News

Omar Chaparro, one of Mexico’s top talents, has signed with Authentic Talent & Literary Management.

The actor, comedian, TV host and singer is looking to expand his international presence and appeal to audiences across a variety of mediums.

His past credits include films such as Mexico’s fourth highest grossing film of all time, “No Manches Frida,” which was topped by its 2019 sequel, which also starred Chaparro. His other credits include “Como Caido Del Cielo,” and he also had supporting roles in English-language hits “Pokemon: Detective Pikachu” and “How to Be a Latin Lover.”

Chaparro’s upcoming projects include leading and producing the English-language action-comedy TV series “Coyotes M.C.” from Moxie 88; a role in the action film “Blackout” alongside Josh Duhamel and Nick Nolte; and the gritty indie thriller “The Wingwalker.”

Elsewhere, Chaparro’s music profile includes summer 2021 single, “Las Locuras Mias,” featuring Joey Montana, as well his other single,...

Exclusive: Mexican star Omar Chaparro is set to lead and produce the English-language TV comedy/action series Coyotes M.C. from Moxie 88. The project is currently being pitched to streamers/buyers.

Chaparro portrays a business ethics professor whose life is upended when he is called to step in for his father, the infamous Latino criminal biker gang leader Los Coyotes Mc.

Moxie 88 co-founders Eugenio Villamar and Dan Carrillo Levy created Coyotes M.C. as a star vehicle for Chaparro’s first English-language TV series and currently holds the rights to the project.

Carrillo Levy and Villamar will act as executive producers, writers, and creators on the show. Chaparro and Jay Weisleder will serve as executive producers. Moxie 88’s VP of Development, Eugenia Esponda, will serve as a co-executive producer.

Chaparro currently holds the record as the highest-grossing actor in the Mexican box office,...

In yet another sign of explosive growth on Spain’s drama scene, Amazon Prime Video has unveiled four new Amazon Original series or movies tapping the large talents of some of its most successful comedy directors, producers, novelists and drama series creators.

In a sign of Amazon Studios’ hiked ambitions, the productions were described by Georgia Brown, Amazon’s head of European Originals, as “local stories that resonate with local audiences and have a global impact.” In the past, Amazon has stressed more the need for the former.

Also updating Spanish journalists in Madrid on Wednesday morning on progress on the already announced “Sin Huellas” and “Un asunto privado,” Prime Video’s new slate shows it enrolling some of the biggest stars in Spain, led by “Below Zero’s” Javier Gutiérrez and Carmen Machi.

Alongside Sílvia Abril, the two actors topline family time-travel comedy “Mañana es hoy” which is directed...

Exclusive: Pantaya signed an overall deal with Mexican actress Fernanda Castillo under which she’ll star in and co-produce original series and films (via Pantelion Films) for the company.

Castillo and Pantelion previously partnered on the film No Manches Frida, one of the top-grossing Spanish-language comedies, and Ya Veremos which is one of the most successful films on the streamer.

“One of the most fascinating and exciting things about my work as an actress is that it allows me to cross borders and tell stories that have an impact on the culture and identity of the viewers,” Castillo said in an exclusive statement to Deadline.

“I am honored to be able to create content with Pantaya for the U.S. Hispanic community and for this to be a bridge that allows us to connect to our roots and reflect who we are,” she continued. “I am thrilled to be part...

Until Pantelion Films unleashed “Instructions Not Included” in the U.S., grossing $44.47 million there in 2013, no other distributor had really cracked the Latino market.

Over the next eight years, Pantelion has produced the biggest U.S.-Mexico double-market comedy movie franchise, “No Manches Frida” and handled the first-run release in the U.S. of six of the 10 biggest Mexican hits of all time.

Now, however, leading Latino studio Pantelion Films is raising the ante.

Partnered by sister company Pantaya, the premium streaming Spanish-language service, from August this year Pantelion has signed talent deals with Maite Perroni (“Dark Desire”) and Mauricio Ochmann (“El Chema”) and co-development and production accords with Elefantec Global and El Estudio, The Lift and Traziende Films.

Simultaneously, with The Lift Entertainment, it has gone into production in Mexico on “La Usurpadora, The Musical,” a modern musical movie makeover of Televisa’s 1998 telenovela classic that punched humungous ratings and was exported to 125 countries.

Major Latino Hollywood studio Pantelion Films is starting production on what it describes as its “most ambitious undertaking to date”: “La Usurpadora, the Musical.”

Given Pantelion was the distributor of “Instructions Not Included,” the highest grossing Spanish-language film of all time in the U.S., as well as producer of “No Manches Frida,” its highest grossing Spanish comedy, that claim to ambition means something, singling out “La Usurpadora, the Musical” as one of the big Spanish-language releases of 2022.

Produced by Pantelion Films and The Lift Entertainment, the movie marks a modern musical adaptation of one of the most succesful telenovelas of all time, “La Usurpadora,” a 1998 Televisa classic that hit huge ratings and was exported to 125 countries.

Directed by Santiago Limón,, “La Usurpadora, the Musical” teams music producer Sebastian Krys, winner of eight Grammy awards and 12 Latin Grammy awards, choreographer Priscilla Hernández, creator of the Day of the Dead parade in “James Bond: Specter,...

In its continued bid to bolster and secure proven talent in Latin America, Netflix has announced a three-year exclusive creative partnership for series and a first look film pact with Chilean writer José Ignacio “Chascas” Valenzuela, creator, showrunner and executive producer of the hit Netflix series “Who Killed Sara?”

Valenzuela is now tooling the third season of “Who Killed Sara?,” co-written with his long-time collaborators Rosario Valenzuela and Jean Pierre Fica, which kicks off production in Mexico on Oct. 18.

According to Netflix, the first season of the series was viewed by more than 55 million households in its first four weeks, landing in the Top 10 of 87 countries, including the U.S., Germany, Israel, Brazil and France. The second season followed shortly, a couple of months after the first.

“I’d like to understand the phenomenon of its success myself and that way, minimize errors in my next shows,” Valenzuela mused. He...

Sales agent also sells to HBO Max, Pantaya.

Buenos Aires-based FilmSharks has licensed a raft of Spanish-language titles to Disney-owned Star Channel in Latin America and Lionsgate’s Pantaya.

Juan Carlos Carrasco’s Mexican rom-com Love Can’t Wait (El Amor No Puede Esparar) stars comedy lead Adal Ramones and Monica Huarte (My Best Friend’s Wedding) as two people who connect while trapped in a video store. HBO Latino holds US pay-tv and streaming rights.

The Star Channel package includes Maribel Verdu in comedy Empowered (Sin Rodeos) from Santiago Segura (Torrente comedy franchise), Paco Caballero’s comedy Off Course… To...

Exclusive: Mexican superstar Omar Chaparro (No Manches Frida series & Pokemon Detective Pikachu) has been set for the lead role in Tequila Re-Pasado, an original comedy from Sony Pictures International Productions.

Spanish director María Ripoll is helming the pic, re-teaming with Sony after recently wrapping Guerra de Likes in Mexico for the studio. The new film is adapted from an original script by Judd Pillot and Gerald B. Fillmore, which follows a workaholic who must outwit his multiplying clones after a magical tequila travels him back in time – again and again – in order to make things right with his family.

The film will be produced by J. Fernando Pérez Gavilán at Born Free and Santiago García Galván at García Tagliavini Productions, with Sandra Condito and Raymundo Díaz-González overseeing for Sony. Chaparro will also act as executive producer.

Production is scheduled to begin in Mexico spring 2021.

Chaparro was the star of Spanish-language...

Exclusive: When Netflix chief Reed Hastings recorded an audio essay for the BBC last month, one comment stood out within his message of solidarity for an industry besieged by virus disruption: “Throughout the pandemic, we’ve seen our members watching more content from other countries or cultures.”

The streamers and their global reach have evidenced over recent years that audiences will consume film and TV from outside their immediate experiences, and that the language barrier is no longer as pronounced as once thought. Hastings name-checked Spanish show Money Heist, Italian drama Summertime, and the German-American show Unorthodox as three series that have broken across national boundaries to be watched by a varied viewership.

And it’s not just series. The success of Korean arthouse drama Parasite, which racked up box offices records in markets around the world, grossing $250M+ before storming the Oscars earlier this year, reaffirmed that the bridge...

Omar Chaparro, one of Mexico’s most popular comedian-actors, and Mexican-Lebanese actress Edy Ganem (“Devious Maids”) have been cast as leads in feature drama “7th & Union” from newly launched Broken English Productions.

Launched in response to Hollywood’s paucity of diverse voices, in front and behind the camera, Broken English Prods. was unveiled mid-June by fledgling film finance company Grandave Capital, which plans to invest some $20 million in two to four Latinx projects with budgets of up to $5 million.

“We are proud to kick off Broken English Prods. with such a strong and commercial cast. Paired with [director] Anthony Nardolillo’s vision, ‘7th & Union’ is just the beginning of our investment in the Latinx pool of talent and projects,” said Broken English Prods. head Christopher Acebo.

“7th & Union” turns on two men, one well-off, the other not so much, who are both down on their luck. They strike...

Miami — Three of Latin America’s best known TV execs – José ‘Pepe’ Bastón, Jeff Symon, Carlos Martínez – have unveiled Elefantec Global, a content production-distribution house which adds a new and significant player to Latin America’s – and Turkey’s – content creation scene.

Based out of Los Angeles, Miami and Mexico City, Elefantec Global has also revealed its first talent relationships and a clutch of its first titles, as it made its official market bow at Natpe, hitting the ground running with over 50 original media properties in development, including dramas, biopics, comedies, thrillers and scripted reality.

Unveiled to Variety Wednesday at the Natpe conference in Miami – where the executives took discreet one-to-one meetings with targeted potential clients – Elefantec sees Bastón, a former president of Mexican TV giant Televisa, join forces with Symon, who previously headed up the Global Content, Distribution & Licensing & Merchandising Business for Grupo Televisa, and Martínez, ex-president of Fox Networks Group Latin America,...

Toy Story 4 sets record 25.2m admissions level.

Comedy dominated a record year for Mexican local box office in 2019 as home-grown films claimed 9.2% market share of all releases in what was also a record year overall generating $972.1m (Ps. 18.684bn).

Disney ruled, as it did in North America and across much of the world. Avengers: Endgame set the all-time box office record of $77.48m, outstripping the likes of Avatar and Titanic following years of significant exhibition growth in the country. Toy Story 4 delivered the highest admissions level of all time on 25.2m.

In a record year for local films that generated Ps.

The growing influx of streaming giants in the U.S. market is a boon for premium Latinx-content streaming platform, Pantaya. That’s how Paul Presburger, CEO of both Pantaya and Pantelion Films, views it. “I see them more as potential partners, whether it’s in distribution like Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video, or as production and programming partners,” he said, citing deals with Amazon Prime Video and co-production talks underway with other platforms.

The two-year old Lionsgate-Hemisphere Media joint venture has just surpassed the 500,000 subs benchmark, exceeding its growth forecasts. Being the only streaming platform providing premium Latinx programming in the U.S. and Puerto Rico with “higher budgets, better production values and bigger stars” has been key to attracting a spectrum of Latinx subs, ranging from the Spanish-dominant and bi-lingual demos to English-dominant viewers, Presburger asserted.

Merging the young, mostly Latino marketing teams of Pantelion Films, the...

IFC Films drama Diane starring Mary Kay Place is leading a crowded pack of specialty newcomers this weekend, with no debut limited release title breaking even above a five-figure per theater average as of the initial Sunday morning averages. Diane by writer-director Kent Jones grossed $27,043, averaging $9,014.

PBS Films opened its first narrative feature, The Chaperone, starring Elizabeth McGovern and Haley Lu Richardson in two New York theaters. The title, by upcoming Downton Abbey feature director Michael Engler, grossed $12,150, averaging $6,075 for the weekend’s second best showing among the slow-go specialties.

Magnolia Pictures bowed Sundance ’19 doc The Brink by Alison Klayman in four New York, L.A. and Washington, D.C. theaters for $18,370 for a $4,593 PTA.

Other reporting specialties making their theatrical launches include Comedy Dynamics’ French-language comedy Slut In A Good Way, playing 7 weekend runs for $22K and Greenwich Entertainment’s baseball doping doc Screwball, taking $12K in 13 locations...

Pantelion’s No Manches Frida 2 debuts at number six.

Captain Marvel starring Brie Larson soared past $200m in its second session, adding an estimated $69.3m to leave new openers Wonder Park and Five Feet Apart in its wake.

The Marvel Studios tentpole has reached $266.2m in North America and $760m worldwide. Only 20 films have crossed $200m in North America in less time, and only 19 have been faster to the $250m mark.

Jordan Peele’s SXSW hit Us will pose a challenge this week, although even if its slides down the order, Captain Marvel will hit $300m by next weekend.

Paramount...

Major specialty distributors and boutique labels launched a number of new titles in theaters and beyond this weekend in the most crowded weekend of the year. Audiences, though, were finite. In the end, a drama by a first-time feature director, Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre, is estimated to have the weekend’s highest per-theater average. Clermont-Tonnerre’s Sundance 2019 film, The Mustang is estimated to have grossed $76K in four New York and L.A. theaters, averaging $18,950.

Fox Searchlight’s The Aftermath, starring Keira Knightley, Jason Clarke and Alexander Skarsgård, bowed slower with five runs. The post-wwii drama set in Germany is coming in at $57,500 in the three-day, averaging $11,500.

Skarsgård did double time this weekend. The Swedish-born actor also starred in The Orchard’s The Hummingbird Project, also featuring Jesse Eisenberg and Salma Hayek. In four locations, the title by writer-director Kim Nguyen took in $36,027, for a $9K PTA.

No Manches Frida 2 from...

For proof of American cinema’s global reach, look no further than “No Manches Frida 2,” which like its 2016 predecessor hews to a tried-and-true Hollywood comedy formula, albeit one embellished with distinctly Mexican flavor. Bright, crude and aggressively hackneyed, director Nacho G. Velilla’s follow-up prizes energy over originality. While its humor elicits far more eye-rolls than laughs — and will thus leave franchise newbies cold — its high-octane style should appeal to fans of the first film when it opens nationwide in theaters on March 15, courtesy of Pantelion Films.

In the original “No Manches Frida”, thief-turned-teacher Zequi (Omar Chaparro) saved Frida Kahlo High School by turning around its wayward students, and successfully wooed nerdy colleague Lucy (Martha Higareda). Now set to marry Lucy, Zequi finds his life in ruins due to a vomitus mishap at the altar. Compounding that calamity, Frida Kahlo High is once again on the verge of being shut down.

In a much-anticipated move, giant streaming service Netflix has confirmed the launch of a Mexico City office this year. Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos was in Mexico City at a Netflix forum to also announce that the company had more than 50 projects in different stages of production in Mexico, some original content, others co-productions.

“The richness of talent in front of and behind the camera in Mexico was key in our decision to begin our local production strategy with ‘Club de Cuervos’ four years ago,” Sarandos said. “Since then, we have continued to expand our local investment and continue providing a platform for Mexican talent to be recognized around the world,” he added.

Four local films in the pipeline are destined for Netflix’s slate over the next two years. These include “Como Caído del Cielo,” a musical comedy inspired by the songs of Mexican legend Pedro Infante, starring...

Exclusive: Argentinian sales outfit FilmSharks, which has plied a profitable trade in the increasingly popular market of local-language remakes, has closed deals on hit Spanish-language movies to companies in France, Italy, Mexico, China, Brazil and India.

FilmSharks has closed deals with French outfit Soyouz Films and Brazilian company Glaz Entertainment for rights to local-language versions of comedy Ten Days Without Mom (Mama Se Fue De Viaje), which scored big at the Argentine box office last year for Disney. Diego Peretti stars in Ariel Winograd’s movie about how a mother’s sudden and shocking departure for holiday sends her family into tailspin as the father takes over domestic duties.

Successful Chilean export No Filter (Una Mujer Sin Filtro) is being lined up for an Italian remake with Colorado Film while a Paraguayan version has been sold to Lemon Films. The Chilean box office success, which was picked up for U.

Exclusive: Fresh off the huge Mexican box office opening of his comedy Ya Veremos, Mauricio Ochmann is joining Mexican comedian Omar Chaparro (No Manches Frida) in Spanish-language comedy Backseat Driver.

Pantelion Films, 3Pas Studios, and Alcon Entertainment are producing the pic, which starts production in Mexico next month. Also starring are Zuria Vega (Mi Marido Tiene Más Familia), Consuelo Duval (Netas Divinas), and Mauricio Barrientos (Qué Culpa Tiene El Niño).

The film tells the story of mild mannered Tomás (Ochmann) who flies to Puerto Vallarta to seek revenge against the cabdriver (Chaparro) who has been having an affair with his wife (Vega). Pic is a remake of the Filmline-produced Korean-language original Driving With My Wife’s Lover, which was written and directed by Kim Tai-Sik.

The feature is the latest project from Lionsgate label Pantelion and 3Pas Studios’ Eugenio Derbez and Ben Odell following their collaboration on the Overboard redo...

The Italian producer and distributor becomes the twelfth member.

Italian producer and distributor Rai Cinema has become a member of the Globalgate consortium that co-produces and co-finances wide release local-language films in key international territories.

Rai Cinema becomes the consortium’s twelfth member, joining Lionsgate in the Us, Televisa in Mexico, Gaumont in France, Nordisk in Scandinavia, Tobis in Germany, Belga in Benelux, Tme in Turkey, Kadokawa in Japan, Lotte in Korea, Cine Colombia in Colombia and Paris Filmes in Brazil.

Globalgate was designed by founders Clifford Werber, William Pfeiffer and Paul Presburger to source and curate intellectual properties and remakes,...

From the studio behind How to Be a Latin Lover and Instructions Not Included comes the hysterical, sidesplitting comedy, 3 Idiotas, arriving on DVD, Digital HD and On Demand September 26 from Lionsgate. After losing touch with their best college buddy, two friends set out on an epically funny adventure to find him and reunite him with his college sweetheart, played by fan-favorite Martha Higareda. Starring Vadhir Derbez, Christian Vázquez and Sebastián Zurita as the “idiots,” the 3 Idiotas DVD will be available for the suggested retail price of $19.98.

International star Martha Higareda shines in this laugh-out-loud comedy! When three nerds named Felipe, Beto, and Pancho met at college, they instantly became best buddies—and earned a reputation for creating chaos wherever they went! Pancho had everything—smarts, a promising future, and a loving girlfriend, Mariana (Higareda)—and then he disappeared on graduation day. Now, years later, Felipe and Beto set out on...

Saturday Am Update: With an estimated $2.4 million, The Hitman's Bodyguard topped Friday's box office on its way to a third straight weekend at #1, looking to deliver nearly $9.5 million for the three-day and nearly $12 million for the four-day holiday. Annabelle: Creation falls into second place with $1.8 million on Friday, heading toward a $6.8 million three-day and the Weinstein's Wind River delivered an estimated $1.5 million on Friday and is looking at a three-day around $5.5-6 million. As for the weekend's new releases, Sony's re-release of Close Encounters of the Third Kind brought in an estimated $485k and is looking at a solid $1.6 million for the three-day, likely to find a spot in the top twelve. The Weinstein's Tulip Fever brought in an estimated $357k and is looking at a three-day around $1.2 million and Lionsgate's Hazlo Como Hombre is falling well short of our forecast after bringing in an estimated $347k on Friday, headed toward a three-day around $1.2 million.

Pantelion executives to oversee service.

Lionsgate and Hemisphere Media Group have launched the Spanish-language streaming platform Pantaya.

Most titles will appear exclusively on Pantaya including exclusive and first run access to all Spanish-language releases from the Lionsgate and Televisa joint venture Pantelion Films.

The slate includes Pantelion’s No Manches Frida and Instructions Not Included (pictured), as well as classic titles featuring Latino icons such as Pedro Infante, Maria Felix and Jorge Negrete, and films from Lionsgate’s 16,000-title library dubbed in Spanish, including Dirty Dancing and the Crank action franchise, and Amores Perros.

The roster includes Un Gallo Con Muchos Huevos, and Ladrones, as well as documentaries, concerts and other original premium content.

Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer said Pantaya marked “ the next logical step in Lionsgate’s track record of serving the Hispanic consumer with high-end premium content through our Pantelion Films venture with Televisa.”

Hemisphere CEO Alan Sokol said the service would provide Hispanic film-goers...

Lionsgate announced this morning the launch of a Spanish-language Ott service called Pantaya, which will target Hispanic viewers across the U.S. and Puerto Rico.

Pantaya, priced at $5.99 per month, marks a partnership between Lionsgate and Hemisphere Media -- a U.S. Hispanic TV network owner -- and will comprise both current and classic films as well as documentaries, concerts, and other original series. While media giant Univision will contribute marketing as well as titles from its library, it is not an investment partner in the venture, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Pantaya, which is available now online and on iOS, Android, Roku, and via Amazon Channels, will serve as the exclusive streaming platform for feature releases from Pantelion Films -- a joint venture between Lionsgate and the Mexican mass media company Televisa. Some initial titles include, for instance, No Manches Frida and Instructions Not Included. Pantelion’s CEO, Paul Presburger,...

Mexican comedy stars Omar Chaparro (No Manches Frida) and Adrián Uribe (Suave Patria) have joined Eugenio Derbez, Anna Faris and Eva Longoria in the comedy remake Overboard. Chaparro and Uribe are currently touring the U.S. and Mexico with their live comedy show Imparables. Production is underway in Vancouver on Overboard, the re-imagining of the 1987 Goldie Hawn-Kurt Russell screwball romantic comedy turns the premise on its head by reversing the lead roles and features…...

Lionsgate’s local-language venture that launched in May last year has added Paris Filmes and Cine Colombia to 11-strong consortium of production and distribution partners.

The network already includes Televisa, Gaumont, Nordisk, Kadokawa, Lotte, Tobis, Tme and Belga. Globalgate launched on the eve of the Cannes Film Festival 2016 and is led by co-founders Paul Presburger, the Pantelion Films CEO, Lionsgate senior advisor William Pfeiffer and former president of Worldview Entertainment motion pictures group Clifford Werber.

Paris Filmes is the number-one Brazilian distributor of local-language films with an 81% market share and is a leading Brazilian distributor of English-language films including those of Lionsgate.

Recent releases include Os Dez Mandamentos, Loucas Pra Casar, Minha Mae E Uma Peca and Meu Passado Me Condena 1 & 2.

Cine Colombia is the top distributor in Colombia on 46% market share and distributes studio, independent and local-language films.

It is joined in the Globalgate venture by Dynamo Productions, the country’s leading producer behind Netflix show Narcos...

Lionsgate’s local-language venture that launched in May last year has added Paris Filmes and Cine Colombia to 11-strong consortium of production and distribution partners.

The network already includes Televisa, Gaumont, Nordisk, Kadokawa, Lotte, Tobis, Tme and Belga. Globalgate launched on the eve of the Cannes Film Festival 2016 and is led by co-founders Paul Presburger, the Pantelion Films CEO, Lionsgate senior advisor William Pfeiffer and former president of Worldview Entertainment motion pictures group Clifford Werber.

Paris Filmes is the number-one Brazilian distributor of local-language films with an 81% market share and is a leading Brazilian distributor of English-language films including those of Lionsgate.

Recent releases include Os Dez Mandamentos, Loucas Pra Casar, Minha Mae E Uma Peca and Meu Passado Me Condena 1 & 2.

Cine Colombia is the top distributor in Colombia on 46% market share and distributes studio, independent and local-language films.

It is joined in the Globalgate venture by Dynamo Productions, the country’s leading producer behind Netflix show Narcos...

Our resident VOD expert tells you what's new to rent and/or own this week via various Digital HD providers such as cable Movies On Demand, Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, Google Play and, of course, Netflix. Cable Movies On Demand: Same-day-as-disc releases, older titles and pretheatrical Snowden (Oliver Stone-directed biopic; Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Shailene Woodley; rated R) When the Bough Breaks (drama-thriller; Morris Chestnut, Regina Hall; rated PG-13) No Manches Frida (comedy; Omar Chaparro, Martha Higareda; rated PG-13) American Honey (drama-romance; Sasha Lane, Shia Labeouf; rated R)   Digital HD: Rent from $4-$7 or own from $13-$20 (HD may cost more than Sd)   FandangoNOW The Accountant (drama; Ben Affleck, Anna Kendrick, J.K. Simmons, John...

Read More...

If it were only about the numbers, the top specialized movies of 2016 would be a simple story: “Hell Or High Water” earned the most at $27 million, but “La La Land” will wind up making a magnitude more. Both are released by Lionsgate. The end.

However, if 2016 taught us anything it’s that the landscape for specialized releases is incredibly complex. Is Lionsgate a specialty distributor or minimajor? Should we only look at those films that were independently made? (Then we can fight over what that means.) Is it only for films that opened in limited release, then expanded slowly? Should we only consider theatrical releases? Do all documentaries qualify? What about subtitled films?

The top-grossing documentary was “Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party,” released by the faith-and-family label Quality Flix; it took in $13 million, more than triple Michael Moore’s “Where to Invade Next.” The short...

Year in Review. Every afternoon, a new wrap-up. Today an exhaustive list of how foreign films performed at the Us box office...  

Perhaps no film is a more perfect encapsulation of the 2016 reality for foreign films in the Us marketplace than Netflix's Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon sequel. The first was an international theatrical phenomenon and a true blockbuster delivering over $100 million in the United States alone. The sequel sixteen years later was in English and went straight to streaming. 

Despite the inhospitable 21st century climate nowadays, specialty distributors fight on to deliver some variety to the Us marketplace. Here's how they fared this year. These numbers were pulled from Box Office Mojo as of December 18th and we tried to be as thorough as possible (though we did skip documentaries and animated features which are sometimes screened in both dubbed and subtitled versions in the same marketplace)

Top 100 Foreign Language...

The hilarious Spanish comedy, No Manches Frida starring Mexican actors Omar Chaparro, Martha Higareda and Mario Moran, comes to DVD on December 27. Mario Moran talks to us about his role as a spoiled high schooler opposite Omar Chaparro.

Best known for his roles on the Mexican telenovelas La Doña y Pasión y Poder, Moran makes the transition to movies withe the comedy, No Manches Frida. While shooting a new project, Moran took time from his production schedule to discuss hsi current comedy.

Read More ...

After calendar grosses for September and October were unable to improve on 2015 numbers, November 2016 saw a +7.6% uptick compared to November 2015 as 264 movies grossed nearly $960 million. This also puts the Holiday 2016 season up +13% to date compared to Holiday 2015 with 209 movies combining to gross over $1.15 billion compared to $1 billion from 215 movies at the same point last year. Additionally, while August, September and October only saw two films (Suicide Squad and Sully) top $100 million at the domestic box office, four November releases have already topped the century mark, led by Disney and Marvel's Doctor Strange with $222.2 million and counting. As noted, Doctor Strange led November's releases after opening over the first weekend of the month with $85 million and has since gone on to gross over $222 million. Strange was one of two Disney releases in November, the other being Moana, to gross over $100 million domestically adding to the studio's six films that have grossed over $100 million this year alone.

Amid all the media-company maneuvering for position in these merger-mad days, few sectors are as interesting to watch as the big and growing market for Spanish-language content. No one is winning, but lots of new players are jousting with some incumbents for position. All are trying to find that river of gold beckoning from this often underserved market.

Some 50.5 million people self-identified as of Hispanic origin in the 2010 census, nearly 18% of the U.S. population. The numbers, both absolute and as a percentage of the total, have only grown since then. On top of their growing numbers, Latinos use their mobile devices and services more than other demographic groups, so creating digital media for them should be lucrative.

Around 40 million Americans speak Spanish as a first or second language, meaning only Mexico, Colombia, and Spain have more Spanish speakers. Not incidentally, Spanish is spoken by more people around the world than any other Indo-European language.

“Moonlight” (A24) remains the top story. Barry Jenkins’ best-reviewed film of the year expanded to a range of big city theaters this week. The movie continued as the top 2016 specialized performer in head to head comparisons this year. This performance is more than enough to buttress its elevated awards expectations, as critics groups start voting in in a few weeks.

But it wasn’t the only successful widened release. Subtitled film “The Handmaiden” (Magnolia) continued to impress, as it added far more than the usual number of second week theaters. It’s playing to both Korean-American and conventional arthouse audiences.

On a Halloween-adjacent weekend that seemed to scare off most distributors, two rock-related documentaries braved the competition. Jim Jarmusch’s “Gimme Danger,” with an initial conventional theater release, scored well, while “Oasis: Supersonic” (A24) mostly went for initial one-night events before adding streaming as its main venue.

The best reviewed...

The slumbering specialized world woke up this weekend.

Critically acclaimed “Moonlight” (A24) pulled a sensational response far beyond its already high expectations. But it wasn’t the only positive story: “The Handmaiden” (Magnolia) beat the odds against subtitled films. And Michael Moore’s election special “Trumpland” (Dog Eat Dog) scored strong numbers in theaters along with its iTunes debut.

Openers

“Moonlight” (A24) – Metacritic: 99; Festivals include: Telluride, Toronto, New York 2016

$413,175 in 4 theaters; PTA (per theater average): $103,685

In a lackluster year at the specialty box office, even a $30,000 initial platform per theater average for Barry Jenkins’ “Moonlight” would have looked great. Instead, with a rare 99 Metacritic score, ahead of any other film this year, the opening PTA of $103,685 is sky high and among the top initial results ever.

How good is it? It is second only to “The Revenant” (which opened on Christmas weekend) among releases over the last two years.

Though awards season has started outside of movie theaters it definitely hasn't started within them (a flaw of the system as we continuously bemoan) and The Birth of a Nation took another campaign hit this weekend dropping a rough 61% in its second weekend while its competition last weekend dimmed by only 38 to 50% in round two. This week was a battle between two films from reliably bankable stars without awards gold on their mind -- Kevin Hart's Kevin Hart: What Now? and Ben Affleck in the thriller The Accountant. The latter surprised by slightly outperforming the successful opening weekends of both Argo and The Town despite having nothing like their enthusiastic reviews. 

Top Ten Wide

01 The Accountant $24.7 New 

02 Kevin Hart: What Now? $11.9 New

03 The Girl on the Train $11.9 (cum. $46.5) Review

04 Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children $8.9 (cum. $65.8)

05 Deepwater Horizon $6.3 (cum. $49.3) 

06 Storks $5.6 (cum. $59.1)

07 The Magnificent Seven $5.2 (cum. $84.8) Review

08 Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life...

The traditional fall season of award-season releases gets a late start on Friday with “Moonlight” (A24) and “The Handmaiden” (Magnolia) leading the way. It can’t come a moment too soon.

This weekend, top-quality films “Certain Women” (IFC), “Christine” (The Orchard), “Miss Hokusai” (Gkids) and “Aquarius” (Vitagraph) competed in limited openings. All nabbed good or better reviews. But none scored at the level likely to lead to the sort of wider response and multi-million grosses that normally come along regularly at this time of year.

The weakness can be seen among later-week grosses as films expand. There hasn’t been a breakout crossover release of any significance since “Hell or High Water” (Lionsgate), which is still grossing better than most recent releases.

“Shin Godzilla” (Funimation) showed strength with a midweek opening in a mixed plan of bookings. Similar to “The Beatles: Eight Days a Week” (Abramorama), out-of- the-box distribution seems to be finding positive results.

Nate Parker’s Sundance sensation “The Birth of a Nation” opened in over 2,000 theaters this weekend. That’s not exactly a limited release for specialty distributor Fox Searchlight, which acquired the film for $17.5 million in a festival bidding war. The slave rebellion drama was far from a failure, but was a disappointment given its cost.

As the prime fall season continues, limited openings made no major impression, while not even the best of the expanding and longer-running films could muster as much as $300,000. Holocaust drama “Denial” (Bleecker Street) shows signs of hope, but overall comparisons to normal results for this time of year reveal that specialized product is lagging.

In the same weekend last year, both modest performers “He Named Me Malala” and “99 Homes,” neither considered breakout specialized films, grossed over $600,000. That was business as usual. Specialized grosses continue to decline.

Opening

“The Birth of a Nation” (Fox Searchlight) – Metacritic: 69; Festivals include: Sundance,...

If you were a peculiar orphan with supernatural powers could you imagine anyone more perfect than Eva Green to be your guardian? Tim Burton may not be the director he used to be in quality or bankablity but he was smart to latch on to Eva Green as his latest pale skinned raven haired muse. She ran so many circles around everything else that was happening in Dark Shadows (2012) it's a miracle that it was her character and not the film that cracked apart and crumbled. Her reviews are strong again for this new fantasy film.

Top Ten Wide

01 Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children $28.5 New 

02 Deepwater Horizon $20.6 New 

03 The Magnificent Seven $15.7 (cum. $61.6)  Review

04 Storks $13.8 (cum. $38.8) 

05 Sully $8.4 (cum. $105.3) Review

06 Masterminds $6.6 New

07 Queen of Katwe $2.6 (cum. $3) Review

08 Don't Breathe $2.3 (cum. $84.7)

09 Bridget Jones's Baby $2.3 (cum. $20.9)  Review

10 Snowden $2 (cum $18.7) 

Top Ten Limited

(Excluding Previously Wide)

01 M.S. Dhoni The Untold Story $1.2 New

02 No Manches Frida $380K (cum.

Fall has arrived. Two new limited releases opened at the $20,000 per theater level that used to be a regular feature for New York/Los Angeles initial platform releases.

“Denial” (Bleecker Street) and “American Honey” (A24) – both from relatively new distributors who show an ability to navigate the arthouse market’s tough shoals – are the highest in this traditional release model in the two months since Roadside Attractions’ “Indignation.”

That’s a long stretch. Some distributors have chosen wider initial city play, such as Lionsgate/CBS Films’ niche leader “Hell or High Water.” But numerous films have fallen short, and neither of these new releases was an automatic sell. So these are encouraging results.

Going a bit wider, unusual for a subtitled film, Music Box’s “A Man Called Ove” sought immediate positive audience reaction to give Sweden’s Oscar submission a chance to thrive going forward.

Two recent festival doc debuts,...

Movie Stars still matter. As long as they're real movie stars and not just "leads". Denzel Washington and Tom Hanks both became famous in the 1980s and they continue to be two of the most reliable leading men thirty-ish years after their first hits. So nothing about the success of The Magnificent Seven and Sully is complicated or surprising. Congrats to those perennials. Here are the weekend box office charts:

Top Ten Wide

01 The Magnificent Seven $35 New Review

02 Storks $21.8 New 

03 Sully $13.8 (cum. $92.3)  Review

04 Bridget Jones's Baby $4.5 (cum. $16.4) Review

05 Snowden $4.1 (cum. $15.1)

06 Blair Witch $3.9 (cum $16.1) Review & Remembering Blair Witch (1999)

07 Don't Breathe $3.8 (cum. $81.1)

08 Suicide Squad $3.1 (cum. $318.1) Review & Worst of Year

09 When the Bough Breaks $2.5 (cum. $26.6)

10 Kubo and the Two Strings $1.1 (cum $45.9) Review

Top Ten Limited

(Excluding Previously Wide)

01 No Manches Frida $740K (cum. $10.3)

02 The Beatles: Eight Days a Week... $397K (cum. $1.4)

03 The Queen of Katwe $305K New 

04 The Hollars $273K (cum. $729K)

05 The Dressmaker...

Rather than take the high-end prime specialty route with initial New York/Los Angeles dates, this week’s top two releases—Mira Nair’s well-reviewed “Queen of Katwe” (Disney) and Jocelyn Moorhouse’s less welcomed “The Dressmaker” (Broad Green)—both jumped to multiple top cities.

Two of the leading Sundance 2016 films – “The Lovers and the Despot” (Magnolia) and “Goat” (The Film Arcade”) took the national bookings with day-and-date Video on Demand strategy. A third, documentary “Audrie & Daisy,” debuted on Netflix along with some minimal unreported theatrical dates (to get it reviewed in the movie section and Oscar qualified).

None of these popped with particularly impressive grosses. No doubt some of the big titles ahead will go the more conventional route and score big results. But the lay of the land gets more complicated for art houses as both their exclusivity and theatrical-only patterns are at risk.

Opening

“Queen of Katwe...

Please note: The below list only includes domestic (U.S. and Canada only, unless otherwise indicated) grosses for specialty films — indie, foreign (including Bollywood films that open in limited release) and/or documentary — that opened in limited release (599 screens and under) in 2016 and/or were acquired for 2016 distribution at a film festival by an independent distributor or a studio (or its speciality division). It also includes films that screened only as an Academy-qualifier in 2015. Grosses include all reported grosses up to September 20, 2016. This chart is updated every Tuesday afternoon. (Last year’s list can be found here.)

1. “The Witch”

Distributor: A24

Release Date: February 19th

Opening Theater Count: 2,046

Opening Average: $4,301

Current Gross: $25,138,292

2. “Hell or High Water”

Distributor: Lionsgate

Release Date: August 12th

Opening Theater Count: 32

Opening Average: $19,417

Current Gross: $23,084,494

3. “Eye in the Sky”

Distributor: Bleecker Street

Release Date: March 11th

Opening Theater Count: 5

Opening Average: $22,761

Current Gross: $18,704,595

4. “Hello, My Name...

Reaching back over a half century, “The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years” thrived with a contemporary mix of theaters and Hulu home viewing availability to become a major grossing event this weekend. The Ron Howard concert doc led an otherwise bleak set of new openers as audiences wait for top titles from festivals to reach theaters.

Included among the openers are two films from directors of Best Picture winners that got little attention: “Mr. Church” from Bruce Beresford (“Driving Miss Daisy”) and “Finding Altamira” from Hugh Hudson (“Chariots of Fire”). Fortunes take different paths. Ron Howard directed “Eight Days a Week,” while Clint Eastwood and Oliver Stone are nabbing attention with “Sully” at #1 and “Snowden” farther back in the pack, respectively.

Opening

“The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years” (Abramorama) – Metacritic: 72

$615,632 in 88 theaters; PTA (per theater average): $7,243 ; Cumulative: $772,467

Ron Howard is the latest Oscar-winner (see Eastwood,...

Fernanda Castillo's new role will make you do a double-take. The 34-year-old actress has flawlessly transitioned from telenovelas in Mexico to being a badass on Telemundo's El Señor de los Cielos and simultaneously making us laugh in her new film No Manches Frida.  And fans are in for a surprise because she's really taken a step out of her comfort zone in this new comedy. "I play a schoolteacher, who is more interested in being considered popular with her among her students than actually being a teacher. It's a role full of comedy. She's a very fun person, but not much of a teacher, she's unfiltered and just says whatever comes to mind,"...

Welcome back to the Weekend Warrior, your weekly look at the new movies hitting theaters this weekend, as well as other cool events and things to check out.

This Past Weekend:

As expected, Labor Day weekend wasn’t good for the two new wide releases at all, although the romantic drama The Light Between Oceans (DreamWorks), starring Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander, ended up doing far better of the two. Also as expected, Fede Alvarez’s Don’t Breathe (Screen Gems) won the weekend with a four-day total of $19.7 million, a little less than I predicted. The Light Between Oceans ended up with slightly over $6 million, roughly the same as my original prediction but 20th Century Fox’s thriller Morgan, starring Kate Mara, bomb-bomb-bombed with a ridiculously bad four-day opening of just $2.5 million in its first four days. The Mexican comedy No Manches Frida (Lionsgate/Pantelion) ended up faring better in just 362 theaters,...

Box office is laboring this weekend; that’s par for the Labor Day holiday course. This year, the weakness stems almost entirely from the failure of new studio releases, with “The Light Between Oceans” (Disney) and “Morgan” (20thCentury Fox) flailing.

Holdovers, however, are doing better. Also helping the cause are two limited-release films, CBS Films’ “Hell or High Water” and Pantelion’s “No Manches Frida,” both handled by Lionsgate for their partners.

See More‘White Girl’ Opens Strong, Kevin Smith and Jerry Lewis Not So Much: Arthouse Audit

The Top Ten

Don’t Breathe (Sony) Week 2 – Last weekend #1

$15,700,000 (-41%) in 3,051 theaters (no change); PTA (per theater average): $5,146; Cumulative: $51,124,000

The Suicide Squad (Warner Bros.) Week 5 – Last weekend #2

$10,005,000 (-18%) in 3,292 theaters (-290); PTA: $3,039; Cumulative: $297,422,000

Pete’s Dragon (Disney) Week 4 – Last weekend #6

$6,471,000 (-13%) in 3,272 theaters (+28); PTA: $1,978; Cumulative: $64,223,000

3 (tie) Kubo and the Two Strings (Focus) Week 3 – Last weekend #3

$6,467,000 (-18%) in 2,985 theaters (-294); PTA:...

comScore today announced the official worldwide weekend box office estimates for the weekend of September 4, 2016, as compiled by the company's theatrical measurement services.

As the trusted official standard for real-time worldwide box office reporting, comScore provides the only theater-level reporting in the world. Customers are able to analyze admissions and gross results around the world using comScore's suite of products.

comScore's Senior Media Analyst Paul Dergarabedian commented:

"Paramount's 'Star Trek Beyond' beamed up an out of this world opening of $31.3 million in China for an overall international weekend of $37 million in 40 markets, thus propelling its international total to $131.1 million and its global cumulative to $285.3 million."

The top 12 worldwide weekend box office estimates, listed in descending order, per data collected as of Sunday, September 4, are below.

1. Star Trek Beyond - Paramount Pictures - $39.5M

2. Suicide Squad - Warner Bros. - $21.8M

3. Don't Breathe - Sony - $21.M

4. Secret Life Of Pets,...