In what is poised to be a case of Warner Bros. vs. Warner Bros. for the No. 1 spot at the box office this coming weekend, the studio’s new DC superhero title, Blue Beetle, looks set to halt Barbie's three-weekend streak with a $28M-$32M domestic opening.
Barbie, meanwhile, per industry sources, is looking at a $22M-$24M fourth weekend, -30%. Through Monday, the Greta Gerwig directed Mattel doll feature counts $531.2M domestic.
The Angel Manuel Soto directed Blue Beetle is overindexing with Latino and Hispanic audiences. The hope is that there will be plenty of walk-up business, which was the case with Warner’s Meg 2: The Trench. It hit a $30M start at the top of its projections two weekends ago.
Blue Beetle crawls into 3,850 locations and will play in Imax, which the pic gains in full from Oppenheimer. In addition, the DC superhero movie, which was originally conceived for Warner's streaming service Max, will play in Dolby Cinemas, PLFs, drive-ins, and motion seats. >>>$3.6 Billion Summer & Counting |
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Bubble Watch - The options on the cast of ABC’s backdoor pilot The Good Lawyer were up Tuesday, which means that by now, the network would’ve made a decision on The Good Lawyer spinoff starring Kennedy McMann and Felicity Huffman. But the fate of the pilot — as well as ABC bubble series The Rookie: Feds and Home Economics — remains in limbo amid the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. And the longer the work stoppages go, the longer the shows’ odds of getting a pickup get. >>> Prospects
Coming Up Roses - The Bachelorette is heating up the airwaves this summer. The August 7 episode, which saw Charity Lawson narrow in on her final suitors during overnight dates, has reached a new season high in both total viewers and the entertainment demographic. >>>Strong Multiplatform Showing
Sweet Science Project - Winter State Entertainment unveiled The Hitman: A Tommy Hearns Story as its latest sports documentary. The boxing pic directed by Winter State principals Hamid and Camille Torabpour, which wrapped production prior to the strikes, spotlights Tommy ‘The Hitman’ Hearns, the legendary Detroit fighter who, between 1977 and 2006, won titles in five different weight divisions. >>> Golden Age Of Boxing |
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As an editor for Netflix’s Queer Eye, Toni Ann Carabello says the work is very different from other reality series. “On a lot of other shows, you’re over-emphasizing the drama,” she says. “On Queer Eye, you’re really just playing up the best parts of what’s there… It just makes everyone leave smiling.” Carabello was nominated for an Emmy for her work on Queer Eye episode “Speedy for Life,” which follows a young man looking to inspire others after a traumatic accident. “At the end of the day, [that episode] touched everybody with how it really made an impact on this kid’s life,” she says. >>> Read The Interview |
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Exclusive
Sex Education and Doctor Who star Ncuti Gatwa is set to star as David Copperfield in a new all-star Audible series executive-produced by Oscar winner Sam Mendes. Also starring in the series will be Helena Bonham Carter, Theo James, Jessie Buckley, Richard Armitage, Jack Lowden and Toby Jones. David Copperfield is the second in Mendes’ Charles Dickens collaborations with Audible, following Oliver Twist which released last year.
Initial cast has been announced for Broadway’s Prayer for the French Republic. Written by Joshua Harmon and directed by David Cromer (The Band’s Visit), Prayer for the French Republic begins performances on Tuesday, December 19 with opening night set for Tuesday, January 9, at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. Cast includes Emmy-nominated Anthony Edwards (ER, Top Gun) and Aria Shahghasemi (Legacies ) along with several actors from the original Off Broadway production.
E! is bringing the most controversial reality show stars together under one roof in House of Villains. Hosted by Joel McHale, the series is set to premiere on Thursday, October 12 at 10 p.m. ET/PT with a supersized 75-minute episode airing simultaneously on Bravo, SyFy and USA. Cast includes Anfisa Arkhipchenko, Johnny Bananas, Shake Chatterjee, Jonny Fairplay, Corinne Olympios, Omarosa Manigault Newman and more. |
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More News
📺 The View will start its 27th season next month with all of the co-hosts returning. Moderator Whoopi Goldberg will be joined by Joy Behar, Sunny Hostin, Sara Haines, Alyssa Farah Griffin and Ana Navarro. The status quo contrasts with last season, when Navarro and Griffin joined the show as regular co-hosts, after the departure of Meghan McCain in 2021.
🎙️ Selina Wang is joining ABC News as senior White House correspondent after being based at CNN’s Beijing bureau as the network’s sole correspondent in China. The network also announced the hires of Rachael Bade and Asma Khalid to its political team. Bade will be contributing political correspondent and Khalid will be a contributor.
❌ Algerian authorities have pulled runaway box office hit Barbie from local cinemas over its “damaging morals." The movie had been playing successfully since it opened three weeks ago — attracting an estimated 40,000 viewers — but a scan of local programming shows it is no longer screening in the country’s main cinemas after the culture ministry asked for its withdrawal.
🏆 Meryl Streep, Oprah Winfrey, Michael B. Jordan and Sofia Coppola have been named this year’s honorees for the Academy Museum Gala to be held on October 14. As a fundraiser, the event has been greenlit to move forward by WGA and SAG-AFTRA. The evening will help raise vital funds to support the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. |
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Trending  Gal Gadot has made her Netflix return after starring in the streamer’s most popular film of all time, Red Notice. Her new film, Heart of Stone, was No. 1 on the English-language film list for the week of August 7 to August 13 with 33.1M views.
🔻 Disney has been hit with a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court by film financier TSG, which claims that the media giant used “nearly every trick in the Hollywood accounting book” to hoard hundreds of millions in profit. |
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OBITUARIES
🕯 Game of Thrones and EastEnders actor Darren Kent has died at age 36. His agency said he “passed away peacefully on Friday” surrounded by his parents and best friend. In Game of Thrones, Kent appeared as a goatherder in a brief but memorable scene in the Season 4 finale “The Children.” His other credits included Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves and the BBC adaptation of Les Misérables. 🕯 Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2023: Photo Gallery & Obituaries |
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On the Radar
Wed - The Wonder Years S2 finale
Fri - Blue Beetle opens
Sat - Stand Up to Cancer special
Sun - Women's World Cup final (England v. Spain) |
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Florence & The Machine - Hawkeye actress Florence Pugh brought some star power to the picket line outside Disney as the SAG-AFTRA strike hit Day 33. |
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