Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” is on a pace to collect at least $330 million in worldwide ticket sales for Warner Bros. by the end of its run, several box office analysts said, a haul that would put it in Hollywood’s horror hall of fame. Ticket sales on that level, for instance, would be on a par…
“Oh, wow, this is really cool,” Flannery Johnston, 28, said as the chatbot came to life, offering a personalized hello from M3GAN, the diabolical A.I. doll at the center of the movie. Over the next 20 minutes, the chatbot served up about 10 messages. One was a question: “Do you think they’re inventing other dolls…
There are no fail-safe formulas in Hollywood, but this one comes close: Take an established yet underexploited (or musty) cultural property — preferably one that stirs strong feelings of nostalgia among young adults — and add stars playing to type, abundant visual effects and a savvy marketing campaign that makes core fans feel appreciated. It’s…
As for movies? Mr. Zaslav acknowledged that film is “a tough business” at a Morgan Stanley conference this month, and seemed to ask for a bit more patience. “It’s a long-cycle business, and we’ve been winding out of what wasn’t ours,” he said, a reference to flops like “War of the Rohirrim” and “Mickey 17,”…
Disney’s latest remake, “Snow White,” arrived in theaters on Thursday night as one of the most snakebit projects in the company’s 102-year history. Almost everything that could have went wrong did, resulting in a torrent of negative prerelease publicity. Did the tumult have an impact on the box office? It certainly didn’t help: Based on…
Netflix spent over $275 million to make “The Electric State,” a sci-fi action adventure film starring Millie Bobby Brown, Chris Pratt and a slew of sentient robots. Had it opened in theaters, instead of on its service as it did on March 14, the film would almost certainly be declared a giant disappointment. Reviews have…
The hottest play on Broadway was written more than 400 years ago. Demand to see Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal face off in Shakespeare’s “Othello” is so strong that many center orchestra seats are selling for $921, helping the show break box office records. During its first week of previews, its average ticket price was…
The Academy Awards drew 18 million viewers on Sunday, ABC said, citing Nielsen data. That is an 8 percent drop from the 19.5 million who watched last year. The audience decline ends a three-year streak when Oscar ratings had been on the rise. The decline follows a trend among other award shows, which have seen…
Politics could also prove problematic. Most of the movies that Hollywood is poised to celebrate represent a cultural paradigm that was shattered by the presidential election. “Emilia Pérez,” a musical exploration of trans identity, has 13 nominations, the most of any film. In one way or another, “The Brutalist” (10 nods), “Wicked” (10), “Conclave” (eight),…
At the height of the superhero boom a few years ago, Disney pushed its Marvel assembly lines to run faster and faster. After awhile, quality suffered and ticket sales declined. So Disney slowed the pace. Last year, Marvel released one movie (the megasuccessful “Deadpool & Wolverine”) and two Disney+ series. To compare, in 2021 Marvel…