Movies

“You’re being managed on Barbie” was a snarky text I received last night, “it’s at least $130M.” The point of that is the projections out there for the Greta Gerwig directed feature take of the Mattel doll are indeed wild. Rivals were spotting $90M-$125M; Warners asserting $75M. Today, to support the crazy fever of moviegoing

Alamo Drafthouse Cinema said CEO Shelli Taylor is retiring in August and named president Michael Kustermann as its new chief executive. The fast-growing dine-in chain, that’s been hugely successful luring post-pandemic moviegoers back to theaters, said its board of directors, including Taylor and executive chairman Tim League, selected Kustermann as Taylor steps down, effective August

On the edge of what is bound to be the domestic box office’s third $200M+ weekend thanks to Barbie and Oppenheimer, the motion picture industry’s fret is whether the great post-pandemic moviegoing rebound is about to screech to a halt due to the SAG-AFTRA strike and actors prohibited from promoting. Barbie and Oppenheimer are expected

At a time when the industry is suffering through historic dual strikes by the WGA and SAG-AFTRA, the motion picture industry is poised to see an enormous weekend at the box office with Warner Bros./Mattel’s long awaited toy feature adaptation Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s World War II era three-hour adult drama Oppenheimer reaping a combined

Talk about respecting a theatrical window: Disney has set a Disney+ global premiere date for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 of Aug. 2, that’s 90 days after the pic’s theatrical release of May 5. While Disney got a lot of slack during CEO Bob Chapek’s era for executing theatrical day-and-date releases on Disney+ during

Searchlight Pictures’ Sundance-winning original comedy Theater Camp will take in an estimated $281,172 or $46.9k per theater at six locations opening weekend — the best limited opening for the distributor since Jojo Rabbit in the fall of 2019 ($349k in five locations). That’s after the A CinemaScore film on Sunday pulled ahead of Searchlight’s The

What was it W. B. Yeats wrote, that line Joan Didion lifted and twisted in her essay “Slouching Towards Bethlehem,” about West Coast chaos in 1967? Things fall apart; the center cannot hold. That’s how it felt on Thursday, a few minutes before lunch with some seasoned film executive-friends at the Academy Museum (Salad Niçoise

SATURDAY PM UPDATE: Facts are facts, and Paramount/Skydance’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One set a 5-day opening domestic record for the franchise with $80M, we hear. Previous best 5-day opening belonged to 2000’s Mission: Impossible II which cleared a Wednesday-Sunday take over Memorial Day weekend of $78.8M. The 3-day record still belongs to

Gkids has acquired North American rights to Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron, the Japanese maestro’s latest feature which Toho is releasing today in Japan as Kimitachi wa Do Ikiruka (How Do You Live?). The Boy and the Heron is now the official international title. This all-rights deal marks a continuation of Gkids’ long-standing

Expressing solidarity with Hollywood actors on Day 1 of the SAG-AFTRA strike, specialty distributors polled were anxiously juggling opening weekend Q&As and movie premieres without talent. They were trying to clarify which actors on what international productions are SAG-AFTRA, bound by the guild, or neither. And, for those involved in production, trying to pin down

Paramount/Skydance’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is off and running overseas with a $39.8M cume through Thursday in 48 international box office markets. This includes Wednesday openings in some markets and a strong paid preview program. With domestic’s Wednesday/Thursday plus previews, that brings the global total on the Tom Cruise-starrer to $$63.6M through

AMC Networks had made it official that Scott Shooman as been upped to Head of its Film Group which encompasses IFC Films, RLJE Films and the Shudder streaming service.   Shooman has been serving as the interim head in the wake of the shocking exit of IFC Films President Arianna Bocco back in March. Shooman

Box office for most Broadway shows last week wilted a bit as June’s Tony glow gave way to plain old New York summer heat, though a couple newcomers were among the handful bucking the downward trend, one very impressively so. In its second week of previews, Back To The Future: The Musical grossed a whopping

Sony/Stage 6 Films/Blumhouse’s Insidious: The Red Door may have stolen No. 1 away from Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny at the weekend box office, but Angel Studios’ indie wonder Sound of Freedom won Monday with an estimated $4 million. All of this before Paramount/Skydance’s Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One takes all

EXCLUSIVE: Paramount/Skydance’s Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning – Part One is looking at $6M-$7M in previews so far, which is bound to be higher than the Thursday previews of the last Mission Impossible – Fallout back in 2018 which did $6M. This is according to sources. The figures we’re seeing now could go higher or lower.

Can Tom Cruise save summer? Despite the onslaught of shiny product that hasn’t delivered, i.e. Flash and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, the summer domestic box office at $2.1 billion per Comscore is pacing 6% behind last year’s for the period of May 1 to July 9. All eyes are on the best

Refresh for latest…: Busy weekend at the international box office with a strong scary new entry, some unexpected spark in holds and a milestone for a long-running franchise. Out of the gate this frame, Sony/Screen Gems/Stage 6 Films/Blumhouse’s Insidious: The Red Door knocked out the biggest overseas horror debut since 2019. With $31.4M from 52

When it comes to horror movies at the box office, Sony resurrected its track record this past weekend with the opening of Blumhouse/Stage 6 Films’ fifthquel, Insidious: The Red Door which had a $32.65M domestic opening, $64M Worldwide debut. On the domestic front, that’s the second best horror opening for Sony after 2004’s The Grudge

Sony Pictures has set a Feb. 9, 2024 theatrical release for the Wayfarer Studios’ Colleen Hoover’s It Ends With Us. Pic starring Blake Lively and directed by Justin Baldoni is a feature take on Hoover’s best-selling novel. Logline: Though coming from a complicated past, Lily Bloom (Lively) has always known the life she wants. While

A sci-fi comedy by Mel Eslyn and a literary noir by Alice Troughton – who are, respectively, the longtime producer for the Duplass brothers, and an award-winning UK television director (Dr. Who, Cucumber, The Living And The Dead) — debut in limited release this weekend, alongside Adele Lim’s Joy Ride, a Lionsgate wide-release – marking

Sony/Stage 6 Films/Blumhouse’s fifthquel Insidious: The Red Door nearly locked out Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny yesterday at the box office. The Patrick Wilson starring and directed PG-13 horror film scared up $5M in previews at 2,806 locations that began showtimes at 4PM. That amount of money is very close to what Indy

UPDATED EXCLUSIVE: Angel Studios’ thriller Sound of Freedom starring Jim Caviezel has seen its presales spike to $10 million. This is before the pic’s opening on July 4 in north of 2,600 locations. Many rivals are tracking this semi-faith-based, based-on-a-true-story title about about former Homeland Security agent Tim Ballard, who took rescuing abducted children around

We can knock Disney all we want over less-than stellar post-Covid results on Marvel, Pixar and Lucasfilm titles, but the fact of the matter is the brands are still delivering, making the theatrical motion picture studio the continued box office leader with $3.4 billion worldwide for the period of Jan. 1-July 2. That breaks out

UPDATE, 2:20PM: Disney/Lucasfilm’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny officially wins Tuesday with $11.698M over Sound of Freedom‘s reported $11.5M. Monday revised on Dial of Destiny was $11.7M, which means business was even on July 4th; and that’s solid for any tentpole on that holiday. 5-day on Dial of Destiny is $83.7M. PREVIOUS: Angels

Back To The Future: The Musical landed on Broadway last week in overdrive: The stage adaptation starring Casey Likes and Roger Bart scored a dizzying $1,035,256 for just four preview performances, filling 98% of seats at the Winter Garden. The musical, which opens August 3, features a book by Bob Gale and new music and

EXCLUSIVE: Exhibition marketing firm PaperAirplane Media, which has been a crossways for movie theaters and studios since launching during the pandemic in August 2020, has reached a milestone in its digital asset download portal, The Hanger, with 500K studio marketing assets downloaded. Lionsgate vets Mike Polydoros and Will Preuss saw an opportunity and a need

Refresh for chart…On the bright side for Independence Day bomb Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, its first five days at the box office of $82M aren’t as bad as Paramount/Skydance’s Terminator Genisys. That sequel’s launch just prior to July 4, 2015 left a lot of methane in the air with $42.4M in its

As Regal parent Cineworld prepares to exit Chapter 11 this month, rumors are heating up over who will emerge as the giant theater chain’s new chief executive, with reports Monday pointing to Eduardo Acuna of Cinepolis. Longtime Cineworld CEO Moody Greidinger has a consulting contract during a transition period but isn’t likely to stay in

We’ve had a couple of tentpole missteps here this summer, read Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny this weekend with $60M, The Flash and Elemental; putting the running summer box office at $1.88 billion for May 1-July 2. That’s close to -2% off from the $1.91 billion reached over the same frame last year.

Refresh for latest…: Disney/Lucasfilm’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is off to a disappointing start with a $130M global opening. Of that, $70M is from 52 international box office markets as the the fifth installment in the beloved 42-year-old franchise came in below projections. Anthony has run down the reasons behind the domestic