Film

SATURDAY AM UPDATE: Though the numbers aren’t as big as their opening weekends, an interesting tale continues at the weekend box office during the pandemic with New Line’s Mortal Kombat and Funimation/Aniplex’s Demon Slayer bound for a photo-finish of $6.1M in their second weekends. Really, it’s too close to call right now. Mortal Kombat had the slight upper hand

Oscar nominee Glenn Close and Mila Kunis star as a mother-and-daughter duo fighting to regain the love and trust that once held them together in the Rodrigo García-directed drama, Four Good Days, in select theaters today via Vertical Entertainment. Based on a true story by Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post writer Eli Saslow, the pic follows

Update, April 30: The long awaited Marvel vampire movie Morbius will go a week later on Jan. 28, 2022 instead of Jan. 21. Rather than staying alone on Jan. 21 where there is no wide entry competition, Sony has decided to go head-to-head with Universal/Blumhouse’s Scott Derrickson-directed horror film The Black Phone on its new date. On its Jan.

Director Zhang Yimou returns to theaters this weekend with Cliff Walkers, an espionage thriller set in 1930s China. It’s a change of tone for the director of Shadow, House Of Flying Daggers and Hero, who also helmed Matt Damon-starrer The Great Wall in 2016. Based on a script by Quan Yongxian, Cliff Walkers opens in

The Felicity Jones and Shailene Woodley StudioCanal feature The Last Letter From Your Lover will hit Netflix on July 23 and in select territories. The Augustine Frizzell directed romance based on JoJo Moyers’ bestselling novel, will also open in UK cinemas on Aug. 6. Oscar nominee Jones and 2x Golden Globe nominee Woodley star in this

Exhibition veteran and former Universal theatrical distribution exec Steve Bunnell is headed to the newly launched event cinema company Iconic Events as CEO. The company was formed by former Village Roadshow Pictures Group co-owner and co-chairman Michael Lambert, former Cinemark CEO Tim Warner, Mark Rupp and Steven Menkin. Bunnell was most recently at Alamo Drafthouse

Lionsgate has set a trio of release dates today, including the Samuel L. Jackson-Maggie Q action pic The PROTÉGÉ ne The Asset which will open on Aug. 20. against Universal’s Tom Hanks movie Bios and Paramount’s Paw Patrol.  In addition, the new Jennifer Lopez movie, which Armie Hammer dropped out of after a social media scandal erupted, Shotgun Wedding will load up on Wednesday,

Universal Pictures and Blumhouse Productions have selected Jan. 28, 2022 for the release of Scott Derrickson’s next movie The Black Phone. Uni already had the date on hold for a Blumhouse title, and this is the one. The Black Phone is currently the only wide release on that date, coming in the wake of Sony/Marvel’s Morbius on Jan. 21.

AMC Entertainment offered a preview of its quarterly earnings Tuesday, anticipating revenue for the three months ended in March of $148 million, way down from $941.5 million the year before as the box office struggled to revive amid the global pandemic. AMC expects to announce a net loss of between $572 million and $567 million.

(Interactive chart with estimates below) As Hollywood buckled up for the Oscar showdown at Union Station, the specialty box office saw a new release sweep the floors in its theatrical debut. This week, Bleecker Street released the comedy Together, Together, starring Ed Helms and comic Patti Harrison. The pic follows a young loner Anna (Harrison)

EXCLUSIVE: Netflix has licensed all global rights, sans China, to Sony Pictures Animation’s Vivo. The movie, directed by Oscar nominee Kirk DeMicco (The Croods) and co-directed by Brandon Jeffords (Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2) with new songs written and performed by Tony award winning Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, was recently scheduled for a theatrical

Disney, which has been experimenting with the theatrical window lately with simultaneous movie releases on streaming service Disney+ Premier much to the upset of theater owners, dropped a PSA during the Oscarcast waving a flag for exhibition. Filled with first person testimonials of exhibition workers and clips from upcoming big pics like F9, No Time

Refresh for latest…: Warner Bros/Legendary’s Godzilla Vs Kong has reached a new global benchmark, crossing $400M with a cume through Sunday of $406.6M worldwide. Of that, $320M comes from the international box office in 41 markets. The monster mash, already the biggest Hollywood movie of the pandemic era, continues to track above its Monsterverse predecessors.

SATURDAY AM UPDATE: Refresh for more analysis Wow, it’s a great weekend at the box office, even by pre-pandemic standards. Two movies, both R-rated and aimed fanboys, aren’t squashing one another, but equally set to gross over $19M apiece this weekend. We’re talking about New Line/HBO Max’s Mortal Kombat and Funimation/Aniplex’s Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie:

No matter which film takes home Best Picture Sunday night, that title will be the lowest grossing ever in Oscar history. According to Comscore, Kathryn Bigelow’s 2009 title The Hurt Locker stands as the lowest-grossing Best Picture Oscar winner at the domestic B.O. with $17M. That title will likely be upset this Sunday by Chloé Zhao’s

Siân Heder’s CODA, which AppleTV+ scooped up at this year’s virtual Sundance Film Festival in a record $25M global deal, will debut in theaters and the streaming service on Aug. 13. The movie, which Heder wrote and directed, was the first in Sundance history to win all the top prizes including the Special Jury Award for Ensemble Cast,

Ed Helms is looking forward to fatherhood in the Bleecker Street comedy Together Together, which hits select theaters today. Also starring Patti Harrison, Tig Notaro and Julio Torres, the film was written and directed by Nikole Beckwith. In the pic, a young loner Anna (Harrison) is hired as the surrogate for Matt (Helms), a single