by admin | Apr 18, 2025 | Hollywood Reporter News, News
Ryan Googler’s critically acclaimed Sinners starring Michael B. Jordan bit off an impressive $4.7 million in Thursday previews as Easter weekend gets underway at the box office, where the period vampire pic will battle with A Minecraft Movie for top spoils. Speaking of the latter, Minecraft jumped the $300 million mark on Thursday domestically.
All eyes on are how Coogler’s Sinners performs, since the bold original pic was made entirely by Warner Bros. movie chiefs Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy from start to finish.
Sinners has plenty of advantages as it arrives on the big screen. Reuniting Coogler with his go-to leading man Jordan, the R-rated movie boasts the best Rotten Tomatoes critics’ score of Coogler’s career with 97 percent.
Warners, trying to manage expectations, is targeting an opening in the $35 million to $40 million range for Sinners. There’s reason to be circumspect, considering the film is an R-rated, period supernatural vampire pic. Tracking services are more bullish in suggesting $40 million to $45 million, while rival studios think Sinner‘s launch could end up north of $50 million.
Produced and co-financed by Legendary alongside Vertigo, Minecraft should easily earn $40 million to $45 million in its third outing as it jumps the $600 million mark globally, including $300 million domestically. The film is on its way to becoming one of the top video game adaptations of all time, and is already the top-grossing pic of 2025 in a feather-in-the-cap for De Luca and Abdy.
Sinners is a defining moment for the executive duo and their commitment to working with high-profile auteurs, and giving filmmakers a relatively wide berth in terms of budget. Sinners cost $90 million to make before marketing, a relatively hefty price tag for a genre movie (that’s ahead of the $50 budget for Coogler and Jordan’s Creed).
Coogler burst onto the scene with the indie hit Fruitvale Station before going on to direct Creed and the Black Panther franchise.
A period pic, the 1932-set Sinners stars Jordan in dual roles as identical twin entrepreneurs known as Smoke and Stack. Having survived the World War I trenches and Chicago gangland, the brothers return after seven years to their segregated Mississippi Delta hometown, Clarksdale. They are flush with cash and have a truckload of liquor and a plan to open a juke joint. However, they encounter unexpected horrors.
“Sinners is the gifted writer-director’s first entirely original feature, not based on real-life events or existing IP, and he packs it with enough thematic layers and genre fluidity to fuel at least three movies,” writes David Rooney in The Hollywood Reporter‘s review.
by admin | Apr 14, 2025 | Hollywood Reporter News, News
Keep your popcorn to yourself.
That was Jack Black‘s instruction to moviegoers attending a screening of A Minecraft Movie over the April 11-13 weekend at AMC Century City in L.A. following days of headlines about young moviegoers engaging in rowdy behavior and hurling handfuls of popcorn into the crowd when Black’s character exclaims, “chicken jockey!”
As Black entered the auditorium unannounced, he initially disguised his voice when he intoning: “For today’s presentation of A Minecraft Movie, please no throwing popcorn.” When he began speaking in his own voice and was recognized, the crowd went nuts as he waved his main prop from the movie, an ax. “Look what I brought,” he said, eliciting hoots and hollers.
Throughout the movie’s opening weekend a week earlier, viral videos captured audiences going wild, throwing food and drinks, and trashing auditoriums. In one video, somebody was even kicked out for holding up a live chicken. Some theaters are issuing warnings, with Cinema United — a trade organization representing thousands of exhibitors across the globe — issuing a memo of voluntary guidelines, including “pre-show announcements” and that if the “situation escalates, local authorities can be called” (reportedly — and in at least one moviegoer’s video — police have been called).
After all, A Minecraft Movie is delivering a huge win for the box office, having cleared $552 million in global ticket sales in less than two weeks to already become one of the biggest video game adaptations of all time, not adjusted for inflation. It earned $78.5 million in its second weekend domestically for a cume of $278.9 million and $273.8 million overseas for a global total of $552.6 million.
And it couldn’t have come at a better time for Warner Bros. motion picture chiefs Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy, who had previously come under fire after a series of misses. Minecraft, produced and co-financed by Legendary Pictures, is the top release of the year to date, and is almost assured of becoming the first film of 2025 to clear $1 billion in worldwide ticket sales (Vertigo is also a credited producer).
While theater workers are unhappy about the mess they are stuck cleaning up, many exhibitors, and especially some of the biggest chains, are refraining from posting wholesale prohibitions on the behavior out of concern that such warnings would only inflame the situation. Insiders say such warnings may not have been helpful when rabid fans of Minions: The Rise of Gru began throwing bananas during screenings of the film or, more recently, when chains including AMC asked Wicked moviegoers to refrain from singing along with the film (later on in the movie’s run, Universal hosted sing-along screenings).
For the uninitiated, A Minecraft Movie follows four misfits who are pulled through a portal into a cubic world and must embark on a quest back to the real world with the help of an expert crafter named Steve (Black). At one point, a baby zombie falls onto the back of a chicken, making a “chicken jockey” — an extremely rare occurrence in the game — which prompts fans to erupt with excitement and surprise.
Black was surely dispatched to AMC Century City to do some damage control and hopefully spark his own viral moment that could counteract the urge to hurl popcorn.
“Are you ready to rock? Ladies and gentlemen, please enjoy A Minecraft Movie,” said Black as he walked the aisles of the packed auditorium at AMC Century City.
by admin | Apr 8, 2025 | Hollywood Reporter News, News
The Angry Birds Movie 3 has landed at Paramount Pictures, which has set a theatrical release date of Jan. 29, 2027 for the video game adaptation.
Game creator Rovio Entertainment and owner Sega are producing the threequel, which sees Jason Sudeikis, Josh Gad, Rachel Bloom and Danny McBride reprising their leads roles as Red, Chuck, Silver and Bomb in the animated comedy.
New arrivals to the voice cast include Emma Myers, Keke Palmer and Tim Robinson alongside Lily James, Marcello Hernandez, Walker Scobell, Sam Richardson, Anna Cathcart, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Nikki Glaser, James Austin Johnson and Psalm West.
Producing the movie alongside Rovio/Sega are Namit Malhotra’s Prime Focus Studios in partnership with Flywheel Media, One Cool Group and dentsu. Paramount Pictures has global distribution duties.
Sony Pictures distributed the first two films. Released in 2016, The Angry Birds Movie earned $352 million globally, not adjusted for inflation. In comparison, The Angry Birds Movie 2 crash-landed in 2019 with global earnings of $147.8 million. In announcing the Paramount news, Rovio and SEGA noted that the film franchise has earned north of $500 million at the worldwide box office and has been a hit on streaming platforms around the world, signalling a strong demand for a third installment.
“We’re very excited to be partnering with Paramount Pictures and extremely proud of our incredible cast,” Cohen said in a statement. “Not only do we have Jason, Josh, Rachel and Danny returning to voice their fantastic characters, but they’re surrounded by an all-star ensemble of comedic talent. These are some of the funniest people out there today, and we’re so thrilled to have them all on board.”
Added Paramount president of worldwide marketing & distribution Marc Weinstock: “Angry Birds transcends mediums and has been embraced and celebrated the world over. We couldn’t be happier to be partnering with Sega/Rovio and these other great partners to bring this latest installment, featuring an incredible voice cast, to big screens everywhere.”
The Angry Birds news comes on the heels of the jaw-dropping opening of Warner Bros.’ A Minecraft Movie this past weekend. And Paramount and Sega have mined gold with the Sonic and The Hedgehog franchise.
John Rice, who helmed the first movie, is returning in the director’s chair for Angry Birds 3. Thurop Van Orman, who directed the sequel, wrote the screenplay. The film is produced by John Cohen, Dan Chuba and Carla Connor.
Grammy Award-winning musician and composer Heitor Pereira (Despicable Me, The Minions Movie, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish), who scored the first two films, is returning for The Angry Birds Movie 3.
Storyboards, art development, and animation are being handled by DNEG Animation. Jeanie Chang is the production designer, and Francesca Natale is the character designer. The head of story is Vadim Bazhanov, and the lead editor is Sarah K. Reimers.
“We’re thrilled to announce that our first theatrical distribution partnership is with Paramount Pictures,” said Don McGregor, Founder and CEO, Flywheel Media. “As a film production company focused on bringing the best family movies to global audiences, we couldn’t have a better start than The Angry Birds Movie 3.”
“The Angry Birds brand has demonstrated remarkable versatility, evolving from a global mobile gaming phenomenon to licensed products, animation, and a thriving cinematic franchise,” said Alex Pelletier-Normand, CEO, Rovio Entertainment. “It has been a deeply collaborative effort to create a film that will resonate with the millions who interact with our catalog of games and products every day. We are confident that with this talented team at the helm, The Angry Birds Movie 3 will delight longtime fans and create new fans in those discovering our flock for the first time.”
Myers is repped by Untitled entertainment, WME and attorney Jeff Bernstein, while Palmer is repped by 3 Arts and Hertz Lichtenstein Young & Polk. Robinson is repped by CAA and Hanson Jacobson Teller Hoberman.
by admin | Apr 8, 2025 | Hollywood Reporter News, News
The U.S. film industry so far has escaped direct retaliation from countries hit by President Donald Trump‘s globe-spanning tariffs, thanks to theatrical film releases and streaming platforms being categorized as services rather than physical goods. But Hollywood’s luck in China, the world’s second-largest film market, could soon run out, according to statements issued Tuesday by two influential public figures in the country.
With trade relations between Washington and Beijing spiraling, two widely followed Chinese bloggers posted an identical set of measures that local authorities are said to be mulling in response to Trump’s 54 percent tariffs on all Chinese goods, which the president vowed to increase to 104 percent if Beijing didn’t back down from a pledge to match the current U.S. tariff rate. The list of mooted moves includes “reducing or banning the import of U.S. films,” as well as increasing tariffs on U.S. agricultural goods and U.S. services, among other countermeasures.
The potential plans were shared simultaneously over local social media by Liu Hong, a senior editor at the state-backed Xinhua News Agency, and Ren Yi, the influential and widely followed grandson of Ren Zhongyi, former Communist Party chief of Guangdong Province. Both figures attributed the outlined proposals to unnamed sources familiar with authorities’ planning. Bloomberg News was the first Western outlet to cover their statements.
The U.S. studios’ earnings in China have declined drastically in recent years as local tastes have shifted away from Hollywood franchise spectacle toward the country’s homegrown Chinese-language blockbusters. But losing all access to the Chinese market could still ding the studios’ bottom lines. Warner Bros. and Legendary’s A Minecraft Movie opened in China in first place last weekend with ticket sales of $14.5 million, just over 10 percent of its $144 international earnings haul. In 2024, the biggest U.S. release in the country was Warner Bros. and Legendary’s Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire with a hefty $132 million China box office total.
Chinese authorities hold a firm grip over every aspect of film distribution in the country and they have worked tirelessly over the years to boost local content at the expense of imported movies. Under former trade agreements, China committed to releasing 34 foreign films per year under revenue-share terms, with overseas studios permitted to a 25 percent share of ticket sales. Other films, usually smaller-budget titles, are imported via a buy-out system, where a local distributor pays a flat fee to release the movie in Chinese theaters. China’s film regulators also maintain strict censorship standards for film content and choose the release dates for all movies, reserving the most lucrative holiday windows for local Chinese films.
The film business, though, is one sector where the U.S. maintains a sizable trade surplus with China, as Chinese films, despite their enormous earnings in the home market, have made little headway with mainstream North American moviegoers.
by admin | Apr 7, 2025 | Hollywood Reporter News, News
The box office blues have been banished in historic fashion.
Warner Bros.’ A Minecraft Movie, made with help from Legendary Pictures, struck gold with a record-shattering $163 million opening domestically and $150.7 million overseas for a global start of $313.2 million, according to final weekend numbers. Thanks to a huge Sunday, that’s up more than $12 million from Sunday’s domestic estimate of $157 million and $144 million overseas for a global haul of $301 million.
The film came in tens of millions ahead of expectations to score the top start ever for a video game adaptation, besting the $146.4 million three-day launch of Universal Pictures’ The Super Mario Bros. Movie over Easter weekend in 2023. (Opening on a Wednesday, Mario Bros. earned $204 million through Easter Sunday.)
A Minecraft Movie easily boasts the top start of 2025 to date, and is the biggest domestic launch since Deadpool & Wolverine in July 2024 ($211 million). Just as noteworthy, it came in ahead of Barbie ($162 million) to mark Warners’ biggest domestic opening since 2016, when Batman v Superman debuted to $166 million. Saturday’s gross of $60 million is the biggest in the history of Warners, not adjusted for inflation. Legendary put up 25 percent of the $150 million production budget (that doesn’t include marketing costs).
The star-studded, high-wattage ensemble pic couldn’t have come at a better time. The 2025 box office has seen its fortunes fall off dramatically in recent weeks. Minecraft is just the shot of confidence Hollywood studios and cinema owners needed after pics including Disney’s Snow White bit the poisoned apple.
It’s also a needed victory for embattled Warner Bros. movie studio chiefs Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy, and for the studio overall. Ditto for Legendary, whose movie chief Mary Parent — known for her deft handling of big IP — is a credited producer and is given major props for suggesting that Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre) be hired to direct the pic.
“We’re absolutely overjoyed A Minecraft Movie has been so warmly received by audiences around the world,” Abdy and De Luca said in statement thanking all involved, from Hess to the cast to Legendary and Vertigo, another producing partner. They also thanked their marketing and distribution teams. “A Minecraft Movie’s decade long journey to the screen was overseen with great care by WBP’s Jesse Ehrman and his team, and we are thrilled their efforts have resulted in such a tremendous response.”
Jason Momoa, Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge and Danielle Brooks star in the PG-rated film, as well as Emma Myers and Sebastian Eugene Hansen. The movie, based on the Mojang Studios video game of the same name, centers around four misfits who are suddenly pulled through a mysterious portal into a bizarre, cubic wonderland that thrives on imagination. To get back home, they must master their new reality’s quirks while embarking on a quest with an unexpected, expert crafter, as Black steps into the shoes of the iconic character Steve.
Warners global distribution chief Jeff Goldstein said the film worked everywhere, from small towns to the biggest cities. And, reached in London, Parent said the opening is a both a reflection of the mandate to celebrate the world of Minecraft in a joyful way, and the singular experience that only theatrical can offer. “This game is a global phenomenon,” she said.
She’s not spinning. Minecraft is the the best-selling video game of all time, with over 300 million copies sold. By some estimates, there are 125 million active daily players. (Microsoft bought Mojang in 2014.)
On Saturday morning, based on Friday’s huge haul of $58 million, insiders at Warner Bros. projected a $135 million domestic start, up from an expected $60 million-plus. Some rival studios thought it had a shot at as much as $150 million, but massive walk-up business saw the final tally come in even higher.
Not even so-so reviews or a B+ CinemaScore dinged A Minecraft Movie (moviegoers under 18 gave it a perfect A).
Exit polls from PostTrak did the best job at explaining the movie’s out-of-this world start: Teens between ages 13 and 17 made up 35 percent of the audience, while the largest quad was between ages 18 and 24, according to those with access to the data. Those are the demos best known for repeat viewing. Families also turned out in force, while males — as expected — dominated at 65 percent to 67 percent of the audience. General audiences and parents/kids gave the movie four out of five stars on PostTrak, while kids delivered five out of five.
Overseas, A Minecraft Movie is even showing promise in China, where it topped the weekend chart with $14.6 million, the best showing of any Hollywood title this year. Legendary East is handling the film in China.
“This was lightning in a bottle,” said Goldstein.
The next-closest film was A Working Man, which came in No. 2 with $7.3 million. Distributed by Amazon MGM Studios in the U.S., the pic has earned $27.8 million in its first 10 days of release. Fathom’s screening of part two of The Chosen: Last Supper followed closely with $7.2 million.
Snow White, now in its third weekend, placed No. 4 with $6.1 million domestically for a tepid global total of $168.4 million.
April 7, 7:54 a.m.: Updated with weekend actuals.
This story was originally published April 6 at 8:23 a.m.
by admin | Apr 5, 2025 | Hollywood Reporter News, News
The new Minecraft movie is minting gold at the box office.
The family-friendly movie earned a huge $58 million on Friday — including a record $10.6 million in previews — putting it on course for a domestic debut of $135 million or more.
Not only would that mark the biggest opening of the year to date, but it would also mark one of the top starts ever for a video game adaptation. The Super Mario Bros. Movie, released in early April 2023, presently wears the domestic crown with $146.4 million. (Some rival studios show Minecraft doing as much as $150 million.)
The high-wattage ensemble pic is coming in well ahead of expectations and couldn’t have come at a better time. The 2025 box office has seen its fortunes fall off dramatically in recent weeks. Minecraft could prove to be the shot of confidence Hollywood studios and cinema owners need after recent films, including Disney’s Snow White, transformed into major disappointments.
Jason Momoa, Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge and Danielle Brooks star in A Minecraft Movie, as well as Emma Myers and Sebastian Eugene Hansen. Many were in attendance for the film’s world premiere in London last weekend, helping to explain why they didn’t attend Warner Bros. CinemaCon presentation this week amid rampant speculation that Warner Bros. Discovery chief David Zaslav is looking to replace movie studio heads Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy.
Minecraft is certainly a win for the duo and the studio at large. Still, Legendary’s Mary Parent helped develop and guide the movie creatively, including tapping Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre) to direct. Parent is widely recognized for her ability to handle big IP.
The movie, based on the video game of the same name, centers around four misfits who are suddenly pulled through a mysterious portal into a bizarre, cubic wonderland that thrives on imagination. To get back home, they must master their new reality’s quirks while embarking on a quest with an unexpected, expert crafter, as Black steps into the shoes of the iconic character Steve.
Minecraft opens day-and-date around the world. As of Friday, its global haul was already north of $100 million. While most Hollywood event pics flame out quickly in China, that’s not the case for this film. Legendary East, which is distributing the pic in the Middle Kingdom, is reporting impressive grosses for Minecraft, which is topping the chart with earnings north of $62 million in its first two days. At this pace, it is the biggest Hollywood title of 2025.
