Movies

“There are real grounds for optimism in our industry,” Cineworld CEO Mooky Greidinger beamed today as the world’s second largest exhibitor issued a trading update. The company reached “an important milestone” in its recovery, generating positive cash flow in October, it said in the statement. Although it didn’t get into exact figures, Cineworld did report

Belfast, Kenneth Branaugh’s intensely personal story of one boy’s childhood in tumultuous late 1960s Northern Ireland, earned an estimated $1.8M in 580 locations this weekend for a PTA of $3,111 – a solid showing for a black-and-white film in a specialty market that’s waging what one distribution exec calls an “an inch-by-inch, week-by-week recovery.” The

Saturday AM Update: Despite the worst reviews for a Marvel movie, and a B CinemaScore, the second weekend of Disney/Marvel’s Eternals didn’t implode, now on track for a -62% weekend, which is on the high end of where we were expecting it with $27.4M. The pic made $7.8M yesterday, -75%. Through ten days, the Chloe Zhao directed

Sony, which doesn’t mess around with theatrical day-and-date releases like some other motion picture studios, can celebrate their Marvel sequel Venom: Let There Be Carnage crossing the $200 million mark in the US and Canada. It is the second movie to do so during Covid, after Disney/Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

This just in from Paramount: Transformers: Rise of the Beasts will no longer be opening on June 24, 2022 rather June 9, 2023. And the new Star Trek movie they’ve been in development on won’t launch on June 9, 2023 rather Dec. 22, 2023. The pic is in development with Matt Shakman attached to direct, as we first told

Sony Pictures Classics releases Telluride-darling documentary Julia with a national TV push, culinary events and virtual screenings through November hosted by famous chefs from Alice Waters (San Francisco) and Johnny Spero (Boston) to Jamie Bissonnette (Houston) and luminaries from New York, LA, Philly and Miami. Directors Betsy West and Julie Cohen talked up the film

Paramount’s Clifford the Big Red Dog, which is taking advantage of the Veterans Day holiday, leashed second place on its opening day Wednesday with $2.3M, which includes previews at 3,407 theaters. The Walt Becker-directed feature adaptation of the 58-year-old Scholastic children’s book IP also is available on Paramount+ as some studios practice a hybrid form of distribution

Imax has named former Lionsgate and Netflix publicity veteran Julie Fontaine as SVP Marketing in what is a newly created position at the large-format exhibitor. She will report directly to Imax chief marketing officer Denny Tu. Fontaine will oversee strategic marketing campaigns and creative for Imax’s global event features lineup as well as product and

Despite Disney’s commitment to a pure theatrical window during Q4 of this year with wide releases like Eternals and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, CEO Bob Chapek isn’t ruling out the possibility of going theatrical day-and-date with Disney+ again. “We’re sticking with our plan of flexibility,” said the CEO today on the conglom’s

Broadway box office was up about 16% last week, with three new productions joining the playing roster and all 30 of the shows taking in a combined $22,855,192. The figure, which represents box office grosses for the week ending Nov. 7, indicates an expected rebound from the $20 million tally of the previous week, which included

Paramount will continue to experiment with a theatrical day-and-date release model during the pandemic with eOne’s Clifford the Big Red Dog, a live-action CGI hybrid take of the 1963 Scholastic children’s book classic which hit theaters today at 1:30PM, goes wide tomorrow at 3,695 theaters and also drops on Paramount+. The movie is expected to do between

EXCLUSIVE: United Artists Releasing is pivoting its awards season release of MGM’s Joe Wright feature musical Cyrano. Instead of the Peter Dinklage-Haley Bennett movie going limited on Dec. 31, UAR will qualify the movie for Oscars with a one week run in Los Angeles on Dec. 17. The pic, which already counts 86% fresh on

AMC CEO Adam Aron, who already has announced a push into retail popcorn sales and accepting payment in cryptocurrencies, waxed enthusiastic Monday at a flood of new ventures suggested by the chain’s 4.1 million retail investors. The floated ideas include everything from an AMC credit card and a return to movie producing to its own

At the exit to a gallery in the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is a display of opinions about the future of cinema. For example: “THE FUTURE OF CINEMA IS INCLUSION NOT EXCLUSION” –Kimberly Steward                                         

Refresh for latest… Disney/Marvel’s Eternals has come in ahead of projections with an opening weekend of $90.7M at the international box office, and $161.7M global when paired with domestic. This gives the Chloé Zhao-directed film bragging rights to the second-biggest worldwide opening for a Hollywood title in 2021. The global debut sets Eternals 26% ahead

Neon’s Spenser with Kristin Stewart rang in an opening weekend of $2.149 million on 996 screens, a per screen average of $2,158 as the film failed to connect in a market that remains a stubbornly hard sell for specialty and independent films. The well-reviewed (with raves for Stewart as Lady Diana) reimagining by director Pablo

Deadline has confirmed that Disney is shutting down production on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever for a temporary amount of time. The news Friday comes in the wake of star Letitia Wright injuring herself in late August, when she suffered minor injuries on a stunt rig incident. She was released from the hospital at that time. We

Debuting in an initial 14 international box office markets on Wednesday, Disney/Marvel’s Eternals opened to an estimated $7.6M with No. 1s across the vast majority. First-day results on the Chloe Zhao-directed pic put it 85% ahead of Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings and 20% ahead of Black Widow on a like-for-like basis.

UPDATED, Friday midday: Disney’s Eternals is heading toward a $30 million Friday, including those $9.5M previews from last night. Given that Friday is typically around 40% of the weekend, this will put the Chloé Zhao-directed movie in the $70M-$75M range from what we’ve figured. Again, this could fluctuate up or down by Saturday morning. Do the fans