Cinema Arena by Seymore Flix

Arthouse Films - Not Audiences 'Cup of Tea' 

Although it has been a banner year for big H'wood movies, that success may have been to the detriment of the smaller, indie and art films.  There have been no indie breakouts, no low-budget out-performers, no Sundance or Tribecca winners that went on to the big screen in a big way.

This year, Sundance favorite 'Me and Earl and The Dying Girl'  which cost $8m to make has grossed only $6m to date. Other indie films that were expected to do well and had large release rollouts, didn't perform - 'Dope' and 'Diary of a Teenage Girl' were two examples.

It seems that indie movies for 2015 which were geared towards a youthful audience tanked, while those skewed towards an older clientele managed to get some audience traction. 'Mr. Holmes', and the Brian Wilson biopic 'Love and Mercy' did some solid business but no great-shakes.  Even Woody Allen's perennial summer flick (which normally do very well with the above 50 crowd) went bust, as they were no-shows for 'Irrational Man'.

There may be some indie success this fall and winter with 'Carol' (a hit at the Cannes fest), 'The Danish Girl' , a movie about gender redo, 'Miles Ahead', a biopic on Miles Davis, and 'Brooklyn', a period piece about 19th century immigration.

So, its been a long, un-hot summer for the art-houses but things may pickup in the next several months. We sure hope so.

Warner Brothers Goes Native in China

It's no secret that the Hollywood studios all want to get a major piece of the Chinese box office, but with a Chinese import quota of 34 foreign films per year the name of the game for the studios is to set up shop locally.  The studio which has been most aggressive in establishing a local presence in China is Warner Bros. which is in final talks on a joint venture with China Media Capital (the state run investment company which funds the entertainment industry in China).

The Warner/China Media deal's intent is to locally produce films which will serve the growing Chinese box office. So far this year the Chinese box office is up 43% to $4.3 billion - with locally produced movies representing about 65% of the total.  Having locally produced films, Warner Bros. would end-run the quota on imported foreign films and also provide a larger slice of the box office which is capped on foreign films at 25% of ticket sales.

As with all joint ventures within China, Warner Bros. would be a minority shareholder but nonetheless has made the production of local-language movies in China a strategic priority.

Lawrence and Schumer - The Odd Couple

Schumer and Lawrence

If you like Jennifer Lawrence and/or Amy Schumer than you will be excited to hear that they are collaborating on an as yet untitled movie.  Arguably the hottest actor and comedienne in the business right now, the notion of Lawrence and Schumer working together on a comedy makes for a whole lot of  expectant speculation.

Lawrence let it slip (on purpose) the she and Schumer were in the process of writing the script. "We play sisters.  We're almost done writing. It just flowed out of us. We've got about 100 pages right now". said Lawrence.  Both will star and are co-writing the screenplay.  According to Lawrence, she started talking with Schumer  only a few months ago.  She emailed Schumer after she had seen 'Trainwreck' - that email turned into numerous text message exchanges, which turned into the proposed movie project.

Lawrence further said that, "creatively we are made for each other, we have very different flavors, which work great."  For her part, Schumer is also working on a separate mother/daughter comedy, while Lawrence is busy prepping  for the release of the final installment of the 'Hunger Games' saga. Very busy girls.

S. Flix