AMC’s second concert movie, Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé, though clearly frontloaded in its previews/Friday with a Saturday tumble of -48% ($6M), remains solid enough to hit a $22M domestic opening, per industry sources. AMC is calling the weekend at $21M. For a movie opening during the listless first weekend of December, that’s fantastic.
Sources slapped their foreheads over AMC’s move, which was mutual with Beyoncé, to release the movie over what is a terrible box office weekend. However, here it is, and the movie fared quite well, slightly ahead of its $20M expectations. Should the movie have been programmed during 2024, where we need product? Should the movie have arrived so soon in the wake of unicorn Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour? Surely there were other options. But this was the choice that was made, and it paid off. >>>Who Turned Out |
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Kim Kardashian-Ryan Murphy Reunion - After a breakthrough performance in American Horror Story: Delicate, Kim Kardashian is getting her own scripted series. She is reteaming with AHS co-creator/executive producer Ryan Murphy for the project, described by sources as a high-end, glossy and sexy adult procedural. Deadline understands it has landed at Hulu, home of hit reality series The Kardashians, with a big series commitment. It's the first series for Murphy under his new deal at Disney, with 20th Television, part of Disney TV Studios, producing. >>> Logline
George Santos, The Movie - The meteoric political rise of George Santos and the web of fabulist tales it was built on are getting a movie treatment. HBO Films has optioned the rights to Mark Chiusano’s new book The Fabulist: The Lying, Hustling, Grifting, Stealing, and Very American Legend of George Santos, which was published last month. >>>Unlikely Rise
'Animal' Rampages - Animal has showcased the ongoing strength of Indian films Stateside. The revenge thriller starring Ranbir Kapoor racked up an estimated $6.14 million on about 700 screens over its debut weekend, the second biggest opening weekend of all time for a Bollywood film in North America. >>>Cracking Top 10
Bill Burr Is Back - Comedian Bill Burr has unveiled the stops for his 2024 North American tour, Bill Burr Live, which will see him visit theaters and arenas in 16 cities. >>>Dates
The Rock & RoboForce - Seven Bucks Productions, the production company co-founded by Dwayne Johnson and Dany Garcia and run by Hiram Garcia, has come on board to co-produce with Nacelle the upcoming RoboForce animated series, inspired by the action figures. >>>Animation Ambitions Plan B's Plan B - Plan B Entertainment has started a new micro budget film finance initiative to produce and finance lower cost films which will be led by newly hired Caddy Vanasirikul. The veteran film producer and acquisition and production executive will manage Plan B’s forthcoming slate in this sector. >>>First Project
Civil War Sabotage - John Patton Ford is writing to direct an untitled film for Netflix with 21 Laps producing. The drama follows a mysterious Union spy named James Andrews who, along with infantry volunteers, stole a Confederate steam engine and planned to destroy the entire Confederacy’s supply line to end the war. >>>Medal Of Honor Recipients
Read The Screenplay: 'Killers Of The Flower Moon' - Deadline’s Read the Screenplay series spotlighting the year’s most talked-about scripts continues with Killers of the Flower Moon, the Apple Original Films epic that sports the season’s biggest list of bona fides. Oscar-winner Martin Scorsese directed the film, which he co-wrote with Oscar-winning screenwriter Eric Roth based on David Grann’s bestselling book. >>> Take A Look
The Film That Lit My Fuse: Please Don't Destroy - Ben Marshall, John Higgins and Martin Herlihy make up Please Don’t Destroy, the comedy troupe who write and perform weekly self-contained short films for Saturday Night Live. In a special edition of The Film That Lit My Fuse, the amiable trio tell the story of their rise, and how the films School of Rock, Wet Hot American Summer and Napoleon Dynamite sparked their ambitions. >>> Watch |
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Joel Kinnaman stepped into Deadline’s Red Sea Studio in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia this week to talk about his experience of working with legendary action director John Woo for holiday revenge actioner Silent Night and whether he’d return to the DC Universe. >>>Watch The Interview |
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QUOTABLE
"A terrible mistake" - Susan Sarandon on her recent comments that Jewish-Americans "are getting a taste of what it is like to be Muslim in this country" |
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Exclusive
Actor-comedian and writer Jamie Lee and actor-comedian Nikki Glaser are set to star in and executive produce Unsettling, a half-hour, single-camera comedy, which is in development for Prime Video.
Exclusive
Wolf Hall is coming back and bringing Harriet Walter and Timothy Spall along for the ride. The duo are joining the cast alongside the likes of Mark Rylance, Damian Lewis, Jonathan Pryce, Kate Phillips and Lilit Lesser in the period drama for the BBC and Masterpiece PBS.
Exclusive
Cameras are rolling Stargazer, a new feature from artist-filmmaker Christian Neuman, which producers have described as a “modern psychic thriller” starring Poppy Delevingne and Rosalind Halstead. |
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More News
🪓 Spotify is planning to cut its workforce by 17%. Daniel Ek, CEO of the audio streaming giant, said the cutbacks are due to economic growth slowing "dramatically."
🖤 Saltburn, the Gothic romance thriller from Oscar winner Emerald Fennell, will start streaming globally on Prime Video on December 22.
📱 Verizon will offer the ad -supported tiers of Netflix and Max in a bundle for $10 a month set to hit the market Thursday. The deal, available for Verizon’s myPlan customers, reps more than 40% in savings, the big telco said today.
🦚 Peacock has reached 30 million subscribers, Comcast President Mike Cavanagh told a Wall Street conference this morning. The exec also said the company has cashed a check for $8.61 billion from Disney, an expected first step in the buyout of Comcast's one-third stake in Hulu.
🏈 Fox Corp. CFO Steven Tomsic, asked at a Wall Street conference about the soon-to-launch ESPN direct-to-consumer streaming flagship, called ESPN "a great product" but just "a sliver of sports" given market fragmentation.
💲 A boom in digital advertising boosted the overall ad market to a nearly 6% gain over 2022, GroupM said. Streaming ad spending, the media giant noted, has nearly matched linear TV ads, the company's annual study noted.
🏆 Robert De Niro took the stage at the Kennedy Center on Sunday and, looking out to where honoree Billy Crystal was sitting, told him of his career, "I had no idea you had done so much. And you've done it all in such a relatively short amount of time. You're only 75. That means you're just about six years away from being the perfect age to be elected president." The joke got some of the biggest cheers of the night — and a laugh from President Joe Biden, 81.
🛑 Florence Pugh was hit in the face by an object thrown at her during an appearance at the Comic-Con event in São Paulo, but seemed relatively unharmed. She was there with co-stars Timothée Chalamet, Austin Butler and Zendaya to talk about Dune: Part Two.
🤖 Robert Downey Jr. has completed his run as Iron Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Kevin Feige told Vanity Fair that the character will not be coming back. “We are going to keep that moment and not touch that moment again,” said Feige. |
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Trending
 Major media agency GroupM says global ad revenue in 2023 will come in at about $889 billion, with year-over-year growth of 5.8% matching the company’s mid-year estimates.
🔻 For the first time in the history of the college football playoffs, an undefeated power conference champion was left out in the cold. Florida State, sporting a 13-0 record and the ACC title, was not selected to be one of the four teams vying for the championship. |
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Obituaries
🕯️ Mark Shelmerdine, the veteran producer who revived London Films as an indie powerhouse and played a pivotal role in the development of the international TV distribution market, died October 26 in Santa Barbara surrounded by his family. He was 78. 🕯️ Charles Officer , known as one of the leaders in Black Canadian independent film, has died. He was 49 and succumbed at his home in Toronto on Friday from complications from a heart attack. 🕯️ The veteran British actress Brigit Forsyth has died aged 83, her agent shared. The actress was best known for her role in the 1970s hit comedy Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?, where she played disapproving Thelma, wife of Bob, played by Rodney Bewes. 🕯️ Myles Goodwyn , a singer/songwriter for multi-platinum rock band April Wine, died Sunday at age 75. April Wine has sold more than 10 million recordings worldwide. 🕯️ Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2023: Photo Gallery & Obituaries |
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On the Radar
Tue - Deadline's For the Love of Docs; SAG vote ends; Indie Spirit Awards nominations
Wed - National Board of Review awards announcement; GOP debate
Thu - Frasier S1 finale
Fri - Biden L.A. fundraiser
Sat - NBA In-Season Tournament Championship; MPTF 'Lights, Camera, Action' telethon
Sun - Deadline Contenders Film: Documentary |
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Power Players - Honorary Oscar recipient and three-time Oscar winner Meryl Streep met up with Oprah Winfrey at the 2023 Academy Museum Gala on Sunday night. |
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