Hello everyone,
BOX OFFICE: The first weekend of May – which some people call the start of the summer movie season – did pretty well thanks to the 1 – 2 punch of “Devil Wears Prada 2” and “Michael”. “Devil Wears Prada 2” had a very good opening weekend making $76.7 million domestically. Followed by the second week of “Michael” which went down almost 45% from the previous weekend but still made $54.4 million. Also of note, the #3 movie – “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” – just passed a domestic total of $400 million.
The total weekend domestic box office went up slightly – 12% – for a total of $170.4 million.
WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE: “The Devil Wears Prada 2” also did very well worldwide beating expectations by making $157 million in foreign theaters for a worldwide total of $233.6 million which is OVER last week’s worldwide box office of “Michael” ($217 million). “Michael” made $134.8 worldwide on its second weekend for a worldwide total of $430 million which makes it the #3 biggest American movie at the worldwide box office (passing “Hoppers” but still way under “Project Hail Mary” which is currently at $638.4 million worldwide total).
OTHER NEWS:
- Greta Gerwigs Narnia movie “Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew”, which Netflix was going to release this Thanksgiving, has now been pushed to 2027. It will have a limited IMAX release starting Feb 10, 2027, a WORLDWIDE release on February 12, 2027, and then will be released on Netflix on April 2, 2027. This looks like it will be the first WORLDWIDE theatrical release for a Netflix movie.
- Last week at an earnings call the CFO of IMAX called the new “Infinity Vision” certification of large screens that Disney introduced a few weeks ago “From our view, we feel it’s a marketing play to try and offset the fact that they don’t have an Imax platform or brand for Avengers: Doomsday” (Warner Bros locked almost all the IMAX screens in the world with “Dune 3” which opens on the same day) “Marvel fans are among the savvy and most discerning moviegoers out there. And there’s a reason why we’re the undisputed leader in premium cinema worldwide.”
- The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recently announced some major rule changes for the Academy Award nominations recently….
- People can now be nominated more than once in a category. For example, If an actor gets a lot of nomination votes for 2 different movies – both roles can now be nominated. So, an actor (or an actress, or a director, or a writer, etc, etc) could end up competing against herself or himself for an award.
- For the International Film Category, there are now two ways to get nominated. Previously, a movie had to be the official selection of a country or region. Now, they can also receive a nomination if they have won a “qualifying award” at an international film festival (such as Berlin (Golden Bear), Busan (Best Film Award), Cannes (Palme d’Or), Sundance (World Cinema Grand Jury Prize), Toronto (Platform Award) and Venice (Golden Lion)). For example: France’s Anatomy of a Fall”, which won the Palme d’Or in Cannes but was not submitted by France, now would be eligible as well as the country’s official entry.
- Also, the International Film Category will now list the filmmakers more prominently. Previously, the country the movie was made in was printed on the Academy Award, now it will be the director of the movie.
- Finally, regarding the A.I. controversy they have announced that “..only performances demonstrably performed by humans will be eligible in acting categories” and “only human-authored screenplays are eligible for the writing categories”.
- The Warner Bros/Paramount merger was recently approved by Warner Bros stockholders but there is still a lot of trouble. Some states, some members of congress, and now “five pay-TV and streaming services subscribers” are suing to stop the merger. The 5 subscribers say, “By placing CNN and other news assets under Paramount’s control as part of a broader consolidation strategy,” the complaint states, “Paramount’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery would reduce the number of independent owners capable of sustaining national television news operations at scale and weaken competitive constraints that protect editorial rivalry, investigative resources, and viewpoint diversity.”
LITTLE BIT OF HUMOR: Thanks to the new Academy Award nomination rule, next year’s nominations COULD look like this….
I’m guessing Brad Pitt would be the favorite……
LOS ANGELES FILM REVIEW 