ESSENTIAL INDUSTRY AND AWARD NEWS  JUNE 10, 2019 Dark Phoenix Fumbles: Will Sophie Turner Still Soar? The highs of Sophie Turner’s endlessly appealing post–Game of Thrones press tour ended abruptly over the weekend as the British star’s latest X-Men movie, Dark Phoenix, took a serious stumble at the box office. As Yohana Desta writes, while the film was No. 1 globally, it also “had the lowest opening in X-Men history, bowing second to The Secret Life of Pets 2 at the domestic box office….The movie is reportedly poised to lose $100 million by the end of its run, a major disappointment for a franchise with as much recognizability as the X-Men.” What does this all mean for Turner’s burgeoning film career? According to at least one analyst, the young star shouldn’t be too worried. “She is jumping from one of the most iconic characters on the small screen to one of the most iconic characters on the big screen,” Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for ComScore, told Desta in an interview. “It’s never a bad thing on your CV.” The film’s troubled production process and status as an ensemble joint also means that its failure will not rest solely on Turner’s shoulders—and she always has her charming social media presence to fall back upon. Elsewhere in HWD, Josh Duboff takes us behind the scenes at the Tony Awards, where the best performance of the night was one that didn’t air on television; Sonia Saraiya explains why TV’s 30-minute comedies are so much more inventive than its hour-long dramas; K. Austin Collins has complicated thoughts about The Last Black Man in San Francisco; and Broadway chanteuse turned big screen star Cynthia Erivo assures us that yes, she will find ways to sing when she plays Harriet Tubman in an upcoming biopic.

Phoenix Rising? Dark Phoenix disappointed critics and is struggling at the box office—but here’s why ex–Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner will make it out unscathed. READ MORE » Behind the Curtain Billy Porter stunned the crowd with impromptu karaoke during a commercial break, there was a surprise Hamilton reunion, and more highlights from inside the Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall. READ MORE » The Last Laugh Keep your prestige dramas, writes Sonia Saraiya; increasingly dark, complex, inventive half-hour comedies, like The Good Place, Russian Doll, and Broad City, were where this season’s real Peak TV action was. READ MORE » Flawed, but Sincere Joe Talbot's debut feature The Last Black Man in San Francisco is rife with ideas about displacement and identity. But its quirks get in the way of what it’s trying to say. READ MORE » Thank Goodness Tony, Grammy, and Emmy winner Cynthia Erivo is starring in an upcoming Harriet Tubman biopic, out later this year—and yes, she will sing in it. READ MORE »