As Box Office Revenue Starts To Return, Billions Hang In The Balance As Studios Juggle Streaming With Traditional Sell-Thru And Rental Market

Broadway’s old and new teamed up last week to boost total box office nearly 20%, with The Phantom of the Opera (the old) posting a best-ever $3 million weekly gross and The Jonas Brothers (the new, to Broadway anyway) taking in $1.6 million for their five-concert residency.

according to IMDB’s Box Office Mojo. The Post gave the sequel to the 2019 original “0 stars for a teenage train wreck.”“Scream VI” which was in the number one spot last week, shrieked its way down to second, with close to $5.2 million in sales.The horror film, the first in the slasher series to be set in New York City, enjoyed a $44.5 million opening weekend, the highest out of any in the franchise, according to The Hollywood Reporter.Michael B.

“Scream 6” star Melissa Barrera shot to fame by starring in the musical “In The Heights,” but she’s actually thankful it didn’t do so hot at the box office.“I am a firm believer in manifesting things into existence, and ‘In the Heights’ was one of those things,” the 32-year-old Mexican actress told People. “That’s the show where I belong — the first time that I ever saw people that looked like me on a Broadway stage.”The movie was directed by John M.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Post-Truth,” a Chinese comedy film about a cemetery plot salesman trying to salvage his reputation in the face of online assaults, topped the cinema box office in mainland China over the weekend, ahead of another new release title “Revival.” Data from consultancy Artisan Gateway showed that “Post-Truth” earned $17.0 million between Friday and Sunday. Including preview, it has a cumulative of $20.3 million. Crime drama, “Revival” earned $10.3 million over the weekend and has a running total of $11.4 million including previews. The two newcomers dominated the box office and relegated Hong Kong-produced courtroom drama “A Guilty Conscience” to a distant third place. “Guilty” took $2.3 million (RMB15.8 million) for a cumulative of $23 million since releasing on Feb. 24.

according to IMDB’s Box Office Mojo.Its star, Dermot Mulroney, told The Post his affinity for the genre could be his “birthright,” since he was born on Halloween.The film dethroned last week’s box office champ, “Creed III,” which came in second, earning $7.52 million.The “Rocky” spinoff brought in $58.4 million in its opening weekend at the domestic box office, which is more than any other movie in the boxing franchise, according to Screenrant.

J. Kim Murphy Do you like scary movies? The rest of the box office does. Paramount’s “Scream VI” looks to spook off “Creed III” for the top slot at the domestic box office. The self-branded slasher re-quel grossed $19.3 million from 3,675 locations on its opening day, a figure that includes $5.7 million in previews. That’s more than enough to fend off the weekend’s other new releases, Sony’s science-fiction dinosaur thriller “65” and Focus Features’ sports comedy “Champions.” “Scream VI” is already a few steps ahead of its 2022 predecessor, which landed a $13 million opening day. In fact, the “Scream” franchise is proving to be bigger than ever. Should projections hold, the sixth entry will score a franchise record opening weekend of $43.5 million, a good deal higher than the $32 million that “Scream 2” earned in its 1997 bow.

After struggling during the holidays with “Babylon,” Paramount is back on the hot streak it had for much of 2022 with Spyglass’ “Scream VI,” which is performing just above pre-release projections with a $19.3 million opening day and an estimated $43.5 million opening from 3,675 screens. Heading into the weekend, the sixth installment of the late Wes Craven’s meta-horror franchise was projected for a $37-40 million launch, beating the $30 million opening of last year’s “Scream.” This result also beats the franchise opening record of $34.7 million set by “Scream 3”; though that threequel, which was released in 2000, still holds the record after inflation adjustment.

Jordan Moreau The sixth time may be the charm: “Scream VI” is heading toward what could be a franchise-high opening at the box office this weekend. The Paramount and Spyglass Media slasher movie made $5.7 million at the domestic box office in Thursday previews. It’s expanding from 3,125 domestic theaters to 3,675 on Friday. Nearly 27 years after the first “Scream” movie terrified moviegoers, the franchise is still going strong, thanks to last year’s reboot, or “requel,” also titled “Scream.” The 2022 “Scream” pulled in $3.5 million in Thursday previews in January 2022 before scaring up a solid $30 million opening weekend. “Scream 3,” released in 2000, years before some of the younger stars of the newest movie were born, holds the record for the franchise’s highest opening weekend with $34 million.

Oscar nom afterglow for this year’s Best Pictures was largely felt in the home than it was at the box office with a majority of titles already available to be viewed on the couch, except for 20th Century Studios/Disney’s 3D title Avatar: The Water.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Cyber Heist,” a crime thriller directed by Hong Kong’s Wong Hing-fan (“I’m Livin’ It”) and scripted by Soi Cheang (aka Cheang Pou Soi), took the top spot at the mainland Chinese box office over the weekend. It earned a very modest $6.2 million, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway. But that was enough to win on the quietest weekend since January’s Lunar New Year holiday season. “Cyber Heist” stars Aaron Kwok as a cyber security engineer who develops a state-of-the-art firewall that is capable of fending off online attacks against the global financial system. But he does not realize that in doing so he has stepped into a minefield that is even more dangerous. The picture also stars Lam Ka-tun and Simon Yam.

according to IMDB’s Box Office Mojo.The “Rocky” spinoff, which The Post said keeps audiences “under its spell right until the end,” marks the ninth installment in the franchise. The action flick, which is the directorial debut of its leading man Michael B.

projected to pull in $40 million its opening weekend. MGM is projecting $35 to $38 million, on par with “Creed II”s $35.5 million opening. The 2018 sequel brought $3.7 million from preview screenings that took place on a Tuesday night ahead of the extended Thanksgiving weekend in 2018.“Creed III” must take in more than $115 domestically and $214 million worldwide to beat its predecessor, while the first installment in the franchise made $109 million in the U.S.

Jordan Moreau “Creed III” is stepping into the box office ring, and Michael B. Jordan’s latest movie has weighed in with $5.45 million in Thursday previews. The third “Creed” film is looking to deliver a powerful blow to the weekend box office with an opening between $36 million to $40 million. It should be the highest opening weekend for the boxing franchise, after the original “Creed” debuted with $29.6 million in 2015 and “Creed II” launched with $35.5 million in 2018. “Creed III” also landed the highest preview grosses of the series. The first movie, which opened on the Wednesday ahead of Thanksgiving in 2015, pulled $1.4 million in Tuesday previews. “Creed II” had a similar pre-Thanksgiving release in 2018 and made $3.7 million in Tuesday previews.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Already the highest grossing local film in its home market, courtroom drama, “A Guilty Conscience” has broken into Hong Kong’s all-time top ten box office ranking with a cumulative of HK$107 million ($13.7 million). Data from Hong Kong Box Office Ltd. shows the film achieving the feat after just 41 days in cinemas and coming within HK$1 million ($150,000) of overtaking “Top Gun: Maverick.” The data firm noted that the last time a Hong Kong film got this far was with fantasy-action-comedy “Kung Fu Hustle” in 2004. Since then, it has been overtaken by a fleet of Hollywood titles. Hong Hong’s current top ten is headed by “Avengers: Endgame” and includes six Marvel movies, the two “Avatar” titles and “Titanic.”

Marcus Corporation CEO Greg Marcus says he’s encouraged by the recent diversity and consistency of theatrical films and is “not ready to throw in the towel yet” on the notion of box office returning to pre-pandemic levels.

EXCLUSIVE: A24’s The Whale, whose Oscar-nominated star Brendan Fraser scooped the prize for Male Actor in a Leading Role at the SAG Awards on Sunday night, is enjoying a strong run globally, having crossed $30M worldwide in the latest frame. Now at $32.3M global and with more overseas markets to release, the drama counts $15.5M so far from the international box office; that’s a nearly 50/50 split with domestic — a terrific result for a low-budget indie. Its global box office is close to that of The Fabelmans.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Even a return trip to Pandora wasn’t enough to lift quarterly earnings at AMC Theatres. Despite the box office success of “Avatar: The Way of Water,” revenues at the world’s largest cinema chain fell 15% in the fourth quarter, topping out at $990.4 million. That was down from $1.17 billion in the prior-year period. Losses also widened, as AMC posted a net loss of $287.7 million, a steeper shortfall than the $134.4 million in losses it recorded a year ago. AMC lost 26 cents per share, compared to a loss of 13 cents in the same quarter in 2021. That fell short of Wall Street’s projections. Analysts were expecting quarterly revenue of $1.05 billion and earnings loss of 22 cents per share. AMC’s stock was briefly up nearly 4% in after-hours trading before falling back into negative territory.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Axe is back. Damian Lewis, who departed Showtime’s “Billions” at the end of Season 5, will return to the series in time for Season 7, the network announced late Monday. Lewis, who stars with Guy Pearce in next month’s MGM+ series “A Spy Among Friends,” will return for six of the 12 episodes of “Billions” set to air next season. Lewis is back as Bobby “Axe” Axelrod opposite Paul Giamatti, Corey Stoll and Maggie Siff. The show is currently in production in New York, and Lewis’ return had already been leaked via paparazzi photos that showed him, in character, back with his old “Billions” co-stars. Here’s the logline for next season via Showtime: “In season seven, alliances are turned on their heads. Old wounds are weaponized. Loyalties are tested. Betrayal takes on epic proportions. Enemies become wary friends. And Bobby Axelrod returns, as the stakes grow from Wall Street to the world.”

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Hong Kong courtroom drama film “A Guilty Conscience” edged aside Chinese and Hollywood tentpole films to top the mainland China box office in its opening weekend. According to data from consultancy service Artisan Gateway, the film earned $8.5 million (RMB58.4 million) in its opening three days between Friday and Sunday. “The Wandering Earth 2,” which has been in cinemas for over a month, earned $7.4 million to elevate its cumulative total to $568 million. “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” which opened on top a week earlier, collected $7.0 million, giving it a 10-day cumulative of $31.4 million.

Cocaine Bear has everyone talking this weekend!