Overview of the US business for the week of Monday, May 17

At the box office, Lionsgate's Spiral opened in 2,811 theatres across the U.S. and Canada and led all films with $8.7M in ticket sales. The R-Rated horror thriller starring Chris Rock and Samuel L. Jackson is the 9th movie in the Saw horror film franchise. Of those, this is the 6th time that the it has taken top spot in the box office on its opening weekend.  UA Releasing's heist thriller The Wrath of Man starring Jason Statham earned $3.7M in its second week, now with a 10-day cume of $14.6M.  Warner Bros.' R-Rated suspense thriller Those Who Wish Me Dead starring Angelina Jolie opened to a light $2.8M at 3,188 locations across North America.

In our Boxoffice Buzz video series, we offer a Popcorn Preview of the Netflix zombie outbreak Army of the Dead which opended this weekend at hundreds of U.S. theatres, one week before its 5/21 debut on Netflix.  We also look ahead with a preview of Disney's Labor Day release of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, the latest output from the Marvel Cinema Universe. 

We begin our summary of industry news with a Wall Street Journal profile of WarnerMedia's CEO Jason Kilar, discussing the company's strategy to transform itself from a major Hollywood studio into an entertainment and media powerhouse in the digital age. We also report on the emerging consensus between studios and exhibitors on a post-pandemic theatrical release window, evidenced by the announcement of a new agreement between Universal Studios and U.K.-based Cineworld.  With it, Universal has now reached an updated agreeement with the three largest U.S. exhibitors

In the Hollywood Report, Martin Grove breaks down the impact of the disappearance of the Golden Globes from the 2022 TV schedule.  NBC pulled the plug on next year's broadcast in response to widespread condemnation of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association from all parts of the industry.   

Our Studio Release Calendar provides a schedule of upcoming movie releases through early August.  We conclude with a list of the most recent studio release changes, MPAA film ratings announcements and links to eight important new movie trailers that were released last week.