Hollywood
The inevitable defeat of Mister and Pete to release on 11 October
MUMBAI: The movie will tell the story of two abandoned and scared boys in New York City and how they live in the mega city. The movie will be directed by George Tillman Jr who has previously done acclaimed movies like Soul Food and Men of Honor.
Written by Michael Starrbury, the motion picture stars Skylan Brooks, Ethan Dizon, Jordin Sparks, Jeffrey Wright, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Anthony Mackie and Jennifer Hudson. It has some tough competition from Sony/Columbia’s Captain Phillips and Open Road’s Machette Kills.
The movie is produced by Lionsgate who have previously come up with big films like The Hunger Games, The Expendables 2 and have some lined up such as The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, remake of Dirty Dancing as well as The Equalizer starring Denzel Washington.
Hollywood
US theatre group opposes Paramount, Warner Bros. merger, calls it ‘harmful’
Exhibitors warn mega deal could shrink film output and weaken cinema ecosystem
LAS VEGAS: Cinema United has come out strongly against the proposed merger between Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery, warning it could concentrate too much power in the hands of a single player and disrupt the global film ecosystem.
Speaking at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, the group’s chief executive Michael O’Leary did not mince words as he addressed thousands of theatre owners. The deal, reportedly valued at $110 billion, was agreed in March after Netflix exited the bidding process.
“We believe this transaction will be harmful to exhibition, consumers and the entire entertainment ecosystem,” O’Leary said, cautioning that greater consolidation would allow fewer distributors to dictate terms around release windows, scheduling and access to film libraries. Theatre owners argue that such scale could reduce competition and ultimately mean fewer films making it to cinemas.
Pushing back, a spokesperson for Paramount Skydance said the merged entity plans to release 30 films annually in theatres, while continuing to operate both studios separately. The company added that the deal would expand opportunities for creators and strengthen competition by backing more projects globally.
However, exhibitors remain unconvinced. Drawing parallels with The Walt Disney Company’s 2019 acquisition of Fox, O’Leary noted a drop in wide theatrical releases post-merger, reinforcing concerns that consolidation often leads to fewer films.
“Unfortunately, history shows us that consolidation results in fewer films being produced for movie theaters,” O’Leary said.
Beyond output, Cinema United also flagged concerns around theatrical windows, warning that a combined Paramount-Warner entity could exert greater control over how long films remain exclusively in cinemas before shifting to other platforms.
With the debate set to intensify, the clash highlights a familiar tension in Hollywood: scale versus diversity. For theatre owners, the stakes are clear, as they push to ensure that bigger does not mean fewer stories on the big screen.
