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Yvette Nicole Brown is set to guest star in an upcoming episode of “Suits LA,” Variety has learned exclusively.

Brown will play a version of herself in the episode airing May 4 on NBC, streaming the following day on Peacock. The official description for the episode states:

“Ted (Stephen Amell) must deliver on a request from client Patton Oswalt (as himself). Amanda (Maggie Grace) turns to Erica (Lex Scott Davis) for help defending a teen star accused of attacking her dad. Stuart’s (Josh McDermitt) accident sends him into a spiral. In the past, Ted and Eddie (Carson A. Egan) come to LA for Stuart’s bachelor party.”

Brown previously starred in the popular NBC sitcom “Community,” with a movie followup to the show currently in the works at Peacock. Brown has also starred in shows like “The Mayor,” “Drake and Josh,” ”The Odd Couple,” “Big Shot” and “Act Your Age.

After making her directorial debut with the Season 3, Episode 6 “Napkins” on The Bear, we’ve learned Emmy winner Ayo Edebiri and Lionel Boyce are co-penning an episode for Season 4.

Edebiri told us in a Crew Call podcast, which we’ll post down the road, kept the episode details under wraps. Her Sydney Adamu has a tough decision to make next season, given that she’s received an offer to work at a competing restaurant as The Bear grapples with tough times.

Edebiri is the only cast member to direct for the award-winning series. With Boyce co-writing an episode with Edebiri, they are now the only cast members to write for the series. Boyce plays Marcus, one of the chefs at The Bear and The Original Beef on the series. He was nominated for Best Supporting Actor Comedy Series at the Emmys last year for The Bear.

The multihyphenate received a...

Being incredibly gifted often comes with a price. While your talent could take you far, it could also make you a target for those looking to take advantage. However, there’s a chance for child prodigies to find solace in one another as they identify with unique circumstances and pitfalls. Today, we’re hearing that two of Hollywood’s hottest stars, Ayo Edebiri and Will Sharpe, will lead Prodigies, an upcoming Apple TV+ series about two ex-child prodigies reevaluating their relationship later in life.

In Prodigies, Ayo Edebiri plays Didi, while Will Sharpe plays Ren, “two ex-child prodigies who have been together since they were children. Now in their early 30s, they are starting to question whether their very ordinary existence is living up to the extraordinary promise of their childhood. Inevitably, they find themselves asking the same questions of their relationship.”

The project finds Will Sharpe re-teaming with Black Doves producer Sister,...

The 2025 summer movie season is nearly upon us, and it's quite stacked. The first quarter of the year had its ups and downs, but mostly, it was disappointments littering the road as Hollywood faced another rough start in the pandemic era. Fortunately, things have turned around in recent weeks, with the likes of "A Minecraft Movie" and "Sinners" posting big numbers. But now we ask the question: What will come out on top and be the biggest movie of the summer? There are plenty of options and no easy answers.

Marvel's "Thunderbolts" is due to kick the summer season off with a $70 million, give or take, opening the first weekend of May. That's going to be much better than "The Fall Guy" ($28 million) last year, but it's also far below the MCU blockbusters of pre-2020, which would sail to $100 million domestically without blinking. Marvel also has "Fantastic Four: First Steps" in July,...

Unlike The Chosen: Last Supper trilogy, which couldn’t quite pull off a resurrection over the Easter weekend, fellow faith-based release The King of Kings successfully attracted the majority of its target demographic to theaters. The animated movie exceeded expectations in its debut weekend, and fell by just 10% in its sophomore frame. It claimed the number three spot on the domestic box office charts, finishing behind two Warner Bros. hits — director Ryan Coogler’s Sinners and Jared Hess’ A Minecraft Movie.

The King of Kings grossed over $17 million this weekend, after having generated $19 million in its debut weekend. The film’s running domestic total stands at over $45 million. It’s the second-highest-grossing movie for Angel Studios, behind the unexpectedly successful yet hugely controversial blockbuster Sound of Freedom. In its debut weekend, The King of Kings broke The Prince of Egypt’s record for the biggest debut haul for an animated biblical film.

One of the most surprising blockbusters of the year is getting an all-star English dub in an attempt to take over the world all over again. Ne Zha 2 smashed records when it became the biggest animated movie of all-time thanks to its $2.11 billion global box office, and found itself among James Cameron’s Avatar movies and MCU Avengers films as the fifth-highest grossing movie ever.

Ne Zha 2 obviously made most of its money at the China box office, but you can’t make a movie that big without the rest of the world wanting to see what the fuss is about. For that reason, the movie, with its original language and subtitles, managed to pull in reasonable box office receipts. Now the new English dub has already started securing screens in the U.S. and Australia, and is prepared to put in the marketing to make the film a success all over again.

Disney is doing yet another “Toy Story” film, because sequels is their next play now that live-action remakes are not performing. Now we know that “Toy Story 5” will reportedly focus heavily on Jessie, according to Buzz Lightyear voice actor Tim Allen.

Allen talked to Wivb and let it slip that the fifth film is about Jessie, saying,

“I can tell you that it’s a lot about Jessie,” Allen said about the fifth “Toy Story” movie. “Tom [Hanks] and I do — Woody and I — do realign. And there’s an unbelievable opening scene with Buzz Lightyears. I can give you that, but I can’t give you much more.”

Buzz and Woody will be there but the film’s focus is going to be Jessie and the toys fighting digital devices?

“Toy Story 5″ will focus on the toys facing the challenge of staying relevant in a world increasingly dominated by technology and digital devices.

While the Trump administration has sparked uproar in the European Union over the president’s aggressive new trade policy, it’s also fueled tensions between the U.S. and European film industries.

Jacques Audiard (“Emilia Perez”), Costa-Gavras (“Z”), Audrey Diwan (“Happening”) and Claude Lelouch (“A Man and a Woman”) are among the French filmmakers who have called out the the offensive led by the American film community against EU regulations, including the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (Avms), which forces foreign streaming services to invest a portion of their revenues into local productions.

In an open letter signed on behalf of France’s two main film orgs, Arp and Srf (Society of French Directors), French filmmakers said they were “astonished” by the memorandum signed by the Directors Guild of America (DGA) and the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE).

The message, which was sent in March to the United States...

Frozen II Record Breaking (Photo Credit – Hotstar)

Frozen II had some massive snow boots to fill, and it didn’t just walk, it skated its way into Disney history. The sequel to the 2013 cultural phenomenon brought back Elsa, Anna, Olaf, Kristoff, and Sven for another magical journey, this time diving deeper into the sisters’ past and the origins of Elsa’s powers. The stakes were higher, the soundtrack even more ambitious, and the animation? Absolutely stunning.

Critics may not have showered it with the same level of praise as the original, but fans around the globe couldn’t resist one more trip to Arendelle. Whether it was the mystery of Ahtohallan, Olaf’s hilarious existentialism, or Elsa’s glow-up in that show-stopping dress, Frozen II had enough heart, spectacle, and catchy tunes to keep audiences coming back. So how did it end up breaking records even with chillier reviews? Let’s unpack the magic.

The Current Debate connects the dots around a topic of the critical conversation.Anora.Remember Cord Jefferson’s plea at last year’s Oscars? Picking up his Best Adapted Screenplay award for American Fiction (2023), the director chided the industry for being “risk-averse,” and suggested that, “instead of making one $200 million movie,” producers should spread those resources to make room for more diverse and bolder voices. “Try making twenty $10 million movies,” he said, “or fifty $4 million movies.” Jefferson was of course alluding to Oppenheimer (2023), Christopher Nolan’s thunderous portrait of “father of the atomic bomb” J. Robert Oppenheimer, a $100-million Best Picture winner that racked up seven statuettes and nearly a billion dollars at the box office. A year later, a cursory glance at the list of 2025 Oscar winners might make you think the industry did, in fact, heed the call. It’s not that there were no big-budget films among...

After most recently directing episodes of Unicorn: Warriors Eternal and Primal, the next project from director Genndy Tartakovsky just got a major update. Netflix has released the first images from Fixed, the upcoming adult animated comedy starring Idris Elba and Kathryn Hahn. The streamer has also announced that the film will be released on August 23. Fixed follows Bull, an all-around good dog, who discovers he will be neutered the next morning. As the gravity of the situation sets in, he realizes he needs one last adventure with his group of best friends. In addition to Elba and Hahn, Fixed also stars Adam Devine (Pitch Perfect), Fred Armisen (Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy), Bobby Moynihan (Inside Out 2), Beck Bennett (Sing), Michelle Buteau (Happiest Season), and River Gallo (Ponyboi).

Tartakovsky is a five-time Emmy Award winner for his work on projects like Primal, Samurai Jack, and Star Wars: Clone Wars,...

Having completed almost a month in theaters worldwide, Disney’s Snow White is staring at the unfortunate scenario in which it fails to pass three minor box office milestones. It still hasn’t hit the $100 million mark, neither domestically nor worldwide, which means that it hasn’t hit the $200 million mark globally. Snow White cost a fortune, but the writing was on the wall even before it debuted. A section of the public unfairly targeted star Rachel Zegler for making pro-Palestine statements, and Disney appeared to allow it. She was made the scapegoat for a project that was struggling to attract attention from the get-go.

With $81 million domestically and another $99 million from overseas markets, Snow White has grossed a cumulative total of $181 million worldwide. Directed by Marc Webb, the movie famously cost over $250 million to produce, which means that Disney probably has a bigger bomb on its hands than Joker: Folie à Deuxlast year.

The summer movie season is almost here! As we head into Easter week, you may have noticed movie theatres are suddenly being stocked with higher-end films than in the last few months, with A Minecraft Movie dominating the box office. Plus, next weekend, we get Ryan Coogler’s Sinners and the weekend after, the long-awaited The Accountant 2. However, the summer movie season itself, as is tradition, only really kicks off the first weekend in May, and this year Marvel’s hoping to start things off with a bang with the release of Thunderbolts.

While the tracking for that one doesn’t suggest a record-breaking debut, it will certainly be a much bigger start to the summer than last year’s underwhelming debut for The Fall Guy provided. And, once Thunderbolts is out, the onslaught of blockbusters won’t be slowing down anytime soon. It’ll be interesting to see...

In a blow to 2025’s blockbusters, an escalating trade war has seen China reduce the number of Hollywood films it will show in its cinemas.

Well, this didn’t take long. Just 24 hours after saying it would respond to Donald Trump’s escalating trade war with China by reducing the import of US films, the country’s government has confirmed that it’s following through on its threat. While certainly not the box office goldmine that it used to be, Hollywood exports to China still earned around $600m last year.

Over recent years, China has vastly reduced the number of American films that make it into the country’s huge theatrical market. Back when it was building its theatrical infrastructure of almost 90,000 screens, the country was happy to import US films to create a supply that would in turn create demand. Now it has that demand, the country has replaced American imports with homegrown cinema,...

Film Distributors’ Association chief executive officer Andy Leyshon has hailed the year-on-year increase in UK-Ireland admissions and box office achieved in 2024, “no matter how slim”.

UK and Irish annual admissions improved by 2.3% to 138 million while box office was up by 0.2% to £1.065bn in 2024 (vs. £1.063bn in 2023). It marked a fourth consecutive year of box-office growth.

“We rose to number three in the global rankings and kept the upward trajectory going, where most countries witnessed a downturn. We’ve also seen 2025 starting very well – again, better than many other territories – and the market is currently predicted to come in 9-10% up on last year,...

In the wake of A Minecraft Movie's record-breaking opening weekend, another classic video game of the early 2010s is returning to the big screen as Angry Birds 3 has a new release date, a new studio, and a new cast...with some returning favorites. Released in 2009, Angry Birds was a mobile game that took the world by storm and became one of the most downloaded games in history. Two feature films were made to capitalize on the phenomenon: 2016's The Angry Birds Movie and 2019's The Angry Birds Movie 2. The franchise will return to the big screen eight years after the last film and almost twenty years after the game's launch.

Deadline reports that The Angry Birds Movie 3 will be released on Jan. 9, 2027. While the original two films in the franchise were released through Sony Pictures, Paramount Pictures is now taking over the distribution of the third entry. Original cast members Jason Sudeikis,...

Paul Walter Hauser has heard 'Inside Out 3' is in the pipeline.The 38-year-old actor - who voiced Embarrassment in last year's sequel to the 2015 Disney Pixar classic - is proud of the way the franchise has "resonated with people of all ages", and he's teased the possibility of a third movie in the series.He told Comicbook.com: "Crazy, it’s nutty. I heard we might be doing another one."I don’t know when or how or where, but the movie just resonated with people of all ages and it really, I think what’s different about the 'Inside Out' movies from other animated films is it doesn’t really treat children as less intellectual beings."It really tells a funny, brilliant story, and they’ll grow with it as they get older, they’ll get some of the other jokes and it’ll find new resonance.

After grossing over $1.6 billion at the global box office, Inside Out 2 just got an unexpectedly juicy sequel update from one of its stars. Inside Out 2 earned rave reviews and scores of 91% from critics and 95% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes on its way to becoming the highest-grossing movie of 2024 by every metric. Inside Out 2 came nine years after the first Inside Out, so no one expected any kind of movement on a potential Inside Out 3 less than a year removed from Inside Out 2. However, during a recent interview with Comicbook.com, Inside Out 2 star Paul Walter Hauser, who voices embarrassment in the film, was asked about why he thinks the sequel resonated so much with audiences, and he wasn’t shy to offer up news about a potential threequel:

"Crazy, it’s nutty. I heard we might be doing another one. I don’t know when or how or where,...

Paul Walter Hauser, the performer known for his roles in films like Richard Jewell and TV shows like Cobra Kai and Black Bird, recently had his breakout voice role in 2024's Inside Out 2. He was responsible for bringing to life the endearing character known as Embarrassment, yet another of the various emotions that make Riley's world a very complicated one. Hauser is currently promoting his role in Major League Wrestling (Mlw), and used the opportunity to address the return of the Pixar franchise for a possible Inside Out 3.

Hauser spoke to ComicBook.com to promote his latest participation in the wrestling world. Although he was eventually eliminated from Battle Riot VII, Hauser looks unstoppable in his rise to become a huge wrestling personality (he plays himself in the wrestling ring). It was during the interview that he was asked about the possibility of reprising his character Embarrassment in a future Inside Out sequel,...

A Minecraft Movie China Box Office: Opening Weekend Update ( Photo Credit – YouTube )

Jason Momoa and Jack Black, along with their team, are enjoying the great reception their A Minecraft Movie received at the box office. It is all the more notable in China because of its dominance over the Chinese juggernaut Ne Zha 2. After 68 days, some films have finally removed the Ne Zha sequel from its top spot. The feat continued throughout this weekend as the Minecraft movie registered a spectacular debut in China. Keep scrolling for the deets.

The PG-rated film has beaten the opening weekend collection of The Super Mario Bros Movie and Inside Out 2. However, the movie by Jared Hess did not beat the global debut of The Super Mario Bros Movie. According to reports, it was made on a budget of $150 million, and the film has successfully recovered that twice in its opening weekend only.

A Minecraft Movie opened with $157 million in domestic ticket sales over its first three days, setting a new record for video game-based films in the United States. The previous high belonged to The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which opened with $146.4 million in 2023.

The film, led by Jason Momoa and Jack Black, also posted the third-largest April opening in domestic box office history, behind Avengers: Endgame and Avengers: Infinity War. It edged out Furious 7, which had held that position since 2015. On the list of top three-day debuts for PG-rated films, A Minecraft Movie now ranks fourth, surpassing Inside Out 2 and trailing only The Lion King, Incredibles 2, and Beauty and the Beast.

Internationally, the film earned $144.1 million, bringing its global total to $301 million. The global debut was lower than The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which launched with $375.6 million, but the domestic figure set a new mark for video game adaptations.

A Minecraft Movie North America Box Office: Debut Weekend Update ( Photo Credit – YouTube )

Jason Momoa and Jack Black’s A Minecraft Movie might have failed to beat the global opening of The Super Mario Bros Movie, but it has beaten the 2023 blockbuster on its home turf. Black is part of both films. It has registered one of the biggest openings in recent times, beating Inside Out 2 as well. Keep scrolling for the deets.

The movie has been awarded a B+ on CinemaScore. It has exceeded the industry’s projections, as they expected it to earn between $140 million and $155 million in the United States. The film is being loved by the people, and this is reflected in its opening weekend collection only. The movie has also beaten Furious 7’s opening weekend collection as one of the biggest weekends ever for April.

Luiz Fernando’s report states that A Minecraft...

Disney's Inside Out 3 gets a promising update, with one of the franchise stars recently sharing news of a new movie. 2024's Inside Out 2 grossed over $1.69 billion worldwide.

Paul Walter Hauser, the voice of the new emotion Embarrassment in Inside Out 2, recently shared with ComicBook.com about a potential third movie on the way. "Crazy, it’s nutty. I heard we might be doing another one. I don’t know when or how or where, but the movie just resonated with people of all ages and it really, I think what’s different about the Inside Out movies from other animated films is it doesn’t really treat children as, as less intellectual beings."

Inside Out 2 saw Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith and Lewis Black return as Joy, Sadness and Anger respectively. The sequel to 2015's Inside Out, the second film saw the beloved emotions that control young Riley joined by hilarious new emotions,...

Not even the most optimistic projections for Warner Bros./Legendary’s “A Minecraft Movie” had it on the threshold of a bigger opening weekend than “Barbie,” but that is where we are as it has set a new video game adaptation record with a breathtaking $157 million from 4,269 theaters and a global launch of $301 million.

After weeks of poor turnout at movie theaters and the worst March box office outside the pandemic since the 1990s, “Minecraft” has had the same drought-busting effect on the marketplace that Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” had last summer. By the end of the weekend, the year-to-date box office total is expected to go from 11% down year-over-year to 6% and should continue to shrink with an April market that will be far more robust than last year’s.

The “Jumanji”-esque adventure film stars Jack Black as Steve, the player avatar in the hit video game from...

Did Paul Walter Hauser give updates for Inside Out 3?(Photo Credit –Facebook)

Over the past decade, Pixar’s Inside Out has become more than just an animated film. It began with an emotional story that has struck a chord with audiences of all ages. The original film, released in 2015, was not only a commercial triumph but also won an Academy Award, making its name among Pixar’s modern classics.

Its sequel, Inside Out 2, arrived nearly a decade later and proved that the franchise still had plenty of emotional territory left to explore. The success of the second film has only intensified curiosity about where Riley’s journey, and the vibrant ensemble of emotions guiding her, might go next.

While Pixar has yet to officially greenlight or announce a third film, there’s now reason to believe that Inside Out 3 is not just a fan wish-list entry, but an actual project inching toward reality.

Disney executives delivered a tidy CinemaCon session in Las Vegas packed with sequels, reboots and spin-offs like Avatar: Fire & Ash, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, and Tron: Ares. Executivesnoted – unsurprisingly – that the studio and its labels has ranked number one in Hollywood for eight out of the past nine years and keeps films exclusively in cinemas longer than any of its rivals.

Judging from the steady stream of whoops and applause from the crowd of exhibitors at The Colosseum in Caesars Palace on Thursday, the formula works, and Disney’s appetite for revisiting familiar territory well into 2028 and beyond suits them well.

Disney executives delivered a tidy CinemaCon session in Las Vegas packed with sequels, reboots and spin-offs like Avatar: Fire & Ash, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, and Tron: Ares and noted – unsurprisingly – that the studio and its labels has ranked number one in Hollywood for eight out of the past nine years and keeps films exclusively in cinemas longer than any of its rivals.

Judging from the steady stream of whoops and applause from the crowd of exhibitors at The Colosseum in Caesars Palace on Thursday, the formula works, and Disney’s appetite for revisiting familiar territory well into 2028 and beyond suits them well.

Detectives Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde are feeling the strain of cracking one too many cases together.

And, in new footage that Disney premiered for “Zootopia 2” at CinemaCon, that’s sent them to partners therapy. It’s overseen by a quokka named Dr. Fuzzbee and filled with mismatched cops, such as an elephant who keeps getting terrified of the mouse who shares a squad car, or the deer who keeps fighting with a skunk. Hopps, for those who may have forgotten, is a rabbit and Wilde is a fox.

Disney also shared a scene where Hopps and Wilde go on holiday to a marsh resort, filled with hippos going down waterslides and a juggling seal — whoops, make that sea lion!

The first film, about a world populated by anthropomorphic animals, was a smash hit, grossing over $1 billion at the box office, so theater owners and executives, who make up...

Director James Cameron can rest easy, at least for the time being. He's still responsible for three of the four highest-grossing films in history, with his 1997 classic Titanic fending off competition from China's Ne Zha 2. For a while, it looked like the animated sequel might sink Titanic's record, but with over $100 million still separating them and Ne Zha 2's theatrical run basically coming to an end, it looks like the rankings will remain unchanged. Released during the lucrative Chinese New Year period some months ago, Ne Zha 2broke numerous box office records in its run, ultimately becoming the fifth-biggest film in history.

The movie recently passed the $2.1 billion mark at the global box office, but still trails Titanic's $2.2 billion haul. Interestingly, Ne Zha 2 was able to sail past Titanic's original run, because the blockbuster's $2.2 billion figure includes revenue generated from multiple re-releases over the years.

It was hard not to think about Seth Rogen’s new Apple TV+ comedy series The Studio during the opening night of CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Monday — and not just because the Hollywood satire’s first season ends with a pair of episodes set during the annual trade show for theater owners. Before introducing his upcoming slate of films (and beyond), Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group Chair Tom Rothman quipped, “I’m Seth Rogen.”

However, before Rotham even took the stage, an ethos suggested by The Studio hung in the air. “We don’t make ‘films,’ we make movies,” Griffin Mill, the bottom-line oriented CEO of Continental Studios, tells Rogen’s newly installed studio boss in the show’s pilot episode. “Movies people want to pay to see.”

At no time was that more apparent than during the opening night sizzle reel of 2024 success stories. The sharply produced package...

Los lanzamientos más destacados en cines y plataformas de streaming. © Warner Bros, A Contracorriente Films & Universal Pictures

Ya es primavera y, aunque los grandes estrenos que aspiran a ser taquillazos (al más puro estilo Del revés 2) suelen llegar con el verano, abril trae algunos títulos que podrían hacer muy buenos números en cartelera (la adaptación del universo cúbico de Mojang Studio a la gran pantalla o lo nuevo de Marvel y sus Thunderbolts). Aquí tienes los estrenos a los que no hay que perder de vista:

Una PELÍCULA De Minecraft (4 de abril en cines) © Warner Bros

Hayas o no jugado a Minecraft, esta película tiene todo para ser un éxito en taquilla. En esta adaptación del conocidísimo videojuego de Mojang Studio, cuatro inadaptados se encuentran luchando con problemas ordinarios cuando de repente se ven arrastrados a través de un misterioso portal al Overworld, un extraño y cúbico país de...

We are now one quarter of the way through 2025, and things are not looking great at the box office. As it stands, domestic ticket sales are pacing nearly 11% behind this same time in 2024, and 2024 was pacing pretty far behind 2023 at this point in the year thanks to the SAG and WGA strikes. Needless to say, things aren't looking great. Unfortunately, despite an audience-friendly premise and a star-studded cast, A24's "Death of a Unicorn" served as the latest disappointment this year. Yet, it's also a reminder that we need even more movies like this one.

Directed by Alex Scharfman, "Death of a Unicorn" opened to just $5.7 million domestically, putting it at number five on the charts. It opened behind Blumhouse's latest horror offering "The Woman in the Yard" ($9.4 million), despite playing on more screens. So yeah, it's not a great look. But A24 will probably be fine in the long run here,...

Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, it seemed as if Pixar could do no wrong. The animation studio, in league with Disney, pushed forward the idea of all-computer-animated feature films back in 1995 with the release of "Toy Story," gaining a lot of critical attention for its clever writing and penchant for heart-rending sentimentality. It wouldn't be until the release of "Cars 2" in 2011 that critics would begin to cool to the studio. And even still, "Cars 2" was a $559 million hit.

In the 2010s, Pixar began to skew further and further away from original ideas and lean heavier into sequels or prequels to its earlier hits. Indeed, of the 10 Pixar features released in that decade, six were part of an established franchise. Some of these films were excellent, but the studio nevertheless seemed a few years beyond its creative peak.

The first half of the 2020s was a mixed bag for Pixar,...

Mufasa: The Lion King Worldwide Box Office (Photo Credit – Instagram)

Mufasa: The Lion King, released in the cinemas last year, was a significant box office success. It worried people when Mufasa opened with low numbers at the US box office. Despite a weak plot, it showed the power of family movies and great visuals. It is suffering at the box office now because of its digital streaming, and as it prepares to bid goodbye at the cinemas, let’s take a quick look at how much the movie is trailing behind its blockbuster predecessor, The Lion King.

The Lion King was released in 2019, and it is a photorealistically animated remake of the traditionally animated 1994 film. It was a huge box office success and is also one of the highest-grossing animated films of all time. It was directed by Jon Favreau featuring the voices of Donald Glover, Seth Rogen, Chiwetel Ejiofor,...

Disney has tapped Tamotsu Hiiro to be the new managing director of its Japanese operations.

Hiiro will report to Disney Apac President Luke Kang.

Tamotsu was formerly president & CEO of McDonald’s Japan. Before that, he was president of Johnson & Johnson in Japan. In his new role at Disney, Tamotsu will be tasked with driving further growth and development of the company’s entertainment businesses.

Tamotsu succeeds Carol Choi, who has stepped down after five years. Choi will retain her regional responsibilities, including her multiple roles as Executive Vice President for Apac studios, original content strategy, networks, and integrated marketing.

The company said today that during her tenure, Choi “successfully grew Disney+ to become a leading streaming service, expanded the studio business with record-breaking hits including Mufasa: The Lion King, Moana 2, Deadpool & Wolverine, and Inside Out 2, and established the company’s Japanese original content plans and team.

The Mouse House has a new captain steering its ship in Japan.

The Walt Disney Company revealed Friday the appointment of Tamotsu Hiiro as its new managing director for Japan. Tamotsu, who brings more than 35 years of corporate leadership experience to the role, will report directly to Luke Kang, president of Disney’s Asia Pacific operations.

The veteran executive comes to Disney after serving as president & CEO of McDonald’s Japan. Prior to his golden arches stint, Tamotsu spent three decades at Johnson & Johnson, culminating in his role as president of the company’s Japan division.

The leadership change comes as Carol Choi steps down from the Japan top spot after five years in Tokyo. Choi will continue her regional responsibilities as executive VP for Apac studios, original content strategy, networks and integrated marketing.

During Choi’s tenure, she successfully positioned Disney+ as a successful streaming service in the competitive...

While Inside Out 2 took the mantle from Barbie as a female-centric megahit, overall industry progress on gender equity continued to stall in 2024.

That’s the main takeaway from the latest annual report from ReFrame, the initiative launched in 2017 by the Sundance Institute and Wif (formerly Women In Film Los Angeles). With IMDbPro also backing the effort, the report said 30 of the 100 most popular films of 2024 (judging by box office and streaming views) met the “ReFrame Stamp” criteria for gender-balanced production. Along with Inside Out 2, the roster of recognized titles included Oscar winners Wicked and Emelia Pérez and five-time nominee The Substance.

With global box office of almost $1.7 billion (including a record $1 billion-plus outside the U.S.), Inside Out 2 is the highest-grossing animated film in history. The sequel to Pixar’s 2014 film about the inner emotional life of Riley sees the protagonist navigating the complexities of high school.

A report from ReFrame says gender-balanced films like Wicked and The Substance deliver at the box office, howeverprogress towards parity in hiring practices has stalled.

ReFrame, which was established in 2017 to push for systemic change among senior industry decision-makers, said on Wednesday filmsfrom the 100 most popular titles released in 2024 that received the Reframe Stamp for gender-balanced hiring across key roles earned more than double what non-Stamped films grossed at the worldwide box office.

The top 100 films are takenfrom IMDb Pro’s proprietary rankings based on page views.Stamped films comprised half of the 10 highest-grossing films in 2024. Female-led Inside Out 2...

A report from ReFrame says gender-balanced films like Wicked and The Substance deliver at the box office, howeverprogress towards parity in hiring practices has stalled.

ReFrame, which was established in 2017 to push for systemic change among senior industry decision-makers, said on Wednesday filmsfrom the 100 most popular titles released in 2024 that received the Reframe Stamp for gender-balanced hiring across key roles earned more than double what non-Stamped films grossed at the worldwide box office.

The top 100 films are takenfrom IMDb Pro’s proprietary rankings based on page views.Stamped films comprised half of the 10 highest-grossing films in 2024. Female-led Inside Out 2...

According to Sundance and Wif’s ReFrame study out Wednesday, movies that feature gender-balanced casts and crews are more profitable than those that just employ mostly men.

However, only 30 of the 100 most popular films of 2024 actually meet the criteria for a ReFrame Stamp based on gender-balanced production, per IMDbPro data.

“Since the brief climb captured in the first few years of the report between 2017 and 2019, progress for parity in feature films has stalled, with 30% or fewer projects receiving the ReFrame Stamp for the past five years,” the study shared. “Despite their smaller share across the Top 100, Stamped films over-index on profitability, comprising half of the 10 top-grossing films in 2024, with ‘Inside Out 2’ following in ‘Barbie’s’ footsteps as a Stamped film with a female lead that topped both the year’s domestic and worldwide box offices.”

“Stamped films also receive lower budgets overall, but on average, Stamped theatrical releases within...

2024 was the truest cinematic rollercoaster where studios didn’t just break the bank, they literally shattered it. Honestly, it was the year Hollywood officially said, “Budget? What Budget?” With 2024 costliest movies amounting more than small countries’ annual revenues, the stakes were higher than ever. And the studios poured unimaginable sums that had fans queuing up in droves.

Take Deadpool & Wolverine, it just sliced through the Marvel multiverse. Similarly, Inside Out 2 was also a financial rollercoaster, revealing that the industry spared no expense.

A still from Deadpool & Wolverine, Inside Out 2, and Dune: Part Two

It wasn’t just about the cost, it was also about who could rake in the box-office billions. Would these big-ticket productions win audience hearts and studio profits, or would they collapse under the weight of their massive investments?

As the dust settled on 2024’s cinematic battlefield, only a handful emerged as both financial and cultural phenomena.

Animated movies have long been crowd-pleasers, working with audiences of all ages. This can, perhaps, be attributed to the freedom that comes with the medium. With the genre’s history dating back to the late 1800s, it’s fascinating to see how animation has evolved from short, silent films to this billion-dollar culture machine.

A still from 2009’s Up | Credits: Walt Disney

While box office data began to be tracked in the 1920s, it wasn’t until the late 20th and early 21st centuries that animated films began breaking financial records. Today, a select group of these films has achieved rather extraordinary success, capturing the hearts (and wallets) of millions worldwide.

Let’s count down the animated movies that have made history, starting at number thirteen and working our way to the champion of the billion-dollar club. (You never know who overtakes them next).

Zootopia (2016)

Zootopia is a funny film with a big message.

The summer movie season is getting close, and Fandango has revealed what is, at the moment, the most anticipated movie of the summer, and the result may surprise you. 2025 is set to be a big summer movie season, with most eyes on the July battle between Warner Bros. and DC's Superman against Disney and Marvel's The Fantastic Four: First Steps, which both come out just two weeks apart. Combine that with a Tom Cruise vs Stitch rematch on Memorial Day weekend and potential original hits like F1, Elio, and Materialists; there are a lot of choices this summer at the movies.

According to a poll conducted by Fandango, Jurassic World: Rebirth is the most anticipated movie of summer 2025, based on a survey of 3,500 ticket buyers. Marvel Studios' The Fantastic Four: First Steps and Thunderbolts* claim the number two and five slots, while DC Studios' Superman holds at number four. Other...

Chinese juggernaut Ne Zha 2 overtook Inside Out 2 in February as the top-grossing animated film of all time — mostly from a staggering estimated $1.89 billion in its home country alone. Mayoan expects the film to end its phenomenal run with $2.08 billion, which would make it the fifth-highest-grossing movie of all time worldwide.

Inside Out 2 amassed the highest global box office gross of 2024. Joined by Moana 2, it marked that year’s third release to surpass this milestone. Inside Out 2 has ascended to the top of the animated film box office, amassing a staggering $1.69 billion worldwide since its June 14 debut. Both animated films have joined the elite group, surpassing the billion-dollar mark alongside 55 other films.

Related: The Movies That Have Made More Than $1 Billion At The Box Office: Photo Gallery

Eleven other animated films have surpassed a billion dollars in gross revenue. Inside Out 2 has become the highest-grossing animated film ever,...

Moana 2 has entered the prestigious league of movies whose films have crossed the $1 billion mark in box office earnings. The film, starring the voices of Dwayne Johnson and Auli’i Cravalho, joined the ranks of Disney’s 2024 box office animated hit, Inside Out 2 and Marvels Deadpool & Wolverine starring Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman.

Related: The Top-Grossing Movies At The Box Office Every Year Since 1977

The 2023 summer smash Barbie, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, propelled Greta Gerwig into the rankings as the second female director to break global and US Box Office Records. Director Jennifer Lee achieved this milestone for Disney’s Frozen II co-directing alongside Chris Buck.

Related: The Highest-Grossing Animated Films Of All Time At The Box Office

Among the elite list of 59 billion-dollar grossing films are sequels, Disney remakes, and iconic franchises such as Star Wars, Avatar, James Bond, The Lord of the Rings, the Marvel Cinematic Universe,...

For a long time, James Cameron's Avatar has maintained its status as the highest-grossing film of all time at the global box office, surpassing classics and contemporary films. However, this year a film has surfaced that seems poised to steal the crown. Ne Zha 2 is the sequel to an already hyper-popular Chinese animated film, and so far it has grossed over $2 billion worldwide.

PerCollider, Ne Zha 2 has raked in $2.1 billion at the global box office, but the vast majority of that tremendous sum has come domestically from China. Now, the film is starting to get some screen time in other markets, which means that it still has plenty of room to grow the final figure. Regardless, Ne Zha 2's run thus far has already cemented it as one of the top five highest-grossing films of all time. James Cameron dominates the rest of the list with Titanic,...

China’s box office behemoth, the animated film Ne Zha 2, passed what could be its final global box office recently. The movie broke pretty much every record that it possibly could have, and then some. During the course of its phenomenal run, Ne Zha 2 emerged as the highest-grossing animated movie of all time, the biggest film of 2025, and the most successful Chinese-language hit ever made. Having firmly established itself among the five biggest films of all time, Ne Zha 2 is poised to conclude its theatrical run in a few weeks. But the movie only recently began to be rolled out in international markets, earning more in countries where it wouldn’t normally have even been released.

Ne Zha 2has now grossed over $2.1 billion at the global box office, with more than $2 billion of that total coming from the Middle Kingdom. The movie recently overtook the $2 billion worldwide...

Can Elio Break Disney’s Box Office Curse? Disney’s original animated films have been having a rough time at the box office. Strange World, Lightyear, and even Elemental (despite a late-game recovery) all stumbled, while sequels like Inside Out 2 and Moana 2 continue to rake in cash. So, is Elio the chosen one? The film that will finally stop Disney from relying on sequels like a kid clinging to their favorite stuffed animal? Let’s find out.Once upon a time, Disney could release an original animated movie and count on an audience showing up. Lately? Not so much. Lightyear failed to attract audiences due to divisive storytelling choices, Strange World was practically invisible thanks to minimal marketing, and Elemental started slow before word-of-mouth saved it from total disaster. Meanwhile, Inside Out 2 has soared past $1.4 billion, proving people will gladly return for a story they already love.

Here’s How Ne Zha 2 Became The Fifth Highest-Grossing Movie Of All Time!(Photo Credit –Facebook)

Ne Zha 2 has been making waves all over the globe for two reasons – first, it presents a story that caters to all age ages and second, it has become the fifth highest-grossing movie of all time. It is quite amazing for an animated film to have achieved this feat alongside big names like Inside Out 2, Titanic, Avatar trilogy, and Avengers: Infinity War. It is the first and the only animated movie in history to have crossed the Usd $2 billion collection mark.

Ne Zha 2 is the sequel to the 2019 animated film Ne Zha. The 2019 movie is a loose adaptation of the 16th-century novel Investiture of the Gods by Xu Zhonglin. In the movie, the protagonist Nezha is born from a heavenly pearl by the Primeval Lord of Heaven, Yuanshi Tianzun. He...

The animation genre has been taking the Hollywood industry by storm in recent years, with several blockbuster movies at the box office. But the one that paved the way for everyone was Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, released all the way back in 1937. It came at a time when not a lot was known about the genre, and it’s safe to say that almost nine decades later it still remains a timeless classic.

Adriana Caselotti and Purv Pullen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) | Credits: Disney

However, throughout the years several controversial claims have been made challenging its legacy. Also, Snow White as a character adds zero value to the movie and is just there so that the story moves forward. The same has resurfaced again on social media, where a user has detailed more on why Snow White is not actually a fully realized character.