Summer Box Office Pines For $3 Billion: ‘Garfield’ Could Scratch ‘Furiosa’, ‘Beetlejuice 2’ Might See Best Opening Just Outside Of Season & Other Zany Forecasts

Paramount will keep its chin up high amid the whole Sony and Skydance takeover headlines and keep the summer box office churnin’ with the John Krasinski directed Ryan Reynolds family movie, If, which is hoping to hit $40M; this is after Disney’s overperformance with 20th Century Studios’ Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes which posted a $58.4M opening.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” reigned over the weekend box office with a $56.5 million North American opening, according to studio estimates Sunday, giving a needed surge to an uncertain season in theaters.The film from 20th Century Studios and Disney that built on the rebooted “Apes” trilogy of the 2010s had the third highest opening of the year, after the $81.5 million debut of “Dune: Part Two” in early March and the $58.3 million domestic opening of “Kung Fu Panda 4” a week later.The strong performance for “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” comes a week after a tepid start for Ryan Gosling’s “The Fall Guy” signaled that the summer of 2024 is likely to see a major drop-off after the “Barbenheimer” magic of 2023.“Planet of the Apes” easily made more than the rest of the top 10 combined.“The Fall Guy” fell to No. 2 with a $13.7 million weekend and a two-week total of $49.7 million for Universal Pictures.Zendaya’s “Challengers” was third with $4.7 million and has earned $38 million in three weeks for Amazon MGM studios.The opening for “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” directed by Wes Ball, was the second best in the series, after the $72 million opening weekend of 2014’s “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.”It’s the 10th movie in the “Planet of the Apes” franchise that began in 1968.“Kingdom” came with strong reviews and positive buzz (80% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and a “B” CinemaScore).

Jane Schoenbrun’s I Saw Then TV Glow is looking at an estimated $195k+ on 21 screens, a great week-two expansion for the A24 film. The number is driven by a passionate fan base for the gender-bending supernatural thriller that’s been skewing very young, male and heavily LGBTQ+.  Will continue a rollout in coming weeks. It’s not clear where the screen count will max out, but so far so good.

Rebecca Rubin Senior Film and Media Reporter Disney and 20th Century’s “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” climbed to $72.5 million at the international box office in its first weekend of release. The newest film in the long-running “Apes” series also notched No. 1 in North America with $56.5 million, bringing its initial global tally to a promising $129 million.

according to IMDB’s Box Office Mojo.The action comedy took home $3.6 million. The film, which is loosely based on the 1980s TV show, features Ryan Gosling working as a stuntman on the set of a film directed by his ex-girlfriend, played by Emily Blunt.Though on top of the box office, with the pair’s combined star power pulled in just $39.5 million domestically so far, with another $36.7 million in receipts overseas.

The Fall Guy.”But the crowd, such as it was, looked nothing like the ticket buyers of nearly a year ago when the same A-list duo was part of the cinematic phenomenon known as #Barbenheimer.Remember those three surreal days when the masses, lemming-like, donned pink skirts and roller skates (and, for a sprinkle of nerds, brown fedoras) and packed theaters to capacity to see films about an old doll and a dead physicist?Domestically, that pair of polar opposites “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” grossed a combined $246 million on their opening weekend in July 2023. They went on to do $2.4 billion in business worldwide.

The highly anticipated clash between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk is finally on the horizon.Originally scheduled for earlier this year, Saturday, May 18 is now the date the two giants of boxing will lock horns. It's been over two decades since the heavyweight division witnessed a unified world champion, with Lennox Lewis holding that distinction back in 1999 and boxing fans will now get to see another holder of all four belts.Now, with Fury and Usyk set to collide in a major undisputed fight, the excitement among boxing enthusiasts, both casual and die-hard, is palpable in the lead-up to the huge night which is taking place in Saudi Arabia. In an interesting turn of events, there's been an inclusion of a rematch clause which ensures that, regardless of the outcome, Fury and Usyk will cross paths once again, hinting at the potential for a compelling series between the two.

The great Broadway Crunch of Spring 2024, when 18 new productions opened between mid-March and late April – 19 if you count the commercial transfer of Appropriate – seems to be showing early signs of the inevitable shake-out, with one show (Lempicka) closing soon and a few others already playing to houses with attendance at 80% of capacity or less.

Netflix have announced that the second season of hit series Wednesday is now filming, and there have been some new additions – and one omission – to the cast. The comedy horror series from Batman and Beetlejuice director Tim Burton follows Wednesday (Jenna Ortega), the daughter of spooky Addams Family parents Gomez (Luis Guzman) and Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones), as she navigates the perilous world of Nevermore Academy.

Rebecca Rubin Senior Film and Media Reporter Primates will rule (the box office) again! Disney’s “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” is aiming for $50 million to $55 million from 3,700 theaters in its domestic debut, which will easily be enough to tower over the box office chart. Those ticket sales are roughly even with two of the three prior installments in 20th Century’s rebooted “Planet of the Apes” franchise: 2017’s “War for the Planet of the Apes” opened to $56.2 million and 2011’s “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” opened to $54.8 million, while 2014’s “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” notched a series-best $72 million.

Naman Ramachandran Universal’s “The Fall Guy” debuted atop the U.K. and Ireland box office with £3.5 million ($4.5 million), according to numbers from Comscore. But the force was strong with Disney’s 25th anniversary rerelease of “Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace,” as it debuted in second place with £1.1 million.

Rebecca Rubin Senior Film and Media Reporter Sony’s animated “The Garfield Movie” scratched up $22 million in its international box office debut. It’s currently only playing in 18 markets, roughly 35% of its eventual overseas footprint, so those ticket sales represent a promising start for the family film. “The Garfield Movie” doesn’t open in the U.S.

Rebecca Rubin Senior Film and Media Reporter “The Fall Guy,” an action-comedy starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, kicked off the summer movie season without much sizzle. The film, backed by Universal and directed by David Leitch, fell just short of expectations with $28.5 million from 4,002 North American venues in its debut. Heading into the weekend, “The Fall Guy” was projected to earn at least $30 million to $40 million.

Moviegoing remains in a sling, evident in Universal’s The Fall Guy currently coming in lower than expected with $28M this weekend. Perhaps Furiosa and Garfield can bring some zing over Memorial Day weekend at the end of the month. Both hit three-week tracking Thursday, with the Warner Bros/Village Roadshow Mad Max prequel eyeing a $40M-$50M domestic opening over the Friday-Monday span of May 24-27 with Sony/Alcon Entertainment’s Garfield at $35M.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Maggie Rogers is headlining arenas for the first time this fall, but she didn’t want it to feel like moving into bigger spaces for her concerts would mean a more impersonal experience. So for 11 shows that just went on sale in late April, she went out and personally manned the box office on opening day to help sell tickets for those big shows.

EXCLUSIVE: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice writers and creators of the smash hit Netflix series Wednesday, Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, have signed a first-look deal with Sony Pictures to develop films through the duo’s Millar Gough Ink banner, Deadline has learned.

Broadway‘s busy, busy spring of new shows came to an end today with this morning’s Tony nominations announcement, and while the impact, if any, of the nominations won’t be felt at the box office for a while, there were some indications last week about how things could pan out.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, two essential ingredients in the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon, will leave Barbieland and Los Alamos behind them as they team up for “The Fall Guy.” But will audiences turn up in force to see the “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” stars when their new action comedy debuts this weekend? Well, “The Fall Guy” isn’t going to hit those films’ box office heights, but it should have no trouble topping charts as it kicks off the summer movie season. The film is expected to earn north of $30 million, with some rival studio executives pegging the opening at between $35 million to $40 million. The catch is that movie wasn’t cheap to produce, boasting a healthy budget of $130 million, so “The Fall Guy” will need strong word-of-mouth if it’s going to leg it out on the long path to profitability.

have been on a globetrotting press tour to get the word out about Italian director Luca Guadagnino’s original film, which opened in 3,477 locations in the US and Canada.“We’re obviously very, very happy with the number,” said Kevin Wilson, who heads theatrical distribution for Amazon Studios and MGM. “Looking at the audience who showed up, it’s really encouraging.

Challengers is No. 1!