Holiday Box Office ‘Gems’; Why 'Cats' Flopped; Biden's Bundlers; ‘19 Ratings Winners and Losers

What's news: Uncut Gems shined and Little Women had a big weekend, but Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker dominated the holiday box office. Meanwhile, hope for a Cats comeback fizzled, Hasbro completed its purchase of Entertainment One, and Jim Gianopulos and Jeffrey Katzenberg are among Joe Biden's Hollywood bundlers. Plus: 2019's TV ratings winners and losers, and President Obama's picks for the best movies, TV shows and books of 2019. --Alex Weprin

Today In Entertainment DECEMBER 30, 2019 What's news: Uncut Gems shined and Little Women had a big weekend, but Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker dominated the holiday box office. Meanwhile, hope for a Cats comeback fizzled, Hasbro completed its purchase of Entertainment One, and Jim Gianopulos and Jeffrey Katzenberg are among Joe Biden's Hollywood bundlers. Plus: 2019's TV ratings winners and losers, and President Obama's picks for the best movies, TV shows and books of 2019. --Alex Weprin What's news: Uncut Gems shined and Little Women had a big weekend, but Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker dominated the holiday box office. Meanwhile, hope for a Cats comeback fizzled, Hasbro completed its purchase of Entertainment One, and Jim Gianopulos and Jeffrey Katzenberg are among Joe Biden's Hollywood bundlers. Plus: 2019's TV ratings winners and losers, and President Obama's picks for the best movies, TV shows and books of 2019. --Alex Weprin  Holiday Box Office Let's cut right to the chase: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker handily won the weekend box office, but a couple of smaller films overdelivered in a big way, while a certain big-budget musical failed to find new life over the holiday. ►Box office: A big weekend for Little Women and Uncut Gems. Sony and New Regency's Little Women adaptation — directed by Greta Gerwig and opening on Christmas Day — delivered plenty of cheer, posting a five-day debut of $29 million, well ahead of projections. A24's Uncut Gems, starring Adam Sandler, placed No. 7 with a five-day gross of $18.8 million for an early domestic total of $20 million.  +The franchises still dominate: The top three films this past weekend were Disney's Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Sony's Jumanji: The Next Level, and Disney's Frozen 2. Star Wars earned an estimated $135 million for the five-day holiday for a 10-day North American total of $361.8 million. After opening 20 percent behind Star Wars: The Last Jedi last weekend, Skywalker has almost caught up with its predecessor as it heads for the $1 billion mark in a fitting end to Disney's unprecedented domination at the 2019 box office. Internationally, Skywalker remained atop the chart with another $94.3 million for a foreign tally of $263 million and $724.8 million globally. The full box office report. And then there was Cats. --The $100 million event pic, which couldn't crack the top five, came in at No. 8 with $8.8 million for the five days for a toothless domestic total of $17.9 million. It also isn't faring well overseas so far, where it earned another $13.6 million for a global cume of $38.4 million. As of now the film presently stands to lose at least $50 million to $75 million against a budget of roughly $100 million before marketing. The studio was hopeful that Cats could turn out like 2017's The Greatest Showman, which bombed on release but flourished the following weekend over Christmas. No such luck. +So what went wrong? "It doesn't feel like a family title despite the PG rating. This feels more like an arthouse musical," box office analyst Paul Dergarabedian of Comscore tells Pamela McClintock. Over the Dec. 27-29 weekend, younger kids represented 21 percent of the combined demos turning out to see Cats, according to Comscore's and Screen Engine's exit polling service PostTrak. Instead, families turned to Spies in Disguise and Frozen 2. The box office analysis.  Holiday Box Office Let's cut right to the chase: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker handily won the weekend box office, but a couple of smaller films overdelivered in a big way, while a certain big-budget musical failed to find new life over the holiday. ►Box office: A big weekend for Little Women and Uncut Gems. Sony and New Regency's Little Women adaptation — directed by Greta Gerwig and opening on Christmas Day — delivered plenty of cheer, posting a five-day debut of $29 million, well ahead of projections. A24's Uncut Gems, starring Adam Sandler, placed No. 7 with a five-day gross of $18.8 million for an early domestic total of $20 million.  +The franchises still dominate: The top three films this past weekend were Disney's Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Sony's Jumanji: The Next Level, and Disney's Frozen 2. Star Wars earned an estimated $135 million for the five-day holiday for a 10-day North American total of $361.8 million. After opening 20 percent behind Star Wars: The Last Jedi last weekend, Skywalker has almost caught up with its predecessor as it heads for the $1 billion mark in a fitting end to Disney's unprecedented domination at the 2019 box office. Internationally, Skywalker remained atop the chart with another $94.3 million for a foreign tally of $263 million and $724.8 million globally. The full box office report. And then there was Cats. --The $100 million event pic, which couldn't crack the top five, came in at No. 8 with $8.8 million for the five days for a toothless domestic total of $17.9 million. It also isn't faring well overseas so far, where it earned another $13.6 million for a global cume of $38.4 million. As of now the film presently stands to lose at least $50 million to $75 million against a budget of roughly $100 million before marketing. The studio was hopeful that Cats could turn out like 2017's The Greatest Showman, which bombed on release but flourished the following weekend over Christmas. No such luck. +So what went wrong? "It doesn't feel like a family title despite the PG rating. This feels more like an arthouse musical," box office analyst Paul Dergarabedian of Comscore tells Pamela McClintock. Over the Dec. 27-29 weekend, younger kids represented 21 percent of the combined demos turning out to see Cats, according to Comscore's and Screen Engine's exit polling service PostTrak. Instead, families turned to Spies in Disguise and Frozen 2. The box office analysis.  Joe Biden's Hollywood Bundlers What do Quibi founder Jeffrey Katzenberg, Paramount CEO Jim Gianopulos, and Sony Pictures chairman Tom Rothman all have in common? All three are among the bundlers for former Vice President Joe Biden's 2020 presidential campaign. The bundlers (or "volunteer fundraisers," as the campaign calls them) all raised at least $25,000 for the campaign. --The Biden campaign released a list of its bundlers over the weekend, and a number of Hollywood heavyweights were included. In addition to Gianopulos, Rothman and Katzenberg, Legendary Entertainment CEO Joshua Grode is a Biden bundler, as is Comcast senior executive vice president David L. Cohen. CityView CEO Sean Burton, producer and talent manager Eric Ortner, Sony Pictures executive Eric Paquette, and Worthe Real Estate Group president Jeff Worthe are also listed as fundraisers. --The release by the Biden campaign followed a similar disclosure from mayor Pete Buttigieg's campaign earlier this month. Buttigieg's bundlers include filmmaker Laurie David, and How To Get Away With Murder creator and writer Peter Nowalk, among others. However, it is hard to ignore the C-suite power among Biden's Tinseltown supporters. ►Just in: Hasbro's acquisition of Entertainment One closes. Toy maker Hasbro completed its nearly-$4 billion purchase of Canadian indie studio Entertainment One Monday. Under the terms of the deal, eOne shareholders will receive $6.80 in cash for each common share. eOne controls brands like Peppa Pig and PJ Masks, among others. More. ►President Obama's picks: Barack Obama's Netflix documentary American Factory is among his favorite films of 2019, the former president announced Sunday, joining critically acclaimed Oscar frontrunners like The Irishman, Marriage Story and Parasite as his most beloved movies of 2019. Obama's TV list is rather short, and was framed as "a quick list of TV shows that I considered as powerful as movies." It only had three titles: the Netflix limited series Unbelievable, HBO's Watchmen and Amazon's Fleabag. The story. +Sidenote: Didn't Fleabag have a very memorable scene involving Phoebe Waller-Bridge's character watching an Obama speech? +President Obama also released his list of his favorite books this year. A total of 17 titles made the cut, with two additional titles included "for the sports fans." Among the varied titles was the novel Normal People by Irish author Sally Rooney, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power by Shoshana Zuboff and Trust Exercise by Susan Choi. More. Elsewhere in TV... --Review: Daniel Fienberg reviews the USA Network cheerleading thriller Dare Me. --Zac Efron confirms he became "sick" while filming Quibi series following reports of hospitalization. --You star Victoria Pedretti discusses season two's killer twist... Also: You star Penn Badgley on the twist and those thirsty tweets.  Joe Biden's Hollywood Bundlers What do Quibi founder Jeffrey Katzenberg, Paramount CEO Jim Gianopulos, and Sony Pictures chairman Tom Rothman all have in common? All three are among the bundlers for former Vice President Joe Biden's 2020 presidential campaign. The bundlers (or "volunteer fundraisers," as the campaign calls them) all raised at least $25,000 for the campaign. --The Biden campaign released a list of its bundlers over the weekend, and a number of Hollywood heavyweights were included. In addition to Gianopulos, Rothman and Katzenberg, Legendary Entertainment CEO Joshua Grode is a Biden bundler, as is Comcast senior executive vice president David L. Cohen. CityView CEO Sean Burton, producer and talent manager Eric Ortner, Sony Pictures executive Eric Paquette, and Worthe Real Estate Group president Jeff Worthe are also listed as fundraisers. --The release by the Biden campaign followed a similar disclosure from mayor Pete Buttigieg's campaign earlier this month. Buttigieg's bundlers include filmmaker Laurie David, and How To Get Away With Murder creator and writer Peter Nowalk, among others. However, it is hard to ignore the C-suite power among Biden's Tinseltown supporters. ►Just in: Hasbro's acquisition of Entertainment One closes. Toy maker Hasbro completed its nearly-$4 billion purchase of Canadian indie studio Entertainment One Monday. Under the terms of the deal, eOne shareholders will receive $6.80 in cash for each common share. eOne controls brands like Peppa Pig and PJ Masks, among others. More. ►President Obama's picks: Barack Obama's Netflix documentary American Factory is among his favorite films of 2019, the former president announced Sunday, joining critically acclaimed Oscar frontrunners like The Irishman, Marriage Story and Parasite as his most beloved movies of 2019. Obama's TV list is rather short, and was framed as "a quick list of TV shows that I considered as powerful as movies." It only had three titles: the Netflix limited series Unbelievable, HBO's Watchmen and Amazon's Fleabag. The story. +Sidenote: Didn't Fleabag have a very memorable scene involving Phoebe Waller-Bridge's character watching an Obama speech? +President Obama also released his list of his favorite books this year. A total of 17 titles made the cut, with two additional titles included "for the sports fans." Among the varied titles was the novel Normal People by Irish author Sally Rooney, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power by Shoshana Zuboff and Trust Exercise by Susan Choi. More. Elsewhere in TV... --Review: Daniel Fienberg reviews the USA Network cheerleading thriller Dare Me. --Zac Efron confirms he became "sick" while filming Quibi series following reports of hospitalization. --You star Victoria Pedretti discusses season two's killer twist... Also: You star Penn Badgley on the twist and those thirsty tweets.  Ratings Winners And Losers ►2019's TV ratings winners and losers: Rick Porter dives into the numbers to figure out what shows and genres had a big year, and what fizzled. Winners include HBO's Game of Thrones and Netflix's Stranger Things, while the losers list includes the NBA, and the Emmy and Tony Awards. The full list. The week ahead... --The Golden Globes: Ricky Gervais will return to host the awards show Sunday at 8 AM ET, 5 PM PT. It will air on NBC. ICYMI: Here's THR's complete guide to all of this week's parties and events. --In TV: New Year's Eve is Tuesday night, which means ABC's New Year's Rockin' Eve, CNN's Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen special, and live coverage on NBC, Fox, Fox News and elsewhere is in store. A new season of Doctor Who will kick off on BBC America New year's Day. More. --In film: New year's weekend means a slow weekend at the box office for new releases. Thriller The Grudge will premiere Jan. 3, but expect Star Wars, Little Women, Uncut Gems and other films to stay strong. In other news: --Noah Baumbach's Marriage Story is headed for a theatrical release in China. --U.S. media and tech giants are likely to face increased pressure in Russia next year as various laws are being tightened. --Two violent attacks made headlines over the weekend. Five people were stabbed at a Hanukkah celebration north of New York City, while a Texas church shooting left two people dead and one injured. --Sara Gilbert has filed for legal separation from her wife of five years, singer and songwriter Linda Perry. ►Can someone at Bumble help Sharon Stone? The actress tweeted last night that she was rejected by the dating app. "I went on the bumble dating sight [sic] and they closed my account. Some users reported that it couldn’t possibly be me! Hey bumble is being me exclusionary? Don’t shut me out of the hive," she tweeted. Obituaries: Tim Boyle, a veteran recording engineer and scoring mixer, died Dec. 22 of liver cancer in Sherman Oaks, his daughter Briget Boyle said. He was 71... Andrew Dunbar, who was Theon Greyjoy's body double on Game of Thrones, died at his home in Belfast, Ireland, on Christmas Eve. He was in his 30s... Kelly Fraser, a Canadian pop artist who gained attention for an Inuit-language cover of Rihanna's "Diamonds," part of her advocacy efforts for her indigenous culture, has died. Fraser was 26... What else we're reading... --"YouTube to limit data collection on children’s videos" [WSJ] --The decade in divadom: Is Taylor Swift really the biggest diva of the 2010s? [The Daily Beast] --"You know ‘Flirty Dancing’ from that viral video. The U.S. version comes with a twist" [LA Times] --"After another year of Trump attacks, ‘ominous signs’ for the American press" [NY Times] Today's birthdays: Bryan Burk, 52, Eliza Dushku, 40, Ellie Goulding, 34,James Burrows, 80, LeBron James, 36, Meredith Vieira, 67, Sean Hannity, 59.  Ratings Winners And Losers ►2019's TV ratings winners and losers: Rick Porter dives into the numbers to figure out what shows and genres had a big year, and what fizzled. Winners include HBO's Game of Thrones and Netflix's Stranger Things, while the losers list includes the NBA, and the Emmy and Tony Awards. The full list. The week ahead... --The Golden Globes: Ricky Gervais will return to host the awards show Sunday at 8 AM ET, 5 PM PT. It will air on NBC. ICYMI: Here's THR's complete guide to all of this week's parties and events. --In TV: New Year's Eve is Tuesday night, which means ABC's New Year's Rockin' Eve, CNN's Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen special, and live coverage on NBC, Fox, Fox News and elsewhere is in store. A new season of Doctor Who will kick off on BBC America New year's Day. More. --In film: New year's weekend means a slow weekend at the box office for new releases. Thriller The Grudge will premiere Jan. 3, but expect Star Wars, Little Women, Uncut Gems and other films to stay strong. In other news: --Noah Baumbach's Marriage Story is headed for a theatrical release in China. --U.S. media and tech giants are likely to face increased pressure in Russia next year as various laws are being tightened. --Two violent attacks made headlines over the weekend. Five people were stabbed at a Hanukkah celebration north of New York City, while a Texas church shooting left two people dead and one injured. --Sara Gilbert has filed for legal separation from her wife of five years, singer and songwriter Linda Perry. ►Can someone at Bumble help Sharon Stone? The actress tweeted last night that she was rejected by the dating app. "I went on the bumble dating sight [sic] and they closed my account. Some users reported that it couldn’t possibly be me! Hey bumble is being me exclusionary? Don’t shut me out of the hive," she tweeted. Obituaries: Tim Boyle, a veteran recording engineer and scoring mixer, died Dec. 22 of liver cancer in Sherman Oaks, his daughter Briget Boyle said. He was 71... Andrew Dunbar, who was Theon Greyjoy's body double on Game of Thrones, died at his home in Belfast, Ireland, on Christmas Eve. He was in his 30s... Kelly Fraser, a Canadian pop artist who gained attention for an Inuit-language cover of Rihanna's "Diamonds," part of her advocacy efforts for her indigenous culture, has died. Fraser was 26... What else we're reading... --"YouTube to limit data collection on children’s videos" [WSJ] --The decade in divadom: Is Taylor Swift really the biggest diva of the 2010s? [The Daily Beast] --"You know ‘Flirty Dancing’ from that viral video. The U.S. version comes with a twist" [LA Times] --"After another year of Trump attacks, ‘ominous signs’ for the American press" [NY Times] Today's birthdays: Bryan Burk, 52, Eliza Dushku, 40, Ellie Goulding, 34,James Burrows, 80, LeBron James, 36, Meredith Vieira, 67, Sean Hannity, 59.   Is this e-mail not displaying correctly? 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