‘Venom 3’ Teased During Sony’s Closing CinemaCon Reel

Rita Ferra, president of ad sales for Disney, said the forthcoming ad-supported tier of Disney+ will have a less “robust” amount of ads compared with Hulu. That disparity, at least initially, will mainly be because about 65% of viewing on the streaming service is for movies, which don’t lend themselves to commercial interruption.

EXCLUSIVE: Disney Original Documentary and Disney+ have won the rights to a big feature documentary package, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road: The Final Elton John Performances And the Years That Made His Legend. No one would comment, but we hear the docu, from Academy Award-nominee R.J. Cutler as well as filmmaker (and longtime Elton John partner) David Furnish, sold for about $30 million.

Broadway performers and stage managers who worked on four shows connected to producer Scott Rudin will be released from nondisclosure agreements under terms of a new settlement between the Broadway League and Actors’ Equity Association.

Bass Reeves, a previously announced limited series produced by Yellowstone co-creator Taylor Sheridan, will now be an offshoot of Yellowstone prequel 1883 at Paramount+. The news was revealed as part of MTV Entertainment Studios’ upfront on Wednesday.

Orlando Weeks has shared dates of a UK headline tour – check out the full itinerary and ticket details below.The dates will support his second solo album, ‘Hop Up’ which was released in January, and follows the former Macabees frontman’s 2020 debut, ‘A Quickening‘. Weeks also toured the record earlier this year, which included a “spellbinding” performance at London’s Barbican Centre in March, which NME called “captivating” in a five-star review.The new run of shows kicks off on November 17 and includes a stop at London’s Heaven venue on November 23.

Taylor Swift delivered a commencement address at New York University’s class of 2022 today (May 18).The pop star was also awarded an honorary doctorate before she gave the speech at the city’s Yankee Stadium. Watch video footage of the speech below.“I’m 90% sure the reason I’m here is because I have a song called ’22′,” Swift joked, adding: “Last time I was in a stadium this size, I was dancing in heels and wearing a glittery leotard.

Lizzo‘s life and rise to fame has been announced by HBO.The as-yet-untitled film, which is being directed by Doug Pray, executive producer of Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine’s 2018 documentary series The Defiant Ones, was announced at an HBO Max event today (May 18).According to a statement via Rolling Stone, the film will tell “the inspirational story behind her humble beginnings to her meteoric rise with an intimate look into the moments that shaped her hard-earned rise to fame, success, love, and international stardom.”“Growing up I never dreamed I’d get to experience all of the things I’ve accomplished in my life, and I’m just getting started,” Lizzo added.“From ‘Cuz I Love You’ to my dramatic world tour, losing and gaining love, and creating my new album ‘Special’, y’all get to see the amount of time, patience, blood, sweat and tears that went into this process.

China and Hollywood used to seemingly have a healthy, symbiotic relationship. Hollywood released massive blockbusters in the Asian nation, they made massive bank, audiences were happy, and presumably Chinese theater owners were doing quite well for themselves, along with Hollywood often got massive box office boosts from the country.

Fans might be anxious to find out just which star will be the next James Bond following Daniel Craig‘s end as the MI-6 agent.

Jon Watts is out as the director of Marvel Studios' upcoming Fantastic Four reboot.After spending years of his career directing the Tom Holland led Spider-Man films, the acclaimed filmmaker is temporarily stepping away from the superhero genre, according to Deadline.With Watt at the helm, all three Spider-Man films - Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019) and Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) - went on to become bonafide hits for Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures. He's out! Jon Watts, 40, has stepped down as director of the upcoming Fantastic Four rebootApparently, there wasn't any falling out between Watts and the studios.In fact, both Marvel and Watts confirmed that the split was amicable, but neither side cited a reason for the split.

EXCLUSIVE: Jon Watts has withdrawn as the director of Fantastic Four, the reinvention of the venerable Marvel Comics series at Marvel Studios and Disney. Watts just directed Spider-Man: No Way Home, the Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios film that grossed $1.89 billion to become the sixth highest grossing film of all-time. Nothing sinister here; Watts just needs a break from the superhero realm after completing the Spidey trilogy with Tom Holland and Zendaya. He had expected to make Fantastic Four his next film, the third feature iteration of that franchise and first since Disney acquired Fox, which controlled the franchise. Watts has spent the better part of the last decade directing and promoting the Spider-Man films, after being hired off Cop Car, a small budget indie thriller that premiered at 2015 Sundance. He needs a breather.

CinemaCon, and this year’s gathering of movie theater owners managed to come and go with nary a mention of the exhibition industry’s persona non grata, Netflix.The streaming giant is usually a punching bag as Hollywood studios and film operators spend a week in Las Vegas to wax poetic about the communal power of going to see movies on the big screen. But following a year of experimenting with different release strategies and launching their own digital platforms, studios can’t really take aim at Netflix’s disdain of exclusive theatrical windows.

Mike Fazioli If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. If you took the evolution drawing showing the progress from ape to man and replaced it with televisions, it would be a long line of large, heavy monkeys for about 60 years, and then a very rapid transformation to the slim, upright human that is today’s Smart TV.Even that plasma TV you owned a mere dozen years ago would be a hairy knuckledragger. Why? Chances are it didn’t have internet connectivity or apps, and it most definitely did not stream.

SPOILER ALERT: This post contains details about the opening of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

Venom 3 is officially in the works at Sony.A third film starring Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock/Venom was greenlit by the studio at this year’s CinemaCon on Monday (April 25).The first two films grossed $856million and $502million respectively at the global box office. Hardy’s Venom also appeared in a post-credits scene of Spider-Man: No Way Home, suggesting future appearances.Last year, it was revealed that a particularly “gruesome” scene in sequel Let There Be Carnage was cut after being deemed too graphic for audiences.Sheena Duggal, the VFX Supervisor for the new film, told Variety about a sequence in which Harrelson’s villain, Carnage, is seen putting his tongue down someone’s throat in order to kill them.“We had to tone that back a bit,” she explained.

Sony Pictures unveiled their plans for the future of two big franchises with Venom 3 and Ghostbusters: Afterlife sequels both officially announced.The studio held court at CinemaCon at The Colosseum in Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas on Monday, where they unveiled the sequels through a sizzle reel at the annual convention for movie theater owners, via Variety.No release dates have been set at this time, though the sizzle reel did include footage from Sony's Whitney Houston biopic I Wanna Dance With Somebody, the Venom spin-off Kraven the Hunter, The Equalizer 3,” never-before-seen clips from Tom Hanks’ A Man Called Otto. Sequel:Sony Pictures unveiled their plans for the future of two big franchises with Venom 3 and Ghostbusters: Afterlife sequels both officially announced Sizzle:The studio held court at CinemaCon at The Colosseum in Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas on Monday, where they unveiled the sequels through a sizzle reel at the annual convention for movie theater owners, via VarietyThe Venom 3 announcement wasn't much of a surprise, considering the box office pedigree of the first two movies.2018's Venom introduced Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock, a failed reporter who becomes bonded with an alien symbiote that tries to protect Earth.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterGet ready for more Venom.Sony Pictures has greenlit a third installment of the Tom Hardy-led “Venom” franchise, following the back-to-back box office successes of 2021’s “Venom: Let There Be Carnage” ($502 million globally) and 2018’s “Venom” ($856 million globally).The studio also announced plans for another “Ghostbusters” installment, which will serve as a follow-up to 2021’s reboot “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” ($200 million globally). Sony revealed its plans for both sequels during its Monday evening presentation at CinemaCon, the annual trade show for theater owners.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film WriterBenito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, better known by his stage name Bad Bunny, has been cast as the newest Marvel hero in Sony Pictures’ portfolio of the super characters — and will lead the standalone comic book film “El Muerto.”“El Muerto” is set to hit theaters on Jan. 12, 2024.Introduced by Sony Motion Pictures Group president Sanford Panitch at CinemaCon, the annual gathering of movie theater owners in Las Vegas, Ocasio will be the first ever Latino actor to headline a live-action Marvel movie.“To bring El Muerto to life is just incredible ..

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.

CinemaCon, studios will land in Sin City with a renewed appreciation for the money that can be made in cinemas.After experimenting with different release strategies and launching their own streaming services, many studios better understand that there’s no substitute for the attention and treasure that comes with a big, old-fashioned theatrical launch. Bold moves like Warner Bros.’ decision to send its entire 2021 slate to HBO Max at the same time the films opened in cinemas proved to be a mixed bag, and every major studio has opted to have some kind of exclusive theatrical window for the foreseeable future.That means that the palpable tension that hung over last year’s gathering will have lifted, even as the box office has failed to recapture its pre-pandemic stride.

Sony and Paramount have been flexing their muscles at the box office lately with a wide range of offerings. The two studios are responsible for seven of the 10 highest-grossing films of 2022 and currently represent more than 46% of all domestic revenues, according to Comscore.