Overview of the US business for the week of February 15th

Universal's The Croods: A New Age climbed back into first place in the weekend box office, earning $2.04M in its 12th weekend, up 21% from last week. The DreamWorks Animated Family film has earned $48.3M during its run in theatres, an outstanding return in pandemic times.  Warner Bros. was responsible for both films that tied for second place with $2.0M in ticket sales:  the R-Rated historical drama Judas and the Black Messiah in its opening weekend and the R-Rated neo-noir crime drama The Little Things in week three.



With awards season heating up, we feature three Popcorn Previews AWARDS ALERT videos: nominees for this year's CRITICS CHOICE AWARDS, followed by previews of Netflix's MANK and MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM, both of which are generating awards buzz.



Our weekly summary of Industry News begins with Disney's report to investors last week of its impressive growth in subscriptions for Disney+.   We also look at the back-story of how AMC managed to ride the stock market to re-fill its coffers so it can sustain itself through the remaining lean months until revenues begin to recover.   We also cover an announcement by indie distriburtors Neon and Bleeker Street of a joint venture they have formed called DECAL, through which they will take a more active role in managing distribution of their titles in Home Entertainment.   In the Hollywood Report, Martin Grove handicaps the most likely nominees in major categories at this year's Academy Awards.



Our Studio Release Calendar provides details on film releases through Easter, the first weekend in April.  We conclude with a list of recent studio release changes, MPAA film ratings announcements and the most important new trailers released last week.



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