WMAL Interview - CHRISTIAN TOTO - 12.15.17

INTERVIEW - CHRISTIAN TOTO - Film Critic, HollywoodInToto.com and Host of "The Hollywood in Toto" podcast (available on iTunes)

TOPICS: preview Last Jedi, upcoming films for Christmas-time and thoughts on the Disney-Fox merger

'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' will be a force but likely not enough to lift box office sales over last year (LA Times) -- The North American box office is projected to be down at least 2% from the record set in 2016, despite the surely astronomical performance of the Walt Disney Co.’s “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.” Ticket sales in the United States and Canada are estimated to clock in at $10.95 billion to $11.15 billion, according to ComScore, a data firm that tracks box office. That means industry revenue would be down 2% to 4% from last year’s $11.38-billion total. The yearly decline reflects a film business that has failed to recover from a poor summer movie season peppered by major flops, raising questions about the overall health of a theatrical movie industry grappling with changing consumer habits.

USA TODAY OPINION PIECE IS ANNOYING STAR WARS FANS: "Why Anakin Skywalker should’ve been removed from the Jedi Order for sexual harassment" (USA Today / Hayden Frye, Opinion contributor) "The Jedi Council's inability to remove a toxic, misogynistic predator from their ranks ultimately brings about their downfall. In anticipation of the Star Wars: The Last Jedi movie release, like many others, I’ve been rewatching the series. To my horror, while viewing Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones, I realized that Anakin Skywalker (even before overtly becoming evil) was a sexual predator in the workplace! Skywalker's role in the destruction of the Jedi Order and the establishment of the Galactic Empire is the impetus for the ensuing movies in the franchise. There would be no bad guys in a majority of the films if the Jedi Order had removed a workplace predator from their ranks. While this may have happened a long time ago in a galaxy far far away, it deserves to be called out now. By allowing a predator in the workplace, and not doing enough to fight sexual harassment, the Jedi Council ultimately engineers its own demise. Members of the Jedi Council should’ve removed Skywalker from the Jedi Order after his many missteps while protecting Sen. Padmé Amidala. If they had, Chancellor Palpatine would have been unable to leverage Skywalker into destroying the Jedi Order, dismantling democracy and creating the first Galactic Empire.

Disney-Fox Merger

‘Kingsman’ Creator Says Disney Merger “Bad For Fox,” OK For ‘X-Men’ Reboot

(Deadline) - Now safely ensconced at Netflix, Kick-Ass and Kingsman creator Mark Millar today took aim at the $66 billion mega-merger between The Walt Disney Company and 21st Century Fox for the latter’s film and TV assets, including those lucrative Marvel licenses to the likes of Deadpool and The X-Men.

In a twitter storm, the one-time writer for The Avengers, Civil War and X-Men comics bluntly said that he thought the deal was “good for Disney, bad for Fox' as extra levels of bureaucracy creep into creative. Seemingly taking a bit of a dig at the tightly controlled and Kevin Feige run Marvel Studios, the Millarworld boss also pondered that “one area Disney could help” was a “fresh start” for the well-worn mutant franchise and its very successful Wolverine spinoff franchise.

Mark Millar @mrmarkmillar Good for Disney, bad for Fox as extra levels of bureaucracy creep into creative. Also bad for talent as agents have one less studio bidding for projects. I see zero upside to this, beautiful gambles like Deadpool never happening at Disney. https://twitter.com/comingsoonnet/status/941344466266460160