SUNDAY AM UPDATE, refresh for chart and more analysis: The weekend before Thanksgiving is one of the most lucrative ones on the calendar, last year bringing in $204.9M off the opening of Disney’s Frozen II which posted November’s fifth best domestic opening of all-time at $130.3M. Who would ever think that the domestic box office would sink
Coronavirus Box Office
With Disney having already erased two big movies from the holiday schedule, Free Guy and Death on the Nile, and Warner Bros. expected to punt its Christmas Day release of Wonder Woman 1984, movie theaters really don’t know how they’re going to be able to weather the next few months of the pandemic. The National Association of Theatre Owners today urged
Two weeks after Cineworld announced the closing of its U.S. 536 Regal Cinemas chain, the circuit is reopening 11 locations in New York this Friday, Oct. 23 following Governor Andrew Cuomo’s recent approval to reopen movie theaters in the Empire State. The 11 Regal sites join the chain’s seven California multiplexes which continue to stay
EXCLUSIVE: Chaotic times call for creative measures, and in the midst of a box office that’s been greatly impacted by the pandemic, not to mention the lack of major studio tentpoles, exhibition is thinking outside of the box to restore moviegoer confidence and encourage their return to the cinema. In a few words: Private watch
EXCLUSIVE: No, it’s not all bad news for exhibition out there in the pandemic. Deadline has learned that seven Regal theaters–the only ones in the Cineworld owned U.S. chain– will remain open in California. The news comes after Cineworld announced that it was closing its UK locations and its Regal chain earlier this week on
In the wake of the China Film Administration announcing yesterday the reopening of cinemas on July 20, there’s been several questions as to what China is determining to be a low or high risk COVID-19 area. We heard from a number of industry sources today that the majority of the country’s exhibitors can reopen except
BREAKING: Those theaters in low risk areas in China “can resume business in an orderly manner” as early as Monday, July 20, the China Film Administration announced in a recent notice. There were rumblings in foreign distribution that China would start reopening on this date, however, sources weren’t so sure whether that meant simply that
EXCLUSIVE w/chart: As more theaters have inched toward opening as COVID-19 safety restrictions are eased in states like Texas, Georgia, and Tennessee, a top 10 box office chart has emerged, and we just got our hands on the last two weekends. First of all, it’s still pretty grim out there and this gives you an
Lionsgate Motion Picture Group Chairman Joe Drake continued to emphasize the studio’s commitment to theatrical today, telling analysts on today’s 4Q earnings call that “we believe that people are anxious to get out of the house and do things” following the nationwide sheltering-in from COVID-19. Drake also emphasized about the future of moviegoing, “We’re bullish
Will it? Won’t it? Can it? Exhibitors, rival studios and the town have been paralyzed all week wondering whether Warner Bros.’ Tenet will remain on its July 17 release date and bring the world’s movie theaters back from this coronavirus deep-freeze they’ve been suffering since mid-March. Here’s what we know at this time: solid sources
EXCLUSIVE: We’ve learned and confirmed that some exhibitors will be sharing in this weekend’s revenues for the Warner Bros. digital and PVOD release of Scoob! Warner Bros. opted to take their Tony Cervone-directed animated release into homes this Friday instead of theaters given the continued near nationwide exhibition shutdown during COVID-19. Scoob! will be available for
In an announcement today, California Gov. Gavin Newsom deemed movie theaters to be part of a stage 3 opening in the ultimate four-prong easing of COVID-19 at-home restrictions, meaning they’d be able to open “months, not weeks” in the future. Movie theaters would be part of phase of higher risk workplaces which require a close proximity
Despite Texas Gov. Greg Abbott permitting movie theaters to re-open on May 1 in his state numbering nearly 30 million, big movies chains like AMC and Cinemark, which is located in Plano, TX, are still eyeing mid-summer re-opening, not only out of safety, but also due to the lack of new, fresh studio content. Abbott
Judd Apatow said Monday during an Instagram/Twitter conversation with Saturday Night Live‘s Pete Davidson that their summer comedy The King of Staten Island, originally slated to hit theaters on June 19, will now go on VOD on June 12. The comedy based on Davidson’s life, directed by Apatow and co-written by Davidson, Apatow and former
When it comes to evaluating the financial performance of top movies, it isn’t about what a film grosses at the box office. The true tale is told when production budgets, P&A, talent participations and other costs collide with box office grosses and ancillary revenues from VOD to DVD and TV. To get close to that mysterious end
As more studios experiment with bringing high-quality pics into the home during the current COVID-19 home quarantine, Warner Bros. is jumping into the mix by fast-tracking their animated pic Scoob! onto PVOD and premium digital ownership on May 15 in the U.S. and Canada. The Tony Cervone-directed big feature animated take of the Hanna-Barbera famed cartoon TV
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp announced today that movie theaters, subject to special social distancing and sanitation mandates, are allowed to reopen next Monday April 27. Per CNN, Georgia is ranked 11th in the nation in regards to its coronavirus cases which number 18,9K. There is a debate among federal, state and local governments about how
Editors’ Note: As Deadline continues its Coping With COVID-19 Crisis series on the struggles of people in the entertainment industry impacted by the coronavirus-related shutdowns and layoffs, today we continue our latest series, Reopening Hollywood, focused on the incredibly complicated effort to get the industry back on its feet while ensuring the safety of everyone involved. We
In the ever-changing summer theatrical schedule, Paramount has pushed The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run from July 31 to August 7 as its Mark Wahlberg action feature Infinite jumps to Memorial Day weekend 2021. Deadline reported that latter news exclusively today. On its new date, SpongeBob will share the marquee with wide entry 20th/Disney’s crime thriller The
Drive-ins continued to hang on stateside as we weathered our fourth weekend of a coast-to-coast — let’s be honest, global — theatrical shutdown. About 25 drive-ins booked DreamWorks Animation’s Trolls World Tour, and among the grosses we could get our hands on (as Universal isn’t reporting numbers), the weekend looked to be north of $60K led
With theaters largely closed due to COVID-19 nationwide (except for a handful of drive-ins), there are many things that make sense financially for major studios when it comes to the distribution of their movies right now. It made sense that current theatrical releases such as Bloodshot, The Invisible Man, The Hunt, Onward, etc. would quickly
In the wake of a S&P Global report that forecasted AMC Entertainment’s depletion of cash by mid-summer and its potential inability to re-open by June, media reports have already written the chain’s obituary. But hold on one moment. While distribution and rival exhibition sources wouldn’t be shocked if AMC files Chapter 11 in the near
More betting by the major studios that moviegoing occurs later this season in the coronavirus climate, than earlier this summer as Universal/MGM’s Candyman reboot moves from June 12 to Sept. 25. In the wake of Paramount, Warner Bros. and Sony shifting their movies out of the earlier part of summer as questions hang over when exhibition
The mother studio of franchise pics, Disney, made some release date changes today which further underscores studios’ planning that the summer box office season starts later than sooner. With Artemis Fowl, originally in the post Memorial Day corridor, heading to Disney+, and Universal’s Candyman now on Sept. 25, Disney/Pixar’s Soul is left standing at the expected first pic of summer.
EXCLUSIVE: A majority of moviegoers definitely plan to head back to movie theaters once COVID-19 quells, however, 56% will take their time. The results were unveiled this morning in analytics corp EDO’s “Social Distancing Moviegoing and TV Habits” report which polled 6,8k respondents nationwide last week (March 24-28), largely moviegoers, on their at-home viewing habits
AMC Theatres CEO Adam Aron sat down for an interview on CNBC’s Squawk Alley today, telling the show’s hosts that the chain’s possible re-opening between May to mid-June is still “more of the right timing, but nobody knows.” Aron shut down the biggest exhibition chain out of coronavirus safety on March 17, and believes a three-month window
What an amazing weekend this would have been at the box office, that is if all was well in the world. Disney originally had their live-action version of Mulan fired up to go before the worldwide exhibition shutdown occurred, plus it would have been sharing the marquee with the second-weekend of Paramount’s A Quiet Place Part
Focus Features’ latest title Never Rarely Sometimes Always, will be available at home on-demand for $19.99 48-hour viewing period starting Friday, April 3. The Eliza Hittman directed and written teenage drama, which has 99% certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, faced the unfortunate circumstance of opening in New York and Los Angeles during the weekend when
Kino Lorber’s Kino Marquee initiative, which looks to help arthouses at a time when they’ve been shuttered in the coronavirus climate, has mushroomed from 12 theaters last week to 150 including Alamo Drafthouse and Laemmle Theaters. For the price of $12, Kino Marquee is streaming last year’s Cannes Grand Jury Prize winner, Bacurau, on arthouses’
EXCLUSIVE: Deadline hears that the biggest exhibitor in the world, AMC Theatres, has furloughed 600 employees in their Leawood, KS home office. Health insurance will remain intact for all of them, however, for those not receiving any cushion, they’ll have to figure out a way to pay for their policies during the time that the chain