Universal

The Disney catalog joined Universal’s this weekend in playing whatever theaters were open at the box office as the majority of exhibition’s 5,9K theaters remain shuttered nationwide due to COVID-19. Overall, ticket sales continued to be distressed. Disney’s 2016 Oscar-winning hit Zootopia took the top spot with an estimated $280K, putting its liftime total at $341.5M,
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M. Night Shyamalan’s next movie now has a release date. Universal said Tuesday that it will release the writer-director’s untitled thriller on July 23, 2021. The pic, details of which are under wraps, stars Eliza Scanlen, Thomasin McKenzie, Aaron Pierre, Alex Wolff and Vicky Krieps. On Monday, Deadline scooped that Abbey Lee, Nikki Amuka-Bird and
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Buried in AMC’s Q1 earnings release today on page 3 was the statement, “While we are in active dialogue with Universal, no movies made by Universal Studios are currently on our docket.” The note comes a little bit more than a month after AMC CEO and President Adam Aron alerted the studio in a public
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Universal and Blumhouse are taking their Kevin Bacon–Amanda Seyfried psychological thriller You Should Have Left straight into homes on Friday, June 19 for a North America PVOD release.  The pic was directed by Jurassic Park and Mission: Impossible scribe David Koepp which he adapted from the German novel by Daniel Kehlmann. Bacon and Seyfried star as a couple seeking
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Universal–Blumhouse’s The Forever Purge, which was dated for July 10 prior to Warner Bros.’ The Tenet, is now unset. Solstice Studios’ Russell Crowe road rage movie Unhinged on July 1 remains the first wide release back for those cinemas reopening. We hear there is no determination yet as to whether Forever Purge goes to PVOD, which is where Universal released Trolls World
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EXCLUSIVE: When the Danny Boyle-directed fable Yesterday was released last June, it was viewed as a bright spot for counter-programming at a moment when Toy Story 4 owned the box office leading into Spider-Man: Far From Home. The Universal/Working Title film, which grossed over $153.7M worldwide, did well enough to make it onto a list
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Days after  Jeff Shell’s statements in the Wall Street Journal about the $95M PVOD success of Trolls World Tour and the company’s plans for its film slate in homes and theaters, words which fired up AMC boss Adam Aron to embargo the studio’s films from its chain, the NBCUniversal CEO acknowledged the company’s commitment to theatrical, but
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Not to deflate a rousing round robin of mudslinging between AMC, Cineworld and Universal, but this whole OMG melee between exhibition and studios over PVOD, theatrical-window crunching and hurt feelings is poised to calm down soon. Some industry insiders believe the situation has already eased, and the statements made this morning on Comcast’s Q1 earnings
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EXCLUSIVE: Following yesterday’s flurry of dramatic exchanges involving AMC, the National Association of Theatre Owners and Universal, Regal Entertainment owner Cineworld Group has now added its voice to the chorus of windows controversy surrounding Trolls World Tour. The world’s second biggest circuit says its policy with respect to the window “is clear, well known in
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Refresh for more….Universal has responded to AMC boss Adam Aron’s note tonight to Universal’s Studios Chairman Donna Langley in which he told the studio that he won’t be playing their titles at his global chain. Essentially Uni says they “absolutely believe in the theatrical experience and made no statement to the contrary.” But… “As we
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2nd Update, 8:05PM: Following the National Association of Theatre Owners’ earlier statement today deflating NBCUniversal’s $95M PVOD victory with Trolls World Tour in the Wall Street Journal, the exhibition organization has issued another public statement tonight after Uni accused them of being in cahoots with AMC over the chain’s refusal to play Uni films. Earlier
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Judd Apatow in an Instagram conversation with SNL’s Pete Davidson announced that they’re summer comedy,originally slated to hit theaters on June 19, will now go on VOD on June 12. The comedy based on Davidson’s life, directed by Apatow and co-written by Davidson, Apatow and former SNL scribe David Sirus was expected to make its
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When it comes to evaluating the financial performance of top movies, it isn’t about what a film grosses at the box office. The true tale is told when production budgets, P&A, talent participations and other costs collide with box office grosses and ancillary revenues from VOD to DVD and TV. To get close to that
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When it comes to evaluating the financial performance of top movies, it isn’t about what a film grosses at the box office. The true tale is told when production budgets, P&A, talent participations and other costs collide with box office grosses and ancillary revenues from VOD to DVD and TV. To get close to that
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When it comes to evaluating the financial performance of top movies, it isn’t about what a film grosses at the box office. The true tale is told when production budgets, P&A, talent participations and other costs collide with box office grosses and ancillary revenues from VOD to DVD and TV. To get close to that
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When it comes to evaluating the financial performance of top movies, it isn’t about what a film grosses at the box office. The true tale is told when production budgets, P&A, talent participations and other costs collide with box office grosses and ancillary revenues from VOD to DVD and TV. To get close to that
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When it comes to evaluating the financial performance of top movies, it isn’t about what a film grosses at the box office. The true tale is told when production budgets, P&A, talent participations and other costs collide with box office grosses and ancillary revenues from VOD to DVD and TV. To get close to that
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With theaters largely closed due to COVID-19 nationwide (except for a handful of drive-ins), there are many things that make sense financially for major studios when it comes to the distribution of their movies right now. It made sense that current theatrical releases such as Bloodshot, The Invisible Man, The Hunt, Onward, etc. would quickly
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When it comes to evaluating the financial performance of top movies, it isn’t about what a film grosses at the box office. The true tale is told when production budgets, P&A, talent participations and other costs collide with box office grosses and ancillary revenues from VOD to DVD and TV. To get close to that
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In what is considered an anomaly in the industry for an on-demand rental title (not sellthrough): Dreamworks Animation/Universal’s Trolls World Tour is now available for pre-order on FandangoNOW in advance of the pic’s April 10 availability date. While pre-orders for sell-through titles like Bad Boys for Life are quite common, that’s not the case with VOD rental titles. In
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Last week, Illumination/Universal’s Minions: The Rise Of Gru stepped off of its global release which was previously set for late June in some offshore markets and for July 3 domestically. It has now been scheduled for July 2, 2021, taking the slot that belonged to Sing 2, which in turn is now headed to Christmas
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If predicting box office openings wasn’t worse enough for the industry, the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. has studios and exhibition at the edge of their seats as concerns swell about how bad the impact might be. This weekend’s wide entries — Sony’s Vin Diesel movie Bloodshot,  Lionsgate-Kingdom Story’s faith-based K.J. Apa movie I Still Believe
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Dreamworks Animation’s Trolls World Tour is going where No Time to Die vacated: April 10. Originally the DWA pic, released via Universal, was to go April 17. This is the first major studio move in the wake of MGM/Eon/Universal moving the global day and date release of the 25th 007 pic this morning, which Deadline exclusively broke. It also
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“We are in uncharted territory.” Those are the words from one exhibition source this morning to Deadline in the wake of MGM/Eon/Universal’s shocking shift of No Time to Die from its April 10 Easter global launch date to Thanksgiving, largely due to those Asian markets effected by the coronavirus. Don’t doubt this for a second,
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5th Update Sunday AM: Moviegoers didn’t have a problem finding Blumhouse’s The Invisible Man on Saturday with the Leigh Whannell movie racking up $11.1M, a 12% surge over Friday’s $9.9M for a weekend that Universal is calling at $29M (some rival estimates have it in the low $28M range). Even more commendable: if you back out those
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Universal–Blumhouse’s The Invisible Man made its first appearance last night at 7PM shows nationwide with $1.65M, an an amount of cash that’s near both studios’ previous collaborations, Get Out ($1.8M Thursday) and Split ($2M). Both 2017 titles overperformed their $20M-predicted tracking at the time, with Split posting a $40M start, and Get Out taking $33.3M. Invisible Man, directed and written by Leigh
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It’s not as if Universal anticipated the opening of its gaslight thriller The Invisible Man to coincide with the guilty verdict handed down this week to movie mogul Harvey Weinstein in his sexual misconduct trial. But the Blumhouse-produced movie written and directed by Leigh Whannell arrives in cinemas at a moment when the #MeToo movement
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