Jean-Marc Vallée 1963-2021 

►"A true artist and a generous, loving guy." Jean-Marc Vallée, known for directing such films as Dallas Buyers Club and Wild, along with the HBO series Big Little Lies, has died. He was 58.

Longtime producing partner Nathan Ross confirmed his death in a statement shared with THR. According to Vallée’s rep, he died suddenly over the weekend of a suspected heart attack in his cabin near Quebec City, Canada. The obituary.  

—"I love you, Jean-Marc. Until we meet again." Stars took to social media on Monday to remember Jean-Marc Vallée. Frequent collaborators Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern, whom Vallée directed in Wild and Big Little Lies, along with Nicole Kidman, Shailene Woodley, Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner, Jared Leto and Iain Armitage were among those who paid tribute to the late helmer. The reaction.  

Box Office: 'Spider-Man,' 'Sing 2' Top Christmas  

►As you were. Sony’s Spider-Man: No Way Home crushed it at the Christmas box office, earning $138.6 million from 4,336 theaters in North America for the long five-day holiday to finish Sunday with $467.3 million domestically and more than $1 billion worldwide. 

Sing 2, buoyed by an A+ CinemaScore and support from younger kids, posted a five-day opening of $41 million from 3,892 locations and a three-day gross of $23.7 million, in line with expectations. 

THR's Pamela McClintock writes that The Matrix Resurrections and The King’s Man both disappointed in their openings as male cinemagoers largely stuck with No Way Home. Resurrections had trouble getting to $22.5 million, well below expectations. Resurrections, playing in 3,552 theaters, opened simultaneously on HBO Max, likely dampening its box office.

20th Century and Disney’s King’s Man also came in well behind expectations with an estimated five-day debut of $10 million from 3,180 sites, including $6.4 million for the three-day weekend. The box office report. 

—A billy in record time. No Way Home became the first film of the pandemic era to cross the $1 billion mark at the global box office. And it accomplished the feat in near-record time. Avengers: Endgame is No. 1 on the list (five days), followed by Avengers: Infinity War (11 days) and Star Wars: The Force Awakens (12 days). Sunday was No Way Home's 12th day in release. The story. 

—Sony's crowning glory. No Way Home's $467 million plus in domestic ticket sales means the film has become Sony’s top-grossing domestic title of all time, not adjusted for inflation. The previous record-holder was 2017’s Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle in 2017 which topped out at $404.5 million. The story. 

Kidman: Maybe 'Ricardos' Marketers Were Just "Scared of Showing Me"  

►"Bummer." Nicole Kidman is weighing in on the continued debate over the casting decisions for Being the Ricardos. In a NYT profile published Sunday, the actress addressed social media chatter surrounding her role as comedy icon Lucille Ball, expressing her surprise that a 75-second teaser trailer released in October only briefly showed glimpses of her face and had spurred online discussion at the time. The story. 

—ICYMI. THR's editor-at-large Kim Masters looks back on Hollywood’s year of dizzying uncertainty, a period that produced mega-mergers and lame-duck CEOs and culminated with John Stankey toasting the town in a Papa Bear onesie. The analysis.  

—"I’m not looking forward to it." Magic Johnson says he won't be watching HBO’s upcoming Lakers series Winning Time. Johnson, the franchise star for the 1980s "Showtime" era Lakers that is the subject of Adam McKay's series, shared in a recent interview that he wasn't excited for the show and went on to explain that both he and Lakers controlling owner Jeanie Buss are working on their own shows. The story.

—Humiliation. Brit tabloid The Mail on Sunday published a front-page mea culpa to Meghan Markle after losing a court battle with the Duchess of Sussex earlier this year. Stopping short of an apology, the brief statement acknowledged that the paper’s publisher, Associated Newspapers, had lost the privacy dispute brought forth by Markle. The story. 

—"Without permission or license." Morgan Creek Productions has sued Netflix and the producers of Tiger King for copyright infringement over the use of Ace Ventura 2 clips in the hit reality series. One such clip featured Jim Carrey with a “monkey wrapped around his neck and shoulder” and another “triumphantly riding an elephant.” The story.

—How the west is being won (on streaming). THR's Mia Galuppo and Borys Kit look at how Westerns, like rom-coms, sports dramas, and other genres that had become dormant at the pre-pandemic box office in the age of thinning margins for IP-less theatrical titles, are seeing traction outside of the multiplex and now claiming the top spots across premium video-on-demand and streaming services. The story. 

Saying Goodbye to 'Insecure' and Its True Love Story 

►"The show wasn’t radical but it was exciting." THR critic Lovia Gyarkye takes stock of HBO's Insecure, which after five seasons said farewell on Sunday, writing that Issa Rae’s series was stylish and funny, but its complex portrait of a deep, tumultuous friendship between two Black women is its most potent legacy. The critic's notebook.    

—"The more nervous I make the movie executives, the more I believe in it." THR's Brian Davids spoke to The King's Man director Matthew Vaughn about his ever-expanding Kingsman universe with even a potential Statesman streaming series, should the audience demand it. The interview. 

—Life lessons from my aunt Joan. In a guest column for THR, Annabelle Dunne, producer of the acclaimed Netflix documentary Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold, reveals what she learned from her iconic relative. The column. 

—Euro breakouts. THR's Europe bureau chief, and excellent Morris dancer, Scott Roxborough runs down the acting and directing talents that made splash in European cinema in 2021 (presumably Brexit means Brexit, so no Brits). The list. 

—Ten underseen gems. THR film critics David Rooney, Sheri Linden, Leslie Felperin, Jordan Mintzer, Stephen Dalton, Boyd Van Hoeij and Deborah Young pick 2021's ten best rarely seen movies. Queer dramas from South Africa and Israel, a batty French buddy comedy and a Japanese spy thriller are among our reviewers’ favorite overlooked films of the year. The list. 

In other news... 

—New Batman trailer features more Catwoman interaction: “The Bat and the Cat”

—John Mulaney and Olivia Munn share first photo of newborn son

—How to watch Miley Cyrus and Pete Davidson’s New Year’s Eve special on NBC and Peacock

—3 BTS members test positive for COVID-19

—Wayne Thiebaud, painter and former Disney animator, dies at 101

—Harvey Evans, actor in original Broadway shows West Side Story, Hello Dolly! and more, dies at 80

—T. Mark Taylor, artist and toy designer for He-Man and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, dies at 80 

What else we're reading...

—Boba Fett, Intergalactic Man of Mystery [New York Times]

—Inside Disney’s Handling of the ABC News Sexual-Assault Allegations [Wall Street Journal]

—The Insecure Series Finale Is Going to Piss a Lot of People Off [Daily Beast]

—Look Away: Why Star-studded Comet Satire Don’t Look Up Is A Disaster [The Guardian]

—K-pop Fans Have a New Nemesis [The Atlantic]

Today... 

Today's birthdays: Denzel Washington (67), Maggie Smith (87), Sienna Miller (40), John Legend (43), Jessie Buckley (32), Joe Manganiello (45), Noomi Rapace (42), Elaine Hendrix (51), Nichelle Nichols (89), André Holland (42), Jared Gilman (23), Seth Meyers (48), Terri Garber (61), James Foley (68)