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As we launch into the second half of the 2019 movie calendar today with Spider-Man: Far From Home and upscale horror entry Midsommar, we now inch closer to actually coming up with some legitimate Oscar contenders in this year’s Best Picture race. Not that either one of those movies has a prayer for that, or pretty…

UPDATE:  Elton John is “mistaken” about LGBT rights in Russia, claims Vladimir Putin. The Russian President was responding to an Instagram post from John, who said that he was deeply upset by prior remarks from Putin that liberal values were “obsolete” and that Putin’s claim of non-interference with LGBT rights seems…

Elton John is calling out Russian President Vladimir Putin’s disingenuous statements about gay rights by noting that Russian film distributors heavily censored Rocketman “by removing all references to my finding true happiness” with husband David Furnish. In an open letter released by John’s publicist, the iconic rock…

SUNDAY UPDATE, writethru: With a $120M start at the international box office, Toy Story 4 came in above pre-weekend industry projections, boosted by terrific performances in Latin America. In like-for-like markets, the overall offshore opening tops Incredibles 2, which bowed last year to $115M (adjusted). A soft…

This time last year, Richard Madden was best known for his brutal death in the Red Wedding episode of Game of Thrones. But after the first episode of Jed Mercurio's six-part action drama Bodyguard aired, the Scottish actor became a household name practically overnight as David Budd, the buttoned-down personal…

UPDATE, WRITETHRU: Sony's Men In Black: International performed in line with pre-weekend industry projections, landing $73.7M at the international box office. Added to domestic's fizzle, the global launch crossed the century mark with $102.2M. Offshore tracking is on par with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and 19%…

Dexter Fletcher, who directed Rocketman and briefly pinch-hit on Bohemian Rhapsody after the departure of Bryan Singer, considered but dismissed a brief crossover appearance in the Elton John biopic by the Freddie Mercury biopic star Rami Malek. In an interview with the Gay Star News site, Fletcher said a crossover…

Rocketman has run into a roadblock in Samoa. The South Pacific nation has banned the Elton John biopic over its depictions of homosexuality. The film was banned last week because it clashed with Samoa’s “culture and our Christian beliefs”, the censor, Leiataua Niuapu Faaui, told the Samoa Observer newspaper on…

TUESDAY AM UPDATE, writethru with actuals: Disney/Fox’s Dark Phoenix came in below Sunday's estimate with an international box office opening of $103.7M in 53 markets, per the actuals. Combined with a heavily singed domestic bow, the global debut was $136.5M, lower than pre-weekend projections from the industry. The…

With Rocketman opening strongly this past weekend at 3,500 theaters, and with a dozen other music-driven movies huddled at the starting line, one movie milestone is being studiously ignored: the 50th anniversary of Paint Your Wagon. At its opening, Roger Ebert called Paint "a lump of a movie." Its failings, he wrote…

SUNDAY UPDATE, writethru: Warner Bros/Legendary’s Godzilla: King Of The Monsters has come in with a $130M opening weekend launch at the international box office. As we noted yesterday, this is far lower than what the industry was seeing ahead of the debut. The continuation of Legendary’s modern monster series is the…

6TH UPDATE, SUNDAY AM FINAL: Even though Legendary/Warner Bros. Godzilla: King of the Monsters led all movies at the domestic box office, it’s with lackluster results, as the lizard has fallen below his stateside projections with $49M, per the studio – and some rivals even see the pic’s three-day lower at $47M. And…