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:
“I founded Participant with the mission of creating world-class content that inspires positive social change, prioritizing impact alongside commercial sustainability. Since then, the entertainment industry has seen revolutionary changes in how content is created, distributed and consumed.”
Read the full memo here.
It appears that the current constriction of the film industry was a driving force behind the shutdown. And Skoll took that as the impetus to move on to new opportunities.
The legacy has been unparalleled, but a few smaller production companies, like Ava DuVernay’s ARRAY and the Obama’s Higher Ground, have recently taken up the mantle.
Participant’s final films will be A24's Blknws and Lionsgate’s White Bird (starring Helen Mirren).
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