Universal

In the wake of the death of Queen Elizabeth II, Universal has chosen to delay the UK release of the Julia Roberts/George Clooney romantic comedy Ticket to Paradise “out of respect to the Royal Family.” Originally scheduled to release this coming Friday (September 16), the Working Title film from director Ol Parker will instead go
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“I do think the studies will get paid, like they usually do, whatever they are owed. Because we are the suppliers and that’s usually what happens,” Lionsgate vice chair Michael Burns said Wednesday of the Chapter 11 filing earlier in the day by Regal Cinemas’ parent Cineworld. “Those things seem to go through the same
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Universal/Illumination’s Minions: The Rise of Gru bowed in China today (Friday), grossing an estimated RMB 21.74M ($3.2M), including midnights. This was good for the biggest opening day of a Hollywood animated film during the pandemic. Overall, and not including China’s Friday, Rise of Gru has grossed $461.2M at the international box office for $807.7M worldwide.
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Sunday AM: While Crunchyroll’s Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero is coming in at the lower end of what we foresaw yesterday with $20.1M (still significantly more than what we were spotting Friday AM), Universal’s Beast grew some teeth last night, improving its 3-day from $10.1M to now $11.57M. That’s after a $4.27M Saturday that’s -1% from Friday
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Illumination Entertainment/Universal’s Minions: The Rise of Gru didn’t stop making money just because it wasn’t a holiday. The pic’s gross yesterday saw $18.9M, which is easily the best Tuesday ever for an Illumination Entertainment title at the domestic box office, besting the $17.5M made by the animation studio’s Sing on Dec. 27, 2016. Rise of Gru‘s Tuesday
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With Illumination/Universal’s Minions: The Rise Of Gru continuing its dastardly ways at the global box office, the origins story has propelled the Despicable Me franchise across the $4B mark worldwide. The Chris Meledandri-produced series was already the biggest animated franchise of all time, and now has another milestone to boot. Across all five films, the
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After releasing early in Australia last weekend, Universal/Illumination’s Minions: The Rise Of Gru is looking groovy at the international box office, adding $14.6M in 39 new offshore market openings across Wednesday and Thursday. Coupled with Oz’s first week, the running offshore cume through yesterday is $22.5M. A further 21 markets open today including the UK
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Universal/Illumination’s Minions: The Rise of Gru has grabbed the best previews for an animated movie during the pandemic with $10.75M. That’s purely from showtimes that started yesterday at 2PM from 3,350 theaters. This, no doubt, bodes for another excellent weekend at the summer box office. That beats the $6.25M combined two day previews of Paramount’s Sonic
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After a two year delay due to the pandemic, Illumination/Universal’s Minions: The Rise of Gru, the fifth movie in the Despicable Me/Minions universe, arrives looking to lead the Independence Day domestic box office with $70M-$80M over 4-days, and another $70M+ abroad for a potential $150M global launch. There are no other major studio wide entries over July 4th
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UPDATED, 3:13 p.m.: Universal Pictures announced today that Steven Spielberg’s latest film The Fabelmans will open exclusively in L.A. and NY on Friday, November 11—expanding on the film’s previously announced release date of November 23rd. The film’s competition on the 11th will include Disney and Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. The titles currently set to play
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Universal revved up exhibition at its CineEurope presentation today in Barcelona, offering a glimpse at 2023’s Fast & Furious X, including a first look at new cast members Jason Momoa and Brie Larson. The Louis Leterrier-directed 10th installment is currently in production for release next summer. That was the capper to a jam-packed Uni session
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Universal/Amblin Entertainment’s Jurassic World Dominion is set to thrash past $500M worldwide today. The global total through Thursday is $493.2M. That includes $302.1M from the international box office and $191.1M domestic on the Colin Trevorrow-directed threequel. JWD reaching the five-century milestone will see it join a group of only eight Hollywood films to do so
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UPDATED, 10:09 AM: DreamWorks Pictures’ sci-fi film Distant is heading from Sept. 16 to Jan. 27, 2023. Pic moves off a crowded weekend where there’s Lionsgate’s Judy Blume movie Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret and Sony’s Viola Davis epic The Woman King to the final weekend of January where Sony has the family film Harold and the Purple Crayon.  PREVIOUSLY,
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Universal Pictures and Blumhouse Productions announced today that they’ll release the first of three movies based on the Exorcist franchise IP on October 13, 2023. Universal already had an untitled Blumhouse movie scheduled on the date which follows in the wake of the first October weekend of 2023 where both Disney Marvel and Warner Bros.
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FRIDAY AM Update: Refresh for updates Universal’s Old grossed $1.5M on Thursday night from 2,750 theaters that began showtimes at 7PM. This topped the Thursday night results for Paramount’s Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins which did $1.4M, also starting at 7PM at 2,662 theaters. Both titles are respecting a theatrical window. As far as who wins at the
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Two wide releases, Paramount’s Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins and Universal’s M. Night Shyamalan thriller Old, both respecting a theatrical window, will face off this coming weekend with results which are still too early to call as each are eyeing a mid-teens opening result. Previews for both titles begin Thursday at 7PM. In the meantime,
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Universal has dated two DreamWorks movies, Distant and Easter Sunday, as well as Amblin Entertainment’s The Last Voyage of the Demeter.  Distant, directed by Josh Gordon and Will Speck, will open on March 11, 2022. The sci-fi comedy stars Anthony Ramos as a low-level mining engineer whose spaceship gets struck by an asteroid sending him to an unknown alien planet.
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Even with close to 40% of the Canadian box office offline as Ontario remains closed until late July, and the Arclight/Pacific Theatres closed in L.A., the total weekend domestic box office came in at $98.08M per Comscore’s early Sunday AM estimate. Some distributors even have the weekend higher at $99.1M. It’s a great indication that
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Universal’s F9 is off to a great start as expected having grossed $7.1M from 3,100 theaters that began showtimes at 7PM. The pic expands to 4,179 theaters today, the widest ever for a film being released during the pandemic. In more great news: F9 did more business last night than Hobbs & Shaw did in its Thursday previews which were $5.8M
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EXCLUSIVE: Here’s more specific details as to how the advance tickets sales are for Universal’s F9 heading into the weekend: The Justin Lin-directed sequel is bound to be the biggest pre-seller of 2021 to date for Fandango. Already, F9 is outpacing the opening weekend pre-sales of Paramount’s A Quiet Place Part II which continued on to post a 4-day debut
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After 17 months of one-and-off promotion, including two Super Bowl spots, Universal’s F9 finally arrives at U.S. and Canadian theaters with high hopes of turbo-charging what has been a rudderless summer box office post Memorial Day weekend as the pandemic calms. F9 will be the widest theatrical release during the pandemic at 4K theaters, which still
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Universal is going old school in its push of Jurassic World: Dominion, and for those interested in seeing a snippet of the latest installment, they’ll have to head to an Imax theater, starting on the domestic opening weekend of F9, June 25, in more than 40 countries. This is how big movies were teased in
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Universal will be releasing the Baltasar Kormákur directed thriller Beast starring Idris Elba on Aug. 19, 2022. There are no other major studio wide releases currently scheduled for that date.  Elba plays widowed husband and father, Dr Nate Samuels, who with his two teenage daughters find themselves hunted by a massive rogue lion intent on proving that
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Big movie chain Cinemark announced Friday it’s now reached agreements to theatrically showcase films from all five major studio partners across its U.S. theaters, although it didn’t provide terms or many details. On a conference call with analysts to discuss the exhibitor’s just released first-quarter financials, CEO Mark Zoradi called each of the five deals
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Universal Pictures and Blumhouse Productions have selected Jan. 28, 2022 for the release of Scott Derrickson’s next movie The Black Phone. Uni already had the date on hold for a Blumhouse title, and this is the one. The Black Phone is currently the only wide release on that date, coming in the wake of Sony/Marvel’s Morbius on Jan. 21.
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Fuel-injecting some mega-muscle into the international box office landscape, Universal’s F9 has been set for a May 21 release date in China, a full five weeks before it is due to speed out domestically on June 25. But China won’t be the only overseas market to release early, as I hear several other key hubs
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