FRIDAY AFTERNOON: It’s the biggest result ever seen at the end of October, with Universal/Blumhouse’s Five Nights at Freddy’s eyeing a $34M Friday after an Oppenheimer-sized Thursday night of $10.3M for a massive $68M opening. That’s with theatrical day-and-date on Peacock. It’s the biggest result for…

Independents are out in force with high-profile fall festival fare from Pricilla to The Holdovers, a big Viva Pictures push with Inspector Sun (voiced by Ronny Chieng), Cannes documentary winner Four Daughters and Waikiki, the debut feature by Hawaiian filmmaker Christopher Kahunahana. the first…

EXCLUSIVE: Ahead of its U.S. release on November 3, Eugenio Derbez-starrer Radical is off to a great start in Mexico. The film, which won the Festival Favorite Award when it premiered at Sundance in January, opened last weekend in Mexico, selling 631.7K tickets, outdoing the sophomore frame of Taylor Swift…

In the wake of Warner Bros’ pushing the Robert De Niro gangster pic Alto Knights to later in 2024, release date changes are aplenty for Disney due to the actors strike, but also Jonathan Majors’ ongoing legal woes. To no surprise, Searchlight won’t be opening the actor’s Sundance critically…

Lots of release dates changes and additions as the theatrical release schedule take a turn due to the ongoing actors strike. Universal Pictures has staked out June 27, 2025 for The Black Phone 2. The first movie, released during the summer 2022 as moviegoers were coming back to cinemas from the pandemic…

What is it with Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom? Is it Wednesday? Is it Friday? The DC sequel will now open on Friday Dec. 22 this year instead of Dec. 20. Know that Warners knows what they’re doing here: They turned Aquaman back in 2018 into the highest grossing DC movie of all-time at $1.15 billion. That…

The faith-based indie outfit behind summer blockbuster Sound of Freedom is out with documentary After Death, which opens in over 2,600 theaters this weekend, an extremely wide release for a doc that doesn’t also happen to be a concert film. The exploration of near-death experiences by survivors…

EXCLUSIVE: Lionsgate and Francis Lawrence’s return to the Suzanne Collins franchise with a pic based on her prequel novel is looking like a $50M start on Nov. 17, which is in the vicinity of 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes ($54.8M). While women 17-34 are indeed the hot demo for The Hunger Games: The…

Renaissance: A Film By Beyoncé, the theatrical release chronicling Beyoncé's global world tour, will premiere in Los Angeles Nov. 25 and London Nov. 30 before hitting movie theaters around the world December 1. Tickets will be available Nov. 9 in most international markets including Africa, Asia…

EXCLUSIVE: Concrete Utopia, South Korea’s International Film Oscar entry this year, will hit theaters in NY and LA on Dec. 8 with a wide release on Dec. 15.  In the U., 815 Pictures and Seismic Releasing are releasing the Lotte Entertainment feature. The movie opened in South Korea on Aug. 9 and…

Imax CEO Rich Gelfond predicts the long SAG-AFTRA strike will settle relatively soon. If, instead, it drags on, theater chains will face a rocky second half of 2024 but he sees the large-format exhibitor standing apart. "An exhibitor who programs a multiplex needs lots of movies," he told Wall…

No one knew how big this was going to be, or is going to be, but Universal/Blumhouse’s feature take on beloved horror video game, Five Nights at Freddy‘s is eyeing a $50 million-plus start and possibly even more. At that level, it would make it the second-best domestic box office opening of the fall…