From red carpet fashion statements, Eminem performing a song from 2002, to entertaining speeches, triumphant wins, Idina Menzel’s performance of Frozen 2’s ‘Into the Unknown’ and much more, Hollywood’s biggest night (The Academy Awards – also known as The Oscars), is finally done and dusted.
Parasite made history becoming the first foreign language film to win best picture and best director. The film also nabbed prizes for original screenplay and international feature film. The victory caps off an improbable awards season run for the South Korean thriller.
Joaquin Phoenix won the lead actor award for his work as the deranged failed-standup comic of Gotham (Arthur Fleck) in Joker, while Renée Zellweger won best actress for her portrayal of the legendary performer Judy Garland in Judy.
Meanwhile, Brad Pitt and Laura Dern picked up supporting actor and actress honors for their performance in Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood and Marriage Story respectively
Here’s the full list of winners:
Best Motion Picture – “Parasite”
Directing – Bong Joon Ho for “Parasite”
Actor in a Leading Role – Joaquin Phoenix in “Joker”
Actress in a Leading Role – Renée Zellweger in “Judy”
Actor in a Supporting Role – Brad Pitt in “Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood”
Actress in a Supporting Role – Laura Dern in “Marriage Story”
Animated Feature Film – Josh Cooley, Mark Nielsen and Jonas Rivera for “Toy Story 4”
Cinematography – Roger Deakins for “1917”
Original Song – Elton John and Bernie Taupin for “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again” from “Rocketman”
Original Score – Hildur Guðnadóttir for “Joker”
International Feature Film – “Parasite” from South Korea
Makeup and Hairstyling – Kazu Hiro, Anne Morgan and Vivian Baker for “Bombshell”
Visual Effects – Guillaume Rocheron, Greg Butler and Dominic Tuohy for “1917”
Film Editing – Michael McCusker and Andrew Buckland for “Ford v Ferrari”
Sound Mixing – Mark Taylor and Stuart Wilson for “1917”
Sound Editing – Donald Sylvester for “Ford v Ferrari”
Documentary Short Subject – Carol Dysinger and Elena Andreicheva for “Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl)”
Documentary Feature – Steven Bognar, Julia Reichert and Jeff Reichert for “American Factory”
Costume Design – Jacqueline Durran for “Little Women”
Production Design – Barbara Ling and Nancy Haigh for “Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood”
Live Action Short Film – Marshall Curry for “The Neighbors’ Window”
Adapted Screenplay – Taika Waititi for “Jojo Rabbit”
Original Screenplay – Bong Joon Ho for “Parasite”
Animated Short Film – Matthew A. Cherry and Karen Rupert Toliver for “Hair Love”
Source: Oscars
Women – directors and actors, are set to take charge of Hollywood in 2020!
According to World Economic Forum, the number of women behind the camera on Hollywood movies jumped to record levels in 2019, with 12 directing top-grossing films including Frozen II, Captain Marvel and Hustlers.
Additionally, a study by the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative at the University of Southern California found that women made up 10.6% of directors of the top movies last year, more than double the percentage in 2018 and the highest percentage of female directors in the past decade.
2020 is already off to a good start with five of the year’s most anticipated blockbusters – Bird of Prey, Mulan, Black Widow, Wonder Woman 1984 and Eternals – all directed by women.
Birds Of Prey
Director: Cathy Yan
Release Date: February 6, 2020
Birds of Prey, will be DC’s first venture in 2020 and the first movie from the studio to come after Todd Phillips’ acclaimed Joker movie. The movie stars Margot Robbie – reprising her famous role of Harley Quinn, and will feature a few other leading ladies such as Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jurnee Smollett-Bell and Rosie Perez (to name a few).
Mulan
Director: Niki Caro
Release Date: March 26, 2020
Disney’s next live action remake will not be a musical and is missing the indestructible Mushu in its first trailer. However, audiences need not fret, as this version of Mulan from Niki Caro is paving its own path and staying clear of mimicking the 1998 animated classic.
Black Widow
Director: Cate Shortland
Release Date: April 30, 2020
One of Marvel’s big releases this year will be by a female director – Cate Shortland, and follows a leading superhero – Natasha Romanoff (also known as Black Widow) played by Scarlett Johansson. Black Widow’s solo movie has been a long time coming as a result of Scarlett Johansson’s character being a popular in the Avengers series. The story of Natasha Romanova should give audiences a real chance to see her in action and outside the realm of an ensemble movie.
Wonder Woman 1984
Director: Patty Jenkins
Release Date: June 4, 2020
As a sequel starring a popular DC comics character, it’s no real surprise that Wonder Woman 1984 – directed by yet another leading female director Patty Jenkins, is topping the list of most anticipated movies in 2020. Gal Gadot will also be back to reprise her role of Diana Prince, with Kristen Wiig taking on the role of Barbara Minerva (better known as Cheetah) – the archenemy of Wonder Woman.
Eternals
Director: Chloé Zhao
Release Date: October 29, 2020
In April 2018, Marvel Studios announced that they will be developing a film based on the Comic book series Eternals. Directed by Chinese film director Chloé Zhao – known for The Rider, the film will star leading female actresses such as Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek and Gemma Chan, alongside Game of Thrones’ Kit Harington and Richard Madden. The Eternals are immortal aliens who should possibly offer much to the cosmic side of Marvel’s Phase Four.
According to a list of the most anticipated movies of 2020 by Fandango, around half will be led by women. It’s also worth pointing out that from this list, the top four movies are female-directed.
Visit the Movie Planner section of our website to watch trailers of other upcoming movies in 2020.
Sources: Variety, World Economic Forum and Fandango.
Disney’s record-setting year at the box office simply won’t quit until the calendar rolls over. As the year comes to a close, Disney has remained king of the 2019 worldwide box office, producing eight out of the year’s 10 highest-grossing films.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker hit cinema screens the past weekend and had a strong opening at $175.5 million in the United States. While that’s not as large as The Force Awakens (2015) or The Last Jedi (2017), it’s still going to make the movie a huge hit for Disney, giving them another spot in the top ten highest-grossing US releases of 2019 – edging out Jordan Peele’s acclaimed Us, which grossed $175.05 million at the box office in the United States earlier this year. As such, Disney has produced eight of this year’s top ten, which is a truly unprecedented level of success.
With the success of numerous films including Avengers: Endgame, Aladdin and Toy Story 4 earlier this year, Disney has been growing at an astonishing rate and has earned a record-setting $10 billion at worldwide box office. The recent growth in success of Disney shouldn’t come as a surprise, given that the studio has always been a prominent player in the entertainment industry and has also begun to buy and consume its competition over the last couple of years.
The following 2019 movies also sit in the top ten, all of which were produced by Disney:
Avengers: Endgame
Worldwide Box Office: $2,797,800,564
The Lion King
Worldwide Box Office: $1,656,313,097
Toy Story 4
Worldwide Box Office: $1,073,394,813
Captain Marvel
Worldwide Box Office: $1,128,274,794
Spider-Man: Far From Home
Worldwide Box Office: $1,131,927,996
*Disney’s Marvel Studios produced Spider-Man: Far From Home while Sony handled distribution. Therefore, the film’s box office earnings doesn’t technically count towards Disney’s total for the year.
Frozen II
Worldwide Box Office: $1,165,209,889 (to date as the film is still screening in cinema)
Aladdin
Worldwide Box Office: $1,050,693,953
The only non-Disney movies to crack the top 10 in North America this year were Joker ($333.3 million) and IT Chapter Two ($211.5 million) – both titles produced by Warner Bros.
Disney has officially become the first studio in history to bring in $10 billion at the box office in a single year, and that total doesn’t count Spider-Man: Far From Home, nor does it account for the Fox titles the studio distributed following the $71.3 billion merger of the two companies earlier this year. Thus, Disney has han alarmingly good year and the competition is, without doubt, struggling to accomplish even a fraction of that success financially.
Disney’s 2020 release schedule is far less packed with anticipated movies. However, there are a few major titles including a live-action adaptation of Mulan and Black Widow and The Eternals from Marvel.
Watch trailers:
Mulan:
Black Widow:
Disney’s box office dominance is poised to continue in the new decade, as they will now be in full control of Fox content moving forward, with X-Men and Fantastic Four being two example franchises that can be used for further financial wins.
Contact a member of our sales team for cinema advertising opportunities alongside Disney Blockbusters in the upcoming year!
Sources: The Verge, CinemaBlend and The Numbers.
The world will soon have a new ‘Clown Prince of Crime’ when Joker debuts on 3rd October 2019. This time, he’s a comedian played by Joaquin Phoenix, and he’s ready to turn Gotham City’s frown upside down no matter what it takes.
From its GRITTY and enigmatic trailer, to the buzz created after winning The Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival – the festival’s highest prize, the stakes are high in terms of audience anticipation.
Produced by DC Film and distributed by Warner Bros. Joker is unlike any other superhero film. Brace yourselves for the brand new take on the Dark Knight’s greatest nemesis, guaranteed to put a ‘smile on your face’.
Watch the trailer of the Joker 2019:
Here’s what you should know about Joker:
Rating:
Joker is the first live-action Batman franchise film to receive an R-rating from the Motion Picture Association of America, due to its strong bloody violence, disturbing behavior, language, and brief sexual images. It can be presumed that the movie’s rating in the Middle East will end up being PG-18 for cinemagoers.
Is this Joker part of DC Comics?
There has been much speculation floating around as to whether the Joker is part of the DC Comic universe. However, director Todd Phillips has made it clear that the movie is a standalone story of the origins of Joker – the criminal mastermind and well-known nemesis of comic superhero Batman (in a never-seen portrait of the man behind the mask).
Joker is closer in spirit and substance to gritty cinematic portraits of antiheroes from the 1970s: Taxi Driver (1976), One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975), Serpico (1973), unlike any other typical modern comic-book movie.
Arthur Fleck (Joker’s real name in this standalone movie) does not align with any origin of the Joker ever published. What bits and pieces we’ve seen from promotional material resists attempts to connect the movie to any one story. It seems to be, by and large, entirely original in a way vanishingly few superhero movies have been.
Set in a ‘broken-down’ Gotham City between late 1970s and early 1980s, Joker shows the progressive evolution of Arthur Fleck, who is a clown-for-hire living with a fragile mother and struggling to keep his own peace of mind. But what’s up with his creepy laugh? Why is he taking care of his mom? We don’t know — and that’s possibly part of what the movie will explore.
*Did you know – This is Joaquin Phoenix’s first role in a comic book film. He previously turned down the title role in Doctor Strange (2016) as well as the chance to replace Edward Norton as the Hulk in The Avengers (2012), because he was unwilling to sign on to the multi-picture deal that Marvel Studios was requiring.
Director
Todd Phillips has directed numerous big hits – of which a majority are comedies. He directed all three of the movies in The Hangover series. With the release of the Joker trailer, many have praised what Phillips has shown thus far, with some even comparing the trailer to the work of legendary director Martin Scorsese. Helping to drive that comparison home is the fact that ‘frequent Scorsese collaborator’ Robert De Niro will be appearing in Joker.
Phillips has a series of blockbusters under his belt and is best known for writing and directing the comedy films. However, for his work on the satirical comedy film Borat (2006), Phillips was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
The kind of gritty thriller Joker aims to be would be one thing, but what cinematic alchemy might happen when Phillips – who understands what it’s like to be inside Arthur Fleck’s head, is behind the camera? We will just have to wait and find out!
Who are the other characters alongside Joker?
Penny Fleck
Frances Conroy plays Penny Fleck. Penny is Arthur’s mother. She is an older woman whose health is fading, making her practically bed-ridden.
Conroy is best remembered for her role in HBO’s Six Feet Under. More recently, she has appeared in recurring TV roles in Castle Rock, American Horror Story, and Arrested Development.
Murray Franklin
Robert De Niro plays Murray Franklin. Murray is a talk show host on a late-night television program which airs in Gotham. He plays a role in Arthur’s transition from a struggling stand-up comedian into the Joker.
De Niro is a Hollywood legend with a career spanning more than 50 years in movies and television. Roles in films such as Taxi Driver (1976) and Raging Bull (1980) put De Niro on the map. Among his most recent credits are: The Intern (2015), Joy (2015) and Dirty Grandpa (2016), and another collaboration with director Martin Scorsese for The Irishman on Netflix.
Sophie Dumond
Zazie Beetz plays Sophie Dumond. Previously released details about Sophie note that she is a single mother living in Gotham and is a person of interest (possibly a love interest) to Arthur. Sophie is beaten down by life in the city of Gotham and feels as if the system is stacked against her and others in her community.
Beetz is best known for her role on FX’s Atlanta. She has also appeared in Geostorm (2017), Deadpool 2 (2018), and Steven Soderbergh’s High Flying Bird for Netflix
Watch the star cast in the first look of Joker:
Here are some statistics for previous DC Films (distributed by Warner Bros.):
Aquaman (2018)
Worldwide Box Office: $1,146,894,640
UAE Admissions: Ran for 15 weeks and did over 541K admissions
Wonder Woman (2017)
Worldwide Box Office: $821,133,378
UAE Admissions: Ran for 13 weeks and did over 329K admissions
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
Worldwide Box Office: $867,500,281
UAE Admissions: Ran for 13 weeks and did over 541K admissions
Suicide Squad (2016)
Worldwide Box Office: $746,059,887
UAE Admissions: Ran for 10 weeks and did over 338K admissions
The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Worldwide Box Office: $1,084,439,099
UAE Admissions: Ran for 11 weeks and did over 338K admissions
Boxoffice Pro is projecting Joker to make $103 million in its US opening. That would be the biggest October opening of all time, beating the record set by Venom (2018).
Motivate Val Morgan forecasts over 300K admissions in the UAE for Joker.
Contact a member of our sales team for cinema advertising opportunities alongside this MEGA Blockbuster.
Sources: ScreenRant, The Numbers, Wikipedia, Looper and Business Insider
