by admin | Apr 3, 2025 | Hollywood Reporter News, News
Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan promised theater owners on Thursday that their upcoming comedy Freakier Friday is more than worth the 22-year wait.
Disney used its CinemaCon presentation to tout the body-swapping sequel, which unfurls Aug. 8 in theaters, more than two decades after 2003’s Freaky Friday became a box office and cultural sensation. It also marks Lohan’s big return to theaters.
“You get to see us take on all different personalities as we swap with our teenage counterparts,” said Curtis when taking the stage at CinemaCon with Lohan to huge hoots and hollers from the audience. “We made this movie with a lot of love. We specifically made it to be experienced on the big screen with a big crowd.”
Lohan added, “We will see you this summer!”
The film’s first trailer, released earlier this month, shows Curtis’ character Tess once again swapping bodies with her daughter, Anna, who is played by Lohan. But there’s a twist — there’s a four-way swap when Anna’s daughter (Julia Butters) and soon-to-be stepdaughter (Sophia Hammons) are also caught up in the action.
On Thursday, Curtis and Lohan treated exhibitors to exclusive clips of the film, including a scene where Curtis’ character has to instruct Lohan’s how to behave like a teenager and flirt, in this case with Freaky Friday alum Chad Michael Murray, who reprises his role as Jake (he’s still riding a motorcycle, FYI).
Freaky Friday was based on Mary Rodgers’ 1972 novel, and earned $160 million globally, not adjusted for inflation. It has become synonymous with the body-swap genre, spawning homages such as the Blumhouse horror film Freaky.
Nisha Ganatra directed Freakier Friday from a script by Elyse Hollander.
The official logline reads: “Years after Tess and Anna endured an identity crisis, Anna now has a daughter and a soon-to-be stepdaughter. As they navigate the challenges that come when two families merge, Tess and Anna discover that lightning might strike twice.”
Other returning castmembers include Mark Harmon, Christina Vidal Mitchell, Haley Hudson, Lucille Soong, Stephen Tobolowsky and Rosalind Chao. In addition to Hammons and Butters, new castmembers include Vanessa Bayer, Elaine Hendrix, Manny Jacinto and Maitreyi Ramakrishnan.
Lohan has revealed that her character’s fictional band, Pink Slip, is coming back to perform new music. Aime Doherty composed the sequel’s score.
by admin | Apr 1, 2025 | Hollywood Reporter News, News
Leave it to Tom Rothman to arrive at CinemaCon 2025 with a little help from his friends.
The chairman of Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group returned to the annual convention of theater owners in fine form Monday night when helping to present the studio’s upcoming slate — culminating with details about Sam Mendes’ four movies on each of The Beatles. That included announcing the cast of the Fab Four and the decision to release all of the movies in April 2028.
“We are not just making one film about the Beatles. We’re making four,” Mendes said to huge applause as he joined Rothman on stage at the Colosseum Theater at Caesar’s Palace.
“Did I agree to that?” Rothman said.
“Astonishingly you did,” Mendes replied, adding it will be the “first bingeable theatrical experience” in regards to releasing the pics in the same month. “We need big cinematic events to get people out their houses.”
Rothman had some further fun with Mendes. “Well, do you envision them being seen by the audience in any particular order?”
“I do, but that’s for further down the road,” the filmmaker said.
“Alright, fair enough. I’ll try a different line of cross-examination,” said Rothman. “When does the Paul McCartney movie come out?” Mendes replied April 2028; the same question and answer were repeated three more times.
The Beatles project is arguably the biggest of Rothman’s long career, alongside Avatar, which he worked on when running 20th Century Fox with Jim Gianopulos.
While CinemaCon 2025 is rife with talk of leadership shake-ups facing Hollywood studios, Rothman is not among those who may be making their last speeches at the show.
Sony brass intends to keep Rothman at the helm for the foreseeable future, even though no deal to extend his contract has been officially announced, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter. His boss, Sony Pictures Entertainment chair-CEO Ravi Ajuha, sat in the audience at the Colosseum in a show of support for Rothman and his team (Rothman gave a shoutout to Ajuha, noting it was his first time at CinemaCon).
Rothman also had a warning during his time on stage at CinemaCon, saying that rising ticket prices and shrinking windows are a danger to the future of theatrical.
“There’s a magic word, and that word is Tuesday,” said Rothman. “Why is Tuesday different from all other weekdays? The grosses are bigger every Tuesday because prices are lower.” He’s correct. Almost every theater across the country lowers prices on that day.
Rothman also stressed the importance of exclusive theatrical windows in an era where a movie can be seen in the home on premium VOD as soon as 17 days or 30 after its release on the big screen. “Cost and windows can work for us or against us. Theaters can be smart about both, and Sony will work with you on both,” he continued. “If theaters and studios manage for the long term and do the right thing, the future will be grand.”
Sony distribution chief Adam Bergerman shared a far more sobering stat: a new survey shows that one in three Americans now believe they can see a movie in the home within a month of its release even though many studios wait until 40 or 45 days before making a title available on premium VOD (Disney adheres to 60 days).
“This undermines the reason to go to a theater,” he said. “As a general rule, we try not to do this. We have to change this perception.”
A fierce advocate of the theatrical experience and repping the only major Hollywood studio that doesn’t have its own streaming service, Rothman said it is imperative to provide moviegoers with a wide array of product, from the biggest tentpoles to original fare and everything in between. His upcoming slate includes features from a mix of both acclaimed filmmakers, including the likes of Danny Boyle and Darren Aronfsky, as well as up-and-coming talent.
Sony sat out last year’s CinemaCon, saying its marketing dollars were better spent in other ways. Theater owners gathered inside the Colosseum Theater at Caesar’s Palace on Monday didn’t seem to hold any grudges, and gave a warm welcome to the exec.
That welcome turned ecstatic when Mendes and Rothman closed out the show by bringing the just-announced cast of the Beatles movies onstage. Set to star in the films are Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, Joseph Quinn as George Harrison, and Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr. Each of the four movies will focus on one of the members of the Fab Four, but will intertwine.
The annual gathering of cinema owners and Hollywood studios is hosted by the newly rebranded Cinema United, which for decades was known as the National Association of Theatre Owners (its acronym NATO led to endless confusion, as it was mistaken for the “other” NATO, as in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization).
Before Sony took the stage, CinemaCon managing director Mitch Neuhauser welcomed the thousands of cinema operators who traveled from across the country, and world, to attend this year’s convention. He also paid tribute to the late Jon Landau, James Cameron’s longtime producing partner, who passed away last year. “Jon, we miss you,” he said. “Your work will live forever on the big screen.” On Thursday, Cameron and Disney are expected to likewise pay tribute to Landau as part of its Avatar presentation.
by admin | Mar 30, 2025 | Hollywood Reporter News, News
Middle America is taking charge of the box office, where David Ayer’s blue-collar drama A Working Man beat Snow White in a surprise upset with a better-than-expected domestic opening of $15.2 million from 3,262 theaters.
Snow White took in $14.2 million from 4,200 locations, a steep decline of 66 percent as the live-action update continues be dogged by poor word-of-mouth and controversial headlines over its titular star, Rachel Zegler. The film’s domestic tally throughout Sunday is a muted $66.8 million domestically and $143.1 million globally.
However, Disney isn’t waving the white flag of defeat, and says its movie could still avoid biting the poison apple because of rolling spring breaks over the next few weeks and little competition in terms of films targeting girls and females. (Next week’s A Minecraft Movie is expected to skew male.)
But the film’s dismal performance in its second weekend is more bad news for Disney and puts Snow White in official bomb territory, considering it cost roughly $370 million to market and produce.
Working Man‘s victory comes at a symbolic juncture for Amazon MGM Studios, which late last week saw the surprise ouster of studio head Jennifer Salke as it embarks on an ambitious journey to become a major Hollywood studio with global distribution powers after acquiring rights to the James Bond franchise. Her exit came on the eve of CinemaCon, where Amazon MGM will present for the first time this coming week.
Ayer directed the well-reviewed Working Man from a script he wrote with Sylvester Stallone. The R-rated film, based on the novel Levon’s Trade by Chuck Dixon, stars Jason Statham, Jason Flemyng, Merab Ninidze, Maximilian Osinski, Cokey Falkow, Michael Peña and David Harbour.
The story follows a black ops vet (Statham) who left behind a decorated military career to live a simple life working construction. But when his boss’ daughter, who is like family to him, is taken by human traffickers, his search to bring her home uncovers a world of corruption far greater than he ever could have imagined.
Also opening this weekend is Fathom’s latest big-screen showing of The Chosen series. Grosses show The Chosen: The Last Supper (Part One) placing third with a pleasing $11.5 million from 2,234 theaters.
Universal and Blumhouse’s horror entry The Woman in the Yard opened in fourth place with a sturdy $9.5 million from 3,050 theaters. Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra and starring Danielle Deadwyler, the film revolves around a family that becomes rattled by a mysterious stranger who shows up at their isolated farm
A24’s Death of a Unicorn rounded out the top five with a so-so $5.6 million from 2,842 cinemas. The horror pic stars Jenna Ortega and Paul Rudd.
Hollywood and theater owners — who will gather together Monday in Las Vegas for CinemaCon — are facing a year-over-year deficit of 11 percent in terms of domestic box office revenue. The gap, attributed to the lingering impact of the pandemic and strikes, is sure to be a main topic of conversation throughout CinemaCon.
March 30, 7:35 a.m.: Updated with revised numbers.
This story was originally published on March 29 at 9:02 a.m.
by admin | Mar 27, 2025 | Hollywood Reporter News, News
Head over to Auditorium Three at the Laemmle Theater’s Monica Film Center in downtown Santa Monica one afternoon this week and you’ll catch a screening No Other Land, the Oscar-winning documentary about the Israeli government’s efforts to evict Palestinians from the southern West Bank community of Masafer Yatta with a decidedly negative view of the Israel Defense Forces.
Stick around after the closing credits for the next showtime, though, and a rather different movie will come up: October 8, the newly released film about the Hamas massacre in southern Israel on October 7, 2023 and Jewish students bullied on American campuses with a decidedly negative view of the academic left.
The screening-room convergence offers a concrete example of what is fast becoming a kind of cinematic ballot box: Two documentaries mainstream Hollywood wouldn’t touch, each becoming hits with sharply different views and audiences.
“We believe that all kinds of films need to be put out into the marketplace,” Laemmle owner and president Greg Laemmle told The Hollywood Reporter, explaining the decision to screen both movies. “The public can inform themselves about what’s out there and hopefully learn more about what’s going on in the world by seeing these films.”
A low-key battle has been shaping up at movie theaters from indie to chain, coast to coast, this early spring. And while it’s hardly Fahrenheit 9/11 vs. The Passion of the Christ — the great blockbuster-as-ideological-marker from that distant era of 2004 — it offers its own spin on the dynamic. Scores of pro-Jewish and pro-Israel filmgoers have been pouring into October 8, while viewers who align with Palestinians have turned out for the Oscar winner. No Other Land and October 8 is the film world’s attempt, despite Big Hollywood’s every effort to stay away, to litigate the defining geopolitical and social issue of our moment.
The popularity of the two films — which collectively have sold some 250,000 tickets and show little sign of slowing down — suggest a hunger for content about the Middle East. But the two films’ appeal to disparate audiences worry experts and even one of the movie’s makers, who say the rivalry offers one more example of a fractured and polarized culture. To the “Team”-centric questions of what influencers you follow, what news you watch, what pins you wear and what positions you argue, you can now add a filmic binary: which Middle East documentary you’ll turn out for and which you’d never step foot in.
“It would be great if we were getting a lot of crossover, but I don’t know that we are,” Wendy Sachs, director of October 8, tells THR. “The reality is if you’re fascinated by No Other Land you’re probably not fascinated by October 8, and vice versa.”
Both films are well-told chronicles that leave their viewers rapt and enraged. It just happens that they leave different sets of viewers rapt and enraged.
No Other Land — directed by a quartet that includes the Palestinian West Bank residents Hamdan Ballal and Basel Adra and the Israeli peace activists Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor — has been collecting awards since its debut at the Berlinale last year for its searing look at residents of a Palestinian community steadily pushed out of their homes by the Israeli government after a long legal battle. Providing emotional ballast is Adra, whose plight puts a human face on an abstract conflict.
But amid the hothouse of Middle Eastern politics, no stateside distributor would buy the movie. So filmmakers have put No Other Land in American theaters themselves, enlisting the marketing help of the New York-based Cinetic Media and an indie exhibition consultant named Michael Tuckman. After an opening in late January in one New York theater timed to Oscar nominations, the film expanded to 100 screens Oscar weekend and has continued to maintain steam weeks after the ceremony. Last weekend marked its biggest gross since all but the weekend right after the Oscars.
The movie is set to cross $2 million this weekend, or about 170,000 tickets sold — rare for any doc in the 2020s, let alone one that featured, per a Cinetic source, “not a single ad taken out on its behalf.” (The perils of self-releasing.)
A Cinetic spokeswoman said all four of the filmmakers were living or spending a lot of time in the West Bank and were not available to speak to the press (Adra and Abraham’s Oscar speeches remain the group’s abiding image). The movie is still seeking a television or streaming deal in the United States. Jason Ishikawa, the rep at Cinetic’s sales arm who is handling sales of the film, did not reply to a request seeking comment.
No Other Land has benefitted from a stream of news events boosting its profile. Miami Beach mayor Steven Meiner attempted unscuccessfully to evict a theater showing No Other Land from city-owned property last week, generating headlines around the country. And on Tuesday Abraham said that his co-director Ballal was assaulted by Israeli settlers outside his home and then detained by soldiers when he tried to seek treatment in an ambulance. The IDF says Palestinian terrorists initiated the encounter. (For an account of the incident from a peace activist in the region, you can read THR‘s story here.) The very reason that big Hollywood companies have resisted these movies — their inability to stay out of the headlines — is exactly what’s fueling their popularity.
Tuckman says even the team behind the film has been startled by the business it’s done. “This has exceeded everyone’s wildest expectations,” he says.
An equally unlikely path has unfolded before October 8. The movie uses the October 7 massacre of Israelis as a jumping off point to explore the 18 months of antisemitic and anti-Zionist actions that have followed on college campuses and beyond — those standing up to it and those responsible for it. Featuring a host of academics, politicians, student leaders and celebrities (Debra Messing is an executive producer), the film argues that Hamas has been seeding antisemitic efforts in the United States going back more than 30 years.
Made entirely with donations solicited by producer Teddy Schwarzman and Sachs — she previously made a movie about feminist Democratic Congressional candidates — the doc ran into the same walls as No Other Land. It couldn’t find a home with any studio or streamer, and was even turned down by every sales agent. In stepped Tom Ortenberg of theatrical distributor Briarcliff Entertainment, who in the past few years has scooped up a host of homeless films such as The Apprentice and the Jamal Khashoggi doc The Dissident.
Now October 8 has become a grassroots sensation in its own right, currently showing on about 100 screens, including outlets of major chains AMC and Regal. On Thursday, its 13th day of release, the film will cross $1 million at the box office — a number that, in the post-pandemic era, almost no issue-oriented documentary reaches in any timeframe (except No Other Land).
Buying a ticket to Sachs’ film has become a form of political expression for the many Jews who feel the inciting atrocities of October 7 have been too easily forgotten and that American culture and media has not done enough to speak out against antisemitism. Members of pro-Jewish and pro-Israel communities in the U.S. have turned out in droves for the movie, with synagogues in New York, Los Angeles and other big cities convening groups for a communal experience.
“The Jewish community is to a large degree both plagued by and benefits from the assumption that it is larger than it is,” says Dov Lerner, a philosophy professor at Yeshiva University and the rabbi of the Young Israel of Jamaica Estates in Queens, NY, which identifies as a pro-Israel Modern Orthodox congregation. “One way to do that is to turn out for events like this and show studios that we are engaged and that we matter,” he says, equating film attendance to voting in high numbers to communicate a demographic’s power to elected officials.
Lerner’s synagogue is arranging a trip to a local theater to see October 8 on Thursday night, he says, and some 40 people have already bought tickets.
The film, he believes, will also meet congregants’ personal needs. “People in our community right now are looking for validation, and explanation,” he adds.
Like No Other Land, October 8 has gained a burst of timeliness from news events, as Columbia University strikes a deal with the Trump administration to more strictly police the kind of antisemitic campus incidents depicted in October 8.
And somehow both movies have benefited from the blizzard of news around the ICE arrest of Columbia encampments leader Mahmoud Khalil, which to No Other Land devotees represents exactly the kind of injustice Palestinians face in the film, while to October 8 fans provides an example of precisely the kind of action that authority figures in the U.S need to take more often, though a certain percentage of pro-Israel Americans also disagree with the move.
The idea of nonfiction films so aggressively taking sides marks a departure of sorts. Where many documentary films once investigated all sides of a complex issue — the gold standard might be 2006’s Lake of Fire, Tony Kaye’s 360-degree view of abortion in America — some observers have noted that, like many current documentaries, neither No Other Land nor October 8 even has that as its ambition. Both sets of filmmakers come to argue with passion, not explore with detachment.
“The funny thing is If you watched both films you’d actually get a pretty comprehensive view of the situation,” says one veteran studio executive who asked not to be identified because they had not been authorized to speak to the media. “But of course how many people are watching both films?”
To buy a movie ticket more as salve than educational opportunity is both an understandable and concerning trend to Thom Powers, a prominent documentary programmer at TIFF and DOC NYC.
“Every week in this country, no matter your ideology, you’re acutely aware more than ever before that 50 percent of people don’t agree with you,” Powers says. “It’s isolating. So to sit in a movie theater and get 90 minutes of ideas and people that you agree with makes you feel a little less lonely.”
Powers adds, “These movies can bring the same comforts that someone who feels a lack of love might get watching a romantic movie — it feeds something that’s missing in your life.”
In theory, of course, it’s possible both documentaries get it right; each community has plenty of victims. In practice — at least the 2025-era practice of side-choosing and nuance-trashing — it doesn’t work that way.
Lest you think the battle touched off by the two movies will end soon at the box office, think again. This weekend another Middle East-themed documentary opens. It’s called The Encampments and is produced by strident self-proclaimed anti-Zionist Macklemore. As October 8 and its stories of pro-Zionist Columbia students who stood up to bullying on campus continues to play in theaters, The Encampments, according to press materials, is “a groundbreaking documentary that chronicles the Columbia University Gaza Solidarity Encampment and the international wave of student activism it ignited.”
Ryan Gajewski contributed to this report.
by admin | Mar 25, 2025 | Hollywood Reporter News, News
The mood was grim Sunday on the Disney lot as Snow White opened behind expectations to an estimated $43 million domestically. Globally, the live-action remake of the iconic 1937 film was expected to clear $100 million, but instead came in at $87.3 million.
Final weekend numbers released Monday showed the domestic opening coming in lower at $42.2 million; ditto for global. The pic took in $43.9 million overseas for a global start of $86.1 million, according to Comscore.
While those hauls wouldn’t normally spell disaster for a female-targeted pic, Snow White has found itself in potential bomb territory because of its hefty production budget of $270 million before another $100 million or so in marketing costs.
Based on initial ticket sales and mixed word-of-mouth, Snow White may have trouble getting to $300 million or $400 million globally, well short of a box office safety net of $500 million or more, several rival studios execs and box office pundits tell THR. (Consider that 2019’s Dumbo, which debuted to $45 million domestically, topped out at $353 million against a $170 million budget.)
Disney supporters would say if anyone is capable of pulling off a fairy-tale ending, it’s them. Case-in-point: Over Christmas 2024, many in the media immediately wrote off Mufasa: The Lion King when it opened to $35.4 million domestically. The live-action pic did seven times its opening number, a rare feat, to top out at nearly $718 million globally. Elemental was another movie that Disney rescued post-release with a five-time multiple before it became a streaming sensation.
The big difference: Those two films weren’t dogged by underwhelming reviews and so-so exit scores. Snow White is the rare Disney live-action remake that earned a B+ CinemaScore from audiences; almost every film has received some variation of an A grade.
Snow White also had to contend with headlines related to Rachel Zegler, the young lead actress not afraid to speak her mind, even if it meant taking on President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement. Far-right conservatives have labeled the film “Snow Woke,” and sprang into action by disliking trailers and other advertising materials, along with calling for a boycott of the film after Zegler criticized the president’s deportation policies. Several days later, she apologized for the tone of the post.
But data shows the average moviegoers may be paying far less attention to the political dynamics than social media and news headlines would suggest.
According to a poll conducted by Steve Buck’s research firm EnTelligence, 63 percent of ticket sales for family and animated films generally come from blue states, while 37 percent come from cinemas in red states. In the case of Snow White, it overindexed in red states at 40 percent.
The pattern for general audience followed the same trajectory. Cinemas in blue states generally account for 67 percent of all ticket sales, while red states account for 33 percent. In the case of Snow White, blue states came in behind the norm at 60 percent of all sales, while red states accounted for 40 percent.
“In spite of prerelease concerns of a boycott in red leaning districts, there is no evidence to support that occurred,” says EnTelligence founder Buck.
Though Snow White landed a rare B+ CinemaScore, on the plus side, female moviegoers and moviegoers under the age of 18 gave it an A- CinemaScore. And parents and kids polled by market leader PostTrack gave the film four out of five stars, compared to three out of five stars among general audiences. However, only 50 percent of kids said they would tell their friends to see the film right away.
Snow White‘s budget steadily rose because of strict COVID protocols, 2023’s labor strikes and a fire on set. (One source says the pic was originally greenlit at between $200 million and $210 million.) There were also creative concerns that required additional work. Snow White was made by the previous regime at Disney’s live-action studio, which is now led by David Greenbaum, who suggested certain tweaks when taking the job a year ago.
The world has changed dramatically since Disney decided to make a live-action Snow White, which seemed like a safe bet considering the success of other Disney live-action princess remakes. Beauty and the Beast astounded when opening to $174.6 million domestically in mid-March 2017, not adjusted for inflation. In the spring of 2015, Cinderella debuted to $67.9 million domestically against a much more modest budget of $90 million; Maleficent launched to $69 million in May 2014 (the sequel, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, stalled at $37 million).
Comscore chief box office analyst Paul Dergarabedian acknowledges that given its hefty budget, Snow White didn’t get off to an ideal start. He says its fate in terms of profitability will depend on “its long-term playability in theaters, eventual streaming, merchandising, music revenue plus theme park tie-ins.”
March 24, 6:40 a.m.: Updated with weekend actuals.
