Paul Dergarabedian: Last News

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Despite 13 years passing since “Avatar” first hit theaters, moviegoers are apparently still dazzled by the striking world of Pandora. In anticipation of the sequel “The Way of Water,” which opens in December, Disney re-released James Cameron’s original science-fiction epic to promising returns. The film generated $10 million in North America and $20.5 million internationally over the weekend, a huge result for movie that opened more than a decade ago, even if that movie happens to be the highest-grossing global release in history. With this weekend’s returns, “Avatar” widens its lead as the biggest movie of all time with $2.85 billion worldwide.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter It’s been proven time and time again that Academy Award attention has little to do with box office glory. Just look at recent winners like “Moonlight,” “The Hurt Locker,” or “CODA,” the first streaming movie to land the Oscar’s top prize, all of which were more beloved than seen, at least by the general public. But during a year in which several commercial movies, including “Top Gun: Maverick” ($1.44 billion globally and counting), “Elvis” ($284 million globally) “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” (scheduled for Nov. 11) and “Avatar: The Way of Water” (scheduled for Dec. 16), look to find themselves in the awards race, film industry analysts believe the box office may play a part in keeping movies from major studios in the conversation.

The Viola Davis-led action epic “ The Woman King ” easily conquered the North American box office in its first weekend in theaters, against a crowded market of new releases. The film, directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, surpassed expectations and earned $19 million in ticket sales, according to estimates from Sony on Sunday.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterJordan Peele, of all filmmakers, shouldn’t be surprised that the conversation around “Nope’s” box office performance has stirred up several hot takes.The director’s cerebral science-fiction thriller took in $44 million in its box office debut, easily leading domestic charts and impressively landing one of the biggest opening weekends in years for a film that’s not based on existing IP.And yet, there’s still debate about the film’s first weekend in theaters, with suggestions that initial numbers for “Nope” were “disappointing” or “lackluster.” Like any good Peele movie, there’s plenty to unpack about opening weekend revenues for “Nope.” And in fairness, the movie — starring Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer as siblings who discover something spooky around their family’s ranch — had a lot to live up to at the box office. “The bar has been raised so high,” says Paul Dergarabedian, a senior ComScore analyst.Peele can thank his last film, 2019’s doppelgänger horror story “Us,” for those sky-high expectations.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterBox office watchers were worried that family audiences had all but forgotten about movie theaters… until Gru and his mischievous yellow friends came along. As it turns out, parents with young kids weren’t abandoning their local cinemas.

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.

With the box office’s rebound just as 5K attendees are reconvening at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, exhibition and studios can rest easy knowing that there’s a return to a theatrical window. For most studios with tentpole fare, that’s 45-days, and for those titles with less commercial appeal or aimed at specialty audiences, it’s 17 days.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorScoring tickets to the first BTS concert in three years may be next-to-impossible, but plenty of fans of the global K-pop group were able to catch the Seoul-set show at their local cinema.In a rare, one-night-only event, HYBE and Trafalgar Releasing brought the concert to movie theaters across the country to blockbuster results. At the global box office, the limited engagement of “BTS Permission to Dance on Stage: Seoul” raked in $32.6 million from 3,711 cinemas in 75 worldwide theatrical markets.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter“Spider-Man: No Way Home” has officially unseated director James Cameron’s 2009 science-fiction epic “Avatar” to become the third-highest grossing domestic release in history.After weeks of speculation over whether or not Peter Parker had the legs to bump the people of Pandora from bronze, “Spider-Man: No Way Home” collected the remaining $1 million on Monday to push “Avatar” — and its mighty $760.5 million at the North American box office — to fourth place in the record books.Sony’s latest Spidey adventure, a culmination to Tom Holland’s web-slinging trilogy, has grossed a stunning $760.9 million at the domestic box office since launching exclusively in theaters in December. Those ticket sales are three times as much as the next highest-grossing movie of the pandemic era, which is Disney and Marvel’s “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” with $224 million.