Speaking shortly after her sister label Focus Features made the first big buy at TIFF with the Curry Barker directed horror movie, Obsession, for what’s expected to be $15M+, NBCUniversal Chairman of Entertainment & Studios Chairman Donna Langley, ever the industry sage, sat down with TIFF CEO this AM for a wide-ranging discussion canvassing the booming horror genre, as well as the changing winds in the motion picture industry.
“We’re seeing the shift in horror,” said Langley about the post pandemic theatrical paradigm at the box office in the wake of Focus Features’ own Nosferatu, but also competitor’s successes, i.e. Warner Bros’ Sinners, Weapons, as well as NEON’s Longlegs.
“The success of that film (Nosferatu) demonstrates that there’s a shift in the audience tastes,” she said, “auteur directors turning to horror; it’s not the horror as we came to know over the last decade.”
“The weirder, the better,” she added, “Horror is always a reflection of our times.”
Asked whether the four-quad movie was still viable, Langley said, “I think the audience is shifting in front of our eyes as we speak.”
“Look at Wicked: it’s behaving like a four quad movie, but it’s heavily female.”
In addition, large format screens, ala Imax, are a key to success especially with younger moviegoers according to Langley. Those who’ll spend $15 on a movie ticket will go so far as to spend $25 for a more premium experience. She called the younger moviegoers “the Letterboxd generation,” specifically the booming cinephiles who go to a 70MM movie like Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer and watch it more than once, armed with opinions. While Langley spoke about the early sell-outs for the 70MM showtimes of Nolan’s The Odyssey, she didn’t tease anything else about the Matt Damon epic when asked by Bailey.
“It’s an opportunity that comes with its challenges: we’re in a rugby scrum with our competitors who gets those Imax screens over opening weekend.”
What’s the recipe for success in Uni’s feature slate? Langley says the underpinnings always start with an animated movie, as well as a couple of all-audience movies (i.e. a Jurassic World or Fast & Furious). “There’s the everything else bucket from horror to comedy –that’s up and down at the moment, and two original films. Original storytelling and original films always work for us, have always been a good business for us.”
And that’s because Universal actually gets behind original movies and enables them to break out in a way that other studios may cut their budgets for margin’s sake. Look no further than the multi-Oscar winning Christopher Nolan movie Oppenheimer which grossed $975.8M.
“We’re not slavish about price point and budget,” said the former New Line exec, who referred as the greenlight for Oppenheimer as “we didn’t seat that decision; it was priced appropriately.”
Oppenheimer was made for $100M before P&A.
Bailey asked Langley whether she herself ever wanted to be a storytell.
“Um, no,” she responded, “I’m way better at telling people what to do.”