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The Universal and AMC Theatres deal enabling the studio to release new movies on premium video on-demand within three weeks of their debut has upended the exhibition industry. That substantially shrinks the amount of time during which films can only show on the big screen in AMC’s venues. The arrival of this moment had been threatened for decades. Before Universal and AMC’s alliance, movies typically had to wait 75 to 90 days before they appeared on home entertainment platforms. Now, Universal will have the option to put its movies on digital rental services after they have played in theaters for 17 days.

Speaking to Oscar-winning “Amy” director Asif Kapadia on Monday as part of the BFI at Home series on BFIYouTube, Herzog said, “I have done a lot more acting recently, and I have to review it, because it takes away too much attention from the real things that I’m doing.” By “real,” Herzog is referring to his work as a filmmaker. Ostensibly, the German director was chatting to Kapadia about “Family Romance LLC,” which has just launched on the BFI Player in the U.K. However, the prolific Herzog spent as much time enthusiastically talking about his upcoming documentary “Fireball,” which looks at how shooting stars, meteorites and deep impacts have fired up the human imagination to learn more about the universe.

Despite fears that the Japanese summer box office might be a lost cause, with many big Hollywood and local releases postponed, recent figures indicate that audiences, especially younger fans of hit TV shows, are returning to theaters after the coronavirus hiatus. The number one film for the July 20-26 period, when Japan enjoyed a four-day holiday weekend, was the high school comedy “Beginning Today It Is My Turn.” Following its July 17 release, the film has passed the JPY3 billion ($28 million) milestone. Directed by veteran hitmaker Yuichi Fukuda, the film is a feature iteration of a highly rated 2018 TV drama on the NTV network that was in turn inspired by a 1980s gag manga about blustering and battling delinquents. On July 25 NTV rebroadcast episodes of the shows to give the film a publicity boost.Japan imposed a national emergency between April 7 and May 25, 2020. What followed was a voluntary theater-by-theater, chain-by-chain process, with no single date when all theaters closed or reopened.  And, even after reopening, most theaters did not begin showing new films until well into June.