Hollywood Week: SAG/AFTRA Still Out After WGA Approves Contract, Awards Season, U2
- Details
- Category: Entertainment News
- Published on Saturday, 07 October 2023 12:57
- Written by Janet Walker
With the WGA strike settled, the Big 4 studio executives are concentrating on negotiations with the SAG/AFTRA Union and ending the nearly three months strike which in tandem with the recently settled writer's strike crippled the industry.
"SAG-AFTRA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers on just wrapped their second day of renewed talks over a new three-year contract with a plan to meet again on Friday and even further down the line," Deadline reported.
Hollywood Week: WGA Negotiations Talks Positive, SAG/AFTRA Still Out, Studio Ghibli Sells Stake, FAFF Cancels
The executives, Bob Iger of Disney, Ted Sarandos of Netflix, NBC Universal's Donna Langley, and Warner Bros Discovery's David Zaslav, along with negotiators from AMPTP boss Carol Lombardi, and the SAG/AFTRA chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland and SAG/AFTRA contracts executive Ray Rodriguez met throughout the past week and have agreed to return to the bargaining table this week.
The negotiations are upbeat with both sides hoping to reach a fair and equitable agreement for all.
Hollywood Week: Hollywood Union Strike Continues, Cripples Economy, Toronto Film Festival
Awards Season Picks Up
As awards season begins, the traditional fall box office is heating up as studios begin the domestic release of many of the films that have already been previewed at international film festivals to acclaim.
Toronto Audience Winner, MGM's American Fiction will play at the upcoming AFI Fest 2023 as will Netflix's Maestro, a Red-Carpet screening to close the festival.
Universal's Oppenheimer and Warner Bros., Barbie, are both considered in the top ten of Best Picture hopefuls. The much anticipated Killers of the Flower Moon, from Apple Films and Paramount Pictures, premiered in New York and will open October 20, 2023.
A24, which capitulated Everything Everywhere all At Once to a sweeping 2023 Academy Award acclaim, is hoping Sophia Coppola's Pricilla, Past Lives and The Zone of Interest will be contender in 2024's Oscar race.
Ava DuVernay's Origin, from Neon, which premiered at the Venice International Film Festival to a thundering nine-minute standing ovation, and The Holdovers, from Focus Features, are both expected to be among the Best Picture Nominees.
Other passible include Apple's Napoleon, Sony Pictures Classics' Freud's Last Session and Fair Play from Netflix.
Hollywood Week: Hollywood Union Strike Continues, Venice Film Festival, Box Office, Danny Masterson
Concert Movies Spur Pre-Sales
With the phenomenal success of both Beyonce's "Renaissance" global tour and Taylor Swift's "The Eras Tour," which added more than $5 billion to the gross national product, movie theaters are gearing up for a fall box office which continues the girl power trend that began over the summer with Greta Gerwig's cultural phenomenon Barbie, the female empowerment flick that has earned $1.4 billion worldwide and continues its stratospheric success.
Picked up by AMC distribution The Eras Tour movie ticket pre-sales have reached over $100 million and is confirmed to premiere in theater nationwide on October 13, 2023.
"Audience demand for Taylor Swift The Eras Tour concert film has been incredible from the moment it was first announced," according to AMC. The company posted the highest single-day ticket revenue in its 103-year history within 24 hours of the film going on sale," Fortune.com reported.
Taylor Swift's The Eras Tour movie is billed as "The cultural phenomenon continues on the big screen! Immerse yourself in this once-in-a-lifetime concert film experience with a breathtaking, cinematic view of the history-making tour."
Beyonce's Renaissance: A Film by Beyonce will ignite the holiday box office. The official distributor, AMC Distribution, has the global concert tour opening internationally on November 30, and premiering domestically December 1, 2023.
Billed as "Beyoncé is bringing her Renaissance tour to theaters, making her the second pop superstar this season to turn a blockbuster concert into a moviegoing experience. Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé will hit theaters across the US, Canada, and Mexico on December 1st — AMC, Cinemark, and Regal are all selling tickets already. AMC says it'll be going global at some point, too," The Verge reported.
Hollywood Week: Hollywood Strike News, SAG/AFTRA, WGA, Venice Film Festival, Box Office, Jimmy Buffett
U2 Opens Las Vegas Residency
U2, the iconic Irish pop band, began its 25 how run residency in Las Vegas' newest concert venue, The Sphere, from the creative mind of New York's Madison Garden's James L. Dolan, who conceived the giant spherical entertainment and concert venue.
"While Las Vegas begins to glow the moment day turns to dusk, Sphere shines, beckoning audiences and passersby as it transforms into spherical objects like an eye, an astronaut helmet, and above all, a living, breathing advertisement for the night's performance," Consequence.net reported.
The Sphere, whose external surface displays content like an external immersive experience, has been photographed displaying brilliant visuals from the surface of Mars, a giant pumpkin, a sleepy-eyed emoji, and the film Postcards from Earth from director Darren Aronofsky.
The 18,600-seat auditorium has a 4D physical effects, all around immersive experience, with wraparound interior LED screen and measures 366 feet high and 516 feet wide at its broadest point.
Tickets for The Sphere, an immersive experience, are available here.