John Jurgensen

1 week ago | wsj.com | John Jurgensen

In its second weekend in theaters, “A Minecraft Movie” passed $550 million in global ticket sales to officially become the second-biggest video-game movie ever and Hollywood’s top-grossing release of 2025. Unofficially, it’s the crowning of cinema’s meme era. Fueled by a barrage of inside jokes shared by the masses who play Minecraft or at least live online, the movie succeeded at what Hollywood struggles to do consistently: sell gobs of tickets and get young people into theaters.

1 week ago | wsj.com | John Jurgensen

Tony Gilroy was once a Star Wars outsider. Then he created a series focused on political drama and the roots of rebellion—no Baby Yodas in sight. Tony Gilroy is a jedi of screenwriting. He was a longtime Hollywood script fixer, wrote most of the Jason Bourne movies and was Oscar-nominated for “Michael Clayton,” a George Clooney legal thriller that film buffs and fellow writers speak of in reverential tones. If only Gilroy, 68, could sell everyone on the show he spent the last six years crafting.

2 weeks ago | wsj.com | John Jurgensen

“A-B-C…always be closing.”“Get them to sign on the line which is dotted.” “The leads are weak?… You’re weak!”So when Van Sistine visited New York last month to meet with clients, he was pumped to catch a live rendition of “Glengarry” on Broadway and hear those famous lines.

4 weeks ago | wsj.com | John Jurgensen

The show opens with a scenario we’ve seen a zillion times. A police squad breaks through a door to capture a murderer. But in “Adolescence” the suspect is a 13-year-old boy. And the scene doesn’t stop—an uninterrupted camera shot continues tracking his arrest and every moment that follows in the hourlong episode.

1 month ago | wsj.com | John Jurgensen

By | Photography by Sinna Nasseri for WSJ. Magazine Your browser does not support the audio tag. 00:00 / 02:08This article is in your queue. The indie film fantasy was coming true for “Magazine Dreams” in early 2023. At Sundance, critics hailed the film and its star Jonathan Majors, playing a body builder whose life falls apart. The Yale-trained actor also had a big Marvel role on deck and was poised for Hollywood stardom.