HBO Cancels 'The Idol'; $4 Ticket Day Boosts 'Blue Beetle' and 'Ninja Turtles'; THR Critic's 10 Most Anticipated Venice Titles; 'The Equalizer 3' Review

[View on web]( [New reader? Subscribe]( August 29, 2023 What's news: Barbie is now WB's top-grossing film ever. Several AMC shows, including Fear of the Walking Dead, are coming to Max for a limited period. Disney+ won't be airing the already completed series adaptation of The Spiderwick Chronicles. VFX workers at Walt Disney Pictures are looking to unionize. — [Abid Rahman]( Do you have THR's next big story? Confidentially share tips with us at [tips@thr.com](. 'The Idol' Finished After One Season at HBO ►The weak end. HBO won’t move ahead with a second season of The Idol, the much-talked about drama from Euphoria creator Sam Levinson and Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye, who also starred. The series suffered mostly negative reviews from critics, and viewership fell short of some other recent HBO shows. A decision on whether to renew or cancel The Idol was in flux until recently. There was no set plan for a multi-season story, though there were options to continue the show following the end of the five-episode season. [The story.]( —Max power. Top shows from AMC Networks are heading to Max for a limited period. In what the companies are calling a “programming pop-up,” more than 200 episodes from seven different AMC series will be added to a dedicated section on Max called “AMC+ Picks on Max.” The content will be available at no extra charge to both ad-supported and ad-free tiers of Max, though the AMC content will not include any advertising. Among the shows being added are Fear of the Walking Dead, Dark Winds, Gangs of London and Killing Eve. [The story.]( —Brutal. Disney+ has decided not to pick up a completed TV series adaptation of The Spiderwick Chronicles book series. The six-episode live-action series from Paramount Television Studios and 20th Television, a division of Disney, is being shopped to other possible buyers. Shelving the Spiderwick Chronicles is the latest cancellation for Disney after it signaled it will take a $1.5b content write-down during the fiscal third quarter by removing around 30 shows from Disney+ and Hulu. [The story.]( $4 Ticket Day Boosts 'Blue Beetle' and 'Ninja Turtles' ►The results are in. The second annual National Cinema Day on Sunday saw more than 3,000 theaters across the U.S. and Canada offer $4 tickets to see any movie. THR's [Pamela McClintock]( reports that the promotion resulted in 8.5m moviegoers taking a trip to the cinema. That’s an uptick of 5 percent over the 8.1m people who participated in last year’s NCD. Films appealing to younger adults and families saw the biggest revenue boost, led by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem and Blue Beetle. [The box office report.]( —Another milestone. On Monday, Barbie passed up the $1.342b grossed globally by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2 to become the top-grossing film in the history of Warner Bros. at the worldwide box office, not adjusted for inflation. Barbie's domestic gross through Sunday was $592.8m, while its foreign tally was $745.5m. On Wednesday or Thursday of this week, the summer pic will become only the 13th movie in history to cross the $600m mark domestically. [The box office report.]( —Sandman supremacy. Adam Sandler has a new all-time best-reviewed movie. The actor-comedian’s latest Netflix title, You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah, has managed to draw a higher Rotten Tomatoes score (96 percent) than any of his previous films across 34 years of making movies. That just edges out 2022’s Hustle (93 percent), 2017’s The Meyerowitz Stories (92 percent) and 2019’s Uncut Gems (91 percent). [The story.]( Dem Consultant on Mapping Out 'Succession' Election Episode ►"Arson won out." In the spring of 2022, Succession executive producer Frank Rich asked Democratic consultant and former Obama White House deputy press secretary Eric Schultz to advise the show's writers on political storylines in the fourth season, including the intense "America Decides" episode. In a guest column for THR, Schultz writes that the episode's simulation of "electoral mayhem" entailed digging into the nitty-gritty of modern-day threats. [The column.]( —✊ Solidarity spreads ✊ THR's [Carolyn Giardina]( and [Caitlin Huston]( report that visual effects workers at Walt Disney Pictures have filed for an election with the National Labor Relations Board that could allow them to unionize with IATSE. The news comes as Disney-owned Marvel VFX workers are currently organizing for their own union election amid the writers and actors strikes. [The story.]( —🎭 New little shoppers 🎭 Constance Wu will make her New York stage debut in the off-Broadway production of Little Shop of Horrors this fall. The Hustlers star will play Audrey opposite High School Musical actor Corbin Bleu, who will play Seymour. The two begin performing in the musical revival, which has been running at the Westside Theatre since 2019, on Sept. 26. [The story.]( —"Back at home and in good health." Elton John was discharged from the hospital Monday morning after slipping at his home in the South of France. A spokesperson for the 76-year-old singer says the fall happened Sunday. John wrapped his Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour last month in Stockholm. The epic world tour had kicked off in 2018. [The story.]( —"There’s a level of ego that has to play a part that I feel gets overused when I’m on tour." Miley Cyrus says part of why she hasn’t toured in nearly a decade is because the demands of performing on the road do not always offer “an equal amount of recovery and rest,” and that the relationship a musician has with crowds as “subject and observer isn’t healthy for me.” The singer opened up about her decision to stick to music festivals, TV appearances and single performances since her 2014 Bangerz tour in the latest installment of her Used to Be Young TikTok series. [The story.]( John Waters on His Academy Museum Exhibit ►"You have to laugh at yourself first if you’re in show business, and I think that gets you a long way." THR's [Seth Abramovitch]( spoke to legendary filmmaker John Waters about the Academy Museum's upcoming exhibition about his career and finally receiving his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The iconoclast also discusses his delinquent youth, his unique friendships with larger-than-life stars Divine and Edith Massey and his thoughts about being immortalized on a seedy stretch of Hollywood Boulevard — in other words, the ultimate Waters fantasy. [The interview.]( —"It's not what you expect." For THR, Demetrius Patterson spoke to The Afterparty director Tamra Davis about the murder mystery featured in season two of the Apple TV+ series. Davis, who helmed episode six as well as the upcoming season finale, discusses the joys of joining the whodunnit genre. Warning: Spoilers! [The interview.]( —"It is important to me to stand in solidarity with the actors and writers because corporations are making billions off their brilliance." For THR, Keli Goff spoke to California Rep. Barbara Lee about the ongoing strikes hitting the entertainment industry and why she's backing the actors and writers. Lee also discusses how her harrowing abortion in the days before Roe reinforced her belief in supporting safe, legal reproductive health care for all. [The interview.]( THR Critic's 10 Most Anticipated Venice Titles ►Rooney's favored few. Before heading to the Lido, THR's chief film critic [David Rooney]( rounds up a crop of Venice Film Festival premieres for which he has high hopes, including new work from directors Sofia Coppola, Bradley Cooper, Ava DuVernay, David Fincher, Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Yorgos Lanthimos and Michael Mann. [The list.]( —One score to rule them all. Howard Shore’s epic soundtrack for The Lord of the Rings trilogy was voted the U.K.’s favorite movie music. Shore’s score for the Rings film topped the 100 greatest and most recognizable soundtracks of all time. John Williams’ music for Schindler’s List and Star Wars came second and third respectively. More than 10,000 people voted in Classic FM's annual Movie Music Hall of Fame. [The story.]( —K-pop Idol. Geffen Records and HYBE, the K-pop entertainment company that launched BTS, have joined forces to find the next global girl group. On Monday the companies revealed the top 20 contestants — selected from 120,000 submissions — who will compete to be in the international group, which will be created based on the K-pop training and development system. The group's journey will be documented on YouTube and later on Netflix. [The story.]( —🤝 Podcast deal 🤝 Dr. Seuss Enterprises has teamed with Wondery Kids & Family on a new slate of podcasts, beginning with a variety show inspired by one of Seuss’ most beloved titles, The Cat in the Hat. The expansive deal will see both companies adapt some of literature’s most recognizable children’s IP into a full lineup of podcast programming. [The story.]( Film Review: 'The Equalizer 3' ►"Kill, rinse, repeat." THR film critic Frank Scheck reviews Antoine Fuqua's The Equalizer 3. Dakota Fanning reunites with her Man on Fire co-star Denzel Washington for this third installment of Fuqua's hit action franchise, this time set on Italy's Amalfi Coast. [The review.]( In other news... —Michael Fassbender is [under the gun in Netflix teaser for David Fincher’s The Killer]( —Donyale Luna: Supermodel [trailer teases HBO doc about the life and legacy of a Black modeling revolutionary]( —Colman Domingo [to receive Toronto Film Festival award]( —Beyoncé’s [BeyGood helped ballroom icons put on first-ever Equality Ball in Vegas]( What else we're reading... —With generative AI tools eliciting less interest than a few months ago, Sara Morrison wonders if the AI boom is already over [[Vox]( —Thomas Hobbs makes a convincing case that Bruce Lee helped to shape modern beat-em-up video games [[Guardian]( —With Strays, Joy Ride, Bottoms and No Hard Feelings all hitting theaters recently, John Jurgensen reflects on the resurgence of the R-rated comedy [[WSJ]( —As hip hop celebrates its 50th birthday, Jason England laments how much the genre has been assimilated by corporate America [[Defector]( —With the last season of The Crown, season two of Julia and Lessons in Chemistry among the big shows debuting this fall, Kathryn VanArendonk writes that streaming is embracing safe TV that looks backwards [[Vulture]( Today... ...in 1933, MGM’s star-studded big-screen adaptation of Dinner at Eight, directed by George Cukor, made its world premiere in New York. [The original review.]( Today's birthdays: Carla Gugino (52), [Elliott Gould]( (85), Rebecca De Mornay (64), Lea Michele (37), Beth Dover (45), Nicole Byer (37), Lauren Collins (37), Lenny Henry (65), Candis Cayne (52), Emily Hampshire (42), Jen Landon (40), Charlotte Ritchie (34), Dante Basco (48), Jay Ryan (42), Deborah Van Valkenburgh (71), John Hensley (46), William Levy (43), Juan Diego Botto (48), Jason Spisak (50), Laura Ashley Samuels (33), Stacey Travis (59), Maite Schwartz (44), Tom Six (50), Lycia Naff (61), Émilie Dequenne (42), Echo Kellum (41) Marc Becker, a marketing executive in Hollywood who worked for Universal Pictures for seven years and served as the CEO of The Tangent Agency since 2015, has died. He was 37. [The obituary.]( This email was sent to {EMAIL} by The Hollywood Reporter. Please add email@email.hollywoodreporter.com to your address book to ensure delivery to your inbox. 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