Rich Ross Makes Moves (and Movies) at Disney

Franchise had generated more than $2.7 billion in global ticket sales alone. Ross had cleaned house at the Walt Disney Studios, a broad shake-up designed to streamline operations and increase efficiency, the kind of corporate engineering required to maintain margins in an era of declining ticket-buying audiences--and guaranteed to antagonize Hollywood's old guard. Cook, who started working at Disney in 1970 as a rides operator, was much beloved; Ross had dumped a slew of his senior officers. Not surprisingly, much of the town was primed to see him capsize. And here he was praying that Cook's famous galleon could bring home one more treasure. For the studio to have any shot at keeping pace with last year's performance (in 2010, Disney became the first studio ever to release two movies-- Toy Story 3 would need to crack the $1 billion mark.

During the afternoon of Friday, May 20, and well into the night, Disney executives emailed Ross and one another with the latest box-office data and anecdotal evidence. The big question on their minds was this: How would media reporters spin the opening-weekend numbers? And more specifically, what was Nikki Finke going to say on Deadline Hollywood? The most influential--and, to studio executives, terrifying--entertainment reporter in town, Finke would set the tone with the initial report on her website. As the results filtered in, Ross and his team wondered if Finke would cackle over the film's failure to crack the magic $100 million mark in the United States.

Finke's post hit her site late Friday night with the headline "Yo Ho-Hum to 3-D But Not Overseas." The domestic box office was soft, in other words, but Pirates 4 cruised to $700 million faster than any movie in history and became just the eighth picture to crack $1 billion worldwide. More than 75% of that gross has been generated outside of North America.

For Ross, it was an indisputable hit, and the studio began cranking up a possible fifth installment in the series. But the studio chief also had reason to worry. The declining domestic audience indicated that Disney's single most important live-action moneymaker was beginning to run out of steam. Pirates 5

The movie division has not been Disney's most profitable arm for many years. Yet it remains the company's big intellectual property "wave maker," to use the phrase you hear a lot these days inside Disney's executive suites. Bob Iger, Disney's CEO, used those words during an interview with Charlie Rose in March. But what, exactly, did he mean? Most hit television shows build an audience over time, so they're like the flood that results from a long season of rain; a hit movie, however, can sweep the world suddenly, like a tsunami, generating tremendous buzz and a lingering hunger among consumers for more--products, soundtracks, sequels, theme-park rides, spin-off shows, adaptations for the stage. At Disney, a train metaphor works just as well to describe the strategy. Says production chief Sean Bailey: "Our big movies need to be IP [intellectual property] locomotives.

Where Does Johnny Depp Live - News


Final D23 Expo Details Revealed: Sneak Peeks, Pixar Stamps, Screenings

​Disney also promised a few unannounced surprise guests, with rumors already whirling around the Internet that it could be Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer. Both actors are slated to appear in the upcoming Lone Ranger, which isn't even in production yet.



Rich Ross Makes Moves (and Movies) at Disney
Rich Ross Makes Moves (and Movies) at Disney

Meanwhile, the stars attached to current projects include James Franco, Amy Adams, Ice Cube, and Johnny Depp--as someone other than Captain Jack Sparrow. (He has signed on to play Tonto opposite Armie Hammer's Lone Ranger.) Angelina Jolie is circling a



The Teen Choice Awards Live Blog
The Teen Choice Awards Live Blog

Anyway, they announce that Fast Five has won a surfboard and so has Angelina and Johnny Depp. Then there's Katy Perry, Bruno Mars, Jersey Shore, Pauly D, and everyone else that's actually alive, whether or not they're relevant.



J Lo's three down, but not out
J Lo's three down, but not out

Even the handsomest star of them all, Johnny Depp, is the father of two children and happily living with French actress Vanessa Paradis. And, like Brangelina, they live in a chateau in France, away from the bright lights of Hollywood.



DVD review: 'Rango'
DVD review: 'Rango'

He's even wearing the kind of Hawaiian-print shirt Thompson favored, and speaking with the voice of Johnny Depp, who played the gun-toting scribe in the live-action version of “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” and was Thompson's real-life pal.




Johnny Depp and Brad Pitt to square off at the box office | Inside ...

($123.3 Million) this year, but only time will tell if the star can pull in audiences as a live-action frontier fellow.

In all reality, these late December releases mean that studios are aiming for big holiday box office numbers, as kids will be out of school and many adults off of work, and there’s probably room for both films to succeed financially, but I’m curious: Which do you think will do better business?

Follow Grady on Twitter: @BoxOfficeJunkie

You are correct sir, what I meant to say was Brandon Routh is the Superman of my generation as far as I am concerned. I would have also been content with Tom Welling – he put in his dues – both fit the mold of Superman/Clark – I think Brandon did it better. However, Henry Cavil is short, has curly hair, looked Italian in the promo shot the studio released – in short he does not look like Superman, I sincerely hope this new one fails and by that time Chris Nolan will be free entirely and can hire Brandon Routh to be Superman again and do a proper Superman with Brainiac

“Back in December 2007, Warner Brothers released a zombie blockbuster starring Will Smith, I Am Legend, and it earned a tremendous $256.4 million. I’m guessing Paramount is hoping that a similarly huge crowd will turn out to see Pitt (who has never been quite the box office star that Smith is) fight off the brain-eaters. ” I hate to break it to Grady, but that wasn’t a zombie movie… I mean, if you are going to write a column about it, at least research the topic?


Where Does Johnny Depp Live - Bookshelf

Johnny Depp, A Biography

Johnny Depp, A Biography

Blake does not get the job he came for and ends up shooting a man and becoming a fugitive. ... When Johnny Depp's character replies, ...

Johnny Depp starts here

Johnny Depp starts here

But the myth of the tamed Johnny Depp has for me an outcome still more ... hold, own, define, bound, isolate, and re- alize Johnny Depp—we live in a world ...

Weekly World News

Weekly World News

Los Angeles Herald Examiner. if * * Teenage girls will be crying all over the country now that TV's 21 Jump Street heartthrob Johnny Depp has decided to wed ...

Red, Teenage Girls in America Write on What Fires Up Their Lives Today

Red, Teenage Girls in America Write on What Fires Up Their Lives Today

I also agree with what he always says—and did—about not wanting to live the ... In so many Johnny Depp interviews, he mentions how interested he is in ...

New York Magazine

New York Magazine

And I get there and Evan and Johnny Depp were in the hot tub, ... with the McEwan story — this is really what he has wanted to do," says his father. ...

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Where does Johnny Depp live? | Answerbag
Where does Johnny Depp live? i read in a magazine that he lives in Plan de la Tour in South France (near St Tropez) He also has a house in Las Angeles where he stays ...

Where Does Johnny Depp Live | Where Does
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Where does Johnny Depp live? | ChaCha
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