Breaking News

Belfast, Kenneth Branaugh’s intensely personal story of one boy’s childhood in tumultuous late 1960s Northern Ireland, earned an estimated $1.8M in 580 locations this weekend for a PTA of $3,111 – a solid showing for a black-and-white film in a specialty market that’s waging what one distribution exec calls an “an inch-by-inch, week-by-week recovery.” The

Saturday AM Update: Despite the worst reviews for a Marvel movie, and a B CinemaScore, the second weekend of Disney/Marvel’s Eternals didn’t implode, now on track for a -62% weekend, which is on the high end of where we were expecting it with $27.4M. The pic made $7.8M yesterday, -75%. Through ten days, the Chloe Zhao directed

Sony, which doesn’t mess around with theatrical day-and-date releases like some other motion picture studios, can celebrate their Marvel sequel Venom: Let There Be Carnage crossing the $200 million mark in the US and Canada. It is the second movie to do so during Covid, after Disney/Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

Sony Pictures Classics releases Telluride-darling documentary Julia with a national TV push, culinary events and virtual screenings through November hosted by famous chefs from Alice Waters (San Francisco) and Johnny Spero (Boston) to Jamie Bissonnette (Houston) and luminaries from New York, LA, Philly and Miami. Directors Betsy West and Julie Cohen talked up the film

Paramount’s Clifford the Big Red Dog, which is taking advantage of the Veterans Day holiday, leashed second place on its opening day Wednesday with $2.3M, which includes previews at 3,407 theaters. The Walt Becker-directed feature adaptation of the 58-year-old Scholastic children’s book IP also is available on Paramount+ as some studios practice a hybrid form of distribution

Imax has named former Lionsgate and Netflix publicity veteran Julie Fontaine as SVP Marketing in what is a newly created position at the large-format exhibitor. She will report directly to Imax chief marketing officer Denny Tu. Fontaine will oversee strategic marketing campaigns and creative for Imax’s global event features lineup as well as product and

This just in from Paramount: Transformers: Rise of the Beasts will no longer be opening on June 24, 2022 rather June 9, 2023. And the new Star Trek movie they’ve been in development on won’t launch on June 9, 2023 rather Dec. 22, 2023. The pic is in development with Matt Shakman attached to direct, as we first told

Despite Disney’s commitment to a pure theatrical window during Q4 of this year with wide releases like Eternals and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, CEO Bob Chapek isn’t ruling out the possibility of going theatrical day-and-date with Disney+ again. “We’re sticking with our plan of flexibility,” said the CEO today on the conglom’s

EXCLUSIVE: United Artists Releasing is pivoting its awards season release of MGM’s Joe Wright feature musical Cyrano. Instead of the Peter Dinklage-Haley Bennett movie going limited on Dec. 31, UAR will qualify the movie for Oscars with a one week run in Los Angeles on Dec. 17. The pic, which already counts 86% fresh on

Paramount will continue to experiment with a theatrical day-and-date release model during the pandemic with eOne’s Clifford the Big Red Dog, a live-action CGI hybrid take of the 1963 Scholastic children’s book classic which hit theaters today at 1:30PM, goes wide tomorrow at 3,695 theaters and also drops on Paramount+. The movie is expected to do between

AMC Entertainment saw revenue jump to $763 million last quarter, beating Wall Street forecasts on a strong movie slate and accelerating theatrical recovery. Adjusted EPS losses of 44 cents a share shrank from a loss of $8.41 a year ago. Analysts had anticipated sales of $708 million with an EPS loss of 53 cents. As

AMC CEO Adam Aron, who already has announced a push into retail popcorn sales and accepting payment in cryptocurrencies, waxed enthusiastic Monday at a flood of new ventures suggested by the chain’s 4.1 million retail investors. The floated ideas include everything from an AMC credit card and a return to movie producing to its own

At the exit to a gallery in the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is a display of opinions about the future of cinema. For example: “THE FUTURE OF CINEMA IS INCLUSION NOT EXCLUSION” –Kimberly Steward                                         

Neon’s Spenser with Kristin Stewart rang in an opening weekend of $2.149 million on 996 screens, a per screen average of $2,158 as the film failed to connect in a market that remains a stubbornly hard sell for specialty and independent films. The well-reviewed (with raves for Stewart as Lady Diana) reimagining by director Pablo

Cinemark, the nation’s third-largest movie chain, grew revenue and slashed losses last quarter, the first one since Covid with 100% of its theaters open. Talking with Wall Streeters on his last conference call as CEO, Mark Zoradi described a push into gaming (hiring a VP, setting up a dedicated division) as well as wrestling and

Neon presents Spencer on just under 1,000 screens, Pablo Larraín’s well reviewed psychological drama about the weekend Princess Diana rewrote the future of the British monarchy. The film is said to be looking at a $2-$2.5 million opening with an 84% Certified Fresh critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes but a 50% audience score (albeit from

Sony has dated TriStar’s The Woman King from Gina Prince-Bythewood to open on Sept. 16, 2022. The movie will be up against Universal/Amblin’s sci-fi movie Distant and Lionsgate’s White Bird: A Wonder Story.  At the same time they’ve pushed Affirm Films’ untitled George Foreman Biopic from Sept. 16, 2022 next year to March 24, 2023. On the pic’s

Deadline has confirmed that Disney is shutting down production on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever for a temporary amount of time. The news Friday comes in the wake of star Letitia Wright injuring herself in late August, when she suffered minor injuries on a stunt rig incident. She was released from the hospital at that time. We

UPDATED, Friday midday: Disney’s Eternals is heading toward a $30 million Friday, including those $9.5M previews from last night. Given that Friday is typically around 40% of the weekend, this will put the Chloé Zhao-directed movie in the $70M-$75M range from what we’ve figured. Again, this could fluctuate up or down by Saturday morning. Do the fans

Among film distribution executives in town, there’s a saying about Disney’s theatrical releases, in particular their Marvel titles: That they’re “five quad” movies. What does that mean? Essentially, the Marvel Cinematic Universe titles are known to overindex and perform well beyond the norms of a regular four quadrant demographic tentpole which is aimed at male

Theatrical giant AMC Entertainment announced it’s “expanding its business outside of the traditional theatrical exhibition industry with plans to capture a piece of the growing multi-billion dollar popcorn market.” That means it will be selling AMC Theatres Perfectly Popcorn through four new platforms starting next year, including at AMC Theatres Perfectly Popcorn kiosks at select

The anticipated robust overseas box office of Disney/Marvel’s Eternals, which posted a first day of $7.6M, will definitely not have Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman in its future release plans. Eternals was originally scheduled to open in the region on Nov. 11. While official reasons weren’t provided by either the studio or the local territories,

Universal is transporting next year’s DreamWorks Pictures’ sci-fi movie Distant from March 11 to September 16. Distant leaves behind Disney/Pixar’s Turning Red on its old date and now will face off against Lionsgate’s family movie White Bird: A Wonder Story and Sony’s untitled George Foreman biopic on its new date. The pic directed by Josh Gordon and Will Speck