Author: SD

With major titles still dominating the UK and Ireland box office, it is a quiet weekend for new releases as event cinema leads the way while Nightbitch and Rumours also launch. Andre Rieu’s 2024 Christmas Concert: Gold And Silver lands in 642 cinemas for A Piece Of Magic. The Dutch conductor’s last release opened with £700,000 while his 2023 Christmas concert scored £1.2m.  Indian action Pushpa 2 is screening in 230 venues via AA Films. The Telugu-language sequel follows Pushpa as his sandalwood smuggling business faces strong opposition from the police.  CinemaLive is playing music documentary RM: Right People, Wrong Place in…

Bafta has made strides in attracting more members who are women or from underrepresented ethnic groups since 2020, according to statistics released by the organisation today (December 5).  In the past four years, the gender split for new members is 52/48 female/male (based on respondents who identify as such), compared with 42/58 female/male overall. The data also shows that 28% of new members since 2020 are from underrepresented ethnic groups, versus 17% in total. The organisation has also made progress in other areas; 22% of new members since 2020 identify as LGBTQIA+ and 13% have a disability, compared to 14%…

Sean Baker’s Anora and Jane Schoenbrun’s I Saw The TV Glow lead the 2025 Independent Spirit Award nominations with six each. Both films were nominated in best feature, best director, best lead performance, best supporting performance and the producers award with I Saw The TV Glow also picking up best screenplay. While Anora has been considered a strong awards contender across the branches since picking up the Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, I Saw The TV Glow has had more success in the independent sphere. The film premiered at Sundance and has since played Berlinale Panorama, San Sebastian, and SXSW. The…

New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC) has awarded best film to Brady Corbet’s American Dream epic The Brutalist and ensured that for the second time in two days, No Other Land and All We Imagine As Light have been recognised in non-fiction and international categories. The Brutalist star Adrien Brody earned best actor for his portrayal of a fictitious Hungarian Holocaust survivor who arrives in the States and is commissioned by a wealthy businessman to build a massive monument to his mother. A24 acquired US rights prior to the film’s world premiere in Venice, where Corbet earned the Silver Lion for…

Disney’s Moana 2 surged to the top of the Korean box office on its opening weekend, commanding 58% of ticket sales on one of the busiest weekends of the year. The animated sequel earned an impressive $7.1m from Friday through Sunday (November 29 – December 1), according to data provided by Kobis, the Korean Film Council’s box office tracking service. The strong performance appears to have revitalised a sluggish Korean box office that had seen weekend earnings dip below $10m for 10 consecutive weeks. Within its first five days in theatres, the film has racked up a cume of $8.9m,…

Broadway adaptation Wicked soared to the top of the Korean box office at the weekend with 45% of ticket sales. Directed by Jon M. Chu, the US fantasy musical took $3.6m from Friday through Sunday (November 22-25) from just over 500,000 admissions. Over its first five days in theatres, the film has accumulated $4.64m. Also opening at the weekend was NEW’s Hidden Face, which placed second with $1.7m. Directed by Kim Dae-woo (The Servant, Obsessed), the mystery thriller is a remake of Spanish-Colombian film The Hidden Face directed by Andrés Baiz. The film stars Cho Yeo-jeong of Bong Joon-ho’s Oscar-winning…

Moana 2 is off to a record start at the North American box office, scoring an estimated $13.8m in previews for the highest pre-Thanksgiving and Walt Disney Animation Studios previews of all time. Additionally, the preview number represents the second-best for an animated film behind Incredibles 2 on $18.5m after surpassing Inside Out 2 on $13m earlier this year. Moana 2 opened wide on Wednesday in 4,200 locations including 300 Imax auditoriums, 900 Premium Large Format screens, 2,400 3D screens and 220 D-Box/4D motion screens. Originally conceived as a Disney+ sequel to the 2016 original, Moana 2 sees Auli‘i Cravalho…

Moana 2 takes to the seas at the UK and Ireland box office this weekend as the Disney sequel launches in 630 cinemas. The sequel opens wider than the 533 venues of its predecessor back in 2016. That title debuted with a mild £2.2m but had a solid run overall, surpassing £20m. Moana 2 sees the eponymous islander, voiced by Auli‘i Cravalho, embark on a journey to find a mythical, lost island. Dwayne Johnson also returns to the voice cast while new additions include comedian Rose Matafeo and Hualalai Chung.  It will have fierce competition from Wicked, fresh from having the…

Rank Film (distributor) Three-day gross (Nov 22-24) Total gross to date Week  1. Wicked (Universal) £13.7m £13.7m 1  2. Gladiator II (Paramount) £4.7m £18.4m  2  3. Paddington In Peru (Studiocanal) £4.2m  £24.4m 3  4. Red One (Warner Bros) £822,000  £5.8m  3  5. Heretic (EFD)  £205,457 £205,457  4 GBP to USD conversion rate: 1.26 Wicked cast its spell on UK-Ireland audiences this weekend, bringing in £13.7m in its debut – the best-performing opening weekend for a stage-to-screen adaptation in the territory, and the biggest opening weekend of 2024.…

Former Curzon head Philip Knatchbull is set to return to the UK arthouse cinema chain and distributor as interim executive chairman following the company’s acquisition by US firm Fortress Investment Group.  Edward Fletcher, who joined the company as CEO in November 2023, has left after spending a year in the role.  Charles S. Cohen’s US company Cohen Media Group acquired Curzon in late 2019. Knatchbull stepped down in November 2023 having helmed the company for 17 years. Former Soda Pictures executive Fletcher took over on November 15, 2023. Earlier this year, Fortress sued billionaire Cohen – also the head of Cohen Brothers Realty…