A weekly film and box office newsletter. Howdy, folks! As stars and studio heads descend upon Las Vegas this week for CinemaCon, the annual gathering of theater owners, there's a storm brewing in the background that feels like it's getting louder by the day. Opposition to Paramount's acquisition of Warner Bros. hit its highest pitch on Monday when over 1,000 film and TV professionals signed an open letter advocating against the merger, including heavyweights like J.J. Abrams, David Fincher, Denis Villeneuve, Ben Stiller, Yorgos Lanthimos and Kristen Stewart. Hollywood has been racked by consolidation and dwindling production the last several years, and the fear is that Paramount buying Warner Bros. will make matters even worse. The anxiety is not unfounded, despite David Ellison's assertions that he'll release 30 films a year theatrically between Paramount and Warner Bros. Ahead of every major consolidation, there's a promise of even more output, but the opposite is often true —20th Century Studios released just six movies in theaters last year and three the year before. So, as Ellison looks to close this $110 billion deal as early as this summer, the industry is speaking up, and it'll be interesting to see how explicit talk of this merger will be during the CinemaCon presentations this week. As "Lost" creator and 15-year Warner Bros. employee Damon Lindelof put it in a candid post explaining his initial fear at signing Monday's open letter, "I’m scared. But I’m not a ghost. And a fight is already lost if it’s never fought." Adam Chitwood Be sure to follow me on my socials linked below for the latest updates. DMs are open for tips.    
Box Office: 'The Super Mario Galaxy Movie' Crosses $600 MillionUniversal/Illumination’s “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” has passed $300 million domestic and $600 million worldwide after two weekends in theaters, grossing $69 million in North America this weekend. While that is significantly lower than the $92 million second weekend of “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” in 2023, the film... 
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