Jim Orr: Last News

The apocalyptic thriller Knock at the Cabin took the top spot at the domestic box office this past weekend with an impressive $14.2 million in ticket sales.According to Deadline, the M. Night Shyamalan-directed feature came out on top of the weekend's second-biggest movie, 80 for Brady, which took in a healthy $12.5 million.The Dave Bautista-starring film - which had a star-studded premiere - also impressed many by knocking the science fiction powerhouse Avatar 2: The Way Of Water out of its top spot at the theatres.The James Cameron-directed feature had previously spent seven straight weekends as the number one-grossing movie before Knock at the Cabin overtook its place.The movie, which is based on Paul G.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Universal reached back through the ages to hype Christopher Nolan‘s epic adaptation of “The Odyssey” at CinemaCon on Wednesday. Jim Orr, the studio’s distribution chief, predicted that the film, which is still shooting, will be “a visionary, once-in-a-generation cinematic masterpiece that Homer himself would quite likely be proud of.” He seemed to be serious, but the audience of theater owners (and perhaps a stray classicist or two) laughed at the hyperbole.

Universal and DreamWorks Animation’s live-action take of How to Train Your Dragon will be getting a global debut at exhibitor-studio confab CinemaCon on Wednesday, April 2, at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace.

Rebecca Rubin Senior Film and Media Reporter “How to Train Your Dragon” will screen for audiences for the first time at CinemaCon, the annual convention for movie theater owners. The world premiere will take place on April 2 at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, more than two months ahead of the film’s theatrical release on June 13.

Following the global success of Five Nights at Freddy’s last fall, Universal and Blumhouse are headed back to the pizzeria.

Timothée Chalamet and “Wonka” topped the box office charts for the third time in its four weekends in theaters.Warner Bros.’ family-oriented musical added $14.4 million in ticket sales according to studio estimates Sunday, bringing its total domestic grosses to $164.7 million.“’Wonka’ is following in the tradition of a film like ‘The Greatest Showman,’” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. That Hugh Jackman musical opened under $9 million in Dec.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Universal and Blumhouse‘s funhouse thriller “Five Nights at Freddy’s” slayed box office expectations with its scary-good $78 million domestic debut over Halloween weekend. Those ticket sales are especially impressive because the horror film landed simultaneously on Peacock, the streaming service owned by NBCUniversal. It’s the second-best opening weekend for a day-and-date streaming release, following Disney’s 2021 Marvel adventure “Black Widow” ($80 million in theaters and $60 million on Disney+) and the best ever for Universal and Peacock’s hybrid releases, beating the slasher sequels, 2021 “Halloween Kills” ($49 million) and 2022’s “Halloween Ends” ($40 million).

Jurassic Park will hit theaters again on Aug. 25 in celebration of the Steven Spielberg pic’s 30th anniversary. The movie will be re-released in RealD 3D-equipped theaters across North America.

The 10th instalment of the “Fast and Furious” franchise was off to the races this weekend, knocking “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” out of first place and easily claiming the No. 1 spot at the box office. “Fast X” earned $67.5 million in ticket sales from 4,046 North American theatres, according to estimates from Universal Pictures on Sunday.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter It’s-a blockbuster! “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” an animated adventure based on the classic video game, crushed the competition with its jaw-dropping $204.6 million domestic and $377 million global debut over the long Easter weekend. Those results far exceeded expectations and even surpassed the starts of recent installments in Universal’s biggest franchises, like “Jurassic World Dominion” ($145 million domestically) and “Fast and Furious 9” ($70 million). So, expect a sequel to be announced faster than you can say “Let’s-a go!” “The box office just kept growing and growing,” marvels Jim Orr, Universal’s president of domestic distribution. “It’s a tremendous worldwide debut, and the movie has a clear runway.”

Chris Pratt had another box office success this weekend with the release of "The Super Mario Bros. Movie." Box office estimates released Sunday showed the Universal Pictures film grossed $146 million domestically across more than 4,300 theaters.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” opened in theaters last December, the spinoff sequel in the “Shrek” universe began its box office run with an unremarkable $12 million. But the animated adventure, about a swashbuckling cat voiced by Antonio Banderas, has enjoyed nine lives on the big screen. After nearly two months, ticket sales have climbed to $177 million in North America and $454 million globally — and counting. That’s an impressive haul, particularly given the commercial struggles of other recent animated fare such as “Lightyear” and “Strange World.” “It is certainly rare to see a film leg out to a 15 lifetime multiple from its three-day debut,” says Universal’s president of domestic distribution Jim Orr. (On average, films have a three or four multiple, industry parlance for the ratio of its total gross from its opening weekend.) “The film is exciting, heartwarming and immensely satisfying for a broad audience.”

The Marvel blockbuster Black Panther: Wakanda Forever reminded in the top spot at the domestic box office for its fourth-straight week, totaling $17.6 million on what was a down weekend at the box office to kick off the year's final month, while the holiday horror comedy Violent Night made an impressive $13.3 million.Wakanda Forever remained in the top spot, as its made $733 million total at the global box office, with $339 million in sales overseas.The Ryan Coogler-directed movie features an ensemble cast including Angela Bassett, Lupita Nyong'o, Letitia Wright and Danai Gurira. The latest: The Marvel blockbuster Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, starring Angela Bassett, reminded in the top spot at the domestic box office for its fourth-straight week, totaling $17.6 million on what was a down weekend at the box office to kick off the year's final month Violent Night - which stars David Harbour as Santa Claus and features a cast including John Leguizamo, Alex Hassell and Alexis Louder - made $13.3 million in its first frame, as it cost Universal about $20 million to make.'Violent Night had a terrific debut this weekend,' Universal Domestic Distribution Chief Jim Orr told Deadline Sunday, adding, '87North, director Tommy Wirkola, and the incomparable David Harbour as Santa crafted an incredibly original, fun, irreverent take on the ultimate superhero that thrilled audiences this weekend and will for many weeks to come.' The entertainment analytics company RelishMix reported that Violent Night was buoyed by buzz on social media.'David Harbour is the hot-trending theme in much of the chatter on Violent Night, and bringing his Stranger Things audience to the comments,' according to RelishMix.

The Fabelmans grossed an estimated $160k this weekend at four theaters in NY and LA. That’s a $40K per screen average, on par with recent strong (for post-Covid) specialty openings like The Banshees Of Inisherin (at $45k PSA) and Tár (also $40k), both on four screens too, reflecting a definite pickup in the specialty space. Spielberg’s written, directed and produced semi-autobiographical tale debuted into one of the biggest openings of the year with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

Carson Burton Thanks to the Will Rogers Pioneer Assistance Fund, thousands of movie theater workers can sleep better at night. The PAF provides financial aid and support to individuals who work in theatrical exhibition and distribution, and vendors who are experiencing an illness, accident or injury. The Pioneer of the Year Dinner, the org’s annual fundraising event, will be returning to in-person festivities Sept. 21 in Beverly Hills this year, contributing a significant chunk of the fund’s donations. Each year, the event honors a person or people due to their work in Hollywood and philanthropy. This year, Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, the producers behind the James Bond franchise, are being honored.

Jordan Peele ’s UFO thriller “Nope” topped the North American charts in its first weekend in theaters with an estimated $44 million in ticket sales, Universal Pictures said Sunday. Though it doesn’t come close to the $71 million debut of “Us,” it is still significantly impressive for an original, R-rated film — and the biggest of the pandemic for an original screenplay.

Families went bananas for Minions this weekend at the movie theater. “ Minions: The Rise of Gru ” brought in an estimated $108.5 million in ticket sales from 4,391 screens in North America, Universal Pictures said Sunday. By the end of the Monday’s July Fourth holiday, it will likely have earned over $127.9 million.

Families went bananas for "Minions" this weekend at the movie theater. "Minions: The Rise of Gru" brought in an estimated $108.5 million in ticket sales from 4,391 screens in North America, Universal Pictures said Sunday. By the end of Monday’s July Fourth holiday, it will likely have earned over $127.9 million.

Studio brass wowed theater owners this week with Maverick: Top Gun, Avatar: The Way of Water and Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse among other tentpoles. But they were also clear at the just-wrapped CinemaCon that a reviving box office requires a wide breadth of content.

Refresh for updates Universal continued its motif from CinemaCon 2021 today of spotlighting the work of movie theater workers, and pairing them with their favorite stars. It’s a classy way of paying homage to those in exhibition particularly after the industry was brought to its knees in 2020 to early 2021 due to Covid.

As Jim Orr, Universal’s distribution head said in introducing Tuesday night’s CinemaCon screening of their upcoming late June release, The Black Phone, studios don’t normally bring a movie like this to show in its entirety at a theatre owners convention two months ahead of opening unless they know they have the goods.