Nate Bargatze — one of the world’s top-selling stand-up comedians — wants to make his upcoming family movie The Breadwinner affordable for everyone to watch on he big screen.

The TriStar and Sony release opens in theaters on May 29, and marks his most high-profile project since hosting the Emmy Awards ceremony in September.

Based on an original script he wrote with Dan Lagana and directed by Eric Appel, The Breadwinner stars Bargatze as salesman Nate Wilcox and Mandy Moore as Katie, who is the ultimate mom. But when Katie’s household invention leads to a once-in-a-lifetime deal on Shark Tank and takes her on a prolonged business trip, Nate has to figure out how to keep the house from (literally) falling apart. He and his kids soon learn that while he may not do it like mom, he can figure out how to do it his way.

Studios can’t dictate pricing policies, but Bargatze is hopeful that cinema operators will treat The Breadwinner the same way they supported discounted pricing for showing of 80 for Brady.

Soon after Bargatze announced the “Nate Rate” on Instagram, insiders say AMC Theatres, the largest chain in the country, are among a number of circuits that have already agreed to use matinee pricing for showings of The Breadwinnner, while Cinemark may discount prices by as much as 25 percent. Pricing and availability will vary, so audiences will need to check their local listings.

“Hello, everybody! My movie The Breadwinner is coming out May 29 and I’ve got something very exciting that I wanted to let you know,” wrote Bargatze in his post. “So the Nate Rate is a special kind of lower ticket price because we want everyone to come out to this movie. This movie is for your grandparents, grandkids, aunts, uncles, friends, sister…anybody. Your dog. Cats I think will love this movie, specifically. Anybody that wants to come out.”

When interviewed for The Hollywood Reporter’s 2025 cover story on Bargatze — hailed as the “Nicest Man in Standup” — TriStar Pictures president Nicole Brown discussed The Breadwinner’s appeal for the Sony label. “The idea of his first film being so personal and authentic to him and his comedy felt like the perfect foray, and he’d really identified a space,” she said. “He was like, ‘I want to be able to watch a film with my whole family. We can go watch animation now, but there’s nothing with real people in it.’”  

A re-configured multi-million settlement of sorts between Village Roadshow & Warner Bros over The Matrix: Resurrections seems prophetic and very much of the matrix in its own special way.

With the once big league film co-financier paying out $57 million to the likely soon-to-be David Ellison-owned studio, the words of Matrix: Resurrections‘ Smith to Neo of “after all these years, to be going back to where it started,” really nails the legal tussling the past four years between WB and the now bankrupt VR.

Which is to say, you might want to pop that red pill now

Earlier this week, lawyers for Warner Bros Discovery pulled the plug on their own attempt to secure a previously awarded $125 million judgement from Village Roadshow. With that “without prejudice” (which means it could be resurrected) move in LA Superior Court, WBD attorneys revealed they had scored $57 million from the 2025 Chapter 11’d VR. That money was scheduled to be in WBD’s account within days – which has happened, I hear.

Warner Bros had no comment on the resolution, and lawyers for Village Roadshow did not respond to Deadline’s request Friday for comment. However, having all started when WB releasing the fourth film in the Wachowskis‘ franchise simultaneously in both theaters and on subscriber hungry streaming during the last gasps of the Covid-19 pandemic, things aren’t quite as blue pill or red pill as they seem.

For one thing, that $57 million is less a new figure in the dispute that went to court in the 2002 breach of contract lawsuit from Village Roadshow against the then Jason Kilar-run Warners, and more some updated accounting with an appeals court thrown in. For another thing, Village Roadshow now has a zero stake in Matrix: Resurrections – which is a long way from where things appeared to stand just a year ago.

Let’s jump back a bit, shall we?

Moved fairly quickly behind closed doors to arbitration, VR’s February 7, 2002 launched lawsuit seemed to shuffle off with the company actually found on the hook for the nearly $100 million in co-financing it never actually ponied up for the Lana Wachowski-helmed Resurrections. Under appeal, the portion of that $125 million that Village Roadshow would have been paying for 50% of Matrix: Resurrections was deemed an overreach. An appeals panel concluded Village Roadshow North America, who had long hit the skids financially, couldn’t be forced to purchase half of MR in the hopes of half of the waterfalled profits.

So they didn’t and they don’t have to pay for something they aren’t going to own any of ..A.K.A. – WB fully owns 100% of The Matrix: Resurrections now. The remaining sum, that $57 million, was reframed as damages.

Not that The Matrix isn’t still pretty valuable in many people’s eyes and spread sheets.

Despite the less than stellar returns and reviews for the cash-in vibed Matrix: Resurrections, Alcon Media Group was awarded derivative rights in November last year to the Matrix franchise and most of the other titles it snared from Village Roadshow Entertainment Group‘s film library in summer 2025.  “Alcon looks forward to working collaboratively with Warner Bros, as we have for over a quarter-century, to partner in the exploitation of the derivative rights to these many great films across multiple platforms,” AMG bosses Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson asserted late last year.

All of which means, under a joint Paramount and WBD umbrella or via siloed studios or whatever, Groff’s Agent Smith also had it right in Matrix: Resurrections when he quipped “that’s the thing about stories …they never really end do they?”

Never in the matrix of Hollywood — IP, bottom line, or otherwise.

Today, Devil Wears Prada 2 will outstrip the original 2006’s global lifetime of $326.5M at the worldwide box office.

Through yesterday, the reteam of director David Frankel, and stars Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci, has grossed $324M worldwide with $101.8M in its first week stateside and $222.2M abroad in a 100% offshore footprint.

Currently, the sequel’s second weekend is running neck-in-neck with New Line’s Mortal Kombat II for No. 1 in North America, each with around $42M apiece, a duel that will go down to Mothers Day. That will bring Devil Wears Prada 2‘s domestic cume through ten days to $143.8M and will put the entire franchise for both pics well past $700M by Sunday AM.

Italy remains stunning for Devil Wears Prada 2 as the leading offshore territory with $22.2M. That’s a big deal because Italy is rarely No. 1 for a Hollywood movie. It also speaks to the rebound in the box office in Italy post Covid; the country firing up 2026 with the local comedy, Buen Camino, which grossed $90.4M, the biggest ever for a local Italian movie. That’s because Milan makes a big cameo in the movie. UK is now up to $21.6M, Brazil is $16.6M, Mexico is $15.9M, Japan $13.1M, Australia $12.9M, Germany $11.7M, China is $11.6M, France near $11M, Korea near $7M, Spain $6.4M, and Argentina $4.3M.

In regards to the marketing blitzkrieg which made this box office milestone possible, read up on that here. Promo partners included Dior, Tiffany & Co, Diet Coke, Hilton (Waldorf), GE Cafe, Google, Grey Goose, Lancôme, L’Oréal Paris, Samsung, Smartwater, Starbucks, Zillow, TRESemmé, United Airlines and Mercedes Benz’s new Maybach S-Class.