Fighting lawsuits on both sides of the country, Johnny Depp has upped the ante in his $50 million defamation case against Amber Heard by slagging off the injuries the Aquaman star says she suffered at his hands during their marriage as "painted-on bruises." The statement from Depp came came in a declaration the Pirates…

When it comes to evaluating the financial performance of top movies, it isn't about what a film grosses at the box office. The true tale is told when production budgets, P&A, talent participations and other costs collide with box office grosses and ancillary revenues from VOD to DVD and TV. To get close to that mysteri…

Warner Bros.’ Fandango preview screening yesterday at 1,200 struck lightning with a $3.3M gross besting the paid-preview figures of DreamWorks Animation-Fandango preview of How to Train Your Dragon 3 ($2.6M),  Atom & Amazon’s WB preview of Aquaman ($2.9M), and Atom/Amazon’s previews of Sony’s Jumanji: Welcome to the Ju…

Warner Bros just dated Aquaman 2 for December 16, 2022. The only other major studio release already booked that weekend is an untitled live action movie from Disney. Christmas Day falls on a Sunday that year, and Illumination Animation has an untitled film that’s set to open on Wednesday, December 21. Earlier this…

UPDATE, WRITETHRU: After getting off to an early start in Asia last weekend, Fox/Lightstorm's Alita: Battle Angel moved into wide offshore release this session with $56.2M in 86 markets. That brings the total on the expensive James Cameron-produced pic to $94.4M at the international box office. Key releases in China…

BREAKING: Warner Bros. has tapped frequent James Wan collaborator David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick to pen Aquaman 2. Johnson-McGoldrick co-wrote the $1 billion grossing Aquaman with Will Beall. James Wan and Peter Safran are producing. Aquaman has grossed $1.1 billion worldwide, making it the second highest grossing…

It has been a busy week at the international box office with Chinese New Year in full swing since Tuesday. The top of the chart is dominated by Middle Kingdom pics including sci-fi epic The Wandering Earth ($298M), fantasy comedy Crazy Alien ($215M) and racing comedy Pegasus ($155M). For the Hollywood studios, Fox got…

Newbie screenwriters Noah Gardner and Aidan Fitzgerald have been hired to write The Trench, a screenplay that will act as a spinoff of Warner Bros and DC’s Aquaman. This is separate from an inevitable sequel to the original movie, which is awaiting a script that could entice director James Wan to return. The original A…

With the success of Asian-led films such as Crazy Rich Asians, Searching and Aquaman, #GoldOpen has partnered with AMC Theatres to help continue their initiative of championing Asian films. The first-of-its-kind partnership with AMC is designed to streamline group movie-going, theatre buyouts and bulk regular-price…

UPDATE, writethru: Expanding to a handful of key markets this weekend, Universal/DreamWorks Animation's How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World swooped into the top spot on the international box office chart with a $40.2M frame. This lifts the overseas running total to $84.4M from 41 markets so far in release. The…

EXCLUSIVE: Former Sony Pictures Imageworks executive Shauna Bryan, whose credits include The Meg, Suicide Squad and Thor: The Dark World, has joined U.S. and Australia-based firm Luma Pictures to lead business development as Executive Producer of VFX. Aquaman and Black Panther special effects outfit Luma has most…

UPDATE, writethru: With no big wide releases, and only some expansions, it was a fairly sleepy weekend at the international box office; down roughly 27% on the comparable frame last year across the Top 5 titles. Play was again led by last week’s champ, M Night Shyamalan's Glass, while Deadpool made his first foray…