Latest news with #blockbuster
Reuters
17 hours ago
- Business
- Reuters
Sanofi revises annual sales growth expectations on strong Dupixent demand
July 31 (Reuters) - France's Sanofi ( opens new tab said on Thursday that it expects annual sales to grow by high single-digit percentage, helped by strong demand for its anti-inflammatory drug Dupixent, as well as vaccines and newer treatments. It had previously said it expects annual sales to grow by mid-to-high single-digit percentage at constant currency rates. The drugmaker also confirmed that it expects earnings to grow at a low double-digit percentage this year. Sanofi has significantly amped up its R&D expenditure in recent years, a move that led it to abandon its long-term margin targets in 2023. This shift underscores its focus to capitalize on the success of its blockbuster drug Dupixent as it builds its next wave of growth drivers. Sales of its asthma drug Dupixent rose 21.1% to 3.83 billion euros ($4.38 billion), compared to 3.74 billion euros expected on average by analysts in a company-provided poll. Quarterly business operating income, excluding one-off items, rose by 3.3% to 2.46 billion euros, below the average analyst estimate of 2.57 billion euros in a poll posted on the company's website. ($1 = 0.8740 euros)
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
A Forgotten Dwayne Johnson Sci-Fi Movie Is Swallowing The Competition On Netflix
Dwayne Johnson's 2018 blockbuster Rampage is running amok on Netflix, hitting the streamer's top ten this past week, as viewers can't seem to resist the combination of The Rock and giant creatures destroying Chicago. According to FlixPatrol, which measures viewer habits on streaming services, the film has seen a spike after being added to Netflix's library. Rampage isn't usually top of mind when people think about The Rock, so it's not entirely clear why it's such a focus for viewers. The film features Dwayne Johnson as primatologist Davis Okoye, a man who works with gorillas at a San Diego wildlife sanctuary. He's particularly close to George, a highly intelligent albino silverback gorilla who can speak via sign language. George is a gentle giant, but after a scientific experiment on a space station goes awry, the remnants come crashing to earth, where, wouldn't you know, it crashes into George's habitat, and a canister within exposes him to a strange gas. It isn't long before George grows to an enormous size, with fits of uncontrollable rage, and escapes the facility. To make things worse, canisters of the gas also land in Wyoming, creating other large, angry creatures out of the local wildlife. They're on a collision course with George. Of course, that means Dwayne Johnson is going to do Dwayne Johnson things to stop them, and the action and mayhem quickly get out of control. The film also stars Naomie Harris (No Time to Die's Moneypenny) as Dr. Kate Caldwell, a scientist who worked on the genetic experiments now affecting the animals, and she teams up with Dwayne Johnson to stop the threat. Malin Akerman (Watchmen) and Jake Lacy (The Office) star as Claire and Brett Wyden, billionaire siblings who own Energyne, the corporation behind the experiments, and don't want their secrets out. They send out some ex-military types to retrieve them, and the government soon gets involved as the creatures are drawn to Chicago (thanks to a convenient plot device) for a showdown. Justice League's Deathstroke himself, Joe Manganiello, stars as Burke, an independent operator hunting down the creatures for the Wydens, and a very entertaining Jeffrey Dean Morgan (The Walking Dead) stars as a government agent trying to capture the creatures. Besides the outstanding digital effects (providing lots of angry monkey action), the movie also has a nice sense of humor, especially when Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Dwayne Johnson go head-to-head and start trading barbs. Released in April of 2018, the film was a box office hit, despite critics who ripped the movie and gave it a 51% rating on Rotten Tomatoes (viewers are more forgiving, giving it a 72% rating). It grossed over $100 million in the United States and over $428 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo. Rampage is based on the 1980s video game of the same name, and as you might expect, it has very little resemblance to the final film. The only common denominator is the creatures, who punch buildings in the video game until they fall. Players control the creatures in the game, but the movie version needed a human face for the lead, and the larger-than-life Dwayne Johnson is one of the few actors on the planet who could share the screen with giant CGI creatures and not look out of place. Viewers will likely catch a familiar face in the film's opening moments: Marley Shelton (Scream, Sin City) as the astronaut on the doomed space station where the pathogen is first created. Sadly, another familiar face didn't make the film's final cut: a scene featuring Alexandra Daddario, Dwayne Johnson's co-star in San Andreas, was shot but later discarded. She played a scuba instructor who encounters a mutated squid. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Penny-pinching is keeping the big brands away from Comic-Con this year
This year's San Diego Comic-Con is starting to sound like it'll be a bit of a ghost town—at least, as far as hypothetically huge blockbuster movies are concerned. Not to cast aspersions or anything, but when the biggest film that the world's largest movie studios can muster up to pack people in to the Con's fabled Hall H is a Tron sequel, you know something has gone awry. The Wrap has a new report looking into the state of this year's Con, which will see Marvel and DC Studios both deciding not to bother with the Big Room, with the most that James Gunn's Warner Bros.-backed efforts willing to do is a panel on his soon-to-return TV series Peacemaker. Partly, this is a matter of pure timing: Both studios are releasing their big superhero tentpoles ahead of this year's SDCC, with Superman coming in two weeks before the Con's July 24 start date, while Marvel's Fantastic Four is opening at the same time as the convention itself. Having dispensed with the Four, Marvel genuinely doesn't seem to have much on tap to offer up as hype bait right now: There's a new Spider-Man movie out in a year, but Avengers: Doomsday has now been pushed to next fall; better, the thinking seems to be, to save some money and let anticipation grow, rather than drop several hundred thousand dollars to trot the casts out with no new footage to show. As noted by The Wrap, DC probably could field something exciting for the Con, given that Gunn is sitting on hard drives full of footage of Craig Gillespie's Supergirl, due out next June. (The movie finished shooting back in May, right around the time it ditched its Woman Of Tomorrow subtitle.) But the studio is apparently holding back, possibly to launch an effort at a different Comic-Con later in the year. (And a little less far out from the movie's eventual release.) Honestly, the whole thing can't help but feel like a symptom of the general wave of diminishing returns that seem to be afflicting superhero films as a whole over the last few years: Marvel had two different films (Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts*) both land in the sub-$500 million box office bracket, which has maybe made Disney a little less eager to pay stars (and their stylists, managers, and other various highly necessary associates) to trek out to San Diego to wave at the crowds. Marvel managed to summon up a bit of that old excitement last year, when it gave Hall H a full-court press that ended in the reveal that Robert Downey Jr. would be returning to the MCU as Doctor Doom, but you can only pull that ripcord so often; as is, it feels like the spectacle of the big superhero Comic-Con appearance is currently going the way of the big superhero movie as a whole. More from A.V. Club Duster's LaToya Morgan and Rachel Hilson on rooting a very '70s story in the here and now Spoiler Space: Jurassic World Rebirth once again makes dinosaurs everyone's problem Netflix is bringing back Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Solve the daily Crossword
Daily Mail
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
The Fantastic Four: First Steps breaks Marvel's box office slump with a $218 million global debut
Marvel Studios is officially back in the blockbuster business. The Fantastic Four: First Steps launched with a bigger-than-expected opening weekend, raking in an estimated $118 million domestically and another $100 million overseas for a global debut of around $220 million, according to Comscore. Heading into the weekend, projections had forecast a $115 million North American take, making First Steps one of the studio's best-performing non-sequel debuts in recent years. The film, which introduces a fresh version of Marvel's original superhero team, cost at least $300 million to produce and market. And unlike many recent Marvel entries, First Steps doesn't require fans to brush up on previous films or plotlines to understand what's happening. 'It is a no-homework-required movie,' Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige said at a recent publicity event, according to The New York Times. 'It literally is not connected to anything we've made before.' The standalone approach appears to be paying off. Marvel has seen several stumbles in recent years, including 2021's Eternals and this year's Thunderbolts, which has grossed just $382 million — the studio's lowest total (adjusted for inflation) since it launched its cinematic universe in 2008. Sequels haven't fared much better, fueling chatter about 'superhero fatigue.' Analysts have also pointed to an overcomplicated web of storylines to leaving some audience members lost. But First Steps seemingly marks a promising reset. Directed by WandaVision's Matt Shakman, the film stars Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as the latest version of Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch and the Thing. Additionally, Julia Garner plays the Silver Surfer. The franchise has a rocky past. A 1994 adaptation was shelved before release, and the 2005 and 2007 versions were met with critical backlash despite moderate ticket sales. A 2015 reboot fared worse, both at the box office and with fans. This new iteration, however, has earned praise for its strong ensemble cast and a more grounded story. 'The movie is a step-up in concept, storytelling and appeal,' said box office analyst David A. Gross. 'We haven't had this kind of performance from the genre for a long time.' The film's release also arrives amid a quieter year for superheroes in general. Only four titles in the genre were released in 2025, down from eight just two years ago, with nothing else scheduled until Supergirl lands in June 2026. 'This is the new normal,' Gross added, noting studios are adjusting output to match changing demand. Marvel wasn't the only studio celebrating over the weekend. Warner Bros. Discovery also hit a major milestone, with Superman soaring past $500 million globally and Apple's F1, which Warner distributed, hitting $509 million in ticket sales. Superman marks the first theatrical release from DC Studios under new co-heads James Gunn and Peter Safran, who stepped in back in 2022 with a 10-year plan to reboot the brand across film and television. The film now ranks as the fourth-highest-grossing Superman title ever, trailing only Batman v Superman, Man of Steel, and Justice League. Meanwhile, F1 has officially become Apple's top-grossing theatrical release to date — racing past 2023's Napoleon.
CNA
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- CNA
Lilo & Stitch stars reflect on film's global box office success after crossing US$1 billion
A few things have changed for the stars of Lilo & Stitch since the movie became the breakout hit of 2025. For 8-year-old star Maia Kealoha, it's meant no more Doritos – she's learned she has to keep her teeth clean, especially when doing interviews. Kealoha, Sydney Agudong and Tia Carrere have been doing lots of those, taking a victory lap with Lilo & Stitch at Comic-Con 2025 and promoting the film's release for digital purchase. Another change? Kealoha says with a big grin that she's been recognised at stores 'like five thousand times.' Agudong says the movie 'an ode to Hawaii', and it's been really cool to 'see how much the world has taken to it and how much impact 'Lilo & Stitch' really has had as just this lifelong and timeless story.' She says she's been fortunate to celebrate the film's success with family and friends and despite premieres and whirlwind interviews, she still gets to 'go to the beach and have fun all over again and I'm just the same.' Kealoha and Agudong are the breakout stars of the film, which is the biggest blockbuster of 2025, earning more than $1 billion. 'Our little blue friend Stitch is now a billionaire and we couldn't be more excited about it,' Carrere says excitedly. As for a sequel, Agudong says the trio are feeling 'hanna hou,' a Hawaiian term for repeating or doing something again. 'Though, of course, we cannot confirm or deny the existence of any such project in this universe or the next. Sorry!' Carrere cheerfully noted.
