Author: SD

UK-Ireland top five Mar 14-16 RankFilm (origin)DistributorMar 14-16 gross TotalWeek 1 Mickey 17  (US) Warner Bros £1.24m £4.5m  2 2  Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy  (UK-Fr-US) Universal £1.2m £42.9m   5 3  Black Bag  (US) Universal £897,744 £913,877  1 4  Marching Powder  (UK) True Brit £563,897 £2.1m  2 5  Captain America: Brave New World  (US) Disney £395,000 £17.4m  5 GBP to USD conversion rate: 1.30 Mickey 17 starring Robert Pattinson retained the UK-Ireland box office lead on its second weekend as Steven Soderbergh thriller Black Bag started…

Bong Joon Ho’s Mickey 17 finally makes its bow as the Warner Bros title opens in 668 UK and Ireland cinemas this weekend. Robert Pattinson leads this sci-fi comedy as “expendable” on board a spaceship heading for the colonisation of another planet. Warner Bros will hope to capitalise on Pattinson’s strong box office career. The UK actor headlined the Twilight  films, which collectively brought in £135.5m across the five titles, while his more recent stint as The Batman opened on £13.5m in 2022. Bong has also had successes in the territory with his Oscar-winner Parasite opening on £1.1m in the UK and Ireland in February 2020…

Hope and optimism were in the air at the annual UK Cinema Association (UKCA) conference this week, attended by exhibitors buoyed by a strong start to the year thanks to the success of Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy. But after a challenging five years, it was agreed there was no time to be complacent.  “All of us need to do more than ever,” said Phil Clapp at the two-day event, which took place under the theme of ‘innovation’ at London’s Picturehouse Central.  Exhibtors packed out the event, representing venues of all shapes and sizes, from the multiplex giants of Odeon…

An actress has described feeling “humiliated and totally powerless” after Noel Clarke directed her in a production, in the latest testimony from a Guardian witness in Clarke’s libel claim against the UK newspaper. The woman, known as Mila for legal reasons, said she was acting in a scene that required waist-down nudity. Speaking in London’s High Court on Thursday, March 20, Mila said Clarke often asked her to “sit on his lap and made inappropriate sexual comments”, including telling her to bend over. Mila said she had been uncomfortable about the scene but accepted the role as she needed the…

The Florida city mayor who wanted to terminate the lease of an arthouse cinema and withold funding after it screened Oscar winner No Other Land has scrapped his proposal at a council meeting on Wednesday. Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner argued to terminate O Cinema’s lease and withhold city funding after describing the documentary to local residents as “a false, one-sided propaganda attack on the Jewish people that is not consistent with the values of our city and residents”. However Meiner withdrew the proposal at what the Miami Herald described as a “raucous” Miami Beach City Commission meeting “where the…

Less than two weeks before CinemaCon gets underway in Las Vegas, lobby group National Association Of Theatre Owners (NATO) has changed its name to Cinema United. The group has rebranded to establish a clear identity that differentiates it from the military alliance North Atlantic Treaty Organization – over the years the group has received calls in error – and to present a body that represents the passion and energy of exhibitor chains around the world. Its new mantra is “Moviegoing is Our Mission”. Cinema United will serve as an umbrella for CinemaCon and Cinema Foundation, the organisation’s charitable non-profit arm that promotes…

Bong Joon-ho’s Mickey 17 has become the highest-grossing film of the year to date at the South Korea box office. Warner Bros’ sci-fi feature, starring Robert Pattison, added $2.2m on its third weekend of release to reach $17.8m, according to Kobis, the Korean Film Council’s box office tracking service. This places it above local action-comedy Hitman 2, which took $16.5m following its release in January. Mickey 17 drew 323,566 admissions from Friday to Sunday (March 14-16), accounting for more than 43% of all ticket sales and bringing its total admissions to 2.6 million. Among international markets, director Bong’s home nation…

Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light was named best film at 18th Asian Film Awards on Sunday evening (March 16). The Indian filmmaker attended the ceremony in Hong Kong and accepted the award from filmmaker, martial arts star and AFA jury president Sammo Hung. Scroll down for full list of winners It marked nearly 10 months since Kapadia became the first Indian filmmaker to win the Grand Prix at Cannes, where the film was the first Indian feature to play in Competition at the festival for 30 years. “I’m so happy that we could end our journey here in…

South Korea’s box office received a major boost at the weekend as Bong Joon Ho’s Mickey 17 landed the biggest opening of the year to date with $6.67m from nearly a million cinemagoers. The sci-fi feature starring Robert Pattinson dominated the chart with 980,549 admissions from 2,153 screens, accounting for 69% of the total revenue share from February 28 to March 2, according to the Korean Film Council. For comparison, second place title Captain America: Brave New World took $722,000 and generated a 7.5% rev share from 110,888 admissions and 732 screens. The Marvel film was the previous bigger opener…

An actress has spoken in support of Noel Clarke as part of the libel trial brought by the UK actor and filmmaker against Guardian News and Media (GNM). Louise Dylan took the stand on Friday, March 14, as a witness for Clarke. She said she had heard through a friend that Clarke’s former business partner Davie Fairbanks had claimed he saw her being groped by Clarke at the wrap party for 2012 romantic comedy The Knot, which Clarke and Fairbanks wrote and produced, and in which Clarke, Fairbanks and Dylan acted. After hearing of Clarke’s libel case, she wrote an email…