Though there has been talk of movie theaters making a deal with studios to shorten the theatrical window, and allow movies to begin streaming two weeks after they hit theaters for a premium price, the biggest theater chain in the world says that deal isn't coming any time soon.

AMC Entertainment CFO Craig Ramsey told investors Wednesday that the 90-day exclusive theatrical window, which has been in place for decades, is still the best business plan for theaters.

Ramsey said “we’re not seeing a lot of movement … it would be a stretch to say we’re negotiating around a solution,” in regards to any premium video on demand deal (PVOD). 

With declining ticket sales this past summer (and AMC's stock getting hammered), chatter about changing the theatrical model and getting movies to people sooner via streaming and "on demand" has increased. The major road block in that is the relationship studios have with major chains like AMC.

The studios still need the theater chains, as major blockbusters generate the majority of their revenue the first and second weeks they are in theaters. But after that, the box office tends to drop dramatically, which opens the option to get the titles to streaming. Could studios ever do a power play and just decide to pull their titles from theaters after two weeks and go straight to a PVOD without agreeing on a deal with the theater chains first? 

Ramsey believes a move like that doesn't help either side.

“I haven’t heard a lot of conversation about the nuclear option,” Ramsey said of studios going rogue with a PVOD plan, according to Deadline. “No one wins in that kind of a nuclear scenario. … The loser there is our guest, the consumer.”

Business Insider delved into the complexity of the PVOD issue in May, and it seems there hasn't been much progress. The way Ramsey sees it, the weak summer is just a blip, and by the end of the year, the box office will be at its average, thanks in part to the certain huge box office "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" will generate when it comes out in December.

“We’ve seen it before, moviegoing goes through some cycles,” Ramsey said. 

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The INSIDER Summary:

• Jennifer Lawrence and Darren Aronofsky posed as a couple for the first time since they began dating about a year ago. 
• You may not recognize Aronofsky, but you've certainly know his films. 
• The pair met on the set of their new film "Mother!" and Lawrence has called him "brilliant." 

Jennifer Lawrence and her boyfriend of about a year, director Darren Aronofsky, aren't exactly a red caret staple. But the low-profile couple finally made their debut at the New York premiere of their new horror movie "Mother!." 

Lawrence, 27, and Aronofsky, 48, surprised many when they posed together during the event, as they hadn't walked as a couple during the other red carpet events surrounding the controversial new movie. 

The new couple met on the set of their movie "Mother," which Aronofsky directed and Lawrence stars in. Aronofsky may not seem like a familiar face, but you have probably seen his movies including the 2010 hit "Black Swan," the chilling 2000 film "Requiem For a Dream," and the 2014 epic "Noah."

The pair sparked dating rumors when they were spotted kissing on the streets of New York last year. Though they may seem cozy in paparazzi snaps, Lawrence told Vogue that they didn't always see eye to eye on set.

Lawrence recalled a time during an intense scene, she hyperventilated, dislocated a rib, and had to be given oxygen. She told Vogue that Aronofsky didn't seem phased. 

"I ended up getting on oxygen," she told them. "I have oxygen tubes in my nostrils, and Darren's like, 'It was out of focus; we've got to do it again.' And I was just like, 'Go f--- yourself.'" 

But now the couple seem to be going strong: Lawrence gushed to the magazine that she feels more comfortable with him than she has felt in past relationships (Lawrence has been linked to Coldplay singer Chris Martin and fellow "X-Men" actor Nicholas Hoult.)

"I've been in relationships before where I am just confused," she told Vogue. "And I'm never confused with him."

She also called her new beau an "amazing" father (Aronofsky has a son from his previous relationship with actress Rachel Weisz) and "brilliant" director.

Despite their superstar statuses, Lawrence and Aronofsky still have typical couple disagreements; Lawrence told Vogue that he just doesn't seem to share her love of reality shows. 

"He just finds it so vastly disappointing," she told Vogue, laughing.

Hopefully we'll be seeing more from this couple and don't have to wait through Lawrence's apparent two-year break from making films to see them posing together again. 

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NOW WATCH: Horror heels are to die for

As It arrives in theaters, it will do so having only adapted one half of Stephen King’s novel. The film follows a group of middle-schoolers battling an ancient evil in the 1980s, while leaving the plotline that follows them as adults for the sequel, which is starting to get underway. But no casting has been announced yet for the second installment, which means it’s time for one of our favorite pastimes: fan casting!

The child actors from the first film have already given their choices, but, well, they are children. We have years of experience doing this sort of thing.

The parameters: Actors had to be roughly the same age as the characters — 40ish, since the sequel takes place 27 years after the original — though we used a slightly wider latitude than you’ll see in the child actors. (When you’re 13, three years is a lot; when you’re 39, not so much.)

They also had to be people you could conceivably get to star in mid-budget studio horror movie — which means people like Christian Bale, Jaeden Lieberher’s choice to play adult Bill Denbrough, are probably out. Okay? Let’s go!

Tobey Maguire as Bill Denbrough (previously played by Jaeden Lieberher)

Besides sharing an uncanny physical resemblance, Maguire’s peculiar mix of otherworldly affect and boy-next-door charm makes him the perfect choice to play Bill, the leader of the Losers Club who grows up, as many King heroes do, to become a horror author. As a former child actor himself, you’ve got to think he’d bring an interesting meta twist to the role.

Amy Adams as Beverly Marsh (Sophia Lillis)

When you’re talking about 40ish, redheaded actresses, the conversation starts and ends with two names: Amy Adams and Jessica Chastain. Since Lillis is set to play Young Amy Adams in the upcoming HBO adaptation ofSharp Objects, let’s keep the pattern going and have Amy Adams play Old Sophia Lillis. Would Amy Adams take the second lead in a horror film? Maybe not, but you never know — we’re coming off a year where Jake Gyllenhaal made Life.

Jerry O’Connell as Ben Hanscomb (Jeremy Ray Taylor)

If you need an actor who can successfully embody the grown-up version of an overweight comic-relief character in a Stephen King adaptation about kids on bikes roaming around Maine, I can think of no better choice.

"Mother!" is one of the most anticipated movies of the year for a good reason. The trailer keeps it mysterious, hinting only at "things that go bump in the dark" vibes and promising intense performances from Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem, with Ed Harris and Michelle Pfeiffer as unexpected house guests. The poster, too, is little more than a "Rosemary's Baby" homage.

For fans of haunted house horror movies and director Darren Aronofsky's brand of psychological thrillers, "Mother!" is a delirious, over-the-top treat — and it offers something for moviegoers looking for something more substantial as well.

Why should you care: Jennifer Lawrence and Darren Aronofsky promise their best work yet.

Jennifer Lawrence has been campaigning hard for her performance, telling everyone in sight that she popped a rib and ruptured her diaphragm while filming one scene, like she's Leonardo DiCaprio in "The Revenant." She also started dating director Darren Aronofsky while making the movie, so that's something.

Aronofsky's last film, "Noah," was remarkably boring for such an ambitious movie. His psychological thrillers, though — "Black Swan" and "Requiem for a Dream"— have their cult followings, and "Mother!" is another entry in that line of work.

And, of course, the mystery of the whole movie — what is it even about? — has a lot of moviegoers on their toes.

What's hot: Jennifer Lawrence is great and she's in every scene of the movie.

Much of "Mother!" is filmed as a close-up shot of Lawrence's face reacting to things around her, which we see only through quick shots. It's a method that depends a lot on the skill of the lead actress to work and Lawrence is excellent. "Mother!" is an intense, often violent movie, and Lawrence is gripping through it all.

Bardem is ideal in his role. The movie traffics heavily in symbols. It's an extended metaphor of the Biblical Book of Genesis, kind of like if Aronofsky wanted to make a prequel to "Noah" but didn't have the budget to film it straight. Bardem is exceptionally talented at grounding abstract ideas into a living, human character, as he did in "No Country For Old Men," and does that here as well.

Aronofsky's visual imagination remains inspired, and he created a set of increasingly audacious setpieces that ramp up as the movie riles itself up. Pfeiffer, Harris, and another big-name actor whose name I won't spoil here are all part of his frenzied machinations.

What's not: Some of the violence is intense.

Aronofsky is an intense director. Few people who've seen "Requiem for a Dream" would want to see it twice. As a result, some of the scenes in "Mother!" are hard to watch, especially a physical assault inflicted on Lawrence's character late in the movie. At the very least, the violence is part of Aronofsky's elaborate allegory and isn't too gratuitous.

The bottom-line: People are going to be talking about this movie for a long time.

Lawrence, Aronofsky, and Bardem definitely deliver some of their best work, but not necessarily in an Oscar-y way. The Oscars might go for "Mother!," but it's too messy and overwrought to be a sure thing. Some people will deride it as a troll of a movie, meant just to rile viewers up and inspire reams of hot takes. But it's clear that Aronofsky has upped his game with this one and makes astute points about creativity, religion, and sex behind all the bombast.

And if you're a fan of horror movies and psychological thrillers like "The Babadook,""Suspiria,""Rosemary's Baby," and even "Get Out," then "Mother!" is definitely for you.

Grade:

A

"Mother!" hits theaters on September 15.

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Felicity Dahl, the widow of the English children's book author Roald Dahl, said in a recent BBC Radio interview that the protagonist of her husband's book "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," published in 1964, was originally supposed to be black.

"His first Charlie that he wrote about was a little black boy," Felicity Dahl said.

Roald Dahl's biographer, Donald Sturrock, also spoke in the interview. He said Dahl was dissuaded from the idea by his agent at the time.

"It was his agent who thought it was a bad idea, when the book was first published, to have a black hero," Sturrock said. "She said, 'People would ask why.'"

Felicity Dahl added that it was a "great pity" her husband made Charlie Bucket a white child, which is how the character would go on to appear in the book's two screen adaptations, "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" (1971) and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" (2005).

She suggested that a new adaptation featuring a black protagonist, as her husband intended it, would be "wonderful."

Watch a segment of the interview below:

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Darren Aronofsky has always been fascinated to delve into religion and the macabre in all his work. And his latest, "mother!" is no exception.

An ambitious project that explores the deepest nightmares about family and the world, like all things Aronofsky, you will leave the movie with more questions than answers. But he wouldn't want it any other way.

In the movie Jennifer Lawrence plays a woman (a name is never given in the movie, in fact, no names are given) who spends her days renovating the house she lives in with her husband (Javier Bardem), a poet who is struggling with writer's block. But things begin to get unsettling when a stranger (Ed Harris) comes to their door.

The husband says he can stay as long as he wants, to the surprise of his wife. And things only get more weird as the stranger's wife (Michelle Pfeiffer) shows up the next day and then their sons (Brian and Domhnall Gleeson).

Throughout this the woman is taking everything in stride, following her husband's lead and trying to cope with her guest's unusual behavior.

But when the strangers break a crystal ornament the husband holds dear, and the the older son of the strangers attacks his younger brother, the woman has enough and demands everyone leave.

Feeling her husband doesn't give her any attention, they get into a fight, which leads to them having sex and the next morning the woman says she's pregnant. And the husband suddenly loses his writer's block.

Still with me? It gets a lot stranger, but for the sake of spoilers let's stop right here.

The movie will bring comparisons of work from Roman Polanski like "Repulsion" and "Rosemary's Baby", as well as Aronofsky's early film, "Requiem for a Dream." But as the movie evolves and you see the story Aronofsky is weaving, you can't help to appreciate what he's doing and how he's doing it (especially that a studio allowed him to make it), though the story gets frustrating at times.

Then there's the portrayal of Lawrence's mother character, which will likely be criticized by those who want to see stronger female leads in movies. The mother is passive and submissive to her husband.

But Aronofsky doesn't seem to be exploring positives here. Instead, he's meshing religion, obsessions, and the hunger to believe in something with the current unsettled nature of the world to present a portrait of how we are. And it's pretty ugly.

Sadly though, by the end of the movie you don't really care. Aronofsky has messed with you so much, giving you so little to hold onto that by the end, when he wraps it all up in a bow, it's too late.

"mother!" opens in theaters September 15.

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Following a summer movie season that Hollywood wants to quickly forget, it has a hit to kick off the fall.

"It," the latest adaptation of the classic Stephen King novel, is an extremely entertaining studio horror movie that will make you laugh as much as jump in fear.

That's the big takeaway from a movie that had some big shoes to fill, as it goes up against a previous adaptation, the 1990 two-night ABC made-for-TV movie that haunted anyone who grew up during that time. Tim Curry's portrayal of the alien who often takes the form of a clown named Pennywise and for centuries had been murdering kids from the quiet town of Derry, Maine, was masterfully done.

So not looking to top something that was already great, director Andy Muschietti gave the new movie a new feel. (Muschietti came on the project after Cary Fukunaga left over creative differences, though Fukunaga still has a screenwriting credit.) This new version is set in the late 1980s (it's the 1960s in the book), and it makes the group of high-school losers who band together to take on Pennywise more edgy and foul-mouthed than the kids of the 1990 version.

That leads to a lot of F-bombs and funny one-liners, both done perfectly by child actor Finn Wolfhard (whom you know best as Mike Wheeler on the Netflix show "Stranger Things"). In fact, the entire kid cast does well. And though it's hard to top Curry's Pennywise, Bill Skarsgård gives a solid performance, helped out greatly by CGI to pull off the scares.

There's no question this "It" will bring nightmares to a new generation, and realizing it has a good thing, Warner Bros. is far from ending things. Unlike the 1990 version, this movie does not delve into the characters when they grow up and have to battle Pennywise again. That means a sequel is certainly on the way and will feature the characters all grown up.

So get ready for another round of scares, and in the immediate future, prepare for constant speculation on which adult actors will take on the roles.

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Jennifer Lawrence has proved she can take on any role, and "Mother!" is her most ambitious yet.

The movie has been marketed with an air of mystery. If you watch the trailer, all you'll know is that Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem live in a house together, Ed Harris and Michelle Pfeiffer visit them, and then a lot of weird stuff happens.

In this critic's opinion, "Mother!" is a high point for director Darren Aronofsky, with an intense performance from Lawrence at the center. But overall, the movie has critics more divided. On Rotten Tomatoes, 73% of critics gave it a positive rating. Some applaud its artistic ambition and nightmarish fairy-tale tone. Others think it's too bizarre and ham-fisted to love.

Here's what some critics are saying — spoiler-free.

Jennifer Lawrence delivers an incredible performance in an undisciplined movie.

"This intriguing but ultimately frustratingly undisciplined experiment is about Jennifer Lawrence, who proves once again what a supernatural screen presence she is, delivering a performance of transparency, stillness, physical grit and self-sacrificing courage. As the enigmatic title character, she’s our surrogate and guide through the highly charged environment Aronofsky has conceived."

— The Washington Post's Ann Hornaday

It's an ambitious piece of art that accommodates multiple interpretations.

"It’s easily the most experimental feature released by a major studio in ages, a gleefully deranged companion piece to Aronofsky’s Old Testament epic 'Noah' and an evil twin of sorts to 'The Fountain,' with its grandiose meditations on love, death and eternal recurrence. If Roman Polanski, Lars von Trier and Hieronymus Bosch were to collaborate on a fresh translation of the Bible, the result might be half as feverishly inspired."

— Los Angeles Times's Justin Chang

The director is trolling you.

"Darren Aronofsky’s 'Mother!' is 'Rosemary’s Baby' amped up into a fugue state of self-indulgent solipsism. It’s also likely to be the love-it-or-hate-it movie of the season. Which, come to think of it, is probably just how the provocateur behind 'Black Swan' and 'Requiem for a Dream' wants it.... Some will no doubt find all of its flash and portent to be deep and provocative. Others will roll their eyes, toss up their hands, and find it to be slick, ridiculous nonsense. Those in the second camp won’t be wrong."

— Entertainment Weekly's Chris Nashawaty

The movie is unexpectedly funny.

"'Mother!' made me laugh harder and more frequently than just about any other movie I’ve seen this year. I don’t say this derisively. Mr. Aronofsky’s visual wit and dexterous, disciplined camera movements create frissons of comic terror. His gift for escalation — evident in the marvelous crescendo of frenzied action that occupies most of the movie’s second half — may be unmatched in his generation of filmmakers."

— The New York Times's A.O. Scott

"Mother!" tries to be several films at once.

"The hubbub is well-earned, but before 'Mother!' gets where it’s ultimately going, i.e., completely off the rails, it spends time being several films, each with an intelligence, each with an agenda, each with an operating metaphor. It begins as an Albee-esque chamber piece about the sanctity of the home. It evolves into a hysterical statement about the price of celebrity. It eventually exits with a salute to 'No Exit.'"

— The Wall Street Journal's John Anderson

Aronofsky has an ugly view of human nature.

"But Aronofsky doesn't seem to be exploring positives here. Instead, he's meshing religion, obsessions, and the hunger to believe in something with the current unsettled nature of the world to present a portrait of how we are. And it's pretty ugly."

— Business Insider's Jason Guerrasio

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If you're hungry for any of sort of news about the next "Star Wars" movie, Disney just delivered. 

Hasbro unveiled a bunch of new "Star Wars" toys at its first annual HasCon event. Among the reveals are a bunch of new action figures for "The Last Jedi," and they do not disappoint. 

Keep reading to see Luke Skywalker's new look, Benicio del Toro's character name, and a spoiler of what Finn's character will be up to in the new movie.

First up, we have a good look at Carrie Fisher's General Leia Organa.

It looks like we'll see much more of her in the outfit she debuted at the end of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens." We already know Fisher will have at least one scene with Oscar Isaac's Poe Dameron. 

"I can't give anything away but there was a scene where there was some physicality there and it was shot just over and over and over," Isaac told our sister site Business Insider of a scene they shot about 25 times. "[Fisher] relished the physicality of it, let me just say. It was pretty intense. It will be funny to see what they cut together based on that."

Speaking of Oscar Isaac, Poe Dameron will be getting a new look — and a new character title.

In "The Force Awakens," Dameron was a pilot and operative for General Organa. It looks like his hand in finding her brother Luke Skywalker's location in the last movie paid off. Dameron's referred to as Captain Poe Dameron here. Notice how his outfit seems to have some parallels to Harrison Ford's Han Solo. 

We get a good look at Mark Hamill's new look as an older Luke Skywalker. But don't expect this to be the only outfit we see him wear.

It can be easy to overlook, but Skywalker is noticeably showing off a gloved hand. What's up with that? Remember, he lost his right hand to his father Darth Vader in "The Empire Strikes Back." He originally had a new hand built, but from teasers we know Skywalker's back to having a robotic hand. It looks like he's covering it up with a brown glove — for now.

We also get a glimpse of a staff he'll have in the movie. We'll have to wait to see if it's a walking stick or one to fend off attackers.

Most interesting is that this toy is labeled "Jedi Exile" Luke Skywalker. It hints that we'll be getting a few different Skywalker toys in the future. We've already seen one other darker look Skywalker will be wearing that was teased on the cover of a Hungarian magazine.

The INSIDER Summary:

• A viral tweet asked people "What would Pennywise have to say to get you to go down there with him?"
• People are answering what they'd need to join the clown from "It" in the sewers.
• It's a spin on an older meme that used Tim Curry's version of Pennywise from the 1990 "It" miniseries.
  

One thing you should definitely never do, no matter the circumstances, is accept an invitation from Pennywise the Dancing Clown to come into the sewers.

But with the release of the new "It" adaptation in theaters, starring verified hunk Bill Skarsgård, people on Twitter are finding all sorts of good reason to crawl down and join Stephen King's shapeshifting nightmare.

It all started when one user posted a screenshot from the movie of Pennywise looking from beneath the sewers and asked what it would take for people to join him there.

A lot of people had answers for him.

Even Chance the Rapper joined in.

A lot of the most popular posts were self-deprecating.

What's particularly interesting about this meme is that another version of it started years ago — using the 1990 "It" miniseries as an example. That one starred Tim Curry as Pennywise, and there's one particular famous scene where he tries to coax a kid named Georgie into the sewer.

That image has its own meme, also of Pennywise offering people good reasons to come into the sewer.

But with the new adaptation of Stephen King's book, the meme has evolved. Tim Curry's Pennywise is on the way out. It's all about Bill Skarsgård now.

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This post includes minor spoilers for "Mother!"

No one can accuse "Mother!" of being subtle.

Jennifer Lawrence's new movie is a bombastic, feverish nightmare fairy tale that's an allegory for G-d and the act of creation in the Bible.

In the movie's marketing, Paramount Pictures have been using a lowercase stylization, so it reads like "mother!" instead of "Mother!" (INSIDER capitalizes it anyway.)

The reason the movie's title is lower-cased is so you'll notice that Javier Bardem's character name, Him, is capitalized. That way, you'll understand that he's a metaphor for G-d.

For months, people have been wondering exactly why Paramount and the movie's director, Darren Aronofsky, have been using lowercase. He gave a clue in a Reddit Q&A session earlier this week, where he typed out most of his answers in lowercase as well.

"to find out why there's a lowercase m read the credits and look for the letter that isn't capitalized," Aronofsky wrote in lowercase text (dude loves lowercase). "ask yourself what's another name for this character?"

A representative for Paramount explained to INSIDER that Aronofsky meant to say that we should pay attention to which letter is capitalized, since the credits for the movie are lowercase as well.

That capitalized letter in the end credits is the "H" in "Him," referring to Bardem's character. Lawrence's character is listed as "mother." Their names aren't brought up in the movie itself.

Pronouns like "he" and "him" are capitalized when they refer to G-d by some religiously observant people to denote respect, and to identify G-d as a single being.

It's a whole lot of work to lowercase everything about the movie just so you'd notice in the end credits that Bardem is a metaphor for G-d. Even invitations for the movie's press screenings were all lowercased, as well as a fancy placard with Rebecca Solnit's poem "Mother's Prayer" handed out at festival screenings. The allegory becomes clear in the first few minutes, anyway, when the two talk about the house they're living in as a potential "paradise." The story hits the nail on the head even harder a little further into the movie, when two brothers quarrel and one kills the other (like Cain and Abel. Get it?).

In interviews, Lawrence further explains that she's a stand-in for "Mother Nature," a sort of separate entity than G-d in Aronofsky's metaphysical understanding, who's witnessing G-d's creation and doesn't like what she sees.

So there you have it.

It's still not clear, however, why the movie's title has an exclamation mark.

Editor's note: This writer uses a hyphen in G-d, because of the Torah's third commandment.

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The most successful actors in Hollywood history have combined talent, versatility, and longevity to appear in hit after hit.  

Tom Hanks, for instance — the 3rd highest-earning actor in the history of the U.S. box office — has all three qualities in spades.

We turned to Box Office Mojo to rank the top 20 actors of all-time by their total career hauls at the U.S. box office.

Most are well-known, like Hanks and Scarlett Johansson, while others, like the "Star Wars" C-3PO actor Anthony Daniels, are not, though their careers speak for themselves.

Check out the actors with the top U.S. box-office grosses of all time:

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20. Stellan Skarsgard — $3.175 billion

Highest grossing film: "The Avengers" ($623.4 million)

19. Bruce Willis — $3.189 billion

Highest grossing film: "The Sixth Sense" ($293.5 million)

18. Will Smith — $3.205 billion

Highest grossing film: "Suicide Squad" ($325.1 million)

The INSIDER Summary: 

• Netflix has released some impressive original movies. 
• The highest rated of the bunch is "Tramps" with a score of 95% on Rotten Tomatoes.
• "Deidra and Laney Rob a Train" and "Win it All" round out the top 3.

Netflix continues to be a rock-solid tour de force in the world of modern cinema. Though the screens on which its original series and movies are presented are a far cry from those at your local cineplex, they still hold strong. Day after day, Netflix churns out fresh content at an intimidating pace. It’s a company that craves original material, has gained a reputation for giving creative control to the filmmakers it brings on board, and it plans on pushing the film and television industry in new directions.

Naturally, with all of the content it puts out, some misfires are bound to happen. Nobody (and no multi-billion dollar company, for that matter) is perfect. But don’t let the misfires fool you. Because when Netflix succeeds, they not only prove their worth among other major film studios, but give the Hollywood elite a run for their money.

People have had their doubts about Netflix. Could it really rival the bigger studios? Could it create content that measures up to the big leaguers? Well, creativity may be just subjective, but according to the critics, Netflix appears to be doing just fine. So, if you’re tired of shelling out cash at an overpriced theater, stay home, kick back, and check out one (or all) of the 21 Best Netflix Original Movies (According To Rotten Tomatoes).

18. "iBoy,""ARQ,""The Siege of Jadotville," and "I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House"– 60%

Sitting pretty at a comfortable 60 percent on Rotten Tomatoes are four films of considerably distinct styles. One of these movies is "iBoy," a sort of science fiction/superhero hybrid that delves into the world of technology and where it might take us in the future. "ARQ" is another flick that takes a dark look at the future, where the world’s resources are in jeopardy. Threaded into this desperate plot to protect the future is a claustrophobic setting, time-looping, and sociopolitical themes that are just as topical in the film as they are today.

The other two films are "The Siege of Jadotville" and "I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House," a war picture and haunted house story, respectively. "Jadotville" recaps the 1961 Central African siege of Jadotville (and stars Jamie Dornan of "50 Shades of Grey" fame), while "Pretty Thing" revolves around a stay-in nurse who starts to believe that the house in which she’s working may have a ghost problem.

All four are fine efforts from Netflix.

17. "XOXO"– 71%

In "XOXO," there are four stories and one focal point: an EDM festival. Add in romantic entanglements, some road trips, and underdog dreamers, and it might just seem as throwaway as any other coming-of-age drama. But to Netflix’s credit, it’s not. This movie brushes through the lives of young 20 and 30-somethings just trying to find some meaning. Even if that meaning is as fleeting as a romantic gesture.

EDM is all about sensory elevation, and whether or not this sort of movie is your cup of tea, you might appreciate its attempt to bring that same sort of elevation to a visual medium. It gives this confidently modern movie about the goings on of the modern young adult some creative juice — more so than many other coming-of-age movies tend to pull off.

16. "To the Bone"– 71%

Putting the plight of the human experience front and center, "To the Bone" is a stark and unsettling look into the world of eating disorders. Lily Collins stars as Ellen, an anorexic girl who feels as though she might be trapped inside her condition. No matter what she does or who she turns to, her health continues to diminish. So, desperate, she seeks new outlets — one of them being a doctor (played by Keanu Reeves) who seems willing to do whatever is necessary to help her get better.

Anorexia is an often overlooked problem, one that’s often not treated with the same urgency as other physical ailments. "To the Bone" attempts to change that, offering a more intrusive perspective into the life of someone dealing with anorexia whose life is literally counting on her ability to overcome.

It was the tale of two studios this weekend at the multiplex: Warner Bros. continued raking in the dough with its hit movie "It" while Paramount navigated the dreaded "F" CinemaScore for the Jennifer Lawrence dud "mother!"

Following its record-breaking opening weekend last week, "It" fed off the word-of-mouth as it took in an estimated $60 million this weekend to win the box office for a second-straight weekend, according to boxofficepro.com.

The movie is performing beyond anything Warner Bros. had hoped for the $35 million-budgeted adaptation of the classic Stephen King novel, as it had only a 51% drop in sales from its monster $123.4 million opening weekend.

"It" now has a total of $218.7 million at the domestic box office. That makes the horror the highest grossing September release of all time. It broke the record — 1986's "Crocodile Dundee,"$174.8 million— in just two weeks!

The only competition for "It" this weekend was "mother!," the latest WTF from Darren Aronofsky ("Requiem for a Dream,""Black Swan").

Anticipation for the auteur joining forces with Jennifer Lawrence were at a high for months, but then critics began seeing the movie and the hype began to soften. Lawrence and Javier Bardem play a couple who suddenly are visited by strangers, and from there the movie just gets more and more bizarre.

Aronofsky's work is often divisive, but general audiences for the most part just didn't get it. On Saturday the movie got an "F" from CinemaScore, the company that polls audience reaction to opening weekend movies. The movie ended the weekend with $7.5 million, well below its $11 million projection.

It's the worst opening ever for a Lawrence-led wide release movie. Even the lame horror she did early in her career, 2012's "House at the End of the Street," preformed better ($12.3 million).

SEE ALSO: Morgan Spurlock on making a "Super Size Me" sequel and why he's taking on "Big Chicken"

DON'T MISS: Jennifer Lawrence's new movie is an ambitious look at today's world, but it falls short of delivering

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German actress Diane Kruger has built an impressive career, but after working steadily for 16 years, her new movie is getting her recognition she never thought she'd ever receive.

"In the Fade," from the German filmmaker Fatih Akin, offers Kruger the chance to prove she can carry a movie — and she does just that. Kruger gives a tour-de-force performance playing Katja Sekerci, whose life collapses when her husband and son are victims of a terrorist bombing. Amid taking illegal drugs to numb the pain, Katja learns that two suspects, who turn out to be neo-Nazis, are going to trial for the bombing. That's when things get even more intense for Katja.

When Business Insider sat down with Kruger at the Toronto International Film Festival, she didn't hold back when talking about the pain she dealt with to pull off this gut-wrenching performance, which won her the best actress prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival and garnered instant Oscar buzz.

Jason Guerrasio: How did you connect with Fatih Akin? Did you know him?

Diane Kruger: No, I was just a fan. He's a big director in Germany — I grew up with his films. So when I became an actress and I left Germany 25 years ago, I always waited for this part to come out of Germany. I mean, I don't have an agent there, so I never get any offers from there. Five years ago, I was a jury member at Cannes, and he had a documentary playing there, so I went to his party to meet him. I told him I loved his work and if he ever wanted to make a movie with me, that would be amazing. So years later, he remembered and called me.

Guerrasio: Did he talk to you over the phone about the part, or did he ask if he could send the script over?

Kruger: He kind of told me what it was about, and then he said he didn't want to send me the script — he wanted to come and meet me. So he came to Paris to meet me. And I was really nervous because I didn't think, upon meeting me, that he would think that I'm right for this part. This isn't typically the part I get offered. [Laughs.] And just judging from his voice over the phone, I don't think he was 100% sure I could do it either. So he came to my house, and I wore no makeup, and I really tried to dress down and be as raw as possible, and we just had this amazing talk. And I told him I was really, really scared of this part. I told him I wasn't sure I could do it.

Guerrasio: But at the same time, was this a role you had been wishing for? Something to show your range?

Kruger: I just knew something felt right. I was really scared. Fatih told me I couldn't take another role until we shot this because he wanted me to prep for it. I mean, he is known for casting unknowns in his movies, so I think he got a lot of backlash at first for casting me. But I jumped off that cliff with him. It was a lonely time prepping for the movie. I didn't do anything else. I was living in Germany, meeting with victims of families that weren't necessarily suffering from terrorist attacks but murder and other brutal things, and I just allowed myself to be overcome by the grief that I felt.

Guerrasio: And this is the first German-produced movie you've ever starred in?

Kruger: That's right.

Guerrasio: That's surprising. Was that because you got into modeling so early in your life?

Kruger: I left when I was 16, and I wasn't an actress then.

Guerrasio: So was there a feeling with this movie that you wanted to be a part of something to show your talents to your home country?

Kruger: Yes and no. I wanted to do a German film that felt really German but also had an international presence. And Fatih, who is German but of Turkish descent, he himself has an international flavor. And this movie has such a universal feel. The focus is neo-Nazis, but it could have been jihadis, just some crazy person, whatever.

Guerrasio: I think Americans will certainly relate to this movie. The grieving mother is universal.

Kruger: Exactly.

Guerrasio: What did you want to get out of meeting victims? Did you take notes? Did you just want to interact with them?

Kruger: I guess the one thing I will never forget is that energy. More than individual stories, there was this energy that mothers especially having lost children had that I wasn't quite prepared to really take on. It was a wall of blackness. And that's regardless of how long ago it happened or how much or how little they talked to me about it — that energy was there. And it got more intense as time went on and the more people I met.

Guerrasio: How long were you talking to victims?

Kruger: I started six months before shooting started.

Guerrasio: Wow. Did it get to a point where you felt you had enough and just wanted to get started with shooting?

Kruger: Yeah. There definitely came a point where I was like, I can't take it anymore. And, unfortunately, when we started to film, my stepdad passed away. So honestly, it was probably the darkest time in my life, having to play that much grief and then coming home and feeling that on a personal level. It's a personal film because of that. We also shot in order, so you can imagine the first three weeks were just awful. There were scenes when I didn't even feel like I was acting. There were moments when I felt this movie is going to break me. I couldn't work for six months afterwards. I can still feel it.

Guerrasio: So you haven't been able to kick this character yet?

Kruger: I still dream about it. I feel like a little bit is always going to be with me. What I take away most of it is this connection with people talking about loss. The empathy I felt — and maybe because we live in a time where these stories have become so common, but I'm reminded of how many Katjas every week are being created. I sometimes just sit in front of the TV, and I just sob uncontrollably.

Guerrasio: Has doing a role like this changed the parts you want to take on going forward in your career?

Kruger: To be honest, the two films I'm working on right now I signed on before "In the Fade" came out, and I haven't taken anything since. I'm sort of debating what I want to do next.

Guerrasio: Is it hard to promote this film, seeing as you have to continue talking about the process of creating this character, which obviously wasn't pleasant?

Kruger: No, I want to. I think it's a very important film in my life. I feel it's my baby. I've never been invested in anything like this. I think it's an inspiring movie. In Cannes, which was the first time I saw it with an audience, I was so taken aback by the reaction. There must be pictures of me just looking shocked. It's weird because, in the past, people have come up to me and said they love my work, like for "Inglourious Basterds," but I feel this is my first big starring role.

"In the Fade" opens in select theaters later this year.

SEE ALSO: Morgan Spurlock on making a 'Super Size Me' sequel and why he's taking on 'Big Chicken'

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Love it or hate it, no one can stop talking about Darren Aronofsky's "Mother!"

It's been the spark for many a furious argument since its initial premiere at the Venice Film Festival, where it debuted to a hearty mixture of cheers and boos and resulted in a fascinating mix of critical reviews — Guy Lodge hailed it as "spectacular" over at Vanity Fair, while Observer's Rex Reed named it "the worst movie of the century," though the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes averaged it out at a 68% "fresh" rating.

The film reached its first screening under a tight veil of secrecy, scant on plot descriptions and with a smattering of enigmatic posters and trailers; written and directed by Darren Aronofsky, it stars Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem as a couple whose quaint existence is brutally interrupted by the arrival of uninvited guests.

Its conflicted critical reception, however, certainly didn't help clear things up for moviegoers, especially when the marketing for the film that did exist seemed to sell it heavily as a somewhat conventional horror — it's clear Paramount was trying to nab a wider audience than art-house devotees here.

A move that's somewhat spectacularly backfired: It's become one of only a dozen or so movies to be branded with the dreaded F Cinemascore grade by US moviegoers, the most violently negative reaction any film can have. But that may say less about the film itself and more about cinemagoers feeling deceived by the film's marketing, since the F grade is shared by several weirdo horror films that were sold as something far more conventional, including William Friedkin's "Bug" and Richard Kelly's "The Box."

Unfortunately it has essentially resulted in Paramount getting too big for its boots, attempting to open the film nationwide as opposed to select theatres like "Black Swan"; its festival buzz projected the film to open at $11 million, but it managed to secure only $7.5 million, making it the lowest open ever for a Jennifer Lawrence movie.

It's hard to tell what may have happened if Paramount had taken a different approach with "Mother!" Whatever the case, Aronofsky's head trip remains one of the most intriguing films of the year.

"Mother!" is out now.

SEE ALSO: Jennifer Lawrence's new movie is an ambitious look at today's world, but it falls short of delivering

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Stephen King is the twisted mind behind "It" and countless other supernatural horror novels. One would think scaring him would be difficult to do — especially with his own work.

But it turns out that one scene in the new film version of "It"— which was not part of the original novel — even scared the master of horror.

Barbara Muschietti, producer of "It" and sister of the film's director Andy Muschietti, says that King communicated with them after seeing the film to let them know that an early scene with the character of Stanley Uris and a creepy painting really got to him.

According to Muschietti:

"And it's something that actually, Stephen King, the first email he sent to Andy when he had seen the movie, the one fear he wrote back, he said, 'I f---ing love the woman in the painting, it scared the sh-t out of me,' so."

While the film adaptation of "It" takes most of its inspiration directly from the Stephen King novel of the same name, there are a number of aspects of the story which are modified, if not completely new.

One of these new additions is the primary fear of the character of Stanley Uris, played by Wyatt Oleff. Stanley is a young Jewish boy on the eve of his bar mitzvah as "It" opens. Going into the office of his father the Rabbi, he is visibly shaken by a painting on the wall. It's a vaguely human-looking woman holding a flute, but the style of the painting has her looking distorted. Stanley doesn't even want to look at it. Without going into spoiler territory, you can probably guess that things get significantly scarier than a painting hanging on the wall.

The implication is that Stanley has been looking at this painting for a long time, since he was an even younger child. It would have had an even more chilling effect on him as a young boy and he's just never been able to shake the fear since. I can't say I blame him. The painting is haunting and why in the world would anybody want that on their wall?

The scene might actually be one of the scariest in the whole movie, and, considering the fact it's not to be found in the novel, it's a new scene for everybody, including those who have read the book, or, as Barbara Muschietti tells Collider, the guy who wrote it.

Scaring King is a badge of honor that the "It" movie and its creators should wear with pride. If you haven't let "It" scare the hell out of you yet, you're in the minority. "It" has owned the box office exceeding all expectations for the past two weeks.

SEE ALSO: 'It' slays the box office again while Jennifer Lawrence has a career-worst opening

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The INSIDER Summary:

• In Stephen King's "It," Pennywise the Clown is said to terrify kids every 27 years. 
• Coincidentally, the film version came out 27 years after the TV miniseries aired in 1990.
• This wasn't planned.
• There's a sequel in the works so hopefully, it doesn't take another 27 years for it to hit theaters.

In Stephen King’s "It," Pennywise the Dancing Clown emerges from the sewers every 27 years to terrify children, kill them, and feast on their fears and flesh. Well, by a spooky coincidence, Pennywise returned to the real world on the exact same schedule.

King’s novel came out in 1986, but the first adaptation, a TV miniseries starring Tim Curry as the evil clown, premiered in 1990. The big screen remake, "It," premiered in 2017. For the math-challenged among us, that’s 27 years later.

This wasn’t planned. The "It" movie has been in the works for a long time, and there have been several delays and a change of directors that pushed it back. It all worked out in the end, though, as those delays allowed for this eerie synchronicity.

There is going to be a second "It" movie, one that’s based on the second encounter the Losers’ Club has with Pennywise — as adults, 27 years later. The first movie set up the sequel nicely, but the film doesn’t have a premiere date yet. Hopefully, it’s not 27 years from now, as fitting as that might be. Does anybody really want to wait that long?

"It" is now in theaters.

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The INSIDER Summary:

• Jake Gyllenhaal stars as real life Boston Marathon Bombing survivor Jeff Bauman in the upcoming movie "Stronger."
• Bauman interviewed Gyllenhaal in a new promo for the movie.
• He takes a lot of hilarious jabs at Gyllenhaal over his Hollywood life.
• Bauman asks if Taylor Swift would write a song about Gyllenhaal losing his legs.
• He also asks Gyllenhaal if he's ever considered working on a "good movie."

Jake Gyllenhaal is starring in the upcoming movie "Stronger," which tells the true story of Jeff Bauman — a survivor of the Boston Marathon Bombing who lost both his legs.

In a new interview shared on Gyllenhaal's Facebook page, first spotted by Mashable, Bauman and Gyllenhaal take turns ribbing each other with hysterical questions. Bauman opens the interview by asking Gyllenhaal why Ryan Reynolds didn't play him in "Stronger."

"He would have been better, I think," Bauman told Gyllenhaal.

Bauman then switches tactics and goes after Gyllenhaal for his relationship with pop star Taylor Swift, which ended with Swift writing about him (along with all her other exes) in a song.

"If you lost your legs in real life, do you think Taylor Swift would write a song about it?" Bauman asked Gyllenhaal. Like a country song?"

"She's sort of moved into pop now," Gyllenhaal replied with a straight face.

Bauman went full steam ahead, not missing a beat. "You ever thought about doing a good movie? Like 'Fast and the Furious?'" he said.

Gyllenhaal held his own as the perfect straight man, and riffed on Bauman's choice of "Good Will Hunting" as the best Boston movie. Watch the full video below to see Gyllenhaal and Bauman full (and perfectly executed) joke interview. "Stronger" opens in theaters on Friday.

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• Alamo Drafthouse is one of the most successful independent theater chains in the US with its mixture of fun programming and tasty food and drinks.
• CEO Tim League is navigating the company's first major controversy following the rehiring of a movie blogger who was accused of sexual assault last year.
• League now sets forth with the biggest challenge of the company's 20-year existence: proving Alamo Drafthouse is not just a "boys' club" and rebuilding trust.

Tim League casually sipped a beer on the outdoor patio of a bar in Toronto, as the hustle of this year's Toronto International Film Festival rushed past him. Before joining the fray, the owner of one of the most successful independent movie chains in the US, Alamo Drafthouse, was happy to have a moment to reflect.

"I feel really blessed that this is my job," League told Business Insider. "I'm here working at the Toronto International Film Festival, and I saw three really good movies yesterday."

Forty-eight hours later, League's festival only got better when the distribution company he cofounded, Neon, beat out Netflix to nab the biggest title at TIFF, "I, Tonya," for $5 million. The darkly comedic look at the rise and fall of the US figure skater Tonya Harding (played by Margot Robbie) is expected to be Neon's first Oscar contender when it opens in theaters later this year.

But things drastically changed for League the following day, when the site Pajiba ran a story revealing that the Drafthouse CEO had rehired a blogger named Devin Faraci, the former editor-in-chief of the Drafthouse-owned Birth.Movies.Death movie site who resigned after being accused of sexual assault last year. Faraci came back as a copy editor, and he wrote film blurbs for this year's guide to the company's annual genre film festival, Fantastic Fest (which kicks off Thursday in Austin, Texas).

Social media and the film world instantly went into an uproar, particularly because news that Faraci rejoined the company came just 11 months after he stepped down. The result led a Fantastic Fest programmer to resign, Faraci to resign for a second time, and League to make numerous public apologies.

For a company that has built a reputation on being young, hip, and fun — three things all of the major multiplexes in the world wish they were — the controversies Drafthouse is most familiar with usually come from a unique idea devised by League or by the creative directors at one of the 29 Alamo Drafthouse theaters across the country.

A recent example was over the summer, when Alamo Drafthouse held all-women screenings of "Wonder Woman." The negative reaction by some men on social media blindsided League, who recalled carrying out an all-women screening for the first "Sex and the City" movie in 2008 in Austin with zero objections. The "Wonder Woman" version resulted in three lawsuits (two are still ongoing). And when League got word that a man showed up to one of the screenings at the Drafthouse in Brooklyn, New York, he almost cleared out another screen in the theater and had the gentleman sit and watch "Wonder Woman" there all by himself. But the idea never came to fruition.

"That's where sometimes I have to check myself," League said.

But that's all fun and games to League, and it plays well with Drafthouse customers. The Faraci controversy, however, put League and his company in the unfamiliar place of being on the wrong side of an issue for its audience.

Building the fandom

Alamo Drafthouse started out in Austin 20 years ago, when League and his wife, Karrie, renovated an old building into a second-run theater. It stood out for the weird and unusual movies that played there, but what made it addictive was that the theater provided its customers with the option to eat and drink alcohol at their seats while watching the movies. As the company evolved and become a chain, so did the specialties of the menu and drinks (which often are themed to movies playing at that particular time at the Alamo). And with the evolution of online ticketing, and no need for ticket windows, Alamo Drafthouse lobbies are now bars. All of this has made the feeling of visiting an Alamo Drafthouse more than just seeing a movie. It's an all-night experience. And most multiplexes and independent theaters have been playing catch-up for the past two decades, trying to capture some of Alamo Drafthouse's cool factor.

League said all he's doing was returning to the model of the 1940s and 1950s, before the multiplex was created, when individual theaters had to focus on marketing to their cities or towns to get patrons in the door.

"A lot of what we do is not that innovative," he said. "It really goes back to older traditions of establishing that bond with your core audience."

I have seen that love for all things Drafthouse firsthand, and it's quite impressive.

My first taste was in Austin in 2013. Alamo Drafthouse likes to do road shows across the US in the summer. Past events have included an outdoor screening of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" in Wyoming by the movie's epic Devils Tower location and a screening of "Jaws" on a floating screen in a body of water, with viewers watching on inner tubes.

The road show I attended was for "Snowpiercer," Bong Joon-ho's postapocalyptic thriller set on a train. For the event, we all loaded onto a train and traveled to an open field about an hour away to screen the movie. League was there, as was Bong, and even the director Nicolas Winding Refn hopped on the train at the last minute. But there were also 100 or so dedicated Alamo Drafthouse patrons who attended the event. After the movie, we all got back on the train and partied all the way back to the station, each car themed like the dystopian movie.

A year later, I saw the Drafthouse fandom at its most insane when I attended Fantastic Fest (the 10th anniversary of the festival, no less). The event was located at Alamo Drafthouse's crown jewel in Austin, its South Lamar theater, which houses nine screens, two bars, an arcade, and seven karaoke rooms. But the attendance at the festival was even more incredible. Every night the crowds waiting to see movies were so big they would spill from the lobby to outside the venue. It was a mix of locals and fanboys. Some of them had even traveled from other countries to be a part of it.

The loyal Alamo Drafthouse fandom is an impressive sight in an era when interest in the moviegoing experience has diminished greatly. And League, who is a modern-day P.T. Barnum for all things Alamo, is certainly aware of it. With the internet and social-media reaction king, the CEO believes being a tastemaker and understanding patron needs are vital to his business.

"Yelp, Facebook, the customer experience is job number one," League said. "You can't ignore data streams or any trends."

But despite League's efforts, Alamo Drafthouse is swirling in a bad trend.

The 'boys' club' stigma

Last September, Faraci tweeted about Donald Trump's now-infamous leaked comments from an "Access Hollywood" taping. In those comments, Trump had bragged that his celebrity allowed him to grope women. A woman replied to Faraci on Twitter, however, and accused him of having grabbed her genitals at a bar in the past. The public accusations, which Faraci did not deny, ultimately led to his resignation last year.

After Pajiba broke the news last Tuesday of Faraci’s rehiring, League took to Facebook that evening. He confirmed that he brought Faraci back into the company as a copywriter and to write film blurbs — and he said he hoped people would understand the decision to give Faraci a second chance.

"I understand there's some discomfort with the idea that Devin is once again employed by the Alamo Drafthouse," League wrote in the post. "However, I am very much an advocate for granting people second chances, and I believe that Devin deserves one. He continues to confront his issues and to better himself with the help of his friends and family. I am proud to consider myself a part of this process."

Here's the entire statement:

League's explanation didn't go over well. The post was flooded with hundreds of comments, many disappointed in the CEO's doubling down on the rehiring. On Wednesday, The Hollywood Reporter published a story indicating that another woman had emailed League shortly after Faraci's 2016 resignation to accuse Faraci of sexually harassing her. An email exchange with the woman didn't put League in a good light. In an email back to the woman, League asked her to keep their conversation between them.

Also on Wednesday, Todd Brown resigned as Fantastic Fest's international programmer. He posted his own thoughts on Facebook, in which he said he was "embarrassed and ashamed" to have worked at Drafthouse.

"Rehabilitation is a noble and worthwhile pursuit, to be sure, but it is also one that requires the involvement of a community," Brown wrote. "Forgiveness is fantastic but forgiveness is the sole purview of the person who has been wronged. Tim, bluntly, does not get to forgive Devin for Devin's alleged — and undisputed — sexual assault. Only the victim gets to do that. And where was she in this? Where was the concern for any victim of sexual violence and the message this would send to them? While I do not believe there was any malice in the decision to bring Faraci back there was, however, a clear, undeniable and arguably even callous disregard for the impact of this decision on anyone not named Devin Faraci."

Here's Brown's full statement:

Brown touched on an element that had many in an uproar, that League chose to rehire Faraci without consulting his employees or Faraci's accusers. At TIFF, he had just told Business Insider that one his major learnings in the 20 years of Alamo Drafthouse had been how important employee feedback was in improving the company.

"In the early years we would think, 'We're a good company — our employees like working here because it’s a cool company,' but we never measured anything," League said. "Now we realize, 'Oh my god, why don't we just increase our communication with our staff to say how can this be a good place to work?' That's certainly changed for us."

On Wednesday evening, League sent an industry-wide memo to his company announcing that he had accepted Faraci's resignation. League also posted another statement on Facebook.

"Over the past few days, I've realized that decisions I have made over these past months have been problematic,"League wrote. "I am concerned about what these choices may say about me and the values of this company to employees, customers and the community at large. I'm humbled and deeply sorry.”

But that didn't stop Fox Searchlight from pulling Oscar-favorite "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" from this year's Fantastic Fest.

Searching for redemption

The controversy comes at a time when the independent theater community is already suffering a black eye from sexual-harassment claims. In August, two top employees of the Los Angeles art-house staple Cinefamily stepped down after allegations of sexual harassment surfaced. The theater has since suspended all activity.

It's very unlikely that Alamo Drafthouse will be closing up shop over its controversy, but the two instances are similar in that they shine a light on the male-controlled theater-chain industry. For Drafthouse, however, it goes a step further. Steeped in the male-heavy genre world, what drives the fandom of Drafthouse, its festival, website, and merchandise company Mondo are the voices (and social-media reach) of the predominantly male bloggers and fans who attend events and frequent the theaters. Take Fantastic Fest. It's incredible to see how male-heavy it is. I've never been to an event where the line to the men's room is twice as long as the women's.

"Anyone who has ever suggested that Fantastic Fest and the Drafthouse is just the geek friendly equivalent of the classic Old Boys Club, you have just been proven correct," Brown wrote at the end of his Facebook post. "We have just seen that Club in action. There it is, the Club utterly ignoring the victim while it creates a protective ring around the perpetrator. Telling every woman who has ever been harassed or assaulted that the predatory males around them will be protected if they are a part of the Club. Telling every woman that the Sad Man whose life is a shambles because of his own actions deserves help and support in putting himself back together while she deserves … nothing."

League now sets forth with perhaps the biggest challenge of his 20 years in the business: proving that Alamo Drafthouse can go beyond the beer-drinking, hard-partying, good-ol'-time-for-bros persona that has made it a powerhouse in the industry.

League, who declined numerous requests for a follow-up interview with Business Insider following the controversy, wrote in his statement regarding Faraci's permanent resignation from Alamo Drafthouse that he had begun setting up meetings with employees at all his theaters to hear their thoughts on his controversial decision.

"Transparency, consistency, and credibility are crucial at this point to restore his reputation and that of Alamo Drafthouse," Dr. Nir Kossovsky, the CEO of the risk-management company Steel City Re, told Business Insider.

Though League always seems to place Alamo Drafthouse in a progressive position — unintentionally with the "Wonder Woman" screenings and intentionally with providing gender-neutral restrooms at his theaters last year — he's also known in the industry for being extremely loyal, and that seems to be what backfired here.

Sources tell Business Insider that League was simply looking out for a friend but had since regretted that decision and was driven to make amends. In the past week, League has reached out to Faraci's accusers to apologize and is starting the long road back to gaining the trust of not just the Alamo Drafthouse patrons but his staff.

At TIFF, when talking about the evolution of the company over the past 20 years, and the responsibility that comes with building a brand, League on numerous times mentioned the importance of making sure not just that customers are having a great time but that the people working for him are as well. This controversy is surely a sobering reminder to League that he still needs to work on the latter.

"We are a real company now," League said. "Still a little rough around the edges."

SEE ALSO: Diane Kruger's new movie was so emotionally devastating she couldn't work for 6 months, and was filming during the "darkest time" in her life

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