Open Thread

Deadline Hollywood reports: Disney is proving they can open a Marvel movie anywhere on the calendar, even during a pandemic as Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of Ten Rings posted the third best opening day during the pandemic with $29.6M (just behind F9‘s $29.9M) with what will feasibly be the biggest Labor Day opening weekend of all-time with $75M-$85M+ over …

Broadway World reports: The hit musical Waitress is opening up once more this evening as Broadway continues its highly-anticipated return! Tonight, the production gave social media a glimpse inside the Ethel Barrymore Theatre as the lights went down and the curtain prepared to go up. Check out their video as an emotional audience celebrates the return of live theatre as …

Variety reports: Is Hollywood about to mess with Texas? As the state enforces a law that will make parties to almost all abortions vulnerable to civil prosecution — a measure that was upheld by the Supreme Court on Wednesday – show business liberals and corporate giants are feeling pressure to act, multiple industry insiders told Variety. In addition to film …

Deadline Hollywood reports: The three-day Curtain Up! festival in Times Square later this month will culminate in a big Sunday concert featuring performers from 18 Broadway musicals and five plays, with shows represented from Ain’t Too Proud, Hadestown and Jagged Little Pill to Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Pass Over and To Kill a Mockingbird. The free, three-day Curtain …

Deadline Hollywood reports: Ruth Marx, whose singing voice was heard on classic TV commercial jingles that likely reached as many ears as the pop songs of her famous son Richard Marx, died of lung cancer at her home in California on Aug. 24. She was 85. Her death was announced to the Chicago Sun Times by son Richard. In a …

Billboard Magazine reports: This year’s Burning Man festival is officially canceled, but that won’t stop thousands of people from gathering at the event’s traditional site in Northern Nevada this week for an unauthorized celebration in the same vein. Officials at the Bureau of Land Management — which controls Black Rock Desert, where Burning Man typically takes place the week before …

Variety reports: “Candyman” was summoned to the top of domestic box office charts, collecting an impressive $22.37 million from 3,569 theaters in its first three days of release. The R-rated slasher film, written by Jordan Peele and directed by “Captain Marvel 2” filmmaker Nia DaCosta, surpassed industry expectations despite fears the delta variant would keep people from going to the …

Deadline Hollywood reports: Charlie Watts may be gone, but he’s far from forgotten by the bandmates with whom he built an international music juggernaut. The band released a tribute video late on Friday to its social media accounts, declaring that his drum set is closed for business. Watts died earlier this week of unknown causes. He had dropped out of …

The BBC reports: Pop group Abba have teased a major announcement for next week, as fans await their first new music in 39 years. The Swedish band launched a new website on Thursday morning titled “Abba Voyage”, asking fans to register interest in a new project. It is expected to be a long-gestating “hologram tour” that Abba initially announced in …

Variety reports: Kristen Stewart channels Princess Diana with aplomb in the first trailer for “Spencer,” an upcoming biographical drama about the beloved royal. The movie, directed by “Jackie” filmmaker Pablo Larrain, is set in 1991 and takes place over the Christmas holiday as Diana (born Diana Frances Spencer) grapples with the decision to end her marriage to Prince Charles. English …

Deadline Hollywood reports: Spike Lee is back in the editing room to look at the final episode of NYC Epicenters 9/11➔2021½, his docuseries about the obstacles faced by New York City over the past two decades. It debuted last week on HBO. The fourth episode, focusing on the 9/11 terror attacks, is timed to premiere on September 11, the 20th …

Deadline Hollywood reports: Maya Rudolph (Saturday Night Live) and Andy Samberg (Brooklyn Nine-Nine) are heading to the kitchen. They’ve been tapped as hosts of Baking It, Peacock’s six-episode holiday baking competition series, from the creators of Amy Poehler’s Making It crafting competition series. In Baking It, eight teams of two talented home bakers join Maya and Andy’s winter cabin for …

Deadline Hollywood reports: Netflix has dated its fall schedule of film releases, narrative and documentary. The service that promised a new movie each week has a whopping 43 films coming in the final four months of 2021. That is twice the volume of releases most film studios would dream of releasing in a busy calendar year. Can a studio generate …

Deadline Hollywood reports: A quarter century after the passing of HIV-AIDS activist Connie Norman, she’s being remembered for her relentless battle to curtail the disease and to combat homophobia and transphobia. The outspoken figure in ACT UP/LA is the subject of the new documentary AIDS Diva: The Legend of Connie Norman, which made its Los Angeles premiere Saturday at the …

Deadline reports: Tom T. Hall, a Country Music Hall of Famer who wrote “Harper Valley P.T.A.” and was known for such songs as “I LIke Beer,” died today at home in Franklin, TN, according to his son. He was 85. No cause of death was given. A consummate country songwriter, Hall is known for the such classics as “That’s How …

Deadline reports: Broadcaster Nexstar Media said Friday it’s buying The Hill, a leading purveyor of Beltway news, for $130 million as it expands in digital content. The Hill had 48 million average monthly users and 2.2 billion total pageviews in 2020 according to Comscore and attracted more than 4 million followers and 914 million video views on Twitter. It has …

Deadline Hollywood reports: The Television Academy said Thursday that attendees at next month’s Primetime Emmys Awards and Creative Arts Emmy Awards will be required to provide a negative Covid test in addition to being fully vaccinated. This year’s ceremonies are being limited to nominees and a guest with the rise of the Delta variant this summer hampering the return to …

Deadline Hollywood reports: Johnny Depp is complaining that Hollywood is boycotting him, but a Virginia judge just handed the Minamata star a big win in his $50 million defamation lawsuit against Amber Heard. Already pursuing $100 million counterclaim, the Aquaman star attempted a Hail Mary move in April to have Fairfax County Chief Judge Penney Azcarate dismiss the two-year old …

Variety reports: Netflix has released the first look of Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana and Dominic West as Prince Charles in “The Crown.” Season 5, which started production in the U.K. last month, features Debicki as the princess through the early 1990s and West as her estranged husband. Debicki takes over from Emma Corrin, who played Diana in season 4 …

Gothamist reports: Spike Lee’s new four-part “documentary essay,” called NYC EPICENTERS 9/11 ➔ 2021½, brings viewers through the past twenty years using a New York City lens. Set to hit HBO on August 22nd, the docuseries begins in 2020, recounting the pandemic, the demonstrations in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, and “the civil unrest and police brutality that …