Exhibition

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
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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
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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,
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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
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AMC Entertainment saw revenue surge to $444 million last quarter from a pandemic-stalled $18.9 million a year ago. Net losses narrowed to $349 million from $561 million. Both beat Wall Street estimates, plumping the volatile stock by more than 7% in late trading. The nation’s biggest theater chain which struggled mightily to avoid bankruptcy for
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After the industry’s and Black Widow star Scarlett Johansson’s ire over Disney’s day-and-date strategy, Disney returns to the theatrical-window form this weekend with Free Guy, the video game-inspired romantic comedy starring Ryan Reynolds and directed by Shawn Levy. It’s Disney’s first wide release respecting a theatrical window since 20th Century Studios’ horror pic The Empty Man
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Disney/Pixar’s sea monster story Luca has been granted an August 20 release date in China, signaling that the end of the giant market’s latest unofficial blackout period may be afoot. While Luca will take a prime slot amid a series of local holdovers and is the first Hollywood studio title to release since June, its
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Refresh for latest…: After debuting to $6.7M from five overseas markets last weekend, Warner Bros/DC’s The Suicide Squad moved into wide offshore release this session, taking $35M from 69 total international box office markets. This is a touch below the like-for-like opening of 2020’s disappointing Birds Of Prey ($36.6M at today’s rates) and under the
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Warner Bros. fired up James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad last night, the studio’s first Thursday preview in a long time arguably since pre-pandemic; the DC R-rated ensemble seeing $4.1M off showtimes that began at 7PM; the biggest for a R-rated movie during the pandemic. Previously, Universal/Blumhouse’s R-rated The Forever Purge made $1.3M on its Thursday night.
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UPDATED with TIFF exit: Clifford the Big Red Dog, Paramount’s CG/live-action movie that was unset from its planned September 17 release, will also not world premiere at next month’s Toronto Film Festival. It had been set as a Gala Presentation via the pic’s Canadian rightsholder eOne, which confirmed the news today that it was removing
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Science fiction drama Nine Days from Sony Pictures Classics opens in four theaters in a specialty market buoyed by recent releases like Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain and Pig. New York’s arthouse scene, outpaced by LA of late, is perking up, distributors say (Ailey numbers were super there) and moviegoers are rewarding unique films
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Paramount Pictures has curbed the planned September 17 release of Clifford the Big Red Dog, its CGI/live-action take on the beloved kidlit character. We hear that the studio is looking for a more family-friendly release date for the pic, which also had been announced as a Gala Presentation at the Toronto Film Festival in September. The title’s
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The Paris Theater, an NYC cinematic landmark rescued by Netflix in 2019, will officially reopen August 6 with the streamer’s The Forty-Year-Old Version by Radha Blank and a week of repertory films programmed by the director. The only single-screen movie theater in Manhattan and the borough’s largest, with 545 seats, has hosted limited theatrical engagements
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Refresh for latest…: As with domestic, a pair of new studio offerings opened at the international box office this weekend. However, the biggest grosses came from local pics in China where upcoming release dates for Hollywood continue to be a frustrating question mark. Getting to the studios first, in a 23-market rollout, Universal’s M Night
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Mark Wahlberg strides into theaters this weekend with Joe Bell as the Reinaldo Marcus Green (Monsters and Men, upcoming King Richard) film debuts on 1,093 screens supported by robust advertising and a star-driven social media campaign. Roadside Attractions is distributing, having snapped up the film from Solstice Studios which acquired it off of a 2020
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FRIDAY AM Update: Refresh for updates Universal’s Old grossed $1.5M on Thursday night from 2,750 theaters that began showtimes at 7PM. This topped the Thursday night results for Paramount’s Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins which did $1.4M, also starting at 7PM at 2,662 theaters. Both titles are respecting a theatrical window. As far as who wins at the
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Universal has dated two DreamWorks movies, Distant and Easter Sunday, as well as Amblin Entertainment’s The Last Voyage of the Demeter.  Distant, directed by Josh Gordon and Will Speck, will open on March 11, 2022. The sci-fi comedy stars Anthony Ramos as a low-level mining engineer whose spaceship gets struck by an asteroid sending him to an unknown alien planet.
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