'Yellowjackets' Creators on Finale; 'Scream' Dethrones ‘Spider-Man' With $35M Holiday Debut; 'Matrix 4' Flops in China; 'How I Met Your Father' Review

View on web New reader? Subscribe January 17, 2022 What's news: Spider-Man: No Way Home finally loses top spot at the box office. The 6-year legal battle over Prince's estate is over. Hillary and Chelsea Clinton's TV production banner has launched an unscripted label and secured its first commission. Plus: Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car wins yet another critics prize for best film — Abid Rahman 'Scream' Dethrones 'Spider-Man' With $35M Holiday Debut  ►Scaring off the competition. Scream is winning the long Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend at the box office with a projected four-day gross of $35 million, enough to dethrone Spider-Man: No Way Home. Paramount and Spyglass' slasher revival's three-day domestic weekend gross is an estimated $30.6 million, a strong showing considering the omicron-led surge in COVID-19 cases. Overseas, Scream grossed $18 million from 50 markets with the U.K. leading the way with $3.4 million. THR's Pamela McClintock writes that Scream was able to attract younger moviegoers, who have been the most inclined to return to theaters. Audiences gave the new Scream a B+ CinemaScore, a good grade for a slasher pic.  No Way Home fell to No. 2 in its fifth weekend with an estimated four-day haul of $26 million, including $20.8 million for the three days. Sometime on Monday, the blockbuster will become one of only four films ever to cross the $700 million mark at the domestic box office as it hits $703.9 million. And it soared past $900 million internationally to finish Sunday with astounding global haul of $1.62 billion. The box office report.  —Piracy scares off the audience. The Matrix Resurrections got off to an inauspicious start at China’s box office over the weekend, securing top spot but earning just $7.5 million. The film has been widely available on Chinese piracy networks since the moment it opened in the U.S. simultaneously on HBO Max and in cinemas on Dec. 22. Worse still for the franchise’s future prospects in China, local audiences don’t seem to much like the reboot, with it scoring just 7.5 on Alibaba’s flagship ticketing service Tao Piao Piao, 7.4 on Maoyan and 5.7 from Douban. The China box office report.   'Yellowjackets' Creators on That Frigid Finale and Fan Theories ►"What does it mean for something to be supernatural or something to be ‘real’?" THR's Lesley Goldberg spoke to Yellowjackets creators/showrunners Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson about the show that has become a social media sensation and they deigned to discuss the season finale, answered fan theories and even weighed in on if their Showtime drama is supernatural. Warning spoilers! The story.    —Bandwagon rolls on. The Toronto Film Critics Association named Drive My Car its best picture of 2021 as Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s somber drama about love and loss continued its buzzy ascent as an award season contender. The film has now secured best film prizes from NYC, L.A., NBR, Boston critics groups. The story.  —"It’s a meditation on trans humanity." Elliot Page has signed on as an exec producer for Nicolò Bassetti's Nel Mio Nome (Into My Name), a transgender doc which will premiere at Berlin. The doc follows a group of four friends from different parts of Italy as they transition from a female to a male gender identity at different times in their lives. The director says the film is rooted in his experience with the gender transition of his own son Matteo. The story.  —Finally over. The six-year legal battle over Prince’s estate has ended, meaning the process of distributing the artist’s wealth could begin next month. The IRS and the estate’s administrator have agreed to value the singer's estate at $156.4 million, a figure that Prince's heirs have also accepted. The valuation dwarfs the administrator’s earlier $82.3 million appraisal. The story. —Back again. The Latinx House will return to the Sundance this year with a full calendar of virtual programming. The nonprofit initiative, cofounded by activist Mónica Ramírez, filmmaker Alex Martínez Kondracke and entrepreneur Olga Segura, aims to change the portrayal of the Latinx community in the U.S. This year, programming will include panels with the casts and crews of The Cow Who Sang a Song Into the Future and Dos Estaciones. The story.  —New label just dropped. Hillary and Chelsea Clinton’s HiddenLight Productions TV banner has launched a new unscripted label, which has landed its first series commission from Brit network Channel 4. HLP Studios will focus on formats and popular factual content and its first commisson, Inside the Superbrands, will go behind the scenes of eight major brands. The story.  'Peacemaker' Stars John Cena and Jennifer Holland on "Stoic" Intro Dance ►Skip intro? Never again! Peacemaker has all of James Gunn's signature humor, but the filmmaker has outdone himself with the oddly hypnotic intro dance sequence to the HBO Max series that's got the internet talking. Series stars John Cena and Jennifer Holland talk about the silly-but-played-dead-serious dance number as well as the relationship between their characters at the heart of the show. The story. —She's a killer. Staying with Jennifer Holland, THR's second nicest man Aaron Couch spoke to the actress about her breakout role playing black ops member Emilia Harcourt in Peacemaker. The star talks about her background and her journey to L.A. as well as her surprise at a minor role in The Suicide Squad would lead to major presence in a HBO Max series. The interview.  —"It was just a gutshot for all of us." Betty White's death a few days short of her 100th birthday stunned everyone, not least producers Steve Boettcher and Mike Trinklein who were gearing up to celebrate her life and legacy with the Jan. 17 release of Betty White: 100 Years Young — A Birthday Celebration. The duo, with the blessing of the White family, have pivoted the film to Betty White: A Celebration, and spoke to THR's Abbey White about how the original film came together, how White contributed to her own celebration, what fans can expect to see. The story. —It's all in the details. Sony's Oscar-winner Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was groundbreaking for its visuals, but the creative team behind the sequel are looking to up the ante even more. In a recent interview, producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller spoke about the ambitious approach to Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Part One) including having each dimension within the story having its own art style. The story. —Not happening. Celine Dion’s Courage World Tour has ended for U.S. and Canadian fans. The singer, who also delayed her Las Vegas residency in October 2021, is citing her ongoing recovery from severe and persistent muscle spasms as the reason for the canceled North American tour dates. The story.  —ICYMI. James Austin Johnson’s Joe Biden made a return in Saturday Night Live’s first cold open of 2022, holding a press conference and blaming omicron on Spider-Man: No Way Home. The recap.  Review: 'How I Met Your Father' ►"A game cast struggle to overcome tepid jokes." THR TV critic Angie Han reviews Hulu’s How I Met Your Father. Hilary Duff leads the How I Met Your Mother sequel series as Sophie, a young woman finding new friends and looking for love in modern-day New York. The review. —Sexual misconduct scandal. The Voice of Holland, the original version of the global hit singing competition format, has been pulled off the air amid allegations of sexual misconduct by members of the show’s production staff, Jeroen Rietbergen, the show’s bandleader, and rapper Ali B, a coach on the popular show. The story.  —"The most incredible man on earth." Kelly Rizzo took to Instagram on Saturday to pay tribute to her late husband Bob Saget shortly after he was laid to rest at an intimate service at Mount Sinai Memorial Park and Mortuaries. The TV personality, who married Saget in 2018, wrote of how "lucky" she was to have been married to the much-loved comedian. The story. —"Bob being Bob." America’s Funniest Home Videos paid homage to former host Bob Saget. During Sunday night’s broadcast of the ABC program, host Alfonso Ribeiro remembered Saget as a member of the show’s “family” and introduced a montage of memorable clips. The story.  In other news... —Kaitlyn Bristowe remembers Bachelorette contestant Clint Arlis after his death at 34 —John Goodman on his SNL audition: “The worst thing I’ve ever done in front of people” —Boba Fett stars react to biker gang controversy: “These things are out of our control” —Jeff Goldblum, Kyle MacLachlan walk in Prada menswear show at Milan Fashion Week —Forget Aspen: The Colorado mountains where Hollywood goes to really ski —Vinyl District, the hottest neighborhood in L.A. right now —Jordan Cashmyer, a star MTV’s reality series 16 and Pregnant, dies at 26 —Dallas Frazier, country songwriter behind “Elvira” and “Beneath Still Waters,” dies at 82 —Ralph Emery, country music broadcaster, dies at 88 —Nino Cerruti, Italian menswear innovator, dies at 91 What else we're reading... —"You Can Write Those Kinds of Dynamics Forever": Inside the Rise of Yellowjackets at Showtime [Vulture] —Guillermo Del Toro: "I Saw Real Corpses When I Was Growing Up In Mexico" [The Guardian] —David Simon Made Baltimore Detectives Famous. Now Their Cases Are Falling Apart [New York Magazine] —The Filth and Kindness of Bob Saget [Vulture] —Netflix Needs New Subscribers. Its Korean Playbook Is Its Secret Weapon. [Bloomberg] Today...  ...in 1940, Remember the Night opened at the Paramount Theatre in Times Square, with the film grossing $45,000 in its first week “in spite of the freezing weather which cuts into all Broadway Theatre receipts.” Directed by Mitchell Leisen from a script by Preston Sturges, the rom-com starred Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray. The original review.  Today's birthdays: Jim Carrey (60), Zooey Deschanel (42), Kelly Marie Tran (33), Lucy Boynton (28), James Earl Jones (91), Song Kang-ho (55), Leigh Whannell (45), Naveen Andrews (53), Indya Moore (27), Steve Harvey (65), Jake Paul (25), D.J. Caruso (57), Brian Helgeland (61), Kevin Reynolds (70), Mathilde Seigner (54), Michelle Obama (58) Steve Schapiro, the photojournalist and documentarian who covered the civil rights movement, produced stills for The Godfather and Taxi Driver and shot portraits of David Bowie, Barbra Streisand, Andy Warhol and Ray Charles, has died. He was 87. The obituary.   This email was sent to facestuffs.aaaaa@blogger.com by Penske Media Corporation. Please add email@email.hollywoodreporter.com to your address book to ensure delivery to your inbox. Visit the Preferences Center to update your profile and customize what email alerts and newsletters you receive. Copyright © 2022 The Hollywood Reporter, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media, LLC. All rights reserved. 11175 Santa Monica Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 90025 View in Browser | Privacy Policy | Your Privacy Rights | Ad Choices | Terms of Use | Unsubscribe