Studio Weekend Estimates: Toy Story 4 Reclaims No. 1 w/ $57.9M; Annabelle Comes Home Spooks Its Way to $20.3M in 2nd; Yesterday Sings w/ $17M in 3rd

Toys reigned supreme at the box office in the final weekend of June, as Toy Story 4 reclaimed the top spot with $57.9 million and Annabelle Comes Home — featuring a decidedly less-friendly plaything — had a softer-than-expected opening in second place. Elsewhere, newcomer Yesterday exceeded expectations in third while Avengers: Endgame shot back into the Top 10 thanks to its re-release in over 2,000 locations. Following its franchise-best $120.9 million debut last weekend (not adjusting for inflation), Toy Story 4 dropped 52% in its sophomore frame, which is significantly higher than Toy Story 3’s 46.2% decline in weekend two and roughly even with Toy Story 2’s 51.6% drop. Overall, it’s a solid second weekend performance for the Disney-Pixar follow-up, which now stands at a fantastic $236.9 million total after ten days of release and is currently the fourth highest-grossing...

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Annabelle Comes Homes Earns $12.2M Overseas Since Wednesday

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Long Range Forecast: Angel Has Fallen, My Spy, & Overcomer

This week’s report covers a trio of new releases slated for the penultimate weekend of summer movie season. PROS: Angel Has Fallen should attract fans of the previous films in the franchise (Olympus Has Fallen and London Has Fallen) with stars Gerard Butler and Morgan Freeman returning to their roles. Since this will be the fourth weekend of Hobbs & Shaw, competition for the target male audience could also be diminished by this point on the calendar. My Spy will mark Dave Bautista’s second comedy this summer as the STX release hopes to attract his fans with a role that could be appealing to father/daughter moviegoers. Overcomer will aim to repeat the success of Alex and Stephen Kendrick’s previous faith-based box office winners like War Room, Courageous, and Fireproof. The brothers have become a well-known draw among that target audience. CONS: Angel Has Fallen...

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Early Weekend Report: Annabelle Comes Home Grabs $10.8M 2-Day Start; Yesterday Opens Well at $1.25M Thursday Night

Friday Report: Warner Bros. and New Line’s Annabelle Comes Home added $3.635 million on Thursday after its $7.19 million opening day Wednesday, giving the horror franchise sequel a two-day domestic haul of $10.822 million going into the weekend. Comparisons are limited at this point given the mid-week opening, fan following, and proximity to next week’s holiday corridor, but the film currently stands 22 percent behind the two-day pace of last year’s The First Purge, which also opened on a Wednesday (although it was the Fourth of July). Meanwhile, Yesterday bowed last night to an estimated $1.25 million from shows beginning at 7pm in 2,200 locations. That’s not far off from the $1.75 million earned by Rocketman‘s Thursday night shows last month (which excluded $580K in Fandango preview earnings from a previous night). More updates to follow throughout the weekend as Toy...

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AMC Launches AMC Artisan Films Initiative to Spotlight Character-Driven Movies

AMC Theatres announced the launch of AMC Artisan Films, a new programming and marketing initiative that will put a spotlight on “a curated set of character- and narrative-driven movies.” AMC’s new programming approach will let interested moviegoers know where to look for upcoming acclaimed films, and will provide consistent showtimes. “Because AMC is the industry’s top choice for blockbuster movies, many consumers don’t realize that we play more elevated and celebrated films than anyone else in North America,” said Elizabeth Frank, executive VP of worldwide programming and chief content officer. “With the launch of AMC Artisan Films, we aim to expose more moviegoers to specialized films and increase their theatrical success. And we plan to increase consumer access to these special films by seeking earlier runs in platform releases and holding longer in theatre to give...

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AMC Theatres’ Stubs A-List Subscription Service Celebrates First Anniversary with 860,000 Members

AMC Theatres’ subscription service Stubs A-List has registered 860,129 members since launching one year ago today, the company announced in a press release Thursday (June 27). According to AMC, those members have seen films in AMC theaters more than 20 million times since the beginning of the program. “This one-year anniversary gives us an opportunity to reflect on the enormous success of the AMC Stubs A-List program,” said AMC Theaters CEO and President Adam Aron in a statement. “Prior to launching A-List last summer, we set an initial goal of 500,000 members after one year and a second goal of 1 million by June 26, 2020. Based on our research and best estimations at the time, those goals seemed aggressive but attainable heading into the launch of the program. Given the overwhelmingly positive moviegoer reception we received the moment A-List was announced, it quickly...

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Alamo Drafthouse Presents a Career Celebration of Stephen King

PRESS RELEASE Austin, TX – June 27, 2019: Alamo Drafthouse Cinema is celebrating the master of horror Stephen King with a curated selection of cult and classic adaptations, beginning in July through the highly anticipated release of It: Chapter Two. Kicking off with a month of “Terror Tuesday” programming in Austin and culminating in nationwide screenings of four films in all Alamo Drafthouse cities, audiences will be able to experience a “King-Size Summer” of terror on the big screen.  The lineup includes an Alamo Drafthouse-wide re-release of Creepshow, Maximum Overdrive, The Running Man, and Stand by Me starting in August, along with select screenings of additional classics like Carrie, Pet Sematary, and The Mist. “We’re crazy with anticipation for It: Chapter Two, so to ease the wait, we’re revisiting some of our favorite Stephen King adaptations,” said Sarah...

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Social Pulse: Spider-Man Far From Home Crawls Up the Rankings

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Director Jon Watts on Taking Spidey Out of NYC in Spider-Man: Far From Home

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CineAsia to Honor China’s Lumière Pavilions Circuit

Lumière Pavilions will receive the “Exhibitor of the Year” Award at CineAsia on Thursday, December 12, at the Grand Hyatt, Hong Kong. The award will be accepted by Jimmy Wu, founder, chairman and CEO, and Jane Shao, founder and president of Lumière Pavilions. “It gives us great pleasure to present the Exhibitor of the Year award to Lumière Pavilions,” said Andrew Sunshine, president of The Film Expo Group, which manages CineAsia. “Since its inception, Lumière has pushed the envelope in becoming a trendsetter in the industry, making them an ideal candidate for this year’s award.” Lumière Pavilions is a cinema investment company focusing on the development and operation of high-end cinemas in China. Currently, Lumière operates more than 40 premium multiplex cinemas in economically vibrant regions across China. In 2016 Lumière Pavilions became one of only three strategic...

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Weekend Forecast: Toy Story 4 Aims for Repeat #1 Finish as Annabelle Comes Home Looks for Strong 5-Day Start

The final frame of June is set for the release of two new entries as Disney/Pixar’s reigning Toy Story 4 looks to repeat atop the box office in its second outing. Our weekend outlook: PROS: Fresh off a franchise-record $120.9 million debut, Toy Story 4 is enjoying strong early word of mouth and faces no direct competition in its second weekend. While last year’s Incredibles 2 dropped 56 percent in its second frame last year against Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom‘s debut, a drop closer to Finding Dory‘s 46 percent in 2016 and Toy Story 3‘s 46.2 percent in 2010 could be expected since those films came off slightly inflated Father’s Day weekend debuts. Annabelle Comes Home will benefit from the young adult crowd and fan appeal of the Conjuring universe, which recently propelled The Nun to a $53.8 first weekend back in September. Goodwill from 2017’s Annabelle: Creation...

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Top Women in Global Exhibition 2019: Alison Cornwell and Dee Vassili, Vue International

Earlier this year, Boxoffice partnered with Celluloid Junkie to present the fourth annual list of Top Women in Global Cinema, published in our CinemaCon issue. Throughout 2019, Boxoffice will continue to honor the women who have an immeasurable impact on the exhibition industry with a series of in-depth profiles. Alison Cornwell, CFO, Vue International  Vue’s CFO since 2014, Alison Cornwell has overseen several of Vue’s acquisitions, including Italy’s leading cinema chain The Space Entertainment, JT Bioscopen’s now-rebranded Vue Nederland, and Vue’s biggest procurement to date, CineStar in Germany. Her role looks set to expand dramatically over the next few years with the completion of recent corporate acquisitions. Cornwell is also a non-executive director of the Edinburgh International Film Festival and of the Scottish charity Moving Image. Dee Vassili, Executive...

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Re-Meet The Beatles: Danny Boyle and Richard Curtis’s Yesterday Imagines a World Without the Fab Four

It’s the highest of high concepts, with a hook guaranteed to appeal to anyone of a certain generation: Imagine a world where, thanks to a freak cosmic occurrence, all evidence of The Beatles and their legacy has been erased from planet Earth. Only one lucky dude, a struggling performer named Jack Malik, remembers their songs—indelible tunes that delight those around him and eventually transform him into an international sensation with a big secret. That’s the premise of the charming Yesterday, the first feature collaboration between two formidable names in modern British cinema: writer Richard Curtis, whose popular hits include Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Bridget Jones’s Diary, and Love Actually, and director Danny Boyle, whose wide-ranging credits include Trainspotting, Shallow Grave, 28 Days Later, 127 Hours, Steve Jobs, and Best Picture Oscar winner...

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Checking in with Cinionic: Wim Buyens Talks Laser, Past, Present, and Future

by Rebecca Pahle & Daniel Loria At this year’s CinemaCon, Boxoffice sat down with Cinionic CEO Wim Buyens to talk about one bit of tech that was on everyone’s lips: laser, laser, laser (with some LED thrown in for good measure).  It’s been about a year now since Barco launched the Cinionic brand. How has this last year been for you? We’re launching our new laser platform. Right now we have more than 25 laser projectors in the range, the most of anybody. You could say, “Well, you always did projectors as Barco.” But it’s slightly different now because of the angle on promoting, not just the projector, but the total cost of ownership over the lifetime of the projector. We at Cinionic look at the more holistic picture, the total experience. We also have what we call laser as a service, which means that technologies can be upgraded to laser. And that could be...

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Long Range Forecast: The Angry Birds Movie 2, 47 Meters Down: Uncaged, Good Boys, & Where’d You Go, Bernadette?

This week’s report takes an early look at what to expect from four wide releases currently slated for the weekend of Friday, August 16. PROS: The Angry Birds Movie 2, opening on Wednesday, August 14, will offer up the final animated pic of summer for kids before school resumes session, and there could be enough distance between it and July’s The Lion King to allow for a solid turnout by the young ones and their parents. The first film earned a respectable $107.5 million throughout its domestic run in early summer 2016. 47 Meters Down: Uncaged looks to build on the sleeper success of its predecessor ($44.3 million off an $11.2 million opening) two years ago with a late summer release that targets teens and young adults. Shark films have seen a mini-resurgence at the box office over the past few summers with the original film, as well as 2016’s The Shallows and last...

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Thursday Night: Toy Story 4 Corrals $12M Start for Second Highest Animated Start Ever; Child’s Play Slashes Up $1.65M

Friday Morning Update: Disney reports this morning that Toy Story 4 kicked off with an excellent $12 million start Thursday night, including shows that began with 5pm fan events and 6pm general screenings. That claims the second highest Thursday opening of all-time for animated movie, topping the $9.2 million of Finding Dory three summers ago by 30.4 percent, while coming in behind last year’s Incredibles 2 ($18.5 million) — the standing record for an animated film. Those two films opened to $182.7 million and $135.1 million domestic weekends, respectively. The Child’s Play remake is off to a strong start in its own right with an estimated $1.65 million from last night’s first shows. That bests Ma‘s $1.4 million kick-off a few weeks ago, while registering 28 percent behind Pet Sematary‘s $2.3 million start earlier this year. Meanwhile, Anna took in a reported $325K from...

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Cinema Technology Community Releases Report on Causes of 3D Ghosting

PRESS RELEASE Barcelona, Spain – June 20, 2019: Cinema Technology Community (CTC), a not-for-profit independent cinema technology organization, announced the publication of its report on the causes of 3D crosstalk. Through extensive research into content creation and auditorium technology including all elements of the light path, the report finds that while no single piece of equipment (port glass, projector, 3D system, 3D screen, or eyewear) is necessarily responsible for the introduction of 3D ghosting, any and all elements in the light path can have a contributing effect inside a closed ecosystem.   The research also suggests that while content itself does not inherently contain ghosting, the way in which it is created and mastered can, when shown in certain ecosystems, introduce ghosting through crosstalk inherently in the light path of projection and 3D equipment. Through...

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Christie and Arts Alliance Media Strike Partnership

PRESS RELEASE Barcelona, Spain – June 19, 2019: Christie officially announced a worldwide reseller agreement (excluding Japan) with Arts Alliance Media (AAM), leader in digital cinema software and services. The agreement will see Christie offering AAM’s full range of integrated theater management software and services to its wide-reaching exhibitor base. “We are very excited to have AAM’s suite of theater management software as part of our offering to exhibitors,” said Dale Miller, Christie’s executive vice president, cinema. “Their software solutions are the most widely deployed and well-integrated theater management systems in the world, and the perfect complement to our powerful, high-performance projectors and immersive audio solutions for cinema applications. As such, we can now offer exhibitors an end-to-end solution that delivers on all fronts.” “Christie has been...

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sp[a]ce gallery Makes VR Experiences Available to the Masses in First-Ever Public Exhibitions

PRESS RELEASE sp[a]ce gallery at Ayzenberg is thrilled to announce its second VR exhibition, Robot Remix VR. Curated by Milo Talwani and Paisley Smith, Robot Remix VR will premiere some of the medium’s most advanced and cutting-edge experiences to the public for the first time. Previously only available to select audiences at international film festivals, these immersive VR narratives will finally be available to the general public in a white-glove, VIP setting. The first phase of ROBOT REMIX Immersive XR (Saturday, July 6th, to Sunday, July 28th) grants audiences exclusive access to six award-winning experiences, including Gloomy Eyes, Your Hands are Feet, vand Virtual Virtual Reality. Tickets are available for $25 and provide guaranteed access at reserved 60-minute time slots on Saturdays and Sundays. Additional phases featuring more immersive experiences will be announced...

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Can Cinema Rebound in Brazil? Marcelo Lima on the Present Moment, and Possible Future, of the Brazilian Theatrical Business

With 209.2 million inhabitants and 161.1 million admissions, Brazil is an influential market for the motion picture industry. Local production is booming, and the number of screens is at an all-time high. However, growth has been hampered by an unstable political climate and an economic crisis that has plagued the country since 2015. A recent seminar in Los Angeles addressed these issues, organized by the Brazil California Chamber of Commerce. Boxoffice spoke with Marcelo Lima, CEO of the cinema trade show Expocine and Tonks, a leading digital service provider for exhibitors in Brazil and Latin America about the opportunities and challenges that face the Brazilian market. 2018 wasn’t a great year for the Brazilian box office. What were the causes behind that and what is the outlook for 2019? Brazil is in the middle of an economic crisis and last year we experienced unusual...

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