Movies

Disney yesterday began overseas rollout on the remastered rerelease of James Cameron’s Avatar in five early markets with the Na’vi seeing a collective $877K gross. The 4K high dynamic range version was No. 1 in France at $513K, coming in 8% ahead of the comparable 3D rerelease of Titanic in 2012. In Korea, the 20th

Imax Corp. has acquired Ssimwave, an Ontario-based AI-driven tech firm whose clients include media giants from Disney and Paramount Global to Warner Bros. Discovery and NBCU parent Comcast. It’s a cash and stock deal worth $21 million. Imax has also worked with Ssimwave, an expert in enhancing on-demand and live visual imagery for broadcast and

Social media is abuzz in overseas markets where Disney today began rollout on a remastered version of James Cameron’s original 2009 Avatar, and as audiences are being treated to sneak footage from the upcoming sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water. The studio isn’t commenting, but based on myriad Twitter posts, there appears to be a

Anne-Marie Ross (née Boysen), whose career in international film distribution at Lionsgate and Pantelion spanned more than two decades, died September 9 after a near-two-year battle with advanced-stage cancer caused by a rare gene mutation. She was 49. Ross began her career at Lionsgate in 2001, reporting to Nick Meyer, now the President of Film

A slate of four new productions and renewed interest in a couple of old ones pushed Broadway box office up by 20% last week, with total receipts for the 24 shows reaching $24,954,517 and attendance climbing 14% to 201,321 for the week ending September 18. Among the newcomers: Death of a Salesman, 1776, Cost of

After a near month of mudslinging behind the scenes drama for Don’t Worry Darling which hovered around its Venice Film Festival world premiere, the sophomore feature directorial from Olivia Wilde finally opens in 4,000 theaters. However, Warner Bros. need not sweat the tabloid headlines. No, all of that has only made this Florence Pugh, Harry

Big screen exhibitor Imax has extended the employment agreement of chief executive Richard Gelfond through Dec. 31, 2025. The amendment to Gelfond’s initial agreement, effective as of January 1, 2023, also commits to annual equity award grants in 2023, 2024 and 2025. Otherwise his compensation and severance terms remain the same, according to an SEC

EXCLUSIVE: Keeping in line with Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav’s business belief that movies are destined for theatrical, not streaming, the originally conceived Steven Soderbergh-directed HBO Max threequel Magic Mike’s Last Dance is heading to theaters on February 10, 2023 — Super Bowl weekend. Warner Bros already had the date set aside on the release

Brett Morgen’s kaleidoscopic ode to David Bowie landed at no 10 in North America this weekend, singing up $1.225 million on 170 screens – exclusively Imax (159 U.S. locations, 11 in Canada). The $7,207 PSA for the Neon distributed Moonage Daydream – expanding to about 600 screens next week — was the best of the

Julia Roberts and George Clooney landed at the top of the international box office chart this weekend as Universal/Working Title’s Ticket to Paradise expanded its offshore rollout. Adding 39 markets for a $12.1M session in 46 lifted the overseas cume to $14.8M with several majors still to come; domestic begins on October 21. Collectively, the

Sony added three news movies to their 2023-2024 theatrical release sked while shifting some others due to the post-production jam which continues to plague a number of big pics. The good news is that nothing is moving out of 2022. A big plus here is the announcement of a brand new Karate Kid movie for June

Saturday AM Update: TriStar/eOne’s The Woman King is coming in higher than expected, with an $18M opening boosted by lively word of mouth off an A+ CinemaScore and a massive 95% positive on Comscore/Screen Engine’s PostTrak. Friday, including $1.7M previews, came in at $6.8M. Comping this Black female epic to previous Hollywood titles was a challenge,

A steady flow of specialty films starts this weekend with the return of a key player to cinemas and a broader arthouse slate that will expand steadily into awards season. This is still a weird theatrical landscape but independent distributors and theater owners have agreed for months that there’s no recovery without a brisker pace

EXCLUSIVE: Paul Jun’s Filmocracy and John Fitzgerald’s iGems are given an Oscar qualifying run today for Angad Aulakh’s short movie The Atomic Dream.  The short is set in the aftermath of President Kennedy’s assassination and the era’s pervasive nuclear fears and tells the story of Frank (Guy Kent), his estranged mother-in-law Sophia (Marchand Storch), and

UPDATED: Disney has summarized a bulk of release dates that had been made known over the weekend out of D23. The important news to note here is that Rogue Squadron, the Star Wars movie that Patty Jenkins couldn’t commit to, has been removed from its Dec. 22, 2023, release date — not shocking. The film, we hear,

Imax just cut a deal for six new big-screen installations in China this year — “a very positive development,” according to CEO Rich Gelfond. The company is a big player in the Chinese market, which is still strained by Covid lockdowns and in limbo for Western theatrical releases. He noted the new contract during a

EXCLUSIVE: The arthouse chain has inked a lease agreement for the five-screen former CMX Market Cinemas in Closter, New Jersey, located at 130 Vervalen Street in Closter Plaza. The new Landmark Closter Plaza will open on Friday, Sept. 30. Landmark is upgrading the venue with the installation of new recliners in the auditoriums. At the

Even with a Covid-shortened performance schedule, Lea Michele’s star turn in Funny Girl was serious business last week, with box office for the musical revival more than doubling from the previous week. For the week ending September 11 — Michele’s first week as Fanny Brice — Funny Girl grossed $1,639,212, a dramatic upturn from the

On the heels of National Cinema Day, a smaller event that debuted last year, called National Cinema Week, has set Oct. 7-13 for its second annual push to celebrate moviegoing in the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean. Over 1,200 theaters repping 12,00+ screens are participating and more may join. The dates are one week later

UPDATE, writethru: There was a little more excitement at the international box office this weekend, with local movies leading the charge and a handful of new milestones for Hollywood pics. Taking the latter part first, Minions: The Rise of Gru crossed $900M global, Bullet Train drove past $200M and Top Gun: Maverick soared to $1.45B+