Movies

Imax chief executive Rich Gelfond said he’s never seen China let as many U.S. titles into country as early as they have this year. After a slowdown in the pace that caused some angst in Hollywood, there’s been a steady stream of releases — although not necessarily a surge in ticket sales — with The

Disney’s return to live-action takes of their animated vault in the fullest theatrical form happens this weekend with Rob Marshall’s The Little Mermaid which is eyeing a $180M worldwide start. The majority of that number will be made stateside with $120M for the four-day Memorial Day weekend holiday, and around $100M over three days. At

Broadway’s box office was up a bit during the final week of the 2022-23 season, with only a few productions reporting slips from the previous week, including two – Funny Girl and Grey House – that saw temporary declines due to Covid cases within their casts. Last week, Funny Girl announced that Lea Michele had

Broadway box office for the 2022-23 season – the first full season since the industry’s return from the Covid closure – reached $1,577,586,897, a big increase over the last two hard-hit seasons but still about 14% lower than the pre-pandemic high of $1.8 billion. Figures released today by the Broadway League indicate that total attendance

Matt Johnson’s film BlackBerry about the rise and fall of the world’s first smartphone passed $1.7 million its second week out with an estimated three-day gross of $525k in 595 theaters. The Canadian number — $250k from 200 theaters — was only a 13% drop from opening weekend. Stateside, the indie crossed $1 million with a

As Sanctuary, Zachary Wigon’s twisted tale of a dominatrix and her wealthy client, opens in NY and LA, David Lancaster of producer Rumble Films recalls a speedy 18-day shoot on a custom-made set in Brownsville, Brooklyn in late summer of 2021. It was Covid, so not the easiest time for indie financing. It world premiered

Universal’s Fast X, in what was an early start for previews for the franchise at 2 p.m., sparked to $7.5 million in Thursday numbers. Forecasts see the Louis Leterrier-directed tenthquel at a $60 million-plus stateside frame this weekend, with a greater amount of gas abroad at $235 million. How last night stacks up: the previous

Fueled by the strong performance of John Wick: Chapter 4, Lionsgate’s John Wick franchise has crossed the $1B mark at the worldwide box office. The Keanu Reeves-led series’ total take to date now stands at $1,011,319,297 global. Of the quartet, Chapter 4 is the highest-grossing, with $425.3M and counting. Next up is 2019’s John Wick:

IMAX is ramping up its operations in France, as well as expanding its longstanding relationship with Kinepolis in Europe and North America. In France, IMAX will aim to nearly triple the number of its systems from the 22 currently in operation to more than 60. One of those will be in partnership with Belgian exhibitor

Universal’s Fast X has started its engines overseas, opening notably in China and Korea on Wednesday and clocking $18.4M from just those two markets.  The Louis Leterrier-directed franchise instalment got off to a strong start in China, taking an estimated $17.4M today, including $2.7M from midnight shows. It’s dominating the market with 84% of the

EXCLUSIVE: Briarcliff Entertainment has acquired U.S. distribution rights to Christian Gudegast’s action thriller sequel, Den of Thieves 2: Pantera which stars Gerard Butler and O’Shea Jackson Jr. reprising their respective roles of “Big Nick” and “Donnie”. A wide theatrical release is planned for Q4 of 2024. Gudegast also wrote the screenplay for the production which

While it might seem that Fast X has run out of gas in the states, it’s totally turbo boasted overseas as the tenth installment in the Universal franchise is eyeing a an offshore start of $235M to 60M+ domestic. That will get Fast X to $295M worldwide, making it the third highest global start for

Tony nominations seem to have given a box office boost to at least some of Broadway’s shows, with Some Like It Hot, Kimberly Akimbo, Parade and Leopoldstadt reporting noticeable bumps for the week ending May 14. The biggest improvement, though, was for a musical that scored zero nominations: Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ grossed $678,147 in its

Refresh for latest…: After crossing the $300M mark globally through Monday last week, Disney/Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 has thrust to another milestone. The James Gunn-directed threequel handily crossed the half a billion mark in the sophomore frame and now sits at an estimated $528.8M global through Sunday. Of that, $213.2M is from

In a rare weekend with fewer new studio wide releases, IFC Films had a one-two punch at the box office with Matt Johnson’s film BlackBerry grossing $473k nationwide in 450 theaters, for a U.S. per theater average of $1.05k and cracking the top ten on Friday. It will gross an estimated $740k in North America this weekend,

A beloved ballplayer and an iconic consumer device join a Hollywood satire by Charlie Day, an Emanuele Crialese film with Penelope Cruz and debuts from Sundance and Venice in a potentially strong specialty weekend that will test the appetite for indie film with no new franchise wide releases. Sony Pictures Classics opens Sean Mullin’s Yogi

Refresh for updates...The box office and the industry is in need of counterprogramming working after several non-tentpoles were squashed by Super Mario Bros Movie and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, and hopefully that will be Focus Features’ Book Club: The Next Chapter. With $500K in Thursday previews, the movie is looking at a $7M-$10M

The sequel to the Oscar winning animated hit is looking at an opening between $70M to $80M per two tracking agencies as it heads into its June 2-4 opening. Spider-Man: Across the Universe, while it has its fanboy fandom, doesn’t necessarily comp to a live-action Marvel Cinematic Universe title per distribution sources, despite the audience

Students at Boston University will have to cross a Writers Guild picket line to attend their May 21 graduation ceremony, where Warner Bros. Discovery President & CEO David Zaslav, an alumnus of the school, will be making the commencement address. The guild previously had warned the school that its members would picket there if he

EXCLUSIVE: Blumhouse’s Jeff Wadlow-directed horror movie Imaginary will be released by Lionsgate on February 2. It’s the first time in quite some time that the two studios have teamed up. In the movie, which Wadlow co-wrote with Greg Erb and Jason Oremland, a young woman returns to her childhood home only to discover that the

Warner Bros. will open Beetlejuice 2 on Sept. 6, 2024. The pic is expected to go before the cameras in London tomorrow. Tim Burton reteams with Michael Keaton in this sequel to the cult 1988 movie which made $75M and further propelled the latter’s star power before working with the filmmaker again in the title

Disney/Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 has rocketed past the $300M mark globally through Monday. At the same time, it will propel The Walt Disney Company across $2B worldwide for 2023 to date with today’s numbers included. Weekend actuals on the James Gunn-directed threequel came in higher with a full opening frame of $289.3M

Perhaps last week’s Tony Award nominations started paying off at the box office quicker than expected, at least for a few productions: Figures for last week, while down overall, indicate a nice bump upwards for Some Like It Hot, Shucked, Summer, 1976 and Good Night, Oscar. Some Like It Hot, the musical adaptation of the

James Gunn’s MCU threequel, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, came in even higher than Disney was anticipating. We had a sense it was $116M on Saturday night. The pic is now at $118.4M per Disney this morning after a $31.4M Sunday (yesterday was forecasted at $27M). That’s the 12th highest opening of all-time during

Comedy is back; Super Mario Bros has proved that laughs are good for a half billion dollars. The antihero business is intact. Both Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 and John Wick: Chapter 4 hit their marks. But affairs of the heart are still suffering at the movie box office. Love Again is the latest

With Universal pushing R-rated comedy Please Don’t Destroy from Aug. 18 to Peacock, another R-rated movie, Strays, featuring the voices of Will Ferrell & Jamie Foxx is back-filling that date. Originally, Strays was to open on June 9, a month from now. The WGA Strike is partly the reason for Strays‘ movie; an original bawdy

Indian films are a box office mainstay and one, Jodi, from Rhythm Boyz Entertainment, hit big this weekend Stateside, grossing $734,000 on just 125 screens. In April, the film set a record as the most viewed Punjabi trailer in 24 hours (over 12 million views on YouTube). “This has been happening more and more —

EXCLUSIVE: Disney’s live-action take of 2x Oscar nominated animated feature, The Little Mermaid, officially landed on tracking today for what looks to be a $110M 4-day opening. That will land the movie among the top eight openings for the holiday, last year Paramount’s Top Gun: Maverick scoring a record start of $160.5M. Of course, Little

Giant theater chain AMC Entertainment saw sales blow past Wall Street forecasts for the March quarter, rising 20% to $954 million. Losses narrowed by $102 million to $235 million, for an adjusted EPS of 17 cents a share, a also ahead of expectations. “It will take a few more years for the industry box office

A sleek theater from Look Dine-In Cinemas opened this weekend in NYC (or reopened at the former Landmark) on West 57th Street. With wood, windows and well-stocked bar, it’s the face of exhibition that wants to grab moviegoers and keep them. The look is midcentury modern. Each Look location — there are 12 — “is