Widespread optimism months ago that domestic box office might readily return to pre-Covid levels has given way to a new sense of pragmatism about the movie business. This year’s tally will far surpass last year’s $4.5 billion haul, but it will certainly fall billions short of 2019’s $11.4 billion in receipts, and all bets are
Covid
It’s a bizarre world, this (almost, more-or-less, maybe) post-Covid movie landscape. Pieces are falling into place: Production starts have been up for a year, box-office revenue continues to climb, though it’s still a long reach to pre-Covid highs. But so much is so different, and I don’t mean just the obvious shift toward streaming. Look
Several Broadway shows impacted by the uptick in New York City Covid cases last week are still feeling the effects this week: Plaza Suite has canceled performances at least through tomorrow, Paradise Square has canceled most of this week, and A Strange Loop is off until Thursday. Macbeth, starring Daniel Craig and Ruth Negga, returned
The Broadway productions of Macbeth, starring Daniel Craig and Ruth Negga, and the Pulitzer-winning A Strange Loop have canceled tonight’s performances as both shows recover from recent Covid cases. The two productions are expected to resume performances on Tuesday, April 12. Both shows had previously canceled last week’s performances due to Covid cases within their
UPDATE, with Public Theater/SUFFS info: A Strange Loop, Michael R. Jackson’s Pulitzer-winning musical, has canceled its first Broadway preview, originally set for Wednesday, due to cases of Covid detected within the company. Previews now are expected to begin Thursday, April 7, at the Lyceum Theatre with understudies in some roles. The show becomes the second
Before the pandemic, if there was something studio executives rubbed their hands about, it was the near total eclipse of the theatrical window. In 2021, for some studios that dream came true, and as far as 2022 goes, hopefully they’ve learned their lesson from this nightmare that, in Deadline’s annual survey, shows largely diluted box
Wednesday AM Update: Tuesday box office figures To all the cynics out there who believe that the pandemic and streaming have annihilated theatrical moviegoing, well, Sony/Marvel’s Spider-Man: No Way Home just beat the final $515.2M domestic total of 2019’s Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker with $516.4M. Worldwide with $1.16 billion, Spider-Man: No Way Home is officially Sony’s
Stopping short of a lockdown or the addition of curfews as some other European countries have imposed recently, France is introducing new measures to combat the spread of the Omicron variant. Chief among them affecting the entertainment industry is that consuming food and drink in cinemas will be banned beginning Monday, January 3, for a
Adult demos slow to embrace cinemas may be even slower this holiday weekend amid a barrage of breathless Omicron headlines — that aren’t all bad. It spreads fast but seems less virulent than previous strains, and may burn out faster. “I think we might get dinged a little bit,” said one distribution executive. However, “This
California Governor Gavin Newsom announced today that the state had recorded nearly 11,000 new cases of Covid-19 over the past 24 hours. That marks a 100% increase from the daily number of 5,400 new cases recorded just one week ago. The actual count, according to the state’s Covid data dashboard, was 10,903. Newsom also announced
Broadway box office tumbled last week, dropping 26% from the previous week to a combined tally of $22,511,627 for the 31 productions. Attendance for the week ending Dec. 19 – a week marked by the emergence in New York of the Omicron covid variant and the beginning of a rush of Broadway cancellations – was
UPDATE, with Mrs. Doubtfire Mrs. Doubtfire just joined the roster of on-pause Broadway productions due to positive Covid test results within the company. Producers announced that performances of the musical at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre from tonight through Sunday, Dec. 19, have been canceled. Described as being on “hiatus,” Mrs. Doubtfire is scheduled to resume
Who says people don’t want to go to the movies and are complete lemmings for streaming? Comscore this morning reports that the October domestic box office clocked $638M, the highest month to date during the pandemic beating July’s $583.8M. Seventy-five percent of October’s figure was driven by major studio event pics Sony’s Venom: Let There
Before the industry could calculate summer’s final box office figures, they had to wait for Disney, which had the final say. Because when you have a Marvel movie like Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings programmed during the final weekend of the season, and it delivers a Labor Day holiday opening of $94.67M, it
The New York Comedy Festival has set a lineup of 200 performers set to take the stage across the city’s five boroughs when the festival returns in-person in November. Among those performing are Vir Das, Tim Dillon, Colin Quinn, Michelle Wolf, Norm Macdonald, Megan Stalter, Ronny Chieng, Nick Kroll, ALOK, Marc Maron, Brian Regan, Bill
It’s fascinating to watch local governments — New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New Orleans — rush to enact Covid vaccine requirements for entry to the publicly accessible spaces of private business, including, yes, movie theaters. I’m not equipped to judge the ultimate propriety or efficacy of such mandates. Frankly, the complexities posed by breakthroughs,
Documentaries about a da Vinci and a dictator, a Pablo Larraín drama with Gael Garcia Bernal, a Donnie Yen martial arts thriller by the late Benny Chan, and CODA, Apple’s record-busting Sundance acquisition, make specialty bows this weekend as the arthouse sector fights through a slow reopening. “The market is still finding a balance right
AMC Entertainment CEO Adam Aron sees two things protecting the circuit in the face of surging Covid cases trigered by the Delta variant – its own Safe & Clean protocols, and vaccinations. “To our knowledge there has not been a single transmission of Covid by an AMC guest over the past year,” he said. “Most
Though Broadway as an industry has yet to definitively rule on whether Covid vaccinations will be required of audience members this fall, a second production – Lincoln Center Theater’s production of Pass Over at the Jujamcyn-owned August Wilson Theatre – has announced that the policy will be enforced when the play begins previews next month.
In an effort to combat an increasing number of Delta variant Covid cases, France is set to introduce tighter restrictions affecting cultural activities beginning July 21. From that date, it will become mandatory for those over 12-years-old to show the official EU Digital Covid Certificate (or “health pass”) to access all cultural and leisure venues
It’s thrilling to watch Lionsgate make a run at the box office top spot with The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard, a grown-up comedy. Not a kiddie fantasy, like Peter Rabbit 2 or Cruella. Not a Covid-era placeholder, like The War With Grandpa, or a streaming event, like Borat Subsequent Moviefilm. But a rough, raucous, R-rated action
Cinemas in Tokyo and Osaka will be allowed to reopen from June 1, as local authorities ease restrictions on large-scale facilities. The central government of Japan is extending a state of emergency, however, until June 20. Meanwhile, Universal Studios Japan is also set to open its doors on Tuesday, at reduced capacity and on weekdays
There’s excitement in the air — and a whole lot of movies lined up — across the UK and France as cinemas are set to reopen in both markets this week after roughly seven months of darkened screens. Below we take a look at how the situation is shaping up in these majors. In the
Man In Love, a Taiwanese remake of the 2014 Korean romantic drama has been winning hearts locally, grossing $11.3M through Sunday, and remaining No. 1 for three weeks in a row, despite holdover competition from Godzilla Vs Kong and Mortal Kombat. The debut feature from Yin Chen-Hao is coming out of its fourth frame and
As France struggles with a rise in Covid variant cases, the country will enter a third nationwide lockdown beginning April 3, President Emmanuel Macron announced this evening in a televised address. This is currently expected to last until May 2, though it will be less restrictive than the first full lockdown at this time last
Saturday AM Update: There’s lots of good news ahead at the box office, but we’re not quite there yet. The No. 1 box office market, Los Angeles (over $900M in 2019), won’t begin to really wake up until next weekend, and then the industry’s only headache is waiting for capacity restrictions to increase well beyond
German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday extended Germany’s current lockdown to March 28, while also unveiling plans to relax certain Covid restrictions. Under a five-step process, cinemas may be able to reopen beginning March 22 at the earliest (this would be part of Stage 4). All will depend on the infection rate, and Stage 4
In the span of six days, the Chinese box office roared to a $1.2B Lunar New Year record, with Wanda Pictures’ Detective Chinatown 3 setting global benchmarks for the biggest opening day and weekend in a single market. This happened even as some Covid restrictions remain in place in the Middle Kingdom. While the pandemic
On Wednesday, Chinese New Year box office achieved yet another new milestone with grosses for the holiday period growing to an estimated RMB 7.78B ($1.2B). This beats the previous all-time high set during the comparable 2019 holiday (RMB 5.9B). China often outdoes itself, but the fact that 2021’s Lunar New Year frame came with Covid
France’s cinemas and other cultural venues are to remain closed until at least the end of January, French Prime Minister Jean Castex announced during a press conference this evening local time. The move is not terribly surprising given the country’s daily rate of new Covid-19 cases is well above the 5,000 threshold that had been