Talk about turnarounds: Hollywood is getting high marks this week for two timely hits that are being devoured by Gen Z audiences worldwide.
Filmgoers are lauding the game-based A Minecraft Movie and the original thriller Sinners — a veritable feast of video games and vampires.
And memories are short. Two years ago at this moment studio chiefs were running for cover, film releases were canceled, strikes were looming and Warner Bros. announced that all its product would be released as streaming movies. The studio even came up with the perfect counterprogramming for Oppenheimer: It was called Coyote vs Acme, basking in the afterglow of Looney Tunes.
Then came the show-stopper: Emerging from the mist was a concept called Barbenheimer. A few critics threw up their hands until Tom Cruise promised to see Oppenheimer and Barbie back to back. Even Scorsese lent his endorsement. The Coyote had vanished into the pink cloud of Barbiedom.
Given the season of surprises, does this year’s turnaround portend a new stability? A Minecraft Movie and Sinners have together are approaching $800 million worldwide and counting as of this week, but, in turn, have pointed up a longer-term question: Does their success reflect signs of financial overreach?
Minecraft, directed by Jared Hess, arrived at a cost of $150 million with Warner Bros. rationalizing that spend because it is based on a successful video game.
At $90 million, Sinners theoretically represented an even bigger risk for Warners because it carried the stigma of being an “original.” Even its deal was “original”: A horror film by genre, Sinners star Michael B. Jordan and director Ryan Coogler nonetheless negotiated a major slice of gross receipts, and ownership of the film will revert to them after 25 years.
Skepticism about originals dates back to the start of the studio system, but their standing has been further weakened by the recent flaccid responses to The Amateur, a spy thriller; Drop, a horror movie; and The Alto Knights, a period gangster movie.
The newly-hyperactive Apple and Amazon, which control relatively few franchises, are more adventuresome with originals than the older studios. Apple’s F1, a car racing movie starring Brad Pitt, represents Apple’s biggest bet on an original. It’s written by Joseph Kosinski and Ehren Kruger. Kosinski directs.
Warner Bros. will also release a Paul Thomas Anderson film; He’s a filmmaker who has always preferred originals. Anderson reminds us that some of Hollywood greatest movies were essentially originals, not products of recycling. Casablanca was based on a play that instantly tanked. Bonnie & Clyde stemmed from old newspapers and historic records. American Graffiti emerged from George Lucas’ memories of teenage dating (he wasn’t exactly James Dean).
Samuel Goldwyn paid top dollar to novelist MacKinlay Kantor to write The Best Years of Our Lives based on World War II veterans. But Kantor wrote it in blank verse — little help for the script. Frank Capra wrote the classic It’s a Wonderful Life from a very short story titled The Greatest Gift; it was a gift from an obscure writer.
Five decades ago Paramount paid Erich Segal to novelize his “weepie,” an original script titled Love Story. Paramount then wrote another check to Mario Puzo to complete the final 60 pages of The Godfather. Both achieved instant perches atop bestseller lists.
Originals of the 1960s had their own exotic sources. Peter Fonda struggled through half a draft of Easy Rider but begged his friend Terry Southern to finish it. Southern knew he had a skill for writing stoner movies (Blue Movie and Candy).
The Fonda-Southern-Dennis Hopper movie had a problematic opening. Easy Rider couldn’t find a companion piece – a Barbie with weed – to help its struggling box office returns.. Indeed, the concept of a possible “Ridenheimer” double feature would take decades to nurture.
Meanwhile, Hollywood hopes its coming summer will reflect the buoyant result of the moment, rather than a throwback to the grim times of 2023.
