Author: SD

‘Venom: The Last Dance’ and ’Back To Black’ were the top performing films will a solo female director credit at the UK-Ireland box office in 2024, both taking over £12m. Kelly Marcel’s third instalment of the superhero film franchise starring Tom Hardy brought in £12.4m for Sony, while Sam Taylor-Johnson’s Amy Winehouse biopic currently stands at £12.3m for Studiocanal. A total of 13 films were directed by women, with a further three co-director credits, according to Box Office Mojo’s list of the top 100 best performing films of 2024 (excluding re-releases or holdovers from 2023) in the territory. In 2023, 13 were directed…

Universal Pictures has changed the title of its sequel to current musical hit Wicked from Wicked Part Two to Wicked: For Good. The sequel’s wide release date stays at November 21, 2025.  The new title refers to a song duet that stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande will sing in the sequel, based, like the first film, on the Wicked stage musical. Original director Jon M Chu returns for the sequel, along with Erivo and Grande and other cast members Jeff Goldblum and Michelle Yeoh.  Released on November 22, the original film this weekend reached $525.3m at the global box…

RankFilm (distributor)Three-day gross (Dec 27-29)Total gross to dateWeek  1. Mufasa: The Lion King  (Disney) £4.2m  £12.6m 2  2. Sonic The Hedgehog 3  (Paramount) £4m £11.8m 1  3. Wicked  (Universal) £2.7m  £53m  6  4. Moana 2  (Disney) £2.2m £33.8m 5  5. Better Man  (EFD) £1.3m £1.6m 1 GBP to USD conversion rate: 1.25.  Disney animation Mufasa: The Lion King held off Paramount’s Sonic The Hedgehog 3 in the final UK-Ireland weekend box office of 2024. Mufasa fell a slim 4% on its second session, taking £4.2m; the…

Worldwide box office December 27-29 RankFilm (distributor)3-day (world)Cume (world)3-day (int’l)Cume (int’l) Territories 1.  Mufasa: The Lion King (Disney)  $114.2m  $327.9m  $77.1m  $214.5m   53 2.   Sonic The Hedgehog 3 (Paramount)  $112m  $211.5m  $74m  $74m  53 3.   Moana 2 (Disney)  $54.3m  $882.5m  $36.1m  $487.9m  53 4.   Wicked (Universal)  $33.1m  $634.7m  $13.6m  $210.1m  82 5.   Big World (various)  $29.2m  $29.2m  $29.2m  $29.2m  1 6.   Nosferatu (Universal)  $24.1m  $43.3m  $3m  $3m  6 7.   Octopus With Broken Arms (various)  $21.5m  $21.5m  $21.5m  $21.5m   1 8.   A Complete…

Worldwide box office December 20-22 RankFilm (distributor)3-day (world)Cume (world)3-day (int’l)Cume (int’l)Territories  1.  Mufasa: The Lion King (Disney)  $122.2m  $122.2m  $87.2m  $87.2m  53  2.  Sonic The Hedgehog 3 (Paramount)  $62m  $62m      12  3.  Moana 2 (Disney)  $45.9m   $790.1m  $32.8m  $431.1m  53  4.   Wicked (Universal)  $26.1m  $571.3m  $12.6m  $187.3m  82  5.  Gladiator II (Paramount)  $9.8m  $416.2m  $5.4m  $262.3m  66  6.  Kraven The Hunter (Sony)  $8.9m  $42.8m  $5.8m  $25.4m   63  7.  The Prosecutor (various)  $7.1m  $17.8m  $7.1m  $17.8m  5  8.  Homestead (Angel) …

Global box office will reach $33bn in 2025, a bounce-back from the expected slight downturn of 2024, according to predicitons from Gower Street Analytics, the UK-based film data and insights specialist.  It estimated 2025 will finish approximately 8% ahead of the estimated full-year 2024 result of around $30.5bn. The 2025 global projection would put the year down 14% against the average of the last three pre-pandemic years (2017-2019) at historic exchange rates. It is also 3% behind 2023’s full-year result ($33.9bn), though if re-calculated using current exchange rates, the 2025 projection would sit 1% ahead of 2023. The North America box…

Alejandro González Iñárritu’s untitled Tom Cruise film has been set for an October 2, 2026 Imax release by Warner Bros Pictures, giving the project a prime awards season slot.  The date had previously been claimed by Warner for Matt Reeves’ sequel to The Batman, which now moves to a global release on October 1, 2027, also in Imax.  The Inarritu project, the Mexican filmmaker’s first English-language film as a director since The Revenant, is being produced by Warner Bros and Legendary Entertainment and will also star Sandra Hüller, John Goodman, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jesse Plemons, Sophie Wilde and Riz Ahmed.  Plot…

Rank Film (distributor) Three-day gross (Dec 20-22) Total gross to date Week  1. Mufasa: The Lion King  (Disney) £4.4m  £4.4m 1  2. Wicked (Universal) £2.5m £48.2m 5  3. Moana 2 (Disney) £2.1m  £29.8m  4  4. Paddington In Peru (Studiocanal)  £649,278 £31.3m 7  5. Gladiator II (Paramount) £495,000 £29.6m 6  GBP to USD conversion rate: 1.26 Disney’s Mufasa: The Lion King hit the top spot in its first weekend on release at the UK-Ireland box office, bringing in £4.4m from 663 venues, for a site average of…

Domestic features led the Japan box office in 2024 with no live-action titles from outside the country making the top 10. In the year since December 2023, eight of the Japan’s top 10 highest-grossing films were produced domestically, with only two US features – Inside Out 2 and Despicable Me 4 – making the list. Significantly, no live-action features from outside the country made the top 10, a sign that Hollywood tentpoles are having difficulty penetrating Japan’s cinematic market. Recent years have seen titles such as Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023), Top Gun: Maverick (2022), Fast &…

Berlinale festival director Tricia Tuttle is asking anyone with concerns about free speech being curtailed at the upcoming event (February 13-23) to “approach us rather than make assumptions or believe things which may not be true”. In the lead-up to her first edition in the post, Tuttle has spoken out following an online petition that has emerged, posted by Film Workers For Palestine and Strike Germany, which calls for a boycott of the 2025 festival, as well as concerns heard through the festival’s own networks from both the Arab and wider filmmaking communities about the festival and Germany’s relationship with…