On Academy Awards night, Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy were the toast of Hollywood. The Warner Bros. Pictures co-chiefs’ studio tied the record for overall Oscar wins, putting a prestigious cherry on top of a string of hits. Three weeks later, the duo are sifting through bleak receipts from two box-office underachievers, “They Will Kill You” and “The Bride!,” which played to near-empty houses while drawing reviews that can charitably be called “mixed” and “tepid.”
Warner Bros.’ roller-coaster ride, which included a similar swoon in 2024 and early ’25 before that spectacular turnaround, merely highlights the unpredictable nature of the movie business. And that’s one reason, industry observers tell Status, why Hollywood has greeted Paramount chief David Ellison’s pledge to release 30 movies a year once the Warner Bros. Discovery acquisition closes—split between the two studios—with widespread skepticism, including theater owners and producers who would love to see those words become reality.
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In this week’s episode: The White House tried to censor an AFP photo of Karoline Leavitt that she found to be unflattering. We break down our exclusive reporting on the behind-the-scenes meltdown at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue—and what the AFP said when we asked for comment on the scrubbed image.
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‘The Boys’ Are Back: “The Boys” premiered on Amazon’s Prime Video in July 2019, a few months after “Avengers: Endgame” unofficially capped off that lucrative chapter of Marvel’s pop-culture dominance, heralding leaner years for comic-book movies to come. Yet aside from offering a well-timed version of psychotic superheroes, the series also emerged as a signature commentary on the Trump era, from its barely-hidden satire and wanton excess to its skewering of capitalism run amok.
That backdrop makes the show’s return for its fifth and final season, at this moment, feel particularly ironic. Not only has the billionaire class become almost a parody of itself since the series began, but seeing Jeff Bezos…
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