Updated every Friday 12:00 PM
August 11 - August 17

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Apple TV+ unveiled a first look at its upcoming comedy “Still Up,” and shared that the new eight-episode series will premiere globally on Friday, September 22. “Still Up” is an almost romantic comedy set in the after-hours world of insomniacs Danny and Lisa who have no secrets except their feelings for each other. Also starring in the ensemble cast are Blake Harrison, Lois Chimimba, Luke Fetherston and Rich Fulcher....

Ugliest Building in Every State. What follows is exactly what it says on the tin, a list of 50 buildings with a picture and a small blurb of text explaining how each one is just hideous. As with many of the other choices, Disney World Contemporary Resort is a unique piece of architecture. The main tower is a massive A-frame that was built separately, while the actual hotel rooms were built off-site and then transported to the property and slid into place. The structure is also open in the middle, as the Walt Disney World Monorail track goes through it and the train stops inside the hotel to pick up and drop off guests. It was the most convenient and fun way to get to the parks from a hotel for almost 50 years until the Disney World Skyliner opened...

Sound of Freedom’ Studio Deflects Criticism: “The Vast Majority of Tickets Are Being Bought by Everyday People” Angel Studios won't say how much of the film's $164 million domestic take — staggering enough that it inspired one major Hollywood studio to commission a survey of social media discourse and audience reaction. “Overall, the online consumer response to Sound of Freedom has been less about the movie itself and more rooted in conspiracy theories and ongoing political/culture wars within the United States and the globe at large,” says the summary. Right-leaning audiences dismiss criticisms of the movie from the left and mainstream press as the thoughts of “pedophiles, satanists and other malicious parties,” while left-leaning audiences found the movie’s messaging tactics to be aligned with “QAnon, racism, white supremacy, Christo-fascist, anti-Semitic and an overall deceitful work.” But a recent survey by well-known pollster Sam Rasmussen’s RMG Research doesn’t find the two sides of the aisle that far apart on the subject of Sound of Freedom. The poll found that nearly half of American voters, or 49 percent, are aware of the movie (24 percent have read about, 18 percent know someone who has seen it and 7 percent have seen themselves. And 62 percent of those surveyed have a favorable opinion of the pic, regardless of their political affiliation...

It looks like it's going to be a tight race between "Barbie" and "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" for the biggest movie of 2023 at the box office. As it stands, "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" is the king of the hill in '23 with $1.352 billion to its name. Universal and Illumination's take on Nintendo's beloved plumber has been a sensation and, for a time, seemed like it was all but guaranteed to finish its run as the year's biggest global grosser. Then "Barbie" came along and performed well beyond what anyone could have reasonably thought was possible. Currently, Gerwig's latest sits at $1.03 billion. So it would need around $322 million to take the crown away from Mario and Luigi.Working in favor of "Barbie" is the fact that August doesn't have a ton of big movies that look to light up the charts...

Even though things didn't start out on the best foot, Pixar's "Elemental" has had a downright astonishing run at the box office since it opened last month and, in its seventh weekend, managed to cross a pretty impressive milestone. Amazingly enough, it now ranks as the highest-grossing original Hollywood film released in theaters since the pandemic began. After adding $3.4 million in its most recent weekend domestically, "Elemental" now sits at $395.2 million worldwide. That is currently more than "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" ($356 million), which was released two weeks after Pixar's latest. The film overtook Christopher Nolan's "Tenet" ($365.3 million) to take the title of Hollywood's biggest original of the pandemic era...

Up to $20 million could be pumped into independent film production in Switzerland thanks to revisions to the country’s Film Act, which will compel streamers such as Prime Video and Netflix to invest in the local film business. According to Swiss law, local television companies must invest 4% of their revenue generated in Switzerland on independent film production. The amendment, which was approved by a referendum and was voted into law, extends this obligation to streamers, as well as mandating a 30% quota for European content...

You can approach old classics just like new films, argued participants during Locarno’s Heritage Monday panel. “I talked to an exhibitor in Paris and they don’t consider repertory cinema to be different from contemporary cinema. They are collapsing both models into one and it’s very interesting,” said K.J. Relth-Miller of the Academy Museum.   “There is a new generation coming to cinema now. I am starting to see that, basically, it happens every five years. Whenever I feel I am showing ‘The Conformist’ again, whenever I feel I am in a rut, I remind myself there will always be people coming to see it for the very first time,” said Relth-Miller, with Ronald Chammah of Les Film Camelia chiming in: “Seven years ago, when we would show a classic, the main audience used to be older. Now, after the pandemic, it’s young people.” While “marketing is very important for classic movies,” he observed, traditional promotional strategies don’t always work. Relth-Miller praised radio interviews and podcast appearances over print media. “I have been on the radio three times in the past two weeks, speaking about our silent film program, and our attendance doubled after they premiered.”...

In her most forceful comments to date about the Hollywood strikes, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass called Friday on the unions and studios to reach a deal “immediately” to get the industry back to work. Bass, who has largely remained on the sidelines thus far, said she is willing to get personally involved to help bring the strikes to an end. “It is critical that this gets resolved immediately so that Los Angeles gets back on track and I stand ready to personally engage with all the stakeholders in any way possible to help get this done,” Bass said. Bass made the comments on Friday as representatives of the Writers Guild of America were meeting with the head of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers for the first time since the writers strike began on May 1...