Arthouse Distributors Tweak Expansion Plans To Ride Out Omicron – Specialty Box Office

J. Kim Murphy After one weekend outside of the No. 1 slot, “Spider-Man: No Way Home” could be surging ahead to lead the domestic box office once again.

Refresh for chart and more analysis Some studio distribution bosses use to say that moviegoing is a 52-week business. Well, that’s not the philosophy this weekend, and it’s even grimmer next weekend as most of the majors figured in the wake of MLK weekend, and a traditional box office dead zone like January with Omicron flying around, that it wasn’t worth the P&A spend to put any kind of movie out there. Back in the good ole days, and we’re talking five years ago, post MLK was the time when Universal turned M. Night Shyamalan’s Blumhouse horror movie Split into an event with a $40M start, and Paramount settled for second on their Vin Diesel sequel xXx: Return of Xander Cage for $20.1M.

Melissa Barrera is opening up about the disappointing box office numbers for her movie musical In The Heights, which was released back in June 2021.

Clayton Davis Cate Blanchett delivers two outstanding performances that are both in the awards conversation this year: “Don’t Look Up” and “Nightmare Alley.” The star shepherds grace and a hypnotic trance that has the viewer hanging on every single word she releases.With another impressive turn in Adam McKay’s “Don’t Look Up,” Blanchett is a contender in what is easily our strongest field of supporting actress contenders in the last 30 years. Blanchett was shortlisted at BAFTA for “Don’t Look Up,” and also picked up a SAG Award nod for Guillermo del Toro’s “Nightmare Alley.”Variety’s Awards Circuit Podcast recently spoke with Blanchett about her double dip in the awards arena this season, and having to turn down the role of Lucille Ball in Aaron Sorkin’s “Being the Ricardos,” which ultimately went to Nicole Kidman.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter“Scream,” the hit sequel in the long-running slasher series, will keep terrorizing audiences over the weekend.Only one movie, Universal’s faith-based romantic drama “Redeeming Love,” is opening nationwide, and the poorly reviewed film, which combines a gold-rush setting with a parable about redemption and the oldest profession, isn’t looking like it’ll put up much of a fight on North American box office charts.That means “Scream,” which debuted at No. 1 last weekend with $34 million over the extended Martin Luther King Jr.

Naman Ramachandran Sony’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home” spent a fifth consecutive weekend at the top of the U.K. and Ireland box office, collecting £3.2 million ($4.3 million), according to numbers provided by Comscore.With a mighty total of £84.1 million ($114.2 million), “Spider-Man” has swung past “Titanic” (£80.2 million) and “Star Wars: The Last Jedi (£82.7) to claim seventh position in the all time U.K.

Broadway box office stayed slim last week, with a total gross of $18,496,689 holding even with the previous week, and total attendance of 162,566 rising a small 4%.

weeks atop the domestic box office, “Spider-Man: No Way Home” was pushed out of the top spot by “Scream.” The reboot of the classic horror flick raked in $13.4 million when it premiered Friday, more than any other film that day, according to IMDB’s Box Office Mojo database.“Spider-Man” grossed $5.2 million that day good enough for second place as it hit a total haul of $683.1 million.Kiddie singalong “Sing 2” held onto its spot just behind Spidey, in third on Friday, bringing in $1.8 million on the day, for a total $112.9 million.Another Friday premier — science-fiction anime “Belle” — clocked in at fourth with $0.7 million on its opening day.And in fifth, star-powered spy film “The 355” continued to disappoint, with $0.7 on Friday, for a total $6.7 million.

Belle is set to top $2 million Thurs.-Mon. on 1,326 screens, according to distributor GKIDS. With Saturday’s actuals, it said, the gross surpassed $1.2M, making it director Mamoru Hosoda’s highest grossing film in the U.S. That was previously 2018’s Mirai with $812K.

Broadway’s traditional post-holiday January doldrums teamed up with a slate of show closings and a national skyrocketing surge in Omicron cases to send box office tumbling by nearly a third last week. Combined grosses of $18 million for 27 Broadway productions were down 31% from the previous week’s $26 million.

Best Picture: “Drive My Car” (48 points)Runners-up: “Petit Maman” (25), “The Power of the Dog” (23)Best Actor: Hidetoshi Nishijima, “Drive My Car” (63)Runners-up: Benedict Cumberbatch, “The Power of the Dog” (44); Simon Rex, “Red Rocket” (30)Best Actress: Penelope Cruz, “Parallel Mothers” (55)Runners-up: Renate Reinsve, “The Worst Person in the World” (42); Alana Haim, “Licorice Pizza” (32)Best Supporting Actor: Anders Danielsen Lie, “The Worst Person in the World” (54)Runners-up: Vincent Lindon, “Titane” (33); Mike Faist, “West Side Story” (26) and Kodi Smit-McPhee, “The Power of the Dog” (26)Best Supporting Actress: Ruth Negga, “Passing” (46)Runners-up: Ariana DeBose, “West Side Story” (22); Jessie Buckley, “The Lost Daughter” (21)Best Director: Ryusuke Hamaguchi, “Drive My Car” and “Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy” (46)Runners-up: Jane Campion, “The Power of the Dog” (36), Celine Sciamma, “Petite Maman” (28)Best Screenplay: Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Takamasa Oe, “Drive My Car” (46)Runners-up: Pedro Almodovar, “Parallel Mothers” (22); Paul Thomas Anderson, “Licorice Pizza” (20)Best Nonfiction Film:Runners-up:Best Cinematography: Andrew Droz Palermo, “The Green Knight” (52)Runners-up: Ari Wegner, “The Power of the Dog” (40); Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, “Memoria” (35)Special citation for film awaiting U.S. distribution: “Returning to Reims,” Jean-Gabriel PeriotFilm Heritage Award: Bertrand Tavernier and Peter BogdanovichFilm Heritage Award: Maya Cade for the Black Film Archive

Cate Blanchett (Nightmare Alley, Don’t Look Up) will produce and star in A Manual for Cleaning Women, the first English-language feature from Oscar-winning Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar (Parallel Mothers, Pain and Glory), Deadline has confirmed.

Pedro Almodóvar’s  opened to an estimated $41,076 this weekend on three screens for a PSA of $13,692 over three days. Distributor Sony Pictures Classics co-president Michael Barker calls that cume conservative, anticipating $42-$43K for the Penelope Cruz-starrer that he said has been attracting a diverse new audience to Almodóvar, including younger moviegoers.

Adding $30 million on Thursday from 4,336 locations, “No Way Home” has a domestic box office total of $386 million and $876 million worldwide, passing the $821 million total of the Chinese film “Hi, Mom” for second place on the global charts for the year.

FRIDAY AM UPDATE: Sony/Marvel’s Spider-Man: No Way Home ends the week with $385.8M, the third best first week at the domestic box office of all-time after Avengers: Endgame ($473.9M) and Star Wars: Force Awakens ($390.8M). Sony reports that the film will become the first $1 billion grossing movie at the global box office of the pandemic tom’w. Nancy will have more soon.

Refresh for latest…: Spidey has done it again, logging yet another milestone as he swings past $800M global. Sony/Marvel’s Spider-Man: No Way Home now has a worldwide total of $813.9M through Wednesday. This pushes it past No Time To Die and makes it the No. 3 movie of the year, and the top Hollywood release.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter“Spider-Man: No Way Home,” the grand finale in Marvel’s web-slinging trilogy, has crossed another major box office milestone, surpassing $800 million globally.After 10 days on the big screen, the latest Spidey adventure has become the highest-grossing Hollywood movie of the year with $813.9 million worldwide. It passed MGM’s James Bond sequel “No Time to Die,” which grossed $774 million globally.

China will be the world’s largest box office market for the second year running, overturning the decade-long rankings and staying ahead of the North American market as it did in for the first time in 2020.And, even if “Spider-Man: No Way Home” avoids becoming caught in a web of omicron-related shutdowns to become the highest grossing film of 2021, Chinese movies “The Battle at Lake Changjin” and “Hi, Mom” are certain to account for at least two of the year’s top five.Such a new world order has

Mark Schilling Japan CorrespondentLocally-made films, especially animated titles, dominated the Japanese box office in 2021.

Refresh for latest…: Sony/Marvel’s friendly neighborhood webslinger now leads the No. 4 movie of 2021 worldwide, as Spider-Man: No Way Home overtakes F9 with $751.3M through Tuesday. At the international box office, Peter Parker also leapt to a new milestone, topping the $400M mark with yesterday’s grosses for $422.6M in 68 offshore markets. It’s currently the No. 6 film of the year overseas (No. 3 among Hollywood titles). Domestically, the film also hit a new benchmark.