Wes Anderson’s ‘The French Dispatch’ rolls into Cannes
CANNES, France, July 13, (AP): A year after it was first to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch” finally rolled into the French Riviera festival on Monday.
Anderson and the large cast arrived on the Cannes red carpet in a bus, with a grinning Bill Murray sitting shotgun. The film, Anderson’s elaborate and fanciful ode to The New Yorker, is perhaps the starriest ensemble playing at the festival this year. At the premiere with Murray were Tilda Swinton, Benicio Del Toro, Owen Wilson and — in his first Cannes red carpet — Timothée Chalamet.
Clad in a silvery shiny suit, Chalamet — well known for his French fluency — dashed to spectators to take selfies and sign autographs.
The premiere was a long time in coming. “The French Dispatch” was selected for last year’s Cannes, which ultimately was canceled due to the pandemic. The Searchlight Pictures release opted to wait; it will be released in theaters in October.
Still, COVID-19 impacted the film’s debut. One star, the French actress Léa Seydoux, last week tested positive while working on another film. She is fully vaccinated and asymptomatic but she was quarantining in Paris and unable to attend. The movie is also making a somewhat smaller splash in Cannes; it’s the only film in competition for the Palme d’Or that won’t hold a press conference here.
“The French Dispatch” is an affection portrait of a weekly literary magazine situated in the fictional French city of Ennui-sur-Blasé. It’s an anthology film, structured like an issue of The New Yorker, with three separate features, a travel story and an obituary. Critics were mixed on the film, praising the movie’s full-hearted tribute to 20th century magazine writing and Anderson’s intricate image-making — which in “The French Dispatch” may be on a new level even for him.
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LOS ANGELES: Even with an option to watch “Black Widow” at home, audiences went to the movie theater in pandemic record numbers this weekend to catch the first Marvel movie released in two years.
The Walt Disney Co. said Sunday the superhero pic generated an estimated $80 million in ticket sales in North America. Combined with $78 million from international theaters and at least $60 million in Disney+ Premier Access rentals, “Black Widow” grossed over $215 million in its first weekend. The studio said it’s the largest domestic opening weekend since “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” debuted in 2019, pre-pandemic.
It’s a massive win for coronavirus-era moviegoing. In North America, the previous pandemic recordholder was Universal’s “F9,” which debuted to $70 million a few weeks ago. But unlike “Black Widow,” which is playing on 4,100 screens, the ninth “Fast & Furious” movie was exclusively in theaters.
“This was a pretty monumental weekend for the industry,” said Paul Dergarabedian, Comscore’s senior media analyst. “’Black Widow’ played well on big screens and small screens. And it actually strengthens the case for movie theaters.”
Dergarabedian noted that the vast majority of profits, $158.8 million, came from theaters. Around $12 million of that came from IMAX screens too.
“Hollywood blockbusters continue to gain ground at the box office with each successive release, and that bodes very well for the many films lined up for exclusive worldwide theatrical release this fall and beyond,” said Rich Gelfond the CEO of IMAX.
“Black Widow,” starring Scarlett Johansson, has had a long journey to theaters. Originally slated to come out in May of 2020, the blockbuster was delayed because of the pandemic. Disney ultimately decided to release it “day and date,” meaning it came out on more than one platform at the same time. “Black Widow,” in theaters and for a $30 rental on its subscription streaming service Disney+. Although not unprecedented for pandemic movie releases, or even for Disney, which did the same for “Cruella,” it’s the first Marvel movie to attempt the hybrid strategy. And it’s by far the biggest earner to date.
It is unusual for studios to release grosses from streaming profits in real time. Many never do so, and some release figures weeks after the fact.
“’Black Widow’s’ strong performance this weekend affirms our flexible distribution strategy of making franchise films available in theaters for a true cinematic experience and, as COVID concerns continue globally, providing choice to consumers who prefer to watch at home on Disney+,” said Kareem Daniel, the chairman of Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution, in a statement.