Film

EXCLUSIVE: Sony, which kicked off CinemaCon last year, is skipping this year’s exhibitor-studio conference in Las Vegas, NV which runs April 8-11 at Caesar’s Palace. This happens from time to time when a major studio will sit out, and it’s not a diss to theater owners. The last time Sony didn’t attend CinemaCon was back

So, here we are in mid-January, and though we’re staring down the barrel of a tough year ahead, it’s not all wintry doom and gloom on an international box office (and combined global) level.  While we’re not in blockbuster holdover territory, we should celebrate the wins when they come. To wit, there was a new

Ava DuVernay’s Origin’s theatrical debut grossed a solid $875k on 130 screens with a $7k per-theater average said to be better than Neon anticipated. The distributor is “thrilled” with the number. “Working in close collaboration with Ava and her team at Array we’ve built a multi-tiered release plan that began with a high-profile December qualifying

EXCLUSIVE: Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki has achieved his best global box office in a decade with Cannes Jury Prize winner Fallen Leaves which has racked up a total gross of $12.4M, according to figures released by its producers. This is the director’s second highest box office result behind 2011 drama Le Havre. The Helsinki-set love story, about

Refresh for chart There’s not much going on at the weekend box office. Yes, point fingers at the dual strikes’ impact on the theatrical schedule, but it’s also January which typically counts a couple of the year’s lowest grossing weekends. The 3-day for all titles is looking at $68M, which is not only the first

Neon is opening Origin on 130 screens and plans to expand the Ava DuVernay film, which premiered in Venice and had a excellent qualifying run in December. Neon took global rights on Origin before its Venice premiere where it received an eight-minute standing ovation and DuVernay became the first Black American woman to have a selection there.

EXCLUSIVE: A24 is taking an opportunity with a blank spot on the calendar for a wide release, April 12, and moving its Alex Garland Civil War movie to that weekend. The action film about a near-fractured America balanced on a razor’s edge was originally set to go on April 26, but know A24 will have

Studio Ghibli‘s animated adventure movie The Boy and the Heron is continuing to blaze a trail for anime, in Europe, Asia and North America. Following its Golden Globes win last week, the first ever for a non-English animated feature, the movie has crossed multiple box office milestones in Europe. Pic has grossed £3.9M at the UK

More tweaking to this year’s film schedule continues with Blumhouse/Universal‘s James McAvoy thriller, Speak No Evil, going from Aug. 9 to Sept. 13, where an untitled Blumhouse movie already has dibs. Speak No Evil, which we are hearing very hot things about, moves away from Liongate’s feature take of videogame, Borderlands, and MGM’s Flint Strong

Vue International, Europe’s largest independent movie theater operator, is in discussions with its shareholders and lenders on a fresh debt-for-equity restructuring. This comes after last year’s dual WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes caused production delays and pushed a number of titles off of the 2023 and 2024 release calendars. Overall, the industry is facing a severe

As Godzilla Minus One winds down its notable theatrical run, distributor Toho International said it will play a remastered black-and-white version of the film for one week. Godzilla Minus One/Minus Color will be in U.S. theaters starting Friday, Jan. 26. Both versions of the film will end their theatrical run on Feb. 1. The black

Winter doldrums and a closing night be damned: Shucked just had a very good week, with news of a planned movie adaptation and its best-ever Broadway gross of $1,111,038. The Brandy Clark-Shane McAnally-Robert Horn musical, which opened March 8, played its final Broadway performance on January 14 after 28 previews and 327 regular performances. The

Cinema export agency Unifrance’s annual international box office report for 2023 revealed on Tuesday that Russia was the top market in terms of admissions for French cinema last year. Given that Russia’s relations with Europe are at their lowest ebb since the end of the Cold War in 1991 as its ongoing war on Ukraine

EXCLUSIVE: Amazon MGM‘s Head of Specialty Theatrical Distribution, Mark Boxer, was among the notables cuts yesterday at the streaming theatrical studio. Among some of Boxer’s highlights at Amazon, he oversaw the specialty theatrical releases of such Oscar nominated titles as Being the Ricardos, Poland’s 2018 International film entry Cold War, and 2x Oscar winner Sound

I’m trying to stay optimistic. It takes some effort, as just about everyone seems to think the film business is a mess–strike-thinned schedule, cultural chaos, streaming models in flux. But, hey, the Golden Globes audience was up by half, never mind critical reaction to the show. There are still signs of life out there. So

Toho International’s sleeper hit Godzilla Minus One grossed an estimated $853k this weekend for a cume of $50.9 million at 605 locations in week seven as arctic blasts buffet much of the nation. The film about the giant reptilian monster passed the $50 million market Saturday, becoming the highest grossing Japanese language live action or animated

Refresh for latest…: Warner Bros/Village Roadshow/Heyday Films’ Wonka continues its sweet run, crossing the $500M mark globally this weekend. The worldwide cume through Sunday is $505.3M including $329.1M from the international box office and with Korea, which has a fondness for Hollywood musicals, still to release at the end of the month. The Timothée Chalamet-starrer

Oppenheimer will finally arrive on Peacock on Feb. 16., right smack dab in the middle of Oscar season. Oscar nominations come out Jan. 23. The Christopher Nolan directed movie just won five Golden Globes including Best Director, Best Feature Drama, Best Actor Drama Cillian Murphy, Best Supporting Actor Robert Downey Jr, and Best Original Score

In a lull for specialty openings early in the new year, three foreign-language films are taking a shot. The Settlers, winner of the Cannes Un Certain Regard FIPRESCI Prize, and Inshallah A Boy are Cannes alumns and Oscar submissions from, respectively, Chile and Jordan (neither short-listed in a competitive field). Driving Madeleine is a crowd

Paramount’s next iteration of Mean Girls has minted $3.25M in previews. That figure includes 4pm showtimes from yesterday as well as the “On Wednesdays We Wear Pink” early access screenings. A reminder that Paramount pivoted the release of Mean Girls: It was originally intended for Paramount+, and the test scores screamed, ‘Release this movie theatrically!’.