‘La La Land’s’ loser
It’s the one that got away for producer Blum
HOLLYWOOD — If “La La Land,” the retro musical about two artists who choose fame over love, wins best picture, will Wall Street reward its backer, Lionsgate?
As of Friday, the stock is at $26.09, on par with where it was when the movie opened wide last Dec. 9.
The financial backers of the project besides Lionsgate include the little-known Black Label Media and TIK Films, a subsidiary of Hunan TV, which has a film finance pact with Lionsgate.
The movie has so far pulled in $339 million worldwide on a production budget of $30 million. That’s a huge success for Lionsgate, which had sputtered after winning big with young adult movies “Twilight” and “Divergent.”
Meanwhile, one producer is kicking himself for not tying down “La La Land” director Damien Chazelle.
Jason Blum, who financed Chazelle’s first movie, “Whiplash,” missed out on his second after believing he had it in the bag.
Blum told Recode’s Peter Kafka earlier this month he won’t be at the Oscars because he lost the director to Lionsgate. Blum could have had a producer’s credit on the best picture nominee, which stars Emma Stone (pictured) and Ryan Gosling.
Blum said: “I threw every bone in my body going after the movie … and we lost … and it kills me ... I’m actually going to New York this year for the Oscars because I can’t take it.”
Still, the Blumhouse Productions boss has a consolation prize. The firm’s horror flick, “Get Out,” opened to $1.8 million box office on Friday and was poised to do well this weekend. The movie cost $4.5 million to make.
Oscar stirrings
HOLLYWOOD — It feels like each year, a ceremony for what’s good about the movies becomes a cultural battleground. This year in particular with nonstop White House drama, TV viewers might prefer a little break from politics. However, that seems unlikely.
Last year’s protest hashtag was “Oscarssowhite” and a call by actress Jada Pinkett Smith to punish the Academy for not acknowledging the works of black actors.
It seemed to have some effect. Viewership of the Oscars last year on ABC hit an 8-year low, with host Chris Rock drawing 37.26 million viewers.
This year comes a smaller but no less vocal movement to #boycottoscars in anticipation that win-winners will use the international TV platform to bash President Trump.
One commenter, @killerkellylyReno, shared the famous Ellen n selfie, writing: “Oscars we don’tn’t need you! Oscars don’t help uss feed & clothe kids, pay bills or get good jobs. Hollywood elitists live in LaLaLand.”
One anti-Oscars movementt was promoted by a Facebook post by the group Tempe Republican Women, which called on the public to turn off the show.how.
Foreign cash
HOLLYWOOD — Almost all of this year’s crop of best picture nominees were financed not by big studios, but by independent companies, says Nick Meyer, who represents Amazon-backed “Manchester by the Sea” internationally and Jeff Bridges’ “Hell or High Water.”
Meyer, the CEO of Sierra Affinity, a film producer, financier and distributor, says a host of moviemakers this year already sold their foreign rights to finance their productions. He points out that only one best picture nominee — Fox’s “Hidden Figures” — was wholly financed by a big The great influx of cash from China “hashas madem the competition for projects more rigorous,” Meyer confirms, but adds that personal relationships count for just as much toward getting on board with quality projects.
This is Us
After five consecutive covers featuring at least one of the Family Trump on its cover, Jan Wenner’s Us Weekly has finallyf gone Trump-less. The unprecedented run of five Trumped-up covers coincidedc with negotiations between magazine owner Wenner and American Media chief David Pecker to sell the celebrity weekly for a whispered $90 million. Pecker, a Trump loyalist, was keenly interested in pairing US WeeklyWe with AMI’s Star magazine. And what better way for Wenner to curry favor with Us Weekly’s most likely suitor, accordingcor to industry sources, than to play up Pecker’s interest in all things Trump. TalksT between the two publishing honchos recently collapsed, however, freeing Wenner to revertve to his longstanding disdain for Pecker, our Richard Morgan reports. One could argue the breakdowndo in talks also freed up Us Weekly’sWeekly’ March 6 cover for “Dancing With the Stars” couple Peta Murgatroyd and Maks Chmerkovskiy.