Following a record-breaking premiere on August 21, “House of the Dragon” landed an early renewal at the network on August 26. The first episode debuted to the largest audience for any new original show in HBO history, including besting the “Game of Thrones” series-premiere ratings. Ten million viewers tuned in “live” for the premiere; that initial number has since doubled with less than one week of catchup viewing across multiple platforms, according to HBO....

“Every time there’s a new release of our classic movies, there’ll be something in the stores to remind you of that. I would hope that when we put out a new video of Mickey Mouse cartoons or of a Disney movie, the video will be sold in the stores. And when something is happening of some importance in the Disney Co., it will be reflected in the stores,” he told the Los Angeles Times at the time....

Sundance’s New Frontiers’ team faced a new challenge in 2021: to program a body of work that grapples with contemporary issues through emerging media. In an ongoing and uncertain COVID-19 reality, what would such mediums be able to provide that other traditional platforms couldn’t? While it may have started off as a larger question on festival trends, it turned into a plethora of experiences — some VR, some computer-generated and some mobile — to highlight our own personal reckonings within a collective moment....

No matter the high-profile nature of those earlier gigs, however, Francis beams the most about his most recent credit, “The Father” — an intentionally disorienting chamber drama all set in one location, made on a limited budget, and the latest justification of his decision to gamble on riskier gigs. “You’re only as good as your last job,” Francis said. “‘The Father’ is the best thing I’ve done, one of those projects that comes along so rarely where everything just clicked from every angle....

Moreh adopted a similar approach with “The Human Factor” (January 22, Sony Pictures Classics), which looks behind the scenes of three decades of the Arab-Israeli peace process via the veteran diplomat mediators and negotiators who put in obsessive hours of legwork and travel to inform and support the front-line U.S. presidents and Israeli, Palestinian, and Syrian generals, politicians, and prime ministers who take credit or blame for often disappointing results. Related ‘Living’: The Prime of Mr....

That’s something that the British Film Institute aims to change via BFI Player Classics, the organization’s upcoming American streaming service. BFI Player Classics, which launches on May 14 and will cost $5.99 per month, will offer consumers a library of over 200 British films from a range of genres and filmmakers. Though BFI Player Classics is launching in an incredibly crowded industry that doesn’t lack for specialization — established streaming services such as BritBox and Acorn TV are exclusively focused on British programming — the platform’s highly-curated library and singular focus on well-received British films could cause it to stand out from competing streaming services....

You could blame the slow return of women to theaters, Super Bowl Weekend, or that the film played for free on Peacock; any or all could be true. But here’s another reason: “Marry Me,” like so many rom-coms before it, isn’t very good. While Lopez is an extraordinary performer, all those songs start to feel like product placements. The ostensible reason for the film — how Lopez as superstar Kat and Owen Wilson as single dad Charlie will fall in love after their snap wedding — feels like an afterthought....