There is a very good mix of theatrical, digital, VOD and hybrid releases this weekend starting with The Kid Detective from Stage 6 Films starring Adam Brody and Sophie Nélisse. Written and directed by Evan Morgan, the movie is about exactly what the title suggests: a kid detective. Brody plays a once-celebrated kid detective who is
Movies
Open Road’s Liam Neeson action movie The Honest Thief posted a notable first night during the pandemic of $225K in previews. Neeson’s action movies outside of Taken typically see largely double that or more than triple that in a healthy marketplace, i.e. last year’s Cold Pursuit posted $540K on its Thursday preview, The Commuter did $700K, and Run All Night grossed
EXCLUSIVE: Yes, there have been a number of film distributors –big ones– who’ve cut and run during the pandemic, jettisoning their movies onto PVOD or selling them outright to streamers as domestic exhibition hangs in a fractured state. And despite how prevalent it has become, from Universal/Dreamworks Animation’s Trolls World Tour to Paramount’s $125M sale of Coming 2
Tyler Perry‘s part of a massive campaign targeting 25 counties and 250k Black residents in Florida … in a push to get them to the polls. The entertainment mogul’s teamed up with a Black-led nonpartisan group called Equal Ground Education Fund on its half a million-dollar “Park & Praise” initiative. The campaign includes a series
Donna Langley, chairman of Universal Filmed Entertainment Group, and Ann Sarnoff, chair and CEO of Warner Bros had the same reaction Thursday when asked if their companies had any interest in buying movie theaters. They laughed. “We have no plans to do that currently,” Langley said, appearing with Sarnoff and CBS CEO George Cheeks on
The reboot of the Batman film franchise definitely has a new look … because it looks like The Dark Knight’s utilizing a Hefty bag. We kid, sort of, but filming for “The Batman” Thursday in Liverpool, England provided an odd sight — a stuntman made to look like the superhero perched on high atop the
Things are going from bad to worse in exhibition as AMC Entertainment said Tuesday its cash will be gone by late this year or early next and it’s exploring potential sources of additional liquidity, including asset sales, joint ventures or minority investments. The nation’s largest movie chain, like others in the industry, has been struggling
While that project sat on the shelf, Aaron Sorkin delivered some of the best movies of the decade, including The Social Network, Moneyball, and Steve Jobs. He also took his first directing job with Molly’s Game, a movie he also wrote. Eventually, to take Chicago 7 to the finish line, he announced he would be
David Byrne’s American Utopia will return to Broadway next fall. Producers announced today that the critically lauded production will hit the stage Sept. 17, 2021. The show, filmed by Spike Lee for an HBO adaptation that launches this weekend, had initially planned its Broadway return for fall 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown axed that.
In another blow to the industry, the French government has ordered a curfew in several major cities across the country. From Saturday, residents of L’Ile de France (which includes Paris and its environs), Lyon, Marseille, Aix-en-Provence, Lille, Grenoble, Montpellier, Rouen, Toulouse and Saint-Etienne will be under a strict curfew from 9PM to 6AM. This will
As the exhibition industry teeters, global cinema owners beseeched New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to reopen theaters in areas of the state with low infection rates. The response was not promising. The executive committee of the Global Cinema Federation — led by Alejandro Ramirez Magaña, CEO of Cinépolis, in a letter to the governor Wednesday,
Exclusive Details John Cena is a MARRIED MAN — tying the knot with his girlfriend Shay Shariatzadeh in Tampa, Florida … official records show. The couple began dating back in early 2019, following Cena’s high profile split with ex-fiancee Nikki Bella in 2018. Cena and Shariatzadeh got very serious very quickly — and were spotted
EXCLUSIVE: Global cinema marketing data analytics and campaign management corporation Movio has named Sarah Lewthwaite to the post of Chief Client Officer. In her new position as Chief Client Office, Lewthwaite will oversee all of Movio’s exhibition and film studio and distributor relationships worldwide. Lewthwaite most recently was Managing Director & SVP for Europe, the
Known for the TV show Punk’d, and movies Hit & Run and CHiPs (two movies that also co-starred Kristen Bell), Dax Shepard has been battling addiction for a long time, and had been doing well in the fight, having been sober for 16 years. However, while appearing on Ellen, his wife Kristen Bell addressed how
EXCLUSIVE: Here’s the story of how the Brady Bunch might reclaim the now ubiquitous, Zoom-era Brady Bunch-style screen squares. With the help of the son and daughter of series creator Sherwood Schwartz, original Bradys Barry Williams and Christopher Knight and a cast of Broadway performers, a Maine theater company will present a benefit reading of
With Broadway’s shut down at least until June, some producers who had been hoping to open shows this spring are re-setting their sights on fall or even 2022, while others have announced no plans whatsoever. The latest to announce a new schedule is Lincoln Center Theater’s much anticipated production of Flying Over Sunset, a new
Exhibition shares took a beating Tuesday as AMC Entertainment announced its cash might be gone by year end and Walt Disney became the latest big content company to restructure operations around streaming. As theaters reopen to limited audiences without key New York and Los Angeles markets and a paucity of new studio fare, heavily indebted
Exclusive Tatum O’Neal was allegedly suicidal at a Los Angeles area home, so cops responded and she was placed on a psychiatric hold … law enforcement sources tell TMZ. We’re told police and fire responded last month to a call for a suicidal person, after Tatum allegedly threatened to jump off a balcony. Our sources
Alongside Czech Republic and parts of Romania, Slovakia is now among the latest Central European countries to order the re-shuttering of its cinemas amid an escalation of COVID-19 cases, Deadline has confirmed. Movie theaters in Slovakia will close from this Thursday (October 15) after originally closing on March 9 and reopening May 20. A state
Eddie Murphy made quite the resurgence last year starring in Netflix’s Dolemite Is My Name and hosting 2019’s final episode of Saturday Night Live, the latter of which netted him a Primetime Emmy Award. Fans of the comedy star can next expect to see him in Coming to America 2, which was originally supposed to
Disney last week moved Pixar’s Soul off of its domestic November 20 date and onto Disney+, where it will now be released December 25 in the U.S. and other global markets where the streaming service is available. Similar to its move with Mulan, the decision has upset European exhibitors who are starved for major new
In a pandemic moment where The War With Grandpa gets headlines for topping the weekend box office with just $3.6 million, is it possible for films with stars and reasonable budgets to make a go of it while the two biggest theatrical markets, New York and Los Angeles, remain closed? Next to try will be
Digital movie ticketing platform Atom Tickets and the Independent Cinema Alliance (ICA) have teamed to offer contactless, digital ticketing to moviegoers. ICA reps more than 175 companies and 3,000 screens. The first group of theatres to sign on and activate digital ticketing under the partnership include Premiere Cinemas (Texas, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, New Mexico and South
Dr. Ian Malcolm is back to grace our screens with a partially-open shirt almost 30 years after he made ‘Jurassic Park’ nice and steamy … and it’s all a way of encouraging folks to vote. We’re talking, of course, about Jeff Goldblum‘s character from the OG Spielberg dinosaur flick, who at one point was laid
Her Oscar winner Spike Jonze has boarded Sony Pictures Classics upcoming early 2021 release as an Executive Producer. Additionally, SPC has also acquired the rights in Asia, Israel, Turkey and the rest of Europe, making it a worldwide release for the label. The film will next be seen in the Hamptons Film Festival and AFI,
Weiying Galaxy discovered that despite their intentions, The H Collective only had control of 50% of the derivative rights to the xXx series, and any transfer of their piece of the pie had to be approved by Vin Diesel himself. This particular deal started in 2017, the same year that xXx: The Return of Xander
Refresh for latest…: China’s National Day holiday officially ended last Thursday, with takings for the October 1-8 period at an estimated RMB 3.95B ($589M) as the market continues to close the 2020 gap with domestic. This weekend saw continued play for the key titles, led by patriotic pic My People My Homeland which added another
As 101 Studios’ family comedy The War With Grandpa dominated the box office with an estimated $3.6 million in 2,250 theaters, Diane Paragas’ Yellow Rose starring Eva Noblezada, Lea Salonga and Princess Punzalan made its debut at theaters and drive-ins to earn an estimated $150K from 900 locations, bringing its total domestic cume to $170K through Sunday.
Breaking News Margaret Nolan — who served as the iconic golden-plated babe portrayed in the opening sequence of “Goldfinger” — has died. The legendary British artist and glamour model passed away last week, according to her son, Oscar Deeks. The news wasn’t broken, however, until Sunday when director Edgar Wright — who’d cast Margaret in
With Cineworld and Picturehouse cinemas temporarily closed in the UK from this past Friday, Cineworld Group CEO Mooky Greidinger has written to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson asking the government to reinstate the furlough program that benefited employees under the exhibition giant’s previous COVID-imposed closure, while also suggesting other measures to aid the industry. In