“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,
Universal
EXCLUSIVE: With the coronavirus socking it to the Asian box office, Deadline has learned that MGM, Eon and Universal are postponing the next James Bond movie, No Time to Die from its UK and international release date of April 2 and its U.S. Easter weekend global day-and-date of April 10, and moving the 25th 007
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Editors note: The 2019 domestic box office figures are for the period of January 1-December 29. We will update further on January 2. With the total 2019 domestic box office expected to ring up close to an estimated $11.4 billion according to Comscore, down 4% from last year’s banner $11.88B, and the forecast that 2020
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
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
People left their homes and went to the movies this summer, shelling out what is expected to be $4.868 billion by Monday, +1% from the same period last year, which started at the end of April and lasted through Labor Day, and a few dollars shy of 2013’s $4.872B all-time record, per Comscore. True, close
Universal’s Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw muscled into China on Friday, grossing an estimated $34.5M (RMB 245M). The figures do not include Thursday midnights and rep the 2nd best debut of 2019 for an imported movie, behind only Avengers: Endgame. Overall, this is the No. 7 best opening day ever for a foreign
UPDATED, 12:12 PM: Unijversal said today that its Blumhouse remake of The Invisible Man will arrive on February 28, two weeks earlier that planned. It was set to face off against Warner Bros’ Godzilla vs. Kong and now faces United Artists’ hidden-camera prank pic Bad Trip. The news comes about an hour after Sony announced that its Blumhouse horror pic Fantasy
Universal has set a January 15, 2021 release date for 355, the ensemble spy thriller that came together during last year’s Cannes Film Festival. The pic directed and co-written by Simon Kinberg stars Jessica Chastain, Lupita Nyong’o, Penélope Cruz, Diane Kruger and Fan Bingbing. The hope is to launch a franchise based on the idea
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 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
Universal spinoff Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw rocked up to the international box office in 54 markets combined across Wednesday and Thursday. With $24.9M, including select previews, the Dwayne Johnson/Jason Statham-starrer set a handful of benchmarks for a Universal movie in its various bows, and landed No. 1s in the majority of debuts.
EXCLUSIVE: Universal’s Fast and Furious spinoff Hobbs & Shaw starring Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham is currently seeing a Thursday night that’s between $4.5M-$5M. East coast shows are already in full swing with west coast starting at 7PM PST. This is a bid by Uni to take their $5 billion-plus Fast & Furious series to another level, spinning it off
The first Fast & Furious spinoff Hobbs & Shaw will gas up overseas tomorrow, and start U.S./Canada previews on Thursday at 7PM, but the Dwayne Johnson-Jason Statham vehicle isn’t expected to start off at the top speeds like the last pic in the franchise, Fate of the Furious, which floored it around the world to $541.9M (including China), but cruise along
Universal confirmed that David Gordon Green and Danny McBride’s successful reincarnation of John Carpenter’s Halloween franchise is indeed returning — with not one but two new films. The studio said Friday that Halloween Kills will bow on October 16, 2020, and Halloween Ends, is set for October 15, 2021. Watch the video announcement below. The