J. Sperling Reich, Author at Celluloid Junkie

Paramount - Warner Bros Merger with David Ellison

The CJ Marquee Is Back. The Cinema Business Hasn’t Slowed Down.

After a longer-than-planned absence, the CJ Marquee is back in your inbox. The cinema business, inconveniently, did not pause while we rebuilt our newsletter machinery behind the scenes. Exhibition and distribution kept consolidating, premium formats kept multiplying, release windows kept shifting,…

UNIC 2026 Annual Report

UNIC Reports European Box Office Held Near €6.9 Billion in 2025, But Admissions Tell a More Complicated Story

European cinemas spent much of 2025 proving a point that has become familiar in the post-pandemic theatrical business: audiences show up when the films are there. The harder question, and the one the International Union of Cinemas’s (UNIC) 2026 Annual Report keeps circling back to, is whether…

Andrew Cripss, Head of Global Distribution, Walt Disney Studios - ICTA Barcelona Seminar 2026 - June 21, 2026 - Infinity Vision

Disney’s Andrew Cripps Says Infinity Vision Is More Marketing Program Than Certification Scheme

Speaking at ICTA’s Cinema Technology Experience in Barcelona on the eve of CineEurope, Disney’s head of global theatrical distribution offered the clearest public explanation yet of Infinity Vision — and confirmed that several key details are still being worked out. When Andrew Cripps, H…

(From left) Anthony D'alessandro of Deadline, , Eduardo Acuna of Regal, filmmaker Michael Tiddes, Blair Rich of Legendary Entertainment, Andrew Cripps of Disney and Adam Fogelson of Lionsgate during the "Future of Storytelling for the Big Screen" panel at the Regal Sherman Oaks Galleria on June 15, 2026.

The Box Office Is Back. At a Renovated Regal Theatre, the Industry Asks What Comes Next

At the “Future of Storytelling for the Big Screen” panel, executives from Regal, Disney, Lionsgate and Legendary weighed in on younger audiences, theatrical windows, premium screens and the looming Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger. Regal’s newly renovated Sherman Oaks Galleria theatre…

Theatrical Windows Are Stretching Again — and Hollywood’s C-Suite Wants Them Longer Still

Average first TVOD windows rose in 2025, Disney again led the majors with a 61.6-day average, and early 2026 releases point toward a stronger 45-day baseline. After several years in which theatrical windows seemed to be shrinking by the quarter, the North American market may finally be settling into…

(From Left) Michael Barker and Tom Bernard, Co-Founder and Co-Presidents of Sony Pictures Classics, Dylan Leiner, EVP of Acquisitions, Production and Business Affairs at Sony Pictures Classics and Matt Brennan of the Los Angeles Times during the "How Sony Pictures Classics Navigates the World of Indie and International Cinema" panel on March 18, 2026 at the 2026 Marché du Film alongside the 79th edition of the Cannes Film Festival.

The Long Game: How Sony Pictures Classics Still Wins at Cannes

There are easier ways to make a living than selling independent and international cinema in 2026. There are safer businesses than theatrical distribution, quieter ones than acquisitions, and certainly more predictable ones than building a release strategy around festival discovery, Oscar momentum, r…

2026 Cannes Film Festival - Palais des Festivals

Cannes 2026: Strong Films, Thin Buzz and a Market Finding New Footing

A strong competition without a consensus breakout, a Marché reshaped by private capital, and a Hollywood no-show that raised uncomfortable questions about the festival’s global reach. The 79th Cannes Film Festival closed on May 23 the way it opened — with defiance. No major Hollywood studio tentpole…

Cristian Mungiu’s “Fjord” Wins Palme d’Or at 2026 Cannes Film Festival

Cristian Mungiu’s “Fjord” Wins Palme d’Or at 2026 Cannes Film Festival

Cristian Mungiu’s “Fjord” was awarded the Palme d’Or at the 79th Cannes Film Festival on Saturday, May 23, giving the Romanian filmmaker his second win of the festival’s top prize, nearly two decades after “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” took the Palme in 2007. The Norway-set drama, starring Sebastia…

The Red Sea Film Foundation's 2026 Women In Cinema honorees, (from left) Marie-Clementine Dusabejambo, Kamila Andini, Aixa Kay, Genevieve Nnaji, and Tara Sutaria during its annual luncheon held alongside the 79th edition of the Cannes Film Festival

At Cannes, Red Sea’s Women in Cinema Spotlight Makes the Case for a Wider Film Map

The Red Sea Film Foundation’s annual Women in Cinema spotlight brought together filmmakers and performers from Nigeria, Rwanda, India, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and Morocco — and made clear that some of the industry’s most urgent voices are still waiting for the infrastructure to match their ambition.…

2026 Cannes Film Festival

As Hollywood Pulls Back, Cannes Doubles Down

There is a quality to the light along the Croisette in May that no other film festival can replicate or claim. It falls at a particular angle across the Palais des Festivals — that concrete monolith critics have spent decades mocking and cinephiles have spent decades loving — and transforms even the…