Apple & Amazon “Very Pleased” With Theatrical Box Office Results, Cinemark CEO Sean Gamble Says; Streaming And Concert Films Could Soon Give Theaters “More Content Than Ever”

“There’s always another game being played, isn’t there?” The game on top of the game is the overall theme of the three stellar seasons of “Slow Horses,” one of the best Apple TV+ original dramas. The first two six-episode installments premiered in 2022, offering fans of spy dramas largely standalone jolts of espionage-driven entertainment, and there is zero dip in quality in the upcoming third chapter of this excellent series.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Mystery-horror film “Five Nights at Freddy’s” landed on top of the South Korean cinema box office. But fellow new release title “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songs and Snakes” managed only a fourth placed start. “Five Nights” earned $1.78 million between Friday and Sunday, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Local crime drama film “Last Suspect” returned to the top spot at the mainland China box office over the latest weekend, as “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” opened quietly in third place. Narrowly beaten last week by “The Marvels,” “Last Suspect” climbed one place while “The Marvels” fell out of the top five in China. In its third weekend of release, “Last Suspect” recorded $10.1 million (RMB76 million), according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter The odds were ever in favor of “The Hunger Games” prequel “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” which emerged victorious in a busy box office weekend despite opening slightly behind expectations. The film, which brings audiences back to the dystopia of Panem for the first time in nearly a decade, collected $44 million from 3,776 North American theaters in its first weekend of release.

according to Deadline.The Post said the dystopian action film, which is predicted to enjoy a $30-million opening weekend, leaves viewers “hungry for a meatier conclusion.”“Trolls Band Together” which Deadline praised as a “cute psychedelic pop satire,” came in second, raking in close to $9.4 million.The animated musical comedy, also in its theatrical debut Friday, features the voices of Anna Kendrick, Justin Timberlake, RuPaul and Amy Schumer. The slasher movie “Thanksgiving,” which also premiered on Friday, landed in third, with just over $3.8 million in sales.Rolling Stone called it a “lazy horror film that strains to be merely mediocre” and said it “can go stuff itself.”“The Marvels,” which was in the No.1 spot last week, fell down to fourth, earning $2.8 million.

EXCLUSIVE: Getting a leg-up here on our Thanksgiving stretch preview, Apple Studios production of Ridley Scott’s Napoleon will invade the global box office via Sony this Wednesday, in what’s shaping up to be a $46M WW global start.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Alibaba, China’s e-commerce and entertainment giant, revealed a 9% revenue improvement and a return to profits in the three months to the end of September, the second quarter of its financial year. The group, which is in the process of breaking itself up into six separate businesses, had revenue of RMB225 billion ($30.8 billion). Net income of RMB26.7 billion ($3.66 billion) compared with a net loss of RMB22.5 billion in the same period last year.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “Hunger Games” prequel “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” is expected to emerge victorious in this weekend’s box office battle royale. It’s competing against two fellow newcomers, Universal and DreamWorks Animation’s threequel “Trolls Band Together” and Sony’s gory thriller “Thanksgiving,” in this crowded pre-Turkey Day corridor.

Reviews weren’t strong (62% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) and neither was audience reaction. “The Marvels” is only the third MCU release to receive a “B” CinemaScore from moviegoers, following “Eternals” and “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantamania.”“The Marvels,” which added $63.3 million in overseas ticket sales, may go down as a turning point in the MCU. Over the years, the franchise has collected $33 billion globally — a point Disney noted in reporting its grosses Sunday.But with movie screens and streaming platforms increasingly crowded with superhero films and series, some analysts have detected a new fatigue setting in for audiences.

“abject misery” and the worst entry yet in the Marvel Cinematic Universe — the film pulled in $21.5 million in ticket sales, according to IMDB’s Box Office Mojo.“Five Nights at Freddy’s,” which had taken the top spot the last two Fridays, slipped to second place with ticket sales of $3 million.Concert film sensation “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” took in $1.9 million as it dropped one notch from last week to third place. The film of Swift’s blockbuster summer tour has topped $234 million in worldwide sales since its Oct.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Yes, SAG-AFTRA talks with the AMPTP are ongoing, but there’s still an awards season to track. Honoring the best achievements in film and television, the guild’s highest honor has become a critical bellwether during the awards season. The union has made it clear submitting for awards consideration is not considered a “promotion” under the current strike order.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “The Boy and the Heron” supposedly the final feature film by Japanese animation maestro Miyazaki Hayao, placed on top of the south Korean box office for a second weekend. It held off challenges from a clutch of new releases, including “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” and “Talk to Me.” “The Boy and the Heron” collected $2.49 million between Friday and Sunday, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic).

according to IMDB’s Box Office Mojo.It is slated to surpass the $100 million mark in a total of just eight days, according to Deadline.The film, which was released on Oct. 27 in theaters and on Peacock, also had the biggest-ever five-day debut on the streaming service.In second place was “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour,” with $3.6 million in sales.The concert movie, based on the pop star’s tour, has already earned $150 million domestically and more than $200 million globally, according to CNBC.It is also predicted to take in another $10 million domestically this weekend.Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” landed in third, earning $1.945 million.The Western crime drama is based on a 2017 non-fiction book by David Grann about a series of murders of Native Americans from the tribe Osage Nation.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Amazon Prime Video has acquired streaming rights for “Sound of Freedom,” this summer’s unlikely (and controversial) box office hit. The film will be available to Prime Video subscribers in the U.S. for no additional charge on Dec.

Steven J. Horowitz Senior Music Writer Amazon Music closed out its current season of the Amazon Music Live series with a dynamic 50-minute set from Latto following Thursday Night Football. Broadcast simultaneously on Prime Video and the Amazon Music channel on Twitch, the second season of the performance series has already featured a carousel of some of music’s biggest names, counting Metro Boomin, Green Day and Ed Sheeran as some of its headliners.

Let the feast begin: Thanksgiving releases and awards season contenders, Disney‘s Wish and Apple Original Films and Sony‘s Napoleon are set to open over the Wednesday to Sunday holiday stretch with respective grosses of $50M+ and $24M+. Both movies open on Thanksgiving eve, Nov. 22.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “Five Nights at Freddy’s” scared up $80 million at the domestic box office in its first weekend of release, above Sunday’s already-huge estimate of $78 million. Universal and Blumhouse released the film, which landed simultaneously on the parent company’s streaming service Peacock. With Monday’s final figures, “Five Nights” has tied Disney’s 2021 Marvel adventure “Black Widow” ($80 million in theaters and $60 million on Disney+) as the biggest opening weekend for a day-and-date streaming release.

Anthony Hutton was crowned the winner of Big Brother during series six and is now living a very different life, having swapped reality TV for family life. One of Anthony's most memorable moments on the show was his steamy hot tub encounter with fellow housemate Makosi Musambasi. After taking home the cash prize Antony confessed that he went "a bit crazy" having bought a Range Rover and taken his friends to Las Vegas.

As it grew into a tech behemoth over its first two decades, Amazon was regarded as a sleeping giant in the digital advertising business, largely ceding the market to the duopoly of Facebook and Google.

EXCLUSIVE: Lionsgate and Francis Lawrence’s return to the Suzanne Collins franchise with a pic based on her prequel novel is looking like a $50M start on Nov. 17, which is in the vicinity of 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes ($54.8M). While women 17-34 are indeed the hot demo for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, it’s not excessively female as there is interest from males as well. The pic cost around $100M.