Hollywood Minute: ‘Rust' finally rides into theaters
The Alec Baldwin western marred by tragedy opens in theaters, plus news of a 'Megalopolis' graphic novel and 'Sinners' returning to IMAX. David Daniel reports.
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Jason Blum on Those Big Budgets for Horror Movies and Why ‘Sinners' Is the Exception to the Rule
Blumhouse founder Jason Blum has an axe to grind when he hears people say Ryan Coogler's 'Sinners' is not a horror film. Admittedly, the movie is a genre-bending period film and folk fable about the roots of blues music, but it's got vampires killing people in it, so it's a horror movie. And Blum wants you to know it. 'Sinners'' box office success — $350 million worldwide to date — has defied expectations for what an original horror film can do, and even though Blum didn't make it, it's good for his business when the genre as a whole thrives. But much of the discussion around that movie before its release was its hefty budget — a reported $90 million — that complicated its path to profitability. For Blum, he's built his empire on movies made on the cheap that can still be marketed as events, break out in a big way, and spawn franchises. But as Blumhouse has scaled up and the demand for horror has increased, Blumhouse can't make movies as modestly, and the industry too runs into challenges to continue to make horror movies work financially. More from IndieWire 'Titan: The OceanGate Disaster' Review: A Surface-Level Netflix Documentary About the Submersible Implosion Heard Around the World Tom Cruise Has Never Been Happy with His Breath-Defying Underwater Scenes, So 'Final Reckoning' Went Three Times Bigger Blum on Tuesday took the stage in Hollywood at a press event called The Business of Fear, in which he and a panel of Blumhouse and Atomic Monster associates discussed box office trends for the genre and how horror has evolved over the years, such that the genre 'horror' can't be viewed so narrowly. IndieWire asked him about 'Sinners,' a movie he says is 'one of my favorite horror movies I've seen in a long time,' and why he felt 'Sinners' was the rare exception to the rule about making horror movies work on such a massive scale. 'We are definitely not interested in doing movies with that size a budget. That said, I'm glad they had the budget that they had because I think it really helped make the movie rich and incredible and amazing; but we are not going to make horror movies at that level anytime soon, maybe ever,' Blum said in the panel discussion. 'The bigger the budget, the more strain on the creative and the more sanding down of edges. And I think, generally speaking, 'Sinners' being the exception, the product is less interesting. So we are committed to lower budgets to continue to be able to take creative risks and do interesting things, which I think is harder to do when you have more money.' Blumhouse, following its merger with James Wan's Atomic Monster, has scaled up significantly such that it needs to have 'major studio-level success,' as Blum puts it. That means $100 million+ movies, which even for Blum and Wan is rare for movies made for just $1 million. He acknowledges that an indie like last year's 'Longlegs' pulled off the feat, and films like 'Terrifier 3' came dang close, Blum said today 'it's much harder to do what we started doing 15 years ago.' 'So the way that we've addressed that is by adding a bit of money to our model; but still, by studio standards, for instance, the budgets of our movies are 60 percent off the average sticker price, actually probably more, 75 percent off, the average sticker price,' Blum said. Blumhouse has five remaining movies on its slate for 2025, all of them sequels, including 'M3GAN 2.0,' 'Five Night's at Freddy's 2,' a new 'Conjuring' movie, 'The Black Phone 2,' and 'Mortal Kombat 2.' At the event, Blumhouse also announced it's in development on 'Ma 2,' with Octavia Spencer set to return. But it's threading a needle in finding original properties that someday can be the next major franchise for Blumhouse. Together with Atomic Monster it's branching out into video games, an exciting growth area to tell other horror stories, but Blumhouse president Abhijay Prakash explained that they're positioned to adapt one of those games into a film should one break out, though that wasn't the reason it launched the division. Blumhouse also announced at the event it will be adapting another indie horror game hit, 'Phasmaphobia.' Blum is also staying true to the company's philosophy about finding good stories, things that are genuinely scary, rather than trying to stack them with stars or buzzy directors and figure out the rest later. IndieWire asked Blum about a recent viral video from Charli XCX in which she pitched the idea of a 'Final Destination' movie starring all 'It Girls,' and directed by Coralie Fargeat for good measure. Blum hadn't seen the video, but he'd want to hear a bit more. 'Generally, I am not a fan, I think no one on this panel is, of reverse-engineering movies. You never get a good result,' he said. 'It's how, unfortunately, the vast majority of movies are made, but it's very hard to get a good movie reverse-engineering it.' Blum added the studio is unlikely to again release a movie day-and-date in theaters and on Peacock as it did with 'Five Nights at Freddy's' but won't be repeating with the sequel. Horror works best in the theater, not at home, and it's the reason the genre has consistently grown in popularity and still hasn't reached its peak. He says it will lead to movies that are one day constructed very differently for theatrical than they are for streaming — not just a difference in quality or budgets — and horror is very equipped for that evolution. 'Horror, in my mind, is the only genre that you just can't get what you are going to see a horror movie for at home on TV. It doesn't work,' he said. 'The only way to be really scared is when your phone is not with you and when you are in a dark room with a lot of other people and you are fully focused on a movie. You guys try it. Watch a horror movie on streaming, and when you know a scare is coming, look away for two seconds and look back. It stops working. It's just, your suspension of disbelief is broken, and when you are leading that up to a scare, you are just not scared. It's actually made horror in cinema stronger.' 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Ryan Coogler Says ‘Sinners' Was the Antidote to Directing Franchise Films: ‘I Wanted to Get Away from That'
Ryan Coogler has no interest in turning 'Sinners' into a franchise and is standing by it. The 'Black Panther' and 'Creed' director told Ebony Magazine that despite his original film being a box office hit, it's a one and done story. Coogler reunited with his frequent collaborator Michael B. Jordan for the film, which puts Jordan in dual roles as twin gangsters Smoke and Stack. The film follows the brothers as they escape dueling factions in Chicago and return home to Mississippi to open a music hall, only to discover more blood-sucking foes left to battle. More from IndieWire 'John Candy: I Like Me' Documentary to Open 2025 Toronto International Film Festival Jon M. Chu Warned His 'Wicked: For Good' VFX Team That the Film Will Inevitably Be Memed 'I wanted the movie to feel like a full meal: your appetizers, starters, entrees and desserts, I wanted all of it there. I wanted it to be a holistic and finished thing,' Coogler said. 'That was how I was asked all about it. That was always my intention.' He continued, 'I've been in a space of making franchise films for a bit, so I wanted to get away from that. I was looking forward to working on a film that felt original and personal to me and had an appetite for delivering something to audiences that was original and unique.' Coogler is confirmed to be developing an 'X-Files' reboot, saying during the 'Last Podcast on the Left' that the project has been in the works for a while. He also is returning to the MCU franchise world with 'Black Panther 3,' which will star Denzel Washington. 'I've been excited about ['X-Files'] for a long time, and I'm fired up to get back to it,' Coogler said. 'Some of those episodes, if we do our jobs right, will be really fucking scary. We're going to try to make something really great and really be something for the real 'X Files' fans, and maybe find some new ones.' Coogler previously thanked fellow filmmakers Spike Lee, Quentin Tarantino, and Brian De Palma for helping to inspire his leap of faith with 'Sinners.' He also credited audiences for purchasing tickets to go to the feature in theaters. Coogler wrote in a letter shared with IndieWire, 'I had the gift of the opportunity of making a film inspired by my family and my ancestry, but it was always a film that we wanted to make for audiences, in theaters. We always had our minds on you, the audience, and felt a deep responsibility to entertain you, and move you in the way only cinema can. We don't get to do what we do if you don't show up. To see your response to the film has reinvigorated me and many others who believe in this art form. And together maybe we can expand the definition of what a blockbuster is, what a horror movie is, and of what an IMAX audience looks like.' Best of IndieWire Guillermo del Toro's Favorite Movies: 56 Films the Director Wants You to See 'Song of the South': 14 Things to Know About Disney's Most Controversial Movie Nicolas Winding Refn's Favorite Films: 37 Movies the Director Wants You to See
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Sam Rockwell Says ‘Sinners' Success Is ‘Encouraging' for Hollywood: ‘It's a Big Swing'
Sam Rockwell is singing the praises of 'Sinners.' The 'White Lotus' actor told Variety that 'Sinners' succeeding at the box office is a beacon of hope for Hollywood. 'It was encouraging because it was rated R, you know? The sexuality felt palpable,' Rockwell said. 'And the fact that it made a bunch of money while mixing all these genres — 'From Dusk Till Dawn,' 'Sounder,' 'Devil in a Blue Dress' — I thought that was encouraging. It's a big swing. And it made a lot of money, just like 'Wonder Woman.' That was a big swing, too. Made by a woman [Patty Jenkins]. Did very well.' More from IndieWire 'Charliebird' Wins Top Tribeca Festival Jury Prize: Full List of Winners Jacinda Ardern Documentary 'Prime Minister' Shows Us How the New Zealand Leader Is the Anti-Trump Rockwell compared 'Sinners' to Academy Award-winning films that also transcended genre. ''Birdman' is another one. On paper, you'd think, 'That movie's not going to do anything.' But it was amazing,' he said. 'Same with 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.' Everybody turned it down — Gene Hackman, James Caan. But look what happened. So yeah, I'm encouraged by certain things.' Rockwell even compared the CGI twin trick 'Sinners' pulls with Michael B. Jordan to the work he did his 2009 film 'Moon.' 'I really dug it. And the technology with the twin thing has come a long way since I did a trick like that long ago.' Coogler recently told Ebony Magazine that 'Sinners' was his break from directing franchise films. 'I wanted to get away from that,' he said of returning to his original indie roots. 'I was looking forward to working on a film that felt original and personal to me and had an appetite for delivering something to audiences that was original and unique.' Coogler previously thanked fellow filmmakers Spike Lee, Quentin Tarantino, and Brian De Palma for helping to inspire his leap of faith with 'Sinners.' He also credited audiences for purchasing tickets to go to the feature in theaters. Coogler wrote in a letter shared with IndieWire, 'I had the gift of the opportunity of making a film inspired by my family and my ancestry, but it was always a film that we wanted to make for audiences, in theaters. We always had our minds on you, the audience, and felt a deep responsibility to entertain you, and move you in the way only cinema can. We don't get to do what we do if you don't show up. To see your response to the film has reinvigorated me and many others who believe in this art form. And together maybe we can expand the definition of what a blockbuster is, what a horror movie is, and of what an IMAX audience looks like.' Best of IndieWire Guillermo del Toro's Favorite Movies: 56 Films the Director Wants You to See 'Song of the South': 14 Things to Know About Disney's Most Controversial Movie Nicolas Winding Refn's Favorite Films: 37 Movies the Director Wants You to See
