Before she became the Queen of Twitter, Dionne Warwick was winning amateur night at the Apollo theater. This feat has been accomplished by only a few Black women and it immediately placed her among the greats like Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, and Billie Holiday. It’s a moment that is returned to again and again throughout the 95 minutes of “Don’t Make Me Over,” and it’s at the heart of what the documentary is truly about: Warwick as a musician....

Described as a “limited test,” the promotion begins runs from November 1-8, and allows any Disney+ user in the United States with a profile verified as being 18 or older to purchase select merchandise and products before their official retail launch. These products can be found on a section of the official shopDisney website, or through special QR codes in the details pages of related Disney+ titles. Items on sale include tie-in merchandise and products related to franchises like “Star Wars,” “Frozen,” and the Marvel Cinematic Universe films....

The numbers mark a bright spot in financial performance that has been marred by the pandemic. The news coincided with the company’s first quarterly profit, $17 million, after a string of losses in 2020. It all suggests that Disney’s obsessive focus on Disney+ is working. Theatrical exhibition and linear channels like the company’s own ABC are now so-called “legacy” platforms, and run second to direct-to-consumer platforms Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ as part of what CEO Bob Chapek referred to as a “DTC-first business model....

Nawaf Alsabhan, Saudi Arabia’s general supervisor of cinema classification, told The Guardian that Disney was asked to cut “LGBTQ references” from “Doctor Strange 2″ so the film could premiere in the country. However, Alsabhan noted that the film is not officially banned, despite AMC Cinemas in Saudi Arabia saying it had been “withdrawn” from theaters ahead of its May 6 release. The requested edits are “barely 12 seconds” of footage, as Alsabhan explained, in which lesbian character America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) refers to her “two moms....

WBD didn’t provide a breakdown between the two days, but similar cases have shown the wider Thursday shows usually account for two thirds or more of the gross. If so, that would suggest at least $2 million Thursday. One-day previews for “The Woman King” (Sony) resulted in a $1.7 million gross, which became part of a $19 million weekend. “Darling,” which stars Florence Pugh, Harry Styles, and Chris Pine, cost something less than $35 million, less than “Woman King....

On “Minx,” porn model Bambi may initially seem like all she knows how to do is take off her clothes, but in Jessica Lowe’s show-stealing performance, she’s the most self-actualized woman at the feminist magazine at the center of the HBO Max standout. “‘Legally Blonde’ wouldn’t have been such a phenomenon if it wasn’t played by Reese Witherspoon. She went to Stanford,” Lowe told IndieWire. “And ‘Romy and Michelle’ is one of my favorite movies, and Mira Sorvino went to Harvard and graduated magna cum laude....

No one would ever mistake Rebecca Ferguson for a shrinking violet. Bawdy and instantly easy to talk to, the Swedish actress was juiced up from rehearsals for her starring role in the upcoming Apple sci-fi series “Wool.” Ferguson said she was still wearing her training clothes and “sitting on a pillow made out of an old cashmere jumper.” She’s not the crafty one, she’s quick to note. Thank her husband for that....

Last year, the Television Academy forged a stronger divide between the Emmy Awards and the Oscars to clear up some of the confusion that has reigned as movies have double-dipped from one to the other. The Academy has done its part to separate from the Emmys, too, eliminating multi-part long-form “series” from Best Documentary Feature contention, after five-hour “O.J.: Made in America” won the Oscar. On the other hand, the Academy loosened up its qualifying rules during the pandemic to allow online streaming features to qualify, even without a theatrical run....

Much like last year and the year prior, Black nominees were represented in several categories and there were a few, specifically Best Actor in a Limited Series or Anthology, where Black and Latino nominees outnumbered white actors. The hope was high, especially since last year saw Zendaya, Regina King, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, and Uzo Aduba win in major categories. Even three out of the five Best Lead Actor in a Drama Series nominees were Black this year....

Sources with access to ticket sales so far on its opening day estimate it could earn $9-$10 million for the weekend. That would put it in a race with “The Menu,” Searchlight’s horror comedy, behind the second weekend of “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” The series from creator Dallas Jenkins is available to stream on Peacock, among other platforms, and centers on the years Jesus spent as an apostle with his disciples....

The network’s official Season 2 synopsis reads: “Amidst the intertwining lives in the town of East Highland, 17-year-old Rue (Zendaya) must find hope while balancing the pressures of love, loss, and addiction.” As for the cast, HBO confirms the following are locked in as series regulars for the new season: Emmy-winner Zendaya, Hunter Schafer, Nika King, Eric Dane, Angus Cloud, Jacob Elordi, Algee Smith, Sydney Sweeney, Alexa Demie, Barbie Ferreira, Maude Apatow, Javon Walton, Dominic Fike, Storm Reid, and Austin Abrams....

In a statement sent to IndieWire, representatives for Dormishian attributed his detainment to a recent series of Instagram posts that he made criticizing Iran’s government. He was particularly critical of the regime’s crackdown on filmmakers, expressing solidarity with Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof, both of whom have been imprisoned for speaking out against injustices in Iran. Rasoulof was arrested in early 2022, and Panahi was arrested and sentenced to a six year prison sentence after visiting his fellow filmmaker and asking questions about the circumstances that led his arrest....

This year’s Toronto International Film Festival has an opener: Stephen Chbosky’s feature-film adaptation of the Tony Award–winning musical “Dear Evan Hansen” will serve as the Opening Night Gala Presentation at the 46th Toronto International Film Festival and will screen Thursday September 9 at Roy Thomson Hall. Starring Tony winner Ben Platt as Evan, along with Amy Adams, Julianne Moore, Kaitlyn Dever, Amandla Stenberg, and Nik Dodani, “Dear Evan Hansen” features songs from the original Broadway sensation....

Raised in New Delhi and living in Toronto since 1973, the lauded Indo-Canadian filmmaker’s body of work spans globally in location and subject matter. Mehta is best known for her Elements Trilogy (the origin of that name are a mystery to her), which includes the controversial lesbian romance “Fire” (1996), the Partition era family drama “Earth” (1999), and the Oscar-nominated “Water” (2005). India submitted the film for the 2007 foreign-language Oscar, and this year submitted “Funny Boy,” but the Academy deemed it ineligible because it used too much English, accepting backup entry, “14 Days, 12 Nights,” instead....

Not much is known about the film, outside of Gadot’s being the lead and that “Heart of Stone” is some type of espionage thriller. It’ll be helmed by Tom Harper, who directed Felicity Jones in the hot air balloon adventure, “The Aernoauts,” as well as Jessie Buckley in the indie country musical, “Wild Rose.” Greg Rucka and Allison Schroeder will write the script. Pre-production has just started, hence the silence on any further details....

But “Gomorrah” is much more than a quirky streamer pickup. For its Italian producer, Cattleya, “Gomorrah” sparked a trend in gritty, real-world storytelling that reshaped Italian TV. Beta Film — a company founded to exploit Federico Fellini’s “La Strada” — licensed “Gomorrah” in nearly 200 countries, and it became one of the most successful properties in its history. In Italy, the audience for the Season 4 premiere surpassed that of “Game of Thrones....

“We’re in this bubble, and outside of this bubble is chaos, and a very bleak reality. But inside of this bubble is the most magical world I’ve ever been immersed in. And so it feels really strange to look at the news and and see what’s going on outside,” said Bennett, six hours ahead of New York time, in a phone interview with IndieWire. Still, shooting “Cyrano” isn’t without the grind of the pandemic-era protocol that’s defining all film and TV productions now, in Hollywood or elsewhere....

Unfortunately, this tiny tweak isn’t enough to make a lasting impression on the genre, especially with a lackluster script that offers little in the way of surprise or delight. What’s more, including a sub-plot about a rich white man running for mayor of a Pennsylvania enclave with no mention of actual politics feels — to put it mildly — painfully out of touch. Not just because 2020 saw Black Lives Matter protests erupt around the country, challenging white people to seriously examine our privilege, but it’s oddly disconcerting that a proudly LGBTQ movie could be so emphatically apolitical....

At the first mention of these latest episodes of the HBO series being “a little darker,” Winkler didn’t miss a beat. “To help myself, I went out and got a battery-operated miner cap,” Winkler said. If Winkler seems unfazed by digging into the more unsavory side of Gene Cousineau, the Valley-based acting coach (who is now effectively a hostage of Bill Hader’s hitman title character), it’s partly due to him knowing this was coming from the start....

Meanwhile, “Black Widow” (Disney/$29.99) announced an all-digital platform release (meaning, beyond Disney+) for August 10. The unusual aspect is it will be offered as a digital download rather than a rental, with extras including additional scenes and bloopers. More significantly, “Hitman’s” displaced “A Quiet Place Part II” (Paramount/$19.99) after just one week as top film. That’s a bit of a surprise; John Krasinski’s hit grossed as much as “Purge,” Conjuring,” and “Hitman’s” combined, and “Hitman’s” grossed the least with $37 million....