'The Marvels' Opens to $47M in New Low for Marvel; TV Writers Assistants Lose Hope; Why the DVD Biz Could Be Resurrected; 'Beacon 23' Review

[View on web]( [New reader? Subscribe]( November 13, 2023 What's news: Euphoria producer Kevin Turen has died. The Marvels is forecasted to make only $20m in China. Keke Palmer is requesting full custody of her son after filing a temporary restraining order against her ex-boyfriend. Matan Meir, a crew member on Fauda, has died fighting in the Israel-Hamas War. Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie was the big winner at the Critics Choice Documentary Awards. — [Abid Rahman]( Do you have THR's next big story? Confidentially share tips with us at [tips@thr.com](. 'The Marvels' Opens to $47M in New Low for Marvel ►Look away now, Kevin! The Marvels opened to an estimated $47m at the domestic box office to rank as the worst start in the history of the MCU. It also came in behind expectations overseas, where it launched with $63.3m from 51 markets for a global start of $110.3m against a hefty $200m production budget. The Marvels marks a new low for Marvel Studios and adds fuel to the theory that superhero fatigue is a real thing as fanboys grow weary of a glut of titles and are hence far less forgiving. Until recently, Marvel has been unrivaled in its success for years, with its movies collecting more than $30b in grosses at the worldwide box office. THR's [Pamela McClintock]( writes that word of mouth is killing The Marvels, which is only the third MCU title to receive a B CinemaScore from audiences after Eternals and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantamania. The vast majority of MCU releases have earned some variation of an A. The film's Rotten Tomatoes critics’ score of 62 percent is likewise on the lower end. The 33rd installment in the MCU is a sequel to 2019's Captain Marvel, which opened to $153.4m in North America on its way to earning a massive $1.13b worldwide, not adjusted for inflation. [The box office report.]( —It gets worse. The Marvels' disappointing start at the North American box office was mirrored by an underwhelming debut in the world's second-biggest movie market. The film opened to just $11.5m in China, losing the three-day weekend to holdover local crime thriller Who’s the Suspect, which earned $11.7m. THR's Patrick Brzeski writes that MCU releases have been underperforming in China since the pandemic, but The Marvels' face plant is particularly striking as Captain Marvel opened to $89.3m on its way to a strong $154m total. According to current projections, The Marvels will be lucky to top $20m in the country. [The China box office report.]( —"Death is up for grabs." With Marvel in the doldrums, there's been speculation that the studio could bring back popular characters who have died in the MCU. On Friday's episode of The Tonight Show, Tom Hiddleston weighed in on the topic, teasing how Loki’s newfound ability to time-slip could bring back characters who have died in the franchise. [The story.]( TV Writers Assistants Lose Hope for Post-Strike Advancement ►"It's a dead end." With TV writers rooms returning after the end of the WGA strike, support staff open up to THR's [Ryan Gajewski]( about frustrations amid the streaming landscape as many quit the business: "The ladder is broken." [The story.]( —ICYMI. On Friday, SAG-AFTRA's national board approved the tentative agreement between the actors union and studios and streamers that ended the 118-day actors strike. The board voted to accept the deal with 86 percent approval. Members of the 160,000-strong union will vote on ratification of the deal beginning Nov. 14, with ballots due in early December. [The story.]( —"The train track is split." Though SAG-AFTRA officially reached a tentative agreement on a new contract with the AMPTP, Justine Bateman is not very pleased with the provisions surrounding AI. The actress-writer-filmmaker, who served as a union advisor for generative AI, told MSNBC’s Ali Velshi on Friday that union members should only approve the deal "if they don’t want to work anymore." [The story.]( —Back to work. With more than six months of labor actions in the rearview mirror, the industry is preparing to restart dozens of productions. THR's [Rick Porter]( runs through the shows that are set to begin production in November and December. [The story.]( Why the DVD Biz Could Be Headed for a Resurrection ►Buy it before it disappears. This year has been a melancholic one for collectors of physical media as both Netflix and Best Buy said adieu to discs. THR's [Alex Weprin]( writes that DVDs and Blu-ray discs, once a source of billions in revenue for Hollywood companies, are at risk of becoming obsolete, or at least irrelevant. But with streamers deleting titles to cut costs, could DVDs and Blu-rays mimic the revival of vinyl and CDs? [The analysis.]( —"Come with me and you'll be in a world of shameless self-promotion." To kick off Saturday Night Live, Timothée Chalamet remixed “Pure Imagination,” the iconic song from 1971’s Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, to celebrate the 118-day actors strike ending and being able to talk about his film projects again. During his opening monologue, the actor, who is set to star in the upcoming film Wonka, said he felt lucky to be hosting after the SAG-AFTRA strike ended. [The recap.]( —Alleged abusive behavior. Keke Palmer is requesting full custody of her son after filing a temporary restraining order against ex-boyfriend Darius Jackson over alleged physical abuse. The actress and producer filed the order in L.A. Superior Court on Thursday, citing multiple instances of domestic violence and requesting full custody of their 8-month-old son, Leodis Andrellton Jackson, according to documents obtained by THR. [The story.]( —Shocking murder. The LAPD have arrested a 35-year-old man suspected of murder in connection with a headless torso found in a dumpster in a commercial area of Encino, California. The LAPD’s Valley Bureau Homicide department identified the murder suspect as Samuel Haskell Jr., a resident of L.A. who has been booked on one criminal count of murder and is being held on $2m bail. The father of suspect is Samuel Haskell Sr., a former executive vp and worldwide head of television at William Morris. [The story.]( Brooks on the Call From Kubrick That Changed His Life ►"He’s the funniest man in the world." THR's [Seth Abramovitch]( spoke to comedy legend Albert Brooks and filmmaker Rob Reiner about HBO’s Albert Brooks: Defending My Life, a love letter in doc form from Reiner to Brooks. The pair, now both 76 and best friends since high school, discuss the ineffability of comedy, the dread of audience testing and that Kubrick call. [The interview.]( —"The cast and crew are heartbroken by this tragic loss." Matan Meir, a crew member on Fauda, has died fighting in the Israel-Hamas War, according to the Netflix drama’s social media. The show’s cast and crew returned to Israel following Hamas' terrorist attacks on Oct. 7. Lior Raz, who plays Officer Doron Kabilio in the series and also produces it, was among them, as was series co-creator Avi Issacharoff. [The story.]( —"This town lost one of its brightest rising stars." Kevin Turen, a producer on HBO’s Euphoria and The Idol and Ti West’s X, Pearl and MaXXXine, has died. He was 44. After stints at First Look Studios, Infinity Media, Treehouse Pictures and David S. Goyer's Phantom Four, Turen co-founded Little Lamb Productions with Sam and Ashley Levinson. He also produced the features Pieces of a Woman, Waves and The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. [The obituary.]( DP Rodrigo Prieto on Nailing Different Visual Styles ►"I really try to have emotional cinematography." Veteran cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto’s versatility could not be more evident than in his most recent work, which called for filming a 1920s Osage Nation in Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon and shooting the candy-colored Barbie Land of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie. THR's [Carolyn Giardina]( spoke to Prieto, who is THR’s first cinematographer Titan, about his work and his feature directorial debut, Pedro Páramo, an adaptation of the 1955 novel of the same name by Juan Rulfo. [The interview.]( —Pile Driver. Adam Driver didn’t mince words when asked about the “cheesy” crash scenes in his new movie, Ferrari. The film was screened Sunday at the Camerimage Film Festival, followed by a Q&A with the star, who also is an executive producer on the movie. “What do you think about [the] crash scenes?” Driver was asked by an audience member during the Q&A. “They looked pretty harsh, drastic and, I must say, cheesy for me. What do you think?” Driver replied bluntly: "Fuck you, I don’t know. Next question." [The story.]( —🏆 Worthy winner 🏆 Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie was the top winner at the 2023 Critics Choice Documentary Awards, which were handed out Sunday night. Among the other prizes the film collected was the best narration award for Michael J. Fox. It also won best biographical documentary, best direction for Davis Guggenheim and best editing for Michael Harte for a total of five awards overall. Elsewhere, Jon Batiste won best score for American Symphony on the heels of his five Grammy noms. [The winners.]( —📅 Mark it down 📅 The 50th annual Daytime Emmys officially have a new airdate. The awards show was originally set to air June 16 but was postponed due to the writers strike at the time. The Daytime Emmys will now air Dec. 15 on CBS and stream on Paramount+. [The story.]( John Bailey 1942 - 2023 ►"We shared a wonderful life of adventure in film." John Bailey, the cinematographer on Ordinary People, Groundhog Day, As Good as It Gets and dozens of other notable films who endured two “stressful” terms as president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, died Nov. 10. He was 81. Bailey died in L.A., his wife, Oscar-nominated film editor Carol Littleton announced. They worked on more than a dozen features together. [The obituary.]( —"John, you will forever be in our hearts." Bailey was honored at the opening of Camerimage in Poland on Saturday. THR's Carolyn Giardina reports that festival director Marek Å»ydowicz gave a heartfelt tribute to the late DP and introduced a black-and-while clip featuring portions of Bailey’s 2019 speech when he accepted the Camerimage Lifetime Achievement Award. [The story.]( TV Review: 'Beacon 23' ►"Uneven but intriguing." THR's [Angie Han]( reviews MGM+'s Beacon 23. Lena Headey and Stephan James play strangers stranded together on a lonely outpost on the outskirts of the Milky Way in a series adapted from the book by Hugh Howey (Silo). [The review.]( —"At once disarming and wrenching." THR's [Sheri Linden]( reviews Tamara Kotevska's The Walk. The Honeyland director's second feature documentary interweaves refugee children’s stories with scenes from a project that uses the art of puppetry to raise awareness about young lives upended by war and persecution. [The review.]( In other news... —Zack Snyder [assembles a ragtag team in Rebel Moon trailer]( —Millie Bobby Brown [fights to survive a dragon in Damsel trailer]( —Netflix [unveils Dead Boy Detectives first look teaser]( —Michelle Yeoh, Justin Chien [fight to protect their family in The Brothers Sun trailer]( —Netflix reveals [premiere date, new footage for sci-fi drama 3 Body Problem]( —New hotel condos are set to supercharge Miami Beach, [but will they dilute the city’s Art Deco soul?]( —Where to eat in Miami: [The best new restaurants]( —[Janet Landgard]( actress in The Swimmer and The Donna Reed Show, dies at 75 ​​​What else we're reading... —The always incredible Tilda Swinton answers questions about her craft from fans including Pedro Almodóvar, Wes Anderson and Elton John [[Guardian]( —Lucas Shaw writes that consumers will have to embrace the fact that streaming services will charge more for less content as making TV becomes more expensive [[Bloomberg]( —Kate Dries pens a tribute to the shuttered Jezebel, eulogizing the blog site's place in women's media [[LAT]( —Simon Hattenstone talks to David Holmes, Daniel Radcliffe's stunt double on the Harry Potter films who was left paralyzed after an accident on set and is now the subject of a new doc, The Boy Who Lived [[Guardian]( —Adam Nayman looks for meaning in David Fincher's excellent new film The Killer [[Ringer]( ​​ Today... ...in 2009, Columbia Pictures released Roland Emmerich's 2012 in theaters. The $200m disaster epic, which starred an ensemble cast, was a huge box office hit, scoring nearly $800m at the global box office. [The original review.]( Today's birthdays: Whoopi Goldberg (68), Jimmy Kimmel (56), Gerard Butler (54), Steve Zahn (56), Riccardo Scamarcio (44), Danny and Michael Philippou (31), Rahul Kohli (38), [Joe Mantegna]( (76), Kim Director (49), Caroline Goodall (64), Aisha Hinds (48), Noah Hathaway (52), Devon Bostick (32), John DeSantis (50), Tracy Scoggins (70), Neil Flynn (63), Jordan Bridges (50), Rex Linn (67), Art Malik (71), Monroe Cline (25), Gattlin Griffith (25), Nathaniel Arcand (52), Steve Lemme (55), Takuya Kimura (51), Matt Bennett (32), Monique Coleman (43) Robert Butler, the Emmy-winning, go-to pilot director who helmed the first episodes of such acclaimed shows as Batman, Star Trek, Hill Street Blues and Moonlighting, died Nov. 3 in Los Angeles, his family announced. He was 95. 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