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In his latest podcast/interview, host and screenwriter Stuart Wright talks with record producer & DJ Wrong Tom about the art of the remix, Hard-Fi and how he keeps his music fandom exciting; and “3 Films That Have Impacted Everything In Your Adult Life”, which include:

Star Wars (1977) Hi Mom! (1970) Shaun Of The Dead (2004)

“3 Films That Have Impacted Everything In Your Adult Life” is about those films that made you fall in love with film. The guest selects their trio of movies and we talk for 5 minutes, against the clock. When the alarm goes off for five minutes we move on to the next film.

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This month has been full of sad reports of celebrity passings… and unfortunately, today is no different. It has been brought to our attention that Lara Parker, best known for starring in the gothic soap opera Dark Shadows and the 1975 horror classic Race with the Devil, has passed away at the age of 84. Her daughter confirmed to Variety that she died in her sleep at her home in the Topanga Canyon neighborhood of Los Angeles on October 12th.

If you’re not familiar with Parker’s work on Dark Shadows, Variety has the information: “From 1967 to 1971, the Memphis native starred in Dark Shadows as the central antagonist Angelique Bouchard. Set in the fictional setting of Collinsport, Maine, the series follows the town’s founding family, the Collins family. In the show, Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid) spurns the besotted Angelique after a brief dalliance with her, unaware that she is a witch.

Lara Parker, who as the vengeful witch Angelique Bouchard spent centuries entangled in a love-hate relationship with Jonathan Frid’s Barnabas Collins on the gothic ABC soap opera Dark Shadows, has died. She was 84.

Parker died Thursday in her sleep at her home in Topanga Canyon in Los Angeles, her daughter, Caitlin, told The Hollywood Reporter.

On the big screen, Parker stood out as a prostitute whose client has a heart attack in John G. Avildsen’s Save the Tiger (1973), starring Jack Lemmon in an Oscar-winning turn, and she played the wife of Peter Fonda‘s character in the satanic horror film Race With the Devil (1975), also featuring Warren Oates and Loretta Swit.

Mere days after arriving in New York in 1967, the green-eyed Parker auditioned for Dark Shadows creator Dan Curtis, who cast her as Angelique in a story arc that would detail the origin of the tortured vampire Barnabas.

In 1972, Woody Allen scored a surprise success with his audacious sketch comedy film "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask)." This rambunctious collection of ribald bits was both uproarious and deceptively off-handed. Suddenly, there was a market for loosely stitched-together, adult-skewing yuk-fests. These movies could be made fast and on the cheap because you didn't need production value to get a belly laugh out of dirty jokes or gratuitous nudity. This was smash-and-grab comedy, and it thrived throughout most of the decade.

One such practitioner of this scandalous style was Ken Shapiro. The counterculture satirist had created an underground comedy hit in New York City with his Channel One Theater, an innovative live show that barraged audiences with tawdry skits via three television sets. With Allen's movie, Monty Python's "And Now for Something Completely Different" and Brian De Palma's "Hi, Mom!" making untoward hay in movie theaters,...

It’s no exaggeration to say that filmmaking legend Brian De Palma has had an eclectic and often spectacular career, spanning over fifty years that have brought audiences many unforgettable and classic movies. 1976’s Carrie remains an often referenced (we’re looking at you Wednesday!) horror masterpiece, crime drama Scarface is all time gangster gold, while his first entry in the Mission: Impossible franchise is still perhaps one of the strongest instalments for a then young and even more sprightly Tom Cruise. However, it’s De Palma’s 1987 The Untouchables, an adaptation of the 1950’s TV serial that focuses on the attempts to bring down crime lord Al Capone, that really shows his versatility as a director. The award winning film features several iconic scenes that are now etched in the minds of movie fans around the globe; from the Union Station shoot-out with full-on baby-in-great-peril slow-mo action shot, to...

CinemaCon launches Monday at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, the second in-person gathering of theater owners and Hollywood studios since August, and Covid. That edition was shadowed by the Delta Variant, ongoing theater closures and shifting release dates. Now the picture is significantly brighter. Domestic attendance at the confab, including a full complement of studio heads, is at a pre-pandemic level (international still a bit softer given challenges in some markets). Moviegoing is on the rise and the release sked looks full and fixed. NATO President & CEO John Fithian and MPA Chairman-ceo Charles Rivkin fielded questions from Deadline on the evolving post-Covid landscape and relationship between the two camps. (Some responses are condensed and edited for clarity.)

Deadline: Compare last CinemaCon to what you anticipate this coming week. What’s changed in the studio/exhibition ecosystem?

Fithian: This show comes at a really important and historic time in our business.

China will be the world’s largest box office market for the second year running, overturning the decade-long rankings and staying ahead of the North American market as it did in for the first time in 2020.

And, even if “Spider-Man: No Way Home” avoids becoming caught in a web of omicron-related shutdowns to become the highest grossing film of 2021, Chinese movies “The Battle at Lake Changjin” and “Hi, Mom” are certain to account for at least two of the year’s top five.

Such a new world order has been long anticipated by some in Beijing, though it did not materialize how or when many in China had forecast. In the end, China’s crown was hastened by the two countries’ vastly different responses to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“China will be the highest grossing territory for 2021. It is currently sitting at approximately $7 billion, which represents just over 39% of the 2021 global box office total.

Hollywood film franchises such as “xXx,” “Warcraft” and “Resident Evil” used to be largely sustained by their box office performance in China, which significantly exceeded their North American hauls and drove global grosses. Frequently, Hollywood titles would dominate the Chinese box office charts during most weeks.

But in recent years, that tide has been turning. In 2018, Hollywood topped the local B.O. over 25 weekends, closely followed by Chinese-made winners, which conquered 22 weekends. Now, the studios are struggling for traction in what has become the world’s single largest theatrical market.

In the first eight months of 2021, Hollywood titles have been chart toppers on just eight occasions, driven by an ageing “Fast and the Furious” franchise, and over two weeks by a rereleased “Avatar.” Hollywood’s share of the China box office market in 2021 has collapsed to a shocking 9.5%, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway.

This year, there are only two U.

“F9” could send the box office into overdrive when it debuts overseas this weekend.

The latest entry in Universal’s high-octane franchise, which opens in Korea, Hong Kong, the Middle East, Russia and China in the coming days, is expected to bring in at least $150 million to $180 million at the international box office. Industry analysts are offering a wide range, which could balloon even higher, because it’s hard to track initial grosses in foreign markets even when the world isn’t rebounding from a pandemic. As different parts of the globe recover from Covid-19 at different paces, it’s especially challenging to forecast box office ticket sales.

Outside of the U.S, where “F9” is scheduled to open on June 25, moviegoing has nearly returned to full strength. Asian markets, particularly China and Japan, have been a source of optimism after recently ushering in several blockbusters including “Hi Mom,” “Detective Chinatown 3...

“Godzilla vs. Kong” made an appropriately monster start in mainland Chinese cinemas on Friday. It obliterated competing titles and stomped to the top of the local chart, putting it on course to be Hollywood’s strongest showing in the country for over a year.

Data from ticketing agency and data tracking system Maoyan showed that the film’s gross revenues (including ticketing fees) hit RMB100 million, or $15.3 million, on the stroke of 6pm local time. At that point “Godzilla vs Kong” accounted for 88.5% of the day’s aggregate box office. Maoyan shows the film enjoying 192,000 screenings on opening day, or some 54% of all available sessions.

The Adam Wingard-directed picture is produced by Legendary Entertainment, a company owned by China’s Wanda property to entertainment concern. The film is directly distributed by Legendary within China, and by Warner Bros. in the rest of the world.

Many international territories have begun...

Hong Kong’s FilMart will be a coming out of sorts for China’s Lian Ray Pictures, which will be operating as a sales company at a major film rights market for the first time.

The company is representing rights to “Sister,” a mainland Chinese drama about a young woman who, after the sudden death of her two parents, learns that she has a much younger brother and that she needs to step into the mother role.

“Until now, our company identity at film markets has largely been as a buyer, looking for distribution rights and remake rights. But with our new 2021 strategy, Lian Ray Global will also be handling international distribution of our own productions,” a company spokesman told Variety.

“Sister” is directed by Yin Ruoxin, whose first film “White Sun” (aka Farewell My Lad”) played at the 2020 editions of the Shanghai and Hainan film festivals before receiving a December commercial release.

“Avatar” returns to theaters in China March 12 in wide release. It could do very well: The world’s biggest-grossing territory is approaching something like box-office normalcy thanks to local productions like “Hi, Mom!”, a comedy that grossed $783 million in less than a month.

However, all “Avatar” needs $7,361,472. That would be enough for James Cameron’s 2009 3D science-fiction epic to earn $2,797,800,565 — a sum that would allow it to reclaim the title of history’s #1 film in worldwide box office.

“Avengers: Endgame” overcame “Avatar” in 2019, when it grossed $2,797,800,564. For the sticklers among us (this writer included), all of these records are academic when “biggest-ever” calculations take no notice of inflation, ticket prices, international rates of exchange, and the uncertainty that overseas calculations are as accurate as they are in North America.

It is possible the two films that sold the most tickets to American audiences are D.W. Griffith’s 1905’s “Birth of...

Update, writethru: Disney’s Raya And The Last Dragon didn’t exactly come roaring out of the gate at the international box office with $17.6M from 32 markets. The global bow, including domestic’s launch, was $26.2M. Double-digit million-dollar debuts for Hollywood movies in the pandemic era are still a rare positive — and we’ve certainly seen family movies excel. While not all openings are apples-to-apples, however, Raya’s start is a somewhat muted affair.

There are a couple of factors at work here. Of the total opening, just $8.4M came from China, despite solid social/critical scores in a market that is the only one globally to be firing on all cylinders. Of course, Raya is new IP so doesn’t have a built-in fanbase that generates a rush-to-see urgency. Still, the Middle Kingdom bow is 51% bigger than Soul which legged out to become the No. 2 highest-grossing Pixar pic ever in the market,...

Refresh for latest…: Warner Bros’ hybrid live-action/animated feature Tom & Jerry began offshore rollout in mid-February, and this session became the first studio title to hit China in the wake of the Lunar New Year, as well as adding a host of other new markets. The Hanna-Barbera rascals scampered off with a further $19.4M from 33 markets at the international box office in the session, which made for a global $33.1M weekend including domestic‘s strong start. The full frame gives T&j the third-biggest global weekend for a Hollywood movie in the pandemic era (it’s fourth when factoring Croods 2‘s 5-day domestic Thanksgiving launch). The overseas cume is now $25.1M for $38.8M worldwide.

Warners went day-and-date theatrically and on HBOMax domestically with Tom & Jerry. As we’ve seen with other family-friendly titles over the past several months, they tend to be less impacted by offshore...

Chinese New Year movies continued to drive the global and international box office this weekend, after their astonishing Covid-era debuts last frame. Leaders last session, Detective Chinatown 3 and Hi Mom, both crossed the Rmb 4B mark locally, with each at an estimated Rmb 4.02B ($621M) cume through Sunday. This is after just 10 days of play for each film, and boosts both up the all-time charts

The current Maoyan-estimated grosses put Hi, Mom and DC3 within striking distance of topping Avengers: Endgame’s Rmb 4.24B ($629.1M) total in China. Hi, Mom, a time-travel comedy from comedian-turned-filmmaker Jia Ling that has benefited from great word of mouth, is projected to become the No. 2 all-time highest-grossing film in China with a Maoyan-estimated final of Rmb 5.17B ($799M). These figures are subject to change over the film’s evolution, but should they hold, Hi, Mom would slot in above 2019’s Nezha and behind 2017’s Wolf Warrior 2.

Movie industry shares soared in Hong Kong on Tuesday in response to the bumper revenues being earned at the mainland China box office over the Chinese New Year holidays.

Leading the gains were Imax China and Alibaba Pictures, both of which have direct stakes in the box office boom. Imax China stock climbed by 31% to Hk$18.36 per share at the close of trading. Alibaba Pictures managed an even greater 35% jump to Hk$1.44 per share.

Mainland China stock markets remain closed until Thursday due to the continuing holiday period. That means there was no trade in the stocks of other companies involved in the box office scramble: Huayi Brothers (“Yin Yang Master”), Enlight Media (“Endgame”), Wanda Film (China’s largest exhibition chain and producer of “Detective Chinatown”) and exhibitor and distributor China Film Group.

With last Friday the biggest grossing single day in Chinese box office history, worth RMB1.45 billion ($245 million...

Chinese moviegoers ushered in the Year of the Ox with the colossal three-day debut of Detective Chinatown 3 grossing an estimated Rmb 2.57B ($398M). This tops Avengers: Endgame’s 2019 five-day China bow of Rmb 2.22B to make DC3 not only the biggest opener in Chinese history, but also giving it bragging rights to the biggest opening weekend ever in a single market — overtaking Endgame’s North American launch of $357M from April 2019.

DC3 also set new IMAX records. From Wanda Pictures, the Chen Sicheng-directed buddy comedy was entirety shot with IMAX Certified Cameras and grossed Rmb 152M ($23.5M) in the format in China this session, making it the best IMAX opening weekend ever for a Chinese movie. It is also the top Fss run of admissions ever for IMAX in China, with 2.1M tickets sold versus Endgame’s 1.94M. Cumulatively, IMAX saw three Cny movies bring in an estimated $25M.

China’s box office is primed for a sparkling Lunar New Year frame as new titles start rollout on Friday. As we noted this past Sunday, pre-sales had alread begun to pop, with threequel Detective Chinatown 3 in the lead. The film from Chen Sicheng as of 11:30Pm local time on Thursday had hit over Rmb 673M ($104M) in advance tickets for opening day Friday and more than Rmb 950M ($147M) for the first week, according to Maoyan.

Those figures exceed the advance sales performance of Disney/Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame which itself was a record-breaker in April 2019. Endgame debuted on a Wednesday in China and its ultimate day-one gross, including midnights, was Rmb 725M ($107.8M at historical rates/$112.3M today) — the biggest opening day ever in the market. Stripping out the midnights on Endgame, its first day was Rmb 538M. For reference, Monster Hunt 2 kicked off the Lunar...

This month’s Chinese New Year holidays will be a litmus test for the strength of China’s film industry recovery following a period of unprecedented turmoil.

This time last year, China’s wrecked Spring Festival celebrations were emblematic of the coronavirus crisis that had dramatically engulfed the world’s most populous nation and was soon to become a global pandemic. Emergency hospitals were being hastily erected in Wuhan, lockdowns had spread nationwide and businesses had little idea when they would reopen.

For China’s cinemas, the annual 10-day holiday — which shifts between January and February depending on the year — is usually an unparalleled boom time that accounts for 10%-15% of annual gross revenues. Holiday box office in 2019 hit record levels of RMB5.8 billion ($892 million), according to ticketing agency Maoyan. But in 2020, it was zero.

Since January, China’s state media has been carefully managing expectations downward, with reports quoting...

Disney/Pixar’s Soul continues to perform above expectations, grossing a total of $36.2m since its opened on December 25.

Local drama A Little Red Flower has reached a cumulative total of $160.3m at the China box office since opening on December 31, according to theatrical consultancy Artisan Gateway, while Disney/Pixar’s Soul continues to perform above expectations, grossing a total of $36.2m since its opened on December 25.

Directed by Han Yan and starring Jackson Yee, A Little Red Flower took a further $21.9m over the three-day weekend (January 8-10) for pole position in the weekend chart. Also performing strongly, Universe Entertainment...

Allen Garfield, the filmmaker-favorite character actor who played small but significant roles in Seventies classics like The Conversation and Nashville, has died at the age of 80.

The New Jersey Star-Ledger, where Garfield worked as a sportswriter in the Fifties, first reported the Newark-born actor’s death following complications from Covid-19. Garfield’s sister confirmed his death to the Hollywood Reporter.

A one-time Golden Gloves boxer who studied acting at the Actors Studio, Garfield threw his small but imposing physique into the role of tough-talking, surly heavies on both sides of the laws.

Review by Roger Carpenter

Before Brian De Palma became That De Palma and before Robert De Niro scored big with multiple high-profile roles, they were just two twenty-somethings trying to put together film careers. De Palma was a film school student and De Niro was a no-name actor.

The two first met around 1963 when De Niro was cast in a supporting role in De Palma’s first film, The Wedding Party. The film is a farce about a groom who visits his soon-to-be bride’s family estate for the forthcoming nuptials. His two friends and groomsmen (played by De Niro and William Finley), who are there to support him, initially try to talk the groom out of the marriage. The groom refuses to listen to their arguments and turns them away. Yet as the day looms large, the groom begins having second thoughts even as the groomsmen have changed their...

“Young Rebel With A Movie Camera”

By Raymond Benson

Arrow has released an interesting time capsule of a boxed set that features early work by director Brian De Palma and starring a very young Robert De Niro before either of them were significant names in the motion picture industry. The films are The Wedding Party, Greetings (1968), and Hi, Mom! (1970).

De Palma had embarked on a film career in the very early 1960s when he was a student at various institutions. While at Sarah Lawrence College in New York, he collaborated with then-theatre-professor Wilford Leach and Cynthia Munroe (who provided much of the script and funding) to make a feature entitled The Wedding Party. Most accounts (including IMDb) state that the movie was made in 1963; however, an essay by Brad Stevens in the accompanying Blu-ray booklet claims that the film was shot in 1964-65. It was eventually copyrighted in 1966, but wasn...