Movies

Chinese animation film “New Gods: Yang Jian” was the top film at the mainland China box office for the second successive weekend. Unchallenged by major new releases, the film earned $13.0 (RMB88.3 million) between Friday and Sunday, according to data from consultancy firm Artisan Gateway. That was a drop of 34% compared with its $19.8

Intra-Korean espionage actioner “Hunt” claimed a third weekend as the top film at the South Korea box office, while “Bullet Train” managed only a fourth-place opening. “Hunt,” directed by and starring “Squid Game” star Lee Jung-jae, earned a lowly $2.91 million in its third weekend of release. The figure was a 48% weekend-on-weekend decline and

Daniel Craig brushed up on his voice to shoot “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” sharing that he worked with a coach in order to regain the Southern accent that he used to play detective Benoit Blanc in the first “Knives Out.” “I went away to work with an accent coach for three or four

While the excitement of the summer movie season is over, U.S. theaters are looking to reinvigorate interest in filmgoing with National Cinema Day, a one-day event that will see participating locations sell movie tickets for prices as low as three dollars. The Cinema Foundation, a non-profit branch of the National Association of Theatre Owners, announced

J.K. Rowling has explained her conspicuous absence from “Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts,” stating that she declined an invitation to be included in the special. The author of the original “Harry Potter” series only appeared within a few excerpts of “Return to Hogwarts” via segments from a 2019 interview. Her limited presence was

If three new movies debut in theaters, but nobody goes to see them… That is how Sony’s creepy thriller “The Invitation” managed to top box office charts with a paltry $7 million from 3,114 North American cinemas. Its win comes with some pretty weak bragging rights; it’s the lowest first-place finish since May 2021, when

“Stranger Things” and “Succession” were among the top winners at the 9th annual Location Managers Guild International (LMGI) awards on Saturday evening. The awards ceremony and reception took place at the Los Angeles Center Studios before an audience of 400 attendees, including LMGI members, industry executives and press. “Succession,” which shot part of its third

Welcome to Variety’s Weekend Reads, a weekly collection of deep dives, long reads, analysis, reviews and commentary from Variety’s print and digital platforms. Curated by Variety.com editor William Earl, this is your guide to can’t-miss Variety content that is well worth your attention. Subscribe to Weekend Reads and other newsletters here. Today marks the 70th

Paramount filed a motion on Friday to dismiss a lawsuit that claims that “Top Gun: Maverick” infringes on the copyright of the 1983 magazine article that was the source material for the original film. Shosh and Yuval Yonay, the widow and son of writer Ehud Yonay, filed the suit in June, arguing that the studio

Some 550 cinema venues across the U.K. will celebrate cinema and cinema-going under the banner of National Cinema Day on Sept. 3. The initiative, which has the participation of all the major U.K. cinema chains and wide range of smaller cinema operators and venues, will see all participating cinemas offer tickets for all screenings from

In a summer that’s often seen only one new wide release in a weekend, a whopping three new films hit theaters on Friday: Sony’s horror-thriller “The Invitation,” George Miller’s “Three Thousand Years of Longing” and bank heist movie “Breaking,” starring John Boyega. However, none of them seem to be making much of an impact, as

After an even more dramatic Oscars season than usual — with controversy over categories being excluded from the show and a shocking unplanned slap largely overshadowing the rest of the ceremony — newly appointed Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences CEO Bill Kramer wants to move forward. “We want to move forward and have

Shia LaBeouf is opening up about the abuse allegations that have disgraced his career. On Jon Bernthal’s podcast “Real Ones,” LaBeouf addresses the disturbing accusations of sexual battery and physical and verbal abuse brought against him by FKA Twigs in a 2020 lawsuit. LaBeouf dated FKA Twigs for roughly a year after they met on

Talks between the Motion Picture Association and the Hollywood labor unions have failed to produce an agreement on a new law that would address firearm safety on movie sets. The two sides backed competing proposals earlier this year in Sacramento in response to the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of “Rust”

With more and more viewers tuning in to international television shows and movies on streaming,Israeli based company Adapt Entertainment has found a way for the programming to speak to everyone — literally. The company’s founder, Darryl Marks, says fans often complain about how poorly a show or film is dubbed. Adapt’s technology combines AI and

Many actors have taken a stab at playing the Penguin (aka Oswald Cobblepot) over the years, but Danny DeVito’s strange, hilarious and grotesque turn as the Gotham City mobster in “Batman Returns” has stood the test of time. Most recently, Colin Farrell put a darker spin on the villain in Matt Reeves’ “The Batman” starring

“Explorer,” a portrait of Ranulph Fiennes, credited with the title, World’s Greatest Living Explorer, is set for a digital and on demand release. The documentary feature peels back the layers of Fiennes’s life to go beyond his record-breaking achievements and reveal the man behind the myth. Fiennes was the first to circumnavigate the world from

DCTV’s new documentary-dedicated theater, “Firehouse: DCTV’s Cinema for Documentary Film,” will open its doors Sept. 23. Located in DCTV’s historic Chinatown firehouse building in New York, the nonprofit theater will begin its opening week with an exclusive screening of Abigail Disney and Kathleen Hughes’ “The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales.” “I’m so excited that

Amid record-breaking viewership performance for “Victoria’s Secret: Angels and Demons,” Hulu has set the premiere date for its next big doc: the Adam McKay and Billy Corben-produced Jerry Falwell Jr. project, “God Forbid: The Sex Scandal That Brought Down a Dynasty,” Variety has learned exclusively. Hailing from McKay’s HyperObject and Corben’s Rakontur banner, “God Forbid”

Alia Bhatt, the U.K.-born star of Hindi films, has had a busy year. She toplined and produced dark comedy “Darlings” on Netflix, which according to the streamer, scored the biggest opening for a non-English-language film globally. She also toplines “RRR,” which earned lots of fans in the West when it streamed on Netflix earlier this

Marvel Studios appears to be one step closer to finalizing plans for the highly anticipated “Fantastic Four” reboot, with news that “WandaVision” helmer Matt Shakman is in talks to direct the project, Variety has confirmed. At San Diego Comic-Con in July, Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige teased the movie, which is currently slated to debut

Shia LaBeouf has come forward to dispute the assertion that he was fired from “Don’t Worry Darling” by director Olivia Wilde just as production was starting in 2020. LaBeouf asserts that he chose to leave the production because he didn’t feel the actors were given adequate time to rehearse. In the Aug. 24 cover story

Norwegian director Erik Poppe takes on Vilhelm Moberg’s acclaimed series of novels in “The Emigrants,” his new historical drama about a struggling Swedish family which emigrates to the U.S. in 1849, searching for a better future.  “It’s probably the most classic work of literature in the whole Scandinavia,” he told Variety, taking about the 2022 Haugesund Festival

Dubai-based sales agent Cercamon has acquired world sales rights for Juraj Lerotić’s “Safe Place,” which won three awards after its world premiere at the Locarno Film Festival and was named best film at Sarajevo. The Croatian director’s feature debut is the emotional story of a family reeling in the wake of a suicide attempt that centers

DOCUMENTARY “Escape From Kabul Airport,” a documentary airing on BBC Two in September, will tell the inside story of the 18 days in August 2021, when the U.S. withdrew its troops from Afghanistan, and the subsequent evacuation of thousands of Afghan citizens from Kabul airport after the Taliban seized the city. The documentary is an

When Angelina Jolie read Alessandro Baricco’s short novel “Without Blood” — the basis for her next directorial effort — the Italian fable about the brutality of war and healing in its aftermath had an immediate therapeutic effect.  “I read it right as I was going through the beginning of a very dark time in my

Film studios in Asia-Pacific are expanding the scale of their operations and want location incentives to keep pace. “Incentives are fundamental, they are an expectation [of production managers] and having one is no longer a USP,” said Rashid Karim, CEO of Iskandar Malaysia Studios. He was speaking at the Content Asia summit conference in Bangkok

TrustNordisk has snapped up international sales rights to the new Danish crime thriller “Boundless,” based on fiction guru Jussi Adler-Olsen’s “Den Grænseløse,” his sixth novel in the Department Q series.   Danish helmer Ole Christian Madsen, credited for the HBO series “Banshee” (2013-16) and WWII drama “Flame & Citron” starring Mads Mikkelsen, has taken up

Indonesia’s Makbul Mubarak is making quite a splash with his debut feature “Autobiography,” which is world premiering at Venice’s Horizons strand and then playing at Toronto’s Contemporary World Cinema section. The film, which examines the effects of Indonesia’s military dictatorship on the country’s youth, follows a young man torn between loyalty and justice who confronts

Despite some ambitious efforts by director Jessica M. Thompson and screenwriter Blair Butler to revitalize hoary horror movie tropes with allegorical commentary on race, class and male privilege, “The Invitation” is too wearyingly hackneyed for too much of its running time, and too often laugh-out-loud funny as its plot relies on the age-old convention of