Warner Bros Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Think the market for adult-focused specialty films is dead? Peter Kujawski, chairman of Focus Features, explains why you’re wrong on the latest episode of Variety podcast “Strictly Business.” As the film biz gathers in Las Vegas this week for CinemaCon, Kujawski, an industry veteran who has headed NBCUniversal’s Focus Features unit since 2016, discusses the state of moviemaking and exhibition and he walks through the key lessons learned from the strike-challenged 2023 box office. Takeaway No.

Naman Ramachandran Universal’s “Kung Fu Panda 4” topped the U.K. and Ireland box office with £2.8 million ($3.6 million), according to numbers from Comscore. The film now has a total of £12.7 million after two weekends.

Joker, its highly anticipated sequel is coming soon, with the first trailer having just been dropped.Warner Bros. have just released the first look at Joker: Folie à Deux, which will premiere in UK cinemas from 4 October.

Michael Keaton, Catherine O’Hara, and Tim Burton are together again!

Michael Keaton, Beetlejuice himself, showed up at Warner Bros‘ CinemaCon presentation for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.

LAS VEGAS – Warner Bros. made some very smart decisions for its 2024 CinemaCon presentation.

Robert Pattinson is stepping out for his first official appearance as a new dad!

Anya Taylor-Joy wears a Mad Max inspired look while stepping out for the Warner Bros presentation at 2024 CinemaCon held at Caesars Palace on Tuesday (April 9) in Las Vegas.

The first Joker: Folie à Deux teaser trailer just dropped!

Brent Lang Executive Editor Michael Keaton was blunt about what audiences can expect when “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” hits screens, more than 36 years after the first film opened. “It’s really fucking good,” the actor told theater owners at CinemaCon. And based on the zany look at “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” that Keaton and Tim Burton shared, the collaborators have come up with something that could be out of this Netherworld.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Many in show business share a feeling that “Furiosa” will be big — but at Warner Bros.’ presentation to global movie theater owners on Tuesday, attendees got a taste of just how colossal the “Mad Max” entry might be. Director George Miller and his stars Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth made the trek to Las Vegas’ CinemaCon to show an extended look at the new film.

Brent Lang Executive Editor “Horizon: An American Saga,” Kevin Costner‘s wildly ambitious, sprawling, risky and quite possibly foolhardy two-part Western rode into CinemaCon on Tuesday. The films, which will premiere this summer, were partially financed by Costner, who mortgaged his ranch to help raise the money for the $100 million epic. “Hopefully the people come and they keep coming and they binge your theaters,” Costner told cinema operators at Warner Bros.

“He’s not alone anymore.” Against seemingly all odds, given its R-rating, adult nature, and disconnection from traditional cinema superheroics, Warner Bros. “Joker” movie earned over $1 billion at the box office in 2019, the sixth highest-grossing movie of the year, even outgrossing “Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker” worldwide.

Warner Bros‘ first big splash at its 2024 CinemaCon presentation today was George Miller‘s Furiosa.

Mickey 17 doesn’t hit theaters until Jan. 31, 2025, but Warner Bros wanted exhibitors to know that they had the goods.

Rebecca Rubin Senior Film and Media Reporter Michael O’Leary, the new president and CEO of the National Association of Theater Owners, is encouraging Hollywood to think smaller. Don’t get him wrong — he loves Marvel, “Mission: Impossible” and “Fast & Furious” as much as the next exhibitor. But O’Leary is urging the major studios to prioritize more than just the tentpole properties that prop up the box office.

K.J. Yossman Warner Bros. Pictures’ longterm head of physical production Kevin Trehy has exited the company after 21 years, Variety has exclusively learned.

AMC Networks International has installed Antonio Ruiz, Warner Bros. Discovery’s former UK and Ireland General Manager, as its boss in Spain and Portugal.

Christopher Nolan was initially “hesitant” to make The Dark Knight, the director’s brother has revealed.In 2003, Warner Bros. Pictures tapped Memento director Christopher Nolan to helm an untitled Batman film, which was released in 2005 titled Batman Begins.

The Roost Podcast Network, home to podcasts including This Past Weekend with Theo Von, has a new owner.

Australian filmmaker George Miller, whose origins story Furiosa will world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival next month before Warner Bros begins its global rollout May 22, says he’s still making Mad Max movies “because they’re very addictive.”

Warner Bros‘ is pushing M. Night Shyamalan‘s latest genre movie, Trap, from Aug. 2 to Aug. 9.

EXCLUSIVE: Jayme Lawson (The Batman) is the newest addition to the cast of the untitled event film, starring Michael B. Jordan, that Ryan Coogler is directing for Warner Bros.

EXCLUSIVE: John Magaro (Past Lives) and Jeannie Berlin (You Hurt My Feelings) have been tapped for supporting roles in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Frankenstein film, The Bride!, starring Christian Bale.

Already a big, ambitious bet as a two-part offering, Kevin Costner and Warner Bros. are going even bigger with his Western epic “Horizon,” which will make its world premiere at the upcoming Cannes Film Festival in May.

Already a big, ambitious bet as a two-part offering, Kevin Costner and Warner Bros. are going even bigger with his Western epic “Horizon,” which will make its world premiere at the upcoming Cannes Film Festival in May.

The holds on Legendary/Warner Bros’ Dune Part Two have been great week-to-week since its March 1 opening, nothing steeper than -45% in a given week and as low as -36% in its third. That’s all due to Imax, and for fans who savor the Denis Villeneuve directed sequel, it’s getting an extended run in that large format exhibitor’s auditoriums.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer “Fallout,” the post-apocalyptic series debuting this week on Amazon Prime, is expected to relocate to California for its second season, thanks to $25 million in California tax credits. The California Film Commission announced Monday that it has awarded $152 million in tax incentives to a dozen TV shows. The list also includes two shows from Ryan Murphy, “Dr.

Ireland Baldwin struck gold while thrift shopping in Las Vegas!

Refresh for latest…: A busy holdover weekend for wide studio releases was led by the trio of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, Kung Fu Panda 4 and Dune: Part Two. And, in a soaring performance, Hayao Miyazaki’s Oscar winner The Boy and the Heron swooped into China helping the market set a new Qingming holiday record. 

Rebecca Rubin Senior Film and Media Reporter “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” dominated the domestic box office again, looming large over newcomers “Monkey Man” and “The First Omen.” Warner Bros. and Legendary Entertainment’s monster tentpole added $31.7 million from 3,948 theaters in its second weekend of release. Ticket sales dropped a standard (for a tentpole of its size and scale) 60% from its mighty $80 million debut and stand at $132 million domestically and $361 million globally.

returns this week now that March Madness is nearly over, and that means wedding bells for Georgie (Montana Jordan) and Mandy (Emily Osment). It won't be a traditional wedding a la , but then again, nothing's been traditional about Georgie and Mandy's relationship.From age differences (which they both lied about when they met) to living arrangements, this relationship technically shouldn't have lasted a day, but thanks to Georgie's sweetness and Mandy's sarcastic nature, their storyline has become the last couple seasons. (CBS and Warner Bros.

J. Kim Murphy It’s a primate face-off at the box office this weekend, plus some old-fashioned Antichrist horror on the side. Legendary Entertainment and Warner Bros.’ “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” looks to stick on top of domestic charts, holding off the opening weekend bows of Universal’s beat-em-up “Monkey Man” and 20th Century Studios’ horror revival “The First Omen.” That kaiju victory lap probably has less to do with the staying power of “The New Empire” than the strength of its competition though.

FRIDAY AFTERNOON: Legendary/Warner Bros’ Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is leading as planned at the weekend B.O. with a $7.5M second Friday, -80% for a what’s shaping up to be a $25M-$28M second frame at 3,948 theaters, -65% on the high end. Hopefully, there’s more of a bounce.

Big news ahead of CinemaCon for Disney — and they’re not showing off their presentation until the last day of the exhibitor and studio love-in on April 11.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter J. Smith-Cameron will appear in “Hacks” Season 3 in a recurring guest star role, Variety has learned exclusively. Smith-Cameron’s character is being kept under wraps.