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(snip)“A Wrinkle in Time” hit US theaters on March 9 after heavy marketing promotion by Disney and abundant media appearances by cast members like Oprah Winfrey and Reese Witherspoon, and director Ava DuVernay. The movie bombed. It made $33 million in its opening weekend, compared to $202 million by “Black Panther” and $258 million for “Avengers: Infinity War.” It has grossed just $126.8 million globally to date, according to Box Office Mojo and confirmed by Disney.

Disney/Lucasfilm’s Solo: A Star Wars Story has landed on tracking and the Memorial Day release per industry projections (not Disney) are forecasting a Friday through Monday start of $170M-plus at the domestic box office. Sources tell Deadline that Solo‘s tracking is “pretty strong” with an unaided score of 28 that’s higher than Rogue One: A Star Wars Story ($155M, 23 score) and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 ($146.5M, 23). Unaided awareness indicates how strong the buzz is on a title among those who are unprompted in polling and it’s a priceless stat off which studios buy their TV ads....

UPDATED, Friday AM with studio number: And so summer begins early in late April. Disney/Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War scored $39 million Thursday night, making it easily the best Marvel preview number ever stepping over Avengers: Age of Ultron ($27.6M), and the third-best ever behind Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ first night ($57M) and Star Wars: The Last Jedi ($45M). Earlier forecasts last night had pegged the number as high as $45M+, with some believing Thursday could go as low as $36M-$38M. Still, its a Marvel preview night record, making Infinity War another hit for the Teflon Marvel. Why is this...

"Chappaquiddick" did an estimated $1.9 million in ticket sales in 1,560 USA theaters. I can't find how much the movie cost, but if it's more than $20 million, it will have a very hard time breaking even.

In the late 1800s, Horace and Daeida Wilcox, decided to create a nice, quaint Christian community in southern California. It would serve no booze, and it would even give free land to churches (at least Protestant ones), so that righteousness could be proclaimed.By 1903, the bustling little city had enough voters---166 men---to officially incorporate. It was called Hollywood. Meanwhile, movies were first being created over on the east coast. For example, there were films made in New York City. But a pioneer motion picture maker, D. W. Griffith, found the Los Angeles area as the ideal place to make movies. What...

ABC’s Roseanne revival settled in last night with a slice-of-life episode focused on parenting after last week’s headline-grabbing premiere tackled President Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and the election. The ratings took the inevitable dip but remained impressive — 15.1 million viewers and a 3.9 rating among adults 18-49 in the fast nationals at 8 PM last night. Vs. the 8-8:30 PM part of the double premiere episode last week (17.7 million, 4.9/21), Roseanne retained 84% of the audience and 80% of the adults 18-49 rating. It was once again the top program of the night by a mile in both...

.... Religion is reclaiming cinema for sacred purposes at a rate never seen in history, with faith-based movies exploding from an obscure cottage industry last century into a multi-billion-dollar business. ..... "You can add faith-based movies to the list of genres that you can count on as box office, as much as you can count on any genre. But these movies have to come from an authentic place," comScore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian told AFP. ....

"I Can Only Imagine" was the biggest Christian hit single of all time. It's now a movie. And you might just take an unsaved friend to see it. Thousands of years ago, the Psalmist wrote, "The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them." Today, we can laugh along with Him. In the nation's theaters, a low-budget film with a strong Christian theme is handily outperforming a heavily promoted, big-budget, Academy Award-winning film celebrating a homoerotic relationship between an underage teenager and an adult. It did so even though the gay-themed film, "Love, Simon," is being shown in...

The month's last hope at the U.S. box office is Steven Spielberg's 'Ready Player One,' which opens Thursday, the eve of Easter weekend. With less than a week to go, Hollywood's major March releases have failed to bloom at the North American box office, triggering the worst year-over-year decline for the month in recent memory. March revenue through Sunday was an estimated $722.5 million, a 28 percent decline from the same time period last year ($997.3 million), according to comScore. The last hope for redemption is Steven Spielberg's pricey Ready Player One, which Warner Bros. and Amblin Entertainment open in...

Faith-based films performed well at the box office for a second straight weekend, with "I Can Only Imagine" capturing the third spot once again. "Paul, Apostle of Christ" landed in the eighth spot in its debut weekend, earning $5 million for Sony's Affirm Films. "I Can Only Imagine" held strong in its second weekend in theaters, scoring a solid $13.8 million. That brings its total earnings to $38 million – an impressive performance for a film that only cost $7 million to create.

The movie business owes Ryan Coogler and his Marvel team a debt of profound gratitude. Had Coogler and company not pulled off the massive cultural and financial success of “Black Panther,” the industry would be emerging from a long and brutal winter. As it stands, the Marvel movie about the king of Wakanda is the only new release in the past three months to achieve blockbuster status. The film’s outsize success is the sole reason that the domestic box office through the first quarter is running flat with revenues from 2017. It’s yet another illustration of the new commercial dynamics...

When the Dennis Quaid starring movie I CAN ONLY IMAGINE released last weekend, few thought that it would gross $17 million in its opening weekend, with a per-screen average of $10,400. Considering the movie had a production budget of $7 million, this is an outstanding return no matter how you slice it. In comparison, 21st Century Fox’s LGBT teen romance movie which opened in 800 more theaters than I CAN ONLY IMAGINE grossed only $11 million with a per-screen average of $4,700. It also beat out Disney’s A WRINKLE IN TIME in its second weekend, which only brought in $16...

The faith-based film "I Can Only Imagine" brought in $17.1 million at the domestic box office during its opening weekend, going far beyond early expectations and ranking third, behind "Tomb Raider" and "Black Panther." Based on the true-story of Christian artist Bart Millard's life, the family drama opened at 1,629 locations in the United States and received an A+ CinemaScore with an audience that was 67 percent female and 80 percent over 35. This is the distributor Roadside Attractions' highest grossing opening ever. "We felt that the film's inspiring story of hope and forgiveness made for a very compelling collaboration,"...

The nation’s moviegoers look to be turning out in bigger numbers for a Christian-themed independent film than for the first mainstream teen movie with a gay main character. Roadside Attractions’ “I Can Only Imagine,” based on the story of the biggest-selling Christian song of all time, is looking at an estimated $14 million-plus for the weekend from 1,629 locations, far outdoing earlier estimates of $2 million-$8 million. Meanwhile, Fox’s “Love, Simon” is garnering attention for featuring a love story centering on a teenage boy coming out, and is looking at a $12 million-plus weekend on 800 more screens than the...

The A-list actress' recent stumbles with 'Red Sparrow,' 'mother!' and 'Passengers' are no reason to gloat. The death of the movie star is bad news for everyone in Hollywood. In 1993, John Travolta’s career was teetering on the brink. The actor, who’d become a superstar with Saturday Night Fever and then added to his luster with Grease, had all but ceased to matter as a cultural force. True, he could still deliver the occasional hit, such as Look Who’s Talking, but at the domestic and foreign box office he was a has-been, someone largely remembered for a white sharkskin suit...

Disney’s megahit “Black Panther” has passed the $1 billion mark at the global box office. The studio said Saturday that the milestone is based on Disney’s estimate of ticket sales. The announcement comes on the 26th day of release for the blockbuster. The movie is directed by Ryan Coogler and stars Chadwick Boseman and Michael B. Jordan. Disney notes that “Black Panther” is the fifth film in its Marvel universe to reach the milestone. The others are “The Avengers,” ‘’Avengers: Age of Ultron,” ‘’Iron Man 3,” and “Captain America: Civil War.” The film has made $521 million domestically, becoming...

Ava DuVernay's A Wrinkle in Time — based on Madeleine L'Engle's beloved book and targeting younger girls — is off to a troubled start at the North American box office. Hobbled by poor word of mouth, the fantasy-adventure grossed $10.2 million on Friday from 3,980 theaters for a weekend debut of $32 million-$33 million, behind expectations. Wrinkle in Time has been rebuffed by most critics, while audiences gave it a mediocre B CinemaScore. While Wrinkle in Time was able to narrowly beat fellow Disney title Black Panther on Friday, Black Panther will easily win the weekend with $40 million-plus from...

FLEMING: Why were the Oscar ratings down 19% to the smallest viewership level of all time? I found it a most satisfying show. Jimmy Kimmel and producers Mike De Luca and Jennifer Todd did a fine job all the way to the finish line this time, owning last year’s gaffe and ensuring it didn’t happen with foolproof 100-point type on each envelope. Kimmel was hilarious; the film montages and special presenters infused the 90th Oscars with a sense of film history. Compared to the men-are-bad funereal atmosphere of the Golden Globes, this show was fun but still managed graceful moments...

When “Black Panther” made its record-smashing $201 million start last month, it was expected that it would easily keep the No. 1 spot at the box office until Disney released its next film, Ava DuVernay’s “A Wrinkle in Time.” But as the adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s famous science fantasy novel gets ready to enter theaters on 3,980 screens this weekend, that expectation may have been premature. When tracking for “A Wrinkle in Time” first came out three weeks ago, opening weekend estimates were set at approximately $35 million against a production budget of at least $103 million, according to California...

The other wide release this weekend is MGM’s Death Wish remake. The film was already delayed from Thanksgiving after the Vegas mass shooting and was lucky to not get delayed again after the latest mass-casualty school shooting just two weeks ago. [D]irected by Eli Roth and starring Bruce Willis, the film earned brutal pre-release reviews even outside of the cultural/political considerations. Fair or not, it's going to be a long time before it's the "right" time for a movie like Death Wish, especially one that doesn't update its politics or its demographics beyond an angry white guy shooting bad guys...