At an airport in London, unable to find a quiet space to chat, Gerard Butler retreats to an abandoned children's playroom, without a chair to accommodate his frame. Possessing a sharp and generous sense of humor, manifest particularly in his independent features, and rom-coms like The Ugly Truth, Butler is quick to…

3rd UPDATE, MONDAY, 3:28 PM: Zootopia grabbed a big $6M more than expected from the weekend estimate due to a big turnout in China, where it pushed past the $100M mark. That puts the international cume for the animated family gem at $295M through the weekend and raises the global cume to $439M. The big opener this…

Peter Bart and Mike Fleming Jr. worked together for two decades at Daily Variety.In this weekly column, two old friends get together and grind their axes, mostly on the movie business. BART: The Best Picture quarrels may continue into perpetuity but an instant consensus has emerged about Worst Picture. Since no one I…

6TH UPDATE, WRITETHRU, TUESDAY AM: International weekend actuals moseyed in late Monday and early Tuesdsay, after a long Oscar Sunday that ended with major prizes going to a handful of movies still in offshore release and rollout. Best Picture winner, Spotlight, finished the weekend with a $24M overseas cume and will…

6th UPDATE, Monday, 1:40 PM: The final domestic grosses are in and it appears that Gods of Egypt ended up with only $14.1M. Added to the international total, it’s worldwide launch this weekend made a mere $38.3M but it still has many large markets to open in overseas, including China yet to come. Still, this film was…

No god of Egypt, Olympic ski jumper or corrupt cop squad can topple Deadpool from its No. 1 perch this weekend as 20th Century Fox’s Marvel superhero film looks to make $30M in its third sesh. Through Tuesday, Deadpool has collected $246.5M and is expected to clear $300M during the first weekend in March. Of the three…

You can speculate on what this means, but for whatever reason Lionsgate has opted to release the new trailer for its Swords and Sandals and Magic epic Gods Of Egypt a day early rather than during pre-game Super Bowl – sorry, “the Big Game” – as originally planned. And in accordance with divine instruction, you can…

Lionsgate said today that Gods Of Egypt has snagged a 60-second spot to air during Sunday’s Super Bowl pregame show. That makes sense for the Summit pic, which stars Brenton Thwaites, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Gerard Butler, Rufus Sewell and Geoffrey Rush — it opens February 26. The Alex Proyas-helmed swords-and-sandals…

UPDATED, 3:01PM Saturday:  Selma director Ava DuVernay took time out today to Tweet her responses to Friday’s post about the conspicuously non-diverse casting of Gods Of Egypt, and Lionsgate and Alex Proyas’ uncharacteristically quick public acknowledgement of the matter. This kind of apology never happens – for…

The survival of mankind hangs in the balance and ancient gods of an impossibly ancient culture battle for control of the universe. That’s the premise of the swords-and-sandals-and-sorcery epic Gods of Egypt, from director Alex Proyas. The film follows a mortal named Bek (Brenton Thwaites), who finds himself forced to…

Le Vision Pictures USA unwrapped a slate of 10 upcoming films tonight in Beverly Hills and announced the acquisition Lionsgate's Gods Of Egypt for release in China. Using what it dubs a “Great 2” strategy, Letv aims to create a platform for the world’s two largest consumer markets as it combines film equity…

Lionsgate dated a slew of titles this morning and made some schedule changes as well. Based on the warm reaction to footage at CinemaCon, the Kristen Stewart-Jesse Eisenberg action comedy American Ultra is landing an August 21 release date. The pic follows a stoner and his girlfriend in her small town who come up…