Jim Orr Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Following the global success of Five Nights at Freddy’s last fall, Universal and Blumhouse are headed back to the pizzeria.

Timothée Chalamet and “Wonka” topped the box office charts for the third time in its four weekends in theaters.Warner Bros.’ family-oriented musical added $14.4 million in ticket sales according to studio estimates Sunday, bringing its total domestic grosses to $164.7 million.“’Wonka’ is following in the tradition of a film like ‘The Greatest Showman,’” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. That Hugh Jackman musical opened under $9 million in Dec.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Universal and Blumhouse‘s funhouse thriller “Five Nights at Freddy’s” slayed box office expectations with its scary-good $78 million domestic debut over Halloween weekend. Those ticket sales are especially impressive because the horror film landed simultaneously on Peacock, the streaming service owned by NBCUniversal. It’s the second-best opening weekend for a day-and-date streaming release, following Disney’s 2021 Marvel adventure “Black Widow” ($80 million in theaters and $60 million on Disney+) and the best ever for Universal and Peacock’s hybrid releases, beating the slasher sequels, 2021 “Halloween Kills” ($49 million) and 2022’s “Halloween Ends” ($40 million).

Jurassic Park will hit theaters again on Aug. 25 in celebration of the Steven Spielberg pic’s 30th anniversary. The movie will be re-released in RealD 3D-equipped theaters across North America.

The 10th instalment of the “Fast and Furious” franchise was off to the races this weekend, knocking “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” out of first place and easily claiming the No. 1 spot at the box office. “Fast X” earned $67.5 million in ticket sales from 4,046 North American theatres, according to estimates from Universal Pictures on Sunday.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter It’s-a blockbuster! “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” an animated adventure based on the classic video game, crushed the competition with its jaw-dropping $204.6 million domestic and $377 million global debut over the long Easter weekend. Those results far exceeded expectations and even surpassed the starts of recent installments in Universal’s biggest franchises, like “Jurassic World Dominion” ($145 million domestically) and “Fast and Furious 9” ($70 million). So, expect a sequel to be announced faster than you can say “Let’s-a go!” “The box office just kept growing and growing,” marvels Jim Orr, Universal’s president of domestic distribution. “It’s a tremendous worldwide debut, and the movie has a clear runway.”

Chris Pratt had another box office success this weekend with the release of "The Super Mario Bros. Movie." Box office estimates released Sunday showed the Universal Pictures film grossed $146 million domestically across more than 4,300 theaters.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” opened in theaters last December, the spinoff sequel in the “Shrek” universe began its box office run with an unremarkable $12 million. But the animated adventure, about a swashbuckling cat voiced by Antonio Banderas, has enjoyed nine lives on the big screen. After nearly two months, ticket sales have climbed to $177 million in North America and $454 million globally — and counting. That’s an impressive haul, particularly given the commercial struggles of other recent animated fare such as “Lightyear” and “Strange World.” “It is certainly rare to see a film leg out to a 15 lifetime multiple from its three-day debut,” says Universal’s president of domestic distribution Jim Orr. (On average, films have a three or four multiple, industry parlance for the ratio of its total gross from its opening weekend.) “The film is exciting, heartwarming and immensely satisfying for a broad audience.”

The Fabelmans grossed an estimated $160k this weekend at four theaters in NY and LA. That’s a $40K per screen average, on par with recent strong (for post-Covid) specialty openings like The Banshees Of Inisherin (at $45k PSA) and Tár (also $40k), both on four screens too, reflecting a definite pickup in the specialty space. Spielberg’s written, directed and produced semi-autobiographical tale debuted into one of the biggest openings of the year with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

That figure is just a few hundred dollars above the $39,655 platform release average of Focus Features’ “Tár” and below the $46,113 of Searchlight’s “The Banshees of Inisherin.” Though it isn’t the best platform launch among the early Oscar contenders this awards season, Universal said that it had projected a $40,000 average for “The Fabelmans” prior to release and were pleased by the film’s Friday-to-Saturday drop of just 3%, signaling that the film is gaining the kind of word-of-mouth it will need in the weeks ahead. “With ‘The Fabelmans,’ Steven Spielberg has crafted one of his most personal stories yet, an incredible universal coming of age story that clearly resonated with audiences this weekend earning an A CinemaScore, 96% audience and 95% critical scores on Rotten Tomatoes and we have no doubt the film will captivate audiences throughout the holiday season,” Universal’s domestic distribution president Jim Orr said in a statement.

Carson Burton Thanks to the Will Rogers Pioneer Assistance Fund, thousands of movie theater workers can sleep better at night. The PAF provides financial aid and support to individuals who work in theatrical exhibition and distribution, and vendors who are experiencing an illness, accident or injury. The Pioneer of the Year Dinner, the org’s annual fundraising event, will be returning to in-person festivities Sept. 21 in Beverly Hills this year, contributing a significant chunk of the fund’s donations. Each year, the event honors a person or people due to their work in Hollywood and philanthropy. This year, Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, the producers behind the James Bond franchise, are being honored.

Jordan Peele ’s UFO thriller “Nope” topped the North American charts in its first weekend in theaters with an estimated $44 million in ticket sales, Universal Pictures said Sunday. Though it doesn’t come close to the $71 million debut of “Us,” it is still significantly impressive for an original, R-rated film — and the biggest of the pandemic for an original screenplay.

Families went bananas for Minions this weekend at the movie theater. “ Minions: The Rise of Gru ” brought in an estimated $108.5 million in ticket sales from 4,391 screens in North America, Universal Pictures said Sunday. By the end of the Monday’s July Fourth holiday, it will likely have earned over $127.9 million.

Families went bananas for "Minions" this weekend at the movie theater. "Minions: The Rise of Gru" brought in an estimated $108.5 million in ticket sales from 4,391 screens in North America, Universal Pictures said Sunday. By the end of Monday’s July Fourth holiday, it will likely have earned over $127.9 million.

will premiere at screenings of “Jurassic World Dominion” starting June 10 when the dinosaur epic hits theaters.“Universal is honored to have been a part of so many extraordinary, unforgettable Steven Spielberg films over the past 47 years, including ‘Jaws’ in 1975, ‘E.T.’ in 1982 and ‘Jurassic Park’ in 1993,” said Jim Orr, president of domestic theatrical distribution for Universal Pictures. “No filmmaker, it’s fair to say, has had a greater or more enduring impact on American cinema or has created more indelible cinematic memories for tens of billions of people worldwide.

Studio brass wowed theater owners this week with Maverick: Top Gun, Avatar: The Way of Water and Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse among other tentpoles. But they were also clear at the just-wrapped CinemaCon that a reviving box office requires a wide breadth of content.

many CinemaCon attendees with a presentation that featured various movie theater owners introducing the studio’s upcoming attractions. This year, they did it again for arguably the most diverse studio presentation at the trade show.

Refresh for updates Universal continued its motif from CinemaCon 2021 today of spotlighting the work of movie theater workers, and pairing them with their favorite stars. It’s a classy way of paying homage to those in exhibition particularly after the industry was brought to its knees in 2020 to early 2021 due to Covid.

As Jim Orr, Universal’s distribution head said in introducing Tuesday night’s CinemaCon screening of their upcoming late June release, The Black Phone, studios don’t normally bring a movie like this to show in its entirety at a theatre owners convention two months ahead of opening unless they know they have the goods.

health of family moviegoing is especially good news for Hollywood as it heads into its lucrative summer season when films like Universal's own “Minions: Rise of Gru” and Walt Disney Co.'s “Lightyear” — the first Pixar film opening in theaters in two years — hope to approach pre-pandemic levels.“There's reason for being more than cautiously optimistic,” said Jim Orr, head of distribution for Universal. “I think audiences this summer are going to be flooding into theaters.”While studios have been hesitant to program many films against each other during the pandemic, the weekend saw a rarity: three new wide releases, all of them well-received, none of them sequels or remakes.“The Bad Guys,” based on Aaron Blabey's children's graphic novel series about a gang of crooked animals with a Quentin Tarantino-for-kids tone, fared well with critics (85% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) and audiences (an “A” CinemaScore).

James Bond franchise architects Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli have been set to receive the 2022 Pioneer of the Year Award from the Will Rogers Motion Picture Pioneers Foundation. The honor will be bestowed September 21 during a ceremony at the Beverly Hilton.

EXCLUSIVE: Universal, EVP of Global Physical Home Entertainment, Kathleen Gallagher, has been named EVP, General Sales Manager for the studio’s North American Theatrical Distribution team, Deadline has learned.

The glamorous spies of “The 355” were no competition for the movie theater’s reigning webslinger.Spider-Man’s box office dominance continued in its fourth weekend in theaters, adding another $33 million, according to studio estimates on Sunday. With $668.8 million in North American ticket sales to date, “Spider-Man: No Way Home” is now the sixth highest grossing release of all time domestically.