Cameron Doesn't Want to Helm 'Alita' Sequel.

James Cameron is at the apex when it comes to box office winners. His latest endeavor, 'Avatar: The Way of Water' booked over $2.3 billion globally.

Recent photo of Camerson & Iger at Avatar Land

Cameron has made big dollars for Disney, so Bob Iger, Disney CEO, wants Cameron to work his directorial magic on a sequel to 'Alita' and rug-pull Robert Rodrequez from the project.

The 'Alita' films are sci-fi action movies centered around a female cyborg. The first film, 'Battle Angel' grossed $405 million worldwide but with a cost of $200 million. The sequel has to do lots better.

Sources say that Iger is ready to green-light 'Alita 2' but not with Rodrequez at the helm. Disney is desperate for revenues at all costs as the Mouse-house is strapped with a massive debt load and marginal performances in its non-film divisions. 

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For his part, Cameron is not keen on the idea. At 68, he has committed to three more Avatar films, and other projects.

It would be no surprise if Cameron passes on this project. Given his age and other commitments. His comment regarding the latest turn of events was, "Our time as artists is finite."

By: Jim Lavorato

Disney's Decline Continues

 Disney+ lost over 6.4 million subscribers since start of 2023.

As a follow up to the CMG post of March 30, "Disney to Shed 7,000 Across the Company" we now report that the Mouse is feeling the hurt from the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike. 

Banking on the Marvel ('Blade' and 'Wonder Woman') and Star Wars sequels to bolster sorely needed box office revenues, all three of these productions have ceased due to the WGA strike. 

On top of that, Disney+, the Mouse's content streaming service, lost over 4 million subscribers in the 2nd quarter. This was on top of the loss of 2.4 million subscribers in the 1st quarter. 

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Bob Iger, Disney CEO, revealed that Disney is set to undergo massive restructuring. The massive layoffs are anticipated to save $5.5 billion, and it is planned to cut content production by $3 billion.

Disney carries a huge debt load at over $29 billion which needs to be addressed. This will be Iger's main target but with declining streaming subscriptions, the writers' strike curtailing content production, and a massive restructuring that needs to be skillfully executed the odds are against a short-term fix of anything.

By: Jim Lavorato

Have the Oscar's New Standards Gone Too Far?

 Apparently, the Academy Awards has taken the woke view to the extreme as regards to diversity, inclusion, and neo-sexualism standards...at least that's what Richard Dreyfuss thinks.

Dreyfuss in 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind'

Oscar winner and longtime Hollywood stalwart, Dreyfuss criticized the new Academy requirements, saying, "they make me vomit."

Dreyfuss commented during a recent interview with PBS's Margaret Hoover, "It's an art. No one should be telling me as an artist that I have to give in to the latest, most current idea of what morality is. What is at risk? Are we really risking hurting people's feelings? You can't legislate that? You have to let life be life. Sorry, but I don't think there is a minority or majority in the country that has to be catered to like that."

Dreyfuss is adhering to a belief that many Hollywood liberals believe - simply that woke beliefs and standards have gone off the rails.

The four newest standards that will be instituted for the upcoming 2024 Oscars which two are required to be considered for Best Picture are:

• Expanding on-screen representation of minorities
• Expanding representation among creative leadership and department heads
• providing industry access and opportunities to underrepresented demographics
• expanding representation in audience development

Dreyfuss in 'Jaws' with Roy Scheider and Robert Shaw

To Cinema Mucho Gusto, these standards are very nebulous and obtuse, and CMG agrees with Dreyfuss that it is impossible to control and legislate an art form and its creators.

 

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Dreyfuss went on the say in the interview that under the new rules he or any other white actors "would never be able to play 'Othello'."

"Am I being told that I will never be able to play a black man? Is someone also being told that if they're not Jewish, they shouldn't play in 'The Merchant of Venice'? Are we crazy? This is so patronizing. It's so thoughtless and treating people, artists, like children."

Richard Dreyfuss

AI...Hollywood Writers' BIG Foe

 A big part of the ongoing Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike against the Hollywood studios and content streamers is to prevent machines from writing any 'literary material'... and, so far, this issue regarding the use of AI has been met with outright rejection!

From LA to NYC the WGA has been out in full force. Over 11,500 writers have put down their pencils and picked up a 'strike' sign. 

Strikers at studios in LA

WGA Strikers in NYC

At issue are negotiations regarding maintaining writers' rooms, guaranteed employment length, improved residuals from content streamers, and, the biggie, curtailing the use of AI in the entertainment industry. 

"We're fighting to stop the streamers and the studios from turning writing from a career into a gig-job, says Adam Conover, a writer and comedian. "They're trying to take away our jobs and employ us one day a week like we're Uber drivers. We're fighting for fairness."

The strike targets the rise of Artificial Intelligence, demanding safeguards against the use of AI in generating content. The WGA would require studios/streamers to regulate the use of AI on all projects: AI can't write or rewrite literary material and can't be used as source material.

Ray Romano and many other writers/actors have joined the strike.

For the moment, the studios and streamers outright rejected the AI limitations proposal and countered "by offering annual meetings to discuss advancements in technology."  Which is more of a placating posture than substantive discussion. 

The legal implications of AI add to the complexity of the issue. According to Leigh Brecheen, an entertainment attorney, "The legal system isn't designed with AI in mind. For example, you cannot copyright a work that isn't written by a human. This raises lots of questions about how precious intellectual property can be protected and when the threshold of human vs AI creation is passed."

Julia Louis-Dreyfus on picket line in LA

AI is a rapidly developing and improving technology. While many dismiss the possibility of AI fully replacing writers, the truth is, no one really knows what can happen in the future. This begs the question: Would the WGA ever accept an AI as a member of the union?

Cinema Mucho Gusto (CMG) doesn't think the WGA would ever allow this to happen. But there is the real risk that in a few years, you won't need humans to write scripts, books, or anything else for that matter.

According to Leigh Brecheen, "The greatest challenge for all of us is to find ways to retain our humanity. We cannot let ourselves become slaves to any technology or ideology." 

The solution to Leigh's issue may lie in Web3. CMG believes that both the writers and studios may find the answer in blockchain technology. 

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From a content creator's perspective, blockchain technology really affords a lot of opportunity for control and ownership of your own content and the ability to leverage that content through smart contracts. This is very critical to the future of content creators as AI generated content is not considered intellectual property. Nonetheless, AI is rapidly ramping up on the tech, image, and video creation sides. 

In the flip side are the content users, which have not been discussed. AI, CMG believes, is actually pushing us into Web3 where control goes back into the creators' hands and the user can participate in the actual content creation, ownership, and special use and access to that content.     

Web3 maybe the answer

There is a final question to be answered. AI vs. AI. Which program will develop the best stories, the best scripts, the most 'thoughtful, meaningful, and humanistic' content?

Jim Lavorato

What's After the Mario Bros. in 2023?

 

'The Super Mario Bros.' is hopefully setting the benchmark for a super-summer box office. 

'Mario' has grossed over $1 billion putting it in rarified admission space. What its number point to is that moviegoers are BACK!

The movie, co-funded, by Nintendo and Universal, grossed over $37 million on its debut weekend, the highest ever for an animated film. With a PG-rating the Brooklyn plumbers, Mario and Luigi, are unplugging the post-COVID box office. It shows that consumers are craving good entertainment. 

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As it now stands, the 2023 box office is 37% higher than2022 and this upcoming summer roster of films is impressive. 

Going out on a limb, I'm predicting that at least 10 movies will exceed the $100 million mark this summer. They are Guardians of the Galaxy, Spider-man, Mission Impossible, The Flash, Transformers, Little Mermaid, Fast X, Barbie, Ninja Turtles, Indiana Jones. Long-shots are Oppenheimer and Haunted Mansion.

True-to-form, the franchise films Guardians, Fast X, Spider, MI, Jones, and Ninjas will all do very well.

Jim Lavorato

Entertainment Equipment Corporation Gets a New LOOK!

Entertainment Equipment Corporation, the equipment and service provider to independent cinemas, universities and special venue presenters, launched a new website today.

Celebrating it 35th year in business, Jim Lavorato, EEC's President, stated, "we are very enthusiastic about our new site, it is informative, entertaining, and most of all engaging to viewers." 

EECcinema.com takes you to the new site and greets you with audio and visual effects. The site is sticky with many images depicting the diverse customer basis EEC has developed over its many years of business in the cinema exhibition industry. 

EEC has sponsored Cinema Mucho Gusto since 2006, and CMG has gained a reputation for reporting on those entertainment industry stories and news that is many times under or never reported by other blogs or journals. 

Take a few minutes and tour EECcinema.com - you'll like it! 

AMC Theaters - Bankruptcy Claims Fake, But No One Cares!

 On Monday, May 1st, Robinhood (the mobile app that allows commission-free trading in stocks, ETFs, and crypto - the firm makes its money on interest of client accounts, margin leading, and high frequency traders' sell order information) erroneously announced that AMC Theaters (the large multi-plex cinema chain with over 600 theaters and 10,474 screens) was filing for bankruptcy.

The days of the 20 and 30plex cinemas are over.

That declaration, however, was false. Later, that day, Robinhood confirmed that their trading platform, "experienced a technical issue" that "created a banner declaring AMC was insolvent."

Needless to say, Adam Aron, AMC's CEO went ballistic and tweeted that Robinhood was "either incompetent or evil" and AMC was going to "sue the bastards". 

The news of AMC's demise and the market reaction to was - who cares? AMC is a financial basket case. It has reported losses for the last four years. For the fourth quarter of 2022 it reported a loss of $288 million.

To illustrate how bad management is, in February, it instituted a new admission policy whereby patrons pay an upcharge for seats in the middle of the auditorium!

In separate news, AMC is trying to convert preferred stock into common stock in a 10-for-1 reverse split - thereby raising more, desperately needed, capital. Another management financial ploy.

For 2022, CEO Aron received $23.7 million in total compensation, up 25% from 2021 - a lot of loot for a company on the skids.

AMC's CEO Aron

A popular 'meme' stock in 202l, AMC's current share price is about $5.50. Its total debt is currently at $4.5 billion and has a negative net worth of $2.6 billion.

Seems the only one getting rich is Mr. Aron and the rest of the AMC senior staff. The Company is perhaps beyond redemption and the reason why the Robinhood faux pas had no impact whatsoever on the share price. 

AMC is, unfortunately, the poster child for the large U.S. cinema multiplex chains - they are very poorly managed, offer no customer service or engagement and are essentially a detriment to the cinema exhibition industry.