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Box-Office Feasts and Turkeys; CNN Buys Social Video App; How to Cover Trump; If 'Star Wars' Was Never Made

November 28, 2016

What's news: The story of the 2016 box office is the growing chasm between studio hits and misses, and Thanksgiving weekend was no exception. Moana and Fantastic Beasts towered over mega-flops Rules Don't Apply and Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk. Plus: R.I.P. Florence Henderson and how should the media cover a President-elect who tweets false conspiracy theories? — Matthew Belloni and Erik Hayden.

Box Office: Holiday Feast and Famine

The gap is widening between the big Hollywood hits and the losers, Pamela McClintock writes. This weekend there's more than a few busts:

— Ang Lee's Billy Lynn's Halftime Walk, with a $40M+ budget, fell 77 percent in its sophomore outing to a mere $210K for a disastrous North American total of $1.6M.

— Warren Beatty's Rules Don't Apply was another Thanksgiving turkey in opening to $2.2M.

— Billy Bob Thornton's Bad Santa 2, budgeted at $26M, came in well behind expectations with a $9M start, almost half as much as the original film.

On the upside: Overall domestic box-office revenue for the year hit $10B on Nov. 25, earlier than any previous year thanks in large measure to Disney. And the studio feasted over the holiday, between the $81.1M debut of Moana and the staying power of Doctor Strange. See: The full weekend top 10 chart.

Elsewhere in film...

► Refugee crisis comedy is Germany's top film of the year. Welcome to the Hartmanns, released by Warner Bros. Germany, has earned more than $20M in the country, making it the number one local language title of the year.

► Alibaba Pictures buys into Mermaid financier. The studio said it acquired a 30 percent stake in Chinese investment firm Hehe. The deal makes Alibaba the second-largest shareholder in Hehe, which produced Mermaid, the top grossing Chinese film of all time.

► Column: What if Star Wars was never made? Stephen Galloway writes: "Without it, we might never have had franchise filmmaking; we might not have seen budgets soar upward of $250 million; or see brands become more important than the artistry behind them." Reminder: Rogue One tickets went on sale today.

► Lily Tomlin, an appreciation. As the actress is set for a lifetime SAG honor, critic Stephen Dalton pens a tribute: "she retains an edgy counterculture aura that has brought her pangenerational cult kudos in her 70s. Like Bill Murray or Morgan Freeman, her presence on a project confers outlaw integrity."

Sizing up the SAG contenders. SAG-AFTRA doesn't bestow a best picture honor — but its ensemble award is the closest thing, and this year sees 16 formidable contenders. Scott Feinberg takes a look at who has the best shot so far. Plus: New Awards Chatter podcasts with SAG eligible Robert De Niro and Sally Field.

Scott Pelley: How to Cover Trump

The President-elect spent his Thanksgiving at Mar-a-Lago dining with Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter and Don King (among others) and possibly taking cabinet advice from Fabio, but of course he made time for Twitter, Matt emails:

Trump's Sunday tweet-storm, in which he claimed (falsely) that "millions" of illegal votes were cast for Hillary Clinton in the presidential election, led to renewed claims that the biggest purveyor of so-called "fake news" is the new Commander-in-Chief.

It made me think of the interesting interview Seth Abramovitch did with CBS News' Scott Pelley on Wednesday, in which the Evening News anchor outlined his strategy for covering Trump given the president-elect's frequent falsehoods.

"All we can do is what we always do: Report what the president says, compare it with the facts and let the audience decide what they think of that," Pelley says.

It'll be interesting to see how much the news media ramps up its open and adversarial fact-checking of everything Trump says (or tweets) in the run up to Inauguration Day and beyond.

TV briefs...

► CNN acquires social video app Beme. The N.Y. Times got the lead on the deal, which will see the network buy the app, shut it down but keep the tech. Founder Casey Neistat "hopes to bring that idea of authenticity to a news and media environment to draw in a younger audience largely untapped by the cable news network."

► ABC's Quantico is moving from its Sunday perch. The sophomore drama starring Priyanka Chopra is moving from its Sundays at 10 p.m. perch to Mondays starting in January as part of the network's midseason schedule.

► Anne Rice developing Vampire Chronicles. The author says she has regained the theatrical rights to the popular book series and wrote on Saturday: "A television series of the highest quality is now my dream."

↱ About Netflix's Gilmore Girls: If you're caught up with the totality of the revival, which premiered on Friday, check out critic Daniel Fienberg's spoiler-y conversation about the ending. Also: Will there be more episodes now? ↲

In memoriam...

► R.I.P., Florence Henderson. The stage and screen performer whose sweet, starring turn on The Brady Bunch made her one of the most popular sitcom moms in television history, died on Thanksgiving night. She was 82. Full obit I Why comfort TV matters.

► R.I.P., Ron Glass. The actor, best known for his Emmy-nominated star turn in Barney Miller as well as on Firefly, passed away, his publicist said on Friday. Full obit.

About the Westworld season finale trailer. Josh Wigler takes a closer look: What is it that's driving Robert Ford (Anthony Hopkins)? We still don't fully know, although the man clearly loves his narratives. Caution: Spoilers ahead.

How Execs Say Goodbye

The long holiday weekend was a perfect time to catch up on reading, here's a few stories worth the time:

► "From Moguls to Mortals." Brooks Barnes has a story on the "unusually large number of free-floating moguls" in Hollywood these days. It includes this quote from former Paramount vice chair Rob Moore: “It’s upsetting, no question, when you are suddenly dislodged from your life." [New York Times]

► "Chamber of Secrets: J.K. Rowling’s Net Worth." Business columnist James B. Stewart tries to figure out just how much the Harry Potter mogul is worth, shows his work and finds: "she’s worth more than $1 billion, even allowing for a large margin of error." [New York Times]

► "Revenge of the Video Store." Maybe it's like vinyl? "Owners and customers of the more than 100 independent and nonprofit video stores still kicking throughout the U.S., often in places with strong locavore food scenes, say the stores offer variety film lovers can’t find elsewhere." [Wall Street Journal]

► "The Keeper of Disney's Legacy." Archivist Dave Smith is "perhaps the most respected, if unheralded, member of a small clique of in-house Hollywood historians, someone who has quietly dedicated his life to assiduously documenting, preserving and cataloging all facets of America’s most iconic entertainment company." [Los Angeles Times]

► New covers. After two election-themed illustrations, The New Yorker goes with a "Rat Race" image for its latest cover. Meanwhile, New York magazine features Natalie Portman on its cover tied to the release of awards contender Jackie.

Today's Birthdays: Karen Gillan, 29, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, 32, Armando Iannucci, 53, Jon Stewart, 54, Alfonso Cuarón, 55, Ed Harris, 66.