August warmth is a harbinger for the fall theatrical season, which is already revving into gear. Magnolia Pictures’ Cold Case Hammarskjöld continues recent non-fiction theatrical debuts that are eyeing awards season. Cold Case won the Best Director prize in the World Documentary section at Sundance in January. Sony Pictures Classics is opening doc Aquarela in
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EXCLUSIVE: Universal’s Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw zoomed into Korea on Wednesday, scoring the biggest opening day for the franchise, and through Thursday surpassed 1M admissions. Korea is the last market to release before China welcomes the spinoff next Friday, August 23. Through Thursday, the international box office cume on H&S is $267.5M
Universal’s R-rated Good Boys nabbed $2.1M in Thursday night previews at 2,600 theaters which began at 7PM. In regards to other R-rated comedies aimed at the 18-34 set, Good Boys’ Thursday is higher than Universal’s 2018 Blockers ($1.5M) and just under the R-rated Point Grey August 2016 pic Sausage Party ($3.25M). Good Boys take is also higher than Tag‘s $1.3M last summer and 2018’s Game
New Line’s It: Chapter Two, the sequel to the biggest horror film of all time, is looking at a domestic opening similar to the 2017 pic’s $123.4 million first frame. We hear in regards to demos the pic is comping to the first title in the series, Stephen King’s $700M-grossing It, and 20th Century Fox’s Logan ($88.4M),
Disney/Pixar’s Toy Story 4 is finally crossed $1 billion putting Disney in an atmosphere that no other major studio has ever touched: Having 5 pics gross over $1 billion in a single year. It is projected that Frozen 2 and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker later this year will bring that count to mindboggling 7 titles — Good
Prolific Bollywood actor and producer Akshay Kumar has again staked out the Indian Independence Day holiday, blasting off today with space drama Mission Mangal. Early word is largely positive on the timely film that’s based on the true story of the Indian scientists behind the country’s first satellite to Mars (aka, the Mars Orbiter Mission
Comscore/Screen Engine’s audience movie-polling service PostTrak is celebrating its 1,000th pic polled this upcoming weekend with a summary of moviegoing stats since its inception seven years ago. And there’s a plethora of illuminating findings, specifically: Streaming isn’t crushing moviegoing with just under 35% of all cinema attendees considering themselves frequent streamers. In addition, over the
Similar to last weekend before everybody rushes back to school, studios and distributors are trying to grab as much cash as they can. Today, for example, in the wake of Paramount opening Dora and the Lost City of Gold last weekend, Sony decided to have Rovio’s Angry Birds Movie 2 fly at 3,869 in what looks to
Broadway’s Be More Chill, The Prom and Sea Wall/A Life were at near-capacity last week, as the first two headed out and the latter had its official welcome. Together they helped Broadway maintain a steady total box office of $34M for the week of summer dog days ending Aug. 11. Total attendance for Broadway’s 29
Refresh for latest…: Universal’s Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw put another $60.8M in the tank during its second frame at the international box office. The Dwayne Johnson/Jason Statham-starrer pumped up its overseas cume to $224.1M in 66 markets through Sunday, and global to $332.6M. The drop in markets that opened last weekend was
Hints of autumn are unspooling this weekend with stars fronting Specialty fare opening in theaters. Julianne Moore, Michelle Williams, Billy Crudup and Abby Quinn headline Sundance ’19 opener After The Wedding, starting in New York and L.A. today via Sony Pictures Classics. The film by Bart Freundlich is based on the 2006 Oscar-nominated original by
Universal will not be releasing Blumhouse’s The Hunt on Sept. 27 as planned. Deadline hears that a collective decision was made by Universal leadership, led by Donna Langley, with The Hunt filmmaking team. For this particular film, it’s better to wait. The news of Universal canceling The Hunt comes in the wake of putting the brakes on the pic’s marketing
Lionsgate is dating the reunion of Bridesmaids creators Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo, Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar for July 31, 2020. The duo are not only writing the comedy, but starring with Jamie Dornan and Damon Wayans, Jr. Josh Greenbaum, who has directed episodes of Fresh Off the Boat and New Girl, will helm the comedy.
JP Richards has been promoted to Co-President, Worldwide Marketing, Warner Bros. Pictures, it was announced today by Blair Rich, President, Worldwide Marketing, Warner Bros. Pictures and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. Richards will report to Rich. In his new role, Richards will work closely with Rich on the development and execution of the studio’s marketing efforts,
Update: CBS Films/eOne/Lionsgate’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark racked up $2.33M at 2,500 locations that began at 7PM. How front-loaded will the Andre Ovredal-directed PG-13 spooky film be? Tracking heading into the weekend had Scary and Dora colliding as they aim to grab young teen girls with $15M-$17M apiece. But Paramount’s live action take of the famed
Edgar Wright’s next movie, the psychological thriller Last Night in Soho, will go on Friday, Sept. 25, 2020 via Focus Features stateside. Universal Pictures International has the pic overseas. The London-set pic stars Anya Taylor-Joy, Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie, Matt Smith, Michael Ajao, Synnøve Karlsen, Diana Rigg, Terence Stamp, and Rita Tushingham. Wright and Penny Dreadful scribe Krysty Wilson-Cairns co-wrote
Regal Entertainment owner Cineworld has reported a revenue decrease of 11.1% for the first six months of 2019, to $2.15B from $2.42B in the comparable period last year. The dip at the world’s second-largest exhibition chain was anticipated, it said, due to the timing of major film releases versus the first half of 2018. Encouraged
Fox Searchlight has set October 4 for the limited release of Noah Hawley’s Lucy in the Sky, which stars Natalie Portman as an astronaut who returns from space. With Lucy‘s new date, Disney officially is still keeping the wide release for Fox’s Joe Wright-directed Amy Adams feature The Woman in the Window on the same date.
Exhibition giant Cineworld, which acquired U.S. chain Regal Cinemas in 2018 for $3.6B, reported a decrease in half-year results this morning out of London. An anticipated drop, it hasn’t diminished CEO and veteran exhibitor Mooky Greidinger’s bright outlook for the second semester while he’s also bullish on the uptake of nascent subscription program, Regal Unlimited,
Universal is putting the brakes on the marketing of their Blumhouse release The Hunt in the wake of recent mass shootings which have taken the lives of 34 people in El Paso, Texas; Dayton, Ohio; and Gilroy, California. “Out of sensitivity to the attention on the country’s recent shooting tragedies, Universal Pictures and the filmmakers of The Hunt
Universal’s Hobbs & Shaw isn’t going anywhere, and they’ll stay put in No. 1 this coming weekend with $28M-$30M, a decline somewhere between -50% and -53%. This as five wide entries flood the market including Paramount/Nickelodeon/Walden Media/MRC’s storied IP Dora and the Lost City of Gold, CBS Films/eOne/Lionsgate’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Disney/Fox’s The
EXCLUSIVE: Deadline has learned that the Gavin O’Connor-directed Ben Affleck movie The Way Back (ne Torrance) is jumping from its Oct. 18 release to March 6, 2020. In the movie, Affleck stars as a former basketball all-star, who after struggling with addiction, attempts to comeback by becoming the coach of a disparate high school basketball team at his
Hulu and New York-based arthouse distributor Bleecker Street have inked a new output deal granting the streamer exclusive SVOD rights to all upcoming Bleecker Street theatrical films in addition to such notable pics as Hotel Mumbai, Teen Spirit, the Jesse Eisenberg-Alessandro Nivola SXSW breakout pic The Art of Self Defense and the true-biopic Brian Banks starring Aldis
China has overtaken North America as the biggest export market for European films in terms of admissions, according to a new study by the European Audiovisual Observatory. The study found that in 2017, admissions to European films outside Europe rose by 18.7% to 97M, largely driven by growth in the Chinese market. The report claims
Broadway box office held steady last week, with grosses of $33,730,889 and a total attendance of 270,067 for the week ending August 4. Adding to the tally was the $956,611 from five performances of Barry Manilow’s 17-show engagement at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. Manilow, in the final summer residency concert series at the theater, played to
Luxury dine-in theater chain iPic is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy amid financial woes that include a recent quarterly loss of $9.3 million, and missing a $10.1 million interest payment to the Employees Retirement System of Alabama and the Teachers Retirement System of Alabama. Today, the pic’s stock is at $0.70, down close to 60%
The weekend has had a sizable crowd of specialty newcomers, though as summer begins its sunset, it appears some audiences are going beyond the big studio brouhaha. Sundance psycho-thriller Luce lead the pack with a $132,916 start in five locations, grabbing a $26,583 per theater average for the Neon release in the three-day estimate, while not
Having brain-screamed at yet another driver blowing through a stop sign at 30 miles per hour in my quiet, child-filled residential neighborhood, I got to wondering: Whatever happened to Garp? Released 37 years ago, on in the summer of 1982, George Roy Hill’s film version of John Irving’s novel The World According to Garp seemed to
After what began as an upside-down summer for homegrown titles in China, the box office may be primed for a rebound. Last weekend, local movie Ne Zha set opening records for an animated title, and today passed Zootopia as the biggest toon ever in the market. Per local reporting, the Ne Zha gross through Friday
Warner Bros. on late Friday pushed Denis Villeneuve’s Dune by a month from Nov. 20, 2020 to Dec. 18, 2020. The pic will receive an Imax release. The studio is still going to hold onto that Nov. 20 date for an untitled release. Meanwhile, Baz Luhrmann’s much buzzed about untitled Elvis Presley feature will open on Oct.