From Wicked to It Ends With Us: A Look at Wild Press Tours in 2024

After Barbie vs Oppenheimer mania 2023, 2024 had a lot of catching up to do in the movie stakes. And it didn’t disappoint – but while the big hitters like to Deadpool and Wolverine and Inside out 2 may have taken the box office by storm, they weren’t really the most talked about movies of the year.

Instead, Evil and It ends with us they grabbed all the headlines – but sometimes not for cinematic reasons. There’s no denying that both were huge box office hits too – Evilspecifically , which grossed a staggering $164.2 million worldwide in its opening weekend alone — but also behind-the-scenes drama Our speaking.

But let’s not pretend we’re mad about it! Some of the funniest and most shared memes of the year have come out Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivothe now infamous press tour along with a lot of fascinating speculation about what was actually going on between these two talented, quirky and very emotional actresses.

When a journalist Tracy E. Gilchrist she asked the pair a fairly innocuous question about people “holding space” to the lyrics of “Defying Gravity,” little did she know it would go wildly viral and become the most famous reporter in journalism out there for a few days. planet. And this incredible, confusing clip, along with some other gushing and tearful moments from the press tour, brought Our so much joy that we could cry. In fact, we kind of wish Ariana Grande was here to tap our arms soothingly with her pointy fingernails.

@siennahubertross

Everyone deserves a chance to fly #arianagrande #evil #comedy @caroline

♬ original sound – Sienna Hubert-Ross

Drama around It ends with us on the other (not so pointed) side, it didn’t cause as much joy and pleasure. Instead, she focused on the rumored tension between the film’s two big stars, Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni. What at first seemed like it might just be standard cat gossip quickly gained steam when Baldoni himself admitted in an interview with Elle that there was “friction” on set – though he was also always keen to stress that he respected Lively as an actress and a creative force.

Related: Inside Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni’s intense “Creative Struggle.”

Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni’s new film It Ends With Us proved to be a box office hit, earning $50 million in its opening weekend. While the actors should be riding high on the film’s success, they have instead found themselves embroiled in controversy as behind-the-scenes drama involving various final cuts is swirling in the news (…)

One of the sticking points seemed to be that It ends with usbased on Colleen HooverThe best-selling novel was a serious movie about serious issues—in this case, domestic violence—but the promotional trail Lively led was too much flowers and rainbows. (Live later shared several domestic violence resources through her social media accounts.) A few months after the drama that has been brewing all summer, it doesn’t appear that Lively and Baldoni have any plans to sign on for a sequel anytime soon.

The last movie that generated so much buzz was Don’t worry, dearin 2022 – remember when the world went mad Florence Pugh and Olivia Wilde alleged clash, with it all culminating in a very dramatic fashion as it looked Harry Styles spat on Chris Pine at the Venice Film Festival? In the age of social media, where small moments can quickly explode into huge, viral, meme-worthy events, actors must be forever on guard in case they accidentally put their foot (or saliva ball) in the wrong place.

Related: Ariana Grande Jokes She And Cynthia Erivo Are ‘Insufferable’ On Press Tour.

Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo can’t stop gushing at each other during their Wicked press tour. “Cynthia is just an absolutely wonderful gift of a human being,” Grande, 31, told Paul Mescal in a new conversation for Variety’s Actors on Actors issue published Tuesday, Dec. 10. “I think we tried to keep (…)

In some cases, it’s not always the movie stars themselves who grab the headlines; sometimes it’s also who they’re associated with. You have to feel like a 12-year-old Blue Ivy Carterwhose big moment on the red carpet at the Los Angeles premiere Mufasa: The Lion King was completely overshadowed by the presence of her parents, Jay-Z and Beyonce (and her grandmother Tina Knowles), just hours after the rapper vehemently denied the rape allegations. In this case, Blue Ivy couldn’t win — if her dad hadn’t shown up for her big night, he probably would have stolen even more attention from his little girl.

While movies like Evil and It ends with us would undoubtedly have been box office successes without all the extra juice flowing around them, their marketing departments must be secretly thrilled with all the extra attention they didn’t even have to pay for, whether it was calculated or not. Sure, it must have been pretty tiring manning the mailbox and answering the phones in it It ends with us promotion department for a few weeks back, but it’s a huge reward: it’s seriously lucrative to talk about!

Related: Ariana Grande, Ethan Slater share a sweet moment on the ‘Wicked’ Red Carpet

Ariana Grande and Ethan Slater’s romance doesn’t defy gravity, but it took a turn right from the start. Us Weekly confirmed in July 2023 that Wicked costars Grande and Slater were in a “fairly new” relationship following their breakups. That same month, news broke that Grande and Dalton Gomez had called it quits after two years (…)

As 2025 so far looks set to be a big one in terms of blockbuster reboots and sequels, with Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning and Jurassic World Reborn both are slated for release, along with live-action remakes Snow White and How to train your dragon — two fairy tales as old as time! — we have a feeling it could be another tumultuous year for endless press tours and behind-the-scenes intrigue. But the beauty of pop culture is that you never know what’s coming: after all, a few months ago we couldn’t have predicted that Ariana Grande’s pointy nails and the words “keeping space” would be one of the most talked about moments of the year.