‘House of the Dragon’ Linear Audience Drops to 2.5 Million for Episode 3 as HBO Goes Silent on Digital Viewership

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “Barbarian,” a horror movie that may have audiences thinking twice about booking that next Airbnb, scared up a better-than-expected $10 million in its domestic debut. Since the box office has been a wasteland for some weeks now, those ticket sales were enough to lead domestic charts, despite barely reaching double digits. This weekend’s other new nationwide release, “Brahmastra Part One: Shiva,” opened in second place with $4.4 million from 810 North American theaters. Both films are backed by Disney. Though “Barbarian” landed a tepid “C+” CinemaScore, the twisty thriller is benefitting from word-of-mouth, given the film’s zany and flat-out terrifying turns. Variety’s Peter Debruge gave “Barbarian” high praise, calling it a “new horror classic,” one that gets “downright demented as it goes along.” If “Barbarian,” which stars Georgina Campbell, Bill Skarsgård and Justin Long, keeps people talking, the movie is likely to keep filling seats during a creaky September at the box office.

That would give this September weekend the second-lowest total of any weekend in 2022. The only weekend with a lower amount is the weekend of Jan. 28 with $34 million.

Carson Burton Steven Spielberg is taking audiences on an intimate stroll through his childhood in the first trailer for “The Fabelmans.”The semi-autobiographical film follows the formative years of a young man as he discovers a shattering family secret, causing him to use movies as a means to help him see the truth about others and himself. Spielberg based the film on his own early years in Arizona and co-wrote the script with “Lincoln,” “Munich” and “West Side Story” screenwriter Tony Kushner.On Saturday, “The Fabelmans” premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, earning a standing ovation in the crowd of movie lovers, who cheered loudly for the Oscar-winning auteur as he made his first appearance at the Canadian gathering. 

Game Of Thrones star Kit Harington has shared his thoughts on new prequel House Of The Dragon, saying the team behind the show have done a “fantastic” job.House Of The Dragon follows the Targaryen dynasty 200 years before the events of Game Of Thrones, and has received positive early reviews.After the show’s premiere broke records at HBO, attracting almost 10million viewers, the Game Of Thrones prequel has also now smashed viewing records in the UK, becoming Sky’s biggest US drama launch and the most watched Sky Atlantic premiere ever.Speaking at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) this weekend, Harington – who starred as Jon Snow in Game Of Thrones – was asked about his thoughts on House Of The Dragon by Entertainment Tonight Canada.“I’m really enjoying it,” he said. “My friend Miguel [Sapochnik] show-run it, so I’m really enjoying it.Harington added: “I think they’ve done a fantastic job. It’s a weird one to start a whole new show in the same kind of realm and to make it its own thing.

Emiliano De Pablos Few nations in the world have developed such a spread of film commissions as Spain, a country forged out of its regions, whose governments have energetically bought in to the benefits of foreign and local shoots. As the country moves ever more onto the big-shoot locations industry radar, the Spain Film Commission is experiencing rapid growth of its nationwide network as well as helping to drive the ambitious Spain AVS Hub plan. Following the March 2021 announcement by the central government of the launch of the Spain AVS Hub plan — with a €1.6 billion ($1.6 billion) budget — a royal decree in October granted $5 million in direct support to the SFC for actions eligible for subsidies from 2022-24.

Carrie Underwood stunned her fans with photos showing how she has transformed over the last decade, with some commenting that she looks "better now than you ever have".MORE: Carrie Underwood among nominees for 2022 CMA AwardsThe singer was celebrating ten years of her role on the NFL Sunday Night Football show on NBC, and took to Instagram to share a series of photos during her time on the popular show.WATCH: Carrie Underwood jokes she is no longer 'young and carefree'"A look back at 10 years with @snfonnbc… join us for the new season on @nbc and @peacocktv starting tomorrow night!" Carrie captioned the photos.MORE: Carrie Underwood reveals incredible insight into family life in fun new videoThe images showed Carrie in her signature glamorous ensembles, including bejeweled mini dresses and PVC trousers.The 39-year-old was inundated with complimentary comments from fans and friends, including singer Jennifer Wayne, who wrote: "You look better now than you ever have!!! Like a good red wine."A post shared by Carrie Underwood (@carrieunderwood)Carrie Underwood looked back on her decade on Sunday Night Football"This just proves she doesn't age," another commented, while a third asked: "Is it just me or has she been perfect for the past ten years?"MORE: Inside Carrie Underwood's never-ending 400-acre family home Carrie has been the face and voice of the show since 2013, and sings the theme song, Waiting All Day for Sunday Night, each week. Carrie is returning for her tenth series on the NBC showIt is a job she has previously revealed that she especially loves as a life-long football fan.

HM The Queen has left Balmoral for the final time, with the late monarch’s coffin this morning beginning the journey back to London, where the state funeral will take place on Monday September 19.

Britain's first European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut to visit the international Space Station is set to land in Lanarkshire next year.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic No director has done more to deconstruct the myth of the suburban American family than Steven Spielberg. Dissertations have been written and documentaries made on the subject. And now, at the spry young age of 75, Spielberg himself weighs in on where his preoccupations come from in “The Fabelmans,” a personal account of his upbringing that feels like listening to two and a half hours’ worth of well-polished cocktail-party anecdotes, only better, since he’s gone to the trouble of staging them all for our benefit. Spielberg’s a born storyteller, and these are arguably his most precious stories. From the first movie he saw (“The Greatest Show on Earth”) to memories of meeting filmmaker John Ford on the Paramount lot, this endearing, broadly appealing account of how Spielberg was smitten by the medium — and why the prodigy nearly abandoned picture-making before his career even started — holds the keys to so much of the master’s filmography. More similar to Woody Allen’s autobiographical “Radio Days” than it is to European art films such as “The 400 Blows” and “Amistad” (the more highbrow models other directors typically point to when re-creating their childhoods), “The Fabelmans” invites audiences into the home and headspace of the world’s most beloved living director, an oddly sanitized zone where even the trauma — which includes anti-Semitism, financial disadvantage and divorce — seems to go better with fresh-buttered popcorn.

Zack Sharf Consider “Glass Onion” another triumphant case for detective Benoit Blanc. As evidenced by the enthusiastic reaction to the premiere screening Saturday, Rian Johnson has again charmed the masses at the Toronto Film Festival with “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” the hotly anticipated sequel to the 2019 hit whodunit. Johnson briefly addressed moviegoers before the movie began to play, giving a sweet shoutout to his grandfather. “My granddad Howard Johnson traveled here tonight, he’s in the audience,” Johnson revealed. “Granddad, you are my role model. You’re the reason I’m making movies today, I love you so much and I’m so happy you’re here.” 

Don’t worry, darling — Florence Pugh isn’t going anywhere. She’s already booked her next Marvel project with the all-star movie Thunderbolts alongside Sebastian Stan and more familiar faces.

WHO Wants To Be A Millionaire? viewers have accused the show of stitching up a contestant with an overly hard question that saw him leave with nothing. John McKenna, who won the programme's sister show Fastest Finger First to make it into the hot seat, was visibly annoyed when he became only the second player in host Jeremy Clarkson's tenure to go home empty-handed. He came unstuck on the £1,000 question: "Which of these is a thick omelette made with fried onion and potatoes, popular in Spain? A: Tortilla B: Churros C: Croquetas and D: Gazpacho." John was stumped, admitting he didn't know what Churros were.

You’re not gonna believe who wants to take over the job of Santa Claus.

Disney+ is doubling down on the holidays.

Two Jamaican-Canadian brothers hailing from Scarborough, a neighborhood in Toronto, look up at a soaring transmission tower. The older sibling Francis (Aaron Pierre, “The Underground Railroad”) explains to his younger brother Michael (Lamar Johnson, “The Hate U Give”) that the higher you climb, the more the reverberations of the electricity buzz and shake you.

“Avatar 2” (out this Christmas!) and the cast (on stage in Anaheim) revealed a good chunk of footage from the new movie. It was overwhelming, in every way possible, as Cameron debuted the footage in 3D HFR to a noticeably muted response in the room.“Since everybody’s together there, all our film fans and we’ve got the cast right there, why don’t we show you some scenes from the movie?” Cameron said, via satellite (or whatever high tech contraption he undoubtedly designed in a lab).

“Indiana Jones 5” footage looks incredible.“I saw ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ in high school and it’s one of the reasons I became a film director and one of my producers is Steven Spielberg who is one of my all-time favorite filmmakers,” Mangold, who took over directing duties on the film from Spielberg, said onstage. “And Harrison Ford is one of my all-time favorite actors. And my composer is John Williams, one of the all-time great composers.

SATURDAY AM UPDATE: With the exit of New Line’s adaptation of Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot in what has been a lucrative post Labor Day weekend pre-pandemic, Disney swooped in and booked its 20th Century Studios horror title Barbarian. That pic, directed and written by Zach Cregger, follows a woman staying at an Airbnb, who discovers that the house she has rented is not what it seems. The movie grossed $3.8M on Friday (including $850K Thursday night previews) and is poised to make around $9M, possibly double digits.

The San Sebastian Film Festival is pushing on with a competition screening of Austrian director Ulrich Seidl’s new film Sparta, following a report in German magazine Der Spiegel raising concerns about the treatment of its young cast, saying only a court order would result in it dropping the film.

Did that just happen?! From Better Call Saul to The Rehearsal and Stranger Things, TV in 2022 has been full of absolutely shocking moments.

Jennie Punter The Toronto Film Festival has programmed one of its strongest Canadian feature slates in recent years — films with head-turning performances, eye-catching artistry, and global market and audience appeal, from filmmakers who are subverting stereotypes, challenging or bypassing power structures, or transforming the industry ecosystem from the grassroots on up.  “Right now in our industry, tons of high-paying service work lets people pay their bills, but the quality work is coming through the Canadian independents,” says Conquering Lions Pictures’ Damon D’Oliveira, who has produced the Canadian work of director Clement Virgo, from his 1995 Cannes-premiering feature “Rude” to the series “The Book of Negroes” to their latest, “Brother.” 

Five years after his untimely passing at age 42, Prodigy‘s voice still echoes loud. As a solo artist and as half of the iconic Queens rap duo Mobb Deep opposite Havoc, his contributions to the hip-hop canon are hard to overhype. Today, his estate has shared an unreleased track of his, produced by the legendary DJ Premier.

Holly Jones Spain’s Bendita Films (“The Clash”) has scooped international sales rights to twisted and suspenseful production “The Uncle” (“Stric”) ahead of its market screening at the Toronto Festival. “We’re thrilled to represent the brilliant debut feature from David Kapac and Andrija Mardešić, a captivating, oppressive thriller with humorous notes that will surely surprise international audiences with its unsettling atmosphere and inventive narrative structure,” stated Luis Renart, CEO-sales & acquisitions at Bendita Films. Written and directed in tandem by Kapac and Mardešić, the project garnered a special jury mention in July at the Proxima strand which has replaced East of the West at the Karlovy Vary Festival. It marks the first feature effort for the Croatian duo who’ve previously paired to create several festival-showcased short films, including post-war noir comedy “Iris.”

Guy Lodge Film Critic If you found yourself wide awake in the wee small hours with personal demons rattling in your brain, and you picked up the phone to share them with a patient, neutral stranger, Tessa Thompson’s measured, calming voice is more or less exactly what you’d hope to hear on the other end of the line. As Beth, a night-shift volunteer for a crisis helpline, the actor’s naturally gentle, benevolent presence is the chief asset of Steve Buscemi’s minor-key chamber drama “The Listener” — not that she has a host of elements to compete with in what amounts, on screen at least, to a one-woman show.  Thompson’s unforced credibility isn’t shared, however, by a flat, superficial script that treats an assortment of mental health ailments as quirky conversation fuel. Each anguished call that Beth takes, over the course of one long, dark night of assorted souls, is written less like a recognizable human exchange than as an actor’s heightened audition piece, and played out as such by a voice-only ensemble stacked with distractingly recognizable names. Though the global pandemic is only incidentally mentioned, “The Listener” plays in all aspects like a project conceived in the most self-searching and self-indulgent depths of the isolation era. It’s hard to imagine audiences wanting to enter that headspace now.

Marta Balaga Greece’s Homemade Films has boarded Mahdi Fleifel’s upcoming feature “Men in the Sun,” currently in the final stages of development. The story, set in Athens, will deal with masculinity, exile and loss, showing young refugees in their 20s hustling to survive in the urban pressure cooker. The company is also ready to start shooting Sofia Exarchou’s “Animal,” co-producing with Nabis Filmgroup, Ars Ltd., Digital Cube and Felony Productions. Furthermore, its founder Maria Drandaki recently presented new projects at Venice Gap-Financing Market. “Arcadia,” directed by Yorgos Zois, will see Homemade Films joining forces with Foss Production and Red Carpet. “Titanic Ocean” by Konstantina Kotzamani will be shot in Japan and Singapore in 2023.

Michaela Zee editor Spectrum Originals has released the official trailer for the crime dramedy series “Panhandle.” The release date of the series’ first two episodes on Spectrum is Sept. 26. The eight-episode series follows armchair detective Bell Prescott (Luke Kirby) and traffic cop Cammie Lorde (Tiana Okoye) as they investigate a murder in their small Florida town. Along with Kirby and Okoye, the series stars Forrest Goodluck, Lorenza Izzo, Wallace Smith, Glenn Morshower and Lesley Ann Warren. Recurring guest stars include Melanie Minichino, Landon Chase DuBois, Mo Gallini, David De Vries, Deja Dee, Paulina Gálvez, Scott Takeda and Grant Freely.

A federal judge on Wednesday ruled against a federal mandate that requires employer provided health plans to cover PrEP, a drug used for the prevention of HIV.

the Queen weeks before her death said she was dignified to the end.  Michaela Foster Marsh, 56, performed for the Queen at Balmoral on August 17 and said she will treasure the memory for the rest of her life, praising the monarch's 'supreme dignity. ' Michaela, from Glasgow, sang alongside piper Bethany Bisaillion, who was the Queen's piper in Ottawa, Canada.

how good of a manager Kris Jenner is for her famous family. She’s helped all six of her children become entrepreneurs — with Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner earning billionaire status — and kept her family relevant in pop culture for over a decade.

It is finally here!