of something big.
But the studio’s was ‘Terminator: Dark Fate’, a sequel to the first two films in the time-hopping series. This film represents the return of original Sarah Connor Linda Hamilton; James Cameron was also heavily involved. Paramount is hoping the movie evokes the same goodvibes nostalgia as Disney has with its ‘Aladdin’ and ‘Lion King’ remakes.
“This is sure to bring you back to the feeling you first experienced when you were introduced to this ‘Terminator’ world,” Kyle Davies, Paramount’s head of distribution, told exhibitors.
Star Arnold Schwarzenegger made sure to connect the film to multiple throwback blockbusters. “Even though he was in the middle of ‘Avatar,’ “the actor said of Cameron, “he was thinking about ‘Terminator’.”
The studios are on an awkward middle ground. They know they can’t match Disney on the franchise front, so they seek original films. But they also know that to ignore sequels and remakes is, in this age of global megabrands, to write their obituaries. So they also look to mine what they have.
On Tuesday, Warner Bros. teased further instalments in its ‘Godzilla’ and DC Comics lines - but also more eccentric fare like an adaptation of Pulitzerwinning novel ‘The Goldfinch’ and a Bruce Springsteen-themed coming-of-age comedy.
Lionsgate, on Thursday promoted the latest instalment in its ‘John Wick’ action franchise and reminded exhibitors it was the studio of ‘The Hunger Games’. But it also sought out original terrain with releases like ‘Long Shot’, a romantic comedy with Seth Rogen and Charlize Theron involving a scrappy journalist and an idealistic secretary of state.
“We of course want our franchises, but we can be quick and do more original things, too,” Joe Drake, the co-chair of Lionsgate’s motion picture group, said in an interview. The gargantuan size of Disney, he said, opens avenues for smaller companies not locked into dates and titles years away. — Washington Post