Rooney Rule

Per Dave Robb in Deadline:

The NFL’s so-called “Rooney Rule” requires teams to interview minority candidates for head coach and other senior jobs. Named after Dan Rooney, owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers and chairman of the NFL’s diversity committee, it’s an affirmative action policy. ...

The DGA quietly has been prodding the film and TV industry to adopt a version of the Rooney Rule to expand opportunities for female and minority directors. ...

Jay Roth, the DGA’s national executive director, kept at it in the year leading up to the guild’s most recent contract talks. A knowledgeable industry source said the companies “were much more interested this time” but that when the guild sat down with management’s AMPTP in December to hammer out a new three-year contract, “The companies declined to discuss it for legal reasons.

The federal government’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has been investigating Hollywood’s alleged discriminatory hiring practices since October 2015. The DGA declined comment and a spokesman for the AMPTP could not be reached for comment. ...

Why do I have this idea the EEOC investigation will soon be rolled up, packed into the back of a pickup truck, and driven back to D.C.? Why do I think the DGA won't be getting much of anywhere with this "Rooney Rule" thingie?

Movieland is largely a boy's club, and will largely remain a boy's club for the foreseeable* future. (On the other hand, the animation biz has a steadily rising percentage of women working in all segments of the industry. A good thing).

* "Foreseeable" herein defined as "the next four to eight years."

Animation At Top of Box Office Heap

Again.

... Early industry estimates here are showing all the pre-Valentine’s Day weekend titles kicking their projections to the side. Based off matinees, rival estimates show Warner Bros’ The Lego Batman Movie hooking $65 million for the weekend with an expected $17M today.

Lego Batman is looking at $100M in global weekend ticket sales. ...

And to think there are internet haters who claim that Warner Animation Group is floundering and doesn't know what it's doing. This ought to put the lie to that.

Add On: And the Big Weekend List ...

DOMESTIC BOX OFFICE GROSSES

1. The LEGO Batman Movie(WB) 4,088 theaters /$14.6M Fri. (includes $2.2M previews)/$23.4M Sat/$17.6M Sun/3-day: $55.6M/Wk

1

2. Fifty Shades Darker(Uni) 3,710 theaters /$21.5M Fri. (includes $5.72M previews)/$15.8M Sat/$9.5M Sun/ 3-day: $46.8M/Wk 1

3. John Wick: Chapter 2 (LG) 3,113 theaters /$10.9M Fri. (includes $2.2M previews)/$11.4M Sat/$7.7M Sun/3-day: $30M/Wk 1

4. Split (UNI/Blumhouse) 2,961 theaters (-412) /$2.6M Fri /$4.4M Sat/$2.3M Sun/3-day: $9.3M (-35%)/Total: $112.2M/Wk 4

5. Hidden Figures (Fox) 2,667 theaters (-734)/$2.1M Fri /$3.7M Sat/ $2.2M Sun/3-day: $8M (-21%)/Total: $131.4M/Wk 8

6. A Dog’s Purpose(UNI/Amblin/Walden) 3,025 theaters (-153)/$1.7M Fri /$3.4M Sat/ $2.2M Sun/3-day: $7.3M (-30%)/Total: $42.5M/Wk 3

7. Rings(Par) 2,931 theaters /$1.7M Fri. /$2.6M Sat/$1.5M Sun/3-day: $5.8M (-59%)/Total: $21.4M/Wk 2

8. La La Land (Lionsgate) 2,065 (-1,171) /$1.3M Fri (-43%)/$2.3M Sat/ $1.4M Sun/3-day:$5M (-32%)/Total:$126M/ Wk 10

9. Lion (TWC) 1,337 theaters (-68) /$1M Fri/$1.8M Sat/$1.1M Sun /3-day: $4.1M (+9%)/Total: $30.3M/Wk 12

10. The Space Between Us (STX) 2,758 theaters (-54) /$470K Fri/$810K Sat/$490K Sun/$3-day: $1.76M (-53%)/Total: $6.59M/Wk 2

So LEGO Batman didn't hit early estimates. Still in all, $55 million is a nice round number, and I'm certain the execs at WAG and the WB are toasting themselves with champagne this weekend.

The Mouse Sags

... just a wee bit.

Walt Disney Co. revenue dropped 3 percent during the fiscal first quarter, a period in which the entertainment giant saw declines in its studio and cable television businesses.

Disney on Tuesday reported earnings of $1.55 per share on revenue of $14.8 billion. While profits dropped by 14 percent during the quarter, the entertainment giant still beat Wall Street's expected $1.50 per share. Analysts, meanwhile, were expecting revenue of $15 billion. ...

The company is basically into the swing-for-the-fences style of movie-making. And the company has been remarkably adept at hitting them. Trouble is, when your first Star Wars blockbuster does business of $2 billion, seeing your second Star Wars blockbuster only make a billion is ... a let down?

Mr. Iger, now of retirement age, has no successor when his contract runs out in 2018. (Tom Staggs, the man slated to assume the Chief's job, began having deficiencies after years of strong service, and was let go. This is sometimes known as "Top Dog wants to stay on; Secondary Dog gotta go missing. And stockholders have no problem with that.") As there will likely be no obvious replacement CEO in 2018, hints are now being dropped that Mr. Iger might stay on past the end of the current contract.

The extension is as likely as the sun coming up tomorrow morning, since Robert Iger is in robust health and clearly in no hurry to exit. And as long as the company continues to hum along, everyone will be just ducky with that.

Visual Effect, Smishual Effects

The Visual Effects Society has nominated The Jungle Book (CG version) for a visual effects award.

Okay, I can understand that. There's a live-action kid running around in the middle of the action, all of which is flora and fauna and reptiles and furry mammals that are cooked up inside high-powered computers.

To put it another way, with the exception of Mowgli, the latest iteration of Rudyard Kipling's story is a full-bore animated feature in the same way that Finding Dory, Moana and Zootopia are animated features. So my question is, why aren't Finding Dory, Moana and Zootpia up for awards? Because if those features aren't visual effects extravaganzas in exactly the same way Jungle Book is, all eat my Apple Mac Pro work station.

Spreading the Wealth

So how did the Annie Awards go? Disney's Zootopia won for best feature, Red Turtle won for best indie feature, Kubo and the Two Strings collected three awards, Pixar won for its animated short Piper, and on and on.

In other words, a whole lot of studios got themselves a shiny trophy for the features, TV shows or shorts that were in contention, so plenty of corporate entities walked away with bragging rights for one thing or another. (Oh. And the artists who created the work got to take bows too).

Which is as it should be. Because award presentations are celebrations to be televised and distributed on the internet so that entertainments presented in a variety of formats can gain a higher profile and make our fine conglomerates more money. And, of course, individual creators get to bask in the glory as well. But face it. When it comes to awards in Movieland, we're talking 27.3% art, and 72.7% commerce.

A veteran animation artist recently told me how he dislikes the Annie's and doesn't believe they have a point. I understand his feelings, but disagree. The point is, a small, friendly nod to the artists who make television, theatrical, and internet animation, and a big one to the corporations who own the copyrights.

It might not have started out that way, but it's the way reality is now.

Hal Geer, RIP

Hal Geer, longtime animation veteran and decorated World War II veteran, passed away on January 26th, age 100.

Mr. Geer came to Los Angeles after years of combat in the Pacific theater that included 86 bombing missions as a cinematographer and waist gunner. (One mission had him hiking close to 1,000 miles collecting intelligence for an invasion of the South China Coast.)

In the late forties and early fifties, Hal Geer worked for Warner Bros. Cartoons and then Walt Disney Production, doing special effects for Peter Pan and numerous other features and short subjects. In 1963, he became vice president and executive producer of Warner Bros. Cartoons, supervising the development of the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies characters. He retired from animation in 1987 and turned his attention to

Mr. Geer leaves a wife, two children, one stepdaughter, two grandchildren and four great grandchildren. His autobiography, The Life and Times of Hal Geer, was published last year.

WAGE FIXING!

And boy, did our fine conglomerates ever believe there were wages needing to be fixed:

... "Workers contend that the roots of the anti-poaching agreements go back to the mid-1980s, when George Lucas and Ed Catmull, the president of Steve Jobs’ newly formed company Pixar, agreed to not raid each other’s employees." ...

Okay, it might have started in the eighties among the tech companies (tech geniuses are nothing if not controlling), but wage suppression in animation got kicked into high gear in the early oughts, when Dr. Catmull and friends allegedly conspired to suppress the hiring of animation employees from other studios. (The motivation, I think, was to avoid the bidding wars and high salaries of the go-go nineties).

I received numerous complaints from artists about companies wanting to hire them ... and then (whattayaknow!) suddenly NOT wanting to hire them, just as soon as they found out said artists were employed by a rival company. (Kindly note that these artists were not under Personal Service Contracts, and therefore free to offer their services to all comers).

In 2014, employees at DreamWorks filed a lawsuit over the anti-poaching and wage suppression shenanigans of the major studios. Sometime after, the Animation Guild held a meeting with one of the lawsuit's attorneys. Afterwards, the lawyer told me about being in the room for Ed Catmull's and George Lucas's depositions regarding an earlier wage suppression case:

"They both acknowledged collusion was going on. George Lucas was matter-of-fact about it. Ed Catmull was hostile and defensive. He thought he was doing the right thing for the industry." ...

In the weeks and months following the visit from the attorney, the Guild collected names of possible litigants and forwarded them to the legal eagles on the case. Sometime after, this led to the Guild getting slapped with subpoenas for documents and e-mails. I got depositioned by the companies and questioned about what I knew about the wage suppression thingie, and when did I know it. The consensus of the lawyers was that Disney and the rest of the studios were trying to establish that people had known about the conspiracy for years, and the suit was untimely. (Apparently the untimeliness defense didn't fly with the judge).

So now, judging by the reports, Diz Co. is the last defendant ready to settle, bringing total dollars paid by the studios to just under $169 million. It's not near what damaged employees should have received, but likely what they'll end up with.