Hello everyone,
Actors Strike
It’s official. At midnight tonight (west coast time I believe) the actors union is going on strike. This will have MAJOR ramifications for everyone because AMOST every movie, TV show, or streaming show or movie filming IN THE WORLD will shut down. The only exceptions are a few things filming in the UK which are mostly dealing with the UK actors union and news/game shows/morning shows/etc that don’t have a contract with the major studios. So, everything affiliated with movies or TV shows will also be affected.
If the strike goes on for a while, they may need to change the release schedule (like Marvel already did a few weeks ago due to the writers strike). There are several movies currently scheduled to be released next year that are currently shooting including “Gladiator 2” and “Mortal Kombat 2”. They might need to postpone movies scheduled for the end of this year so that there will still be movies in the movie theaters in 2024.
Actors are also prohibited from promoting any TV show or movie during the strike. So, Tom Cruise, Margot Robbie, and everyone else out there promoting their movies will be going home. This will affect any upcoming movie releases, film festivals, movie premieres, promotional events (like Comic Con in a couple weeks), and even the Emmy Awards (who just had the nominations announced a couple days ago). They moved the premiere for “Oppenheimer” in the UK today a couple hours earlier so the stars would appear on the red carpet. Once the strike was announced, all the actors in the movie let before the movie started.
Mission Impossible
Seems like “Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part 1” isn’t meeting expectations. The box office for opening day (Wed July 12) was around $15.5 million which is a lot lower than the previous movies opening day of $22 million (although that movie opened on a Friday). People were estimating that the movie would make about $90-100 million over 5 days but now the estimates have lowered to around $70 million 5-day and $47 million weekend. A friend of mine went to the first show at the Chinese IMAX theater in Hollywood on Wednesday morning. He said there were still a lot of seats available. It was about 60-70% full. However, it was a Wednesday morning.
It looks like I missed the point of this movie like I did last year. I thought “Top Gun Maverick” wasn’t that good and I didn’t like this “Mission Impossible” movie either. Yet, it still has 96% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. I sort of wish I saw it in IMAX like my friend did because he said they played the previews for “Napoleon”, “Dune Part 2”, “Killers of the Flower Moon”, “The Creator”, and “Oppenheimer” on the giant IMAX screen. He said the funniest thing was that the “Oppenheimer” trailer that played was a special version which said “IN ONE WEEK – SEE THE MOVIE ON THE BIGGEST SCREEN”. Right after the trailer, there was a short clip from Tom Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie thanking everyone for coming to the IMAX theater to watch a movie.
Oppenheimer
My friend also saw that they’re LITERALLY BUILDING A PROJECTION BOOTH at the back of the Chinese IMAX theater (see photo below) for the IMAX 70mm film projector for “Oppenheimer”.
Unfortunately, the IMAX 70mm film theaters seem to be the only theaters that are selling out their advance tickets for opening weekend. They’re still predicting that the movie will not be as successful as “Barbie”. The promotion dept at Universal is still trying to get more people to come see the movie. First, they made sure to mention in the preview that there will be women in the movie – Emily Blunt and Florence Pugh. Then, there was a mention of…a certain scene in the movie. Now, they’re trying to promote the double feature of watching both movies on the same day. They even named it “Barbenheimer”.
HOWEVER, there are still THOUSANDS of people who have no interest in seeing “Oppenheimer”. I don’t think that young women (who will probably flock to “Barbie”) have any interest in watching “Oppenheimer”.
Little bit of humor….
Select movie theaters are selling a “Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part 1” TRASH CAN???? Actually, it’s a popcorn tin but after you finish the popcorn what are you supposed to do with it? It looks like a trash can to me.
LOS ANGELES FILM REVIEW 