Movies

Tickets went on sale yesterday for Disney/Marvel’s highly anticipated Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and Fandango reports it’s their best so far this year for a pic’s initial 24-hour period of sales, beating Warner Bros.’ The Batman. The movie which takes place following the events of Disney+/Marvel’s WandaVision, and Spider-Man: No Way Home, fires up summer on

Sonic the Hedgehog 2, the sequel to the last big blockbuster before the pandemic, opens this weekend, keeping a steady stream of dollars into the theatrical marketplace with an estimated opening of $50 million-plus, and possibly $60M. The first movie in February 2020 broke the video game feature adaptation curse for the genre, opening to $58M

Broadway’s spring season kicked into higher gear last week, with the arrival of seven previewing productions (with more to come over the next few weeks). Business overall remained robust, with the 31 shows grossing a total of $28,818,836. The figure marks a 7% increase over the previous week, a jump due in no small part

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

If the last week in our entertainments has shown us anything, it’s that even the most ordered, traditional of ceremonies can be disrupted by an unkind explosion of id, with ramifications splashing like crocodile tears on even the most unexpected of our heroes. Take Me Out, Richard Greenberg’s 2002 play that charts the ramifications when

EXCLUSIVE: A24 has dated two recent festival faves for theatrical release this summer: the Jenny Slate animated comedy Marcel the Shell With Shoes On on June 24 and the horror comedy feature Bodies Bodies Bodies on Aug. 5. Marcel the Shell With Shoes On made its world premiere at Telluride last fall and recently played SXSW.

The Jennifer Lopez-Josh Duhamel Lionsgate romantic comedy Shotgun Wedding is heading straight to streaming as Prime Video has snatched up all U.S. rights for the pic from Lionsgate. No release date has been set on the streamer, but similar to other Prime Video features, it’s expected that Shotgun Wedding will also receive a day-and-date limited theatrical release.

Focus Features has picked up Of An Age, the second feature by writer/director Goran Stolevski. The announcement comes as the distributor presents the helmer’s debut feature, You Won’t Be Alone — about a witch struggling for human connection in 19th century rural Macedonia — this weekend in limited release. Of An Age is set in the

Refresh for latest…: New blood in the form of Sony’s Jared Leto-fronted Morbius led the global box office this weekend with an $84M debut, while Paramount’s Sonic The Hedgehog 2 got off to a booming $25.5M start from its first 31 offshore markets. Warner Bros/DC also has something to crow about as The Batman topped

Funny Girl arrived on Broadway to a full house last week, selling out its first preview at the August Wilson Theatre. The musical revival, starring Beanie Feldstein in the title role, hit town as Broadway continues posting big rebound box office numbers. For the week ending March 27, the 24 Broadway productions took in $26,814,466,

EXCLUSIVE: Paramount’s Sonic The Hedgehog 2 ran off with a $1.2M No. 1 start in France on Wednesday as the sequel begins early rollout at the international box office this weekend. In France, the little blue critter topped the previous film’s first day holiday release in the market by 30%. In total, the Jeff Fowler-directed

The heroine of Goran Stolevski’s You Won’t Be Alone is a witch, with echoes of vampire and zombie, yes, but mostly with a haunting desire for human connection in 19th century rural Macedonia. The film’s Sundance premiere got great reviews (see Deadline’s here). It’s 94% Rotten Tomatoes Certified Fresh with critics as Focus Features opens

Sony’s deep Marvel universe title, Morbius, rang up $5.7M last night from previews that began at 4PM at 3,583 theaters including Imax and PLF auditoriums. That figure for the PG-13 movie is just under the $5.9M that Shazam made back on April 5, 2019; that movie opening to $53.5M. While Sony is expecting $33M from the Daniel Espinosa directed,

Apple sources are saying that CODA following its historic Best Picture win for both a streamer, and a predominantly Deaf cast feature saw viewership go up by 300% over the prior week week to become the No. 1 most watched program on AppleTV+, and also drawing 25% new viewers to the OTT service. The movie

Trafalgar Releasing and Warner Bros. will present a digitally remastered ABBA: The Movie for two night in May to celebrate the Swedish pop sensation’s 50th anniversary. The film was shot by director Lasse Hallström during the group’s hugely successful 1977 Australian tour and first released that year. ABBA: The Movie – Fan Event “will take

Warner Bros. Pictures is teaming with Fathom Events for a special theatrical event of the Daniel Roher-directed documentary, Navalny, which had its surprise screening at the Sundance Film Festival and won the Audience Award in the U.S. Documentary Competition section as well as the Festival Favorite Award. The movie about Russian government opposition leader Alexei

Three-time Oscar winner CODA is returning to theaters this Friday for a limited run in over 600 locations. The film will be available with open captions to be accessible to the Deaf and hard of hearing. Apple Original Films made history on Sunday night becoming the first streamer to take home Best Picture. CODA also won trophies for Troy

Sony is further exploiting its end of the Marvel franchise this weekend with the long-delayed Jared Leto dark hero title Morbius. Booked at 4,200 locations, the Marvel vampire protagonist feature is eyeing a studio expected opening of $33M, but could get as high as $40M-$50M. Reviews haven’t registered yet on Rotten Tomatoes, however, Sony has bested critics

Everything Everywhere All At Once grossed over half a million dollars on 10 screens in NYC, LA and San Francisco for a hefty $50,965 per-screen-average — a number rarely seen since the pre-Covid old days of theatrical releases and the biggest of the year so far. The mind-melding Michelle Yeoh-starrer directed by the Daniels (Dan

AMC Entertainment CEO Adam Aron said there’s room for both cinemas and streamers in the current marketplace and the latter would benefit from wider theatrical release of films. He made the comments to CNBC after Apple made history last night with Coda’s Best Picture Oscar win. “I’ve been saying for years that the market is