Disney-Pixar’s “Coco” easily beat Warner Bros.-DC Entertainment’s “Justice League” at the Friday box office with $18.6 million at 3,987 North American sites, winning the day by a $2.1 million margin.

The animated musical fantasy has grossed $40.8 million in its first three days, while “Justice League” pulled in $35.5 million at 4,051 locations during the same period. Projections show that “Coco” will wind up the five-day Thanksgiving holiday with about $71 million during the Wednesday-Sunday period, beating “Justice League” by about $12 million.

“Coco” is out-performing pre-release forecasts and received an A+ CinemaScore from moviegoers when it opened on Wednesday. It’s on track for the third-best Thanksgiving holiday opening ever, trailing two other Disney titles — “Frozen” with $93 million in 2013 and “Moana” with $82 million in 2017.

Audiences surveyed by comScore’s PostTrak gave “Coco” strong ratings with 62% calling it “excellent” and another 24% marking it “very good.” The survey also showed 73% of viewers saying they would “definitely recommend” the movie to friends.

“The

“I’m a f—ing movie director — I don’t know anything about obsession,” filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson said sarcastically after the first Stateside screening of his new film “Phantom Thread” Friday night.

Indeed, the six-time Oscar nominee’s latest work does revolve around that very concept, which has been famously explored by masters like Alfred Hitchcock. Anderson even boldly name-checked Hitchcock’s “Rebecca” and “Vertigo” as touchstones. But there’s also a dash of reflexive cinema in there; if you define a film as the manifestation of a single vision by an army of artisans at the whim of a sovereign, well, that’s exactly what Anderson has explored here, albeit within the context of 1950s London couture.

“Phantom Thread” stars Daniel Day-Lewis as Reynolds Woodcock, an esteemed fashion designer of the era whose world is up-ended by the arrival of Alma (Vicky Krieps), a forthright woman not content to simply play the part of the

Ang Lee, Taiwan’s best known filmmaker, was on hand to give out prizes and add a sense of occasion to the annual Golden Horse Awards in Taiwan. The awards are considered the most prestigious prizes of the year for Chinese-language films.

In the end, Lee did not give a prize to his son Mason Lee, who had been nominated for a best supporting actor award in “Who Killed Cock Robin?” The thriller, with five nominations, but no silverware, arguably received the biggest snub of the night.

The best film prize went to Taiwanese mystery thriller “The Bold, The Corrupt, and The Beautiful.” It also earned prizes for best actress and best supporting actress.

The picture with the greatest numerical haul was “The Great Buddha+,” a Taiwanese movie that was largely shot on an iPhone and which is now busily doing the rounds of the international festivals.

Another festival favorite, mainland Chinese

“Game of Thrones” Season 7 premiered too late to be eligible for this year’s Emmys (“The Handmaid’s Tale” won Best Drama Series after “Thrones'” two-year winning streak), but the fantasy epic now has its sights set on returning to awards season and winning big at the Golden Globes. Gold Derby reports HBO will be shaking up their strategy and submitting Emilia Clarke and Kit Harington in the lead acting races.

Read More:‘Game of Thrones’ is Filming Season 8 Until Summer 2018 (Which Means We Won’t See it For A While)

In the past, all “Game of Thrones” cast members have been submitted in the supporting actor races for award shows like the Globes, Emmys, and SAG Awards. Clearly, HBO is hoping to increase its chances on landing nominations for “Thrones” by moving Clarke and Harington to the lead races. Neither actor has ever received a Golden Globe nomination. Clarke

Peter Baldwin, who started as an actor and went on to become a prolific TV director throughout the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s, died Nov. 19 in Pebble Beach, Calif. He was 86.

Baldwin won a Primetime Emmy Award for directing “The Wonder Years” and a Cable Ace Award for “Dream On.”

Born in Winnetka, Ill., he was discovered by a Hollywood talent scout in his senior year at Stanford. He became one of Paramount’s “Golden Circle of Newcomers” and appeared in films including “Stalag 17,” “Little Boy Lost” and Cecil B. DeMille’s “The Ten Commandments.”

He served three years in the Navy and returned to Paramount, where he appeared in “The Tin Star” and “Teacher’s Pet” with Clark Gable and Doris Day.

After touring with Julie Harris in “The Warm Peninsula” play, Baldwin moved to Italy, where he appeared in films by Robert Rossellini, Dino Risi and Francesco Rosi. There he started

Disney-Pixar’s “Coco” topped Warner Bros.-DC Entertainment’s “Justice League” at the Thanksgiving Day box office by $400,000 with $8.9 million at 3,987 North American sites.

The animated musical has taken in $22.2 million in its first two days, while the superhero mashup grossed $18.9 million during the same period. Projections have shown that “Coco” will wind up the five-day Thanksgiving holiday with about $70 million during the Wednesday-Sunday period, beating “Justice League” by about $10 million.

“Coco” is performing significantly above pre-release forecasts, which had been in the $55 million to $60 million range. It received an A+ CinemaScore from moviegoers, indicating that the film could be lifted by strong word of mouth during the rest of the holidays.

On the same holiday weekend a year ago, Disney’s “Moana” scored $25.4 million on its first two days and went on to earn $82 million over the five days. That was the second-highest opening for the period, trailing only Disney’s “Frozen” at $93 million in 2013.

Directed

Biographical film dramas used to cover a lot of ground without, as a rule, showing a lot of artistry. That all changed around the time of “Capote” (2005), a movie that employed the then-audacious strategy of focusing on a single extended chapter of Truman Capote’s life — the reporting and writing of “In Cold Blood” — and using that episode as a lens through which to take in his soul. A film like “Lincoln” (2012) went further. The entire sprawling epic was devoted to one long backroom-deal-making, arm-twisting Congressional battle, so that it felt like we were seeing Abe Lincoln operate in real time.

In biopics, less has become more. But Joe Wright’s “Darkest Hour,” the acclaimed new drama that celebrates the iron resolve and visionary bluster of Winston Churchill, proves to be a bit of a bait and switch. The entire movie takes place over a notably short period: a singe month starting in May 1940, the first days of

Actor Joe Manganiello dropped a juicy “Justice League” leftover this Thanksgiving weekend — a first-look image of himself as DC Comics villain Deathstroke. In a late Friday upload with no caption, Manganiello shared a still from the final post-credits scene of Zack Snyder’s superhero bonanza. Also Read: Let's Try to Piece Together What Zack Snyder's Version of 'Justice League' Was Like The “True Blood” star is impressively transformed in the image, rocking weathered battle gear and salt-and-pepper hair. In the full credits scene, the assassin (aka...

The holidays are always a hard time to travel, with general transportation woes, weather delays and every possible problem that can occur in between. In Planes, Trains & Automobiles, starring Steve Martin as a high-strung executive and John Candy as a graceless, clumsy curtain salesman, we get to see all that can go wrong. The two unexpectedly joined forces and tackle many obstacles to get to Chicago for Thanksgiving while giving audiences a comedic look at why might not be ideal to pair up with the opposite personality type while traveling for the holiday season.

The comedy, written, produced, and...

There’s much to love about Pixar’s wonderful new film, Coco; most likely audiences will adore its stunning animation, which is vibrant, exuberant, and positively alive despite being set in the Land of the Dead. Coco spends most of its time in the company of skeletons and alebrije than living, breathing, flesh-and-blood types, but in keeping with the spirit of Dia de Muertos, the Mexican holiday of remembrance for lost loved ones, the film rarely feels funereal. Instead it’s celebratory, a dedication to life, to family, to Mexican culture at large, and to Dia de Muertos itself. For practitioners of the...

Get Out began with a phone call from Blumhouse producer Phillip Dawe — a call Abels sent straight to voicemail.

"It's L.A. You don't pick up calls from strange numbers," says Abels, who, while known for his genre-bending orchestral works, hadn't scored a film since his student days at USC. His day job, which he still has, is music director of New Roads School in Santa Monica.

Dawe told Abels that director Jordan Peele had found Abels' orchestral work "Urban Legends" on the internet and wanted to send him the screenplay.

“The script I...

Pixar’s “Coco” is off to a strong start on its Thanksgiving weekend launch, with industry estimates projecting a five-day opening of $71 million after the film made $18.6 million on Black Friday. Released on Wednesday, the 19th Pixar film has made $40 million through three days in theaters. If “Coco” keeps this pace, it will rank third among five-day Thanksgiving openings, sitting behind “Frozen” ($93.6 million) and “Moana” ($82 million). On the other hand, it will be significantly higher than the $55.4 million made by “The Good Dinosaur,” which went on to be Pixar’s lowest grossing film ever with $123...

I, Tonya led her to eBay, where she found an archive of tabloid clippings from a fan, and YouTube, where she watched old footage uploaded by friends, family and news organizations.

For costume designer Jennifer Johnson, part of the research for Tonya Harding biopic I, Tonya led her to eBay, where she found and purchased an archive of tabloid clippings from an obsessed fan. That turned out to be "the most enlightening research that I discovered because it had a lot of family photos in it,” says Johnson, whose investigation...

Disney and Pixar's Coco won the Black Friday box-office race with $18.6 million from 3,987 theaters for a projected five-day Thanksgiving debut of $69 million-$70 million.

Coco, about the popular Mexican holiday Day of the Dead, has been embraced by both critics and audiences, who awarded the animated event film a coveted A+ CinemaScore.

Between them, Disney Animation Studios and Pixar claim the top six five-day Thanksgiving openings of all time, not accounting for inflation. Frozen (2013) is the record holder with $93.6 million, while last year's Moana sang its way to $82.1 million. Tangled took in $68.7...

Three Men and a Baby, which was released 30 years ago on Nov. 25, 1987, follows three bachelor roommates -- Peter, Michael and Jack -- in New York City who suddenly have to care for an infant left at their door with a note stating she's Jack's daughter.

The men -- played by Tom Selleck, Steve Guttenberg and Ted Danson -- deal with a variety of mishaps while taking care of the baby, Mary, including struggling to change her diapers, figuring out how to feed her (and how often) and accidently handing her off to drug dealers. And it doesn't...

On November 25, 1987, Three Men and a Baby hit the big screen.

Following the delivery of an unexpected package, roommates and bachelors Peter Mitchell (Tom Selleck), Michael Kellam (Steve Guttenberg) and Jack Holden (Ted Danson) suddenly become fathers. While they try to balance taking care of the baby (Michelle and Lisa Blair), they also find themselves in the middle of a drug deal. The men’s lives become even more chaotic when the mother of Jack’s child (Nancy Travis) reenters his life.

Three Men and a Baby was the highest-grossing movie of 1987 at the domestic box office and was...

The title of the panel discussion at the Singapore International Film Festival on Saturday was innocuous enough – Singapore cinema: Then and Now – but the filmmaker panelists chose to speak about subjects close to their hearts, especially the use of the Hokkien dialect of the Chinese language and censorship.

The panelists included Ghazi Alqudcy, whose debut feature “Temporary Visa,” shot entirely in Bosnia Herzegovina is currently in post; Wesley Leon Aroozoo whose first feature documentary “I Want To Go Home” premiered at Busan and is also playing at Sgiff; and filmmaking couple Colin Goh and Woo Yen Wen, who are now based in Taiwan.

“Money No Enough” (1998), written by and starring Singaporean superstar Jack Neo was a seminal film for these filmmakers. “Money No Enough” was a game changer in terms of language and representation,” said Woo. For the first time, audiences, including the filmmaker panelists could hear Hokkien and Singlish on screen. “It was mind blowing.

Nobuhiro Watsuki, the creator of the long-running “Rurouni Kenshin” comic series about a former samurai assassin turned justice fighter, has arrested for child pornography, according to Japanese media reports. He faces charges that could get him a year in prison, as well as a fine.

Tokyo police found DVDs of unclothed girls in their early teens in Watsuki’s possession.

In September the artist started a new “Rurouni Kenshin” story for a magazine published by Shueisha. The publisher suspended publication of the series following the Dec. 4 issue. “We take these (media reports) seriously as a company” it said in a statement.

Launched in 1994 in the “Weekly Shonen Jump” comic magazine for boys “Rurouni Kenshin” has spawned animated TV series and features, video games, a 2016 stage production by the Takarazuka all-women’s troupe, and three live action films, released in Japan from 2012 to 2014 by Warner.

According to the Japan Times, satellite TV channel Neco has cancelled the back

The Beguiled and transformed the male-centric tale into a story focused on the women (played by Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst and Elle Fanning) who were left behind during the Civil War, then visited by an injured soldier (Colin Farrell). Ahead of being honored with the director tribute at the Independent Filmmaker Project Gotham Awards on Nov. 27 (hosted by John Cameron Mitchell, the event also will present 10 competitive awards), Coppola, 46, spoke to THR about crafting the female gaze and dipping into new mediums.

Reboots and remakes are trendy in Hollywood,...

Two films that play this week at the Singapore International Film Festival, Kamila Andini ‘s “The Seen and Unseen,” and Mouly Surya’s “Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts” split the Grand Prize at Tokyo FILMeX.

FILMeX unspooled at venues in Tokyo Nov. 18-26 and gave its prizes on Saturday.

Both winning directors are Indonesian women whose films have traveled the international festival circuit. “Seen,” a drama that enters a child’s dream world, has played at Vancouver, Toronto and Busan, while “Marlina” debuted in this year’s Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.

The FILMeX audience award went to “Sennan Asbestos Disaster,” veteran documentarian Kazuo Hara’s film about a lawsuit filed by victims of asbestos poisoning in Osaka. Eight years in the making, the 215-minute film earlier played at the Yamagata documentary festival in October. Hara also served as Filmex jury chairman, a fact he jokingly alluded to in accepting the award.

In addition