From Saturday, a first batch of 205 cinemas will re-open for business in Shanghai. This follows last weekend’s opening of 500+ theaters in other China provinces, though Shanghai becomes the first tier one city to turn the lights back on as the coronavirus reportedly abates in the Middle Kingdom. The Shanghai municipal government made the
International Box Office
As the coronavirus reportedly continues to abate in China, film authorities are taking an everything old is new again approach. As of last count there were about 500 movie theaters open in the world’s second biggest box office hub. And as this expands, some of them may soon be playing such favorites as the Avengers
After last week setting a May 4 deadline to decide if CineEurope would go ahead as planned this June, organizers at Film Expo Group have now said they are postponing the major exhibition convention to August. Originally scheduled for June 22-25 in Barcelona, Spain, the annual event has been moved to August 3-6. Keeping safety
As the number of new cases of the coronavirus shows signs of abating in China, a smattering of cinemas re-opened in a handful of provinces across the country this weekend. On Friday, there were 486 movie theaters back at work, while Saturday the total was upped to 507, local reports say. This reps just 4.5%
Illumination/Universal’s Minions: The Rise Of Gru has been moved off of its global release which was previously set for late June in some offshore markets and for July 3 domestically. This is another casualty of the coronavirus pandemic as Illumination’s Mac Guff studio in Paris has been temporarily shuttered in abidance with the current lockdown
French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe has announced new measures to control the spread of the coronavirus with gatherings of more than 100 people forbidden for the foreseeable future. This is down from the previous 1,000 person limit and follows President Emmanuel Macron’s speech last night which stipulated that all schools and universities in the country
Amid the coronavirus epidemic, organizers of the Beijing International Film Festival have indefinitely postponed the event which was set to take place from April 19-26 this year. The move was expected as China has now recorded 80,735 cases of Covid-19 and 3,119 deaths. However, the National Health Commission said there were only 40 new cases
Refresh for latest…: Disney/Pixar’s Onward topped the global and international box office chart this weekend, but came in vastly below projections. A $68M worldwide start includes just $28M from 47 material offshore markets. That’s well under the $40M-$55M range the industry was seeing ahead of the weekend. The spread of the coronavirus, and the fears
As the coronavirus (aka Covid-19) spreads into Europe, cinemas in some parts of France have been closed for the next two weeks. This concerns the northern Oise area, which is located in the Hauts de France region, as well as the northwest department Le Morbihan located in Brittany. The Louvre museum also saw its second
Refresh for latest…: Universal/Blumhouse’s The Invisible Man made its first appearance at the international box office this weekend, scaring up $20.2M in 47 markets. Combined with the strong domestic start, the Leigh Whannell-directed pic debuted to $49.2M globally. In like-for-like offshore openings, the Elisabeth Moss-starrer is tracking in line with Lights Out, A Quiet Place
EXCLUSIVE: Seventeen years after the release of Bad Boys II, Sony’s Bad Boys For Life dominated domestic, overseas and global turnstiles in its mid-January debut. On Saturday, it will cross $400 million globally, with current cumes through Thursday at $193.1M domestic and $204.1M from the international box office. Bad Boys 4 is in the works.
“The impact in 2020 from Corvid-19 (coronavirus) on the motion picture business cannot be overstated,” a finance source recently told us. That’s as the closure of cinemas in China alone is approaching a loss of $2B to the global box office, while the disease has now seen spikes in Korea and Italy. What looked in
UPDATE, writethru: Paramount’s Sonic The Hedgehog continues to be top critter of the litter at the global and international box office this weekend with an added $38.3M from 56 overseas markets. That brings the offshore cume to $96.5M and worldwide to $203.1M. Sonic raced into an additional 16 hubs this frame, with several No. 1
Refresh for latest…: Paramount’s Sonic The Hedgehog raced to a $100M worldwide opening this weekend, including $43M from the international box office, and a domestic record for a videogame pic. The adaptation of Sega’s globally popular property is playing in 40 offshore markets, repping 60% of the overseas footprint. Directed by Jeff Fowler, Sonic had