SATURDAY UPDATE: Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald took in $43M at the international box office on Friday, casting spells in 79 markets, 24 of which were added yesterday. The Warner Bros sequel/spinoff is currently running 14% higher than Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them at the same point in play and in like-for-likes. The offshore cume through Friday is $74.3M and while there's been an ease in domestic projections, the global running tally through… Read
Donald Trump took to Twitter early Saturday morning to express his support for Nancy Pelosi to be Speaker of the House in the next Congress. The tweet comes after Trump a little over a week ago that Pelosi “deserves to be chosen Speaker of the House by the Democrats.”
His support comes with an interesting twist. He said that if Democrats give her a hard time that he can help add some Republican votes. This morning he added to that sentiment when he wrote: “I can get Nancy… Read
UPDATE SATURDAY AM: Refresh for chart and more analysisBetween midday and Friday and late last night, industry estimates for Fantastic Beasts and the Crimes of Grindelwaldeased with the J.K. Rowling-scripted sequel showing $25.7M for Friday (inclusive of $7.3M Thursday night sales and $1.8M from Tuesday) on its way to $63.5M, which is where tracking and Warner Bros. had it, but still this sub-franchise of Harry Potter is playing like a sequel in its second go-round not… Read
UPDATE, with video Bill Maher has some advice for America before he leaves on a two-month hiatus: “Shut the f*ck up.”
“Let’s stop talking politics to each other,” Maher said on tonight’s season finale of HBO’s Real Time With Bill Maher (the series returns January 18). “Everyone these days says the way to bridge the partisan divide is to talk to each other. It never works.”
“People don’t change their politics,” he said.
With Thanksgiving less than a week away, Maher’s… Read
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has decided to “scale back” its Sunday red carpet event at the Governors Awards because of the devastating wildfires in California.
“In light of the tragic wildfires burning through California, we have decided to scale back our red carpet at the Governors Awards this year, making it exclusively photos only,” said an AMPAS spokesperson. “The dinner and ceremony will continue in order to honor the achievements of these artists… Read
Democrat Stacey Abrams on Friday ended her efforts to become Georgia’s next governor, but used her final speech on the contest to bitterly complain about voter suppression in the state.
Abrams, who received heavy backing from Hollywood in her bid to become the nation’s first black female governor, detailed a litany of voter issues. She said citizens who tried to vote were denied their constitutional rights because polling places were understaffed, shut down, and were… Read
SyFy’s The Magicians has conjured its official season four trailer, showcasing the core group’s struggle to remember their identities and rediscover each other. The new episodes start on Jan. 23 at 9 PM ET/8 Central.
Last season, the core group embarked on the epic quest of the seven keys to restore magic after it was turned off. In the finale, just as our magicians finally restored magic by unlocking the fountain at the other end of the Wellspring, the Library, Irene… Read
A column chronicling conversations and events on the awards circuit
“This is absolutely the single worst weekend of the year,” one exasperated publicist told me last night after the AFI Fest closing-night screening of Mary Queen of Scots. What she said was an understatement as the Academy’s annual Governors Awards has become a full-weekend magnet for Oscar campaigning. This year promises to be the most hectic I have ever seen.
As fast as studios have been cancelling red… Read
The new comedy set in the world of foster care homes, Instant Family, lays on the laughs and the messages in equal doses, but also ought to be an instant family movie pleaser, perfectly suited to the holiday period and aimed at those who ate up star Mark Wahlberg’s Daddy’s Home and its sequel. Wahlberg has turned into a very adept comedic star, faring better in this kind of film lately than some of his action pictures. He is nicely paired with the ever-watchable and… Read
Fox has given a script commitment with penalty to an hourlong female-centric Texas Rangers drama from writer Matt Cook, former Empire showrunner Ilene Chaiken and 20th Century Fox TV.
Written by Cook, the untitled Female Texas Ranger project centers on Lauren Crawford Flynn, one of only two females in the legendary and notoriously tough Texas Rangers, who balances the demands of her intense, high stakes job in a male dominated world with the challenges of being a single… Read
Fox has given a script commitment with penalty to neXt, an A.I. thriller drama from 24: Legacy co-creator/executive producer Manny Coto, This Is Us directors/executive producers John Requa and Glenn Ficarra and 20th Century Fox TV.
Written by Coto, neXt is described as a propulsive, fact-based thriller grounded in the latest A.I. research. It features a brilliant but paranoid former tech CEO who joins a Homeland Cybersecurity Agent and her team to stop a terrifying A.I… Read
The four network daytime dramas will not be boycotting next year’s Daytime Emmy Awards ceremony as they’d threatened to in July. In an unprecedented show of unity, after being dissatisfied with the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences' response to screw-ups during this year’s awards show, The Bold and the Beautiful, Days of Our Lives, General Hospital and The Young and the Restless banded together this summer to present a list of complaints and demands for… Read
