Box Office

Lionsgate’s action movie “Midway” is topping expectations and is expected to take the No. 1 spot at the box office over supernatural thriller “Doctor Sleep” with about $21 million for the weekend, early estimates showed Friday. “Doctor Sleep” is heading for about $18 million at 3,855 locations, coming in well under expectations of $25 million

Warner Bros.’ supernatural thriller “Doctor Sleep” roused $1.5 million in North America during Thursday night preview showings. Lionsgate’s “Midway” earned $925,000 at 2,600 locations from Thursday night previews and Universal’s “Last Christmas” made $575,000 at 2,700 sites. “Doctor Sleep,” starring Ewan McGregor, is expected to dominate moviegoing this weekend at 3,855 theaters amid forecasts between

Kanye West brought his Sunday Service to the big screen with “Jesus Is King,” a 30-minute short film that collected $1.03 million globally over the weekend. In partnership with Imax, “Jesus Is King” gives viewers a rare look inside the rapper’s gospel experience in Roden Crater and James Turrell’s never-before-seen art installation in Arizona. The

Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” is heading back to the silver screen. Sony Pictures, the studio behind Tarantino’s latest feature, announced the movie will be re-released with 10 minutes of additional footage, including four new scenes. The lengthier version of “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” which already clocked in at two

Despite nabbing first place at the domestic box office, Disney’s “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil” debuted significantly below expectations and demonstrated that even the most powerful studio in Hollywood is susceptible to missteps. The follow-up to 2014’s “Maleficent” kicked off in North America with a lackluster $36 million bow, an underwhelming result for a film that

Five years after Angelina Jolie’s “Maleficent” cast a spell over the box office, the villainous enchantress has returned to the top of domestic charts. Disney’s “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil,” a sequel to 2014’s fantasy adventure based on the “Sleeping Beauty” sorceress, debuted to a disappointing $36 million from 2,790 North American theaters, nearly half of

Angelina Jolie’s “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil” is heading for an opening weekend of about $35 million at 3,790 North American locations — significantly below forecasts, early estimates showed on Friday. The fantasy sequel should still win the domestic weekend box office handily, denying Joaquin Phoenix’s “Joker” a third consecutive victory. “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil” will

Sony’s sequel “Zombieland: Double Tap” has launched with $2.9 million at 3,052 sites in Thursday night previews in North America, topping Angelina Jolie’s “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil” with $2.3 million. “Zombieland: Double Tap” is opening at 3,450 domestic locations. It’s the first major studio comedy since “Good Boys” opened in mid-August and wound up as

Just four days after its U.S. release, a sequel for “The Addams Family” has already been announced with a pre-Halloween release date of Oct. 22, 2021. “The Addams Family 2” is the first film to land on that weekend. It’s opening a week after Universal launches its “Halloween Ends,” starring Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie

AMC Entertainment will introduce an online video store in the United States on Tuesday. Adam Aron, AMC’s president and chief executive, said that the AMC Theaters On Demand will offer about 2,000 films for sale or rent after their theatrical runs — much like Amazon or iTunes. Disney, Warner Bros., Universal, Sony and Paramount have

October 14, 2019 5:02AM PT Patriotic thriller “The Captain” held on to the top spot at the Chinese box office for the second weekend, again leading from propaganda omnibus “My People, My Country.” “The Captain,” also known as “The Chinese Pilot” earned $34.9 million according to consultancy Artisan Gateway, for a two-week cumulative of $343

October 13, 2019 9:18AM PT “Joker” is showing impressive traction internationally with a second weekend of $123.7 million on 24,149 screens in 79 markets — a holdover decline of just 29%. Joaquin Phoenix’s psychological thriller has totaled $351.2 million outside North America after only 12 days in release. And with $192 million in domestic grosses,

It’s still all smiles for “Joker,” which grossed another $17 million on its second Friday at the domestic box office. If estimates hold, the Warner Bros. villain flick could score another $60 million come Sunday, down just 37% from its $96 million box office debut. That’s above earlier predictions, which saw the film landing somewhere

October 11, 2019 8:33AM PT The newly launched Boxoffice Company has unveiled its first overall content partnership with the Texas-based Cinemark Theatres chain, Variety has learned exclusively. Friday’s announcement comes a month after France-based media-technology network Webedia formed the Boxoffice Company to serve the publishing, technology and data needs of the global film industry. The effort

Will Smith’s “Gemini Man” topped the animated comedy “The Addams Family” with $1.6 million at 3,000 North American sites on Thursday night. Paramount’s sci-fi thriller launched similarly to Brad Pitt’s “Ad Astra,” which earned $1.5 million from Thursday previews before opening with $19 million. “The Addams Family” brought in $1.3 million at about 3,000 sites

Joaquin Phoenix showed plenty of worldwide drawing power as “Joker” dominated international moviegoing with $140.5 million from 22,552 screens in 73 markets for Warner Bros. Along with the North American results, the worldwide opening weekend totaled an impressive $234 million, outperforming expectations. Directed by Todd Phillips, “Joker” has been the subject of scrutiny in weeks leading

Director Thomas Kail has a very simple reason for staging “Freestyle Love Supreme.” “We wanted to let people in on the secret,” he said. That secret — an improvised hip-hop comedy show conceived by Anthony Veneziale, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Thomas Kail in the basement of the Drama Book Shop during early rehearsals for Miranda’s “In

Renee Zellweger’s musical biopic “Judy” enjoyed breakout box-office success not unlike that of its subject, Judy Garland. Boosted by Oscar talk for Zellweger’s portrayal of the famed entertainer, “Judy” struck a chord with moviegoers and collected a promising $3 million. That haul is especially impressive considering it opened in just 461 North American theaters, translating

An adorable yeti will help close out a surprisingly promising September at the domestic box office. Universal’s animated adventure “Abominable” is expected to debut in first place and should collect $17 million to $20 million from 4,200 North American theaters this weekend. If estimates hold, those ticket sales would rank as the biggest opening weekend

“Downton Abbey” is heading for a positively brilliant opening weekend after scoring $13.8 million in domestic ticket sales on Friday. If estimates hold, the feature film version of the popular British television show should take home approximately $31 million come Sunday, marking the biggest opening ever for distributor Focus Features and beating previous record holder

The feature film version of “Downton Abbey” is heading for an impressive $30 million opening weekend at 3,079 sites for an easy victory at the North American box office, early estimates showed Friday. The launch of Brad Pitt’s space drama “Ad Astra” will land in second with about $20 million, while Sylvester Stallone’s action-thriller “Rambo:

“Downton Abbey,” the movie continuation of the hit TV series centering on the Crawley family, has won Thursday previews with $2.1 million from 2,800 North American locations. Meanwhile, Brad Pitt’s space drama “Ad Astra” has launched with $1.5 million in previews, while Sylvester Stallone’s action-thriller “Rambo: Last Blood” scooped up $1.3 million at nearly 2,900

“Hustlers” and “Good Boys” proved that even in the age of Marvel dominance and remake mania, movies that don’t exist within an established franchise can still be box office draws. Can “Ad Astra” continue that trend? The space drama — starring Brad Pitt and directed by James Gray — arrives on the big screen this

Pennywise’s reign of terror hasn’t wavered: Warner Bros.’ “It Chapter Two” maintained first place on box office charts, led by another strong showing overseas. The sequel, based on Stephen King’s horror novel, generated another $47 million at the international box office for a foreign tally of $169 million. After two weeks of release, “It Chapter

Warner Bros.’ “The Joker,” an origin story about the notorious Batman villain, is shaping up to be a big hit despite being one of the darkest mainstream movies to hit screens in years. The film is on pace to debut to a sizable $76 million to $88 million when it hits theaters on Oct. 4,

After a rough couple months for STX, help could be on the way in the form of a pole-twirling, Robin Hooding Jennifer Lopez. “Hustlers,” a heist drama about a group of strippers who turn the tables on their Wall Street clientele, looks primed to be a box office hit when it arrives on the big

Warner Bros. and New Line’s “It: Chapter Two” provided a necessary lift to a lagging domestic box office, dominating over the competition with $91 million in North America. Though it fell short of the first film’s record-breaking $123 million debut in 2017, those figures still represent a promising result. “Unless you’re ‘Avengers: Endgame,’ you’re not

“Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw” has essentially stalled out in its third weekend in China, earning just $10 million despite being up against one of the weakest lineups of the year. The combined star power of Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham did not prove enough to keep viewers’ attention despite a total lack

“It: Chapter Two” has launched impressively with $10.5 million domestically in Thursday night preview showings. The figure is $3 million less than the $13.5 million preview gross from “It” two years ago, when the horror adaptation stunned the industry with a $123 million opening weekend. Warner Bros.’ much-anticipated sequel is kicking off the fall movie

September 3, 2019 2:17AM PT Opening on Wednesday, locally-made melodrama “Tune in for Love” landed on top of the South Korean box office over the weekend. The CGV Arthouse release earned $4.54 million from 685,000 admissions over five days. Directed by Jung Ji-woo (“4th Place”), the drama depicts the story of a young couple who