| | | | What's news: The Fox News-Dominion defamation trial has been delayed. Universal's Renfield opened to a disappointing $7.7m. Sega has agreed to buy Angry Birds maker Rovio. AMC Networks is launching a cheaper ad-tier for AMC+. Benedict Cumberbatch will star in a TV adaptation of Matt Haig's bestseller How to Stop Time. — Abid Rahman |
'Succession' Reveals Logan Roy's Successor ►Who is in charge of Waystar Royco? After the final season's game-changing death, HBO's Succession answers yet another major question in the fourth episode, "Honeymoon States." For THR, Josh Wigler recaps what went down, and what it all means. Warning: Spoilers! The story.
—No reason given. The Delaware judge overseeing Dominion's $1.6b defamation lawsuit against Fox News announced late Sunday that he was delaying the start of the trial until Tuesday. The trial had been scheduled to start Monday morning with jury selection and opening statements. The story.
—🤝 Deal agreed 🤝 Finnish video game maker Rovio Entertainment has agreed to a $775m sale to Japanese gaming firm Sega that will bring together the companies’ iconic Angry Birds and Sonic the Hedgehog multimedia franchises under one roof. The story.
—Upfront push. AMC Networks says it will roll out a less expensive ad-supported tier of AMC+ later this year. Pricing hasn’t been announced yet, but the current cost is $8.99 per month, and the new tier is expected by October. The new offering will be sold in the company’s 2023-2024 upfront, which will include a presentation Tuesday evening in New York. The ad-supported tier will also unlock the ability for advertisers to buy time across specific shows, genres or franchises. The story. |
'Love is Blind' Reunion: One Big Saga of Apologies ►Big yikes. Fans clamoring to see the live season four reunion special for Netflix’s Love Is Blind on Sunday night were left waiting for hours after the streamer was hit by embarrassing technical problems. After some tweeted apologies, the recorded special did eventually hit the platform, and yes Irina was there. For THR, Brande Victorian recaps all the goings-on and yet more apologies, this time from the cast members. The recap.
—"We’re gonna start with abortion — the thing that Republican men love to ban almost as much as they love to secretly pay for." A fired up John Oliver took a few minutes out of Last Week Tonight to discuss a U.S. district judge’s recent ruling to order a hold on mifepristone, the most commonly used method of abortion. Oliver slammed the ruling by Matthew Kacsmaryk, describing it as "shockingly dishonest." The recap.
—"When I was growing up there was no ‘me’ in the movies." Morgan Freeman is opening up about how he found his place as an actor in the middle of the civil rights movement and why it’s an “insult” for Black history to be just one month every year. In a new interview, Morgan said while he credits his career to courage and luck, he also credits changes in America. Freeman added that he found the term African-American insulting. The story. —"I stand with the trans community." Judy Blume took to Twitter to clear up confusion over comments she made in an interview about standing behind fellow author J.K. Rowling "100 percent" that made it appear she was endorsing the Harry Potter writer's views on trans issues. Blume tweeted that her point about supporting Rowling was "taken out of context" and she reaffirmed that she "vehemently [disagrees] with anyone who does not fully support equality and acceptance for LGBTQIA+ people." The story. |
'Mario' Levels Up to $678M Globally ►Luigi's Mansion spinoff... who says no? The Super Mario Bros. Movie is a bona fide blockbuster, and is set to be the first movie of 2023 that will cross the $1b mark at the worldwide box office. The Nintendo video game adaptation grossed a massive $85m from 4,371 theaters in its second weekend of play at the North American box office, notably more than expected and representing a drop of just 41 percent. It’s also the biggest second weekend ever for an animated film after surpassing Frozen 2 ($86m).
THR's Pamela McClintock writes that through Sunday, Mario has grossed $347.8m domestically and $330m overseas for a jaw-dropping global tally of $678m. Its foreign cume includes an impressive second-weekend gross of $94m from 71 markets after dipping a scant 28 percent. Mexico leads with a huge $52m, already the third-best showing of all time for a Hollywood animated film.
Elsewhere, Screen Gem’s The Pope’s Exorcist finished in second place with an estimated debut of $9.2m from 3,178 theaters. The weekend's other prominent new release, Universal's Renfield opened to a muted $7.7m. The box office report.
—Career killer? Not likely! Ari Aster’s Beau Is Afraid made a mind-bending debut at the specialty box office. The Joaquin Phoenix-led movie scored a location average of $80,099 from four theaters in New York and Los Angeles, the best average of 2023 to date for a specialty film. Beau was also the second-best specialty average of the pandemic era behind Licorice Pizza ($86,289, four locations) and the second-best ever for A24 behind Uncut Gems ($107,400, five locations), not adjusted for inflation. The specialty box office report.
—Jackie bests Mario, again. Jackie Chan galloped away with another win as his latest action-comedy film Ride On maintained its grip on the top spot of the Chinese box office for the second consecutive weekend. Meanwhile, The Super Mario Bros. Movie struggled to keep up, finishing the frame in fourth place. Mario collected $4.3m in its second weekend in China, bringing its total to $17.1m after ten days. The China box office report. |
John Leguizamo on Exploring Latin History in New MSNBC Show ►"I want all of America to have Latin envy and want them to feel like they wish they had been born Latin." THR's Abbey White spoke to John Leguizamo about his new MSNBC show Leguizamo Does America. The actor, producer and writer opens up about the four-year journey of pitching the show, how he sensitively traversed Latin cultural history and why he embraces labels like Latinx in the series. The interview.
—Heading back to TV. Benedict Cumberbatch is set to star in a TV adaptation of Matt Haig’s best-selling novel How to Stop Time, playing the lead role of Tom Hazard. Tomas Alfredson is attached to helm the six-part series with DC Moore set to write, adapting Haig’s novel for the screen. The genre-bending novel, part love story, part spy thriller, follows Tom, a seemingly ordinary man who suffers from a very rare condition called anageria, which has kept him alive for centuries. The story.
—Hoping for that Traitors magic. NBCUniversal and the BBC are co-commissioning a competition series called Destination X. The show, based on a format created by Belgian company Geronimo and distributed by BE-Entertainment, asks contestants to figure out where they are in the world, with “tweaks” to the real world designed to throw them off. Universal Television Alternative Studio will develop the show for NBC; Destination X is targeted for BBC One in the U.K. The story.
—🤝 Flurry of deals 🤝 International television market MIPTV kicked off Monday with a slew of territory deals for high-end drama and non-fiction series. The Swarm, an eco-thriller TV series based on the Frank Schätzing bestseller, was snatched up by SKY UK for its Sky Max streaming service, and by pay-TV group Movistar Plus+ for Spain. Italy’s Mediaset picked up rights to The Vow, a popular Spanish drama from Studiocanal. The story. —🤝 Funding deal 🤝 Paramount Global is getting deeper into business with rapper and NCIS: Los Angeles star LL Cool J. The media company is leading a $15m Series B funding round in the actor and musician’s Rock The Bells, the hip hop-focused content, commerce and experiences business. The investment also includes a first-look development deal with Rock The Bells, which will see Paramount get first dibs on scripted and unscripted film and TV content from the company. The story. |
Mark Consuelos on Replacing Ryan Seacrest ►"We’re gonna take over the world." THR's Christy Piña spoke to Mark Consuelos about joining his wife Kelly Ripa to host the newly rebranded syndicated talk show Live With Kelly and Mark. The actor also gets candid about why he and Ripa originally had doubts about him coming on as co-host, how they will present a united front in every aspect of the show and, yes, their openness when it comes to their sex life. The interview.
—A (very dark) first-look. Jon M. Chu gave fans a first look at Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo in his upcoming live-action musical adaptation of Wicked. In an Instagram post on Sunday, the movie’s director posted two separate pictures, one of Grande as Glinda and the other of Erivo as Elphaba. Neither shot offers a close-up of the actresses as the characters but the darkly lit wide shots do tease the sweeping costumes for both. The story.
—Is the buzzy tech worth the cost? Samsung and LG are among a number of tech companies that are quietly making a new push to Hollywood on the potential of LED display tech to replace theater projection systems that have been used since the birth of cinema. THR's Carolyn Giardina looks into the LED tech, and talks to exhibitors wary of the cost and the power consumption. The story.
—"The train has left the station." Carolyn was at the 100th NAB Show in Las Vegas over the weekend, and reported from the Future of Cinema Summit. At the industry confab, Hollywood's tech community examined the future of motion picture exhibition, including the rollout of HDR cinemas. The story. |
'Barry': Henry Winkler on Gene's Poor Judgment ►"Gene is an a**hole." THR's Brian Davids spoke to Barry star Henry Winkler about the two-episode premiere of HBO show's fourth and final season. Winkler talked the road ahead for his character Gene Cousineau, and what Bill Hader told him after filming the last scene of the series. Warning: Spoilers! The interview.
In other news...
—MOCA’s new techno-music installation is so loud you can’t hang art near it
—The high-tech Hollywood smile: How 3D scanners and AI are perfecting teeth
—Mark Sheehan, guitarist for The Script, dies at 46
What else we're reading...
—Erin Mulvaney, Isabella Simonetti and Joe Flint report that Fox News is pushing to settle the Dominion defamation lawsuit [WSJ]
—Heather Schwedel interviews Love is Blind creator Chris Coelen about the secret to Netflix's most diabolical show [Slate]
—Coleman Spilde argues that with movies like the comically bad Mafia Mamma, Toni Collette has entered her "funtime era" [Daily Beast]
—Simran Hans talks to the makers of How to Blow Up a Pipeline who ponder whether eco-terrorism is now self-defense [Guardian]
—Nico Grant reports on the panic inside Google over Samsung considering Microsoft's Bing as the default search engine on its phones [NYT]
Today...
...in 1987, 20th Century Fox unveiled the Matthew Broderick military action film Project X in theaters. The original review.
Today's birthdays: Jennifer Garner (51), Rooney Mara (38), Sean Bean (64), Adam McKay (55), Phoebe Dynevor (28), Henry Ian Cusick (56), William Mapother (58), Lela Rochon (59), Tami Roman (53), Redman (53), Victoria Beckham (49), Nick Hornby (66), Jessica Garza (23), Maïwenn (47), David Bradley (81), Monet Mazur (47), Kimberly Elise (56), Luke Mitchell (38), Carlo Rota (62), Niamh Walsh (35), Maynard James Keenan (59) |
| Murray Melvin, the British actor known for his roles in The Phantom of the Opera, A Taste of Honey, Torchwood and Barry Lyndon, died Friday. He was 90. The obituary. |
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