Just 32% of speaking characters in the top 100 movies at the box office in 2023 were women or girls, according to the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative annual report released Monday. That’s very nearly the same percentage as when Stacy L. Smith first began the study in 2007. Then, it was 30% of speaking characters.

The gender imbalance was pronounced in other areas, too. Just 30% of leading roles in the top films were women or girls, a huge decrease of 14% from 2022 and roughly the same figure as in 2010. Only 11% of films were gender balanced, with girls or women in 45-54.9% of speaking roles.

“No matter how you examine the data, 2023 was not the ‘Year of the Woman.’ We continue to report the same trends for girls and women on screen, year in and year out,” Smith said in a statement. “It is clear that there is either a dismissal of women as an audience for more than one or two films per year, a refusal to find ways to create meaningful change, or both.

“If the industry wants to survive its current moment, it must examine its failure to employ half the population on screen,” added Smith.

“Barbie” may have been the No. 1 film at the box office last year, but, as has historically been the case, a few prominent releases don’t by themselves move the needle against persistent trends.

The USC study doesn’t analyze what Hollywood makes, just what’s most widely watched in theaters. That leaves out a wide swath of movies produced for streaming, as well as most independent releases. But in capturing the majority of popular films in theaters, the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative tracks how much the industry’s vows of inclusivity actually line up with what’s on movie screens.

In an election year where much of Hollywood will be backing Vice President Kamala Harris to become the first female American president, researchers concluded that “progressive Hollywood” is “actually not progressive at all.”

The stubborn lack of progress for female characters in film is only more striking when compared to some of the gains made by underrepresented racial and ethnic groups. While there remain major inequalities there, too, some findings show considerable change.

In 2023, 44% of speaking characters came from underrepresented groups, roughly matching or even slightly exceeding the racial makeup of the U.S. population (41%). The percentage of white characters decreased to 56% in 2023, down from 62% the year prior. In 2007, 78% of all characters were white.

Among protagonists, underrepresented racial and ethnic groups made up 37% of main characters, an increase of 6% from 2022 and more than ever before. In 2007, that figure was 13%.

Last year’s main characters were 12.6% Black, 5.2% Hispanic or Latino characters and 18.4% Asian. None of the 100 top movies featured casts that matched U.S. demographics for Hispanic/Latinos, who account for 19.1% of the population — and even more of ticket buyers.

Many other groups were closer to invisible, entirely, in 2023’s top box-office films. There were just five movies out of the 100 with an LGBTQ+ lead or co-lead. Just 2.2% of the films included a speaking character with a disability. And only four speaking characters were nonbinary.

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Or … does the limit not exist?

Forgive us that utterly blatant setup for one of the original’s most famous lines. It’s just that some of them are so darned memorable. Like, “You can’t sit with us!” — screeched. Or when Regina, the haughtiest queen bee ever to carry a cafeteria tray, scathingly tells her minion Gretchen, who’s trying out her new word “fetch,” to “Stop trying to make ‘fetch’ happen. It’s NOT going to happen!!”

But even in “Mean Girls 17,” should it come to that, someone will still be trying to make “fetch” happen. And it’s actually not a bad word to describe the experience of watching the new “Mean Girls” — a slick, fizzy bit of entertainment that’s occasionally delightful and usually fun, even if the translation to 2024 definitely has its rough spots.

If you’ve recently re-watched the first film, you may be surprised here at how many lines remain, word for word. What’s impressive is how many still work – unlike some social comedies that felt right 20 years ago but have scenes that fall with a thud now (see “Love Actually”).

There are exceptions, though. I’ll confess to feeling queasy throughout about the “dumb girl” character who remains in the Plastics, Regina’s social group. There is, thankfully, no more reference to a coach sleeping with a student, which would not have been funny, even with Jon Hamm as the coach. Slut-shaming has been conspicuously toned down – the insult in Regina’s famous Burn Book is now “cow” and not “slut.”

On the other hand, fat-shaming? That’s still there, as when the camera zooms in rudely on the rear end of a character who’s gained a few pounds.

As for the casting, some of it works wonderfully, particularly the duo who introduce the film, which is again written by Fey, with music by Jeff Richmond (her husband), and lyrics by Nell Benjamin. Damian, the beloved character described affectionately by Janis as “almost too gay to function” (but that’s only OK when she says it), and Janis, his best friend, a talented artist whose fallout with Regina left her in the dirt socially, function almost as quasi-narrators. Jaquel Spivey, of Broadway’s “A Strange Loop,” is hilarious and also moving as Damian — you wait for each new line, and he wastes none of them. And Auli’i Cravalho as Janis has a gorgeous voice and charismatic screen presence. (And a huge song, though from the trailer, you wouldn’t know anyone has songs at all.)

Angourie Rice is the new Cady, the Lindsay Lohan role, a home-schooled math whiz who arrives in suburban Chicago straight from Kenya, where her mother was doing zoological research, into the snake pit of high school. Rice is a sweet presence but not as convincing in the “bad Cady” moments as Lohan. As for the Plastics, singer Reneé Rapp, formerly Regina on Broadway, imbues the role with powerhouse vocals and an angrier edge than the excellent Rachel McAdams did — when she’s enraged, boy, you feel it.

Once again, Cady begins her first school day in math class with Ms. Norbury, once played by Fey — and again by Fey! Tim Meadows is also back as the principal; both look older but certainly not two decades.

Cady has a rough entry and ends up eating lunch in a bathroom stall, but is rescued by Janis and Damian. In the cafeteria, she has her first encounter with Queen Bee Regina. “My name is Regina George,” sings Rapp, in some of the show’s best lyrics, “I am a massive deal. I don’t care who you are, I don’t care how you feel.”

The Plastics — Regina, needy Gretchen (Bebe Woods) and intellectually challenged Karen (Avantika) — adopt Cady and teach her the rules: Wear pink on Wednesdays. No tank tops two days in a row. A ponytail? Once a week. Also: You can’t date someone’s ex-boyfriend, because those are “the rules of feminism.” At such moments, one can literally hear Fey writing the line. (Side note: Please come back to the Golden Globes, Tina, and bring Amy Poehler.) (Speaking of Poehler, she is missed as Regina’s “cool” mom, but aptly replaced by Busy Philipps.)

Things go south quickly when Cady falls for Regina’s ex, Aaron, who sits in front of her in AP Calculus (leading to the excellent lyric “Calcu-lust.”) Regina isn’t going to give up Aaron without a dirty fight. So Cady, aided by Damian and Janis, plots to bring Regina down from inside, pretending to be a loyal Plastic.

But at what point does Cady stop pretending and BECOME a Plastic? (Ask Janis.)

Directors Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr. keep the action moving briskly. A key visual difference is technology. In the 2004 film, friends spoke to each other on the telephone, in split screens. Now, of course, gossip and bullying take place via social media. In some ways this makes it all seem more vicious. When Regina takes an embarrassing tumble onstage at the Christmas performance, we witness a social media shaming that is much crueler than anything that happened in the 2004 version.

And yet, it’s believable, of course. One comes away from this latest “Mean Girls” thinking that in some ways things may have gotten better for high schoolers than they were in 2004 — but in other ways, things have only gotten meaner.

“Mean Girls,” a Paramount Pictures release, has been rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association “for sexual material, strong language, and teen drinking. “ Running time: 105 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.

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Spielberg’s comments caused a widespread stir at the time. “Avengers: The Age of Ultron” was then one of the year’s biggest movies. The following year would bring “Captain America: Civil War,” “Deadpool” and “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice.” The superhero movie was in high gear, and showing no signs of slowing down.

But Spielberg’s point was that nothing is forever in the movie business. These cycles, Spielberg said, “have a finite time in popular culture.” And the maker of “E.T.,” “Jurassic Park” and “Jaws” might know a thing or two about the ebbs and flows of pop-culture taste.

As 2023 draws to a close, no one is sounding the death knell of the superhero movie. The Walt Disney Co.’s “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” made $845.6 million worldwide and Sony’s “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” ($691 million) was one of the most acclaimed films of the year. Marvel is still mightier than any other brand in the business.

But more than ever before, there are chinks in the armor of the superhero movie. Its dominance in popular culture is no longer quite so assured. A cycle may be turning, and a new one dawning.

For the first time in more than two decades, the top three movies at the box office didn’t include one sequel or remake: “Barbie,” “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” and “Oppenheimer.” The last time that happened was 2001, when “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” “Shrek” and “Monsters, Inc.” topped the box office.

No, it’s not exactly a lineup of originality like, say, 1973, when “The Exorcist, “The Sting” and “American Graffiti” led all movies in ticket sales. “Barbie” and “The Super Mario Bros.,” based on some of the most familiar brands in the world, will generate spinoffs and sequels of their own.

But it’s hard not to sense a shift in moviegoing, one that might have reverberations for years to come for Hollywood.

“There’s an inflection point in 2023,” says Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for data firm Comscore. “ Barbenheimer is just one part of that story. Audiences, they want to be challenged. I think the tried and true is not necessarily working.”

Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie,” from Warner Bros., was the year’s runaway hit, with more than $1.4 billion in ticket sales worldwide. It was a blockbuster like none seen before: an anarchic comedy that set a string of records for a movie directed by a woman.

Nearly as unprecedented was the success of Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer,” a three-hour drama that nearly grossed $1 billion. As different as it and “Barbie” were, they were each original feats of cinema and personal statements by its directors.

At the same time, the Walt Disney Co.’s Marvel, a hit-making machine like none other in movie history, faltered like never before. “The Marvels” marked a new low for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, collecting $200 million globally. DC Studios, in the midst of a revamp, saw disappointing results for “The Flash” and “Blue Beetle” before watching “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” sink to a $28.1 million debut.

Both Marvel and DC have already made moves to right their ships. Bob Iger, Disney’s chief executive, has called turning around Marvel his top priority. He said the superhero studio has suffered greatly from too many films and series leading to “diluted quality.” The James Gunn, Peter Safran-led DC, meanwhile, won’t officially launch until 2025 with “Superman Legacy.”

In the meantime, something else will have to fill the void. That was a theme in 2023, too, when the writers and actors strikes marred release plans and forced the delay of several films including Warner’s “Dune: Part Two,” Sony’s next “Ghostbusters” movie and MGM’s “Challengers.”

Those disruptions will continue in 2024. Analysts aren’t expecting a banner year for Hollywood in part because films like the next “Mission: Impossible” film and the “Spider-Verse” sequel, both delayed by the strikes, won’t make their original dates.

Overall ticket sales in U.S. and Canadian theaters for 2023 are expected to reach about $9 billion, according to Comscore, an improvement of about 20% from 2022. The industry is still trying to regain its pre-pandemic footing, when ticket sales regularly surpassed $11 billion. Output of wide-releases in 2023 (88) still trailed those in 2019 (108) by 18.5%.

Hollywood is still coaxing moviegoers back to theaters — something “Barbie,” “Oppenheimer” and “Mario” went a long way to helping.

“It reinforced something that we’ve known for 100 years in the business: People like going to the shared experience out of the home,” says Jeffrey Goldstein, distribution chief for Warner Bros. “They love being entertained. Movies are a good financial proposition and can bring in a mass audience.”

“It probably started with ‘Mario’ last April,” adds Goldstein. “I think that showed audiences again that theaters are a fun place to be to. And it showed studios and content creators: Up your game.”

If 2023 is any guide, hits will come from increasingly unpredictable places.

That was the case with “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour,” a film released just two months after Swift’s recorded concerts in a first-of-its-kind distribution deal with AMC Theatres. It grossed $250 million worldwide, and was followed by the similarly released “Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé,” another No. 1 debut.

More surprising was “Sound of Freedom,” a $15 million film from the independent Angel Studios, which matched Swift with $250 million worldwide. It was released with a unique “pay it forward” program that allowed people to donate tickets.

Going into 2023, no one was betting “Sound of Freedom” would outgross “The Marvels” or that “Five Nights at Freddy’s” would have a bigger opening weekend than “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.”

“There are going to be examples of big-budget, traditional blockbusters that do well,” says Dergarabedian. “But for every one of those, there have been two that failed. An audience that’s finding a lot of interesting material on streaming is becoming more open to films like ‘Godzilla Minus One,’ Indian cinema, Japanese anime. There’s a shift in audience taste and studios need to get a handle on this.”

That poses as much of a challenge as an opportunity to studios. If more-of-the-same no longer has quite the same appeal for moviegoers, an industry that for years has depended on sequels, prequels, reboots and remakes to make up the bulk of its profits may require new creativity.

The Western didn’t vanish all at once. After two decades of ubiquity, it began going out of style in the 1960s. And the Western, of course, continues to be rich territory for filmmakers. This year, 81-year-old Martin Scorsese made his first Western in “Killers of the Flower Moon,” the three-hour-plus $200 million epic from Apple Studios.

The superhero movie, likewise, won’t ever die. But its heyday might have reached its endgame.

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The Walt Disney Co. on Tuesday pushed the release of “Avatar 3” a year, bumping it from December 2024 to December 2025. The timeline is stretched even further for the next planned installments. “Avatar 4” is now slated to hit theaters in December 2029; “Avatar 5” is set to arrive in December 2031.

If those dates hold, the “Avatar” film series will have stretched across the first four decades of the century. Director James Cameron, who launched “Avatar” in 2009, has said he may not direct films 4 and 5. By December 2031, the 68-year-old Cameron would be 77. “Avatar” and “Avatar: The Way of Water” have collectively made more than $5.2 billion at the box office.

“Each ‘Avatar’ film is an exciting but epic undertaking that takes time to bring to the quality level we as filmmakers strive for and audiences have come to expect,” “Avatar” producer Jon Landau wrote on Twitter.

Disney on Tuesday shuffled plans for some of its biggest franchises. Two “Star Wars” film are planned for 2026. One was pushed from December 2025 to May 2026. Another was added for December 2026. The studio hasn’t announced details on either untitled production.

The Marvel calendar was also remade Tuesday, as the studio continues to reshape its coming plans in its superhero kingdom. Most notably, “Avengers: Kang Dynasty” is being postponed from May 2025 to May 2026. That film, a pivotal release for Marvel, stars Jonathan Majors, the actor who has been charged with domestic violence. Majors’ attorney has denied the charges and says he’s innocent.

Other shifts in Marvel releases include most films being delayed a few months. “Captain America: Brave New World” will open in July 2024 instead of May 2024, after which comes “Thunderbolts” in December 2024, “Blade” in February 2025 and “Fantastic Four” in May 2025.

From Disney’s 20th Century, another “Alien” film is now on the calendar, dated for August next year. And one movie is moving up: “Deadpool 3″ will debut May 2024 instead of November next year.

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For more than 50 years, since her breakthrough novel “Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret,” Blume has been a proud member of the literary community and a citizen of special status. She is an eager promoter of other people’s works, whether on social media or at her store. She is also a literary celebrity of the rarest kind, who has not only sold millions of books, but moved young readers so profoundly that, as adults, they approach her in tears and thank her.

“I remind them of their childhood,” she likes to say.

Now 85, Blume has never been forgotten, but she is currently enjoying renewed interest. For the first time, one of her books has been adapted into a major Hollywood film: “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” is written and directed by Kelly Fremon Craig (“Edge of Seventeen”). Premiering next week, it stars Abby Ryder Fortson as the preteen from New Jersey with a lot of questions about religion, boys and her own body. There’s also a new documentary, “Judy Blume Forever,” which includes tributes from Molly Ringwald, Tayari Jones, Jason Reynolds and many others.

“She just really got what it was like to be that age,” Craig says. “And I think at that age it’s meaningful to see yourself reflected back at you.”

Books & Books, located on a corner just a block off the main drag, has become a destination in Key West, like the former home of Ernest Hemingway and the “Little White House” once favored by Harry Truman. Blume says that she and her husband, George Cooper, expected around 80% of their customers to be locals and the remainder tourists.

The opposite has been true, even though Blume doesn’t come in every day. An email recently sent to the store reads: “Hello there, I would love to know if Judy will be at the store between Thursday and Sunday. I would love to meet this brilliant mind from my childhood and have a book signed by her. Thanks so much.”

Wearing a white buttoned shirt and tan clamdigger pants, Blume spoke in late March from a favorite refuge — the roof of her bookstore’s building, looking out on a muggy, cloudy morning over the island city in which she and Cooper live for most of the year.

“I have no private life anymore,” she laments with a smile, reflecting on press events from Los Angeles to the independent movie theater just down the street. The Tropic Center, co-founded by Cooper, hosted an early screening of Craig’s film during an event where Blume was presented with a key to the city.

In the afterword to one of her most autobiographical novels, “starring sally j. freedman as herself,” Blume remembered being “curious, imaginative, a worrier” when she was a girl, qualities she clearly has retained. She is as likely to ask you about your life as she is to answer questions about her own. She speaks of everyday concerns, among them the sound of thunder.

Blume has not written a full-length book since “In the Unlikely Event,” published in 2015. But she is never far from her 12-year-old self, the self of “Are You There God?” and other books, the age when she was “on the brink,” as she calls it, looking ahead to a life that has been her happiest and most surprising creation.

“When I look into a kid’s eyes, when one of them comes into the bookstore, I can feel a connection,” she says.

Born Judith Sussman to a dentist and housewife and raised in New Jersey, she is a lifelong reader and lifelong storyteller. But she had no Judy Blumes to turn to as a child, no books affirming her deepest thoughts or guiding her through physical and emotional changes. Like countless women of her generation, she was expected to marry and raise a family, and fulfilled those promises early: She married John Blume in 1959, in her early 20s, and had two children within the next five years.

But by the end of the 1960s, the wife and mother was becoming a professional writer. She published the children’s book “The One in the Middle Is the Green Kangaroo” in 1969, soon followed by “Iggie’s House” and, based in part on her early adolescence, “Are You There God?”

“I remember things. I have a really good memory. And I wanted to be honest about sixth grade,” she says. “It was a year of obsession with bodily development. I wanted to be normal. I was a late developer, a tiny kid, and I just wanted to be like everybody else.”

She has since written more than a dozen books, sold more than 80 million copies and challenged many taboos: Teenage sex in “Forever,” masturbation in “Deenie,” divorce in “It’s Not the End of the World” (Blume and her first husband divorced in 1975, three years after “It’s Not the End of the World” was published). Her power isn’t only in what she writes, but the voice she writes in — confiding and inquisitive, open and matter-of-fact about the most sensitive topics, as if sharing secrets with friends unseen.

“These are not books to be read aloud in a classroom,” Blume says. “These are books to take into your bed. They are personal and intimate.”

Censors have offered their own kind of tribute to Blume by trying to keep young people from reading her. “Forever,” “Are You There God?” and “Deenie” have been frequently challenged and complained about over the past 30 years, according to the American Library Association. Blume noted that a bill being considered by the Florida House would ban discussion of menstrual cycles in elementary schools, legislation that reminds her of a local principal in New Jersey who objected to “Are You There God?” when it was first published.

“He said, ‘I can’t have girls in our school reading about this.’ And I’m like, ‘Do you know how many girls in the fifth and sixth grade have already had their periods?’” Blume says. “Now, look what’s going on in Florida. You have girls being told not to talk about menstruation. What are you going to do? Of course, they’re going to talk about it.”

The adaptation, which also stars Rachel McAdams and Kathy Bates, has the explicit material of the original book, and a sentimental feel that only time can add. While writing the book, Blume set her story in what was then the present — the late 1960s to early 1970s. The film takes place in the same era, a choice Blume insisted upon.

“This book cannot be updated because of the electronics. I don’t want them to have phones. I don’t want them to be texting,” she says of the film’s characters. Blume added that she didn’t envision young people as the movie’s primary audience.

“It’s not for the kids, although they can go — they’re welcome to go, I hope they do,” she says. “It’s a nostalgia piece. And it’s really for the people who grew up with it. It’s girls’ night out.”

Blume with writer-director Kelly Fremon Craig and producer James L. Brooks at the Los Angeles premiere of “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
Blume had long resisted requests to grant the film rights, but changed her mind a few years ago. She had loved “Edge of Seventeen,” a coming-of-age story released in 2016, and was open to meeting with Craig after the filmmaker emailed her. Authors have had a long, troubled history with the filming of their books, but Blume says she could not be happier. She has enthusiastically promoted the project, citing just one objection she raised during the production — an objection that could only come from her.

In one of the book’s most famous passages, Margaret and her friends chant “We must! We must! We must increase our bust!” with an accompanying exercise. But Blume noticed something off in how the kids were moving their arms.

“I discovered I had been doing it wrong for 30 years,” Craig says. “All my friends, when we we were little, we’d kind of clap our hands together and push them real hard and flex our muscles. That’s the way it was going in my mind. And Judy says, ‘No, no, no, that’s not how you do it. You clench your hands and pull your arms back.’”

“I was happy she was there that day,” Craig added. “I couldn’t get such an iconic moment wrong. I would have had to go back and film it again.”

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AMC Theaters, the nation’s largest movie theater chain unveiled a new pricing scheme in which seat location determines how much your movie ticket costs. Seats in the middle of the auditorium will cost a dollar or two more, while seats in the front row will be slightly cheaper.

AMC said the pricing plan, dubbed “Sightline,” has already been rolled out in some locations and, by the end of the year, will be in place at all domestic AMC theaters during showings after 4 p.m.

Seats classified as “standard sightline” will be at the regular price. If you want to pay less for the “value sightline” seats, you have to be a member of the chain’s subscription service, AMC Stubs.

As movie theaters have attempted to recover from the pandemic, exhibitors have increasingly looked at more variable pricing methods. That’s included charging more for sought-after movies like “The Batman” in their first week of release.

Last weekend, Paramount Pictures partnered with theater chains to offer slightly reduced ticket prices for the comedy “80 for Brady.” And last year, during a dry spell in theaters, tickets at most movie theaters were $3 for “National Cinema Day.”

But in most circumstances, movie tickets are getting more expensive, especially when factoring in large-format screens and 3D showings. The average 3D premium format ticket for the biggest box-office hit in recent years, “Avatar: The Way of Water,” was about $16.50.

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AMC to charge more for good seats in movie theaters
 

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No one emerges with glory from this syrupy, undercooked story of four older friends who are determined to see Brady lead an astonishing come-from-behind win at the 2017 Super Bowl.

A quartet of our finest actors — Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda, Rita Moreno and Sally Field— are sacrificed for cheap laughs and unearned poignancy. And Brady, an executive producer, sullies one of his greatest triumphs. That hissing sound you hear in the theater is not footballs losing air but an audience deflated.

Screenwriters Sarah Haskins and Emily Halpern seem to have opened a door into exploring loss, obligation and regret in our sunset years, but fumble badly, instead drifting into the granny-accidentally-takes-an-edible territory.

Up on that screen is an EGOT winner, multiple Oscar, Tony and Emmy owners, a recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor as well as Kennedy Center and Cecil B. DeMille Award honorees. But they are utterly wasted. At one point Field is reduced to participating in pointless hot wings eating contest.

There’s nothing wrong with silly buddy movies or celebrating age on screen and it’s refreshing to see both bundled here. But don’t tell us you’re empowering older people by making them dance The Twist to get past security into the Super Bowl. Add this to the utter misuse of Diane Keaton in last year’s “Mack & Rita,” and we call Hollywood for illegal blindside blocks on people over 70 and a loss of 15 yards.

Very, very loosely based on actual events, the film is so light plot-wise that it threatens to float away. A ticket mix-up pads a few extra minutes but logic is tossed out, like the time our heroines just happen to find four empty seats in a row just at kickoff — at the Super Bowl.

Brady is a constant benevolent presence throughout, whether speaking to Tomlin’s character through one of his bobbleheads or from TV screens in dialogue only she can hear. “This is going to work out,” he promises.

Each of our leading ladies get a single note to develop: Fonda plays the vain, boy-crazy author of Rob Gronkowski erotic fan fiction. Field is the sensible, responsible one. Recent widow Moreno is up for any adventure and Tomlin is the glue holding them together.

When one of the quartet becomes fearful of a recurrence of cancer, Brady becomes her north star and she asks a bust of him what she should do, like a prayer. “He never gives up no matter what he’s up against,” she says. You come to expect a bright halo to appear over Brady’s head.

Director Kyle Marvin fails to build any real tension as he frighteningly shifts from farce to cringe to melancholy, but real footage of the big game is nicely knitted into the second half. The message here is simple: When you’re down, dig deep and go for it. In other words, have the courage to go to a different movie.

At some points the film just becomes a branding opportunity, like for Microsoft Surface and the theme park NFL Experience. “This is better than my wildest dreams,” one of our august actors is forced to say while throwing footballs. When the four later finagle their way into a skybox during the game, one helpfully explains: “You can see everything!” Yes, from up here, you can see terrible writing.

This is a movie that is supposed to boost people in their 70s and 80s but has jokes about fanny packs and Pat Sajak. Co-stars Billy Porter, Sara Gilbert and Guy Fieri somehow emerge OK in small roles but the main heroines tread water in what can only be considered an after-school special for older people.

“80 for Brady,” a Paramount Pictures release that is only in theaters starting Feb. 3, is rated PG-13 for brief strong language, some drug content and some suggestive references. Running time: 98 minutes. Half a star out of four.

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Review: ’80 for Brady’ is a sports film fumble for the ages
 

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The nearly three-hour epic is based on a work of biographical fiction by Joyce Carol Oates and examines the public and private life of the Hollywood icon from her troubled childhood as Norma Jeane to her global stardom as Marilyn Monroe. De Armas, who was born in Cuba, worked with a dialect coach for a year to prepare.

“Blonde” also stars Adrien Brody as Arthur Miller, and Bobby Cannavale as Joe DiMaggio. The Netflix film, produced by Brad Pitt’s company Plan B, is the first movie ever made by the streamer to be rated NC-17 by the Motion Picture Association, meaning no one under the age of 17 is allowed to see the film in a theater.

The film will be playing in select theaters starting Sept. 16 before becoming available on Netflix on Sept. 23. It’s one of many Oscar hopefuls launching in Venice, where it is also among the films up for the festival’s awards on Sept. 10.

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Marilyn Monroe film ‘Blonde’ arrives in Venice

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MOVIES

— A race between two “Pinocchio” films begins with Robert Zemeckis’ adaptation ahead of Guillermo del Toro’s by a nose. On Thursday, Zemeckis’ animated fantasy of the classic Italian fable will premiere on Disney+. Next month, Del Toro’s stop-motion “Pinocchio” will debut at the London Film Festival and eventually land on Netflix on Dec. 9. For now, we have Zemeckis’ take on the old tale with Tom Hanks as the voice of Geppetto and Cynthia Erivo as the Blue Fairy.

— A trio of the summer’s biggest box-office hits are landing on streaming platforms. On Thursday, Taika Waititi’s whimsically deconstructive “Thor: Love and Thunder” arrives on Disney+. The 29th film in the Marvel cinematic universe, and possibly the Marvel movie most distinctively the work of its filmmaker, “Love and Thunder” follows-up Waititi’s “Thor: Ragnarok.” In his review the AP’s Mark Kennedy wrote: “If you thought that was bananas filmmaking, its sequel is the whole fruit basket.”

— “Jurassic World: Dominion” (Peacock) and “Elvis” (HBO Max) are also streaming. Colin Trevorrow’s “Dominion,” which has nearly grossed $1 billion at the box office, is available in both its theatrical cut and and an extended edition with 14 more minutes and an alternative ending. In her review, AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr praised some of its sequences but called the sixth film in the franchise “a chaotic mishmash on an epic scale.” Baz Luhrmann’s carnivalesque Elvis Presley biopic, starring breakthrough actor Austin Butler and Tom Hanks, also doesn’t skimp on scale. In her review, Bahr called it “gloriously messy — a maximalist opera of contradictions, styles, truths, myths, memories and headlines.”

MUSIC

— John Legend isn’t taking the easy route with his eighth studio album. “Legend” is a massive 24-song double album with the new EGOT honoree collaborating with Rick Ross, Jazmine Sullivan, Jada Kingdom, Rapsody, Ledisi, Jhene Aiko, Ty Dolla $ign and more. Initial singles on the Friday release point to a light, dance beat: The super-sexy, sticky “Honey” with Muni Long, the funky “Dope” with rapper JID and the retro, roller disco jam “All She Wanna Do” featuring Saweetie, with one of the cutest videos ever as the two performers surprise auditioning dancers.

— Now for something a little different: Kane Brown’s third studio album, “Different Man,” is out Friday. It will feature 17 songs, including singles “Like I Love Country Music,” “Whiskey Sour,” “One Mississippi,” “Leave You Alone” and “Grand,” an expertly crafted hip-hop-country melding with happy lyrics: “Remember when I couldn’t stand it?/Now I got the posture.” Look for two duets — “Different Man,” with Blake Shelton and Brown’s wife, Katelyn, on “Thank God.” “Different Man” represents the first time Brown co-produced one of his albums.

— With “Nut,” KT Tunstall finishes a trilogy of albums she began recording and releasing in 2016 with “Kin” and then “Wax.” The trio explore the three existential parts of ourselves, first the spirit, then the body and now with “Nut,” the mind. One of the singles from the new album, “I Am The Pilot,” is a terrific synth-driven tune that nicely represents what she wanted to do with a mind-orientated album: lean into rhythm. The Scottish Tunstall burst onto the music scene in 2004 with her multi-platinum debut, “Eye to the Telescope,” which spawned the global hits “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree” and “Suddenly I See.”

— Ozzy Osbourne has tapped some of the best guitarists on the planet for his latest solo album, “Patient Number 9” — guys like Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Mike McCready, Zakk Wylde and former Black Sabbath band member Tony Iommi. Beck lends his axe skills for the rocking title track, in which Ozzy sings: “If there’s a God, why’d he let the Devil do his work on me?/If there’s a God, what am I doing here?” Others aboard for this Ozzfest are Red Hot Chilli Pepper drummer Chad Smith, Metallica’s Rob Trujillo, Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan and Foo Fighters’ late drummer Taylor Hawkins.

TELEVISION

— Adventure athletes are the stars of “Edge of the Unknown with Jimmy Chin,” debuting Monday, on the National Geographic channel (on Disney+ starting Wednesday, Sept. 7.) The 10-part series details the risks, rewards and mindset of such athlete, kicking off with back-to-back episodes on rock climber Alex Honnold of “Free Solo” documentary fame and big mountain skier Angel Collinson. Filmmaker Jimmy Chin, a pro climber and skier who’s featured in an episode, is executive producer with E. Chai Vasarhelyi. They directed the Oscar-winning “Free Solo.”

— Catherine de Medici, the Italian-born, 16th-century French queen with a fierce reputation, owns the spotlight in Starz’ edgy “The Serpent Queen.” Samantha Morton (“The Walking Dead”) stars as the adult Catherine, with Liv Hill seen in flashbacks as the teenager destined to become the wife of one French king and the influence-wielding mother of three others. Colm Meaney, Kiruna Stamell and Rupert Everett are part of the ensemble cast of the eight-part series debuting Sunday, Sept. 11, on Starz’s streaming platforms (and on the Starz channel).

— Susan Sarandon and Trace Adkins play country music royalty in Fox’s new drama “Monarch, ” but their dynasty is in danger of toppling. Anna Friel, Joshua Sasse and Beth Ditto co-star as the couple’s offspring, with an impressive back-up chorus dropping in: Shania Twain, Martina McBride, Little Big Town and Tanya Tucker are among the guest stars on the series debuting Sunday after Fox’s NFL telecast. “Monarch” settles into its regular 8 p.m. EDT Tuesday slot beginning Sept. 20.

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New this week: John Legend, ‘Serpent Queen’ and ‘Pinocchio’

The post New this week: John Legend, ‘Serpent Queen’ and ‘Pinocchio’ appeared first on The Florida Daily Post.

The latest relaunch of the 80-year-old comic book character is well above Warner Bros.’ conservative estimates going into the weekend, which had the film pegged for a debut in the $90 million range. It’s the best opening of 2022 and the second best of the pandemic, though it’s more than $100 million shy of “Spider-Man: No Way Home’s” still unbelievable $260 million opening weekend in December.

“The Batman” opened this weekend exclusively in theaters in 4,217 locations on over 12,500 screens in North America. There were some fan events on Tuesday and Wednesday leading into Thursday pre-shows in about 3,300 locations. All told, by the close of Friday, “The Batman” had already grossed $57 million. No other major studio dared compete with their own new film.

Internationally, “The Batman” earned $120 million, bringing its global total to $248.5 million. Warner Bros. halted its release in Russia following the country’s invasion of Ukraine, saying that the company would monitor the situation as it evolves. Many major studios made similar decisions with their films.

Reviews have been largely positive for this new iteration of the caped crusader. Director Matt Reeves and co-writer Peter Craig set “The Batman” in Bruce Wayne’s second year of donning the cape. Corruption is rampant in Gotham and some well-known villains are not yet fully formed, but there’s a serial killer afoot and Pattinson’s Batman and Gordon, played by Jeffrey Wright, are on a mission to find the mysterious Riddler (Paul Dano).

It’s been a long road for “The Batman” to make it to theaters. The original plan was for it to come out in June 2021, but that was pushed several times due in part to COVID-related production shutdowns.

The film cost around $200 million to produce, not to mention the millions spent on marketing and distribution. And a lot is riding on “The Batman,” with future films and an HBO Max spinoff series both planned.

As the omicron variant surged in December, Warner Bros. was faced once more with a hard decision: Delay the release further or commit to the March opening. Under the advice of epidemiologists, in January they decided to go forward and start spending significant money on marketing.

“We knew the movie was exceptional. We knew fans would embrace it. But we didn’t know what the pandemic would hold,” said Jeff Goldstein, Warner Bros.′ president of domestic distribution. “Theater owners really stepped up and showed their showmanship … it was really a collective win.”

“The Batman” is also the first movie in over a year that Warner Bros. has released exclusively in theaters. In 2021, the studio adopted a hybrid release strategy debuting films from “Dune” to “Suicide Squad” in theaters and on HBO Max simultaneously, which may have helped streaming subscriptions, but not the box office or movie theaters.

“The box office is back with a vengeance,” said Paul Dergarabedian, Comscore’s senior media analyst. “This is a real turning point for the industry. The box office year has been moving in fits and starts. There have been some solid performances but no blockbuster breakout opener in 2022. This is great for movie theaters.”

So how does Pattinson stack up against his predecessors? It’s the fourth biggest opening for a Batman movie in North America. As far as lifetime profits, only time will tell, but Batman as a $1 billion franchise is a relatively recent phenomenon.

Tim Burton’s “Batman” starring Michael Keaton and released in 1989, made around $252 million in North America and just over $400 million worldwide. None of the Batman movies grossed $500 million worldwide until 2008. Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight,” starring Christian Bale, broke the $1 billion mark, which repeated with “The Dark Knight Rises.” The Ben Affleck/Zack Snyder era peaked with “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice,” which grossed $873 million worldwide.

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‘The Batman’ gives movie theaters a new hope with big launch

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