‘The Flash’ Shuffles To Sluggish $139M Global Bow, ‘Elemental’ Not All Wet Overseas – International Box Office

News kept on churning this week — from Sunday morning until end of Friday — on the Warner Bros. Discovery front.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter “The Game,” “Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies,” “Star Trek: Prodigy,” and “Queen of the Universe” have all been canceled at Paramount+. In addition, all four shows are set to be removed from the streaming service in the coming days. “The Paramount+ series ‘Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies,’ ‘Star Trek: Prodigy,’ ‘Queen of the Universe’ and ‘The Game’ have completed their runs on Paramount+ and will not be returning to the service,” a Paramount+ spokesperson said. “We want to extend our thanks to our tremendously talented cast and crew and our producing partners for their passionate work and dedication on these programs, and we wish them all the best on their future endeavors.”

Sony’s mission to return comedy to the big screen with the R-rated Jennifer Lawrence movie No Hard Feelings began Thursday, when the film grossed $2.15 million from showtimes that began at 4 p.m. at 2,745 locations. The pic hopes to do around $12M this weekend in what will be second session where Warner Bros’ misfire The Flash hopes not take a -70% tumble. At the low end that’s $16.5M. A good hold will be off 55% to north of $24M.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Marking its first corporate step in international expansion outside Spain, Madrid-based Zeta Studios, producer of “Elite” and “García!” has named Marcelo Tamburri, one of Latin America’s preeminent TV execs, to the newly-created position of director of international content. Spun off from the sale of publishing house Grupo Zeta to Prensa Ibérica in 2019, and rebranded from Zeta Audiovisual, when it comes to individual titles., Zeta Studios boasts one of the biggest international reaches of any production house in Spain.   The appointment comes as Netflix preps the bow of “Elite” Season 7 on Oct. 20, making “Elite” one of the longest-running of streamer series and one of the most successful from outside the U.S., its Seasons 3 and 4 ranking in Netflix’s Top 10 of most-viewed non-English series ever on the OTT service with 334.8 million and 302.2 million hours viewed.   

Naman Ramachandran Paramount+ Australia has greenlit a second, eight-part season of hit crime drama series “Last King of The Cross.” Inspired by John Ibrahim’s autobiography, the series charts the rise of a poverty-stricken immigrant with no education, no money, and no prospects to Australia’s most infamous nightclub mogul and is set in Sydney’s decadent Kings Cross district in the late 1980s and 1990s. Season 2 (8 x 60′) will further explore the dangerous world of Kings Cross, as Ibrahim expands his empire into the booming queer nightclub scene. Set against the backdrop of the ecstasy-fueled 2000s, the stakes are higher than ever before, and everyone wants a piece – including John’s two younger brothers.

Outfest announced the full line up for its 41st Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ+ Festival presented by Warner Bros. Discovery and Genesis Motor America, taking place July 13 – 23 in venues around Los Angeles and is headquartered at the Directors Guild of America in West Hollywood. Tickets and passes are available to Outfest members today, and to the general public starting Friday, June 23rd.

Earlier this week, Warner Bros. Discovery laid off several execs at Turner Classic Movies, leading many to conclude that the channel’s future may be in crisis.

Country singers Dan + Shay have joined “The Voice” for Season 25 as the singing competition show’s first coaching duo.The three-time Grammy Award winners served as Blake Shelton’s “battle advisers” in Season 20. But they will coach this next season, which airs in 2024, alongside Reba McEntire and John Legend, who will return for back-to-back seasons.Three-time Grammy winner Chance the Rapper will round out the red chairs following his debut on the show in Season 23.Dan + Shay has been performing for 10 years, setting a record for winning the Grammy Award for Best Country Duo/Group Performance three times in 2021.

NBC’s musical competition series The Voice revealed Grammy winners Dan + Shay will be the show’s first-coaching duo for Season 25. The show is set to air in Spring 2024.

EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) insiders in Poland have reacted with alarm after a group of European regulators said they plan to meet to discuss what the insiders believe could lead to the closure of the U.S. media giant’s operation in the nation.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “The Twelve,” an award-winning Australian crime drama series, has been greenlighted for a second season. It is backed by the Foxtel group and its streaming brand Binge. The show follows a controversial murder trial seen through the lens of the jurors, twelve ordinary Australians who are facing their own realities and struggles. The first season received ten nominations, and won three AACTA Awards in 2022 including best miniseries. In recent days, it became the most nominated drama series at the 63rd TV Week Logie Awards. Season two of “The Twelve” will be eight 1-hour episodes written by Sarah Walker, Anchuli Felicia King, Anya Beyersdorf and Anna Barnes. Local authorities in Western Australia described it as the state’s “biggest-ever screen production,” but divulged no specifics on budget. Filming will take place in the Wheatbelt and Metropolitan regions and create over 100 local jobs, the state government said.

The Los Angeles Times that he keeps TCM on one of the screens in his editing suite while he’s working.“It gives me something to turn to, to bounce off of, to rest in, to reinvigorate my thinking — just glancing at some image or combination of images at a certain moment,” he told the outlet. “It’s more like a presence in the room, a reminder of film history as a living, ongoing entity.”“I fear for the future of TCM,” he added at the time. “So does everyone else I know who loves movies.”Zaslav himself touted the network when joined Spielberg and Anderson at the 14th TCM Classic Film Festival in April.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director SPOILER ALERT: This article contains major spoilers for Warner Bros. and DC Studios’ “The Flash,” now playing in theaters. “I finally got to see Nic Cage be Superman. It has been an absolute delight for me,” Kevin Smith recently told Rolling Stone about watching “The Flash.” The film and that Cage-as-Superman cameo near the end is a full circle moment for Smith, who was the screenwriter of the studio’s infamous “Superman Lives.” After launching the Batman movie franchise for Warner Bros. to great success, Tim Burton turned his attention towards Superman in 1998 with the development of “Superman Lives.” Smith penned the script, which focused on Superman’s fight against Doomsday. Despite spending over $30 million on the film’s casting and pre-production, Warner Bros. pulled the plug on “Superman Lives” due to creative differences.

Warner Bros DC’s The Flash, despite tumbling down with a $55M start, will remain atop the box office with a $16.5M-$24.7M second weekend take as the marketplace largely takes a breath sans tentpoles before Disney/Lucasfilm’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny arrives for the Independent Day stretch. That weekend 2 slide for The Flash reps a 55% to 70% decline.

Warner Bros’ CineEurope show here in Barcelona was a starry, jam-packed affair featuring Zendaya and Timothée Chalamet who talked up Dune: Part Two, as well as their respective upcoming titles Challengers and Wonka. The proceedings kicked off with a pre-taped intro video featuring President of International Theatrical Distribution Andrew Cripps zipping along the 405 in the Barbie car, and with Margot Robbie putting in an appearance. Helen Mirren, who narrates Barbie, also narrated the presentation in a voice over.

Warner Bros. Discovery is reportedly in talks to license HBO shows to Netflix.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a CEO in the film and TV industry to have such an immediate impact as David Zaslav over at Warner Bros. Discovery.

The Batman spinoff series The Penguin has been given an adult rating.The Max crime drama series, which is expected to premiere in 2024, stars Colin Farrell as the titular character (aka Oswald Cobblepot), Gotham City’s crime kingpin and one of Batman’s key enemies. The series will pick up after the events of The Batman.According to LADbible, the Motion Picture Association (MPA) has given the upcoming DC miniseries an R-rating.

Peter Caranicas Deputy Editor Studio operator Shawn Papazian is set to lead the development and operation of The Fields Studios, Chicago’s newly minted studio and soundstage complex. The announcement was made by real estate developer and The Fields Studios owner Knickpoint Ventures, which appointed Papazian as its newest partner to oversee all of its studio-related activities. The Fields Studios, launched last month, is set to start filming operations in the first quarter of 2024. Papazian has been involved with the design, development, operations and management of motion picture and television studio facilities for over 25 years.

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment Writer SPOILER ALERT: This story mentions a few significant plot developments in “The Flash,” currently playing in theaters. In the climax of “The Flash,” Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) watches helplessly as his timeline-hopping escapades cause several other superhero universes to careen into each other and become obliterated in the process. Ironically, Warner Bros. is facing almost an identical dilemma — and the stakes could be nearly as existential. “The Flash” is the second of four mega-budgeted DC adaptations the studio is set to release this year, starting with “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” in March, and followed by “Blue Beetle” and “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” in August and December. Yet these movies were conceived and greenlit by an executive team that all have departed the studio; in their place, new DC Studios chiefs James Gunn and Peter Safran have announced they will reboot the DC franchise in 2025, starting with Gunn’s “Superman: Legacy.”

As James Gunn and Peter Safran take the DC Universe in a new direction and casting is underway for Superman: Legacy, speculation for who the next Batman in The Brave and the Bold has grown.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Warner Bros. Discovery has begun implementing layoffs in its domestic cable group, cuts that will affect about 100 employees across legacy Discovery and Turner outlets. Amid the shuffle, TCM general manager Pola Changnon is leaving the classic movie channel after more than 25 years with TCM and Turner. Michael Ouweleen, president of Adult Swim, Cartoon Network, Discovery Family and Boomerang, will oversee TCM, as he did prior to the Warner Bros.-Discovery merger in 2022. The plan for layoffs across Warner Bros. Discovery’s major divisions were signaled late last year when the company faced extreme financial pressure amid rising losses from its streaming operations and the weakening macroeconomy. WBD’s domestic cable channels — including Discovery, TNT, TBS, TLC, HGTV, Food Network and CNN — were once the envy of the industry in terms of viewership and profitability. But the fast-changing pay TV marketplace and the rise of on-demand streaming has upended the reliable cable TV earnings power that made the former Time Warner a dynamo in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Anna Tingley If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. Once upon a time in New York City, the three shopping havens for those in the know were referred to, in the words of Blair Waldorf, “the three B’s”: Bendel’s, Barneys and Bloomingdale’s. Bendel’s shuttered after 123 years in 2018. Next came the Hollywood-adored Barney’s, who closed its doors in 2020. Now, the last old-school, luxury retailer standing is Bloomingdale’s — and one more bold-faced “B” to revel in its glory: Barbie. In honor of Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie,” which releases July 21, Bloomingdale’s decided to go all out in celebrating Mattel’s iconic plastic doll, who we can only assume would be a loyal Bloomies customer if she ever manages to escape Barbie World. On June 20, the retailer announced a series of Barbie-themed exclusive products, collaborations and pop-up shops ahead of the film’s anticipated release on July 21.

Naman Ramachandran Warner Bros.’ superhero film “The Flash” debuted atop the U.K. and Ireland box office with £4.2 million ($5.4 million), according to numbers released by Comscore. In second place, in its third weekend, Sony’s “Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse” swung to £2.6 million for a total of £20.3 million. In third position in its fourth weekend, Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” earned £1.3 million and now has a splashy £22 million total. Paramount’s “Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts” collected £1.1 million in fourth place in its second weekend for a total of £4.99 million. Elysian’s “Greatest Days” debuted in fifth position with £536,955.

Tom Cruise has promised to “fight for big theaters” and preserve cinema culture while at the world premiere of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1.While at the Spanish Steps in Rome, Cruise delivered a passionate speech about films, acting and working with film director Christopher McQuarrie, per Variety. Cruise said during his speech: “There is a community that we are all part of — different cultures and ways of life, we all join together to enjoy cinema.

Tim Chan If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. Fans of The Flash can add now another title to their collection.

Last week was a good one for the NHL’s Golden Knights, who won the Stanley Cup, but not for The CW’s Gotham Knights, which was canceled after its freshman season. Today Misha Collins, also starred as the dashing, idealistic District Attorney and Gotham City mayoral candidate Harvey Dent, took to social media to reflect on the superhero series and that its Bat Brat fans.

**Spoilers for “The Flash” below. You’ve been warned…** After years of delays (including multiple filmmakers coming and going, as well as a global pandemic), Warner Bros.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent ANNECY — Bathed by gorgeous sun, the Annecy International Animation Film Festival and MIFA market came of age as a major industry and artistic event last week at the fairy-tale looking town nestling in the laps of the French Alps.  Takeaways from this year’s extraordinary edition, which ran June 11-17: Annecy Blasts Attendance Records The Annecy Festival and MIFA market smashed prior attendance figures to smithereens, recording 15,820 accreditations, 20% up on last year’s then all-time record of 13,200. That reflects “the extraordinary dynamism of the animation industry; more and more countries producing: our support of a lot of talents in emerging countries who want to come, of course; the [year-round outreach] in terms of meetings, and the official selection,” Mickaël Marin, CEO of the Festival and MIFA organizer CITIA, told Variety. “The festival was a great success, in its record numbers of attendance, exhibition booths and companies and dynamism and sensation of an extraordinary energy,” agrees Olivier Lelardoux, Blue Spirit Studio.  

DC and Warner Bros.’ long-in-the-works superhero movie “The Flash” opened to $55 million in its first three days in North American theatres, according to studio estimates on Sunday.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Warner Bros. Discovery has announced three new Thai HBO Asia Originals: action-fantasy blockbuster “Khun Pan 3”; fun-filled cooking series “MarkKim + Chef” and reality series “Deane’s Dynasty.” The shows will be available exclusively to HBO and HBO GO in Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Thai TV content is currently growing in popularity among Asian TV audiences and has recently been seen pioneering soft homo-erotic series known as the ‘Boys Love’ genre, that has appeal to mature female audiences. BL is conspicuously absent from the new additions to the HBO Go slate.  “Khun Pan 3” is the final instalment of the “Khun Pan” franchise and represents a journey from 1950 after World War ll, as sorcerer cop Khun Pan is persuaded to take on another dangerous mission. This time he is hunting down two bandits and uncovering a conspiracy that challenges everything, he believes in. 

Stan Refreshes Lionsgate Output Deal

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Warner Bros.’s “The Flash” and Disney/Pixar’s “Elemental” made theatrical debuts in China that were in line with their soft starts in North America and other international territories. “The Flash” captured the top spot in China with a $13.4 million (RMB94.8 million) opening weekend ($13.8 million including previews), according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway. It deposed “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” which opened a week earlier and which slipped to second place in its sophomore frame. “Transformers” took a 69% fall and recorded $12.4 million between Friday and Sunday in China. That produces a $61.7 million cumulative after ten days in Chinese theaters.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter After struggling at the domestic box office, this weekend’s two major releases — the Warner Bros. superhero adaptation “The Flash” and Disney’s Pixar adventure “Elemental” — failed to catch fire with international audiences. “The Flash” pulled in $75 million in its international box office debut, which doesn’t sound all that bad… except when considering the movie is available in 78 overseas markets. That means it failed to hit $1 million in the vast majority of the territories in play. China led the way with a lackluster $13.8 million, followed by Mexico with $9.4 million, the United Kingdom with $5.3 million, Korea with $3.7 million and Brazil with $3.5 million.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “The Flash,” a superhero adventure starring Ezra Miller, emerged victorious over Pixar’s “Elemental” in a battle of the box office lightweights. This weekend’s two new releases were once expected to ignite the summer box office but instead entirely missed the mark, as “The Flash” stumbled with $55 million and “Elemental” collected just $29.5 million in their respective debuts. Both of those films fell short of already-low expectations. And worse, they were pricy endeavors, costing $200 million to make and roughly $100 million to market, so they are shaping up to be huge disappointments in their theatrical runs. In the lead-up to “The Flash,” executives at Warner Bros. worked hard to convince the public that the film is “one of the greatest superhero movies ever made.” Directed by Andy Muschietti, the story picks up as Miller’s Barry Allen a.k.a The Flash travels back in time to prevent his mother’s murder and inadvertently cracks open the DC multiverse. (Cameos abound!) But its tepid “B” CinemaScore from opening weekend crowds suggests that the moviegoing masses didn’t entirely agree with the lavish praise bestowed on the film by the people who made it. Without positive audience scores or strong word-of-mouth, “The Flash” will struggle to rebound in the coming weeks, especially as summer season heats up with the release of “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” on June 30, “Mission: Impossible 7” on July 12 and Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” on July 21.

Joe Goldberg himself (aka Penn Badgley) is giving us a glimpse of what’s to come in the upcoming fifth and final season of Netflix thriller series You, from Warner Bros. Television and studio-based Berlanti Prods.