Industry News
by saidiontheside

saidi’s take – 4/4/2023

Hello everyone,

Today’s email is dedicated to William Doren who passed away about a month ago (although Variety reported it today).  He was my boss for a little while when I worked at Kodak.

Box Office:

  • “Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” made about as much as it was predicted to make.  It did approx. $37 million domestically which put it at #1.  It’s the first non-sequel movie to be #1 at the domestic box office since “Knock at the Cabin” 2 months ago (the first weekend of Feb).
  • In the worldwide box office “Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” did a little better than predicted with approx. $72 million.  Doing well in several foreign countries except for China where it wasn’t even in the top 3 at the box office.
  • However, the movie might not be #1 for long.  This weekend’s movies will start playing advance showings Tuesday night and open in theaters on Wednesday since it’s Easter weekend and a lot of schools are on spring break.  The big test will be if “Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” holds up against, “Super Mario Bros Movie.  That movie is predicted to make over $200 worldwide by next Monday (including playing on Tues night thru Thurs this week).
  • One more box office news item: Cineworld/Regal has made a deal to emerge from bankruptcy WITHOUT selling any of their theater chains in the UK, US, or Ireland.  It will still consider selling its theaters in other countries.

Upcoming Movies:

  • It was announced that “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” will have its world premiere at Cannes.  There will also be a tribute to Harrison Ford’s career at Cannes.
  • For any Paddington fans: It was confirmed there will be a 3rd movie called “Paddington in Peru” that will start production later this year.
  • It was announced that Michael Mann is developing the MOVIE version of “Heat 2”.  The bestselling book – which is part sequel and part prequel to the movie “Heat” – was cowritten by Michael Mann and released last year.  Adam Driver – who is currently working with Michael Mann on “Ferrari” which is supposed to come out later this year – is considering playing the young Robert DeNiro character.
  • This may be considered a rumor because it’s not listed on any official media news sites so far (Hollywood Reporter, Variety, etc).  According to other news sites, Clint Eastwood is developing his next movie which is possibly going to be the FINAL MOVIE OF HIS CAREER.  It’s called “Juror #2” and, so far, it’s only in pre-production but Clint Eastwood movies often don’t have any CGI so if he starts filming this summer there is a VERY SLIGHT chance that it could come out by the end of this year.  If it does, I think that would be a GREAT FINALE to Warner Bros 100-year anniversary celebration this year.  They end their 100-year celebration with Clint Eastwoods final movie since most of Clint Eastwoods movies (especially the movies he directed) have been released by Warner Bros.

Little Bit of Humor:

Also, since the movie “The Fifth Element” is 26 years old, you could be old enough to be the person’s mother/father.