Chaos In The Air -- Passenger Opens Emergency Door MID-FLIGHT Over South Korea!

Brent Lang Executive Editor Family audiences turned out in force, propelling Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” to the top of the box office over the Memorial Day weekend. The film, a live-action remake of the 1988 animated favorite, earned a splashy $117.5 million over the four-day holiday. It ranks as the fifth largest Memorial Day debut — last year’s “Top Gun: Maverick” set a new record for the holiday with its $160.5 million launch. At one point over the weekend, it looked as if “The Little Mermaid” might even open north of $120 million, but ticket sales flagged slightly. For Disney, the film’s popularity is a testament to its strategy of digging deep into its vaults and rebooting animated titles as live action movies, something it has done successfully with the likes of “Aladdin,” “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Lion King.” Waiting out on the horizon: Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, the Oscar-winning director of “Summer of Soul,” is helming a remake of “The Aristocats” for Disney.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief South Korean box office held strong over the weekend, with “Fast X” enjoying a second lap at the head of the field, followed by a growing chasing pack. “Fast X” earned $3.12 million between Friday and Sunday in Korea, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). That was a 38% decline compared with its opening weekend, but pumped the film’s total to a speedy $11.4 million after 12 days. Three other titles jostled for position ahead of Monday’s Buddha’s Birthday public holiday and delivered multi-million-dollar performances.

A dozen plane passengers have suffered injuries in South Korea after another passenger opened an emergency exit door during a flight.

Anthony Chen’s well-regarded Mainland China-set “The Breaking Ice” has found favor with multiple European and Asian buyers in the few days since its Sunday premiere as part of the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard. The film narrates a love triangle story among China’s lost youth generation and is set in the middle of winter in Yanji, a town that is heavily populated by ethnic Koreans. It is headlined by a star-studded Chinese cast of Zhou Dongyu (“Better Days”), Liu Haoran (“Detective Chinatown” franchise) and Qu Chuxiao (“The Wandering Earth”). “The Breaking Ice” has been newly licensed to Challan for release in South Korea, Trigon-Film for Switzerland, One From the Heart for Greece, Tucker Film for Italy and Edko Films for Hong Kong.Rights sales are handled by Rediance, Mainland China’s leading indie sales company, which reports that addition territory deals are currently being negotiated.

Black Knight, has become the platform’s most-watched non-English series of the week.This is according to data from Netflix’s official most-watched list, which tracks the platforms most popular content based on a metric it calls “hours viewed”. For the week of May 15 to 21, Black Knight logged over 35million hours viewed.It’s the show’s second week as the most-watched non-English series of the week.

88rising has announced the first slate of artists for its fifth annual Head In the Clouds festival in Los Angeles.Head In the Clouds LA is set to take place on August 5 and 6 at Brookside at The Rosebowl. This year’s edition will be headlined by DPR Ian, DPR LIVE, Jackson Wang, NIKI, Rich Brian, Rina Sawayama, XG and YOASOBI, plus special guest Zedd.In addition, the festival will also feature performances by South Korean singer-songwiter Baek Yerin, Thai musician Phum Viphurit, Thai rapper MILLI, Chinese singer Akini Jing and J-pop girl group Atarashii Gakko.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Latin American companies have descended on the 60th LA Screenings, mindful of the ever-shifting panorama in content distribution and production.  The ongoing writers’ strike is viewed by some as a boon for international content. Take what Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said at the company’s first quarter financials report presentation when the writers’ strike was looming: “If there’s a strike — and we want to work really hard to make sure we can find a fair and equitable deal so we can avoid one — but if there is one, we have a large base of upcoming shows and films from around the world.” “The global market is finally realizing that Latin America, with almost 700 million inhabitants that speak the same language, is a territory that has a huge penetration in terms of OTT and – still – pay tv subscribers,” says Mexico City-based Manuel Marti, Fremantle’s head of scripted development, Latin America. “At the same time, it has a long history of producing local content with a distinctive genre that’s slowly being embedded into American culture via the 62 million Latinos that live in the U.S.,” he adds.

Lise Pedersen Newcomer Docs-by-the-Sea, the international documentary Labs and Forum for creative doc projects from Asia, will present and works-in-progress showcase for the first time at the Marché du Film’s Cannes Docs.  Featuring four films in late production stage, the showcase is highly necessary, argues its curator, Gugi Gumilang, the executive director of In-Docs, the non-profit org behind Docs by the Sea.   A member of last year’s Docs-in-Progress jury, he said this gave him a chance to see what people are looking for. “There’s a lack of Asian representation [in documentaries],” he tells Variety, adding: “It’s really tough for documentary filmmakers in Asia, few countries have film funds,” he said, citing Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea, the Philippines and, more recently, Hong Kong. “There are few dedicated festivals, the biggest being South Korea’s DMZ. Other international film festivals like Busan, Singapore and Jeonju cater for documentary film, but the competition is tough as they don’t just focus on Asian projects.”

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Maxime Rappaz’s debut film “Let Me Go,” which plays in the Cannes ACID sidebar, has been sold to Brazil and Taiwan. The film stars Cannes regular Jeanne Balibar in the lead role as a fiftysomething woman torn between her family commitments and pursuing her own desires. Every Tuesday, a neighbor takes care of Claudine’s son while she goes to a mountain hotel to meet men passing through. When one of them decides to extend his stay for her, Claudine is confused and finds herself dreaming of another life. Imovision has acquired all rights for Brazil, and will release the film in cinemas after a Brazilian festival premiere. “The mise en scène is excellent and Jeanne Balibar is extraordinary,” Jean-Thomas Bernardini, president of Imovision, commented.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Paris-based company Indie Sales has closed further sales on “Richard the Stork 2,” and expects to sell the last remaining territories during the Cannes Film Market. The film, also known as “Richard the Stork and the Mystery of the Great Jewel,” is a follow up to “Richard the Stork” (released in North America as “A Stork’s Journey”), which was widely distributed in 155 countries and grossed more than $20 million worldwide. Indie Sales, which sold Oscar nominee “My Life as a Zucchini” to more than 80 territories, is increasingly focusing on acquiring big budget animation.

Dakota Johnson, Jodie Turner-Smith and Elizabeth Olsen were just a few of the stars to attend the Gucci 2024 Cruise fashion show at the Gyeongbokgung Palace on Tuesday (May 16) in Seoul, South Korea.

Sony Pictures Classics announced today they have acquired all rights in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Scandinavia, India, Middle East, Turkey, Southeast Asia (excluding Taiwan and South Korea) and airlines within those territories to Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal’s upcoming Bossa Nova-themed animated film, “They Shot the Piano Player.” Sony Classics plans to release the film at the end of the year to qualify for year-end awards consideration.A true international production, the film is produced by Cristina Huete of Trueba PC (“Chico & Rita”) in Spain, along with Serge Lalou for Les Films d’Ici (“Josep”) in France, Janneke van de Kerkhof for Submarine Sublime (“Buñuel in the Labyrinth of Turtles”) in the Netherlands, and Humberto Santana in Portugal. It is executive produced by Nano Arrieta of Atlantika and Fabien Westerhoff of Film Constellation.From Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal, who previously directed the Oscar-nominated “Chico & Rita,” “They Shot the Piano Player” is narrated by Jeff Goldblum.

Sony Pictures Classics has picked up rights to the animated feature They Shot the Piano Player for the U.S., Canada, Latin America, Scandinavia, India, the Middle East, Turkey, Southeast Asia (excluding Taiwan and South Korea) and airlines within the aforementioned territories. The film from Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal, two of the directors behind the Oscar-nominated animated feature Chico and Rita, is set up for a fall awards push from SPC.

While Southeast Asian films have premiered at the Cannes Film Festival many times before, and even won the Palme d’Or, there’s an energy around the region this year that we haven’t felt on the Croisette at previous editions. 

Lee Yong-Kwan has submitted his resignation as Chairperson of South Korea’s Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), the second high-profile exit in a week, after Executive Director Huh Moonyung tendered his resignation last Friday. 

Netflix's , the spinoff series. Anna Cathcart was only 13 years old when she was first introduced as the matchmaking younger Covey sister in the original movie trilogy with Lana Condor and Noah Centineo, and seven years later, the spotlight is on her as she becomes the romantic lead. «It was very interesting to have that experience of coming back to a character that I have so much love for, but it's also in a very new environment — and a new time of their life. I've been comparing it to coming back to an old friend that you haven't seen for many years,» the 19-year-old actress told ET's Deidre Behar ahead of 's launch on Thursday alongside co-star Anthony Keyvan, who plays «Q,» «because you have to relearn them and see what they've been going though [these] last [few] years.»«She's grown so much and there's parts about her that I kind of have to introduce myself to, but also, there's so many things that are familiar.

While it might seem that Fast X has run out of gas in the states, it’s totally turbo boasted overseas as the tenth installment in the Universal franchise is eyeing a an offshore start of $235M to 60M+ domestic. That will get Fast X to $295M worldwide, making it the third highest global start for a Fast & Furious movie after Fate of the Furious ($541.9M) and Furious 7 ($397.6M).

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Global Screen has racked up presales to multiple territories for the animated family adventure movie “Niko — Beyond the Northern Lights,” the third in the box office hit franchise about a flying reindeer. The sales agency will be showing a first scene to buyers at Cannes Film Market. The animated movie has been picked up Kino Swiat for Poland, Bluelabel for South Korea, Just4Kids for the Benelux, GPI for the Baltic states, Karantanija for ex-Yugoslavia, Zinos Panagiotidis for Greece, Bad Unicorn for Romania, Bohemia Motion Pictures for Slovakia and the Czech Republic, Pro Film for Bulgaria and Bir Film for Turkey.

BTS just dropped a super catchy new theme song, called “The Planet”!

Anna Tingley If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. A long-awaited oral history about BTS is finally here — and like all announcements made in relation to the mega-popular K-pop group, it comes after days of speculation from the group’s most ardent fans. The book “Beyond the Story: 10-Year Record of BTS,” which became available to pre-order on Amazon this week, was first posted to the retailer without an official title, author or synopsis, but rumors began to swirl when fans noticed that its original slated release date was the same as a nonfiction title about a celebrity that Flatiron Books announced earlier this year.