Movies

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

In the wake of his departure from Studio Movie Grill, that circuit’s founder Brian Schultz has launched Look Dine-In Cinemas, another luxury dine-in exhibition concept. Look is taking over three Studio Movie Grill California leases and reopening the venues in the near future: Monrovia (July 15th), Downey (July 22nd) and Glendale (July 29). Look Dine-In

Friday AM Update: Universal had not one, but two wide release previews last night as they head into the four-day Independence Day weekend, with both DreamWorks Animation’s The Boss Baby: Family Business, and Blumhouse’s The Forever Purge grossing $1.3M apiece. Those looking for more technicality: Boss Baby 2 took in $1.31M at 2,700 theaters from shows which began

Questlove’s Summer of Soul is up to 753 theaters as the doc about the 1969 ‘Black Woodstock’ concert in Harlem that debuted in two locations last weekend crossed into arthouse, commercial and urban venues. Not that it was easy, said Frank Rodriguez, SVP General Sales Manager, Searchlight Pictures. “Exhibitors are eager to get back on

STXfilms has dated four movies for theatrical release: the Kristen Bell-Vince Vaughn coupon comedy Queenpins for Sept. 10, the sports drama National Champions for Nov. 24, the Chris Pine-Ben Foster reteam Violence of Action for Dec. 10 and Guy Ritchie’s untitled film for Jan. 21, 2022. “We have been busy building a strong and diverse slate with a number of

A24 got ahead of the Independence Day wide release competition yesterday with the opening of their Sundance Janicza Bravo directed thriller Zola which took in $505K at 1,468 theaters for a 6th place rank. The movie, based on the zany Twitter thread, boasts 88% Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and is expected to bring in $2M-$4M

Lionsgate’s Nicolas Cage self parody feature The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent will open on April 22, 2022. The title was previously unset. In the action comedy, Nicolas Cage stars as… Nicolas Cage. Creatively unfulfilled and facing financial ruin, the fictionalized version of Cage must accept a $1 million offer to attend the birthday of a dangerous

UPDATED: Netflix said Wednesday that My Little Pony: A New Generation will debut on the streamer on September 24, 2021, the same date it had been planned to premiere when the eOne animated pic was set up at Paramount. Netflix acquired global rights in February when the pandemic was wrecking havoc with movie theaters. The

After raising the bar on what a movie can open to during the pandemic with F9‘s $70M weekend, Universal is adding a one-two wide release punch to the weekend with the debut of two titles geared at two different demos: DreamWorks Animation’s The Boss Baby: Family Business which is set to do $15M+ and Blumhouse’s The Forever

As Broadway gets ready to rock with you once again, there’s a new man in the mirror for the Michael Jackson musical. The producers said today that Myles Frost will play the King of Pop in MJ, replacing Ephraim Sykes, who has exited to film a movie. He’ll take over the coveted role for the

Even with close to 40% of the Canadian box office offline as Ontario remains closed until late July, and the Arclight/Pacific Theatres closed in L.A., the total weekend domestic box office came in at $98.08M per Comscore’s early Sunday AM estimate. Some distributors even have the weekend higher at $99.1M. It’s a great indication that