Zootopia Land to Open at Shanghai Disneyland Theme Park

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “The Marvels” narrowly missed the top spot at the mainland China box office on its opening weekend. And its debut was far short of its blockbuster predecessor. Data from consultancy firm Artisan Gateway shows “The Marvels” earning RMB82.7 million or $11.5 million between Friday and Sunday in Chinese cinemas. Of that some $2 million or 17%, was earned in Imax theaters. The film’s debut weekend haul was a fraction below the RMB84.2 million ($11.7 million) earned by Chinese film “Last Suspect” in its second weekend of release.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Auto-bio Pamphlet,” a Marathi-language film that is both a love story and a rage against class divisions, will open the 18th edition of the Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival later this month. The festival will close with the world premiere of spy thriller “13 Bombs in Jakarta.” JAFF run Nov.

SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher and National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland on Friday laid out how the actors’ 118-day strike was ended and their thoughts on the deal with the AMPTP.

Ellise Shafer Barbra Streisand is getting candid about her relationship with the late Judy Garland in her new memoir, saying their rumored rivalry was nonexistent. “People were looking for some sort of rivalry between us. And when they couldn’t find anything, they made it up,” Streisand writes in her tell-all book, “My Name Is Barbra,” via an excerpt from People magazine.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “My Stand-In,” an action drama that starts shooting imminently, is a new Thai-language original series for Chinese streaming platform iQiyi. Fitting the booming ‘Boys Love’ genre, the series is a screen adaptation of a hit Chinese-language web novel “Stand-In Ship” written by Shui Qiancheng. The underlying novel has garnered over a billion readers on platforms including Weibo and iQiyi Novels.

The Weeknd has postponed his forthcoming Australia and New Zealand stadium tour due to “unforeseen circumstances”.The singer was due to kick off his ‘After Hours til Dawn Tour’ in just two weeks at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium on November 20 before calling at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium and Eden Park in Auckland over the remaining 10 shows. But they have now been pushed back.“Due to unforeseen circumstances, we must reschedule the Australia/New Zealand tour,” a statement from The Weeknd said (via IQ).

Savina Petkova There is an ample tradition of historical dramas set in Interwar Poland, but there’s rarely one made by a woman director. Anna Jadowska wants to fill in this gap with her new project, “Tethys Ocean,” which will be presented at Thessaloniki Film Festival’s Agora Crossroads Co-production Forum next week. The story unfolds in 1938, as seven-year-old Wiktoria is being sent from a village near Kraków to become a servant at the mansion of a wealthy family where her older cousin also works.

K.J. Yossman Umbrella Entertainment has snapped up Luke Sparke’s one-shot horror feature “Scurry” for Australia and New Zealand. Starring Jamie Costa (“Kenobi: A Star Wars Story”) and Emalia (“Paper Dolls”), the film tells the story of two strangers who find themselves trapped underground when their city is attacked by a monstrous threat.

The Walt Disney Co. accused Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and his allies of being engaged in “ongoing constitutional mutiny” for targeting the company over its opposition to a parental rights bill, known by detractors as the “don’t say gay” law.

A 22-year-old man wearing body armor, a helmet and tactical clothing that gave the appearance he was a member of law enforcement was found dead this weekend inside the Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park in Glenwood Springs, CO. According to a statement from the Garfield County Sheriff’s Office, the man was carrying a semi-automatic rife, a semi-automatic pistol, multiple loaded magazines for each weapon and multiple improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer Progress has been made toward ending the SAG-AFTRA strike in recent days, but “a lot” of issues are still on the table, the union’s chief negotiator said Monday morning. Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the chief negotiator and executive director of the guild, made an appearance at the Disney picket lines. In an interview outside the studio gates, he would not hazard a guess as to when the strike will be over.

Coco Gauff and her fellow female Top 8 players step out in style during the WTA Tennis Finals draw ceremony in Cancun, Mexico on Friday (October 27).

Marta Balaga Oscar nominee Agnieszka Holland needed bodyguards following the “Green Border” backlash in her native Poland. “I planned to be there during the election, so the Polish Filmmakers Association arranged bodyguards for me. I was traveling with two, both wonderful and very kind.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Comcast swung to a profit in the third quarter even as the media giant navigated new challenges presented by two different Hollywood talent strikes and shifts in demand for the connectivity services that are at the heart of the company’s financials. The Philadelphia owner of NBCUniversal posted net income of $4 billion, or 98 cents per share in the third quarter, compared with a loss of $4.6 billion, or $1.05 cents per share, a year earlier. Earnings came to $1.08 when adjusted for one-time items.

Mark Schilling Japan Correspondent Boys’ Love, or ‘BL’ as it is also known, was once a minor and lightly regarded type of Japanese manga catering mainly to female fans, delivering stories of handsome young guys falling in love with each other. Now its popularity has spread beyond Japan to much of East Asia and beyond, while metamorphozing into a film, TV and online genre with millions of fans. Just how big BL has become was evident in a Wednesday TIFFCOM seminar on the BL phenomenon in Thailand: Beyond Borders: Exploring the Global Appeal and Diversity of Thailand’s Boys’ Love Contents. The eleven speakers, including an official from the Office of Commercial Affairs, Royal Thai Embassy in Japan, vigorously pitched partnerships with Japanese content companies, which seemed to be a classic case of selling ice to Alaska’s indigenous inhabitants. Members of the packed seminar room might beg to differ, however.

HARIBO is offering the chance for you to win a stay in one of Alton Towers Resort's fairy-tale Woodland Lodges plus free theme park and water park tickets as part of its spooktacular Halloween promotion! Lying deep inside the woods in a faraway corner of Alton Towers lies the Enchanted Village, where you can relax in a cosy log cabin that has everything you need for your break. Each lodge sleeps up to five people and the offer also includes: A full English breakfast buffet Incredible evening entertainment 9-hole round of Extraordinary Golf Free Parking After a day filled with adrenaline you can then return to your private cabin and relax on your decking area as children discover the delightful play areas around the village.

Marta Balaga Following musical sequences in her latest doc “Vika!,” Polish director Agnieszka Zwiefka will turn to animation for an upcoming project under the working title “Runa.” “What can I say? I really like fusion cuisine,” she laughs. “I like hybrid films, because this division between documentary and fiction is completely pointless. I see documentary as a very capacious bag.

UK Love Island star Lucinda Strafford has revealed she has joined the Australian version of the show. Taking to Instagram to announce the news, the influencer shared a picture of her posing in a black swimsuit, with the caption: "Lucinda is looking for love in the @LoveIslandAU Villa! Stream the new season of #LoveIslandAU from Monday, October 30 on @9now." Lucinda, 23, failed to find love when she first entered the UK villa in 2021, despite forming romantic relationships with Brad McClelland and Aaron Francis.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Only the River Flows,” a pitch-black crime noir from auteur Wei Shujun, comfortably topped the mainland China box office on a quietish weekend. The film, ostensibly a murder mystery, but one concerned more with atmosphere than linear plotting, earned $12.6 million (RMB90.8 million) in its opening three days, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway, or close to a third of the market. The film had its premiere in Cannes where Variety gave it a rave review, calling it an “inventive riff on Asian-noir” and making comparisons with films by Park Chan-wook and Diao Yinan. “Only the River Flows” has since played at a succession of festivals ever since, including New Zealand, BFI London, Vancouver, Adelaide and last week’s Pingyao event in China. Falling to second place at the box office after three weeks on top was Zhang Yimou’s “Under the Light,” which earned $6.9 million for a four-weekend cumulative of $176 million. Chen Kaige’s war, propaganda film “The Volunteers: To the War” earned $5.3 million in third place.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Chinese movie conglomerate Hengdian Films has inked a contract to fit Imax with Laser premium large format screen systems at 20 of its cinema locations. The order is the Imax’s largest recorded during the past four years. Hengdian Films is a pre-existing Imax client and the new deal will expand its Imax screen count to 27 when completed.