Movies

International and indie film distributor Well Go USA Entertainment has acquired North American rights to Korean film Escape From Mogadishu. It will open in theaters in the U.S. and Canada August 6 following a July 28 release in Korea. The film is based on true events and chronicles the harrowing experience of bitterly opposed North

Shares of publicly traded move chains fell sharply Monday while broader markets rose as Disney’s Black Widow helped drive the post (ish) pandemic box office to new highs but plenty of viewers siphoned off to Disney+, raising an alarm or  at least a lot of questions. AMC Entertainment, the biggest U.S. chain, saw its shares

In an effort to combat an increasing number of Delta variant Covid cases, France is set to introduce tighter restrictions affecting cultural activities beginning July 21. From that date, it will become mandatory for those over 12-years-old to show the official EU Digital Covid Certificate (or “health pass”) to access all cultural and leisure venues

Questlove’s Summer of Soul (…Or When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised) will hit a cumulative $1.4 million rising to an estimated $1.47 million Monday with a $375,000 second-week gross in 752 theaters. The best performing documentary so far this year “may possibly get to $2 million, that’s our goal,” said Searchlight Pictures head of

For the first time since the pandemic hit in mid-March 2020, the total domestic box office has finally exceeded $100M over three days, yes, thanks in part to Disney’s release of the long-awaited Marvel title Black Widow. Comscore is officially calling the weekend as of this morning at $117M, the biggest we’ve seen for U.S.

Tony- and Emmy Award- winning singer-actress LaChanze will return to Broadway this Fall in the starring role of Roundabout Theatre Company’s Trouble in Mind by Alice Childress, to be directed by Charles Randolph-Wright. The role will mark LaChanze’s Broadway return following her 2019 performance as the Ghost of Christmas Present in A Christmas Carol and,

Finally a breakthrough in the Great White North: Theaters in Ontario, which reps as much as 40% of Canada’s box office, are allowed to reopen on July 16 after several months of Covid lockdown, and just in time for the second weekend of Disney’s Black Widow. That includes Canada’s No. 1 chain, Cineplex, of course, in

FRIDAY AM UPDATE: No, streaming hasn’t killed theatrical just yet, and those exhibitors who’ve gone hungry over the last year and half, received lots of bread last night. Disney/Marvel’s Black Widow kicked off its previews at 5PM earning a huge $13.2M, easily the best preview night to date during the pandemic besting Universal’s F9 ($7.1M) and Paramount’s A Quiet

Moviegoers not far removed from the isolating strains of lockdown may find The Loneliest Whale: The Search for 52 strikes a chord. Distributor Bleecker Street and director Joshua Zeman hope so as the doc, a shift from the helmer’s true crime roots (The Sons of Sam: Descent into Darkness, Cropsey), opens in 75 theaters. Digital release

Finally, we have drop date for Netflix’s mega action Rawson Marshall Thurber-directed feature Red Notice and it’s Nov. 12, around the world. Dwayne Johnson just made the news official across his social media.  In the movie, an Interpol-issued Red Notice goes out. That’s a global alert to hunt and capture the world’s most wanted. Johnson stars

Disney/Marvel’s Black Widow started offshore rollout on Wednesday in 11 material markets including France, Italy and the UK, grossing an estimated $4.9M for the day and setting new post-Covid benchmarks. Not included in the total above are Korea previews of $1.8M yesterday. Early social sentiment there is strong (Naver 9.22/CGV 96%). In the UK and

EXCLUSIVE: In a recent Samba TV measurement, 783K U.S. households tuned into Universal’s The Boss Baby: Family Business on the studio’s streaming service Peacock over the four-day July 4th holiday weekend. That number for the DreamWorks Animation title beats the four-day Memorial Day debut of Disney’s live-action pic Cruella on Disney+ Premier, which clocked 686K U.S. households that

Finally after a near 15 month wait, Marvel’s long-awaited Black Widow will debut around the world after being locked up from the pandemic, and the industry’s global weekend expectation is as high as $140M. That’s essentially $50M from 46 material markets, save China and most of South East Asia. Among the major territories going are France, Italy,

Amazon did not report viewership figures for their $200M Skydance acquisition title The Tomorrow War, but third-party streaming analytics corp Samba TV did, and the Chris Pratt movie drew 2.41M U.S. households during the 4-day holiday weekend. The previous 3-day weekend viewership for Amazon movies Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse, another Skydance pick-up by the streamer, and

Company, Marianne Elliott’s reimagined production of the Stephen Sondheim/George Furth musical starring Katrina Lenk and Patti LuPone, will begin Broadway performances a month earlier than previously announced, with the new preview date now set for Monday, Nov. 15. The official opening night is now Thursday, Dec. 9 at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, a full

Warning: The following interview contains some spoilers about Black Widow, opening July 9 in theaters and on Disney+ Premier.  After being delayed for more than a year due to Covid, Black Widow, the second feature movie in the MCU post the franchise’s pinnacle, 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, will finally see the light of day. Industry estimates project

EXCLUSIVE:  Blue Fox Entertainment has taken the US rights to Paul A. Kaufman’s YA dramedy Butter. An autumn theatrical release is currently planned. The movie tells the story of Butter (Alex Kersting), a smart, funny high school junior who happens to be obese. Butter manages to befriend the prettiest girl at school, Anna (McKaley Miller), via

Summer of Soul (Or When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) will report a three-day cum of $650K in 752 theaters in North America for a per screen average of $865, distributor Searchlight said of the Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson doc about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival. The film, with an A+ CinemaScore, performed best in

Refresh for latest…: Universal’s F9 is gearing up to hit the $500M mark globally, a milestone it will cross on Monday as it becomes the first Hollywood movie to do so during the pandemic era, and the first since any studio film originally released during 2019. The Justin Lin-helmed title will also join China’s Hi,

Focus Features is shifting Downton Abbey 2 from Dec. 22 to Friday, March 18, 2022. Universal Pictures International will release internationally on the same date. The pic’s original principal cast have returned for the second film, which wraps production in August. New additions are Hugh Dancy, Laura Haddock, Nathalie Baye and Dominic West. The screenplay is by