10 Predictions About the Future of Movies. Plus: Ron Howard!

The Heiress 1949

Sean's de Havilland recommendation: William Wyler's take on Henry James's Washington Square, recently reissued by Criterion.

Gone with the Wind 1939

She was the last major surviving star of the golden-age cast.

Captain Blood 1935

One of her pairings with Errol Flynn.

The Adventures of Robin Hood 1938

Another Flynn vehicle from her early Warner Bros. run.

Enter the Dragon 1973

Sean's shout-out to the late John Saxon, a great character actor.

Tenebrae 1982

Saxon in Dario Argento's giallo.

Black Christmas 1974

Joe Kidd 1972

Saxon opposite Clint Eastwood.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 1984

The face you know even if you never knew the name.

Tenet 2020

The recurring subject: fourth date change, going international August 26th before a U.S. Labor Day window that nobody trusts. Sean and Amanda war-game a road trip to Vancouver to see it, then remember the border is closed.

The New Mutants 2020

The running gag: 'death, taxes, and The New Mutants is never coming out.' A Fox holdover whose HBO contract blocks a Disney+ or PVOD dodge.

The French Dispatch 2021

Another Fox-era holdover; Wes Anderson likely has a theatrical clause, so undated rather than PVOD.

Palm Springs 2020

The counterexample they both loved: a well-received film with a slow-burn, less front-loaded rollout, though not a $100M opening.

The Last Duel 2021

Sean's example of an original, star-driven, $100M-capable movie that just quietly slipped to fall 2021.

Trolls World Tour 2020

Universal's PVOD experiment, cited as maybe a predictor, maybe just cutting losses.

The Rental 2020

Dave Franco's directorial debut opened on ~420 drive-in screens and did decent business.

The King of Staten Island 2020

Universal sent it straight to PVOD.

Scoob! 2020

Warner Bros. moved it to PVOD, then HBO Max within six weeks.

The Trial of the Chicago Seven 2020

Aaron Sorkin's Netflix film: 'the most Oscar movie I've ever seen,' part of the Netflix Best Picture push.

Extraction 2020

Netflix's inflated viewership claims as a stand-in for the death of transparent numbers.

Triple Frontier 2019

Amanda's evidence the Netflix numbers are a lie: nobody she knows watched it despite the reported 63 million.

Rebuilding Paradise 2020

The National Geographic verite doc following residents of Paradise, CA after the 2018 Camp Fire. The film he's promoting.

Made in America 2013

His first documentary, on Jay-Z's Philadelphia festival; a Robert Altman's-Nashville tapestry approach that Jonathan Demme talked him into.

Rush 2013

He was in post on it when the Jay-Z doc offer came in.

Beyond the Mat 1999

A Brian Grazer wrestling doc Howard pitched in on before directing his own.

Inside Deep Throat 2005

The other Grazer doc he helped shepherd.

The Beatles: Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years 2016

Limited by design to the touring years, which he cracked by thinking of it like Das Boot.

Pavarotti 2019

His third music doc, again with producer Nigel Sinclair.

Das Boot 1981

The structural model for the Beatles doc: men in a bubble who can't see how the war is going.

Nashville 1975

Altman's multi-perspective template for Made in America.

Backdraft 1991

He made a fire movie, and says the Paradise footage makes it 'nothing.'

Hillbilly Elegy 2020

He cut it in a room next door to Paradise, borrowing a doc-editing trick to fix a scene.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas 2000

His litmus-test example: he did it mostly to watch Jim Carrey build the character in the flesh.