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Saturday Night (2024 film)

Saturday Night is a 2024 American biographical comedy-drama film, directed by Jason Reitman, about the night of the 1975 premiere of NBC's Saturday Night, later known as Saturday Night Live. The film stars an ensemble cast portraying the various Saturday Night cast and crew, led by Gabriel LaBelle as the show's creator and producer, Lorne Michaels. Cory Michael Smith, Ella Hunt, Dylan O'Brien, Emily Fairn, Matt Wood, Lamorne Morris, Kim Matula, Finn Wolfhard, Nicholas Braun, Cooper Hoffman, Andrew Barth Feldman, Kaia Gerber, Rachel Sennott, Tommy Dewey, Willem Dafoe, Matthew Rhys, and J. K. Simmons also star.

Saturday Night
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJason Reitman
Written by
Produced by
  • Jason Blumenfeld
  • Peter Rice
  • Jason Reitman
  • Gil Kenan
Starring
CinematographyEric Steelberg
Edited by
Music byJon Batiste
Production
companies
Distributed bySony Pictures Releasing
Release dates
  • August 31, 2024 (2024-08-31) (Telluride)
  • September 27, 2024 (2024-09-27) (United States)
Running time
109 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$25–30 million[2][3]
Box office$9.7 million[4][5]

Saturday Night had its world premiere at the 51st Telluride Film Festival on August 31, 2024, and began a limited theatrical release in the United States on September 27, 2024 before its wide release by Sony Pictures Releasing on October 11, the 49th anniversary of the show's premiere. The film received positive reviews from critics but grossed just $9 million against its $25–30 million budget.

Plot

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On October 11, 1975, Lorne Michaels arrives at the NBC building to prepare for the airing of the first episode of NBC's Saturday Night. The evening is fraught with accidents and dysfunctional cast and crew. Michaels's boss, Dick Ebersol, warns him that David Tebet has brought executives from across the country to come and view the broadcast. Despite Tebet giving encouraging words to Michaels, Ebersol makes it known that Tebet has no faith in the show and is ready to replay a taping of an episode of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson to fill in for time.

Garrett Morris, who has a background in operatic theater, ponders his place among a cast of comedic performers; John Belushi remains detached from everyone and constantly initiates fights; Jim Henson complains over how he is being treated by the writers; the writers are at war with censor Joan Carbunkle and her demands; host George Carlin thinks the whole show is a sham; and everyone is trying to figure out what exactly the show is about. Chevy Chase confronts Milton Berle when he begins to hit on his girlfriend Jacqueline and gets told off and warned that he will become nothing. Michaels gets a call from Johnny Carson himself who gives a very unsupportive warning.

Despite Michaels warning him not to, Ebersol attempts to sell the idea of performing a sketch with a Polaroid camera for product placement purposes. Belushi becomes enraged and storms off the set, claiming that he quits. As everyone tries to look for him, assistant Neil Levy is given a joint by Paul Shaffer and panics, locking himself in a closet. He is eventually coaxed out by the cast. Michaels goes to a bar to relax where he comes across comedy writer Alan Zweibel and hires him on the spot to become a writer on the show. He, along with Gilda Radner, later find Belushi ice skating and slowly convinces him to come back to the show and sign his contract. Michaels is further motivated to continue with the show after having a brief chat with Henson.

The cast, crew, and everyone else gets into place until Tebet arrives, demanding that the show be shut down unless Michaels shows him exactly what it entails. Andy Kaufman performs his Mighty Mouse skit, followed by Chase doing an impromptu version of Weekend Update using Zweibel's newly written material. An audience finally arrives and fills the venue as cast and crew finish all the sets and get into place. Michael O'Donoghue and Belushi perform the Wolverine sketch, which is well received by the audience. Chase enters the scene and announces, "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!"

Cast

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Production

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Director/co-writer/co-producer Jason Reitman (left) and co-writer/co-producer Gil Kenan.

It was announced in May 2023 that Jason Reitman would be directing, co-writing, and producing a film about the creation of the series Saturday Night Live for Sony Pictures. He, alongside his Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021) and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024) collaborator Gil Kenan, conducted interviews with the living cast and crew of the premiere season in order to better develop the screenplay, According to Reitman, he worked on the film for two decades while promoting Juno.[6]

In January 2024, Gabriel LaBelle was cast to portray Lorne Michaels, in his second major leading role following his performance as Sammy Fabelman in Steven Spielberg's The Fabelmans (2022), with Cooper Hoffman, Rachel Sennott, Ella Hunt, Emily Fairn, Kim Matula, Lamorne Morris, Dylan O'Brien, Cory Michael Smith, and Matt Wood cast as Dick Ebersol, Rosie Shuster, Gilda Radner, Laraine Newman, Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris, Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase, and John Belushi respectively.[7][8][9] Nicholas Braun, Tommy Dewey, and Nicholas Podany were added in March to portray Jim Henson, Michael O'Donoghue, and Billy Crystal respectively.[10] Additionally, Braun ended up cast to play Andy Kaufman as well. That role was originally supposed to be portrayed by Benny Safdie, but he had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts.[11] Andrew Barth Feldman, Kaia Gerber, Finn Wolfhard, J. K. Simmons, Billy Bryk, Joe Chrest, Taylor Gray, Mcabe Gregg, and Willem Dafoe joined the cast later that month.[12][13][14] Jon Batiste, who was hired to compose the score for the film, also appeared as Billy Preston.[15] In April, Naomi McPherson of the band Muna was cast to portray Janis Ian.[16] In June, it was reported that Leander Suleiman had been cast as writer Anne Beatts.[17]

Principal photography began in March 2024 in Atlanta and Fayetteville, Georgia, as locations, under the working title Wolverines, a reference to the very first sketch ever performed on the series.[18][19][20] Scenes were shot outside of Rockefeller Plaza on the weekend of March 9–10.[21] Filming had concluded by May.[22]

Music

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Main article: Saturday Night (soundtrack)

Release

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On July 30, it was announced the title was changed from the working title of SNL 1975 to Saturday Night, which was the original title of the show during its first season, since there was already a competing show at the time on ABC called Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell. It was also given the release date of October 11, 2024, 49 years to the day that SNL premiered on NBC.[23]

The film premiered at the 51st Telluride Film Festival and was selected to screen at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival.[24][25][26]

Shortly after its Telluride premiere, Sony Pictures decided to make some changes to the film's release schedule, pivoting to a limited theatrical release starting in Los Angeles, New York City, and Toronto on September 27, 2024, expanding to more cities on October 4, and then a nationwide release on October 11.[23]

Reception

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Gabriel LaBelle, who portrayed SNL producer Lorne Michaels, received praise for his performance.

Box office

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In the United States, the film made $270,487 from five theaters in its opening weekend; its per-screen average of $54,097 was the second-best limited opening of the year, behind Kinds of Kindness.[27][28] In its second weekend, it made $270,955 from 21 theaters.[29] In its third weekend, the film expanded to 2,304 theaters and made $3.4 million, finishing in seventh.[30] Anthony D'Alessandro of Deadline Hollywood argued that the film failed to find an audience despite positive reviews, similar to Sony's Dumb Money (which made $3.3 million when it expanded wide in 2023).[31] The following weekend the film made $1.8 million (a drop of 47%), finishing in ninth.[32]

Critical response

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On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 78% of 204 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7/10. The website's consensus reads: "Jazzed up by an excellent ensemble that captures the essence if not exact likeness of SNL's original cast and crew, Saturday Night is a frenetic and nostalgic celebration of one of showbiz's most auspicious debuts."[33] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 63 out of 100, based on 41 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[34] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale, while those surveyed by PostTrak gave it an 82% overall positive score, with 63% saying they would definitely recommend it.[31]

Peter Debruge of Variety gave the film a positive review, stating that director Reitman "finds the right ensemble to capture the lunacy from which SNL was born" and calling the film "a rowdy, delectably profane backstage homage."[35] Gabriel LaBelle was singled out for praise by several outlets for his portrayal of a young Lorne Michaels, earning plaudits from Maureen Lee Lenker from Entertainment Weekly, for granting "Michaels a clarity of purpose, an unwavering conviction, and a harried sense that he's barely holding things together".[36] Gregory Ellwood from The Playlist lauded several cast members, including LaBelle for "masterfully carrying the film" and especially Dylan O'Brien for being "simply transformative" as Dan Aykroyd in "an eye-opening turn".[37]

Conversely, Benjamin Lee of The Guardian gave the film one out of five stars, calling the film an "unfunny misfire" and a "dull and self-indulgent mess".[38] David Ehrlich from IndieWire stated that the film "has a lot of business in lieu of a story, and there's so much going on that it quickly starts to feel like nothing".[39]

Accolades

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Award Date of ceremony Category Recipient(s) Result Ref.
Middleburg Film Festival October 20, 2024 Variety Collaborators Award Eric Steelberg and Jason Reitman Won [40]
Denver Film Festival November 1, 2024 5280 Award Gabriel LaBelle, Cory Michael Smith, Jason Reitman, Gil Kenan and Eric Steelberg Won [41]
Virginia Film Festival November 3, 2024 Virtuoso Award Lamorne Morris Won [42]
Hollywood Music in Media Awards November 20, 2024 Best Original Score – Independent Film Jon Batiste Pending [43]
SFFILM Awards December 9, 2024 Nion McEvoy & Leslie Berriman Award for Storytelling Jason Reitman Honored [44]

References

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  1. ^ "Saturday Night". TIFF. Archived from the original on August 14, 2024. Retrieved August 14, 2024.
  2. ^ Malhotra, Rahul (September 29, 2024). "'Saturday Night' Nearly Breaks a Domestic Box Office Record in Debut Weekend". Collider. Retrieved September 30, 2024.
  3. ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (October 9, 2024). "'Terrifier 3' Looks To Slash 'Joker: Folie à Deux' At Weekend Box Office With $11M+ Opening – Preview". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved October 9, 2024.
  4. ^ "Saturday Night". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved November 10, 2024.
  5. ^ "Saturday Night – Financial Information". The Numbers. Archived from the original on September 30, 2024. Retrieved November 13, 2024.
  6. ^ Kroll, Justin (May 1, 2023). "Jason Reitman To Direct Movie Based On Behind-The-Scenes Accounts Of 'Saturday Night Live's 1975 Opening Night For Sony; Gil Kenan Co-Writing With Reitman". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on January 19, 2024. Retrieved January 19, 2024.
  7. ^ Kroll, Justin (January 19, 2024). "The Fablemans Star Gabriel LaBelle To Play Lorne Michaels In Sony's SNL 1975, Cooper Hoffman And Rachel Sennott Also Join Ensemble". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on January 19, 2024. Retrieved January 19, 2024.
  8. ^ Kroll, Justin (January 26, 2024). "'SNL 1975' Movie Finds Its Jane Curtin, Laraine Newman & Gilda Radner". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on January 26, 2024. Retrieved January 26, 2024.
  9. ^ Kroll, Justin; D'Alessandro, Anthony (January 30, 2024). "'SNL 1975' Finds Its Garrett Morris, Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase And John Belushi". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on January 30, 2024. Retrieved January 30, 2024.
  10. ^ Kroll, Justin; D'Alessandro, Anthony (March 7, 2024). "SNL 1975 Origin Movie Finds Its Jim Henson, Michael O'Donoghue And Billy Crystal". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on March 7, 2024. Retrieved March 7, 2024.
  11. ^ Riccardo, Nick (July 26, 2024). "Report: Nicholas Braun Is Playing Both Jim Henson and Andy Kaufman in 'SNL 1975'". LateNighter. Archived from the original on August 8, 2024. Retrieved August 9, 2024.
  12. ^ Kroll, Justin (March 12, 2024). "'SNL 1975' Origin Movie Adds Andrew Barth Feldman, Kaia Gerber And Finn Wolfhard To Cast". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on March 12, 2024. Retrieved March 12, 2024.
  13. ^ Kroll, Justin (March 25, 2024). "J.K. Simmons, Billy Bryk & Joe Chrest Among Final Additions To Jason Reitman's 'SNL 1975'". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on March 25, 2024. Retrieved March 25, 2024.
  14. ^ Kroll, Justin (March 29, 2024). "SNL 1975: Willem Dafoe To Play David Tebet In Origin Movie". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on March 29, 2024. Retrieved March 29, 2024.
  15. ^ Gajewski, Ryan (March 28, 2024). "Jon Batiste to Score, Appear in Jason Reitman Film SNL 1975 (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on March 28, 2024. Retrieved March 28, 2024.
  16. ^ Gajewski, Ryan (April 12, 2024). "SNL 1975: Muna's Naomi McPherson to Make Acting Debut With Jason Reitman Film (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on April 12, 2024. Retrieved April 12, 2024.
  17. ^ Grobar, Matt (June 14, 2024). "Leander Suleiman Joins 'SNL 1975' As Comedy Writer Anne Beatts". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on June 15, 2024. Retrieved June 15, 2024.
  18. ^ "Seeking Core Background for Sony Pictures Feature Film SNL 1975". Lead Casting Call. January 28, 2024. Archived from the original on January 30, 2024. Retrieved January 30, 2024.
  19. ^ "Production Weekly – Issue 1391 – Thursday, February 29, 2024 / 178 Listings – 38 Pages". Production Weekly. February 29, 2024. Archived from the original on March 2, 2024. Retrieved March 2, 2024.
  20. ^ "Now Filming In Georgia". www.georgia.org. Archived from the original on November 22, 2020. Retrieved March 7, 2024.
  21. ^ Davids, Brian (March 13, 2024). "Finn Wolfhard Talks Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, The Grandeur of Stranger Things 5 and SNL 1975". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on March 13, 2024. Retrieved March 13, 2024.
  22. ^ Reitman, Jason [@jasonreitman] (May 7, 2024). "That's a wrap! SNL1975". Retrieved October 11, 2024 – via Instagram.
  23. ^ a b D'Alessandro, Anthony (July 30, 2024). "Jason Reitman's 'Saturday Night' Will Go Platform Before Wide Fall Expansion – Update". Deadline. Archived from the original on July 31, 2024. Retrieved July 30, 2024.
  24. ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (August 13, 2024). "TIFF Adds 20 More Movies To Lineup With 'Saturday Night', Jacob Elordi & Daisy Edgar-Jones' 'On Swift Horses', Max Minghella's 'Shell', 'Megalopolis' & More". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on August 13, 2024. Retrieved August 13, 2024.
  25. ^ Hammond, Pete (August 29, 2024). "Telluride Film Festival Lineup Includes 'Saturday Night', 'The Piano Lesson', 'Conclave' & 'Nickel Boys' World Premieres". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on August 29, 2024. Retrieved August 29, 2024.
  26. ^ Tapp, Tom (September 10, 2024). "Saturday Night Premiere: Red Carpet Photos Of The SNL Movie's Cast". Deadline Hollywood. Penske Media Corporation. Archived from the original on September 19, 2024. Retrieved September 19, 2024.
  27. ^ "Domestic 2024 Weekend 39". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on October 1, 2024. Retrieved October 1, 2024.
  28. ^ Goldsmith, Jill (September 29, 2024). "Jason Reitman's Saturday Night Pops In Limited Opening That's Best In Months, In Top Two For Year – Specialty Box Office". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on October 1, 2024. Retrieved October 1, 2024.
  29. ^ "Domestic 2024 Weekend 40". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved October 7, 2024.
  30. ^ "Domestic 2024 Weekend 41". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved October 14, 2024.
  31. ^ a b D'Alessandro, Anthony (October 13, 2024). "Clown Vs. Clown: Terrifier 3 Shows Teeth With $18M+ As Joker 2 Posts Record Drop For DC Character Pic; Awards Season Darlings Shriek – Sunday Box Office". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved October 13, 2024.
  32. ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (October 20, 2024). "Smile 2 Happier With $23M Opening; A24's We Live In Time Making Dime With $4M+, Anora Wows With Massive $90K Theater Average – Sunday Box Officee". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved October 20, 2024.
  33. ^ "Saturday Night". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved November 12, 2024.  
  34. ^ "Saturday Night". Metacritic. Fandom, Inc. Retrieved October 15, 2024.
  35. ^ Debruge, Peter (September 1, 2024). "Saturday Night Review: Jason Reitman Finds the Right Ensemble to Capture the Lunacy From Which SNL Was Born". Variety. ISSN 0042-2738. OCLC 60626328. Archived from the original on September 7, 2024. Retrieved September 6, 2024.
  36. ^ Lenker, Maureen Lee (September 3, 2024). Gomez, Patrick (ed.). "Saturday Night is an adrenaline-fueled nostalgia trip with pitch-perfect casting". Entertainment Weekly. ISSN 1049-0434. OCLC 21114137. Retrieved November 12, 2024. The entire ensemble understands the assignment, but if the movie belongs to anyone it's Gabriel LaBelle as SNL creator and producer Lorne Michaels.
  37. ^ Ellwood, Gregory (September 1, 2024). "Saturday Night Review: Jason Reitman's Fascinating Countdown To The Launch Of A Cultural Institution [Telluride]". The Playlist. Retrieved November 13, 2024. Shockingly, O'Brien is simply transformative as Aykroyd. An eye-opening turn based on his previous work.
  38. ^ Lee, Benjamin (September 12, 2024). "Saturday Night review – tedious SNL origins tale is an unfunny misfire". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved October 20, 2024.
  39. ^ Ehrlich, David (September 1, 2024). "Saturday Night Review: A Brilliant Ensemble Cast Is Wasted on 109 Minutes of Tedious 'SNL' Cosplay". IndieWire. Retrieved November 12, 2024. Cobbled together from a 100 contradicting stories of what happened that night, Reitman's film spins further and further out of control as it goes along,…
  40. ^ Bergeson, Samantha (September 26, 2024). "Middleburg 2024 Honoree Lineup: Danielle Deadwyler, Colman Domingo, and Ed Lachman". IndieWire. Retrieved November 17, 2024.
  41. ^ Jones, Marcus (October 17, 2024). "Joan Chen, 'Saturday Night' Stars, and More Join Lineup of Denver Film Festival 2024 Award Winners". IndieWire. Retrieved November 17, 2024.
  42. ^ "Award Winners". Virginia Film Festival. May 9, 2018. Retrieved November 17, 2024.
  43. ^ Willman, Chris (November 6, 2024). "Hollywood Music in Media Awards Noms Led by 'Emilia Pérez' and 'Blitz,' With Elton John, Hans Zimmer and Scores More Among the Nominees". Hollywood Music in Media Awards. Retrieved November 6, 2024.
  44. ^ "SFFILM Awards Night to Honor Denis Villeneuve, Demi Moore, Malcolm Washington, and Jason Reitman". SFFILM. November 14, 2024. Retrieved November 17, 2024.
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