‘The Lion King’ Takes Top Box Office Spot In ‘Phantom’-less Broadway; ‘Peter Pan Goes Wrong’, ‘Prima Facie’ Among Strong Newcomers

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” gave the South Korean box office its biggest weekend of the year, with a $10.3 million start. The film played on more than 1,800 screens and enjoyed a 46% share of the overall market between Friday and Sunday, according to data supplied by Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council. After a year of struggle for the theatrical business in Korea, the opening by “Guardians” was twice that of “The Super Mario Bros Movie” and nearly four times bigger than the next biggest individual title debut of 2023 (“The First Slam Dunk” in the first week of January scored $2.61 million). Over its opening five days, “Guardians” managed $13.2 million, making it the seventh highest grossing film of the year at the end of its first weekend.

The nominations for the 2023 Tony Awards were announced this week and every actor who is nominated for their performance in a musical showed up for the Meet the Nominees event!

The Broadway box office report won’t register the impact of this morning’s Tony Award nominations for a week or two, but today’s news certainly comes as welcome and promising signs for Shucked, Kimberly Akimbo, Fat Ham and other well-reviewed productions doing their best to compete against blockbusters like Sweeney Todd and Parade.

Filmmakers are film fans, right? There’s just no way you’d devote your life to a creative endeavor and not be a fan of it. So, you have to assume that directors, whether they’re working on no-budget horror, blockbuster superhero films, or even a heartfelt indie drama, are influenced by similar works or other filmmakers who have inspired them.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “The Super Mario Bros Movie” and a local sports movie “Dream” gave the South Korean box office some bounce on their first weekend on release. Opening in Korea on Wednesday, some three weeks after the beginning of its international and North American campaigns, “Super Mario” earned $4.67 million between Friday and Sunday, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). The film has a cumulative of $5.76 million over its opening five days, plus previews. The film’s weekend numbers are the second highest opening tally recorded by any film this year in Korea. And its weekend score represented a comfortable 40% market share.

according to IMDB’s Box Office Mojo. The movie based on the popular Nintendo game has earned more than $458 million in the US since opening on April 5 — and is projected to hit the $1 billion global milestone on Sunday, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Jude Law is dedicated to his craft!

“Peter Pan & Wendy” — so the child actors on set remained genuinely afraid of him when he played Captain Hook.“[Director] David Lowery had the idea of really trying to encourage them not to see me when I wasn’t Hook,” Law, 50, said Tuesday on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.”“So I just stayed as Hook the whole time, which was an opportunity just to be really scary and mean. Sounds kind of awful,” “The Holiday” actor admitted.

Jude Law had a trick up his sleeve to get along with child actors.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Jude Law revealed on “The Tonight Show” that he stayed in character as Captain Hook any time he was on the set of David Lowery’s “Peter Pan and Wendy.” The Disney reimagining casts Law as the villainous Captain Hook. To ensure the child actors on set would be scared of Hook, Lowery instructed Law not to reveal his true self until after filming. “David Lowery had the idea of really trying to encourage them not to see me when I wasn’t Hook,” Law said. “So I just stayed as Hook the whole time, which was an opportunity just to be really scary and mean. Sounds kind of awful. I didn’t want to be talking to a little 6-year-old dude, and then suddenly, it’s like, ‘Right. You hate me. I’m Hook. I’m Hook.’ So, instead, I just stuck as Hook. And, yeah, a lot of the reactions you see in the film are their reactions to me for the first time, or as the man himself, you know?”

st-century version of such arrested development look like? One that has something to say to today’s grown-ups both mesmerized and puzzled by a fiery younger generation vastly different than them, and today’s kids, being raised by an unprecedented sense of individuality? With “Peter Pan & Wendy,” soulful auteur David Lowery tries to find an answer with mixed results that’s fascinating and refreshing in parts and somewhat wearisome on the whole.An expressive voice throughout his wide range of tales, Lowery is the perfect storyteller for this experiment, despite the uneven outcome. He has the right mournful temperament that runs through his filmography, from the grief-soaked supernatural tone poem “A Ghost Story” to the deeply compassionate “Pete’s Dragon,” that is unsubtly about the second chance that outcast rescue animals deserve.

Director David Lowery’s inner child remains intact and in sprightly condition with “Peter Pan & Wendy,” the filmmaker’s latest soulful live-action remake for Disney. Lowery blew some minds years ago when he made “Pete’s Dragon,” losing very few of the instincts that have made him a viable indie filmmaker with the considerably more challenging films like “A Ghost Story” and “The Green Knight.” His overall fascination with storytelling and the revealing nature of time finds a warm home in the J.M.

Tom Cruise is living out his musical theatre dreams.

The question you may be asking is ‘do we really need yet another take on Peter Pan? Ever since J.M. Barrie published his book “Peter And Wendy” in 1911 there have been countless film, TV, and stage versions of one stripe or another, starting with silents, and of course NBC’s live musical in the 50’s with Mary Martin, and later versions with Sandy Duncan, Cathy Rigby, and just a few years ago another NBC live attempt at it with Allison Williams. Of course there have been big screen spins, neither quite magical, like Joe Wright’s messy 2015 Pan and Spielberg’s overblown Hook with Robin Williams and Julia Roberts. Up to this moment even Broadway has a new Tony contender in the farcical take, Peter Pan Goes Wrong. But for me the one version that resonates the most, to this day, is the Disney 1953 animated feature classic.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic With “Peter Pan and Wendy,” Disney sets out to bring the boy who refused to grow up into the 21st century — not literally, like those taxing live-action/cartoon hybrids, where computer-generated Smurfs get loose in Manhattan or Tom and Jerry wreak havoc in a high-end hotel. The studio’s latest remake is still set in Edwardian England, the way both J.M. Barrie’s play and the animated feature it inspired were. But the sensibility is very much of the moment, as director David Lowery (who did an admirable job of updating “Pete’s Dragon” for Disney) refreshes the 1953 classic according to contemporary priorities. In conception and casting both, the new movie presents a diverse and empowered ensemble. The vintage toon’s shameful Native American stereotypes have been corrected. The beloved Tinker Bell character can now serve as a role model for a wider range of children. Sharing hero duties, Wendy gets to announce, “This magic belongs to no boy!” Even Captain Hook, once treated as irredeemable crocodile fodder, is revealed to be a misunderstood figure from Peter’s past who’s fallen out of touch with his happy thoughts.

quarterly earnings report.Imax reported quarterly revenue of $86.9 million and earnings of $5.1 million or 4 cents per share on a diluted basis and 16 cents per share on an adjusted basis. That beat Wall Street projections of $77.5 million in revenue and adjusted EPS of 15 cents per share, according to analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research.

Yara Shahidi, Jude Law, and Ever Anderson are bringing their new Disney+ movie to New York City!

Yara Shahidi has told ET Canada what went into playing Tinker Bell in the new “Peter Pan & Wendy” movie and how she managed to add to the magic of the film.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The highly-anticipated Japanese animated feature film “The First Slam Dunk” dominated the mainland China cinema box office in its opening weekend. It broke multiple records as it did so. The film scored $38.5 million (RMB266 million) over the Friday to Sunday weekend, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway. However, it opened on Thursday, a day earlier than is the norm in China, and has accumulated $55.2 million over the opening four-day frame. The film is based on IP that is well-known to a generation of comic book fans and TV audiences in China (early middle-aged men were reported to have been particularly interested) and has already proved a hit in other parts of Asia. (Comscore estimates that the film has grossed $211 million worldwide.)

Tory Lanez has shared an open letter in which he asks for a new trial after he was found guilty of shooting Megan Thee Stallion in July 2020.The rapper’s lawyers Jose Baez and Matthew Barhoma filed a motion for a new trial last month, citing multiple grounds for re-trial in paperwork seen by Rolling Stone. Among the arguments is a claim that the judge in the trial, which wrapped last December, barred a fair trial by “erroneously” allowing jurors to view a social media post in which it was alleged that Thee Stallion’s now-estranged best friend Kelsey Harris was not the shooter.Now, Lanez has had his own say on the matter. The letter, addressed to Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón, makes several accusations against Deputy District Attorneys Kathy Ta and Alex Bott, including the allegation that they unlawfully misused their authority to “hide and suppress any and all exculpatory evidence that exonerates me, or furthers my innocence”.The motion Lanez’s lawyers filed made no reference to any notion of withholding evidence.A post shared by FARGO’S CRAZY LIFE (@torylanez)“Dear George Gascón, I write this message with the utmost humility, love and respect for the remarkable stance you’ve taken in regards to fighting for the justice of Black and Brown minorities,” the letter began.“Today I take a stance as an innocent Black man, wrongfully convicted of a crime I did NOT commit.