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New releases this weekend include ‘Brian And Charles’ and Julian Assange documentary ‘Ithaka’.

Hoping to storm to the top of the UK-Ireland box office this weekend is Taika Waititi’s Thor: Love And Thunder, which is opening for Disney in 690 locations – making it the widest ever release in the territory from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The fourth film in the Thor series sees Chris Hemsworth return as the Asgardian god, and reunited with Natalie Portman as a super-powered Jane Foster. Together, they must square off a new villain, played by Christian Bale. Tessa Thompson and Russell Crowe also star.

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Universal’s keenly anticipated animation “Minions: The Rise Of Gru” debuted atop the U.K. and Ireland box office with £10.4 million (12.5 million), according to numbers released by Comscore.

Warner Bros,’ “Elvis,” which had debuted in pole position last week, slid down a place to second with £2.9 million for a total of £10.1 million. Paramount’s Tom Cruise vehicle “Top Gun: Maverick” continued its strong flight at the U.K. box office with £2.6 million in third place and now has a total of £67.9 million after six weekends.

In fourth place, Universal’s “Jurassic World: Dominion” collected £1.8 million in its fourth weekend for a total of £30.4 million. Rounding off the top five was Disney’s “Lightyear” with £864,035 in its third weekend for a total of £8.5 million.

Picturehouse Entertainment’s Cannes and multiple Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards winner “Nitram” debuted in 10th place with £41,909.

In another reminder of the territory’s continuing appetite for documentaries,...

Japanese filmmaker Kenji Uchida hit the jackpot when he wrote and directed in 2012 “Key of Life”, a clever, enjoyable and very applicable story of identity-swap between a looser and a sleek professional assassin, played by the star Teruyuki Kagawa. The film in fact, beside winning a bunch of awards, had a South Korean remake in 2015, “Lucky Key” starring the uber-popular Yoo Hae-jin in the lead role, and this year, a Chinese reboot opened successfully across China on Spring Festival (Chinese New Year Holiday), one of the busiest moviegoing periods in China, grossing a record 7.8 billion yuan only in the festival days. This newest big budget version is directed by Xiaozhi Rao after his 2018’s “A Cool Fish” featuring no other than Hong Kong icon and superstar Andy Lau (also credited as executive producer ) and Xiao Yang, recently seen in “Sheep Without A Shepherd”.

Endgame is screening at Udine Far East...

“Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” had another magical weekend at the foreign box office, generating $83.7 million for an international haul of $322.6 million.

The spinoff sequel has now crossed $439.7 million globally, with $116 million of that total coming from North America. Warner Bros., the studio behind the wizarding world films, anticipated that, like all prior “Harry Potter” movies, more than half of its box office revenues would come from international markets.

The magical action adventure had a particularly strong showing in Japan, where it debuted this weekend with $13 million on 1,008 screens. That ranks as the biggest opening this year for a Warner Bros. film in that territory. Germany also saw solid returns, pocketing $7.5 million this weekend for a cume of $23.2 million. In the United Kingdom, “Crimes of Grindelwald” brought in $7.2 million, taking its total in that market to $28.3 million.

The second “Fantastic Beasts” entry wasn’t the only film to hit a major milestone this weekend.

“Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” led the foreign box office with a massive $191 million. The “Harry Potter” prequel series launched in North America with $62 million for a global weekend haul of $253 million.

The Wizarding World installment needs to do well overseas to justify its costly $200 million budget and make up for a potentially lackluster domestic performance. While its North American debut has stalled compared to its predecessor, “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” the follow-up has already seen a stronger showing from overseas markets.

“Crimes of Grindelwald” saw the best showing in China with $37.5 million from 20,000 screens. In the United Kingdom, it earned $16.3 million, followed by Germany with $12.8 million and Russia with $12.1 million.

“The Crimes of Grindelwald” is the second entry in what Warner Bros. intends to be a five-film franchise from the mind of author J.K. Rowling. David Yates returned to direct the sequel, which stars Eddie Redmayne,...