Jonathan Majors Is No Longer Canceled?

However, in what can be seen as a possible career-saving move, Briarcliff Entertainment has acquired the distribution rights to Jonathan Majors’ critically acclaimed film, Magazine Dreams.

Tom Ortenberg, founder and CEO of Briarcliff Entertainment, defended his company’s decision to obtain the rights to Magazine Dreams, noting that the film was the product of the hard work and dedication of the entire crew.

“Magazine Dreams is a visceral experience that challenges the perceptions of ambition and identity,” Ortenberg told Deadline. “[Magazine Dreams director Elijah Bynum’s] film made a well-deserved splash in Sundance and Briarcliff is looking forward to taking his story to the big screen across the country in early 2025.”

Despite the public outcry against Jonathan Majors’ actions and his subsequent banishment from mainstream Hollywood, it appears that Briarcliff Entertainment still sees the potential for Magazine Dreams to become the controversial hit of 2025.

While Ortenberg failed to mention Jonathan Majors during his justification for acquiring Magazine Dreams, the move could signal that the film’s financial potential could far outweigh the negative press that its star has received for nearly two years.

In January 2023, Magazine Dreams premiered at the Sundance Film Festival to a wave of overwhelming positive reviews from critics. They praised Jonathan Majors for his gripping portrayal of a headstrong bodybuilder who remains determined to achieve his lifelong dream and achieve superstardom.

Thanks to his performance, Jonathan Majors quickly garnered buzz as an early front-runner to take home a win for Best Actor at the 96th Academy Awards. A month later, Searchlight Pictures acquired distribution rights to Magazine Dreams, setting a release date for December 2023.

Jonathan Majors’ Oscar dreams quickly dissipated following his March 2023 arrest. Despite a public campaign to proclaim his innocence, his management company, Entertainment 360, and his public relations firm, The Lede Company, soon dropped him.

In response to his arrest, the U.S. Army temporarily pulled recruitment ads featuring Jonathan Majors, noting that it would wait until the investigation into his charges was completed to make a permanent move.

In the wake of his December 2023 conviction, Marvel removed Jonathan Majors from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. They dropped him from the role of Kang the Conqueror, a character that he had already portrayed in the film Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

He also appeared in five episodes of the TV series Loki as an alternate version of the Marvel villain. In an effort to help erase Jonathan Majors and Kang the Conqueror from the public’s memory, Marvel announced that Robert Downey Jr. would be portraying supervillain Doctor Doom in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

In March 2024, Jabbari filed a lawsuit against Jonathan Majors in federal court for battery, assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress, malicious prosecution, and defamation.

Jabbari accused her former boyfriend of a prolonged pattern of pervasive domestic abuse that began in 2021 and extended through 2023. Jonathan Majors and his legal team have denied all allegations made by Jabbari.

With Magazine Dreams eyeing a 2025 release, it remains to be seen if it will signal a potential return for Jonathan Majors in future mainstream Hollywood roles. At the very least, it appears that his crimes aren’t quite enough to completely tank his marketability.

Source: Deadline