Matt Damon, Jamie Foxx & an Inconvenient Truth
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Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Participant's truth, Austin Butler's flaming city, Riz Ahmed goes wes, Josh Mond is back and a Meerkat.
Let’s go!
AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH
Participant Media, which specialized in films with a strong social message, has shut down, laying off nearly all its 100 staff.
Here are their most well-known films and their impact on society:
An Inconvenient Truth (2006)
Drove global climate change awareness
Spotlight (2015)
Sparked interest in investigative journalism
Reignited the push for institutional accountability for victims of clergy sexual abuse
Roma (2018)
Led to landmark legislation for labor protections of domestic workers in Mexico
They also produced Best Picture winner Green Book (2018).
Their films garnered 21 total Oscars in their two decades of existence. They produced 135 total films, which netted $3.3 bn globally at the box office.
But for all the prestige and powerful impact, many of them were not able to recoup.
Including a few high-profile misses:
The Soloist (2009)
Starring Jamie Foxx & Robert Downey Jr.
$38 M worldwide gross
$60 M budget
Promised Land (2012)
Starring Matt Damon
$11 M worldwide gross
$15M budget + $X million in marketing
The company’s founder, billionaire Jeff Skoll, who was the first president of eBay said in a memo to his staff yesterday morning: