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Chris Lee

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Chris Lee is a Vulture senior reporter who covers Hollywood and the business side of showbiz.

  1. at the box office
    Why Did Warner Bros. Bury Clint Eastwood’s New Movie?Juror #2 made it to just 28 theaters over the weekend. “Money is all that matters” to studio CEO David Zaslav, one Hollywood insider confides.
  2. at the box office
    Horror Movies Are Just Trying to SurviveAfter the runaway success of Terrifier 3, the industry braces for a wave of copycats and the death of its genre.
  3. backstory
    How a Rape Scene Blew Up the Trump Movie“Part of me is like, Sue us,” says the Apprentice director. “The other part is like, This can ruin my life.”
  4. at the box office
    How the Daily Wire Engineered Its First Box-Office HitThe mockumentary Am I Racist? took advantage of the “dirty little secret of conservative media.”
  5. box office
    Things Went Very Wrong for Joker 2Folie à Deux was set to pull in $70 million over its theatrical bow, but then projections plummeted. Why?
  6. at the box office
    It’s Official: Megalopolis Is a Box-Office Mega Flop(olis)Francis Ford Coppola’s self-financed $136 million drama sunk under the weight of its negative buzz.
  7. the disney dilemma
    Where Disney’s Hollywood Empire Went WrongHow corporate missteps compelled the House of Mouse to prioritize business decisions over creative ones, damaging its crown jewels of Hollywood IP.
  8. the industry
    Is Shawn Levy the Future of Populist Cinema?With Deadpool & Wolverine, he became the first director to also write and produce his Marvel movie. Disney hopes he’ll save Star Wars, too.
  9. sdcc 2024
    This Wasn’t the PlanThe sensational quality of Marvel’s SDCC surprises obscured certain less-rosy realities.
  10. at the box office
    INSIDE OUT 2
    Kids’ Movies Are Saving the Summer Box OfficeAfter a slow start to the season, Despicable Me 4 looks set to capitalize on the If-Garfield-Inside Out 2 family-film momentum.
  11. negotiations
    How Anti-‘Algorithm’ Richard Linklater’s Hit Man Ended Up at NetflixThe Glen Powell–starring festival smash seemed destined for a big theatrical release. A rainmaking sales agent walks us through what happened.
  12. cannes 2024
    Sean Baker’s Anora Is Scheduled to Hit Theaters This FallNeon is planning a prime awards-season release for its fifth consecutive Palme d’Or winner.
  13. at the box office
    IF Looked Like a Surefire Bomb. Now It Might Win Opening Weekend.How a kids’ flick starring Deadpool is going to overcome indifferent buzz and bad reviews to win the box office this weekend.
  14. ‘do i have it or not?’
    First a Cop, Then a Bodybuilder, Now a Movie StarLove Lies Bleeding star Katy O’Brian on the long journey of self-discovery that brought her to an A24 romance opposite Kristen Stewart.
  15. oscars 2024
    ‘I’m Not Going to Sell a $60 Candle’Neon changed the Oscars game with Parasite. Four years later, A24’s rival is still betting on international film.
  16. edglrd
    Harmony Korine Is Leaving the ‘Limited Experience’ of Movie Theaters BehindThe Aggro Dr1ft director’s new company wants to brand itself the next Supreme, with high-end merch, live performances, and film “experiences.”
  17. backstories
    ‘The Movie Just Couldn’t Withstand Another Brother’s Death’The Iron Claw director Sean Durkin on the hardest decisions he made while telling the tragic (and true) story of wrestling’s Von Erich brothers.
  18. at the box office
    The Secrets of Anyone But You’s Unexpected Box-Office SuccessThe Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell rom-com’s unlikely journey to blockbusterdom benefitted from a singular confluence of factors.
  19. barbenheimer
    How Real Housewives Became Hollywood’s Secret Movie-Marketing WeaponThe film industry looks to Bravoholics to save cinema.
  20. festival preview
    The Sundance Movies We’ll All Be Talking About Next YearA preview of what’s coming to Park City in January, from Kristen Stewart falling in love with a bodybuilder to Jesse Eisenberg starring as Bigfoot.
  21. at the box office
    Inside Elemental’s Slow-burn Journey from Summer Flop to Year-end HitHow one of the year’s most crushing box-office failures redeemed itself as an under-the-radar triumph (and Oscar frontrunner) after all.
  22. the industry
    ‘What Does Hollywood Want to Be?’The strikes are over, but corporate entertainment’s identity crisis–cum–reckoning is far from resolved.
  23. at the box office
    4 Lessons From a Box-Office Summer of Hopeful Highs and Panic-Inducing LowsThis summer taught us a lot about the new normal in audience behavior, even beyond the Barbenheimer of it all.
  24. ‘historic first step’
    Overworked and Underpaid, VFX Workers Vote to Unionize at MarvelOn Monday, a group of more than 50 on-set employees filed a petition for an election to be represented by IATSE.
  25. at the box office
    I Am Become Barbenheimer, Destroyer of Box Office RecordsBarbie and Oppenheimer’s staggering returns seem to signal franchise fatigue — or at least that audiences want alternatives to the same old, same old.
  26. a long talk
    From Blowing Up Toasters to a Seven-Figure A24 DealMeet Danny and Michael Philippou, a.k.a. RackaRacka, the excitable 30-year-old twin directors behind this summer’s biggest horror movie.
  27. crack the whip
    How Indiana Jones 5 Could Become a Top Gun: Maverick-level HitExecutives and industry insiders have three specific tips for Disney’s would-be summer blockbuster.
  28. at the box office
    The Summer of the R-rated Comedy Is Off to a Rocky Start at the Box OfficeComing from the first of four R-rated studio comedies in theaters this summer, No Hard Feelings’s tepid debut could have a chilling effect.
  29. making a movie
    ‘Death by a Thousand Paper Cuts’Four animators say unsustainable working conditions are behind the success of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
  30. what green screen?
    There’s an Art to Setting Chris Hemsworth on FireNetflix tried to persuade stuntman turned director Sam Hargrave to use digital effects to set his movie star ablaze. He declined.
  31. family
    Stepping in to Finish Directing Fast X Wasn’t Stressful at All, No SirLouis Leterrier recalls going pale when asked to take over for Justin Lin, afraid of becoming the “guy who destroyed the Fast and Furious franchise.”
  32. summer preview 2023
    Here Come Fast X, Tom Cruise, and a Summer of Big MoviesBut which will be the biggest? In a post-Maverick glow, anything is possible.
  33. story behind the script
    Air Exists Because One Underemployed Guy in His 20s Saw The Last DanceAlex Convery had zero TV or movie credits when he saw three key minutes of the 2020 Michael Jordan docuseries and thought, Man, this is a movie.
  34. cinemacon 2023
    Nolan Says Oppenheimer Is About ‘the Most Important Person Who Ever Lived’Christopher Nolan previewed footage from his latest at CinemaCon, featuring Matt Damon in a mustache and Robert Downey Jr. talking about spies.
  35. cinemacon 2023
    The New Indiana Jones 5 Footage Would Make Marion Ravenwood ProudA Dial of Destiny scene shown at CinemaCon provides a deliberate, dopamine-inducing echo of the Cairo chase sequence from Raiders of the Lost Ark.
  36. cinemacon 2023
    The Flash Gets Praise (and Backhanded Compliments) After First Screening“Audiences want nostalgia, and they want feel-good. Execution is less important,” said an executive from a competing studio.
  37. cinemacon 2023
    This Barbie Gets Arrested and Goes to Jail in New CinemaCon FootageGreta Gerwig and the Barbie cast introduced new details and clips from the upcoming film.
  38. anyone but you
    Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney Flirt in Front of CinemaConDay one of CinemaCon brought banter from the Anyone But You stars and bloodshed in the first footage from Kraven and Ridley Scott’s Napoleon.
  39. at the box office
    The Super Mario Bros. Movie Is-a Going to-a Make a Billion Dollars-a2023’s most lucrative domestic opening is already the biggest video-game adaptation of all time, and it’s only going to make even more money.
  40. backstories
    ‘This Was The Fast & the Furious — But One of the Cars Is a Bear’Cocaine Bear director Elizabeth Banks breaks down the “scientific precision” of that mostly improvised ambulance chase.
  41. exit interview
    ‘We’re Going to Do the Biggest Stair Fall You’ve Ever Seen’Chad Stahelski on hurling Keanu Reeves into the gnarliest pratfall imaginable, why Scott Adkins appears in a fat suit, and whether this is good-bye.
  42. oscars 2023
    Everything Everywhere All at Once Didn’t Just Win the Oscars, It Dominated ThemInside the Academy Awards after-party, the industry took stock of the A24 movie’s historic trophy sweep.
  43. anonymous in hollywood
    ‘Honestly, I Equate It to Human Greed’Three VFX workers break down why Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania looks the way it does.
  44. the industry
    How Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey Trolled Its Way to Box-Office Success“There was a petition against us. There were death threats. People were trying to call the police on us at one point.”
  45. sundance 2023
    Sundance’s Year of Existential Crisis Yielded Back-to-Back MegadealsInsiders call this year’s Sundance a return to form, with several all-night bidding wars and multiple eight-figure deals.
  46. sundance 2023
    Netflix Draws First Blood at Sundance With a Deal for Run Rabbit RunFor some Hollywood watchers, whom Run Rabbit Run sold to and when carries unmistakable symbolic import.
  47. sundance 2023
    Sundance’s Identity Crisis Might Be a Good Thing for HollywoodInsiders call it a crucial year for the festival. But with streamers’ tightening budgets and a looming writers strike, no one’s sure how it’ll go.
  48. sundance 2023
    22 Movies We Can’t Wait to See at Sundance 2023From Cat Person (starring Cousin Greg) to the new Nicole Holofcener to an Ottessa Moshfegh–Anne Hathaway collaboration and more.
  49. the industry
    Inside the VFX Union Brewing in HollywoodVisual-effects technicians have never been more vital to movies and TV. Can studios like Marvel accept that?
  50. out of the uncanny valley
    Why Does Avatar: The Way of Water Look Like That?A tour of the VFX tech that pushes the look of James Cameron’s Avatar sequel — shot at 48 fps, twice the industry standard — into a deeper ocean.
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