Author: SD

Saoirse Ronan is understood to have signed a deal to play Linda McCartney in Sam Mendes’ upcoming The Beatles films. Sony did not return calls to comment after reports appeared on Wednesday morning, however sources said Ronan has signed on. Mendes is directing The Beatles — A Four-Film Cinematic Event, which Sony Pictures will release in April 2028 in a bold distribution strategy. Linda McCartney was the music photographer and musician who married Paul McCartney and became the keyboard player and back-up vocalist in Wings. She died from cancer in 1998. Ronan will star opposite Paul Mescal as The Beatles…

Paramount Pictures president of domestic theatrical distribution Chris Aronson will depart the studio on December 1 as the executive shuffle under David Ellison’s new ownership continues. Aronson, a widely respected and beloved executive renowned for his insight, sharp wit and flamboyant presentations at CinemaCon, notified staff in a memo on Tuesday morning. There has been no indication from Paramount Pictures co-heads Josh Greenstein and Dana Goldberg as to who will succeed Aronson. Screen has confirmed that president of international theatrical distribution Mark Viane remains in place. Scroll down to read the full memo Aronson will stay at the studio to…

UK-Ireland top five, Oct 3-5  Rank Film (origin) DistributorOct 3-5 Total Week 1  Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party Of A Showgirl  (US)  Piece Of Magic  £3.5m  £3.5m  1 2   One Battle After Another  (US)  Warner Bros  £2m  £6m  2 3   Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale  (UK)  Universal  £865,075  £15.6m  4 4   The Smashing Machine  (US)   Entertainment Film Distributors  £862,322  £862,322  1 5   The Conjuring: Last Rites  (US)   Warner Bros  £510,757  £17.3m  5 GBP to USD conversion rate: 1.34 Event cinema title Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party Of A…

The world’s biggest pop star has done it again as the one-weekend-only theatrical release of Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party Of A Showgirl blew away the competition to open top in North America on an estimated $33m. What makes the number all the more remarkable is two weeks ago nobody had even heard of the film until AMC Theatres Distribution announced the limited engagement, partnering with Variance Films to release in 3,702 cinemas including non-AMC sites. It is unprecedented for any film to storm to the top of the charts with two weeks of marketing, demonstrating once again the…

UK-Ireland box office takings in September 2025 were up 18% on the previous year, as the year-to-date recovered from a slow August and runs 9% ahead of 2024. Total revenue for September 2025 was just over £71m, 18% up on the £60.3m of September 2024. The release of one high-grossing title last year – Beetlejuice Beetlejuice with £21.6m – was trumped by two decent figures this year. Warner Bros’ horror The Conjuring: Last Rites became comfortably the highest-grossing in the nine-film Conjuring universe with £16.8m; and Universal’s Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale took £14.7m. UK-Ireland September 2025 top 10  Rank Title (origin)Distributor  Release date September totalTotal  …

Searchlight Pictures has scheduled a December 25 limited release in 70mm for its new acquisition of Mona Fastvold’s Venice world premiere The Testament Of Ann Lee. Amanda Seyfried stars in the musical drama as the titular head of the 18th century Shaker movement, who was proclaimed the female Jesus Christ by her followers. Lee emigrated from England to New York state and established a US-set utopia based on equality, communal living, and celibacy. The Quaker offshoot also revelled in song and dance. The cast includes Thomas McKenzie, Lewis Pullman, Tim Blake Nelson, and Christopher Abbott. Fastvold co-wrote the screenplay with…

European films that have received distribution grants from Creative Europe’s Films on the Move scheme generated on average €1.70 at the box office for every €1 invested, according to new research. For every €1,000 in grant funding, it reported an extra €1,700 in box office takings and an additional 16 showtimes generated. Ruben Ostlund’s Triangle Of Sadness generated the highest return from a €985,000 Films on the Move grant, taking €19.3m at the European box office outside its national release, a return of 19.6 times on the award. Further successful grant outcomes include to Anatomy Of A Fall (€14.4m box office vs €757,000 grant)…

Oscar- and Bafta-winning actress and activist Jane Fonda is reviving the Committee For The First Amendment as constitutional rights granting freedom of speech and the press come under attack in the United States. The reimagined Committee is based on its precursor dating back nearly 80 years when Hollywood stars of the day protested anti-Communist hearings. It has released a statement signed by more than 550 figures from the entertainment industry decrying what it called a “coordinated campaign” by the US federal government “to silence critics in the government, the media, the judiciary, academia, and the entertainment industry”. At time of writing, signatories…

US actors guild SAG-AFTRA has weighed in on the growing controversy surrounding the AI-generated actress Tilly Norwood, which talent agencies are now circling for representation. “SAG-AFTRA believes creativity is, and should remain, human-centred,” the guild said in a statment issued on Tuesday morning. ”The union is opposed to the replacement of human performers by synthetics.” The statement continued: “To be clear, ‘Tilly Norwood’ is not an actor, it’s a character generated by a computer programme that was trained on the work of countless professional performers — without permission or compensation.”It has no life experience to draw from, no emotion and,…

President Donald Trump has renewed calls for a tariff on films made outside the US in a social media post today. On his Truth Social platform, he said: “Our movie making business has been stolen from the United States of America, by other Countries, just like stealing “candy from a baby.” California, with its weak and incompetent Governor, has been particularly hard hit!” “Therefore, in order to solve this long time, never ending problem, I will be imposing a 100% Tariff on any and all movies that are made outside of the United States. Thank you for your attention to…