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Box Office: ‘Mortal Kombat II’ Battles ‘Prada 2’ for Weekend Win

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In a battle of the genders, New Line’s video game adaptation Mortal Kombat II and 20th Century’s The Devil Wears Prada 2 are in a close race for No. 1 at the domestic box office.

The Mortal Kombat sequel, fueled by males, topped Friday with an opening-day gross of $17 million range, including $5.2 million in previews and special Imax sneaks. That puts it on course for a domestic opening in the $40 million to $41 million range; ditto for Prada 2, which came in second Friday with $9.8 million for a stellar domestic total of $111.6 million and well north of $300 million globally.

Heading into the weekend, some tracking services showed Mortal Kombat II opening to $45 million or more. New Line and parent company Warner Bros., however, had always predicted a far more conservative launch in the $35 million range to $40 million range for a worldwide bow anywhere between $65 million and $80 million. Males made up more than 75 percent of Friday’s audience, which bestowed the film with a B+ CinemaScore.

In 2021, the first Mortal Kombat debuted simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max due to the ongoing pandemic. The violent-laced martial arts pic was a huge streaming hit; theatrically, it debuted to $23 million on its way to topping out at $42 million domestically and $84.4 million globally. Simon McQuoid returning to helm Mortal Kombat II from a script by Jeremy Slater and Karl Urban joining the franchise as fan favorite character Johnny Cage, a washed up ’90s action star called to take part in a tournament that will determine the fate of Earthrealm.

The victor of the weekend box office will all come down to Mother’s Day traffic. That would seem to give Prada 2 an advantage, since it’s fast on its way to becoming the biggest female-driven film since Warner Bros.’ Barbie in 2023 after kicking off the summer box office last weekend in high style. The sequel finished Friday with a global total north of the $326 million earned by the first film in its entire run.

And don’t forget about Lionsgate’s Michael Jackson biopic, which should earn a fantastic $35 million-plus in its third weekend for a projected domestic tally of $240 million and $570 million globally. On Friday, it overtook the $216.7 million earned by Bohemian Rhapsody to become the top-grossing music biopic of all time in North America, not adjusted for inflation. And in a second milestone of the day, it crossed $500 million worldwide.

Other new Mother’s Day offerings, in addition to Mortal Kombat II, include Amazon MGM’s The Sheep Detectives. The critically acclaimed film is headed for a fourth-place finish with a pleasing domestic opening of $14 million to $15 million after earning an A CinemaScore. The comedy-mystery follows a flock of talking sheep who are determined to solve the suspicious death of their beloved shepherd, played by Hugh Jackman, who read them detective novels on a regular basis despite having no idea they could understand him. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, directors of 2026 box office hit Project Hail Mary, are among the film’s executive producers.

Paramount’s new concert film Billie Eilish — Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D), which James Cameron and the artist co-directed, is expected to round out the top five with a domestic opening of $8 million. The pic is coming in on the higher end of expectations (the same goes for Sheep Detectives). Cameron pioneered special 3D cameras designed to make moviegoers feel as if they were part of a live experience that he used when filming Eilish.

And thanks to the appeal of the crowded Mother’s Day marquee, domestic box office revenue is expected to be up more than 87 percent over the same frame last year.

More to come.

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Lindsay Lohan & Henry Golding To Lead Netflix Film ‘Return To You’

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EXCLUSIVE: Lindsay Lohan (Mean Girls, Freaky Friday) is set to produce and star in the new Netflix romantic feature Return to You, starring opposite Henry Golding (Crazy Rich Asians, Last Christmas). Mark Waters, who directed Lohan in Freaky Friday and Mean Girls, will direct Return to You. She will also re-team with Brad Krevoy, producer of Netflix’s Falling for Christmas and Irish Wish, who will produce.

From screenwriter Eric Champnella, Return to You follows a powerful but lonely female attorney (Lohan) who mistakenly receives a very emotional DVD sent by a dying woman to her husband (Golding). With only the clues from the DVD as her guide, she sets out to find him.

Olivia Krevoy, Jimmy Townsend, and Galen Fletcher executive produce the film.

Both Lohan and Golding have found great success working on projects within the romance genre. Lohan’s credits include Just My Luck (2006), Falling for Christmas (2022), Irish Wish (2024) and Our Little Secret (2024). Golding was the leading man of the hugely popular Crazy Rich Asians (2018), Last Christmas (2019), Monsoon (2020), and Daniela Forever (2024).

Lohan made her feature film debut in 1998 with Walt Disney Pictures’ The Parent Trap, which she followed with roles in Disney projects such as Life-Size, Get a Clue, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, and most famously, starring opposite Jamie Lee Curtis in Freaky Friday. She recently reprised her Freaky Friday role in the sequel Freakier Friday (2025). One of her biggest roles to date is playing Cady Heron in the hugely popular teen comedy Mean Girls. Up next, she will star in and executive produce Hulu’s highly anticipated limited drama series, Count My Lies, adapted from Sophia Stava’s bestselling novel. Lohan is repped by IAG and attorney Dave Feldman.

Golding can most recently be seen in the second season of Hulu’s Nine Perfect Strangers, Another Simple Favor for Amazon MGM Studios, and Old Guard 2 for Netflix. Additional film credits include Snake Eyes, A Simple Favor, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, and Persuasion. On the series side, Golding can be seen in Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen for Netflix. He is repped by CAA, Megan Silverman Management, and Goodman, Genow.

Champnella is repped by IAG and Dave Feldman.

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The Crying Boy Movie: Resident Evil’s Carter Swan Developing Adaptation

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EXCLUSIVE: As Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil prepares to cross $200M at the worldwide box office, the film’s producer Carter Swan has a new project to announce — a film adaptation of the Keenspot comic book series The Crying Boy by Niall O’Rourke & Rob Moran.

Published in 2024, The Crying Boy follows a grieving widow trying to rebuild her life in Queens after the violent death of her husband who must save her young son from an even more terrifying fate, when the haunting painting of a crying child that he eerily befriends proves to be the vessel for an ancient demon that has preyed on children for millennia.

Following a Ringo Award nomination for Best Single Issue or Short Story, The Crying Boy‘s first issue is currently in its third printing, with a deluxe collection of the series planned for 2027 via Keenspot’s book distribution deal with Simon & Schuster.

Rona Mark is scripting the big-screen adaptation.

Formerly senior producer at PlayStation Productions for nearly eight years, Swan during his time there worked on Cregger’s Resident Evil, as well as HBO’s The Last of Us, Uncharted, Gran Turismo, Twisted Metal and Until Dawn. As an executive producer on The Last of Us, he earned Emmy nominations in 2023 and ’25.

In a statement on the Crying Boy adaptation, co-creator O’Rourke said, “Super excited to work with Carter Swan and develop the project. He brings an incredible amount of experience and knowledge to this. We hit it off straight away after he read the script and he was a big fan of the Keenspot comic book series.”

Chris Crosby, comic book publisher Keenspot’s CEO, shared: “The Crying Boy has been one of Keenspot’s best-received titles and we’re ecstatic that a producer like Swan will be helping to bring it to the big screen. It’s a testament to the awesome creativity of writer Niall O’Rourke and artist Rob Moran that this adaptation is attracting talent of the highest caliber.”

For a time the world’s largest publisher of webcomics, Keenspot was founded in 2000. The company first broke into film with the Universal rom-com Marry Me — a 2022 adaptation of one of its webcomics starring Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson. The company’s first animated adaptation was Grubbs, based on the comics by Max Weaver, whose voice cast included Wil Wheaton, Jerry O’Connell, Jodie Sweetin and more.

Presently, Keenspot is also developing the animated adaptations Toy starring Kate Micucci and Kung Fu Legume starring Sherry Cola and Kheng Hua Tan, among other projects.

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Ben Hardy Will Lead ‘Stillwater’ Show At Prime Video

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Ben Hardy has been cast in the leading role of Daniel West in the upcoming Prime Video series Stillwater, from Berlanti Productions, Warner Bros. Television and Skybound Entertainment.

Stillwater is a mind-bending horror thriller that focuses on ex-con Daniel West. When Daniel receives a mysterious letter promising answers about his past and a substantial inheritance in the small town of Stillwater, he discovers a community where nothing ever ages, no one ever dies, and nobody ever gets out.

The one-hour drama hails from Executive Producers Greg Berlanti (You, The Flash) and Carly Wray (“Watchmen,” “Westworld”), based on the Skybound graphic novel by Chip Zdarsky and Ramón K Pérez. Wray & Berlanti co-wrote the pilot episode.

Stillwater is produced by Warner Bros. Television, Berlanti Productions, Skybound Entertainment and Amazon MGM Studios. The series was given an eight-episode series order ahead of San Diego Comic-Con in July 2026.

Hardy most recently starred in New Line’s The Conjuring: Last Rites, which debuted as the highest-grossing horror opening of all time. Other recent credits include Vanessa Caswell’s Love at First Sight and Sally El Hosaini and James Krishna Floyd’s Unicorns, which earned Hardy a British Independent Film Award nomination. Previously, he starred as Queen drummer Roger Taylor opposite Rami Malek in Bohemian Rhapsody. He also starred in the HBO Max/BBC limited series The Girl Before, Amazon
Studios’ The Voyeurs opposite Sydney Sweeney, X-Men: Apocalypse and Michael Bay’s 6 Underground. Hardy is repped by UTA, Principal Entertainment LA and Independent Talent Group..

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