Topic Studios has signed Girls Trip co-writer and The First Wives Club series creator Tracy Oliver to a first-look deal for film and TV. The pact, which begins April 1, comes at a busy time for the multi-hyphenate, who is currently working on First Wives Club, the half-hour comedy based on the movie that she executive…

Will Packer Productions (WPP) announced today that it has named James F. Lopez President. In his promotion, Lopez will continue to grow and oversee all aspects of film production, as well as lead efforts to expand & diversify the company's slate. Previously, Lopez was Head of Motion Pictures at Packer’s WPM, where he…

When Deadline runs its Most Valuable Blockbuster film profitability countdown each year, readers often ask about certain wildly profitable films that didn't crack our top list. So we’ve once again had five overachievers broken down by the experts; pics with production budgets under $40M.   ANNABELLE: CREATION NEW…

One of the hardest things about covering Hollywood for New York editors is trying to convince them that most of the next year's stories have already happened. Films are made on a long lead time of, say, 18 months, give or take. So most of the touchy decisions, political fights, minor victories, major failures and…

The 49th NAACP Image Awards handed out awards tonight at the Pasadena's Civic Auditorium. ABC’s black-ish swept the comedy category in television while Power snagged Outstanding Drama. Breakout comedy Girls Trip won for Outstanding Motion Picture and Ava DuVernay took the top prize of Entertainer of the…

Here's a sobering thought (as if we needed one): Fox's action-comedy sequel Kingsman: The Golden Circle, opening Friday, could do as well as its 2015 predecessor and this still would be the worst year for live-action screen comedy since, possibly, ever. As of this week, only one live-action comedy has cracked the…

FX continues to stock up on big movie titles as theatrical films more and more deliver stronger ratings for basic cable networks than off-network series, making them a good investment. FX, which was an early adopter of the strategy, has picked up another 17 2017 movies over the past seven months from Fox, Universal…

As the old show business saying goes “Dying is easy, and comedy is hard,” and that’s been the case for a number of titles in the genre at the box office this year which have dropped like flies. Take your pick: Rough Night, Baywatch, The House, Fist Fight, the list goes on. Compare this to last year when four comedies…

Update, Sunday AM: After an intense battle for No. 1, Warner Bros.’ Dunkirk gained yardage away from Sony Animation’s The Emoji Movie with the Christopher Nolan WWII epic taking the top spot with $28.1M after a $11.3M Saturday that was +41% over Friday. That number reps a -44% hold for Dunkirk in weekend two. Once…

WRITETHRU, Sunday AM, following Saturday posts: Dunkirk beat expectations this weekend with a $50.5 million opening weekend at 3,720 venues at the domestic box office, an impressive start for a British war subject largely unknown to Americans in a marketplace of franchise holdovers and a $200M-plus budgeted sci-fi…

Two very expensive movies, both personal stories to each of their directors, are facing off at the weekend box office with openings that are expected to be less than spectacular when juxtaposed to their $150 million-plus production costs. Over the past month in tracking, Christopher Nolan’s World War II epic <a href="https://deadline.com/tag/dunkirk/" id="auto-tag_dunkirk"…

Call it a smoother Rough Night, a black Bridesmaids, an all-female Hangover. Whatever label you put on Girls Trip doesn’t matter. It is the knock-out funniest comedy of 2017 in terms of laughs per minute. Sit in an audience with this thing and you just might miss half the dialogue over the consistent roars from the…