Film

The Delta Variant, streaming wars and surging piracy loom large as CinemaCon launches Sunday at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, the first in-person gathering of theaters owners and Hollywood studios since the pandemic struck 18-months ago. The virus has slashed registered attendees to circa 2,000 from 3,500 pre-pandemic, with a sizeable European contingent entirely shut

United Artists Releasing opens Flag Day, directed and starring Sean Penn, in a uneven specialty market where the Delta Variant spike has theaters in key cities requiring proof of vaccination, theaters are hard to book, and hits have been rare since the industry reopened. Eventually “We’ll crack the code, because good movie and good stories

Remember that blood bath that was suppose to occur between two major studio animated family films during the first weekend of October? Well, as reporter earlier this week Sony decided to go into talks with Amazon to sell off their Hotel Transylvania 4, and now MGM/United Artists Releasing is taking their sequel Addams Family 2

Jockey, which won the Sundance Film Festival U.S. Dramatic Special Jury award for star Clifton Collins Jr.’s acting, will hit New York and LA theaters on Dec. 29. Sony Pictures Classics acquired the film out of the Park City, Utah festival. The movie will expand across the country following its exclusive debut. Directed by Clint Bentley

EXCLUSIVE: Landmark Theatres has entered into a long-term lease for the Scottsdale Quarter luxury multiplex in Scottsdale Arizona which was previously occupied by dine-in-cinema iPic Theatre. This is Landmark’s first theatre in the market. The eight-screen plex will reopen this fall after being shuttered since the end of the January 2020. “We are very excited

Those distributors with new movies this weekend will find they can easily blame any soured performance at the box office on the delta variant and vaxx cards being required at NYC, San Francisco, and New Orleans cinemas. But, let’s not forget one huge thing: It’s late August, and that means it’s the season for lower

Marvel, Fast & Furious and Ryan Reynolds movies aren’t the only titles that had to sit out and wait for their theatrical release during the pandemic, but also highly anticipated indie pics like David Bruckner’s The Night House. Before Covid, a slice of the world got a glimpse of the Rebecca Hall haunted lake real estate title

Universal has set a release date of April 7, 2023 for Fast and Furious 10, Deadline can confirm. That returns the Fast & Furious franchise to its holy Easter weekend stomping ground where F7, the highest grossing title in the series was launched in 2015 to $147.1M domestic, and finaled at $353M domestic, $1.5 billion global. Universal followed with Fate

EXCLUSIVE: NEON and Topic Studios have set a Nov. 5 release date for Pablo Larrain’s Spencer which stars Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana. The pic takes place during the Christmas holidays with the royal family at the Sandringham estate in Norfolk, England, when Diana decides to leave her marriage to Prince Charles. Steven Knight penned the

Shawn Levy had a fantastic weekend at the box office. Not only did his long-awaited 20th Century Studios Ryan Reynolds film Free Guy overperform in the face of a daunting pandemic with a $28.3M domestic start, the videogame-inspired romantic comedy repped a huge win for original tentpole material on the big screen. “This is the first

As we first told you, Sony’s fourthquel Hotel Transylvania: Transformania was heading to a streamer. Turns out, that’s bound to be Amazon in what we hear are early talks. While Disney has been doing rather well with the theatrical component of its day-and-date family movie Jungle Cruise with subsequent weekend holds of -55% and -43% for the pic’s

Sony Pictures Classics’ The Lost Leonardo had a notable debut on three screens on a quiet weekend for specialty openings. The film about da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi painting opened to $13,209 with a per screen average of $4,403 ahead of a national release. The distributor has been a steadying presence a tough arthouse climate. Its

It’s fascinating to watch local governments — New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New Orleans — rush to enact Covid vaccine requirements for entry to the publicly accessible spaces of private business, including, yes, movie theaters. I’m not equipped to judge the ultimate propriety or efficacy of such mandates. Frankly, the complexities posed by breakthroughs,

Sunday AM Update: Those having any concern that the pandemic is wrecking complete havoc at the box office can rest a bit easy as Disney/20th Century Studio’s Free Guy smashed expectations with a $28.4M opening weekend. Worldwide the Shawn Levy-directed movie is at a $51M start. Something more to applaud is the fact that stateside business

UPDATE, writethru: Disney/20th Century Studios’ Free Guy led the game at global turnstiles this session with a $51M worldwide debut. That includes domestic’s over-performance of $28.4M, and a $22.5M start in 41 material markets at the international box office — the latter in line with pre-weekend expectations. The offshore debut on the Shawn Levy-directed pic

EXCLUSIVE:  We hear that New Line’s 8-Bit Christmas will premiere exclusively on HBO Max on Nov. 25th, in all countries where the service is available, meaning U.S. and Latin America. Here in the U.S., that date is Thanksgiving Day, a prime time for watching holiday movies on the couch. 8-Bit Christmas will be distributed by

Documentaries about a da Vinci and a dictator, a Pablo Larraín drama with Gael Garcia Bernal, a Donnie Yen martial arts thriller by the late Benny Chan, and CODA, Apple’s record-busting Sundance acquisition, make specialty bows this weekend as the arthouse sector fights through a slow reopening. “The market is still finding a balance right

Disney CEO Bob Chapek continued to emphasize the flexibility of the studio’s controversial theatrical-day-and-date Disney+ Premier model given the uncertain times of Covid. “We value flexibility in being able to make last minute calls,” said Chapek on today’s earnings call without indicating any additional future dynamic window releases beyond the studio’s recent summer handful of Cruella,

EXCLUSIVE: We’re hearing very loud rumblings from exhibition that Sony is poised to relocate Venom: Let There Be Carnage and Hotel Transylvania: Transformania.  In the case of Venom 2, it’s to another destination on the release calendar. First we heard January, then Oct. 15; Sony hasn’t decided I hear what the new date is or whether they’ll continue to stay put on

Booksmart star Beanie Feldstein has been set to star as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl, which will serve as the first Broadway revival of the iconic musical that premiered in 1964 with Barbra Streisand in the role. It is scheduled to begin performances in spring 2022 at a Broadway theatre to be announced. The new