International Insider: Residuals In Spotlight; Venice Ends, TIFF Begins; Gaga & Mieli Deep-Dives

While a fairly quiet frame overall, there were some significant milestones this international box office session. To wit: New Line/Warner Bros’ The Nun II topped the $200M mark worldwide and Shah Rukh Khan’s Jawan became the highest-grossing Bollywood movie ever in India, overtaking the star’s earlier 2023 movie, Pathaan.

according to IMDB’s Box Office Mojo.“The Nun II” is the ninth installment in the “The Conjuring” franchise, the highest grossing horror franchise of all time. Collider called the latest flick “an effective, gory, and impressively scary addition to the “Conjuringuniverse” that also stands as a solidly on its own.

We’ve got the keys to the weekend, Insider fans. Jesse Whittock here guiding you through the international film and TV stories you need to read to top off the working week. 

Italy has submitted Matteo Garrone’s Io Capitano as its candidate for Best International Film at the 96th Academy Awards.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief ‘Expendables 4’ narrowly took top place at the mainland China box office on a quiet weekend preceding the National Day holiday season at the end of the month. “A Haunting in Venice” opened outside the top five. Data from consultancy firm Artisan Gateway shows “Expendables 4” earning $10.9 million (RMB78.6 million) over its debut weekend.

Refresh for latest…: Warner Bros/New Line’s The Nun II continued to conjure strong business around the globe this weekend, taking the top spot again worldwide and overseas. The sophomore session of $30.1M in 72 offshore markets brings the international box office cume to $102.3M and worldwide to $158.8M so far.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter It’s another close race at the box office. The Warner Bros. thriller “The Nun II” is projected to ever-so-slightly outpace the competition with $14.7 million in its second weekend.

J. Kim Murphy Hercule Poirot is back on the case this weekend, with Kenneth Branagh’s “A Haunting in Venice” hoping to best a very quiet box office in its opening. The horror-tinged whodunnit scored$5.5 million from 3,305 theaters on its opening day, a figure that includes $1.2 million in Thursday previews.

Good afternoon Insiders, Max Goldbart here with your weekly dose of the biggest headlines, analysis and deep-dives of the week. Read on, and sign up here.

A Haunting in Venice, the third installment in Kenneth Branagh‘s Hercule Poirot franchise, has finally been released in theaters.

Jake Gyllenhaal is a proud brother-in-law right now!

It’s interesting how the Venice Film Festival has gone from one of the festivals of the fall festival season to arguably the best film festival in the world now, even overshadowing Cannes in recent years thanks to the fact that Netflix now avoids the Croisette for the most part because of France’s theatrical laws and save their Oscar contenders for the Lido. Venice has had an amazing run, arguably since 2017 when Guillermo del Toro’s “The Shape Of Water” won the top prize and then went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture, which has happened one more time since with “Nomadland” and several key Oscar contenders since).

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Luca Guadagnino, whose Zendaya-starrer “Challengers” was pulled as Venice Film Festival opener due to complications from the SAG-AFTRA strike, is on the Lido wearing his producer hat on several films. One, especially close to his heart, is animation short “The Meatseller” by debuting director Margherita Giusti.

EXCLUSIVE: It’s not a given that talent will attend premieres if their movie gets an interim agreement but we can confirm that Oscar winner Jessica Chastain and Emmy nominee Peter Sarsgaard will be on hand to spice up the premieres of new movie Memory both tomorrow in Venice and next week in Toronto.

Marta Balaga Controversy over Venice title “Green Border” continues to heat up as director Agnieszka Holland gave an ultimatum to Poland’s Minister of Justice Zbigniew Ziobro following his comments about her film. According to the statement shared with Variety, Holland has hired the lawyers Sylwia Gregorczyk-Abram and Michał Wawrynkiewicz.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Adriano Valerio’s documentary “Casablanca,” which will world premiere on Thursday at Venice Days, has been acquired by Salaud Morisset for world sales. Variety has been given an exclusive clip from the film.

Spanish film star Gabriel Guevara was arrested on sexual assault charges while in attendance this weekend at the Venice International Film Festival. The 22-year-old was the star of Prime V

Alissa Simon Film Critic As you read this, new titles from filmmakers of Tunisian, Moroccan and Franco-Palestinian-Algerian heritage are making their mark at the Venice Film Festival, while Toronto Film Festival will premiere a trio of first features from Saudi Arabia, along with discoveries from the UAE and Palestine, plus a handful of Arab titles screened at Cannes and Venice. Those in the know say that the annual number of Arab films produced has increased along with the emergence of new filmmakers, and that fall festivals such as El Gouna, Marrakech, Cairo and Red Sea will be chockablock with fresh regional titles.

EXCLUSIVE: It’s a scorching 90 degrees in Rome at the end of July, but producer Lorenzo Mieli isn’t breaking a sweat.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “City of Wind” depicts a version of Mongolian everyday life that is both traditional and modern. Ulaanbaatar is shown as messy and sprawlingly urban in a fashion that will be familiar to millions of city dwellers in Asia — even if there are yurts in the front garden. Presented in Venice’s Horizons section, and then Toronto, “City” starts as a story of a shaman, who is still of school age.