‘The Flash,’ Wes Anderson, and Pixar: This Weekend Is a Test for Moviegoing Audiences

From the WGA strike and a possible SAG one around the corner to the changing nature of the streaming marketplace, the industry has never been at a more tangled crossroads. These were just a few of the subjects that came up during a Thursday Q&A session at a live recording of IndieWire’s weekly podcast Screen Talk, as Eric Kohn and Anne Thompson fielded questions from a movie-savvy audience.

But first, they talked about “The Flash.” The superhero behemoth opens this week, complete with a messy history of its own, with star Ezra Miller juggling several controversies that made some wonder if the movie releasable at all. However, Warner Bros. charged ahead, keeping Miller out of its press tour but still allowing them to make an appearance at the premiere.

“They weren’t going to throw Ezra Miller under the bus,” Thompson said. “They couldn’t afford to do it.” She also predicted that Jonathan Majors’ legal troubles could follow a similar trajectory with Marvel: “It’s going to be very similar. They’re not going to put him in front of the press.”

Meanwhile, Kohn expressed frustration over the hype for large studio movies driving theatrical attendance while smaller releases based on original ideas continue to have a hard time. “We tend to lose track in our little bubble of industry people who love good movies of how the rest of the country pays attention to stuff,” he said.

He added that the acceleration of the streaming market has made it harder for original movies to stand out in theaters. Pixar’s “Elemental,” for instance, may be tracking at a low $40 million for its opening in part because several of its pandemic-era releases went straight to Disney+. “Training people that these things will arrive at home makes them less likely to see them,” he said.

However, the release of “Asteroid City” adds a third variable into the mix, as the Wes Anderson movie stands a shot at proving that a popular auteur can still have commercial appeal of his own. Kohn and Thompson shared notes from the New York premiere of the movie earlier this week.

In the Q&A, Kohn offered advice to a filmmaker seeking support for a low-budget undertaking with minimal festival visibility, and the pair discussed the ramifications of streamers removing scores of shows and movies from their platforms in recent months.

Stay tuned for next week’s episode, featuring an exclusive interview with Sony Chairman and CEO Tom Rothman.

Listen to the full episode below.

Screen Talk is produced by Azwan Badruzaman and available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Spotify, and hosted by Megaphone. Browse previous installments here, subscribe here, and be sure to let us know if you’d like to hear the hosts address specific issues in upcoming editions of Screen Talk.