Universal

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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Jurassic World 3 director Colin Trevorrow on Tuesday announced Day 1 of shooting for the Universal sequel, plus the pic’s title: Jurassic World: Dominion.  It’s Trevorrow’s second time directing the dinosaur franchise, after J.A. Bayona took over for the second movie, 2018’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. Trevorrow is also exec producing with Steven Spielberg. Frank Marshall
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Peter Levinsohn was named Vice Chairman and Chief Distribution Officer for Universal Filmed Entertainment Group today after serving as President and Chief Distribution Officer since 2013. In his new role, Levinsohn will oversee domestic theatrical distribution, global home entertainment, global television distribution, new media and digital strategy, and film technology. Prior to joining Universal, Levinsohn
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Following a barrage of criticism eight months ago from right-wing commentators and President Donald Trump, who called the movie one that will “inflame and cause chaos,” Universal-Blumhouse’s The Hunt is muscling its way back on to the release calendar with a March 13 date. It’s being billed in a new ad campaign as “The Most
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EXCLUSIVE: Sam Mendes’ WWI epic 1917 has become eOne’s highest grossing release ever in the UK, overtaking The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2, with a local grab of £36.2M ($46.9M) through Monday. The milestone hit this past weekend after 1917 dominated the BAFTA Awards on February 2, followed by Oscars this past Sunday for
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When you’re doing a movie trailer launch nowadays and need to grab everyone’s attention, it helps to throw a concert. Universal’s trailer for F9 (aka Fast & Furious 9), since dropping its near four-minute trailer on Friday ahead of the Super Bowl, has clocked a massive 439.3 million global views across YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. And
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Refresh for latest…: The theatrical business continued to thrive overseas in 2019, hitting a record $31.1B per comScore’s latest estimates, and an all-time high of $42.5B globally. This is the first time worldwide exceeds $42B and the first the international box office climbs past $30B. The results come in a year when domestic dipped by
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EXCLUSIVE: No amount of star power from Taylor Swift, James Corden, Idris Elba, Jason Derulo, etc. nor the direction of Oscar winner Tom Hooper could save Cats at the global box office. Our finance sources informed over this weekend that the Universal/Amblin/Working Title feature adaptation of the near $4 billion-grossing Andrew Lloyd Webber stage musical is
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Sony’s long-awaited Will Smith and Martin Lawrence re-team Bad Boys for Life arrived on tracking today with a $40M-$45M 4-day opening projection. Among action comedies launched over the holiday, that forecast is around where Ride Along ($48.6M) and Ride Along 2 ($41M) opened. 2014’s Ride Along starring Kevin Hart and Ice Cube was the record opening over MLK until Clint Eastwood’s
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The atrocious response from audiences and critics toward the feature adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats has no doubt upset execs at Universal and Working Title this weekend. The movie wound up opening below its $10M-$15M projections to $6.5M, and while you can’t expect much business-wise from adult-skewing movies outside of Star Wars before Christmas Day, the audience
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Lionsgate/Media Rights Capital’s Knives Out arrived on tracking this morning with estimates ranging from $22M-$25M over the Wednesday through Sunday Thanksgiving period. While that number isn’t anything to jump up and down about for a Thanksgiving release, there’s a lot of goodwill here in the Rian Johnson whodunit’s favor, notably its 98% certified fresh score
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DreamWorks Animation has added two more feature toons to its 2021 slate, the Untitled Spirit Riding Free movie based on its Netflix series on May 14, and The Bad Guys on September 17 based on Aaron Blabey’s bestselling Scholastic book series. This raises the Glendale studio’s release count for that year to three titles, the other
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Universal has dated News of the World for Dec. 25, 2020. Pic will go up against DreamWorks Animation’s Croods 2 and an untitled Paramount/Skydance event movie. The pic, which reteams Tom Hanks with his Captain Phillips director Paul Greengrass, will come in the wake of pre-Christmas releases next year: 20th Century Fox/Amblin’s West Side Story, Paramount’s Coming to America 2, Sony’s Uncharted starring Tom
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Universal had already reserved Aug. 14, 2020 on the calendar, and today they announced that the title opening on that date will be the Bob Odenkirk feature Nobody, which is described as John Wick meets Falling Down.  Odenkirk plays Hutch Mansell,  the guy you don’t notice.  A suburban dad, overlooked husband, nothing neighbor. A nobody.
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Universal’s Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw has shot past the $700M mark worldwide, rocking a $700.53M gross through Thursday. The split on the Dwayne Johnson/Jason Statham-starrer is currently $160.53M domestic and $540M at the international box office. A $725M-$750M finish is expected globally. The H&S muscle has pushed the Fast & Furious franchise
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