Movies

A week of studio presentations and discussions, as well as chatter in the halls, at the CineEurope exhibition conference in Barcelona provided some interesting takeaways about the state of cinema and its future. The mood was generally optimistic, but concerns, and room for improvement, remain. Main talking points included the need for movie theater operators

Strong showings at the June 11 Tony Awards – both in terms of trophies and on-air performances – seem to have made an equally sturdy impact at the box office, with best musical Kimberly Akimbo and nominated & Juliet – posting their best numbers yet, and best play Leopoldstadt making significant gains over the previous

Two of the most successful specialty films of the year expand this weekend and a handful of others jump into an arthouse market that’s seen few new entrants in recent weeks as wide release piled on wide release. Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City jumps from a blockbuster six-theater opening ($800k over three days) last weekend for

Refresh for more….Sony’s mission to return comedy to the big screen with the R-Rated Jennifer Lawrence movie, No Hard Feelings, grossed $2.15M last night from showtimes that began at 4PM at 2,745 locations. The movie hopes to do around $12M this weekend in what will be second session where Warner Bros.’ misfire, The Flash, hopes

Warner Bros’ CineEurope show here in Barcelona was a starry, jam-packed affair featuring Zendaya and Timothée Chalamet who talked up Dune: Part Two, as well as their respective upcoming titles Challengers and Wonka. The proceedings kicked off with a pre-taped intro video featuring President of International Theatrical Distribution Andrew Cripps zipping along the 405 in

Paramount President of International Theatrical Distribution Mark Viane kicked off the studio’s CineEurope presentation with his annual fun pre-taped video, this time essaying the role of Mission: Impossible’s Ethan Hunt before appearing on stage dragging a parachute behind him in an homage to Tom Cruise’s latest spectacular stunt in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part

Sony Pictures said Wednesday that it has removed from its release date schedule El Muerto, the Bad Bunny-starring Spider-Man spinoff movie that is being directed by Jonas Cuarón. The Columbia Pictures pic is set to be the first time a Latino character leads a Marvel live-action film.  The studio had previously set El Muerto to hit theaters

Disney was the final studio to present here at CineEurope in Barcelona, highlighting 17 upcoming films and bringing A Haunting in Venice star/director Kenneth Branagh to town, as well as a live performance of “This Wish” from animated adventure Wish which releases in November. Head of Global Theatrical Distribution, Tony Chambers, started off the show,

Warner Bros’ DC pic The Flash, despite tumbling down with a $55M start, will remain atop the box office with a $16.5M-$24.7M second-weekend take as the marketplace largely takes a breath sans tentpoles before Disney/Lucasfilm’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny arrives for the Independence Day stretch. That Weekend 2 slide for The Flash

With Tuesday’s global business factored in, Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse has swung past the half-a-century mark worldwide, grossing $506.3M through yesterday. Domestically, the Joaquim Dos Santos/Kemp Powers/Justin K Thompson-directed sequel has so far made $290.4M. The international box office has contributed $215.9M to date. Across the Spider-Verse just opened today

Universal trotted out a dog, some “possessed” girls and a Wicked light show, during its CineEurope presentation here in Barcelona, while also celebrating the studio’s force in the animated space and touting next month’s Oppenheimer from Christopher Nolan. All this followed a reel of filmmakers heralding the cinema experience which it had previously shown at

In-theater advertising firm National CineMedia announced a special shareholders meeting to vote on a reverse stock split — a move that boosts the price of a company’s shares — as it risks being delisted by the Nasdaq market and works through a voluntary Chapter 11 reorganization. The company, which was founded and is largely owned

Asteroid City delivered a massive jolt to the arthouse and specialty world this weekend as the Wes Anderson film presented by Focus Features blew past records with an estimated $790k three-day gross and $890k estimated for the four-day weekend in just six theaters. That’s a per-theater average of $132,211 for the three days, and $148,901

Refresh for latest…: Warner Bros/DC’s The Flash sped into 78 overseas markets this weekend, grossing $75M, below the $85M-$95M we saw coming into the frame. With domestic’s slow-crawl three-day included, that makes for a $139M global opening. This is lower than projections, with general audiences not rushing out to see the deeper universe pic. As

There are a lot of lessons to be learned this weekend, but chief among them, is what’s it like for a major motion picture studio to open a movie with largely a number of its cast, primarily its main star, not available to do press. That’s the big looming question which has been on everyone’s

Sony has just reserved dates for untitled Sony/Marvel movies: Nov. 8, 2024 and June 27, 2025. Both will have access to Imax screens. Let the speculations begin — could be Venom 3, could be Tom Holland’s next Spider-Man movie. Currently, there’s nothing against a Sony Marvel movie on Nov. 8. Universal has an untitled event

Big news in specialty this weekend as Asteroid City arrives in theaters with Wes Anderson and his army of fans behind it and a major marketing campaign by Focus Features. The director’s latest opens at six locations in New York and Los Angeles, where Focus has partnered with Landmark for the reopening of Sunset, the

Executives of Regal parent Cineworld, led by CEO Mooky Greidinger, have agreed to a payout in the $30 million range, Deadline has confirmed, in the event that they leave leave the company as it prepares to exit Chapter 11. Documents filed earlier this year during ongoing bankruptcy proceedings in the Southern District of Texas indicated

Sony’s biggest hit of the summer, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, won’t be getting a release in the United Arab Emirates, Deadline has confirmed. The pic was set for release on June 22 in the Gulf region. Apparently, the point of contention has to do with Gwen Stacy, and whether the character is trans. One of

EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros./DC’s The Flash per box office sources is playing like a deeper universe superhero movie with around $9M in Thursday night previews which began at 3PM. While the pic’s critical score on Rotten Tomatoes has fallen to 67% fresh from 71% fresh, audiences are enjoying it more at 88%. That’s a good sign.

Police in Korea on Tuesday raided three major multiplex chains and the offices of three film distributors on suspicion of box office manipulation, according to multiple local media reports. News agency Yonhap, citing officials from the Seoul Metropolitan Police, said the six entities are alleged to have obstructed the business of the Korean Film Council

With the Tony Awards – and a seriously orange New York City sky – prompting some Broadway productions to reduce their playing schedules last week, total box office and attendance was down a bit, with the 33 shows taking in $30,961,479 for the week ending June 11. In all, four productions – Kimberly Akimbo, New

After a year plus of tabloid headlines about its star Ezra Miller, Warner Bros./DC’s Covid-delayed $200M Justice League standalone superhero movie, The Flash, finally arrives in theaters. The global opening looks better than domestic, $155M-$165M Global to a $70M+ in U.S./Canada. Despite a very good response out of CinemaCon and DC co-boss James Gunn exclaiming

Lin-Manuel Miranda wants to keep directing movies, but don’t look for him to mount any large-scale spectacles. “My responsibility as a filmmaker — and I really hope to make more movies — is to make the weird little musicals that no one else can get made,” he told Rosie Perez during an appearance Tuesday at

It feels like Covid all over again, but it’s not. Disney has just made a slew of release-date changes, many due to the impact of the WGA strike and screenplays not being ready and productions paused. We already know that Thunderbolts and Blade are waiting the strike out before rolling cameras. Scripts aren’t fully ready

Alex Newell of Shucked and J. Harrison Ghee of Some Like It Hot broke ground Sunday night as the first openly nonbinary Tony Award winners. Newell won for Best Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical and Ghee for Best Actor in a Lead Role in a Musical. Both drew huge ovations with acceptance

While she was ebullient about Leopoldstadt‘s Tony Awards wins, including a crowning one for Best Play, producer Sonia Friedman offered some sobering thoughts about plays of its scale and cost Sunday night. “Oooh, this is a big conversation,” Friedman said when asked about the challenges of producing a show like Tom Stoppard’s multi-layered look at

Utopia’s Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis) grossed an estimated $10k from one engagement at NYC’s Film Forum, where it was the top-ranking pic. Celebrated filmmaker and photographer Anton Corbijn’s first feature documentary is the story of Hipgnosis, the iconic album art design studio that was a force in the music industry behind some

Paramount/Skydance/Hasbro’s Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is on the prowl overseas with $43.3M through Friday in 68 markets. This portends a $100M+ international box office debut, in line with projections. The domestic three-day is looking at $60M. China, a key market for the franchise, released the Autobots and Maximals at No. 1 on Friday with $11.8M,

Comedians Jerry Seinfeld and Jim Gaffigan will do a four-arena tour together this fall. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. The upcoming dates include Friday, November 3, at the Chase Center in San Francisco; Saturday, November 4, at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles; Friday, November 10, in Chicago; and Saturday, November 11, at