Peter Bart: Promising start gives Amazon’s ‘Air’ some breathing room, but it’s still an uphill battle to expand theatrical releases

“Show me the money” was the memorable battle cry Jerry Maguirethe 1996 film about a sports agent who must “deliver” for his manic client.

Matt Damon, the negotiator at the heart of his new film starring Ben Affleck, takes his time with his client, and so does the film. Heaven is an angry, dirty film that sort of devolves into a feel-good epic in the last few minutes.

In Jerry MaguireTom Cruise survives both a love affair and a crisis of conscience. Heaven It’s not about love or conscience, but the $90 million film — Amazon reportedly paid $120 million for the rights and the package — brings with it a chilling set of expectations for the future of distribution (for producers include Peter Guber and David Ellison) ).

The opening week’s box office numbers were favorable, but inevitably fell short of expectations. “Too much depends on each new theatrical release,” says one distributor, noting that ticket sales are down 25% this year. In general, cinema anxiety seems to be getting worse rather than better in this “year of recovery.”

Heaven nevertheless, it’s an intriguing and sophisticated effort that represents Amazon and its subsidiary MGM’s commitment to giving theatrical releases a big shot, maybe hitting 12 movies a year.

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When Amazon bought MGM in 2021, Hollywood nervously predicted that its product would be dedicated to Streamerville. Before the arrival of her boss, Jennifer Salke, a TV executive, Amazon released well-rated publications for mature audiences, such as The great sick And Manchester by the sea.

Heaven featuring Damon and Affleck screamed “mainstream” from the start. It was a joint venture with her ambitious Artists Equity film company, a kind of for-profit creators’ cooperative that aims to promote three more films in 2023 and share revenue between the contributors above and below the line.

His ventures also appear to be committed to theatrical releases as well as Amazon releases, including The Bundwith Jake Gyllenhaal and challengerwith Zendaya.

But a question arises: will theaters stay healthy long enough to enjoy this offer? Last week Cineworld, the bankrupt owner of Regal, canceled its bid to sell its entire business. Theatrical advertising company National CineMedia is also facing bankruptcy. All this despite the Alien opening of The movie Super Mario Bros.

About 39,000 screens in about 4,700 cinemas were in operation at the end of 2022, compared to 42,000 screens and 5,700 theaters at the end of 2019.

The film industry has been built on optimism from the start, especially those that cross the world of sports. Heaven focuses on Sonny Vaccaro’s (Damon) forceful efforts to convince then-NBA rookie Michael Jordan to agree to a major deal with Nike that will change the future of sports marketing.

Most of Heaven takes place in conference rooms, but many critics found it “snazzy and fun” (Washington Post). The protectorhowever, argued that the obsessive rhetoric of deals modeled the film as “an expensive internal corporate promotion for Nike”.

Nike’s adventures in sports support have been fascinatingly combative. Jordan became a billionaire, but Olympic gold medalist Allyson Felix eventually accused the company of fining female athletes 70% for various reasons (including pregnancy).

Nike’s first endorsement deal was with Ilie Nastase, the feisty Romanian tennis star and entrepreneur who followed Boris Becker’s career through both sports endorsements and prison terms (his story is told in a new Apple TV doc).

For co-producer Alex Gibney, Becker’s life reflects how sports stars rely on “their bragging rights” to get through life’s problems. Jordan’s “bragging” and his billions have proven more durable than most.