The latest Hunger Games, set decades before the original, is grittier and “more authentic” in some ways but doesn’t waver from existential questions, as relevant now as they were when the first films came out, said the director and producer of Ballads of Songbirds And Snakes. “Are we worthy of freedom? Are we unable to
CinemaCon
Focus Features’ Sundance-premiering Polite Society opens on 927 screens, the feature debut of writer/director Nida Manzoor, creator of We Are Lady Parts, the Peacock comedy about the eponymous British punk rock band. This comedic mash-up of sisterly affection, parental disappointment and bold action, where martial artist-in-training Ria Khan tryies to save her older sister from
CinemaCon 2023 officially drew to a close this evening in Las Vegas, with NATO handing out its Big Screen Achievement Awards to such recipients as Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas, Zendaya, Chris Meledandri and Melissa McCarthy. The evening’s sentiment continued the running theme of the four-day conference: celebrating and preserving the theatrical experience. Nolan and Thomas
Mooky Greidinger, chief executive of Regal parent Cineworld, of the world’s two biggest chains and currently in the process of emerging from bankruptcy, made an appearance on the Cinemacon stage today saluting Regal employees and giving a shout-out to Lionsgate and Hunger Games. At the last studio presentation of the week, Lionsgate rolled out the
Eightyseven North brought a stunt dance crew and motorocycles on stage toward the finale of Universal’s CinemaCon presentation for their 2024 movie The Fall Guy. Quite often the studios here at CinemaCon keep it confined to showing off 2023 product, but Uni wanted to give exhibitors in the room something more. Following the Fast X
“We thought we’d give you a little taste of it,” said Universal Pictures boss about Wicked, which is in production in London with Jon Chu directing and Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo in the respective roles of Glinda and Elphaba. The rough footage, which even some Uni execs haven’t seen, showed, Elphaba getting trained by
Illumination Boss Chris Meledandri announced the voiceover cast for the studio’s upcoming animated pic, Migration, set for a Dec. 22 release. The pic follows a family of ducks who try to convince their overprotective father to go on the vacation of a lifetime. Joining the cast is Oscar and Emmy nominee Kumail Nanjiani (The Big Sick, Eternals) as anxious Mallard dad Mack
Illumination/Nintendo/Universal’s The Super Mario Bros Movie has notched yet another milestone, crossing the $900M mark globally with Tuesday’s grosses included. Through 21 days in release, the worldwide cume is $901.2M with $444M from domestic and $457.2M at the international box office. As we pointed out at the weekend (whose actuals came in at $875M global,
Warner Bros. has no worries in The Flash. The studio knew they had the goods on the DC multiverse movie which brings together Ben Affleck and Michael Keaton’s Batman, Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman, Michael Shannon’s General Zod and a new Supergirl in Sasha Calle, and boldly premiered the movie here at CinemaCon Las Vegas to
Kevin Wilson has officially been named the Head of Theatrical Distribution for Amazon Studios and MGM as the parent company combines both labels into one theatrical distribution group. The news comes in the wake of the passing of Amazon-MGM previous theatrical distribution boss, Erik Lomis, who was given a heartfelt remembrance today at CinemaCon by
Sony Motion Pictures Chairman and CEO Tom Rothman introduced a sequence from Ridley Scott’s Apple TV+ movie, Napoleon at CinemaCon tonight. Apple’s continued foray into theatrical was a big get for Sony, which is distributing the movie. “It will be released at Thanksgiving with a robust theatrical window and robust marketing campaign before moving to
“I thank you from the bottom of my heart,” Denzel Washington told a Colosseum-full of exhibition executives at CinemaCon. The star of The Equalizer 3 — first trailer dropping tomorrow — received a Lifetime Achievement Award presented by director Antoine Fuqua during Sony’s presentation, which kicked off the annual four day-event in Las Vegas. “We
Digital and social media marketing chiefs of major studios said today they’re really hoping the threat of a U.S. government ban on Tiktok never materializes, so crucial has the platform become to launching films. They’d also like Elon Musk-owned Twitter to get itself together, since that’s also a key platform for Hollywood. “I don’t personally
In a week when distributors and exhibitors are reconvening for their annual Las Vegas meet-up, CinemaCon, and celebrating the post-pandemic resurge of the box office, the motion picture industry is bracing for a potential WGA strike. With production and deal-making slowing down, especially with 98% of WGA West and WGA East authorizing a strike if
EXCLUSIVE: Deadline has learned that Warner Bros Discovery CEO and President, David Zaslav, will be teeing off Warner Bros studio presentation at CinemaCon on Tuesday AM, April 25. While it’s standard for the heads of motion picture studio divisions, read Sony’s Tom Rothman, Universal’s Donna Langley, and former Warner Bros chief Toby Emmerich to share
Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback have been set to receive the Rising Stars of the Year Award at CinemaCon 2023. The Transformers: Rise of the Beasts duo will receive the recognition from NATO’s official convention at its Big Screen Achievement Awards ceremony, which takes place at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas the
The National Association of Theatre Owners on Thursday said it has appointed Michael P. O’Leary president and CEO of the association beginning May 1. He takes over for outgoing NATO boss John Fithian, who announced his retirement in October after working with the exhibitor trade org for three decades. “On behalf of NATO’s Executive Board
NATO will present Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas with its Spirit of the Industry Award at CinemaCon in April for the event’s closing night Big Screen Achievement Awards. It comes as the Nolan written-directed Oppenheimer is set for theatrical release July 21 from Universal Pictures. Produced by Thomas, Atlas Entertainment’s Charles Roven and Nolan. “I am
Studio brass wowed theater owners this week with Maverick: Top Gun, Avatar: The Way of Water and Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse among other tentpoles. But they were also clear at the just-wrapped CinemaCon that a reviving box office requires a wide breadth of content. “If we narrow what we bring to theaters, our audience will get
Robert De Niro took a moment to slam what he sees as pervasive political falsehood as he accepted the Cinéma Verité Award at CinemaCon’s closing event. “Cinema audiences are returning to your theaters in droves. I wish verité was having a renaissance to. But this is a tough time. We have big untruths, like Ukraine
Lionsgate announced at the end of their CinemaCon session today that the Hunger Games prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes will finally hit theaters on Nov. 17, 2023. That date is the same pre-Thanksgiving corridor where The Hunger Games sequels Catching Fire, Mockingjay Part One and Mockingjay Part Two opened. CinemaCon 2022: Deadline’s Full Coverage The pic, as previously announced, is directed by those
“We have our own superheroes here at Focus Feature and they are going to bring older filmgoers back to your movie theaters,” Lisa Bunnell, Focus Features distribution chief, promised thousands of cinema execs at Universal’s CinemaCon presentation Wednesday. “They want to see something new. They come,” she said, welcoming the cast of Downton Abbey: A
Universal closed out its CinemaCon 2022 on Wednesday with more footage from its June 10 summer extravaganza, Jurassic World Dominion, with stars Bryce Dallas Howard and Jeff Goldblum on hand to send exhibitors off. In the footage, we see both the casts from Jurassic Park — i.e., Goldblum, Laura Dern and Sam Neill, and the Jurassic
Shazam: Fury of the Gods will no longer bow on the same day as Avatar 2, which is December 16, rather than December 21. Disney and Avatar 2 producer Jon Landau let theater owners know Wednesday at CinemaCon that, yes, it’s true: Avatar 2 is sticking to its Christmas corridor release date. In addition, Disney showed off a trailer and titled
Warner Bros. brought a lot of DC –a lot– to their CinemaCon session today. In addition to a The Flash trailer, Dwayne Johnson showing up to push DC League of Super-Pets and Black Adam, the cast of Shazam: Fury of the Gods stopped by with a trailer, in addition to James Wan how had a sizzle reel of Aquaman
AMC Entertainment CEO Adam Aron said an earlier gig as chief executive of the Philadelphia 76ers got him active on social media, tweeting with his hometown NBA team’s fan base. The experience proved key navigating a dramatic transformation in the theater chain’s shareholder base from mostly institutions to about 4 million private individuals. Until early
Disruption will continue to weigh on the international theatrical system as the Russia-Ukraine war drags on and well over half of China’s theaters are shuttered in the latest Covid crackdown. Andrew Cripps, president, international theatrical distribution, Warner Bros Pictures, said that Russia — which is currently being boycotted by studios — makes up about 5%
With the box office’s rebound just as 5K attendees are reconvening at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, exhibition and studios can rest easy knowing that there’s a return to a theatrical window. For most studios with tentpole fare, that’s 45 days, and for those titles with less commercial appeal or aimed at specialty audiences, it’s 17
CinemaCon launches Monday at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, the second in-person gathering of theater owners and Hollywood studios since August, and Covid. That edition was shadowed by the Delta Variant, ongoing theater closures and shifting release dates. Now the picture is significantly brighter. Domestic attendance at the confab, including a full complement of studio
This summer will be significantly better than last, or at least that’s the expectation from Fandango’s second annual Moviegoing Trends & Insights Study, which just dropped this morning ahead of CinemaCon. Among those 6K moviegoers polled by the online movie ticket retailer, 83% plan to see three or more movies in theaters between the May to