“The Williams Method” may give Will Smith an Oscar as the father of Venus and Serena. The film does not take off at the box office. But the multinational Williams does not stop growing. They just signed an alliance with Amazon. EFE in Los Angeles tells the inside story.
With 23 Grand Slam titles under her belt, Serena Williams has practically nothing left to win in tennis. But this racket legend has recently found a field in which she still has many things to achieve: the film and television industry Together with her sister Venus, Serena Williams has made the leap to Hollywood with “The Williams Method”, a film starring Will Smith and in which tennis is an essential part of its plot.
This film portrays the figure of Richard Williams, the father of the Williams sisters and who, being very young, designed an amazing and very ambitious plan -not exempt from controversial ideas- so that they would reach the top of tennis from the humble neighborhood of Compton (Los Angeles, USA). The two sisters were fully involved in the project as executive producers and Serena, in a virtual press conference attended by Efe, stressed her happiness at having made this film a reality.
“Honestly, no word describes it better than the word ‘surreal,'” he said. The tennis player defended that it is a “very emotional and very well done” story and also said that it is a “brilliant job”. “And then you have Will playing my father. The way Will plays him just takes the movie to another level,” he said. “The Williams method” is Serena Williams’ first major audiovisual foray, but it has already served her to learn that, like in tennis, in Hollywood you don’t win games in advance either, just because you’re the favorite and without sweating on the court .
A FAILURE IN THEATER
With a budget of some 50 million dollars (45 million euros) and the backing of a top-tier studio like Warner Bros, “The Williams Method” has crashed on the big screen by grossing only 30.6 million dollars (27 .4 million euros) for now worldwide. The response from the press was quite good – it has 90% positive reviews on the film review portal Rotten Tomatoes – but the film landed in a very complicated context and was also hampered by its own distribution conditions.
“The Williams Method” premiered in the United States at the same time in theaters and on the HBO Max platform, so many viewers saved the ticket at the cinema and watched it at home. On the other hand, “mainstream” movies for adult audiences during the pandemic have still not managed to drag viewers back as they have, for example, superhero or horror movies. The figures have not finished adding up for “The Williams Method”, but Serena Williams has no less consolation as Will Smith appears in the pools as a possible Oscar nominee for best actor for the praised performance of his father.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHvWx5kp8js
NEXT STOP, AMAZON
“The Williams method” is not an isolated case for the tennis player in the audiovisual world, since in April 2021 she signed a global collaboration agreement with Amazon to develop fiction and documentary projects that will later be broadcast on Amazon Prime Video. “I am very excited to partner with Amazon Studios, they are developing some of the most inspiring and important content for a global audience,” the now audiovisual producer said in a statement when announcing their agreement.
Nor does it seem like a bad deal for Amazon, which with the signing of Serena Williams takes an absolute icon of sport in the 21st century to its catalog. “Serena has transformed her sport and become one of the most inspiring women, athletes and businesswomen of her generation, admired not only for her unparalleled prowess on the court but also for her dedication to activism,” said Jennifer Salke, who is the head of Amazon Studios.
Amazon and Serena Williams’ first adventure doesn’t have a name yet, but you already know what it will be: a documentary series that will follow in the footsteps of the tennis player in her personal and professional life. The ambition to succeed in film and television fits within the economic expertise of Serena Williams, who according to Forbes magazine was the second highest-earning athlete in the world in 2021 (45.9 million dollars) only behind Naomi Osaka (57.3 million).
Increasingly distant from tennis, at least in the business part (she only managed 0.9 million on the courts), Serena Williams, for example, has agreements with sponsors such as Nike, Gatorade and DirecTV; has entered the universe of “startups” with the firm Serena Ventures; and also has interests in the clothing business with S By Serena. The tennis player said that with “The Williams Method” she wanted young girls to “believe in themselves”, to see that “everything is possible” and not to be afraid of setting ambitious goals, a recipe that she herself seems to have applied with her projects in the audiovisual industry to further expand his millionaire fortune.
EFE
