Until two weeks ago, the war film "The Battle of Lake Changjin" was rated as the highest grossing film in 2021, with $ 902 million in box office revenue.
Have you never heard of him?
You're not alone.
While the corona crisis has paralyzed the world of culture for almost two years and led to the closure of cinemas in most countries of the world (global box office revenues in 2020 were estimated at only $ 12.4 billion, a huge 71 percent drop compared to $ 42.5 billion in 2019 and an unprecedented low 40 years) - The Chinese have already returned to "business as usual" and snatched the leading position from Hollywood.
The city has managed to recover a bit, and since the easing announced last summer has released several blockbusters like "Fast and Furious 9," which grossed $ 726 million (its two predecessors in the race car series each grossed more than $ 1 billion), the superhero movie "Shang Chang" Disney and Marvel Comics' Ten Rings Legend, considered a moderate hit with $ 493 million at the box office, and of course "No Time to Die", the latest in a James Bond film series that did not open strong but remained on cinema screens for several weeks thanks to its ability to attract audiences Adults, and brought in a cumulative $ 771 million.
Then came Spider-Man.
"Spider-Man: No Way Home," which premiered two weeks ago in the United States, smashed the box office and brought the color back to Hollywood. In just 12 days, it crossed the $ 1 billion mark in revenue - the third-largest opening ever ( In five days, "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" in 11 days.) It is estimated that "Spider-Man," played by Tom Holland, will reach a total revenue of $ 1.75 billion, and will be the most profitable film in two years and one of the box office hits in Hollywood history.
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"Spider-Man's revenue brings the global film industry's total profits closer to $ 22 billion, which is half the peak revenue in 2019 but something we could not have imagined a year ago, at the height of Corona's second wave," says Paul Dregardian, an analyst at Com-Score, a company that provides analysis services for the US entertainment industry, in an interview with Shishvat.
"2021 has been a year of recovery, so next year will be the real test of the film industry," Dargarbadian continues.
"We can already see that when it comes to a film like 'Spider-Man,' the audience comes in droves. The weekend in which the film came up was perhaps one of the most important in the history of the industry, a critical test that recorded an overwhelming victory that gave us a boost for what lies ahead. Was able to get the audience out of the house, with the rave reviews and the massive campaign, so we were really in trouble.
"When you make the emotional decision to dedicate yourself to the cinema experience and go watch a movie on the big screen, even when the risk of a new variant arises again, it says it all about the vitality and relevance of cinema."
Was the decision to release movies soon for streaming services during Corona worthwhile?
"It all depends on the age range a particular film addresses. All the studios faced an unprecedented challenge, and had to think of the fastest and most efficient way to distribute the films to the audience. Warner Studios' Dune, for example, brought in a respectable $ 390 million, from the audience's understanding. That's a must-see movie on the big screen, but 'Winning Family' with Will Smith grossed only $ 26 million, and it's speculated that it's a movie that people've mostly watched at home.
"Even the remake of Steven Spielberg's Musical 'The Suburbs' story was disappointing when it came up recently and grossed only $ 10.5 million in its first weekend, but it's a film that has potential among families and can run for a few weeks, certainly now, during the holidays and New Year."
Oscar-winning films are not generally considered big box office successes.
"True. We live in a world of blockbusters that appeal first and foremost to young viewers, and the hall owners need them to enable activity during such a period. The most critical demographic segment for the industry is young men.
"But if you look at films with a stronger affinity for the ceremonial season, it's films like 'Gucci House' with Lady Gaga or 'The French Chronicle' by director Wes Anderson recorded reasonable figures: 'Gucci House' brought in $ 112 million, while "His budget was 75 million, and the 'French Chronicle' brought in 43 million dollars, compared to a budget of 25 million."
"West Side Story".
"It has potential among families,"
And yet, just a week ago, Universal Studios announced the postponement of "Fast and Furious 10" to 2023.
"Every studio has its own considerations, but the move to postpone movies makes clear how much they are building on the recovery of the cinemas, and not on the streaming, which on the face of it has changed the rules of the game but does not deliver the goods in terms of profits. These budget-heavy films It's true that strengthening streaming services and increasing the number of subscribers are well represented at shareholders' board meetings, but that's not where the big money comes from.
"Look, for example, 'Red Post,' starring Ryan Reynolds, Dwayne Johnson and Gal Gadot. He got the title of 'Most Watched Movie on Netflix,' but disappeared as fast as he came. That's how it is with the passing trends that streaming produces. He has none. "A lasting cultural influence like a movie that came out in the cinema."
What is certain is that this is another significant step for Gal Gadot.
"True. The American audience, and in fact the audience all over the world, is getting used to her as one of the big stars who still have many years of professional work and achievements to do. To every creator in Hollywood. "
Gal Gadot in "Red Message",
• • •
And what about the small screen?
According to data published about two weeks ago by Variety magazine, in 2021 no less than 1,923 original series from all genres and a variety of broadcast platforms will be released - TV channels, cable and streaming, some new and some new seasons for existing series.
This is an all-time record for television production and an increase of 22 percent compared to last year.
Netflix is still the most powerful streaming provider, with 214 million subscribers worldwide, but competitors are already blowing hard at the back.
Disney Plus, which was launched two years ago and has not yet arrived in Israel, already has 118 million subscribers, and together with Hulu of the Disney Corporation in the US, which registered 40 million subscribers, the reasonable forecast is a merger of the two. Time Warner Corporation reports 70 million subscribers to - HBO Max, although a significant portion of them are subscribers to the HBO cable channel on TV, who receive the Max service at no extra charge.
The other providers keep the cards close to their chests: Amazon Prime announced 175 million subscribers last April, but the figure refers to all subscribers on the e-commerce site and not specifically to content services, while technology giant Apple, which launched its streaming service two years ago, agreed to admit it has a little less From 20 million subscribers. Despite the low figure and low content, Apple did manage to garner some success among critics, such as the drama series "The Morning Show" starring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, and the comedy "Ted Lasso" about a football coach who enlists to coach a failed English football team, starring Jason Sodeikis.
"To me, 'Ted Lasso' is the standout series of the year," says Matt Roach, a senior television critic for veteran TV Guide magazine.
"She was the Emmy's big winner when she picked up seven awards, and was considered a consolation refuge during the Corona era, bringing a lot of humor and soul. This is a clear example of one of the streaming series that is captivating more and more viewers.
Jason Sodeikis in Ted Lasso, Photo: PR
"Another successful series that is at the top of the best series of 2021 is Disney 'Wanda-Vision', a mini-series based on characters from The Avengers, which brought the Marvel Comics Corporation to television. It is a series that lovingly saluted nostalgic TV series in building its plot. "And as a fan of the medium, it was amazing."
"Wanda-Vision," starring Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Battani, is in fact a continuation of a move that Disney began, with the expansion of its cinematic brands to the streaming service.
She did so successfully as early as November 2019 with "The Mandalorian", whose plot takes place in the Star Wars movie universe and which has already won 14 Emmy Awards for its first two seasons, continuing with "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier", "Loki" and "Hawkeye", And in the barrel there are more series with new characters, like "The Green Giant" and "Miss Marvel."
According to Roach, the unimaginable number of series airing every year indicates a strengthening of trends from recent years, such as comebacks and remakes of series from the past, and especially the openness of viewers to series from around the world - as evidenced by the huge success of the Korean suspense drama. The squid game. "
"Television has undergone a process of globalization, and content from all over the world is spread out before us - not only British series, as we have known in the past, but also series from across Europe and Asia, and of course from Israel," says Roach.
"It's a game changer for the industry. Anyone who has Netflix has already been exposed to 'Fauda,' for example, whether they watch it with subtitles or dubbed into English, because the audience is looking for original things. This is also why 'The Squid Game' has become It's not something we're used to, and suddenly it's impossible to stop watching.
"And the thing is, you can't predict those hits. Netflix didn't promote 'The Squid Game.' I, as a veteran TV journalist, didn't get any signal from them when it came up.
On the other hand, "Hit and Run" by the creators of "Fauda", Lior Raz and Avi Issacharoff, was canceled a month after it aired on Netflix.
"Netflix's model is based primarily on initial success. This series did have a respectable promotion, and US TV critics wrote about it when it only aired in August, but it lost momentum quickly and after a month the story ended.
"This is proof that there are really no rules. Netflix has a tremendous amount of original content that they keep flooding their subscribers with, and once something doesn't catch on early, they immediately eliminate and bury it. Impossible to track everything, and in many cases it would have been better to release less Content and give the series a little more time to find an audience. That is, on the one hand the wide variety exposes us to content that we would hardly reach, but on the other hand it leaves in the dark many others.
"I call Netflix 'the Kremlin' because everything there is done in a cloak of secrecy. They do not provide information about viewing data, and will never explain why a series is canceled. When a series is canceled on TV, there is always talk around the decision, fans claim it is unfair, the actors Their voices are heard, a dialogue is formed, but when a streaming series is canceled from now on, no one really resents.
"Streaming, by definition, provides us with momentary content with a short shelf life. In many cases we binge on a series for a day or two, move on to something else and after a week forget about it. On TV the series is still broadcast in the traditional weekly episode format, we gradually develop "The connection to the plot and the characters and therefore more connected to them. Bottom line, it's very difficult to point to hits on Netflix. 'The Squid Game' is a clear hit, but other series are not necessarily. No one really knows what the numbers are, and the whole TV industry is in a fog because of it."
"The Squid Game".
"A series that took off out of nowhere", Photo: Courtesy of Netflix
Another clear insight is that originality has become a rare commodity, resulting in more and more remakes and sequels - all in the hope that viewers, who get a comeback from beloved characters from the past, will remember them youthful kindness and watch their new experiences as well.
For example, last year "Dexter", "Gossip Girl", "CSI Las Vegas" and "The Magic Years" returned to our lives, and next year we will see the first sequel to "Game of Thrones" and a comeback to the old series "Law and Order".
HBO brought back to life three of the four protagonists of "Sex and the City" with "Just Like That," and at the same time are already working on developing new versions of the two drama series that put them on the map two decades ago: "The Sopranos" and "Deep in the Ground."
"HBO had a strong year thanks to the popular mini-series 'The Secrets of Easttown' starring Kate Winslet, the surprising and buzzing hit 'The White Lotus' and of course the third season of 'Heirs', which is without a doubt the best drama of the year," says Roach. .
"The channel of course takes advantage of all these successes to also mention their availability on HBO Max. There they also exclusively distributed 'Just Like That', but this is a series that has been received so far in divided reviews, mainly because it does not feel like something fresh. It fascinates me to watch In something I have not seen before. "
• • •
And how can one sum up the entertainment world of 2021 without some scandals? Another phenomenon that returned to the industry at the end of the year is another wave of MeToo campaign protests: actor Chris Knott, who is Mr. Big in "Just Like That," was accused of sexual harassment about two weeks ago and kicked out by the agency that represented him; Jeff Ghrelin, known as Larry David's veteran agent on "Calm Down," was immediately fired from the starring "The Goldbergs" starring him, after repeated complaints to Sony Studios' human resources department about inappropriate behavior and rude language on his part; Veteran CNN presenter Chris Cuomo was fired from the cable news network in the shadow of allegations of sexual harassment, just four months after his brother, outgoing New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, resigned on similar charges.
Another type of scandal that garnered attention was the television interview that Prince Harry and his partner Megan Merkel gave to Oprah Winfrey at her lavish Santa Barbara mansion.
In a buzz-rich interview, the two complained about racism in the royal house, and mostly took advantage of the class to establish the shiny new chapter in their lives with the move to California.
Whereas another affair that made headlines around the world, and in tragic circumstances, was the shooting incident on the Western filming set "Rust".
Actor Alec Baldwin, who is also one of the film's producers, accidentally shot to death photographer Halina Hutchins and wounded director Joel Souza.
Due to the accident, filming was stopped, and Baldwin is still required to stand trial.
Adele's year
Unsurprisingly, Adele's fourth album, "30", released seven weeks ago, is the best-selling in 2021 and the first in more than a year to have sold more than a million copies in the US. Inspired by her friends Harry and Megan, Adele also helped Opera Winfrey with a TV special Hollywood is celebrating the release of the album, and has already announced a show in Las Vegas, which will be launched next month and will run every weekend until mid-April, and on each evening Adele is expected to pocket a million dollars.
"There has not been a more intriguing comeback this year than Adele's, and I think she could have even shelled out more public relations," says Hugh McIntyre, a music critic for Forbes and Billboard magazines.
"When she released the single 'Hello' in 2015, it was a really groundbreaking moment, and this time she kept it relatively passive. She mostly emphasizes the fact that she makes music the way she likes, without wanting anyone.
"Her new single, 'Easy on Me', took first place in the charts and does the job, but not with the resolutions and excitement that were six years ago. Sales of the new album are also good, but not like the previous time. But even when Adele is not at her peak, she is still ranked Long before any other artist today. "
And instead of planning a world tour she's on her way to Vegas.
"It's a move that's gained momentum in the last decade. If Vegas used to be mostly a stage for musicians in their late teens, in recent years casino hotels have managed to recruit for permanent shows names like Jennifer Lopez, Mariah Carey and even Lady Gaga.
"Adele will not have the headache of skipping from country to country, certainly in the days of Corona, and it also saves significant production costs and transporting equipment. It will allow her to rest and keep her voice, and of course comfortably raise her 9-year-old son Angelo. Because it is an intimate show. Relatively, the average price per ticket is $ 328, and all the planned shows have already been sold out in advance.She makes a fortune from this arrangement.
Adele.
"The most intriguing comeback", Photo: GettyImages
"By the way, the one who started the trend was Britney Spears. When she started performing in Vegas, people were surprised, but she made $ 140 million from 248 shows that lasted four years in a row."
Britney made headlines this year without even making music.
"I share the joy of many that Britney has finally been freed from her father's guardianship and can live her life independently as any adult. I'm also very curious to see how the whole story of the Free Britney movement, which came up on the agenda thanks to the documentary about her, "Other celebrity affair. After all, Britney's victory was due to the social pressure exerted by the film, and it will be intriguing to see what other processes can motivate fans."
And what do we expect in 2022?
"First and foremost for new albums from Beyonce, Harry Styles and Mariana Grande, who also star in the film adaptation of the successful musical 'Wicked', based on plots from 'The Wizard of Oz'.
"Taylor Swift will also continue to star in America, because she has two more albums in the pipeline that she plans to release, and I guess artists we haven't heard from for a long time will return in the coming year - like of course new discoveries."
Indeed, 2021 was a year of breakthroughs for young creators, led by 18-year-old Olivia Rodrigo, who first appeared as an actress in Disney series and released an acclaimed debut album this year, and 22-year-old rapper Lil Nas X, who released two years after the hit "Old Town Road" first album.
Rodrigo is nominated for seven Grammy Awards at a ceremony to be held at the end of January, and Nass X Night is also nominated for an award in five categories.
"It always feels phenomenal when there's a wave of young artists, but it's not a new phenomenon," says McIntyre.
"After all, even Michael Jackson was a kid when he stole the show as the Jackson Five lead singer, and Britney Spears broke out overnight before she was 18. Young people are traditionally the ones who pave the way for the next thing in music.
"Beyond that, America has opened up to music from around the world as it has never been seen before, thanks in large part to social media and streaming services. Significantly. "
What about the Israeli artists Noa Kirl and Static and Ben-El, who have been trying their luck abroad for the past two years?
"I have to admit I've never heard of them."
dcaspi@goldenglobes.org
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