Box office is big news this week, not so much for its totals as for its totemic significance. Throngs will greet Top Gun: Maverick, but will kids join the grownups to see a nearly 60 year-old actor starring in a sequel to a 36 year-old hit?
At the other end of the audience spectrum, will seniors conquer their torpor to catch the new Downton and even lure their kids – the movie is dubiously titled Downton Abbey: A New Era to motivate the youth quadrant.These are edgy days for an industry seeking clues to two big puzzles: Does a broad demographic truly crave a return to the cool comfort of their movie theaters?
And, if so, what sorts of movies would best combat their streamer fatigue?In Los Angeles there’s one dark portent: The multiscreen Landmark Theater on Pico, long the cathedral of indie films, will shut its doors forever shortly after the opening of Downton Abbey.
Charles S. Cohen, Landmark’s owner who is a dedicated film nerd – he owns 35 other theaters (195 screens) – has his own analyses of these questions (see below).Those filmgoers who are Downton disdainers this week may instead turn to an alternate film multiverse whose protagonists agonize over their personal dissociative disorders.
Read more on deadline.com