Movies

Chinese crime action movie “No More Bets,” not “Barbie,” was the best performing film in the world this weekend. Comscore calculates that “No More Bets,” earned $88 million between Friday and Sunday in China alone. That figure is greater than the $33.7 million that “Barbie” earned in its fourth weekend of release in North America

The combined performances of Rajinikanth’s “Jailer,” Sunny Deol’s “Gadar 2,” Akshay Kumar’s “OMG 2” and Chiranjeevi’s “Bhola Shankar” have set a new all-time theatrical gross box office record for the Indian cinema industry. Numbers released by the Multiplex Association of India and the Producers Guild of India reveal that the Aug. 11-13 weekend was the busiest

“Try to Remember,” the most famous song to have come out of the stage musical “The Fantasticks,” was noted for its autumnal feel, sung by someone reflecting back on youthful days. The happy irony is that Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt wrote that song prior to the show’s original 1960 staging when they were both

Rockets, sickness, progress and the environment – all uneasy keywords of our present. In Katharina Huber’s “A Good Place” (“Ein schöner Ort”) which won on Saturday Locarno’s best emerging director award and best performance (Clara Schwinning) in the Swiss fest’s Filmmakers of the Present, a remote and untimely village sets the scene for an imminent

On July 19, the MPA ratings board handed an NC-17 rating to “Passages,” Ira Sachs’s acclaimed drama about a very unusual love triangle (a man, a woman, and a megalomaniacal romantic sociopath). The film was set to be released just two weeks later; Sachs and his distributor, MUBI, were understandably upset. The scene that triggered

“Barbie” continues to shatter records nearly a month after the Malibu icon first graced the big screen. The Greta Gerwig comedy has earned $1.18 billion at the worldwide box office and now ranks as the second highest-grossing release in the history of Warner Bros. Internationally, the film earned $45.1 million from 75 markets to bring

In her sophomore feature, contemporary fairytale “Rift in the Ice,” Serbian director Maja Miloš revisits the underbelly of Serbian society and explores women’s integrity and sexuality in the harsh reality of contemporary Serbia. The film is a co-production between Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Italy, Netherlands and Montenegro, and features in the works-in-progress section of Cinelink, the

“The Last Voyage of the Demeter” sank without a trace over its opening weekend, going to a watery grave with just $6.5 million. The period horror film, which centers on one chapter of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” namely the bit where his coffin gets transported from Transylvania to England, was distributed by Universal. It’s the studio’s

In what marks the most ambitious film from Peru’s leading producer Tondero and, most likely, Peruvian cinema in recent times, Pedro Almodóvar’s El Deseo, Infinity Hill (“Argentina 1985”) and Tondero have joined forces to co-produce a drama based on the hostage crisis that took place at the Japanese embassy in Lima in 1996. El Deseo

Arriving at a moment when interest in all things atomic has been piqued by the global success of “Oppenheimer,” Dragan Bjelogrlić’s “Guardians of the Formula” offers a far more classical, but no less gripping take on a little-known episode marking a historical intersection between the medical and nuclear sciences. Based on Goran Milašinović’s book “Vinča

“Essential Truths of the Lake” is the last thing most people would expect from Lav Diaz: a direct follow-up to his previous film, “When the Waves Are Gone.” It’s not a sequel, per se (this one actually comes earlier), but they are connected, with a third movie featuring the same disillusioned police detective in the

Irish actor Liam Cunningham’s eclectic career includes playing fan favorite Davos Seaworth in HBO’s “Game of Thrones” and starring roles in Ken Loach’s Palme D’Or-winning “The Wind that Shakes the Barley” and Steve McQueen’s BAFTA-winning “Hunger.” Cunningham has won acting prizes at the Irish Film and Television Awards three times. Next up for him is

“The Last Voyage of the Demeter,” a new period horror film set aboard a merchant ship, is capsizing in its debut at the domestic box office amid the ongoing success of “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer.” The Universal release — the studio’s second stab this year at a Dracula film after the action-comedy “Renfield” bombed in the

The hype is real: Ali Ahmadzadeh’s “Critical Zone” (“Mantagheye bohrani”) has picked up the top Golden Leopard at Locarno. It has been a bumpy ride for the film, set in Tehran over the course of one lonely night and described by the fest as “a hymn to freedom and resistance.” As reported by Variety, Iranian authorities

Harmony Korine teased upcoming Venice premiere “Aggro Dr1ft” in Locarno, where he picked up the Pardo d’onore Manor award for outstanding achievement in cinema.  “I am excited. I have never made anything like it. I was trying not to make a movie. I don’t know if it will be a scandal, but it will be

It’s a welcome sight for any longtime visitors returning to Sarajevo, the white-jacketed waiters circling the terrace of the majestic, Austro-Hungarian-built Hotel Europe as film and TV industry professionals parse scripts and close deals amid the espresso-fueled chatter. Around them a haze of cigarette smoke hovers like the mist that settles each morning over the

U2 frontman Bono made a surprise appearance Friday night at the opening ceremony of the Sarajevo Film Festival, with the Irish pop star leading a rapturous crowd in a cappella rendition of Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song.” The legendary vocalist, appearing alongside bandmate the Edge, took the stage after an emotional screening of “Kiss the Future,”

The Writers Guild of America met Friday with the major studios for the first negotiating session since May, and received a new package of proposals. The WGA told members in an email that it would respond to the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers next week. “We will evaluate their offer and, after deliberation,

The most promising emerging talent in show business gathered on Thursday to celebrate Variety’s annual Power of Young Hollywood issue, honoring actors Sydney Sweeney and Noah Schnapp and musician Steve Lacy. Sony Electronics and Ford were the presenting and premier sponsors of the evening. Honorees Steve Lacy, Noah Schnapp and Sydney Sweeney at Variety’s Power

Back in the 1970s, when Korea was closed to the outside world, locals relied on black market dealers to get their hands on everything from American cigarettes to Ritz crackers. Though this illicit import racket was run mostly by men, it wouldn’t have been possible without half a dozen uniquely talented women — skilled divers

“Barbie” brought sporadic moviegoers back to theaters in a big way, a new survey from film tracking service The Quorum found. Quorum surveyed 1,800 “Barbie” ticket buyers in the U.S. over the past three weeks, finding that 11% “couldn’t remember the last film they had seen in a theater.” Another 11% said “Barbie” was the

“Punjab ’95,” a potentially incendiary drama that was due to premiere as a gala presentation at the Toronto International Film Festival, has been removed from the lineup. The film is “a compelling story based on the life of human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra,” per producer RSVP and the festival described the film as telling

Linda Haynes, who appeared in films including “Rolling Thunder,” “Drowning Pool” and “Brubaker,” died July 17 in South Carolina. She was 75. Her son Greg Sylvander reported her death on Facebook. “As an only child, I have dreaded these times my entire life. I find peace in the knowing that my mother was at peace

“Candyman” filmmaker Nia DaCosta is making her superhero directorial debut with Marvel’s upcoming “The Marvels,” a sequel to “Captain Marvel” that teams Brie Larson’s eponymous superhero with Teyonah Parris’ Monica Rambeau from “WandaVision” and Iman Vellani’s Kamala Khan from “Ms. Marvel.” It’s been a shaky year for comic book tentpoles, with Marvel’s own “Ant-Man and

“Full House” alum Jodie Sweetin expressed disappointment to People magazine over her new film, “Craft Me a Romance,” being sold to the Great American Family (GAF) network, which counts her former co-star Candace Cameron Bure as its chief creative officer. Bure ignited controversy last fall after she told The Wall Street Journal that GAF would be

At times Bosnia and Herzegovina has looked like it was stuck in a bit of a no-man’s land when it comes to film production, lacking the financial fire-power to press forward, but its TV series business is booming. The Southeast European country boasts two Oscar nominations – Danis Tanović’s “No Man’s Land,” which nabbed a

Digital spaces are a vast and ever-growing landscape one seems to be simply flowing through. Daunting bulks of colliding information, rapid jumps from one place to the other, and the feel of inhabiting past, present, and future simultaneously create a very particular sensory experience that informs Argentine filmmaker Eduardo Williams’ latest Locarno main competition title

The first reactions to DC Studios’ “Blue Beetle,” starring Xolo Maridueña, are flying in, with early viewers calling the film a “huge surprise.” While some of the reactions quibble with parts feeling shaky or playing things a bit too silly, they mostly praise the film’s action, heart and specific touchstones to Latino culture. The film,

The dual release of Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” and Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” on July 21 has restored the box office to its pre-COVID glory, and the effects have been felt around the world. To date, “Barbie” — a comedy starring Margot Robbie as the iconic doll who goes through an existential crisis — has crossed the

In Sudabeh Mortezai’s provocative fifth feature, “Europa,” the Vienna-based director follows ambitious executive Beate from Europa, a mysterious corporation looking to expand into the Balkans by seemingly promoting philanthropy and investment in underdeveloped areas. What Europa actually needs is to buy land from the locals in a remote Albanian valley. The film plays in Competition