Movies

Refresh for latest…: It’s no secret that Warner Bros’ Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore had a less than magical opening domestically this weekend, coming after early overseas rollout began last frame. Still, offshore this weekend, the threequel was again the top movie and ranked No. 1 in 52 markets, including 41 of the 44

Angelika Film Center and Sony Pictures Classics unveiled a “Bring A Friend Back To The Movies” initiative timed to the April 22 release of dramatic comedy The Duke. The arthouse cinema and specialty distributor are offering a complimentary second ticket to anyone who buys a first directly from the Angelika’s website, app or in the

Indie distributor Kino Lorber has hired Kate Patterson as its new Director of Press & Publicity. She joins from Metrograph, where she headed publicity and communications. Patterson will lead multi-pronged PR efforts to support Kino Lorber’s continued growth in the digital space and manage campaigns for its 25+ yearly theatrical releases. She reports jointly to

Warner Bros.’ Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore whirled up $6M in Thursday previews that started at 2PM at 3,350 venues. The David Yates directed J.K. Rowling co-scripted movie is expected to make between $45M-$50M over the Easter holiday weekend stateside; 73% of all K-12 schools off today according to Comscore. Dumbledore is also expanding into 44 more offshore

“I see nothing happening on a major scale to try to get the older audiences back to theaters,” griped Sony Pictures Classics’ co-president Tom Bernard. Ideally, Bernard wants NATO to trumpet cinema safety in a big public campaign. (A NATO rep says not in the cards.) He’d like that campaign alongside a creative marketing push

Voltage Pictures has appointed Alexandra Cocean to EVP, International Sales and Distribution. She will start immediately and report to Voltage President and COO Jonathan Deckter. Her appointment comes just prior to the upcoming Marche du Film. Voltage’s sales slate includes action-thriller Last Seen Alive starring Gerard Butler, Jaimie Alexander and Russell Hornsby and the political

Warner Bros, which has traditionally ruled the Easter weekend box office, is back, a year after Godzilla vs. Kong brought bread to reopening cinemas during the pandemic. The stateside arrival of J.K. Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, and further expansion abroad into 44 markets, arrives days after the Warner Bros. Discovery merger went public.

Coming off the blockbuster success of S.S. Rajamouli’s RRR, star Ram Charan is hardly sitting on his laurels. Releasing April 29 is action drama Acharya which he’s producing and starring in with his father, the prolific actor Chiranjeevi. He’s also currently shooting RC15 (working title), a political drama from 2.0 director S. Shankar, and has

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 cast of Broadway’s Aladdin dedicated its Tuesday night performance to late comedian and actor Gilbert Gottfried who died yesterday after a lengthy illness. Gottfried was the original voice of the scarlet macaw Iago in Disney’s 1992 animated feature film, Aladdin, and would go on to play the character in further animated productions. After the

EXCLUSIVE:  We hear that the No. 1 exhibitor in the world, AMC Theatres, has made a deal with Bow Tie Cinemas to snap up and operate seven of their locations in Connecticut, upstate New York and Annapolis, Maryland. All in this this is north of 60 screens for AMC. For those who’ll remember, Bow Tie

A revival of Kander and Ebb musical Cabaret was the big winner at Sunday’s Olivier Awards in London. Cabaret At The Kit Kat Club scooped seven of the prestigious trophies, including Best Musical Revival and Best Actor and Actress in a Musical for Eddie Redmayne and Jessie Buckley, respectively. Redmayne plays the Emcee while Buckley

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

Refresh for latest…: Lots of moving parts at the international box office again this weekend as early rollout of another major studio title is kickstarting into business prior to its domestic debut. To wit: Warner Bros’ Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore made its first apparition in 22 offshore markets this frame, grossing $58M to

Viva Maestro, a documentary starring the charismatic music and artistic director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gustavo Dudamel, opened on a high note taking in $14,310 on two screens — Film Forum/NYC and The Landmark/LA. That’s a PTA of $7,155 for the film directed by Ted Braun (Darfur Now, Betting on Zero) and presented by

The face of five-year-old Aline looks weirdly mature and toothy as she crawls from under a table at a family wedding to belt out a song early in the film of the same name. French comedian and actress Valérie Lemercier, 58, wrote, directed and stars in Aline and it’s her head on a body altered

The Broadway-bound revival of the musical 1776, which begins a pre-New York engagement at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, MA, next month, has announced a cast comprised fully of performers who identify as female, non-binary and trans. The cast announced Friday was specifically for the A.R.T. production and might not necessarily carry over to

FRIDAY PM: No, family moviegoers were never gone. Do you hear that Disney CEO Bob Chapek? (Admit it: it was always about the seasonal churn rate for Disney+; that’s why Turning Red skipped theaters). Families turned Spider-Man: No Way Home into the third highest movie of all-time with $803M, and they kept Sing 2 in the

EXCLUSIVE: The most highly anticipated sequel of arguably the last 36 years, Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick, is firing up its jets heading into its Memorial Day opening weekend on May 27. We hear that exhibition is likely set to see the movie first during Paramount’s presentation at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Thursday, April

Warner Bros’ Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore is releasing ahead of domestic in 22 international box office markets this weekend, beginning in Holland and Belgium on Wednesday and including the UK, Australia, Germany, Japan, Spain and China through Friday. The latter, unfortunately, is not expected to serve up any magic given significant cinema closures.