Film's Distribution and Story Strength Key to Box Office Success, Study Finds

The foreign-language film that made history at the Academy Awards 2020, Parasite, is very much in demand in the United Kingdom's market. The film, Parasite won the prestigious Palme d’Or at Cannes.

LOS ANGELES, Feb 16, (Variety.com) – Paramount’s family film “Sonic the Hedgehog” ignited over Presidents Day weekend with $57 million in North America and $100 million globally, the best showing ever for a video game adaptation.

In a noteworthy feat for an original title, Rian Johnson's whodunnit Knives Out has reached the $300 million mark at the worldwide box office.Knives Out's domestic total through Monday stands at $159.1 million, with an international tally of $140.9 million.The crime caper — which first hit theaters in late November — is the second-most successful original movie of 2019 at the global box office behind Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which grossed $374.2 million.

In the run to the Berlin Film Festival, MovieChainer, the cloud-based app allowing right-holders to model and track the legal and financial structure of their film projects, has added German sales powerhouse The Match Factory and France’s Memento Film Distribution, to its client roster.

Oscar-nominated star Margot Robbie won over the audience in 2016's Suicide Squad as Harley Quinn. However, she couldn't lure in moviegoers to buy a ticket to Birds of Prey. The Oscar-nominated actress reprised the DC character for the second time in DCEU and audiences did not seem interested in watching Harley Quinn back in action. Birds of Prey minted $33 million in North America, which is one of the worst openings a DC movie has ever seen in the US.

Fear of the coronavirus increased its impact on the South Korean cinema industry. Films were cancelled and box office revenues dropped for a second weekend.

By Anthony D'Alessandro

By Patrick Hipes

Despite the lack of actors of color nominated at the 2020 Oscars, 2019 was a year of positive change for inclusion in popular movies.Research from the USCAnnenberg Inclusion Initiative examined the 100 top-grossing films of 2019 andfound that there was a notable improvement in the representation of both actors of color and females.Last year, 31 of thetop 100films featuredan underrepresented lead or co-lead, which is up from the 27films in 2018 and 13 films in 2007.

Fear of the spread of the coronavirus that is sweeping China has begun to contaminate the film industry in South Korea.

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) — Box office newcomers “Rhythm Section” and “Gretel and Hansel” fumbled as “Bad Boys for Life” remained champions during a painfully slow Super Bowl weekend.

GÖTEBORG, Sweden — Home to the most dynamic streaming markets in Western Europe, the Nordic region still posted solid box office returns in 2019, especially from Hollywood tentpoles “The Lion King,” “Avengers: Endgame” and “Joker,” which ruled on all top ten charts, except in Denmark. Local fare, however, lost ground in all five territories.

Locally-made action comedy “The Grand Grandmaster” emerged on top of the Hong Kong box office during the Lunar New Year holiday. But, hit by the aftermath of political protest and growing precautions against the coronavirus threat, the theatrical business took a steep tumble.

Do you feel like work is consuming your life and when you come back home your still thinking about it? Does it keep you up at night or do you find yourself boring your friends to tears about office politics when they just want to chat about Love Island? Well it seems you’re not alone. A study of 2,000 adults found that rising work pressures and smartphones that constantly buzz combined with a fast pace of life mean that many people find it difficult to “switch off”.

The Japanese box office leaped by 17% in 2019 to set a record $2.4 billion score, according to figures announced Tuesday by the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan, locally known as Eirin. The previous high was the $2.2 billion recorded in 2016.

Measures to limit travel and the closure of most cinemas almost completely eliminated box office takings in China on what should have been the country’s busiest movie-going weekend of the year. The pain is set to continue.