China Box Office: Jackie Chan’s ‘Ride On’ Trots to Second Weekend Success

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Bruce Berman, a senior executive who was previously chairman and CEO of Los Angeles-based Village Roadshow Pictures, has come out of retirement to board the recently-founded film studio Through the Lens Entertainment. The company, founded by producer Aditya Chand, is headquartered in Singapore with operations in the U.S. and Japan. It aims to combine the opportunities of the East and the power and experience of the studio systems in the West, “to offer a new studio ecosystem out of Asia, that is built for the digital age.” Two film projects are already underway and a third with “Slumdog Millionaire” star Frieda Pinto is in development.

We’re counting down the days until the return of Selling Sunset!

Susan Sarandon has been arrested.

Disney is making some big changes to their streaming services – Just Jared Jr President Biden weighs in on the writer’s strike – Celebitchy Melissa McCarthy reveals the social media advice she gave her daughters – Popsugar New couple alert! – Just Jared Jr

Jackie Zemen, the actress best known for playing Bobbie Spencer on General Hospital, has died.

Over it. Katie Maloney thinks the Tom Sandoval and Raquel Leviss cheating scandal is a “dumpster fire” — but believes the twosome should consider giving their relationship a real try. 

Margot Robbie and Tom Ackerley rarely are seen in public together, but they made a rare appearance together at the Chanel Cruise fashion show!

Lionel Richie is sharing his thoughts on plastic surgery.

Surprise! Chrishell Stause is married!

The little things! Chase Stokes proved he and Kelsea Ballerini are still going strong by sharing a rare photo of the twosome getting cozy.

A long time coming? Tom Schwartz hinted at seeing cracks within Tom Sandoval and Ariana Madix‘s relationship before their split amid his affair with Raquel Leviss.

Loaded advice? Raquel Leviss weighed in on Ariana Madix and Tom Sandoval’s sex life — and boosted Ariana’s self-esteem — amid her secret affair with the TomTom cofounder.

Before Tom Sandoval’s affair scandal with Raquel Leviss came to light, the Vanderpump Rules star had been candid about his hope to improve his relationship with now-ex Ariana Madix.

Pedro Pascal continues to line up buzzworthy projects. He’s signed on to star in “Weapons,” the new film written and directed by Zach Cregger, who previously worked on “Barbarian,” one of the biggest hits of last year.

A targeted picketing campaign by the WGA East has made a significant impact on the New York set of Daredevil: Born Again; Deadline has learned from a source on the show that production has been suspended for the rest of the week.

Can I get an amen? Season 3 of “The Righteous Gemstones” will arrive on June 18 at 10 PM on HBO, with streaming on Max.

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge Tuesday dismissed portions of a defamation lawsuit filed last year by musician Marilyn Manson against his former fiancee, Evan Rachel Wood. The "Westworld" actress accused Manson of "grooming" her when she was a teenager in an Instagram post shared in February 2021.The former couple began dating in 2007 when Wood was 19 and Manson was 39.

Meghan Markle staged her hiking photos over coronation weekend — taking aim at her athleisure wear.“She actually had a little neck scarf with a tie. I’m sorry ladies, but we’ve all walked our dogs, literally nobody does that,” Kelly, 52, said Wednesday on “Sky News Australia.” “Nobody wears a little neck tie with a scarf and the glasses, and the hat and the perfectly wrapped little wrap for later just in case it gets chilly.”Markle, 41, was photographed Sunday on a 40-minute hike near her home in Montecito, California, without her husband, Prince Harry, or their children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.She was instead joined by friends Markus Anderson and Heather Dorak as events continued in the UK to celebrate the coronation of King Charles III, Markle’s father-in-law.

Jon Gosselin is celebrating a milestone moment in his children's lives.The former reality star took to Instagram Wednesday to wish his and ex-wife Kate Gosselin's sextuplets -- Hannah, Leah, Alexis, Joel, Aaden and Collin — a happy 19th birthday.Sharing a photo of the kids as little ones, Jon wrote, «HAPPY 19th BIRTHDAY to all my Kids!!! I love you all so much!!»Jon also shared more shots of the sextuplets on his Instagram Story, including another look at the bunch as toddlers and another story post echoing that same happy birthday message.Jon and Kate are also parents to twin daughters, Cara and Mady, 22.A post shared by Jon Gosselin (@jongosselin1)Jon caught flack in the comments, however, with fans pointing out that the sextuplets are not «all» his kids, making reference to Cara and Mady.ET recently spoke with Mady's younger brother, Collin, 18, who has been living with his dad, Jon, and his fellow sextuplet, Hannah. According to Collin, he has not spoken to their other siblings in about six years. «I haven't reached out to them, they haven't reached out to me,» he said. «I want to respect their space and their time and respect how they feel about everything, so I'm kind of just waiting for the day that they reach out.

Ariana Madix and Tom Sandoval's relationship begin to show, Raquel Leviss is throwing her hat in the ring and giving Madix advice on how to spruce up their sex life — which would seem friendly and helpful had Leviss not been engaging in an affair with Madix's boyfriend of nearly nine years behind her back.In Wednesday's all-new episode of , the final episode before all hell breaks loose and "Scandoval" is revealed, the group meets up at SUR following Madix and Katie Maloney's party for their new sandwich shop, Something About Her.Leviss, who was not invited to the party following her makeout with Maoloney's ex-husband, Tom Schwartz, reconvenes with Madix at the restaurant's garden bar, where she asks Madix how she and Sandoval are doing — earlier in the episode, the pair had a heated conversation about their relationship and where their disconnect lies, with Sandoval's increased desire to spend time with Leviss over Madix being a point of contention.«He feels like he’s not being heard, which is why he’s always the loudest person in the room,» Madix says after Leviss asks how she's doing following the intense one-on-one.Leviss then brings up Madix and Sandoval's sex life, reminding Madix that she offered Leviss advice when she was going through a dry spell with her ex-fiancé, James Kennedy.Madix stressed that her main issue with Sandoval is that she needs more quality time with the Tom Tom co-owner in order to be open to having sex with him.«I feel like in a relationship, you should want to have sex,» Leviss offers. «OK, but you have to be, like, emotionally intimate before you can be physically intimate,» Madix replies.«You guys were emotionally intimate at one point, obviously, right?» Leviss asks.

Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis played mother and daughter in 2003's Freaky Friday, Disney is looking to reunite the actress for a sequel.ET can confirm that a sequel is currently in development at Disney, and both Curtis — fresh off a long-deserved Oscar win — and Lohan, are both in talks to return.Additionally, ET has learned a script is being worked on by Elyse Hollander, a newcomer screenwriter best known for penning the Black List-beloved screenplay, Recently, Curtis and Lohan spoke with to commemorate the 20th anniversary of their classic body-swap family comedy and opened up about their possible plans for working together in the future.In fact, according to Curtis, she was one of the people championing a sequel project, based on suggestions she got from fans and reports during a recent press tour.«As I went around the world with people wanted to know if there was going to be another. Something really touched a chord,» Curtis recalled.

In less than an hour, they allowed an authoritarian wannabe to lie constantly while an audience full of his followers applauded. This was not a town hall, it was a rally.Donald bragged about overturning Roe v.

found Trump guilty of sexually battering Carroll in an incident that happened in the 1990s, and of defaming her when she came forward to report the attack. He has been ordered to pay her a total of $5 million on both counts.While discussing this topic, Trump was asked what he would say to people who consider this conviction a deal breaker when it comes to voting for him. He replied, “There aren’t too many of them because my poll numbers just came out.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The South Korean cinema box office fell to its lowest level of the year over the latest weekend. Nationwide theatrical earnings in a territory which before COVID was the world’s fourth largest were barely over $6 million. “John Wick: Chapter 4” lead the weekend chart from Japanese anime “Suzume” and Korean sports drama “Rebound” in a top three repeat from a week earlier. “John Wick 4” earned $2.51 million in its second weekend of release, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). That was a 38% week-on-week decline and represented a 41% share of the total Korean box office market. It also gave the film a cumulative total of $9.73 million since release on April 12.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Global cinema box office recovered strongly in the first three months of the year, driven by the performance of “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” in many territories and a bumper Chinese New Year season in mainland China. The upbeat news was delivered on the eve of CinemaCon Las Vegas by specialist research firm Gower Street Analytics, which has now increased its forecast of the cinema industry’s full year. The firm now projects that 2023 gross revenues will reach $32 billion, a 10% increase on its earlier estimate of $29 billion. “A $32 billion global box office in 2023 would represent an approximate +23% improvement on 2022. It remains 20% behind an average of the last three pre-pandemic years (2017-2019), but it shows how post-pandemic recovery of our business continues to improve,” said Gower Street.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Rights to ‘Man in Black,” one of two documentary films by China’s Wang Bing to appear in Official Selection at Cannes this year, have been picked up by specialty sales agency Asian Shadows. The 60-minute film, which will debut as a special screening, is a portrait of 86-year-old Wang Xilin, one of China’s most important modern classical composers and is now lives in exile in Germany. It was made in close collaboration with French cinematographer Caroline Champetier, whose credits include Leos Carax’s “Holy Motors,” Amos Gitai’s “Promised Land” and Andre Techine’s “Alice and Martin.” During the 1960s, when China’s Cultural Revolution forced intellectuals into the fields and stripped the middle classes of their wealth, Wang Xilin was the was the target of severe persecution, including beatings, imprisonment and torture. The film examines the body and soul of a man scarred by a life of suffering, who is yet still capable of deep and sincere compassion.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Trinity CineAsia has acquired rights to Chinese tentpole action movie “Born to Fly,” and will release the film in cinemas in the U.K. and Ireland.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Japanese animated film “The First Slam Dunk” has taken a strong early lead at the mainland China box office, picking up $13.8 million on its Thursday opening day. Films mostly release in China on Fridays, but the Japanese hit was given previews on Wednesday and a full court release on Thursday, starting with widespread midnight screenings. Data from local firm Ent Group reveals that the film earned $3.16 million from some 14,000 preview screenings on Wednesday, followed by $13.8 million on Thursday from 184,000 screening sessions. That gives it a $17 million cumulative and positions it at the top of the box office chart even before the conventional Friday to Sunday weekend begins.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Jung Ho-seok, better known as J-Hope, Tuesday became the second member of K-pop sensation BTS to join the Korean military. Approaching his 30th birthday, J-Hope attended an army camp at Wongju, south of Seoul, and is expected to begin five weeks of basic training there. Local news agencies reported a small crowd of fans, seemingly outnumbered by assembled journalists, waited outside the camp to wish him well. Their number was reported to be diminished by bad weather. Earlier, J-Hope had posted on the Weverse fandom platform words of encouragement and a pair of photos revealing his newly-shorn hair. “I love you all. ARMY, I will return safely,” he wrote. ‘Army’ in that sense is a reference to BTS’s legion of fans, rather than the Korean military services.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The battle for corporate dominance of K-Pop has become a drama that never stops giving. After the acrimonious takeover battle between BTS-backer Hybe Corp. and tech giant Kakao for control of SM Entertainment, Korea’s financial regulators are probing the deal-making that eventually led to Kakao’s victory. Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service raided the offices of SM Entertainment on Tuesday, according to the Yonhap news agency. Investigators were looking for evidence of stock price manipulation between February and March when the two camps were skirmishing.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Television Broadcasts, Hong Kong’s leading free-to-air broadcaster, has said that it is considering legal action against a group of shareholder activists. The shareholder group, seemingly led by Chow Ngai Keung and publishing its critiques on Facebook, has made a series of complaints about TVB. These include the allegation that TVB is operating a streaming app Maiduidui in Mainland China without the proper authorization and that TVB has misled shareholders over the official name of the company that ultimately holds executive control. The minority shareholders have also criticized TVB for investments in Mainland Chinese firm SMI and State Reserve Energy Bonds, which have cost the company HK$1 billion ($128 million) of losses, and for its 2021 acquisition of e-commerce platform Ztore.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “John Wick: Chapter 4” easily outgunned Japanese animation film Suzume to claim top spot at the South Korean box office over the latest weekend. The American action title earned $4.05 million between Friday and Sunday, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). That represented a nearly 50% market share, continuing a polarization or clustering around a single title that has become familiar of late in Korea, a market that formerly had greater diversity and width. Over the five days since its Wednesday opening, “John Wick 4” earned $5.87 million.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Japanese electronics giant, Sony has opened a virtual production studio in Shanghai, China, that it says can be used for shooting film, TV and commercials. The studio opened last month and is jointly operated with Gwantsi, one of China’s largest commercials production companies. Virtual production involves the use of high-resolution screens that create a backdrop in front of which actors perform. This can reduce the need for location travel, cut set-up times, shorten post-production and provide a more life-like environment for performers than traditional green-screen environments. VP studios are also well adapted to motion capture production.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Michelle Yeoh, who made history by winning the best actress Oscar for her performance in “Everything Everywhere All at Once” last month, made an emotional return trip to her native Malaysia last week. She visited her mother in time for the traditional Qingming Festival, or Tomb Sweeping Day, and stopped by the grave of her father who died in 2014. In an Instagram post on Wednesday she said, “Brought Mr. O home. Without my parents’ love and trust and support, I wouldn’t be here today.”A post shared by Michelle Yeoh 楊紫瓊 (@michelleyeoh_official) Her trip home represented a promise that Yeoh made during her Oscars acceptance speech.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Competition reality TV format “Lego Masters” has been picked up by Tokyo Broadcasting System for adaptation in Japan. The deal is the 19th for the Banijay Rights-represented format and the third in Asia. Production is currently underway for the show, which will see pairs compete against each other to wow judges with inspiring designs and brick builds. “I am looking forward to working with Banijay Rights and not only learn about the production of the show, but also to closely examine the essence of creation behind it,” said Aso Kunihiro, producer, contents solution department at TBS in a prepared statement.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Wanda, the Chinese conglomerate that once threatened to take over Hollywood, has put up for sale the Hoyts cinema chain in Australia that it bought in 2015. Hoyts is Australia’s second largest movie theater operator with 46 multiplexes housing 412 screens, according to 2022 data from Screen Australia. It also owns Val Morgan, Australia’s biggest cinema advertising firm.Wanda Cinema Line, itself China’s biggest theater operator, has appointed Credit Suisse and Nomura to handle the sale. Bidders are understood to have access to a “stapled debt” package (a line of agreed financing arranged by the banks) if the potential buyer cannot arrange sufficient finance of their own. A first deadline for bids is set at the beginning of May, with final offers to be submitted by the end of June.