Box Office

The National Association of Theatre Owners is imploring Congress to enact federal relief legislation to save local movie theaters hurt by the COVID-19 pandemic. NATO said Monday that the situation is dire and noted that the industry cannot continue to operate in its current state. It pointed out that even in places where movie theaters

Korean cinemas got a boost as coronavirus restrictions were reduced to their lowest level, meaning that an empty seat no longer has to be left between every audience member. The move, implemented from Monday, came too late to transform the weekend. CGV and other cinema operators told the Yonhap news agency that their booking systems

Patriotic and gritty war film “The Sacrifice” topped the mainland Chinese box office for the second week. It earned $28.6 million over the weekend, lifting its ten-day cumulative score to $106 million, according to data from Artisan Gateway. Of that weekend score, some $1.6 million was earned from 670 Imax screens. The Imax box office

Once upon a time, in a bygone era, people felt comfortable leaving the house to watch a movie in theaters without fears of contracting or spreading a deadly virus. There were unexpected hits and some painful misses. But through the highs and lows, there was at least one genre that reliably drew audiences: horror. For

Comedy drama, “Samjin Company English Class” tickled up enough laughs to score $2.1 million over its opening weekend. But the wider Korean box office remains range-bound at destructively low levels. “Samjin,” which tells a tale of three young women determined to improve themselves, and who along the way stumble across the nefarious activities of the

The beleaguered AMC Theatres chain has warned it may have to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy if it cannot obtain additional sources of liquidity. The company made the disclosure Tuesday in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission about an equity distribution agreement with Citigroup Global Markets and Goldman Sachs to sell up to

China’s year-to-date box office came within a whisker of $2 billion on Sunday, with the latest weekend adding $46.4 million to the running total. That was enough for China to take the 2020 global crown. While the latest theatrical weekend total represented a 32% decline compared with the previous session, and lacked a notable new

There’s at least one thing promising about the holidays: “Promising Young Woman,” a revenge thriller starring Carey Mulligan, is hitting theaters on Christmas Day. While most movies are fleeing the release calendar this year, “Promising Young Woman” is one of the few films to take a chance on an unpredictable 2020. As it stands, it

Screen Media has bought all North American rights to “Skyfire,” China’s first big-budget disaster movie, from Highland Film Group and plans to release the film in theaters and on demand in December. “Skyfire” is directed by Simon West and stars Jason Isaacs (“Hotel Mumbai”), Hannah Quinlivan (“Skyscraper”), Xueqi Wang (“Iron Man 3”) and Shawn Dou

The National Association of Theatre Owners of California/Nevada has unanimously agreed to remain closed in San Francisco, despite receiving the go-ahead from city officials to reopen. The trade group said Wednesday that the city’s ban on serving concessions makes it “economically impossible” for theaters to reopen and “significantly limits” the moviegoing experience for audiences. “NATO of

Dinosaurs won’t rule the big screen again until 2022. “Jurassic World: Dominion” will now debut on June 10, 2022 — a year later than originally planned. Universal Pictures, the studio behind the sci-fi adventure franchise, initially slated the movie for summer 2021. While announcing the release date change on Twitter, director Colin Trevorrow also debuted

The China box office bounced back this weekend to its pre-pandemic levels, figures from its National Day holiday weekend show — proving that the right mix of competitive new local titles can entice viewers in, what this year is very much on track to be, the world’s largest movie market. The news comes as other

Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures have delayed the release of “Dune,” the big-budget sci-fi epic from director Denis Villeneuve. It will no longer premiere on Dec. 18 and is now slated to debut in theaters on Oct. 1, 2021. A spokesperson for Warner Bros. declined to comment. The move was expected after the studio pushed

Survival thriller “Alone” is getting plenty of company at movie theaters and on digital platforms — amid otherwise tough times in the exhibition business. “We’ve been able to emphasize that ‘Alone’ is a very elemental and primal story for audiences,” said Magnolia president Eamonn Bowles. “For audiences, the situation is very recognizable. It’s very well-directed.”

Credit rating agency Standard and Poors has warned that the AMC Entertainment chain is in danger of defaulting on its debt due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. S&P issued the bleak warning Friday as part of a downgrade in the company’s credit rating from CCC+ to CCC-, moving into the junk bond category, and cited

“No Time to Die,” the latest James Bond installment, will be postponed until next year, the filmmakers announced Friday. The film, starring Daniel Craig in his final stint as the agent formerly known as 007, is expected to hit theaters April 2, 2021, a year later than initially planned. Back in March, “No Time to

Rober Zemeckis’ adaptation of “The Witches” starring Anne Hathaway is landing on HBO Max just in time for Halloween. The Warner Bros. dark fantasy comedy will debut on the subscription streaming service, owned by parent company WarnerMedia, on Oct. 22. “The Witches” was originally expected to open in theaters on Oct. 9, but like almost

The Chinese box office hit its highest single-day tally of the year so far on Thursday, reaching $107 million (RMB728 million), more than 10 times what North American cinemas made in the whole of last weekend. That sum marks China’s second largest Oct. 1 National Day box office in history, a feat achieved even as

With U.S. studio tentpoles dropping out of the theatrical calendar, Chinese blockbusters may find a rare opportunity to gain some traction abroad. At least that’s what London-based distributor Trinity CineAsia is betting on.  The firm has acquired the Jackie Chan-starring blockbuster “Vanguard” from Hong Kong-based Golden Dragon Pictures for theatrical runs in the U.K., Ireland

People who closely follow box office earnings have noticed a surprising lack of transparency surrounding ticket sales for “Tenet,” the $200 million-budgeted sci-fi epic from director Christopher Nolan that released last weekend in U.S. theaters. Since “Tenet” premiered, Warner Bros., the studio behind the film, has parceled out carefully selected breadcrumbs of data to reporters

“Tenet” got off to a solid start on its debut in Chinese theaters on Friday. It opened on top of the box office and eased aside local champion “The Eight Hundred.”. By 7pm on opening day “Tenet” had earned RMB50 million ($7.31 million), according to the China Box Office service of Ent Group. Including earlier

The future of film in an age of plague may be crystallized this weekend. That’s because after numerous delays and months of anticipation, Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” — the time-bending sci-fi epic that hopes to revive the beleaguered movie business  — is finally hitting U.S. cinemas. But when it touches down in domestic theaters, “Tenet” will

Chinese romance film “Love You Forever” earned a stunning $38.3 million on Tuesday, its opening day in mainland China cinemas. That figure is the highest single day score achieved by any film worldwide in 2020. The film tells the story of a man who is able to go back in time to save the tragically-shortened

“Tenet,” Christopher Nolan’s hotly anticipated and oft-delayed sci-fi epic, may not be unspooling in a drive-in theater near you. To be fair, when the film touches down in the U.S. over Labor Day weekend, it’s unclear where exactly in the country the movie will be able to play. Many cinemas, particularly of the indoor variety,

Two days of previews for Warner Bros.’ much-anticipated “Tenet” showed a sign of promise over the weekend. But a rising tide of coronavirus infections is now crushing the life out of the South Korean box office. Korea was the first place in the world to screen “Tenet” commercially. The Christopher Nolan-directed “Tenet” earned $368,000 on

Chinese war film, “The Eight Hundred” achieved a cumulative box office score of more than $40 million by late afternoon on its opening day, Friday. By 5pm local time, the film had notched up RMB62.7 million or $9.04 million, according to data from China Box Office and Ent Group. By 6pm, the Friday score had

Big-budget Chinese war epic “The Eight Hundred” is on course to be the first blockbuster film of the year in the Middle Kingdom, after super-strong Monday previews confirmed audience willingness to return to theaters. The film earned $7.24 million from 17,200 screenings on Monday, according to data from local analysis firm Ent Group. Even more

Action thriller, “Deliver Us From Evil” had a $10.6 million opening weekend in South Korean cinemas, lifting the country’s overall box office by 75%. The film, directed by Hong Won-chan (“Office”) and starring Hwang Jung-min and Lee Jung-jae, was released on Wednesday and ran off with a $15.0 million total over five days. Measured by

Sam Mendes’ World War I saga “1917” took the top spot at China’s box office this weekend with a $5.3 million debut, according to data from industry tracker Maoyan, as overall nationwide ticket sales dipped down from the week before. Meanwhile, the China premiere of the 20th Century Fox’s racing drama “Ford V. Ferrari” flopped

The theatrical window has been shattered, and it’s a pretty good bet that it will never be patched back together. That means that the movie business will never look the same. The Universal and AMC Theatres deal enabling the studio to release new movies on premium video on-demand within three weeks of their debut has