Woody Allen flick ‘Rifkin’s Festival’ has lowest box office opening of his career

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentItalian exhibitors are sounding an alarm over the country’s pandemic-prompted box office plunge and the removal of theatrical windows which they say are causing closure of 500 movie screens.Their cry for help comes amid what they say is a lack of signals in Italy pointing to the cinemagoing recovery that is instead currently underway in other European countries.Two years after Italy’s roughly 3,600 cinema screens were first shuttered, 500 of those screens have still not reopened across the country, according to Mario Lorini, head of local exhibitors org. ANEC.Calling for action to counter this crisis, Lorini at a Rome confab urged the government to reinstate the country’s 90-day window between a film’s release in movie theaters and via streaming platforms and broadcasters that was lifted during the pandemic by Italy’s motion picture association.

Sony will release it’s first movie of 2022, and second Tom Holland title after Spider-Man: No Way Home over the 4-day Presidents Day weekend, Uncharted, in what is expected to be a $70M+ haul worldwide.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentAmber Heard (“Aquaman”) and Spain’s Eduardo Noriega (“Vantage Point”) will star in 19th century-set supernatural thriller “In the Fire.”The film, which will shoot in Italy, is directed by Conor Allyn (“No Man’s Land”).Principal photography is set to start Feb. 21 in Italy’s Apulia region.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterMere months after Tom Holland ignited box office charts with “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” the 25-year-old British actor is swinging back to movie theater marquees with “Uncharted.”Ahead of its domestic debut on Feb. 18, Sony’s big-screen adaptation of its popular video game series opened at the international box office to a solid $21.5 million from 15 overseas markets.“Uncharted” had the biggest start in the United Kingdom, landing in first place with $6.4 million.

Refresh for latest…: Hitting 15 offshore markets ahead of its domestic debut and further overseas expansion next weekend, Sony’s Uncharted mapped out an international box office launch of $21.5M. The Tom Holland/Mark Wahlberg-starrer was No. 1 in each of its openings, taking advantage of school holidays in some markets and, of course, the Spider-Man Holland halo.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter“Death on the Nile,” the latest cinematic take on Agatha Christie’s famed murder mystery novel, is sailing to the top of box office charts.The star-studded whodunit, from Disney and 20th Century Studios, picked up $1.1 million from 3,280 North American theaters in preview screenings. Through Sunday, “Death on the Nile” is on track to collect $11 million to $14 million.Super Bowl Sunday, usually the biggest TV event of the year, has traditionally led to lighter movie theater attendance, and 2022’s matchup between the Los Angeles Rams and Cincinnati Bengals looks to be no exception.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorNBC plans to inject some Hollywood tinsel and technicolor into its Super Bowl broadcast.Taking a cue from the Big Game’s location, SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, NBC plans to kick off Super Bowl LVI at 6 p.m. with an opening vignette featuring Halle Berry and a bevy of stars and athletes.

EXCLUSIVE: New York’s Museum of the Moving Image announced the full lineup today for the 11th edition of First Look, its annual festival showcasing adventurous cinema from around the world.

The return of the irreverent MTV stunt series has opened well below the $50 million start earned by “Jackass 3D” in 2010, though that was to be expected given the ongoing impact of the pandemic on most box office receipts. As with pretty much every film that has found box office success this past year despite the adversity, “Jackass Forever” has relied on turnout from younger male audiences with theaters in Los Angeles accounting for 27 of the top 40 highest grossing locations. “Jackass Forever” also has something that its predecessors did not: strong word of mouth.

Woody Allen’s decade-long downward spiral began after making “Midnight in Paris” in 2011 and following it up with a series of movies ranging from bad to worse to worse than that: “Irrational Man,” “Wonder Wheel,” “Cafe Society,” “A Rainy Day in New York.” At least we have the minor gift of “Blue Jasmine,” a comparatively fine movie according to the pathetic standard set by the rest, to counterpoint the nearly annual stream of Allen’s shrugging dross, but the emphasis is on “minor.” What a difference a change in era made for one of American cinema’s most influential directors.

Wyatte Grantham-Philips editor“Reacher,” an Amazon series based on the beloved Lee Child books, premiered at a drive-in screening Wednesday night at The Grove in Los Angeles.“I love this character,” Alan Ritchson, who stars as Jack Reacher in the series, told Variety on the arrivals carpet. “And especially for novels… there’s no better medium than eight to 10 episodes. It’s the right amount of time to tell these stories.”The Jack Reacher saga, which has sold over 100 million book copies and was adapted into a pair of features starring Tom Cruise, continues to hold “such a wide reach.

Alamo Drafthouse Cinema announced a major expansion with seven new theaters including three new regions, Chicago, Birmingham, and St. Louis, and expansions in Washington, D.C. and New York City — with a kung fu-themed Staten island location opening this spring. The move also includes locations in Colorado and Texas.

Alan Ritchson is hitting the red carpet for the premiere of his new Amazon Prime Video series!

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorMunich-based world sales company Global Screen has closed further deals in major territories for the family entertainment adventure “School of Magical Animals,” the most successful German film at the local box office last year. Global Screen will also be selling the sequel, it announced Tuesday.Deals have been closed for China (A-Quest Culture Media), Japan (Fine Films), Latin America (Discovery), Hungary (ADS), Serbia and Croatia (Investacommerce), and Portugal (NOS).

EXCLUSIVE: Oscar nominee and Emmy winner Woody Harrelson (True Detective, Zombieland), Emmy nominee Kaitlin Olson (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Hacks), Grammy nominee Cheech Marin (Born in East L.A, From Dusk Till Dawn) and Matt Cook (Man With a Plan, The Comeback) will lead Champions, a recently-wrapped film that Bobby Farrelly (Dumb and Dumber, There’s Something About Mary) directed for Focus Features and Gold Circle Entertainment.

Most of the theaters screening the film are owned by Landmark Theaters, whose flagship Los Angeles location posted the highest single theater total for the film with $2,300. Other theaters outside of Landmark’s circuit screening the film include the Quad Theatre in New York City, where the film grossed $1,600 over two days.By comparison, Allen’s previous film “Wonder Wheel” earned approximately $125,000 from five screens on its 3-day opening weekend in 2017, when the rise of the #MeToo movement brought long-standing allegations by actress Dylan Farrow against Allen — her adoptive father — returned to the public eye.

Refresh for latest…: Sony/Marvel’s Spider-Man: No Way Home scaled fresh heights this session as it reached an amazing new milestone by crossing the $1B mark at the international box office. The offshore cume through Sunday is an estimated $1.003B for a global total of $1.74B.

Fans of “The Santa Clause” franchise have something to “ho, ho, ho” about.

Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group has brought on Sydnie Karras in the newly-created position of Chief Accounting Officer.