Neon has finalized a deal to acquire the worldwide rights to Artificial, the new film directed and co-produced by Luca Guadagnino. The project had previously been set up at Amazon MGM Studios, which subsequently decided to part with it, concluding that a different distribution partner would be the better fit for the film. Budgeted at roughly $40 million and currently in the final stages of post-production, the film recounts the days that led to the removal and subsequent reinstatement of [...]

Traditionally one of the most lucrative windows on the American film calendar, this year's Independence Day weekend closed below expectations. Coinciding with the celebrations for the 250th anniversary of the nation's founding, the North American box office posted one of the weakest July 4th frames of the post-pandemic era — a result compounded by the holiday falling on a Saturday, a day on which audiences favored barbecues and fireworks over the multiplex. Topping the chart was Minions & Monsters, the [...]

At Ciné – Giornate di Cinema, the summer industry gathering held every year in Riccione where Italian film distributors present their upcoming release slates to industry professionals, a major agreement was signed between three of the country's leading film organizations: ANICA (the National Union of Film Publishers and Distributors), ANEC (the National Association of Cinema Exhibitors), and IFC (Italian Film Commissions, the national association of regional film offices). Distributors, movie theaters, and Italy's regional film commissions are joining forces: with [...]

U.S. movie theaters are in the middle of a season the industry has been waiting a long time for. As of June 28, the summer season's box office (conventionally measured from the first weekend of May through September 7, Labor Day) has already brought in roughly $1.8 billion, a figure just 2% off the same period in 2019, the last year the American film market could truly be called healthy. That's not a small detail: since 2020, every attempt to [...]

Fox Corporation announced the acquisition of Roku, Inc. in a cash-and-stock deal that values the streaming platform at approximately $22 billion in enterprise value, with consideration of $160.00 per share in a combination of cash and FOX Class A common stock. The agreement, unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both companies, marks a strategic turning point for the U.S. media industry. Once the deal closes, the combined group will bring together FOX's sports and news coverage, alongside a [...]

Google is investing around $75 million in A24 in a deal focused on research and development of artificial intelligence tools for filmmaking, marking the tech giant’s first direct stake in an independent film studio according to reports from Variety and Deadline. The agreement involves DeepMind, Google’s AI research arm, which will work closely with A24’s creative and production teams to develop new workflows and tools for directors, editors and showrunners, spanning the entire process from idea generation to post-production. According [...]