Movies

The motion picture industry remains in a state of rehabilitation. Just look at the majors’ domestic box office alone. Back in 2019, four studios grossed over a billion apiece, with Disney-Fox reaping $4.28 billion alone. This year, only three studios grossed $1 billion or more. And while we do get down to the nitty gritty,

After earning the highest grossing Tuesday of 2022 with $24.1M, 20th Century Studios/Disney/Lightstorm’s Avatar: The Way of Water also notched the best Wednesday of the year yesterday with $20.4M beating Top Gun: Maverick‘s June 1 take of $14.8M, and Avatar 2‘s first Wednesday of $14.4M. At a running total of $337.9M through 13 days, the

AMC Entertainment has rejiggered is board, announcing the election of two new directors and one who is exiting. The former Sundance Institute chief and Miramax production president Keri Putman, a big advocate for independent film, as well as Dee Clark, who has worked in information technology at Hasbro, Mattel, Warner Music and Apple, will join

Any cynicism about a broken down Christmas box office, impacted by weather, was wiped away Tuesday as 20th Century Studios/Disney/Lightstorm’s Avatar: The Way of Water racked up $23.8M sending its domestic cume to $317.1M. In addition, the sequel flew past the $1 billion mark at the worldwide box office. Director James Cameron has told the

WEDNESDAY UPDATE:, Refresh for latest… James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water has officially topped the $1B global mark. As we wrote yesterday (see below), the 20th Century Studios/Disney sequel got to the milestone with Tuesday’s grosses. This benchmark has been met in just 14 days of worldwide release.  Way of Water now has bragging rights

Adam Aron said today he’s asked the theater chain’s board of directors to freeze his compensation for 2023 given the decline in AMC stock. “Biggest inflation in 40 years, so in 2023 companies will grant large % salary raises. But I do not want “more” when our shareholders are hurting. So, I recommended to the

“I had a bit of a crisis of faith as we were cutting the movie together,” admitted James Cameron of his billion-dollar-grossing Avatar: The Way of Water. “It was too violent. I wanted a balance between the beauty, the epiphany, the kind of spiritual aspect of the film, with the action, and I felt it

Damien Chazelle’s $80M 1920s-set Hollywood epic Babylon went up in a blaze of fire at the domestic box office this past weekend with an awful $5.3M four-day start. Say what you will about harsh winter conditions impacting moviegoing across the country, however, this movie, which was greenlit by a previous Paramount regime and greatly supported

Coming out of its second weekend, James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water has banked an estimated $855.4M globally through Sunday. The sophomore session added $168.6M at the international box office in 52 markets for a $601.7M running cume. Also overseas, 20th Century Studios/Disney’s highly-anticipated sequel passed Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and

New Yorkers braved the cold this weekend for Corsage at two theaters ( IFC Center, Film at Lincoln Center) as Marie Kreutzer’s biopic of Empress Elisabeth of Austria starring Vicky Krieps grossed an estimated $32,000 over the three-day weekend for a robust $16k per screen average. The four-day estimate for the IFC Films biopic of

James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water has grossed $497.1M globally through Monday, well on its way across the half a billion mark worldwide when Tuesday’s take is tallied.  Already, the 20th Century Studios/Disney sci-fi adventure sequel has helped push the Walt Disney Studios past the $4B worldwide mark for 2022. While it came in

The Alamo Drafthouse movie chain looks set to hit $350,000 in ticket sales this November and December from Jon Favreau’s Will Ferrell-starring holiday favorite Elf. The 2003 comedy, about a human baby raised in Santa’s North Pole workshop who returns to New York and saves Christmas, is the chain’s top all-time repertory title, with cumulative

FRIDAY AFTERNOON UPDATE: Close to eighty cinemas have shuttered today as Winter Storm Elliott tears up the Midwest, 1.3M lose power, and many cities such as Atlanta, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Tallahassee set to see record cold Christmas Eve temperatures per the National Weather Service. Multiplexes in such cities as Cleveland (16 turning off the lights),

Patti Smith hosted a New York screening of Corsage last week, one of many showings since the Oscar-shortlisted Best International Feature contender premiered to a warm welcome in Cannes, where it won Best Performance, Un Certain Regard, for star Vicky Krieps as the Empress Elisabeth of Austria, Sisi for short. It’s fitting that Smith, royalty

20th Century Studios/Disney’s Avatar: The Way of Water made $14.3 million yesterday at 4,202 theaters, ranking it as the second best Wednesday of 2022 after Top Gun: Maverick‘s $14.8M on June 1. Avatar 2‘s first Wednesday also outstripped that of Minions: The Rise of Gru ($13.5M, July 6) and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’s first and

With strong and consistent mid-weeks, James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water has crested the $600M mark worldwide. This comes after it rapidly passed $500M global earlier this week, following its $441.6M opening weekend. The current worldwide total through Wednesday is $609.7M including $426.8M from the international box office. The offshore cume lifts Way of

The Sony Adam Driver sci-fi movie 65 is moving onto the opening weekend of New Line’s Shazam: Fury of the Gods, March 17-19. The Scott Beck-Bryan Woods movie was previously dated for March 10, 2023. The studio, I hear, has a confidence in the movie, and it’s to give the pic some air from the

Searchlight’s Next Goal Wins from Oscar-winning filmmaker Taika Waititi is jumping from April 21 next year to Sept. 22. It won’t be a shocker if this film world premieres at TIFF as that’s where Waititi’s Jojo Rabbit blasted off before its Oscar run winning the fest’s top prize, the People’s Choice Award. Next Goal Wins

20th Century Studios/Disney’s Avatar: The Way of Water‘s Tuesday box office is looking at $17M, and could possibly topple Minions: Rise of Gru‘s first Tuesday of $17.5M to become the best Tuesday of 2022. Some rival studios are seeing higher, but we’ll see how it settles come the morning. In its fifth day, the James

Funny Girl broke a house record with more than $2 million in receipts at the August Wilson Theatre, A Beautiful Noise continued its $1 million-plus weekly take, and The Piano Lesson topped the list of highest-grossing non-musical productions with $914,752, each contributing to Broadway’s $37M box office tally for the week ending Dec. 18. Heading