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While Luca Guadagnino is reigning supreme this summer with “Challengers” and Cannes-premiered “Queer” both opening, Film at Lincoln Center is celebrating all Italian auteurs for the 23rd edition of annual festival “Open Roads: New Italian Cinema.”

This year’s festival takes place from May 30 through June 6 and includes North American, U.S., and New York premieres, with appearances and discussions by several of the filmmakers. Co-presented by Cinecittà, “Open Roads: New Italian Cinema” serves as a showcase of the best in new Italian cinema.

“I think we have an especially strong lineup at this year’s ‘Open Roads,’ which is nothing if not an encouraging sign of things to come as we continue to move forward from the production pauses and shutdowns wrought by the Covid-19 pandemic,” Dan Sullivan, Flc Programmer, said. “A satisfying mix of the familiar and the new, of low- and higher-budget movies, of fresh takes on...

Microsoft brings new titles to Xbox Game Pass every month, and earlier this month it added games like Resident Evil 3, Train Sim World 4, and more to the service. The company has now announced the next wave of titles coming to Game Pass in late February, featuring some exciting titles.

One of the titles that Microsoft is adding to Xbox Game Pass is an adaptation of the popular classic children’s cartoon Bluey, called Bluey: The Videogame. The game will be available for Game Pass subscribers starting today and is playable on PC, console, and Xbox Cloud.

Bluey: The Videogame joins Xbox Game Pass today

Bluey: The Videogame is joining Xbox Game Pass today as part of the Feb 2024 lineup.

Microsoft announced the rest of the lineup for February 2024 via Xbox Wire and Bluey: The Videogame will be added to Xbox Game Pass today, on February 22. The game is an...

Venice Film Festival artistic director Alberto Barbera is adamant about his decision to place six Italian movies in this year’s 23-title festival lineup. “Nobody accused the French of chauvinism because they had seven French films in competition in Cannes this year,” Barbera quipped to a snarky Italian reporter when the Venice lineup was announced in July, though he did concede, “It’s true that in the past I have not done this.” Indeed, Barbera’s previous limit on Italian movies in competition for the Golden Lion was five titles last year, which some local critics considered a stretch.

More importantly, the Venice chief pointed out that he presently sees Cinema Italiano at a particularly favorable juncture largely thanks to the fact that Italians are making movies with bigger budgets, “which means greater quality and the ability to compete in international markets, and to travel beyond our borders,” he said.

Updated with more details: The 80th Venice Film Festival officially kicked off Wednesday evening with the world premiere screening of Edoardo De Angelis’ Italian World War II submarine drama Comandante. Running in competition, the film took over the slot vacated by Luca Guadagnino’s tennis drama Challengers, which backed out of the spot amid the actors strike.

Before the Pierfrancesco Favino-starring movie unspooled to a warm welcome and a brief post-credit standing ovation, Italian actress Caterina Murino launched the festival’s opening ceremony featuring a retrospective covering the 80 years of the event. That included glimpses of previous Golden Lion and awards winners, with the audience erupting when the late William Friedkin appeared in the montage.

Friedkin, who died August 7, has his final work, the Showtime film The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, screening later this week out of competition.

Biennalle president Roberto Cicutto then came on the stage to introduce Charlotte Rampling,...

Rome-based sales agency True Colours has added Edoardo de Angelis’ “Comandante,” which opens the Venice Film Festival, to its slate. The film, which plays in the main competition section, stars Pierfrancesco Favino.

“Comandante” is based on the true story of Italian submarine commander Salvatore Todaro and the events that occurred in October 1940, when Todaro was in command of the Italian Royal Navy submarine Cappellini.

One night, while navigating in the Atlantic, the Italian vessel sinks an armed Belgian merchant ship, and Todaro decides to take the 26 shipwrecked crew members on board his already crowded submarine, aiming for the nearest safe harbor to release them. It is an unexpected action in the context of war, but follows the law of the sea, and endangers his life as well as that of his men, since the submarine has to navigate on the surface of the water for three days, visible to the enemy forces.

The writers and actors strike is getting a boost from the comics world and a new superhero named General Strike.

Indie publisher Black Mask Studios, run by Matteo Pizzolo, is putting together a comics anthology that will be written by WGA members with the company matching the writers’ fees with donations to the safety net organization Entertainment Community Fund.

The announcement comes as the writers strike hits its 100th day. No new contract talks are scheduled to begin any time soon.

Titled General Stike: Calexit and Other Tales of Fighting the Good Fight, the collection of new stories has the theme of confronting economic inequality and, like any good superhero story, featuring new characters fighting the good fight against injustice. A bubblegum-chewing, labor-organizing character named General Strike will act as the host of the comic, threading the stories together.

The book is in pre-launch mode on Kickstarter now, with an official launch set for Aug.

Luca Guadagnino’s “Challengers,” starring Zendaya, which had been set as the Venice Film Festival opener, has been pulled from the festival due to promotional complications prompted by the SAG-AFTRA strike.

Venice has announced that the sexy sports comedy — in which Zendaya plays a former tennis prodigy turned coach entangled in a love triangle with two pro tennis players, played by Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist — has changed its distribution strategy. The film’s promotion has been disrupted by the current actors strike, which prohibits SAG-AFTRA union members from doing any type of promotional activity.

This means Zendaya, O’Connor and Faist would not have been able to launch the film on Aug. 30 on the Venice red carpet.

After a week of discussions, Venice organizers confirmed in a statement on Friday that the film “will not participate at the festival following a decision made by the production.”

Variety understands that...

The latest batch of Italian TV series for the international market is a mix of genres spanning from a new Elena Ferrante adaptation made for Netflix, to two Rai reconstructions of the country’s terrorism-plagued past and Sky’s spaghetti Western “Django.”

Django

This English-language reimagining of the world of “Django,” the cult 1966 Sergio Corbucci spaghetti Western that launched the career of Italian icon Franco Nero, is a Sky Studios and Canal Plus original. The show’s cast includes Noomi Rapace, Nicholas Pinnock and Matthias Schoenaerts. Director Francesca Comencini has called it “a universal story with a narrative that celebrates diversity and minorities.”

Esterno Notte

Marco Bellocchi is in post on this limited TV series from Rai Fiction about the 1978 kidnapping and assassination of former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro by Red Brigades terrorists. The veteran helmer previously recounted Moro’s still-mysterious abduction from the viewpoint of one of his...

Italian playwright Stefano Massini’s sweeping saga of family and finance “The Lehman Trilogy,” which is a hot ticket on Broadway in a Sam Mendes-directed adaptation, is being developed as a TV series for the international market by Italy’s Fandango, the prominent shingle behind Elena Ferrante skein “The Lying Life of Adults” for Netflix.

Fandango chief Domenico Procacci said he has acquired an option for TV rights to Massini’s “Lehman Trilogy,” which follows the three Lehman brothers, from their arrival from Germany in New York in 1844 to the 2008 bankruptcy of the global financial services company they founded.

Procacci, who is known to have a sharp eye for Italian IP that can travel –– having previously optioned Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels besides “Adults,” and Roberto Saviano’s “Gomorrah” mob saga –– said he is now developing the TV version of “Lehman Brothers” with Massini on board to oversee the series adaptation.

The Italian TV industry is chugging along seemingly undeterred by the pandemic’s impact, with local producers expected to churn out an estimated €500 million ($585 million) worth of scripted content in 2021 compared with $409 million in 2018.

Italy’s mini-boom, which is largely due to a rise in commissions from streamers, is happening just as the country’s production companies are snapped up by larger non-Italian groups amid a wave of media and entertainment industry consolidation in Europe.

In September, production and distribution giant Fremantle, owned by German group Rtl, entered exclusive negotiations to gain control of Italy’s Lux Vide, the TV production company behind the “Medici,” “Devils” and “Leonardo” skeins, which have travelled widely. Fremantle already owns two other top Italian production companies: Wildside and the Apartment, which are behind Paolo Sorrentino’s “The Young Pope” skein and Luca Guadagnino’s “We Are Who We Are.”

Lux is now poised to...

Netflix is moving forward with its Elena Ferrante series adaptation, “The Lying Life of Adults,” which will start shooting in Naples in October with Neapolitan helmer Edoardo De Angelis (“Indivisible”) directing and Valeria Golino playing a prominent role.

“Lying Life of Adults” leads a slate of Netflix Italian original series projects — several of which are literary adaptations — that were announced in Rome on Thursday by Eleonora “Tinny” Andreatta in her first meeting with the press since joining the streaming giant last year as VP of Italian Original series after a long stint as head of drama at Italian public broadcaster Rai.

Golino, who kickstarted her acting career in Hollywood co-starring with Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman in Barry Levinson’s “Rain Man,” will soon be seen again by U.S. audiences in season 2 of Apple Original “The Morning Show.”

In “Lying Life,” Golino will play Vittoria whom Andreatta described as...

Saturday Night Live director Paul Briganti will helm Monarch Media’s Chris Pratt indie feature comedy The Black Belt.

The 2020 Black List script by Randall Green follows a shy, unassuming teen boy on a quest for an expertise in karate, and the unorthodox uncle who guides him along the way.

Pratt, as we previously told you, will produce and star in the movie via his Indivisible Productions, with producing partner Jon Schumacher, and Monarch Media principals Steve Barnett and Alan Powell. Monarch principal Vicky Patel will serve as EP. UTA Independent Film Group will oversee film sales and distribution.

Briganti has directed some of the most viral segments and shorts over the past few seasons, including Melissa McCarthy as former White House press secretary Sean Spicer, Donald Glover in the rap video “Friendos,” Brad Pitt as Dr. Anthony Fauci and David Harbour as “The Grouch.”

“I’m so excited to...

The Nacelle Company has set former Discovery Channel exec Ched Raymundo as SVP Acquisitions & Strategy, tasked with accelerating its content acquisitions and distribution across the dozens of platforms worldwide.

She’ll be based at the Burbank headquarters of Nacelle, which is behind such series as Down to Earth with Zac Efron, The Toys That Made Us and The Movie That Made Us.

Raymundo recently was manager of program sales and acquisitions at Discovery Inc., where she facilitated the partnership with the Nacelle Company that led to the hit Netflix docuseries Down to Earth with Zac Efron. She also oversaw acquisition deals for Mysterious Planet, Auto/Biography, the film Indivisible and more.

Raymundo also served in similar roles at the New Zealand-based production company Nhnz, 3Net and Principal Media.

“We’re thrilled to have Ched joining the Nacelle team,” said Brian Volk-Weiss, founder and CEO of The Nacelle Company, to whom Raymundo reports.

WaterTower Music is excited to announce the March 18 release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), which features a completely brand-new score to accompany Snyder’s vision for the film, created by Grammy nominated multi-platinum producer, musician, composer and educator Tom Holkenborg, aka Junkie Xl.

The album features Holkenborg’s music from Zack Snyder’s Justice League, the film in which, determined to ensure Superman’s (Henry Cavill) ultimate sacrifice was not in vain, Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) aligns forces with Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) with plans to recruit a team of metahumans to protect the world from an approaching threat of catastrophic proportions. Now united, Batman (Affleck), Wonder Woman (Gadot), Aquaman (Jason Momoa), Cyborg (Ray Fisher) and The Flash (Ezra Miller) may be too late to save the planet from Steppenwolf, DeSaad and Darkseid and their dreadful intentions.

A new track from Holkenborg, “Middle Mass (From...

Exclusive: Skye P. Marshall (Black Lightning) is set as a lead opposite Sophia Bush and Jason Isaacs in Good Sam, CBS’ family medical drama pilot from Katie Wech, Jennie Snyder Urman and her Sutton St. Productions, and CBS Studios, where Sutton St. is under a deal.

Written by Wech, Good Sam centers on Sam (Bush), a talented yet stifled heart surgeon who embraces her leadership role after her renowned and pompous boss, Griff (Isaacs), falls into a coma. When he awakens and wants to resume surgery, however, it falls to her to supervise this overbearing blowhard who never acknowledged her talents — and also happens to be her father.

Marshall will play Dr. Lex Trulie, an ambitious and capable surgeon who has achieved success despite the lack of support of her family. Lex and Sam (Bush) share a bond as the only women in their department, though Lex’s loyalty to...

Chris Pratt has signed on to produce and is attached to star in the coming-of-age independent comedy “The Black Belt.”

The film centers on a shy, unassuming teen boy on a quest for an expertise in karate and his unorthodox uncle who guides him along the way.

Pratt will produce the film through his banner Indivisible Productions, with producing partner Jon Schumacher, and Monarch Media and its principals Steve Barnett and Alan Powell. Monarch principal Vicky Patel will executive produce. Randall Green wrote the spec script. UTA Independent Film Group will oversee film sales and distribution.

Pratt became a worldwide star after headlining Disney-Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” movies as Star-Lord/Peter Quill and the “Jurassic World” films as dinosaur handler Owen Grady. He founded Indivisible Productions to tell stories across all platforms including film, television, and digital technologies.

Indivisible has a first-look deal with Universal Pictures, and the companies announced on Nov.

When Italian sales company True Colours launched from Rome’s Mia market five years ago, international prospects for cinema Italiano titles that were not directed by a handful of name auteurs, such as Nanni Moretti, Matteo Garrone and Paolo Sorrentino, had gotten rather dim.

Italian cinema was being sold around the world mostly by foreign sales outfits that had become the preferred global channel for many of Italy’s producers, partly because they provided minimum guarantees that helped close their budgets and that local sellers could not afford. The problem was that lots of exportable Italian product was being overlooked.

“There was a gap,” says veteran distributor-producer Andrea Occhipinti, head of Lucky Red. As a producer, Occhipinti adds, he was unhappy with how his movies were being handled internationally by non-Italian companies. So in 2015 Lucky Red joined forces with production company Indigo Film (“The Great Beauty”) and they formed True Colours.

ITV Studios has announced new international sales on “Romulus,” the TV series shot in Archaic Latin that takes its cue from the mythical tale of twins Romulus and Remus, founders of Rome. The drama is world premiering Friday at the Rome Film Festival.

The hotly anticipated skein, which is a Sky original in Italy, has been acquired for Germany by Deutsche Telekom for play on its MagentaTV streaming service, and by More TV Russia for Russia and all Cis territories. It has also been licensed by Greece’s Cosmote, which is the country’s top telco.

ITV Studios previously sold the innovative Rome origin show to HBO Europe for a slew of territories comprising all of the Nordics and Central Europe, as well as Spain, Portugal and Portuguese-speaking territories such as Angola, Cape Verde and Mozambique.

Talks are also underway with broadcasters in the U.S. and U.K. where Sky U.

Rome-based international sales outfit True Colours is launching a new platform which will enable festivals and event organizers around the world to program its films during the Covid-19 lockdown. Titled True Colours Virtual Cinema, it will be available to festivals, cultural and educational institutions, film clubs and indie exhibitors globally who are eager to continue offering product during the pandemic but do not have the technological infrastructure to set up online events.

True Colours was established in 2015 as a partnership between veteran Italian firms Lucky Red and Indigo Film. Its credits include Perfetti Sconosciuti (Perfect Strangers) which was a smash hit locally and has since become the most remade movie in history (the recent German version was that market’s No. 1 local pic of 2019). Among other catalogue titles are Edoardo De Angelis’ award winning Indivisible, Brazil’s Two Irenes, Spain’s The Open Door and genre pics The Nest and In The Trap,...

MGM, Netflix among territory buyers.

Pure Flix/Quality Flix, at the Afm talking up its new action-adventure The Warrior Queen Of Jhansi, has struck multiple territory deals from its slate led by Little Women and Wish Man.

MGM has acquired Clare Niederpruem’s Little Women for Japan, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Switzerland, India, and pan-Asian TV. Dutch Channels acquired in the Netherlands.

Wish Man (pictured) has gone in UK, Australia and South Africa (Netflix), Germany (Great Movies), Macao and Hong Kong (1220 Films), and Israel (Nachson).

Pure Flix / Quality Flix sales chief Ron Gell has licensed Welcome To Mercy to Dazzler in...

You’ve just suffered a major defeat, and now you’re surrounded. The enemy is gearing up for a charge. Your leaders are readying the surrender flags. Things are looking grim. So what do you do? Well, we decided to write a Google Doc.

In December 2016, our Google Doc in was called “Indivisible: A Practical Guide to Resisting the Trump Agenda.” As two former congressional staffers, we thought we might be able to help demystify congress a bit and tell people how they could use their own constituent power to fight back against Trumpism.

As someone who works a full-time job in addition to freelancing, I don’t really have the time for RPGs at the moment. Considering I grew up playing the classics, this is a constant source of disappointment. The most time I get to spend with one is during the review process, which is one of the main reasons I played Regalia. While I didn’t have high expectations for that crowd-funded title, I have been looking forward to Indivisible. The latest from Lab Zero Games has long been in the works, but it has finally arrived.

As is par for the course, Indivisible stars a heroine with good intentions, but questionable judgment. Raised and trained by her strict father, Ajna has always been something of a rebel, and it’s that rebellious attitude that drives her forward when her village is besieged by an invading army. Soon, she finds herself...

From the very outset, Indivisible wears its influences with pride. Within the first hour you will have seen a gorgeous anime cutscene highlighting the game’s characters and their exploits to come, met the plucky teenage protagonist whose village is burned by an evil empire and started the obligatory prison escape sequence. No doubt about it, Indivisible is a throwback; a homage to the golden era of Japanese Role-Playing Games complete with all the tropes that veteran gamers have come to expect.

But within this first hour, it will also become abundantly clear that Indivisible is not just a love letter to a by-gone era – a Metroidvania structured 2D action platformer with Jrpg elements presented in a charming hand-drawn style usually associated with 2D fighters such as developer Lab Zero Games‘ previous hit Skullgirls (2012) – Indivisible is a hybrid beast that melds nostalgia and innovation to create something unique. This cocktail of ideas,...

Calling a faith-based release “preachy” could seem redundant, since these productions are designed as vehicles to evangelize. However, even within its spiritual niche, Alex Kendrick’s “Overcomer” shocks for being even more oppressively loquacious than some of its many big-screen cousins.

If every line of stale dialogue landed like a hammer to the head, audiences would walk out victims of blunt-force trauma.

Kendrick, who co-wrote this with brother and perennial collaborator Stephen Kendrick, directs himself as John Harrison, a beloved basketball coach and history teacher at a Christian high school in small-town America. Life’s idyllic until his self-image crumbles after the local plant closes, forcing thousands of blue-collar workers to move elsewhere with their families. Lacking players, John is reassigned to coach the cross-country team, composed of one athlete with asthma: orphaned African American teen Hannah Scott (newcomer Aryn Wright-Thompson).

Also Read: Gerard Butler's 'Angel Has Fallen...

Sky is building its slate of originals in Italy with “Romulus,” a 10-part series about the origin of Rome from Cattleya, the Italian producer that makes “Gomorrah.” Non-English-language drama is in vogue, but “Romulus” takes that a step further by having the characters speak in archaic Latin.

Matteo Rovere, known for his movie work, is attached to direct his first TV series. His shingle, Groenlandia, will co-produce. “‘Romulus’ is a story about feelings, war, brotherhood, courage and fear,” he said. “It is a great, epic fresco, a highly realistic reconstruction of the events that led to the foundation of Rome. But above all it is an investigation into the origins and the profound meaning of power in the West: a journey into an archaic and frightening world, where everything is sacred and people feel the mysterious and hostile presence of the gods everywhere.”

Rovere is familiar with the subject matter,...

“Run the Race,” a faith-based film which has former NFL quarterback and outspoken Christian Tim Tebow attached as executive producer, scored an impressive box office debut on an otherwise quiet Oscar weekend.

Released by Roadside Attractions on 853 screens, “Run the Race” grossed $2.27 million for a per-screen average of $2,664 and the No. 10 spot on the box office charts.

For comparison, the last faith-based film that opened with a similar screen count was Pure Flix’s “Indivisible,” which opened to $1.5 million from 830 screens last October with a PSA of $1,811.

Also Read: 'How to Train Your Dragon 3' Roars to Year's Best Opening With $55 Million

Directed and co-written by Chris Dowling, “Run the Race” follows two orphaned teen brothers trying to find a better life after their mother’s death and father’s abandonment. When one of the brothers sees his hopes for a football scholarship dashed after a terrible injury, the other...

IFC to launch in Us on November 2.

Pure Flix/Quality Flix is screening the thriller Welcome To Mercy for Afm buyers, alongside five new films including God’s Not Dead: A Light In Darkness, and Little Women.

Welcome To Mercy hails from Scream and The Scary Movie executive producer Cary Granat and opens in the Us on Friday [November 2] via IFC in 15 cities.

Ron Gell, vice-president of international sales and distribution for Pure Flix/Quality Flix, is screening the film on Friday and Saturday. The story centres on an American single mother who returns to Latvia to say goodbye to her dying father,...

This weekend provided more of the same at the box office — not that that’s a bad thing. With “Halloween,” “A Star Is Born,” and “Venom” again occupying the top three slots, grosses for the pre-Halloween period jumped a third over last year.

The Blumhouse-reinvigorated “Halloween” looks like a two-week wonder with its 58 percent drop. That’s the high end for the second weekend of a seasonal release right before the holiday. It will easily surpass $150 million in gross, making it second only to “Get Out” at Blumhouse.

Even so, the story of the moment remains the continued success of “A Star Is Born.” There was no real new competition, and after four weekends at #2 it will probably relinquish its slot next weekend when three significant new titles open. No matter; its awards play is right on schedule. In fact, its gross is more than $60 million ahead of what “Argo,...

The weekend played out mostly as expected with a repeat of last weekend's top four films, led by Universal's Halloween, which has now delivered over $126 million in just ten days in release. Lionsgate's release of Summit's Hunter Killer led the week's new wide releases with a top five finish while A24's expansion of Jonah Hill's Mid90s secured a top ten finish. The biggest news, however, might be the overall month of October, which is now the highest grossing October of all-time with grosses topping $785 million with three days in the month left to go. Repeating atop the weekend box office is Universal's release of Blumhouse and Miramax's Halloween. The horror hit dipped 58% in its second weekend, delivering an estimated $32 million as its domestic cume now climbs over $126 million after just ten days in release, all on a reported $10 million production budget. Halloween is also the #1 film internationally,...

“Halloween” easily stayed No. 1 at the domestic box office in its second weekend as the spooky holiday nears.

Universal and Blumhouse’s slasher film starring Jamie Lee Curtis picked up another $32 million, marking a 58% decline from its impressive debut. Directed by David Gordon Green, “Halloween” crossed $100 million on Friday. The movie pocketed $25 million overseas for a total of $172 million worldwide.

Holdovers “A Star Is Born” and “Venom” also remained in the top five. Warner Bros.’ “A Star Is Born” landed in second place with $14 million, dropping just 26% in its fourth outing. Lady Gaga and Bradley’s musical drama has earned $148 million. The acclaimed movie hit $100 million at the international box office for a global total of $253.2 million. Meanwhile, “Venom,” Sony’s dark superhero film with Tom Hardy, came in third with $10.8 million. That brings its domestic tally to $187 million for a worldwide cume of $508.4 million.

Otherwise, studios generally steered clear of the pre-Halloween frame.

“Halloween” continues to rule the final days of October, as the Universal/Blumhouse sequel stays atop the box office charts with $32 million grossed in its second weekend.

That result is 58 percent down from the film’s studio record $76.2 million opening, better than the 66 percent drop that “The Nun” faced last month after its $53 million start. With a 10-day total of $126 million, the film already ranks third among all Blumhouse releases and should easily pass the theatrical run of “Split” ($138.2 million) for the No. 2 spot this coming week, especially with Halloween night providing a big midweek boost.

Also Read: 'Halloween' Is a Hit, But How Big Will It Be Outside America?

“Halloween” is accounting for roughly a third of all grosses this weekend, with the total for the weekend currently being estimated at $101 million. That puts October’s calendar gross at approximately $736 million and on pace to pass the month’s...

Jamie Lee Curtis’ “Halloween” is dominating the pre-Halloween box office with an impressive $30.5 million at 3,990 North American sites.

Universal’s R-rated slasher movie — a direct sequel to John Carpenter’s original 1978 movie with Curtis’ Laurie Strode again facing off against serial killer Michael Myers — crossed the $100 million mark on Friday, its eighth day of domestic release. It’s due to decline 61% from its stunning $76.2 million opening weekend.

“Halloween” is maintaining the momentum of a record-setting October, having already topped the $757 million mark from four years ago. The overall 2018 box office was up 10.4% to $9.58 billion as of Oct. 21, according to comScore.

“Audiences have clearly made ‘Halloween’ a box office treat as the latest film in the iconic horror franchise continues to kill the competition at the multiplex while taking full advantage of what is typically a slow frame with a second session that is perfectly timed for Laurie Strode and Michael Myers...

As expected, Universal/Blumhouse’s “Halloween” is easily holding on to the No. 1 spot at the box office this weekend, with estimates of a $30 million second weekend.

That’s a 61 percent drop from the film’s $76.2 million opening weekend, a solid hold considering that many horror titles are typically very front-loaded and that “Halloween” had a larger than expected launch, posting one of the top ten largest opening ever by a R-rated film.

By comparison, “The Nun” dropped 66 percent in its second weekend last month from its $53 million opening, and “Halloween” has already passed that film’s entire domestic run.

If this result holds, the film will have a domestic 10-day total of just under $125 million, ranking it third among all Blumhouse films.

Also Read: 'Halloween' Is a Hit, But How Big Will It Be Outside America?

With “Halloween” continuing to pull moviegoers from Sony’s “Venom,” Warner Bros....

There’s still plenty of interest in Laurie Strode’s struggle against Michael Myers.

The second weekend of Jamie Lee Curtis’ “Halloween” is projected to generate about $32 million, early estimates showed Friday. That marks a 59% decline from its $76.2 million opening — a decent result for the well-received horror sequel.

The 11th “Halloween” movie will dominate moviegoing at multiplexes during the pre-Halloween session and should wind up the weekend with around $126 million in its first 10 days, followed by the fourth weekends of “A Star Is Born” and “Venom.”

Lionsgate’s launch of action-thriller “Hunter Killer,” which captured a moderate $420,000 in Thursday night previews, looks likely to be battling for fourth place at about $7 million with Sony holdover “Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween.”

“Hunter Killer,” starring Gerard Butler, Gary Oldman, and Common, has been forecast to collect between $5 million and $9 million this weekend when it launches at 2,720 sites. “Hunter Killer,” based on the novel “Firing Point,...

Films about war aren’t always subtle. Neither are films about faith. But some movies find a way to tackle these enormous issues without resorting to simplistic messages, and thank goodness “Indivisible” is one of them.

Directed by David G. Evans (“The Grace Card”), “Indivisible” tells the story of real-life U.S. Army Chaplain Darren Turner and his wife Heather. Together, and separately, they endure the mental, physical and spiritual stresses that come from Darren’s tour of duty in 2007, as he offered support for the soldiers around him but struggled with his own self-care.

Not everyone is looking for emotional support, of course. Some soldiers are just trying to keep their heads down, do their job and not think about the horrors they experience every day. But if they aren’t looking for an earnest heart-to-heart about life’s big questions, Darren can at least remind them to call their...

Lionsgate’s submarine movie “Hunter Killer,” which is being released through its Summit Entertainment label, earned $420,000 in Thursday previews from 2,200 screens. It will open on 2,728 screens this weekend.

The Gerard Butler and Gary Oldman-led thriller face off against “Halloween” as it moves into its second weekend, which should dominate through Oct. 31. “Hunter Killer” is projected for a $6-8 million opening behind a 38 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Comparisons aren’t easy for “Hunter Killer” considering that it’s going up against “Halloween.” But Gerard Butler’s “Geostorm,” which opened this time last year and skipped Thursday previews, ended up earning only $13.7 million in its opening weekend against a $120 million budget. Butler’s “Den of Thieves” opened in January of this year and took in $950,000 in previews leading up to a $15 million open.

Also Read: 'Halloween' Is a Hit, But How Big Will It Be Outside America?

The...

Action-thriller “Hunter Killer” captured a moderate $420,000 at 2,200 North American locations on Thursday night.

The Lionsgate title, starring Gerard Butler, Gary Oldman, and Common, should collect between $5 million and $9 million this weekend when it launches at 2,720 sites. “Hunter Killer,” based on the novel “Firing Point,” follows a group of Navy SEALs deep in the Arctic Ocean on a mission to rescue the captured Russian president.

“Hunter Killer” is expected to be dwarfed by the second weekend of “Halloween,” which is on track for $30 million to $40 million. The fourth weekends of Tom Hardy’s “Venom” and Lady Gaga’s “A Star Is Born” will also pull in between $10 million and $15 million each.

“Hunter Killer,” directed by Donovan Marsh from a script by Arne Schmidt and Jamie Moss, looks likely to be battling for fourth place with Sony holdover “Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween.”

The preview opening for “Hunter Killer” is similar to 2011’s “The Mechanic,...

This coming weekend's main attraction is Luca Guadagnino's Suspiria, which depicts the nightmarish events that occur at a dance academy in 1970s Berlin. 

Other movies, such as war drama Indivisible and action flick Hunter Killer, will also hit theaters Friday. The latter features Gerard Butler and Gary Oldman in the leading roles.

Susan Sarandon plays a nurse whose son is captured overseas in Maryam Keshavarz's sophomore project, Viper Club, and Rowan Atkinson reprises his titular role in Johnny English Strikes Again, the third film in the series. Both are set for a Friday release.

Read below to see what critics for ...

This coming weekend's main attraction is Luca Guadagnino's Suspiria, which depicts the nightmarish events that occur at a dance academy in 1970s Berlin. 

Other movies, such as war drama Indivisible and action flick Hunter Killer, will also hit theaters Friday. The latter features Gerard Butler and Gary Oldman in the leading roles.

Susan Sarandon plays a nurse whose son is captured overseas in Maryam Keshavarz's sophomore project, Viper Club, and Rowan Atkinson reprises his titular role in Johnny English Strikes Again, the third film in the series. Both are set for a Friday release.

Read below to see what critics for ...

Real-life characters face tests of faith in a war zone and on the home front in “Indivisible,” an intelligent drama based on the experiences of decorated Army Chaplain Darren Turner, who was deployed to Iraq in 2007 not long after seminary and basic training, and his wife Heather, who raised their three young children while helping to provide a support system for other military wives at Fort Stewart, Georgia. Capably directed by David G. Evans (“The Grace Card”) and earnestly performed by a proficient cast, this inspirational indie conceivably could extend its appeal beyond the customary audience for faith-based entertainment, despite obvious indications — the combat soldiers here may be the most profanity-averse fighting men and women in any war movie in recent memory — that gritty realism is not a high priority for the filmmakers.

Chaplain Darren Turner (Justin Bruening) arrives in Baghdad more or less as a greenhorn, eager to provide...

October 2018 is still running at a record pace. As of October 24, the month was pacing +49% higher than last year, not to mention +7.8% ahead of 2014, the largest October on record, though that's about to change by the end of this weekend. That said, it won't be the weekend's new releases doing the heavy lifting, but the weekend's holdovers, starting with last weekend's chart-topping horror hit Halloween. The weekend's new wide releases will mostly debut in the low-to-mid single digit millions with Lionsgate's Hunter Killer expected to top the week's crop of new releases. Looking to repeat at #1 is Universal's release of Blumhouse and Miramax's Halloween, which delivered a smashing $76.2 million opening last weekend, the second largest October opening ever. When it comes to its sophomore session we looked at other R-rated horror hits such as It, The Conjuring, Paranormal Activity 3 and The Nun, which dropped, on average, -57.45% in their second weekends.

With scant high profile offerings hitting theaters, Michael Myers won’t need to put up much of a fight to top box office charts again.

After “Halloween’s” massive $76 million debut, Universal and Blumhouse’s slasher film starring Jamie Lee Curtis will easily repeat at No. 1 in North America. The question is: how much of a killing can it make in its second frame? Horror movies typically suffer steep drops in movie ticket sales after opening weekend, but solid word of mouth could signal good news for the 11th chapter in the “Halloween” saga over the spooky holiday weekend. Even if it were to see a sharp 50% drop, in line with the sophomore outings of “It” and “The Nun,” “Halloween” would pick up an impressive $38 million this weekend. Recent titles such as “Get Out” and “A Quiet Place” were able beat that trend, falling just 15% and 34% respectively. “Halloween” could get...

As usual, the weekend before Halloween is looking a lot like a graveyard when it comes to major movie releases. Though film releases aren’t crammed into just a few busy periods, as they were a few years ago, studios still strive to avoid the dead weekends on the calendar.

In the case of the pre-Halloween period, moviegoers are preoccupied with the coming holiday, and many parties are scheduled on weekends even when the holiday falls during the week. Plus, the surfeit of horror movies earlier in the month typically play through Halloween for those still looking for chills.

Labor Day weekend is an even worse period for the movie business, with family cookouts and back-to-school prep taking over moviegoers’ attention after the early and midsummer rush of blockbusters peter out.

Though the North American box office is currently leading last year by nearly 10%, this weekend’s openings are a...

Following a killer $76.2 million opening, “Halloween” has the opportunity to do something that no Blumhouse film — including “The Purge,” “Insidious,” or even “Get Out” — has ever done in the studio’s nine-year history, let alone nearly every horror film ever made: gross more than $200 million domestically.

The only other horror films to break the $200 million mark are “It,” “The Exorcist,” “Jaws” and perhaps “The Sixth Sense” (if you count the latter title as horror).

“Halloween” is poised to do reach great heights, firstly, because its opening weekend broke Blumhouse’s own studio record.

But there’s more that lies in wait: Traditionally, horror films have a very front-loaded performance at the box office, dropping off by more than 60 percent from its opening in their second weekend. But as horror has become more popular in the past few years, several of the genre’s biggest hits have bucked that trend.

“Get Out,...

Jonah Hill feature directorial debut Mid90s opens on thunderous $64,539 per-theatre average.

October 22 Update: A powerhouse October continued to deliver the goods as Universal/Blumhouse’s horror reboot Halloween starring Jamie Lee Curtis stormed to the top of the North American charts on a franchise-best $76.2m that produced the second best October debut in history behind recent release Venom.

This was the second highest debut for an R-rated horror behind last year’s It on $123.4m, and, 40 years after John Carpenter’s iconic horror classic first hit the screens, the latest entry in the saga of crazed killer Michael Myers...

Jonah Hill feature directorial debut Mid90s opens on thunderous $62,375 per-theatre average.

A powerhouse October continued to deliver the goods as Universal/Blumhouse’s horror reboot Halloween starring Jamie Lee Curtis stormed to the top of the North American charts on a franchise-best $77.5m that produced the second best October debut in history behind recent release Venom.

This was the second highest debut for an R-rated horror behind last year’s It on $123.4m, and, 40 years after John Carpenter’s iconic horror classic first hit the screens, the latest entry in the saga of crazed killer Michael Myers and defiant...

With a staggering, $77.5 million debut, Universal and Blumhouse's Halloween topped the weekend with the second largest October opening weekend of all-time. The horror film headlined a massive weekend overall weekend, that saw the top twelve combine for over $160 million, making this the second largest October weekend ever. As already mentioned, Halloween's $77.5 million three-day debut was the second largest October opening weekend of all-time, coming less than $3 million shy of the record set by Venom earlier this month. That said, Halloween did deliver the largest October opening day of all-time, topping Venom's $32.5 million. The film's opening is also the second largest ever for an R-rated horror, topping the $53.8 million opening for The Nun a month ago and behind It's $123.4 million debut last September. The film, which carries a tiny, $10 million production budget, features Jamie Lee Curtis in her iconic role of Laurie Strode and beyond landing well with critics in advance of release,...

Sarah Drew's exit from Grey's Anatomy might have happened last season, but we're still not over it. Luckily her character, April Kepner, doesn't leave the show in tragic fashion, instead running off into the sunset with her former fiancé and now-husband Matthew. But regardless of her happy ending on the show, Drew's Irl departure was a sad one for fans who were hoping to see her continue on in Shonda Rhimes's long-running medical drama. That's exactly why the actress can't bring herself to watch new episodes of the series any longer.

According to Entertainment Weekly, Drew opened up about why it's too "painful" for her to tune in after nine seasons of playing April at the 2018 Rape Foundation annual brunch in Beverly Hills. "I haven't been watching," she told reporters. "You know, it's a little painful to kind of go and watch your family move on without you.

In an election year marked by unprecedented grassroots energy on the left, and with just one month to go until the midterms (Nov 6th), dozens of notable cultural figures have come together in a video series launching today with the goal to drive mass volunteer action that transforms our government this November.

Amid a slew of celebrity PSAs and reminders to vote, their message is different: “Don’t just vote this year — volunteer!”

Entitled The Last Call for The Last Weekend, the video series is the last big push for The Last Weekend, a coalition campaign organized by Swing Left and backed by more than 60 other progressive organizations including Indivisible, MoveOn, Organizing for Action, and Emily’s List to enlist people from across the country to volunteer a collective 1 million hours to help get out the vote when volunteering matters most: on the last weekend before the midterm elections (Saturday 11/3 – Tuesday 11/6).

In the video series,...

Another gritty tale from the Camorra-infested Neapolitan hinterlands, The Vice of Hope (Il vizio della Speranza) follows on the heels of Edoardo De Angelis’ acclaimed Indivisible, the story of exploited conjoined twins. If the bleak setting is familiar enough, here there is no hint of camaraderie or joie de vivre, no back-and-forth banter, no kitschy costumes and music to liven up the abject poverty that surrounds the young Maria, pregnant with a fatherless child. It’s a more conventional film in many ways; more realistic perhaps, despite its blatant stabs at symbolism. But without the imaginative fantasy of its predecessor, it looks ...