Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Outlook not improving for theaters
About three quarters of the country’s movie theaters are open, but Americans are not going back in significant numbers in the COVID-19 era, even with new films coming into the marketplace weekly.
The biggest movies continue to limp along. According to studio estimates Sunday, Warner Bros.’ “Tenet” earned $4.7 million in its third weekend from nearly 2,930 locations; Disney’s “The New Mutants” added $1.6 million in its fourth weekend; “Unhinged” brought in $1.3 million; and Sony’s romcom “The Broken Hearts Gallery” picked up an additional $800,000 in its second frame.
And newcomers aren’t faring any better. The faithbased “Infidel” did the best with $1.5 million from just over 1,700 theaters.
“There’s no question that this is an extraordinarily challenging marketplace, especially for North America,” said Paul Dergarabedian, Comscore’s senior media analyst. “This is a slow roll out. It’s going to take some time.”
Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” has earned only $36.1 million from North American theaters to date. The performance has led some studios to push back releases even further, and some wonder whether more will follow. The next major release on the calendar is Disney and Marvel’s “Black Widow” on Nov. 6.
Globally, “Tenet” did manage to cross a major milestone this weekend: the $250 million mark.
Emmy oops: In a virtual Emmys version of the wrong-winner Oscars gaffe, Ron Cephas Jones’ guest actor award for “This Is Us” was announced for another nominee, Jason Bateman.
The error occurred during Saturday’s online creative arts Emmys, precursor to Sunday’s main ceremony and the culmination of a week of events honoring technical and other achievements.
Saturday’s show on
FXX, however, was the only one of the creative arts presentations to be televised, making the error more glaring. In a voiceover announcement, Bateman was declared the winner for his guest appearance on HBO’s “The Outsider,” while the screen displayed Jones’ name.
The confusion wasn’t addressed until after a commercial break, with an onscreen message that read, “Our apologies, an incorrect winner has been announced. We’re fixing it now,” followed by the repeated display of Jones’ name but without an announcement.
There was no immediate explanation for the mistake.
Other winners Saturday included Eddie Murphy, whose return to “Saturday Night Live” after more than three decades earned the star his first Emmy Award, for guest comedy series actor.
Another win for Zhao:
After picking up Venice’s Golden Lion award, Chloe Zhao’s “Nomadland” has won another prestigious honor, the Toronto International Film Festival’s People’s Choice Award. No film has ever won both.
TIFF programmers announced the winners Sunday. Zhao’s film features Frances McDormand as a widowed wanderer of the modern American West. Set for a Dec. 4 release, “Nomadland” has already been hailed as a top Oscar contender.
Sept. 21 birthdays:
Author Stephen King is 73. Actor Bill Murray is 70. Filmmaker Ethan Coen is 63. Actor Cheryl Hines is 55. Actor Billy Porter is 51. Actor Luke Wilson is 49. TV personality Nicole Richie is 39. Singer Jason Derulo is 34. Actor Nikolas Brino is 22.