Hollywood Report

by Imran Anwar

A Happy New Year, indeed, for the entertainment industry. Just last week the industry was crying about Christmas falling on a Friday, thereby shortchanging the industry of an extra day or so of movie-going that occurs if the holiday falls on a Wednesday or Thursday. Today, they are celebrating as Santa Claus dropped some of the biggest revenues the industry has ever seen in this weekend period.

It was actually the highest income producing 3-day weekend in movie industry history. According to numbers reported by Variety magazine, the top 60 movies made almost $148 million, just short of the highest grossing weekend ever, when Lost World opened a few years ago, but exceeding the weekend when Titanic had opened.

The clear winner coast to coast was Robin Williams' Patch Adams, which exceeded $25 million, The movie has generated positive audience reviews though some critics have felt it would be somewhat predictable.

Stepmom, the Susan Sarandon-Julia Roberts flick is also proving interesting to crowds, and we will wait and see how well this movie does, with more and more viewing families going through the divorce-remarriage process.

Not only was this good news for companies like Universal Pictures, that had a drought of hits, but overall, the whole industry revenue rose almost 10% over last year, to almost $7 Billion. It is easy to forget how large this industry is, especially when compared to the GDP of many large nations around the world!

Separately, Michael Jackson, who only appears, perhaps rightly, to generate negative publicity, must have been happy with some news from VH-1, the music video channel. The channel conducted a survey among its audience, and found that Jackson's Thriller video was the most popular video ever…even though it was more than 15 years ago, and video production quality and style have progressed tremendously in this period.

Since music videos appear to be musician's encroachment upon acting (though some artistes' acting abilities do not exceed grabbing their crotches), it is only fair that Hollywood stars should return the favor. News media report that a new album is coming out soon, titled "Hollywood Goes Wild." The title itself does not mean much, when one considers just what passes for normal in the lives of Hollywood stars, but the idea is different. Movie stars, including Bruce Willis, Brad Pitt, Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum, Kim Basinger, Keanu Reeves and Juliette Lewis are among the stars whose voices will be on the album. The name of the album is based actually on the proceeds going to a wildlife preservation effort.

Perhaps the most interesting media related story comes from the media itself, and many a star in Hollywood must be smiling at the irony of it all. It seems that the Globe, a well-known tabloid, had actually paid $250,000 to a woman to seduce Frank Gifford, the previously well-respected husband of Kathie Gifford. Now, the competing National Enquirer has gotten the story and is going to publish the sordid tale. The Globe is trying to block the publication and wants to tell the story itself, but a judge refused to grant their request. It seems the tabloid pooper-scooper has itself been paper-scooped.

HR 1/3/99

© Imran Anwar, 1999