2019-09-04 The Hollywood Reporter

Heat Index

Showbiz Stocks

The Re ort

Behind the Headlines

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 11 SEPTEMBER 4, 2019

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Illustration by Dan Woodger

↑ Labor

Carteris’ Plan

The re-elected SAG-AFTRA

chief outlines her priorities p. 14

Film

Crazy Fight

What’s holding up the sequels

to Asians p. 16

$20.77 (+2%)

IMAX CORP. (IMAX)

The exhibitor of movies on

large screens says that, as of

Aug. 31, sales in China are

up 28 percent over the same

time frame a year earlier.

$102.56 (-1%)

BAIDU INC. (BIDU)

Investors worry that a U.S.

trade war with China will

hurt ad sales for the owner

of that country’s largest

search engine.

John Stankey

The WarnerMedia chief

becomes president and COO

of owner AT&T, setting him

up as a possible successor to

CEO Randall Stephenson.

Nancy Dubuc

The Vice Media CEO pre-

sides over another round of

layoffs as its news division

merges with cable channel

Viceland after HBO cancels

its daily show.

Lawrence O’Donnell

After floating that “Russian

oligarchs” co-signed a Trump

loan, the MSNBC host retracts

the story and apologizes on

air for “information that wasn’t

ready for reporting.”

Aug. 27-Sept. 3

E

arlier this year, Olivia

Wilde’s Booksmart, a

coming-of-age tale about

two high school seniors on the

verge of graduation, was poised

to become a breakout among

younger moviegoers. It lit up

social media after its pre-

miere at the SXSW festival and

boasted a 100 percent rating on

Rotten Tomatoes.

But veteran film executives were

stumped when the Annapurna

film flunked with a debut of

$8.7 million over Memorial

Day weekend on 2,505 screens,

foreshadowing a tough sum-

mer for counterprogramming

designed for younger and older

adults. Booksmart was steam-

rolled by Disney’s Aladdin on the

same weekend, with the CG/live-

action remake luring thousands

of Generation Z and millennials,

who feasted on the original 1992

animated film as youngsters

(whether in theaters or on DVD).

Those between 18 and 24 made up

37 percent of Aladdin’s opening-

weekend audience, while ages 25

to 34 made up 27 percent for a

combined 64 percent. Those same

stats for Booksmart were 36 percent

and 37 percent, respectively, and

Aladdin swept the weekend thanks

to its broad appeal.

This pattern — promising

adult-oriented releases under-

performing as Disney tentpoles

dominated — repeated itself

throughout the summer.

Meanwhile, a record number

of films — Avengers: Endgame,

Aladdin, Toy Story 4 and Spider-

Man: Far From Home (a l l f rom

Disney, save for Sony’s Spider-

Man, produced by Disney’s Marvel

Studios) — crossed $1 billion at

the May-to-August box office.

The dramatic disparity resulted

in domestic summer revenue

falling 2 percent behind last year,

worsening a year-over-year gap

of 6 percent. (Final global numbers

are not yet available for summer.)

Young people help a record number of films cross $1 billion globally, but the season ends 2 percent

behind last year amid an art house swoon and a ‘big gap right now between the haves and have-nots’

BY PAMELA MCCLINTOCK

A Millennial Silver Lining Amid

Bummer Summer Box Office

Summer-Over-Summer Decline

Domestic Revenue Attendance

$4.32B

$4.41B

472M

484M

Source: Comscore, May 2-Aug. 29, 2019 ↓2.1% DECREASE ↓3%

The season wasn’t able

to reverse the decline

at the 2019 domestic box

office, with yearly revenue

still down 6.4 percent

($7.8 billion). Globally, how-

ever, revenue is running

about even at $19 billion.

2019

2018

Taylor Swift

The pop star’s Lover earns

867,000 equivalent units in the

U.S. in its No. 1 Billboard 200

chart debut, the biggest week

for any album since her last

release in 2017.