Scouting Hollywood: Dec. 7-13

A roundup of news, gossip and history of the entertainment business brought to you from Hollywood, Calif.

For the second week in a row, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes took the domestic box office. While down 35 percent from the previous week the three day total was $28.8 million, easily outclassing the two new entrants, Sony’s Napoleon at $20.4 million and Disney’s animated Wish with a weak $19.5 million. Since the latter two films each cost around $200 million to produce, their ultimate profitability looks tough.

Photo by ROSA RAFAEL on Unsplash

Taylor Swift, whom Forbes recently branded a billionaire due to her mega concert tour and smash film, has announced that the movie The Eras Tour will be available on multiple streaming services on Dec. 13, her birthday. She also let out that three songs cut for the theatrical release would be included. Pricing has not yet been announced; the film cost $19.89 at the box office as a nod to her birth year. 

Lifetime Network, the king of formula Christmas movies, has finally decided that “family” means sex scenes in a hay barn. The network has said they love trying new things; so unprotected sex with a new acquaintance is their next new thing to try. Airing in early December is A Cowboy Christmas Romance, which in the formula has a single, cute real estate agent returning home to reclaim land belonging to a rancher. She meets the cowboy and sparks fly. What’s Harlequin Romance Novels waiting for? They have an unlimited bookcase to develop.

One of Hollywood’s bad boy producers, Joel Silver, who is known for a string of more than 60 films, including the Die Hard and Lethal Weapon franchises, has apparently been (depending on who is talking) “fired” or “completed his obligations and is no longer involved” on two upcoming projects, the completed remake of Road House as well as a Mark Wahlberg led project, Play Dirty. Rumor has it his tough talking, pushy style didn’t play well with a few execs at Amazon and thus the dust up. Road House was nearly complete when the strikes started and unnamed sources indicate that Silver pushed back on Amazon’s desire to use AI to finish the project during the strike.