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The latest episode of Dateline, titled “The Last Weekend,” airs on Saturday, September 21, 2024, at 6:00 Am on Oxygen. This gripping episode delves into the mysterious case of Scott Sessions, a talented trumpet player who fails to show up for a scheduled performance. His family’s concern quickly escalates when they discover his body abandoned in the remote Colorado Rockies, sparking a chilling investigation.

As detectives begin to piece together the events leading up to Scott’s tragic death, they focus on two main suspects. The narrative thickens when a second murder unexpectedly occurs, adding urgency and complexity to the case. The episode explores the emotional turmoil faced by Scott’s family as they navigate the shocking reality of their loss, while also shedding light on the investigative process that seeks justice for the victims.

Viewers can expect a mix of heartfelt storytelling and suspenseful twists as Dateline examines this haunting case.

MidWest WeirdFest has announced its full program for 2024. The 8th annual film festival – a cinematic celebration of of all things fantastic, frightening, paranormal, and just plain weird – takes place March 1st – 3rd 2024 at the Micon Downtown Cinema in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. The fest’s fantastic line-up of horror, sci-fi, underground, paranormal, and documentary cinema, kicks off at 6pm, Friday March 1, with the theatrical world premiere of the brand new, and soon to be cult hit, Blind Cop 2.- which is just one of the amazing feature films to be showcased at the festival next month, along with over fifty short films.

The feature films screening at the festival include:

Blind Cop 2: (dir: Alec Bonk ) Theatrical World Premiere

A sequel to a film that doesn’t exist, this is a riotous homage and parody of 80s action cinema. Blind Cop, the former beacon of justice, is consumed by grief after...

Even as Covid-19 infections seem to reach new heights on a daily basis, theatrical grosses remained stable; the top 10 accounted for a little less than $11 million. By every other macrostatistic, however, the results remain unsustainable. Of the 3,000 complexes currently open, about half with eight or more auditoriums, the average weekend take is $5,000-$6,000. In normal times, the average would be around $50,000. Aggregate grosses are around 10 percent-15 percent of normal; this weekend last year saw a top 10 of $90,000.

The disappointments this weekend start with “Freaky.” Trying to predict what the Universal and Blumhouse Productions horror comedy would do was an inexact science; in recent weeks, $4 million has been the ceiling for a wide release. The hope was a more mainstream entry like this one could see $6 million or better.

At $3.7 million, it didn’t. Is it the increased resistance to going out? Awareness that it will be available on premium VOD in three weeks?...

It makes sense that on the week when people dress up for make believe, the movie that created one of the most popular characters of Halloween 2019 returned to No. 1 in its fourth weekend.

D.C. Comics’ “Joker” fell only 35 percent in its fourth weekend — and more impressively, it’s on a weekend that tends to see a fall in grosses. It also was helped by the weakness of three new wide releases.

Grosses are likely to stay close to the same period a year ago. That’s a positive shift, but the gap remains around $525 million with only a little more than two months to close it.

“Joker” would be doing well by any gauge; it’s especially true with a $65 million production cost, and updated worldwide figures surging to $850 billion. It looks like it could have as much as $100 million left in it, even without the China date that...

Bow down to “Joker.” Or at least credit Warner Bros. for scoring big on Todd Phillips’ dark, controversial showcase of the DC Comics character and Joaquin Phoenix’s attention- grabbing performance.

This superb opening follows a five-week rollercoaster launched with an unexpected top jury prize Venice win and initial strong reviews, followed by a more divisive Toronto reaction, with a backlash to the Golden Lion taking over the narrative. Concerns about audience response to the possibly incendiary “Joker” and dicey PR appearances yielded a fierce drop in critic support. No one was quite sure what to expect.

The estimated weekend gross of $93.5 million doesn’t reach the $100-million mark that some event films reach–but those films are rarely rated R. This box office is the best ever for October, besting Marvel’s PG-13 “Venom” last year by $13 million. And with initial international openings raising the initial “Joker” overseas take to close to $250 million,...

Here’s 2019 movie reality: “Fast & Furious” offshoot “Hobbs & Shaw” — starring Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, and Idris Elba — opened over 50% bigger than than “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” easily besting Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, and Margot Robbie.

That’s not to say “Once Upon a Time” isn’t doing well enough; it’s already made $78 million. However, it illustrates why studios are reluctant to take risks on originals. Even with Quentin Tarantino directing A-list stars, the film comes in behind a franchise spinoff.

With “The Lion King” placing between the two more recent releases, total business edged up a few million over last year. Year to date remains close to a half million down, over 6%, with “Hobbs” looking like the final summer release expected to open this well.

Irrespective of high-end media coverage and awards potential, “Hobbs” hits core moviegoers’ sweet spot much more than “Once Upon a Time.

This is what movies look like in summer 2019: This weekend, 87% of the box office went to films from Disney plus a non-Disney Marvel release. About 90% went to franchises, sequels, or remakes. And, they made a lot of money.

That’s good news for exhibitors, and for studios that provided the films. The message from audiences is loud and clear: Ignore naysayers who pounded on “The Lion King” for its high craft and low originality; give us more like this.

With “The Lion King” bringing 73% of the gross, this weekend brought in about $75 million more than the same period last year. That brought down the 2019 shortfall to just over $500 million, a bit over 7%. That’s a strong boost, which should continue with Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.”

The bulk of the credit, of course, goes to “The Lion King,” with an assist from the heat wave covering much of the country.

This weekend is a ‘tweener: the fallow period that lies between franchise titles. Last weekend was “Spider-Man: Far from Home;” next up is “The Lion King.” And, despite the presence of “Aladdin,” “Toy Story 4,” and “Spider-Man,” which have combined total grosses of $950 million, this is the fifth straight weekend in which combined grosses are down from last year.

Major releases are still to come, but for now the seasonal take is 6% down from last year with a year-to-date shortfall of nearly 9%, or close to $600 million.

“Spider-Man” and “Toy Story 4” took the top two spots again, and most of the business despite two new wide (albeit lower-budget) releases. “Crawl” starred Kaya Scodelario in a thriller about a girl fighting alligators during a hurricane, and “Stuber” (a Disney-inherited Fox title) starred Kumail Nanjiani and Dave Bautista in a buddy comedy about an Uber driver and a detective. Combined, the...

We’ve seen a happy pattern in the early summer weeks as a handful of franchise titles soar: “Avengers: Endgame,” “Aladdin,” and “John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum.” They’re doing solid work in cutting the 2019 deficit to around 6% and a little over $300 million. Meanwhile, “The Secret Life of Pets 2” and “Dark Phoenix” opened below their predecessors.

This tells us two stories: (1) The public is becoming more selective about their franchises but (2) as long as there’s sufficient volume of product, there’s hope for theaters even with films that drop in individual interest.

“Drop” is a relative term. “Pets 2” prevailed as top opener versus “Dark Phoenix,” which gives it bragging rights (the latter was projected to prevail). It did well enough: The “Pets 2” opening is on par with its predecessor, Universal’s animation unit Illumination kept its production cost to $80 million, and with early international results (most major countries still...

Although “Godzilla: King of the Monsters” made for a disappointing no. 1, this weekend was an excellent one for the box office. And for that, the credit goes to “Aladdin,” “Rocketman,” and “Ma.”

The combined heft of three credible openers led to about a 50% increase over June’s first weekend last year. That means 2019 has reduced its year-over-year debit to less than 8%, or about $400 million. That comes despite a major shortfall from “Godzilla,” and with better-than-expected showings for both “Rocketman” and “Ma” — a performance that suggests franchises don’t always rule the day.

The best hopes for 2019 still lie in titles like “Toy Story 4,” the newest “Spider-Man,” and “The Lion King.” However, secondary weekends like these are essential to fulfill hopes for a rebound and for the sustained health of the industry.

The latest Godzilla, entry, five years after the most recent reboot, sold half as many tickets as its...

For the first time in nearly a year, two films grossed over $50 million in one weekend. In its third weekend, “Avengers: Endgame” edged out “Pokémon Detective Pikachu,” but the margin was closer than projected. There were three other wide releases, but these two films made up two thirds of the overall total. Still, with this weekend $30 million higher than 2018, the year-to-date deficit now stands at 9%, or just under $600 million.

Legendary Entertainment’s “Pokémon” (which opened in Japan ahead of other territories) has amassed $170 million so far, $58 million of that domestic. With a $150 million budget, and likely close to that in marketing costs, it minimally needs to double that amount (more most likely) to be a good return on investment.

It also has potential a longer-term franchise. The film versions of the characters have previously been G rated, with the biggest being the 1999 animated “Pokemon: The First Movie.” It opened about...

Men comprised 55 percent of the audience for Marvel’s “Captain Marvel.” That helped the film reach a stellar $153 million opening gross and combined $455 million worldwide, disproving the trope of wide-audience rejection of a female superhero. If anything, the silly outrage might have helped this get more attention.

In adjusted figures, this represents the eighth-biggest Marvel opener, the best first weekend in nine months (since “Incredibles 2”), fourth biggest opener in March, and the most positive box office news in a long time. But it also is an expected result which, by itself, doesn’t entirely deflect the recent downturn.

For once, business actually went up (and strongly) from the similar weekend a year back. This reduced the deficit from last year to a little over 20 percent, cutting the dollar to about $510 million. That’s still a lot to overcome. Upcoming openings of Jordan Peele’s well received SXSW-premiered “Us” and...

In what could be the final release from 20th Century Fox before it becomes subsumed by Disney, “Alita: Battle Angel” was clearly the No. 1 film this weekend. It performed better than expected, with $41.7 million anticipated for the four-day weekend.

“Alita” bested the second weekend of “The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part” and two films that opened Wednesday, “Isn’t It Romantic” and “Happy Death Day 2U.” Along with “What Men Want,” also in its second week, they also represent the state of business at the moment — and the industry has much bigger concerns than which categories are shown live at next Sunday’s Oscars.

This will be a rock-bottom Presidents’ Day Weekend, with ticket sales down at least a third; in comparison to some years, it’s only half. One of those years was 2018, when “Black Panther” led to 31 million tickets sold. That was an extreme case, but the...

This was the worst-grossing weekend of 2018, not that it matters; this pre-Christmas weekend is usually among the lowest. All distributors avoided it for any new release, even throwaway titles. Historically, next week can be even worse (unless your film is “Star Wars” or similar). The priority now is to stake a claim that doesn’t risk seeing a film pulled for Christmas.

So, no new films, decreased gross — and at the same time, better holds for films currently on screen. That formula explains this week’s results. However, the same six films have led all others for three straight weeks and that’s unprecedented.

It also could have impact on weeks ahead. “Ralph Breaks the Internet,” “The Grinch,” and “Creed II” all grossed over $10 million in their third weekend (or later), in a slow period: That suggests they will play through the holiday. That would mean a major bonus for all three,...

The box-office weekend after Thanksgiving is rarely a spiffy one. Led by Disney’s “Ralph Breaks the Internet,” the top six films this weekend repeated from the Thanksgiving results (with one significant tweak). Studios believe audiences are occupied elsewhere with pre-Christmas activities and shun them for significant new openings: The risk for a top film flaming out before the lucrative Christmas weeks is too great.

Sony’s Screen Gems provided the sole new national release this weekend with “The Possession of Hannah Grace” (aka “Cadaver”). While hardly stellar, the horror film’s $6.5 million/#7 place showing actually is one of the better results among studio films for this date. It’s enough to make the film a modest success, combined with anticipated international revenue and home-viewing afterlife.

The weekend’s total gross actually came in about $10 million better than last year, with the best results for the date since 2012. That came...

This weekend provided more of the same at the box office — not that that’s a bad thing. With “Halloween,” “A Star Is Born,” and “Venom” again occupying the top three slots, grosses for the pre-Halloween period jumped a third over last year.

The Blumhouse-reinvigorated “Halloween” looks like a two-week wonder with its 58 percent drop. That’s the high end for the second weekend of a seasonal release right before the holiday. It will easily surpass $150 million in gross, making it second only to “Get Out” at Blumhouse.

Even so, the story of the moment remains the continued success of “A Star Is Born.” There was no real new competition, and after four weekends at #2 it will probably relinquish its slot next weekend when three significant new titles open. No matter; its awards play is right on schedule. In fact, its gross is more than $60 million ahead of what “Argo,...

Siblings Nat Wolff and Alex Wolff star.

Los Angeles-based Premiere Entertainment Group (Peg) has acquired international rights to the love triangle comedy Stella’s Last Weekend and worldwide rights to British rom-com Boogie Man heading into Afm

Stella’s Last Weekend (pictured) stars real-life siblings Nat Wolff and Alex Wolff in their first screen appearance together since Nickelodeon’s The Naked Brothers Band series. Paulina Singer, Nick Sandow, and Polly Draper, The Naked Brothers Band show creator and mother to the Wolff brothers, round out the cast.

Draper also wrote and directed Stella’s Last Weekend, which Stella’S Last...

Some parents pull strings to enroll their kids in their alma mater. In Hollywood, celebrity parents have been hammering together family showcases for their progeny — backyard plays elevated to the screen — and taking their own bows as writer, director, producer, or co-star. Earlier this summer was “The Year of Spectacular Men,” Lea Thompson and Howard Deutch’s salute to their daughters Madelyn and Zoey, and the most recent endowment is “Stella’s Last Weekend,” by actress-turned-filmmaker Polly Draper, which stars her sons Nat and Alex Wolff as two brothers dragged across the threshold of maturity over a dramatic weekend with one virginity loss, one fraternal betrayal, and one dying dog, the Stella of the title.

It’s inaccurate to consider “Stella’s Last Weekend” merely an expensive gift from Draper to her sons. Nat and Alex are both sought-after young actors who, since their days together on Nickelodeon’s “The Naked Brothers Band,...

Jane Fonda is opening up about why she doesn’t hate President Donald Trump — and why people should express more empathy toward him.

The Book Club actress, 80, gave her thoughts on Trump, 72, on Politico’s Women Rule podcast published on Wednesday in which she revealed she didn’t harbor negativity toward the president.

Fonda was asked what her younger self would think of a Trump presidency in her youth when she was protesting Richard Nixon and the Vietnam War, to which she replied, “Well, it makes me terrified [to think of it].”

“Here’s something, though, that I think is important,” she said. “I hate what he stands for,...

“Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation” was a surprisingly decisive #1 film this weekend with an estimated $44 million. It disappointed anyone who expected a tight, three-way race with “Ant-Man and the Wasp” and “Skyscraper.” While this is great news for Sony, these results present several troubling issues.

Overall, the results are fine. This weekend’s box office is about equal to last year, which saw two films gross more than anything this weekend. Even so, year-to-date grosses remain nearly nine percent above 2017.

Adjusted, the $44 million gross is the smallest in the “Hotel Transylvania” series; this the first released in summer. The first two debuted at the end of September, a position that signaled they were less competitive.

The best animated opening weekend last summer was “Despicable Me 3” at $72 million; at $53 million, “Cars 3” felt a bit disappointing. “Transylvania” is good enough, and set to make money: It cost $80 million, and opened to $54 million overseas.

It’s the first full weekend of July, but it looks like the summer’s top openers will all have opened prior to Independence Day. The last real shot at another $100 million+ opening was this weekend’s “The Ant-Man and the Wasp,” the fourth Marvel release in five months. It ended up with a decent but not spectacular $76 million.

That would make it the lowest Marvel opener of the year, the first not to pass $100 million, and a gross below the disappointing start for “Solo: A Star Wars Story.” It’s lower than the last 10 Marvel opening weekends. (“X-Men: Apocalypse” just over two years ago the last disappointing result.)

So is this a problem? Context matters, and what’s relevant here is this is a sequel to a Marvel sub-franchise. The first “Ant-Man” opened mid-July to an adjusted total of $63 million, so this is about a 20 percent improvement.

Though this...

The weekend could have been worse for “Solo: A Star Wars Story”: It dropped 65 percent at the box office, but the projection going in was closer to 70 percent. Add to this a drop of 46 percent overseas, and we’re looking at a shortfall in the tens of millions at a minimum.

“Solo” likely scared studios off from programming any major new openings this weekend, which was a mistake. Last year saw the first June weekend thrive with “Wonder Woman,” which turned out to be last summer’s biggest domestic hit. This weekend, total box office dropped about $80 million, or 40 percent from last year. Last week the box office was about eight percent ahead of 2017, but this week’s freefall will bring that down to about 6.5 percent. If we can sustain that through the summer, that will be terrific — but that’s a big if.

Through 10 days, “Solo” is just under $150 million domestic.

“Avengers: Infinity War” opened at an estimated $250 million, at least 10 percent ahead of its biggest advance guesses. Even $200 million (just below “Black Panther”) would have been incredible; at this level, it’s historic. Unadjusted, it will beat out “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” which opened to $248 million in December 2015.

Worldwide is another best ever, totaling $630 million and substantially ahead of “The Fate of the Furious” last May, which debuted to $541 million worldwide. “Fate” did better in its foreign bow, but the release patterns make this a difficult comp; “Avengers” overseas did $380 million, but that doesn’t yet include China.

In North America, it is the biggest reported number of all time — but then there’s adjusting for the killjoy reality of ticket prices. In adjusted numbers, “The Force Awakens” is still number one at $261 million. That could suggest “Infinity War” sold fewer tickets, but even that comes with a caveat...

This weekend, it took just $22 million to be #1 at the box office. In its third weekend, “A Quiet Place” led a closely matched group in the top four spots, bringing in about 16 percent more business than the same time last year. And this was supposed to be a calm before the storm that is next weekend’s “Avengers: Infinity War.” No one wants to position a top film ahead of that juggernaut.

Instead, we saw three wider releases take a chance at reaching targeted audiences. “I Feel Pretty” with Amy Schumer did the best of the three with a little over $16 million, with “Super Troopers 2” close behind. “Traffik” lagged behind with under $4 million in close to 1,000 theaters.

Of note for these individual titles:

“A Quiet Place” returned to #1. More significantly, and nearly unheard of for a wide-release horror film, it fell only 33 percent its third weekend. John Krasinski’s...

“Ready Player One” scored at home and abroad with $181 million worldwide, creating his biggest success since “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” in 2008. Even so, the box-office slump of 2018 continues. The weekend dropped over 20 percent from the same date last year, bringing the year to over three percent lower through the first quarter of 2018.

Read More: ‘Ready Player One’: Steven Spielberg Is the King of Blockbusters, and He Needs a Hit

Spielberg’s film is the second-best weekend opening of the year, and only the second over $40 million. By this time last year, eight films had better openings, with six of them higher than “Ready Player One.”

If “Ready” has a three-time multiple of its first four days, it would total $170 million. That would be a strong achievement, although his 18th-biggest film overall. The never-certain China dominated the $128 million showing in most of the world (Japan...

Finally, we have a new top-grossing film as “Pacific Rim: Uprising” made $28 million and took the reins from “Black Panther.” It’s the first weekend since early February that Disney hasn’t been #1. “Pacific Rim: Uprising” did a little better than anticipated, but that’s damning with faint praise.

Worldwide it made $150 million (led by China), which means domestic represents less than 20 percent. And the film has a reported budget of $190 million, before marketing.

Total tickets sold were down by more than a third from the original “Pacific Rim” in 2013. That isn’t a terrible for a sequel, but this rendition had some original elements (including the addition of “Star Wars” lead John Boyega) to broaden appeal, and opened in an environment hungry for new product.

We are now 13 weeks through 2018, and the only films to open over $30 million are “Black Panther,” “A Wrinkle in Time,” and “Fifty Shades Freed.

This weekend in history: Two films directed by African-Americans took the top two spots, for the first time ever. “Wrinkle,” directed by Ava DuVernay, is a rare film directed by a woman budgeted over $100 million. (Kathryn Bigelow’s “K-19: The Widowmaker” and Patty Jenkins’ “Wonder Woman” preceded it among non-animated films, but it’s the first from a black woman.

This breakthrough should not be diminished, but it’s only one of several important takeaways this weekend — not all so encouraging. We’re 10 weeks into 2018; last year at this point, five films had opened at $40 million or more. This year, there’s only “Black Panther” and its phenomenal success (it’s approaching $1.1 billion worldwide) may mask some significant issues.

Grosses are still up around 8 percent for the year so far, down from over 12 percent at the end of February That’s nothing compared to the likely drops in upcoming weeks,...

“Black Panther” continued its record-breaking performance with a third-weekend total of $66.7 million. That’s a tremendous holdover — at adjusted levels, better than “Titanic” (which was a New Years’ weekend, no less) and “The Avengers.”

The Marvel film’s domestic haul is now over $500 million in only 17 days; that’s better than six of 2017’s nine Best Picture nominees. It is close on the heels of “The Avengers,” whose adjusted 17-day gross was $517 million (unadjusted, it stood at $458 million, which is why Disney and others misleadingly claim “Panther” is already bigger).

All that aside, the third weekend showed that Ryan Coogler’s film has tremendous momentum. Its drop was just 41 percent — better than “The Avengers,” which dropped 46 percent at the same point. That gives it a better shot at ultimately topping the adjusted $706 million that “The Avengers” earned in its domestic release. It’s a trajectory that, even in a worst-case scenario,...

“Black Panther” stands a chance to become the biggest comic-book movie in history. Dropping only 46 percent in its second weekend, it’s reached $400 million in 10 days. And even more impressive than the low drop is its comes after a first weekend with a pre-holiday Sunday.

In adjusted numbers, “Panther” ranks as the fifth best second weekend ever, behind “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” “Jurassic World,” “The Avengers,” and the first “Spider-Man.” However, it’s by far the best second weekend before May. While it dropped more than “Wonder Woman” last June, it “only” opened a bit over $100 million, about half as well as “Panther.”

Ten days in, “Black Panther” is $22 million behind the adjusted figure for “The Avengers” in 2012. But with its smaller second-weekend drop (“Avengers” fell 50 percent), it remains in the race to equal that film’s (adjusted) $706 million.

It only needs $619 million to top “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,...

“Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” (Sony) easily bested all comers on its fourth weekend, and sustained the 2018 box office upswing. The shockingly successful reboot is just $50 million away from landing in the top-five grossers of 2017. A $350-million total won’t come near to challenging the $600 million-plus final tally for “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” which is 2017’s top performer both domestic and globally, with a worldwide total of over $1.3 billion.

A weekend result that puts the Dwayne Johnson family fantasy $15-million ahead of the latest “Star Wars” juggernaut suggests the days may be waning for “Star Wars” as the dominant franchise far above all the rest. For the first time, its fifth weekend fell below the comparable “Rogue One” last year.

And yet overall grosses are up — if not at the level of last week’s 20 per cent increase. This weekend’s overall results are close to a carbon copy...

“Star Wars: The Last Jedi” lived up to its very high expectations with a domestic weekend gross of $220 million. Foreign territories (with China not yet opened) added another $450 million to the total so far — a strong number, to state the obvious, at anytime, even more so for the pre-Christmas date.

This is a decided improvement over last year’s franchise sidebar “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” which opened to $157 million, and only 15 percent below what “The Force Awakens” did two years ago. The return of the series opened to almost unprecedented interest and demand.

Read More:‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ Divides Fans: An ‘A’ CinemaScore, and a Negative Rotten Tomatoes User Grade

This number is a terrific performance for a franchise now providing annual entries, with normal attrition usually meaning to lower grosses. “The Empire Strikes Back,” the second of the “Star Wars” series, opened in an...

Grosses this weekend were seasonably typical, which means as lousy as most early December weekends. With “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” looming large, most companies are avoiding new wide releases. That makes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Like “Moana” last year, a Disney animated title leads the pack for a third straight week: Pixar’s “Coco” continues to be a strong performer, well-positioned to play well through the lucrative holidays ahead. “Coco” should easily continue in two-thirds or more of its dates, even though it started lower than last year’s “Moana.”

Unlike last year, no new wide release boosted results, which will come in just under the same weekend in 2016 at around $80 million total. Last year saw “Office Christmas Party” open to $17 million. This year, the sole film to risk opening wide was the senior citizen comedy “Just Getting Started” (Broad Green). It managed a poor $3.2 million, good enough only for...

U.K.-based Cineworld’s just-announced acquisition of the second-largest movie exhibitor in the U.S., Regal Cinemas creates uncertainty. AMC Theaters and Cineworld-Regal — the #1 and #2 domestic chains, respectively — are both controlled by foreign owners (China’s Dalian Wanda in AMC’s case). This only underlines the international aspect of the exhibition business. And with that, we also must question the future of our domestic theaters.

Read More:Britain’s Cineworld Will Buy Regal and Create a Global Chain That Rivals AMC

Already, grosses from U.S. theaters don’t keep pace with international growth. And while there’s been a lot of excitement surrounding the success of MoviePass, which allows subscribers to buy a movie ticket per day from most major chains, that could be muted by a new yet established rival: Cineworld’s Unlimited Card.

Currently, the Unlimited Card is only available as an annual purchase, at a cost...

Contemporary Chinese Cinema is a column devoted to exploring contemporary Chinese-language cinema primarily as it is revealed to us at North American multiplexes.Over the last few years it has become increasingly easy to see mainstream Asian films in North America at the same time they are released in their home countries. Thanks to partnerships with small, international distributors, the major multiplex chains (AMC, Cinemark, Regal) have devoted a handful of screens in major markets to showing new releases from India, Korea, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Most of these titles fall under the radar of both critics and audiences outside the diasporic communities to which they are targeted. They play for a week or two and then disappear, outside of a handful of breakout titles. Last year Stephen Chow’s The Mermaid made headlines for its high per-screen averages in North America as it shattered domestic box office records in China.

Despite no new openings on what is often the worst weekend of the year, overall grosses are up about 13 percent from last year thanks to “Coco” and strong showings from two expanding awards contenders, “Lady Bird” and “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.”

Only a handful of films now in release will be able to sustain runs through the lucrative December 25 – January 1 period. Best positioned among the studio titles are “Coco” and “Wonder.” The latter is third this weekend, but looks positioned to place higher next weekend than the current #2, “Justice League.”

For now, how films are holding is more important than their current standing. The strong gross for “Coco,” its appeal to wider family audiences during the holidays, and Disney’s top-dog strength as a distributor all guarantee its continued run.

Read More:‘Three Billboards’ Joins ‘Lady Bird’ as a Female-Centric Specialized Smash

“Coco” held slightly better than “Moana” (also Disney,...

Celebrity fitness trainer and CoverGirl ambassador Massy Arias has amassed millions of followers on social media with her fun and impressive workout clips. This year, her most popular videos have featured a special guest: her daughter Indira Sarai Williams, who has starred in many of her posts, including ones where she’s dancing. But a recent video caught the attention of critics who feel Arias went too far.

Last weekend, the fitness influencer posted a video that shows her working out with weights and gym machinery —and adding a little extra weight to the routine with her daughter strapped on...

Veteran character actor Julio Oscar Mechoso died of a heart attack on Saturday, according to the Miami Herald. He was 62. With more than 120 acting credits to his name, Mechoso’s long career spanned both movies and television, as well as comedy and drama. He appeared in films such as “Little Miss Sunshine,” “The Legend of Zorro,” “Jurassic Park III,” “Last Weekend” and TV series “From Dusk Till Dawn,” “Seinfeld,” “Greetings From Tuscan,” “Cane” and “Damon.” Mechoso’s longtime friend and colleague Andy Garcia reflected on the life and legacy of his “soul mate” in a tribute published in the Miami Herald on Sunday.

It is known that Sidharth Malhotra and Manoj Bajpayee are coming together for the very first time in Neeraj Pandey’s Aiyaary. The film was completed in the month of August and they are awaiting the release now. Last weekend, Sidharth Malhotra shared a candid picture from the sets of the film with co-star Manoj Bajpayee.Read More

The post Check out: Sidharth Malhotra and Manoj Bajpayee caught in a candid moment on the sets of Aiyaary! appeared first on Bollywood Hungama.

“Coco” (Disney/Pixar) outgrossed by a wide margin the second weekend of DC’s “Justice League” over the five-day Thanksgiving weekend. Their robust numbers were buttressed by strong holds for several other films, led by the second weekend of “Wonder” (Lionsgate) along with other holdovers that showed surprising signs of renewed life.

The holiday weekend was about three per cent ahead of a year ago, a welcome increase looking forward to the lucrative Christmas period. That’s positive, though it marks a minimally acceptable performance given two films at the top with a combined budget of a half-billion dollars.

Pixar’s “Coco” fell short of other recent animated Thanksgiving holiday releases (including “Moana” last year and “Frozen” in 2013), but its $71-million five-day total combined with an A+ Cinemascore (only the fifth this year, and third since January) suggests a shot at a total gross of $275 million or higher with strong play through Christmas.

Welcome to this week’s “Preview Reel” column, where we look at the upcoming wide-release movies. Last weekend saw Justice League pull in $94 million, which might seem like a lot of money to you and me, but it was a bit of a disappointment given the film’s $300 million production budget. Poor reviews will not help its legs, and neither will the opening of a new Pixar movie, Coco. By the way, Roman J. Israel Esq., starring Denzel Washington will also be opening on Wednesday. So, let’s take a look at what you should see over the holiday weekend.

Coco

What we are excited about: It’s new Pixar, and even better, it’s original Pixar. Cars 3 came and went without making much noise, but we fully expect Coco to be a family hit over the Thanksgiving weekend. Pixar is arguably the best studio in creating original concepts...

DC Comics’ “Justice League” (Warner Bros.) opened to just shy of $100 million. That makes it the seventh best opening for 2017, just $7 million shy of DC’s “Wonder Woman,” which would seem a reasonable box-office launch.

But the movie marks a disappointment in relation to its $300-million production cost–before worldwide marketing expenses. Yet again, DC and Warners seem to be whiffing this crucial Batman/Superman/Wonder Woman franchise at bat against rival Disney/Marvel– which just delivered a home run with “Thor: Ragnarok.”

Nonetheless “Justice League” boosted the weekend — with help from a surprisingly strong showing for family heart-tugger “Wonder” (Lionsgate) — to more than $200 million total box office. That’s more than $40 million ahead of last year, when “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” debuted to $79 million.

Boasting a robust ensemble of familiar superheroes and fresh franchise entries including Aquaman, the epic was expected to reach $110 million or better.

This weekend Marvel's latest hit Thor: Ragnarok is looking to top $250 million after 17 days in release while Warner Bros. and DC Comics unveil their latest entry into the DC Extended Universe, Justice League looking to make a splash globally, though that's not all this weekend has to offer. Lionsgate will debut the highly anticipated adaptation Wonder while Sony is debuting their faith-based animated title The Star. All-in-all we should be looking at a strong weekend in which the top twelve should combine for over $200 million for the first time since early July. Looking at a #1 finish, Warner Bros. and DC Comics' Justice League will debut in 4,051 theaters with industry expectations right around $105-115 million. Given Wonder Woman debuted with $103.2 million earlier this year, Suicide Squad opened with $133.6 million last year and Batman v Superman opened with $166 million, those expectations might seem low given this is essentially DC's equivalent to Marvel's The Avengers.

“Thor: Ragnarok” (Disney) repeated at #1 its second weekend, but was joined by “Daddy’s Home 2” (Paramount) and the remake of “Murder on the Orient Express” (Paramount) as strong performers. And “A Bad Moms Christmas” (Stx) had a strong hold to add to the good news.

But otherwise it was more famine than feast. #5-10 combined only grossed $11 million. Last year’s #5 (a holdover) grossed nearly that much by itself. The lingering effects of a weak October continue to affect the overall results. Initial estimates show total business this weekend down around six per cent from the same weekend last year.

The two new entries both fall into the realm of mid-budget (between $50-75 million) titles that have been so problematic of late. Both came in several million or more above the $20 million or close estimates, with both now in range to be make money, though each has a different path to reach that.

You know what they say: Good wine doesn’t always come cheap!

Last weekend, a 2015 bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon was sold for $350,000 at an annual charity auction for the Emeril Lagasse Foundation’s Carnivale du Vin, making it the most expensive bottle of wine sold at an auction in the world, according to the Emeril Lagasse Foundation.

The record-breaking news was also celebrated by the man who donated the bottle, Hollywood agent Shep Gordon.

“The Setting breaks record for most expensive single bottle ever sold at Auction at $350,000! The money went to a great cause,” he wrote alongside a photo of the bottle,...

Domestic box office has taken a dive over the course of the year: Last weekend alone saw a downturn from 2016 by about five percent, so no small change when millions and millions are on the line, and hardly a good sign heading into the key holiday season. However, at least one segment of the market has triumphed mightily — films directed by women.

Both Patty Jenkins’ “Wonder Woman” and Greta Gerwig’s “Lady Bird” have busted open long-standing box office records, heralding both the power of female-directed material, but while their successes are mighty, they also highlight how far Hollywood still has to go when it comes to recognizing such films.

Now the number-two domestic earner of the year — Jenkins’ film has so far earned over $412 million at the box office, second only to the juggernaut that is “Beauty and the Beast” — “Wonder Woman” set a new record for a female-directed feature opening.

All hail our Disney and Marvel overlords as they came through on schedule with the most positive box office news since “It” two months ago. “Thor: Ragnarok”‘s opening take of $121 million for exceeded $100-110 million projections. The third time out for “Thor” is not only the top-performer for the sub-franchise, but the second-best ever for Marvel outside the May-August period — only “Deadpool” in February was bigger.

Such is the dominance of comic adaptations that this impressive total is only the 19th-best opening in adjusted numbers. But for 2017, “Ragnarok” grossed $18 million more than the year’s top genre entry “Wonder Woman,” which sits at #2 for 2017, behind “Beauty and the Beast.”

This debut also marks a $35-million increase over “Doctor Strange,” another Marvel entry, on the same first November weekend in 2016. And it comes parallel to a worldwide take (in the second weekend many markets) of $427 million so far.

So “Ragnarok” came through big time,...

High school is a time when even the most centered people struggle with the turbulent nature of four years’ worth of emotional friendships, raging hormones and impending adulthood. And for those whose impulses are much darker -- like the serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer -- it can be ground zero for what’s yet to come.

The new film My Friend Dahmer, which is in theaters on Nov. 3, explores the genesis of Dahmer’s desires through the prism of high school and the viewpoint of his friend, John “Derf” Backderf, who would grow up to write the acclaimed graphic novel of the same name on which the film is based. Alex Wolff, who steps into Derf’s shoes, tells Et the script thrilled him from the start because of its dual nature.

“I was intrigued by the fact that it was about friendship in the 1970s while also tackling this serial killer narrative,” he says. “It’s...

Welcome to the “Preview Reel” column, where we look at the week’s upcoming wide-release movies. Last weekend saw Jigsaw open on top of a slow movie-going weekend. But things will change this weekend as Marvel unveils its third movie of the year in the form of Thor: Ragnarok and one of last year’s surprise comedy hits gets a Christmas sequel in the form of A Bad Moms Christmas. Let’s see how big of a bang the fall movie season might start with.

Thor: Ragnarok

What we are excited about: You’ve probably seen a trailer or two for this movie, what’s not to be excited about? The first trailer broke the record for most views in twenty-four hours, and for good reason. This movie looks crazy beautiful and vastly different from previous Marvel entries, but more importantly, it feels different. The film’s director, Taika Waititi,...

Last weekend saw the premiere of Taika Waititi's Thor: Ragnarok in cinemas across the world, and this week will mark its arrival in North America. It's Marvel's standard release strategy now to give Europe the earlier peek, whenever they feel particularly confident about a title's success. Being European myself, it meant I could see the film a week early and I had a lot of fun with it. One of the supporting actors in it is Jeff Goldblum, and seeing as how his role seems to have been tailor-written for him, don't expect him to have to flex his acting chops too much. He's there, and if you like his brand of humor, he's funny. While he's now often doing his own sort-of persona thing,...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Once again the weekend box office fell short of even the most dire predictions. This pre-Halloween weekend looks to be the second worst of the year. Initial tallies total $72 million. That’s down about 20 per cent from last year, which was the worst weekend of 2016.

Read More:The Dead Zone: Why Halloween Is One of the Worst Box-Office Weekends Three New Flops

This isn’t due to a lack of new product. Three studios released wide films this weekend: “Jigsaw,” Lionsgate’s eighth time around for the “Saw” franchise; George Clooney’s badly-reviewed “Suburbicon” from Paramount; and Middle- America-targeted “Thank You for Your Service” from Universal.

Only “Jigsaw” showed a pulse, though at $16,250,000 it’s the lowest (ticket price adjusted) opening in the series. The earlier annual Halloween efforts (from 2004-2010) ranged from slightly better to $44 million. The most recent, “Saw 3D” debuted at $25 million.

The other two newbies...