Brooks Barnes

Move Over, Mouse Ears: For Disney Adults, There’s a New Obsession

"WTF Is That on Your Shoulder?" sadly did not pass muster with the copy desk as a hed on this late-summer brite

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/22/b...

Trump Called for Movie Tariffs After a Meeting With Jon Voight The president’s call for tariffs caused confusion in Hollywood, which has seen a steep drop-off in local film and television production.

Voight's been making the rounds of Hollywood and showed up at Mar-a-Lago with two one-page docs drafted by the MPA and endorsed by a bunch of guilds outlining the industry's needs. No tariffs were mentioned in either. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/05/m...

Amazon Gains Creative Control Over the James Bond Franchise The British family that has for decades held complete control over everything involving the globe-trotting superspy is relinquishing it to Amazon.

The British family that has steered the James Bond franchise for more than 60 years, zealously protecting the superspy from the indignities of Hollywood strip mining, has agreed to relinquish control to Amazon. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/20/b...

Marvel’s New ‘Captain America’ Is No. 1, Despite Poor Reviews “Captain America: Brave New World” was expected to take in $84 million from Thursday through Sunday in North America.

Marvel’s New ‘Captain America’ Is No. 1, Despite a Backlash and Poor Reviews www.nytimes.com/2025/02/16/b...

Ben Whishaw, as Paddington Once More, Is Here to Make You Feel Better With “Paddington in Peru,” the British actor voices the beloved bear for the third time. His calming charm remains the franchise’s calling card.

I telephoned Paddington to talk me off the ledge

www.nytimes.com/2025/02/14/m...

Documentarian Alex Gibney Teams Up With a Google Billionaire The Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney has sold a majority stake in his Jigsaw Productions to the philanthropist Wendy Schmidt.

Alex Gibney sold his doc film company to Wendy Schmidt -- Google money -- and will expand into more progressive-issue topics. She told me she made an offer to buy Participant but Jeff Skoll decided he'd rather shut it down 👀

www.nytimes.com/2025/02/06/b...

Bob Iger on Disney’s relief efforts: ‘Can we help in setting up temporary schools?’ Mr. Iger, the company’s chief executive, said Disney wants to be part of the rebuilding effort in Los Angeles.

Bob Iger: "Can we help in setting up temporary schools? Can our Imagineers help design new town centers? Rebuilding is not just about money. It’s about ingenuity and determination.”

www.nytimes.com/live/2025/01...

Hollywood’s Filmmaking Continues Despite L.A. Wildfires Because of costs, few movies are shot locally, leaving the industry in a surreal spot: reeling from personal loss with much of the business untouched.

Hollywood finds itself in a surreal spot: reeling from personal loss with much of the business untouched

At Disney alone, 64 employees lost their homes. But there was almost no moviemaking in LA to disrupt -- all shooting elsewhere

www.nytimes.com/2025/01/14/b...

At Universal Studios Hollywood, a hint of normalcy returns.

After two days closed for the fires, Universal Studios Hollywood was back in the business of manufactured reality on Friday. A quick dispatch:

www.nytimes.com/live/2025/01...

Golden Globes Stars Avoided Politics Sunday’s show was Hollywood’s first megaphone since Donald Trump was elected to a second term. This time, there was barely a peep about it.

Hollywood hoisted a white flag in the culture war on Sunday.

www.nytimes.com/2025/01/06/b...

Golden Globes 2025 Takeaways: ‘Emilia Pérez’ and ‘The Brutalist’ Win Big “Shogun,” the FX drama, also had a strong night, winning best TV drama, best actor, best actress and best supporting actor.

Golden Globe voters did little to clear up a blurry awards picture in Hollywood on Sunday, giving little-seen films like “The Brutalist” and “Emilia Pérez” roughly equal treatment and snubbing some perceived Oscar front-runners, including "Anora."

www.nytimes.com/2025/01/05/a...

Why Is Ariana Grande a Supporting Nominee at Golden Globes for Her ‘Wicked’ Role? The pop star plays Glinda in the film, while Cynthia Erivo, who plays Elphaba, is nominated as the lead.

Why is Ariana Grande a supporting nominee at the Globes when her role is a lead?

www.nytimes.com/2025/01/05/m...

The Golden Globe swag bags have no shame.

The $1 million Golden Globe gift bags have no shame.

www.nytimes.com/live/2025/01...

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association is gone. Its scandals will live on.

The HFPA is gone. But is scandals will live on.

www.nytimes.com/live/2025/01...

Golden Globes 2025 Live Updates: What to Expect Ahead of Red Carpet The event, which honors work in both film and television, will begin at 8 p.m. Eastern time, 5 p.m. Pacific time, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif.

Item: The Globes, long an ungodly mess, have seemingly pulled themselves together. Icky contretemps continue behind the scenes, however.

www.nytimes.com/live/2025/01...

What Do Movie Producers Do, Anyway? And why do they get the trophy for best picture at the Oscars?

I was asked to answer this (perennial) reader question:

What Do Movie Producers Do, Anyway? www.nytimes.com/2025/01/05/m...

The Top Movies of 2024: ‘Wicked’ and Nine Sequels Box office returns have started to stabilize. But nine of the top 10 box office hits this year were sequels. And the 10th was “Wicked.”

A lot of filmmakers took interesting risks this year 👏
But the box office, for the most part, swung squarely back to the same-old, same-old 👎

This is why studios take fewer and fewer chances on original movies:

www.nytimes.com/2024/12/31/b...

Really nice work 👏🏻

‘Wicked’ and ‘Gladiator II’ Jump-Start the Box Office, but at a Cost Battling a 27 percent decline in domestic ticket sales compared with before the pandemic, studios left no marketing drum unthumped in releasing the movies.

‘Wicked’ Jump-Starts the Box Office, but at a Cost

Movies, especially ones like “Wicked,” a mega-spectacle with mega-reviews based on a mega-musical, used to be able to commandeer the culture by themselves. Now it takes 10 months of marketing pleading.

www.nytimes.com/2024/11/24/b...