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The Alto Knights North America Box Office: Release Day Update(Photo Credit –YouTube)

Robert De Niro’s starrer biographical crime drama film, The Alto Knights, is headed for a disappointing affair at the box office on its release day. The movie has collected even less than the second Friday collection of Cate Blanchett’s Black Bag. Keep scrolling for the deets.

It was directed by Barry Levinson and distributed by Warner Bros Pictures. It has opened to mixed reviews from the critics. De Niro appears in a dual role as the 1950s mob bosses Vito Genovese and Frank Costello. It also features Debra Messing, Cosmo Jarvis, Kathrine Narducci, and Michael Rispoli in supporting roles. It has received poor ratings from the critics on Rotten Tomatoes; they gave it 38%, and their collective consensus states, “A competent but tired retread of mob movie tropes, it pits De Niro vs. De Niro with no real victor emerging.

Even two-time Oscar winner Robert De Niro starts his mornings with “Ms. Rachel.” Talking to Andy Cohen for Sirius Xm’s Radio Andy, De Niro shared that his two-year-old daughter Gia has “discerning taste” in TV shows, favoring YouTuber Ms. Rachel.

“That’s what I did this morning,” De Niro told Cohen. “‘Ms. Rachel,’ ‘The Wiggles,’ ‘Blippi.’ ‘The Wiggles’ are sort of cheap, but ‘Ms. Rachel,’ we started with it and still stay with it.” According to De Niro, his daughter’s (with girlfriend Tiffany Chen) taste is becoming more refined the more “Ms. Rachel” she watches.

“Now she’s becoming more discerning, because she’s seen it so many times,” De Niro added. “We’re waiting for new episodes, new skits, new songs: she goes ‘Okay, next.’ She’ll go ‘No, no, no, next.’ She wants me to switch to something else.”

Between episodes of “Ms. Rachel” and “The Wiggles,...

Robert De Niro‘s latest movie, “The Alto Knights,” gives the Oscar winner twice as many roles as usual. Directed by Barry Levinson and written by “Goodfellas” writer Nicholas Pileggi, the film charts the real-life power struggle between 1950s Mafia bosses Vito Genovese and Frank Costello as it spirals into an all-out, blood-on-the-streets conflict. De Niro plays both Genovese and Costello in the drama, which also stars Debra Messing and “Shōgun” breakout Cosmo Jarvis.

De Niro is not the first major actor in Hollywood history to take on the sizable challenge of playing more than one role in a film. Some have even dared to take on more than two In honor of De Niro’s dual turns in “The Alto Knights,” though, here are five other great films that also star actors in two roles.

Jake Gyllenhaal in “Enemy.” (Entertainment One) Jake Gyllenhaal in “Enemy”

“Enemy” is director Denis Villeneuve’s surreal,...

Trouble is a brewin’ for Disney’s Snow White in its box office debut.

After getting stung by critics and not-so-great audience scores, Disney’s live-action remake of its iconic 1937 animated film may only reap $45 million in its domestic box office debut. That’s on par with Tim Burton’s Dumbo, which was considered a major disappointment.

The female-skewing Snow White will still have no trouble winning the frame and is hoping to emulate the pace and tempo of Disney’s Christmas tentpole Mufasa: The Lion King, which debuted to $35 million on its way to sprinting past $700 million globally.

Starring Rachel Zegler in the titular role and Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen, Snow White had been tracking to open at $50 million, although Disney had been conservative in putting out a range of $45 million and $55 million. Globally, the film still hopes to clear $100 million in its launch.

Snow White is...

Disney’s “Snow White” is the fairest of them all on box office charts. The musical earned $16 million across Friday and preview screenings from 4,200 venues. It’s enough of a start to put “Snow White,” which stars Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot, on track to land within projections for an opening weekend north of $45 million.

That would mark the second-biggest debut of the year behind fellow Disney release “Captain America: Brave New World.” But like that Marvel Cinematic Universe entry, “Snow White” is budgeted like a four-quadrant tentpole and needs to play like one. The Marc Webb-directed fairy tale carries a massive production cost north of $250 million, meaning it faces a steep climb to profitability.

Plenty of Disney’s other family-friendly films have legged out successful theatrical runs, as the digitally-rendered “Mufasa: The Lion King” did just a few months ago. That film launched in December with unfavorable reviews and a lukewarm $35 million opening,...

The box office numbers are starting to roll in, and so far, it looks like Snow White is underperforming badly for Disney. Whether it was the toxic word-of-mouth or middling reviews, the family audience that typically allowed the Mouse House’s animated-to-live action remakes to open in the $90-100 million range just are turning out for this one. Early this week, we predicted that Snow White would make $55 million – which itself would have been disastrous for a $300 million movie, but Deadline is reporting the numbers are far worse. According to them, the movie will only open in the mid-40s, which is about the same level Disney’s Dumbo remake opened to, with that being considered a notable flop that led to Tim Burton quitting directing for several years. And that movie cost about half of what Snow White did.

The only silver lining for Disney is that the movie has an okay B+ CinemaScore.

We've another bumper-sized edition of the Empire Podcast in store for you this week, folks, with a double whammy of top notch guests — so buckle up! Our first guest is legendary director Barry Levinson, who sat down with our very own Chris Hewitt on the eve of the release of his new gangster joint The Alto Knights to discuss working with Robert De Niro, Robert De Niro, aaaand Robert De Niro's dogs, as well as the life-changing impact Marlon Brando putting on a glove in On The Waterfront had on him as a young whippersnapper. [23:31 — 40:13 approx] Then, we also hear from Latvian indie animation hero Gints Zilbalodis, the director of this year's Oscar-winning animated movie Flow, in an exclusive excerpt from a recent Empire VIP Club event hosted by resident superfan Beth Webb. [59:44 — 1:13:04 approx]

Either side of those stellar chats, Chris is joined back in the podbooth by Helen O'Hara, James Dyer and,...

Robert De Niro’s returns to the mob movie genre with “The Alto Knights,” and it’s hitting theaters on Friday.

De Niro pulls double duty in the biographical drama, as he stars two of New York’s most notorious crime bosses, Frank Costello and Vito Genovese. The film serves as a 360 moment for De Niro, as Costello was the inspiration behind “The Godfather” character Don Vito Corleone. De Niro starred as the young Vito in “The Godfather Part II.”

The film was written by Nicholas Pileggi (“Goodfellas”) and directed by Barry Levinson. Here’s everything you need to know about how to watch below.

When does “The Alto Knights” come out?

“The Alto Knights” comes out Friday, March 21.

Is “The Alto Knights” in theaters?

Yes, “The Alto Knights” will premiere in theaters on Friday, March 21. Check the listings below for showtimes.

AMC Theaters Regal Theaters Cinemark Theaters Landmark Theaters...

Mirror, mirror, on the wall... will Snow White beat them all? Disney's embattled live-action remake comes into the weekend with plenty of baggage — racist backlast to the casting of Rachel Zegler as princess, Peter Dinklage's outrage over the depiction of the seven dwarfs, and Zegler and costar Gal Gadot staking out opposite ends of the Israeli-Palestian conflict in Gaza — but will fans ignore the noise and mixed reviews and turn out at the megaplex? Snow White is the highest-profile of the four major new releases that will be facing off against the current top five money-makers: Novocaine, Black Bag, Mickey 17, Captain America: Brave New World, and The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie.

Gold Derby readers predict that Snow White will win the March 21-23 weekend with between $50 million and $75 million domestically. Novocaine is the runner-up selection of our oddsmakers. Do you agree or disagree with those rankings?...

Inside you there are two mobsters, and Robert De Niro plays both.

There’s a scene near the limp climax of Barry Levinson’s utterly somnambulant The Alto Knights in which Vito Genovese (De Niro) argues violently with his meathead driver and muscle Vincent Gigante (Cosmo Jarvis) about whether or not Palmyra, NY is the birthplace of Mormonism. Palmyra is the birthplace, but Vito is convinced it isn’t, and he is such a hothead narcissist he nearly strangles Vincent to death. The scene goes on for an obnoxiously long time. There are “jokes” about golden books and a lot of yelling. With no apparent thematic or narrative purpose, the unending scene is an unfortunate metonym for Levinson’s entire enterprise. It is, in other words, a complete waste of time, barely aping properly the mob genre for which it is now sure to be an afterthought.

Loosely, the film...

A part of me feels protective of the filmmaking team behind The Alto Knights. For one, Barry Levinson has had a historic and varied career, directing everything from Good Morning, Vietnam to Bugsy and his best collaboration with Robert De Niro, Wag the Dog. This marks his fourth film with the legendary actor, but unfortunately, it is more of a disappointment—much like Sleepers, What Just Happened, and The Wizard of Lies.

Another factor is De Niro’s third collaboration with Nicholas Pileggi, the Academy Award-winning screenwriter of Goodfellas and Casino (he also executive produced The Irishman). Pileggi lived it. De Niro brings his characters to life. However, many have pointed out that the film is full of crime tropes as if this is the first time it’s happened. I mean, how else do they become them in the first place?

The Alto Knights Review and Synopsis RelatedBlack Bag...

The weekend of March 21, 2025, marks a relatively quiet weekend for new releases, but that does not mean there are not some outstanding titles worth checking out. Notably, sci-fi and horror fans should be pumped to check out the latest from Flying Lotus, Ash, starring fan favorite Aaron Paul from Breaking Bad. The highly contentious and controversial Snow White live-action remake starring Rachel Zegler is set to sink or swim in theaters, with critics, pundits, and online personalities tuned in to see how the film fares.

Also in theaters, The Alto Knights is a gritty crime thriller starring Robert De Niro, and Bill Skarsgård faces off against Anthony Hopkins in the psychological horror film Locked. This weekend, streaming also brings a few notable gems. We will go over what you need to watch this weekend, including why Ash is our top pick.

'Ash' Is Set to Be a Massive...

Disney’sSnow White is being ushered into 651 sites, the widest release at the UK-Ireland box office of the weekend.

Marc Webb directs the live-action musical re-imagining of Disney’s 1937Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs animation, which stars Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot.

The film has faced a series of controversies, including star Zegler’s criticism of the original film, debates regarding whether the portrayal of the dwarfs is appropriate for the modern day, a mixed critical reception, as well as Zegler and Gadot’s own politics. Although the press campaign has been muted, Disney hasn’t shied away from a wide roll-out.

Robert De Niro stars opposite himself in Barry Levinson’s period mob drama – but has the unusual casting undermined a solid gangster movie?

The week The Alto Knights – Barry Levinson’s zeitgeist-defying gangster drama – hits cinemas, the only media anyone is talking about is Netflix’s Adolescence. That, or how much they hate Snow White. Inside of us are two wolves, et cetera, et cetera.

But while Disney’s latest live-action remake looks like exactly the kind of risk-averse, straight-down-the-middle offering guaranteed to put family bums on cinema seats, Adolescence and The Alto Knights both promise something a little quirkier from a filmmaking point of view. The former shot each of its four hour-long episodes in a single take; Levinson’s film copy-pastes Robert De Niro to play both leads. If I were being ungenerous, I’d describe both as ‘stunt filmmaking’ – the kind of technical wizardry designed to help...

Sydney Sweeney is getting further into the thriller genre.

The actress/producer is set to lead the adaptation of a short story that first originated on Reddit, “I Pretended to Be a Missing Girl,” which was written in 2021 by high school English teacher Joe Cote. The viral short story is now getting a big screen adaptation by way of Oscar-winning “Forrest Gump,” “A Star Is Born,” and “Killers of the Flower Moon” scribe Eric Roth, with Sweeney starring and producing, an individual with knowledge of the project told IndieWire.

Cote’s story, titled “I pretended to be a missing girl so I could rob her family,” centers on a drifter (Sweeney) who impersonates a missing girl ten years after she went missing to rob her family, only to realize it’s a terrible mistake. The drifter plans to convince the family she is their missing child, and stay just for...

The Alto Knights transports us to mid-century New York, where crime and loyalty take center stage. The film revisits gangster motifs through a historical lens, interspersed with flashbacks that paint a picture of a time when organized crime was reshaping the city. Set in the 1950s, it portrays New York’s criminal underworld with a careful eye on period detail, using its era as a backdrop to explore shifts in power and alliances.

Helmed by Barry Levinson and penned by Nicholas Pileggi, the production carries the weight of established experience in the genre. The film draws from the lives of notable mob figures, loosely based on true events, and reinterprets them with a modern storytelling approach.

Robert De Niro leads the charge, taking on dual roles that highlight contrasting paths within the same criminal tapestry. His work brings forward characters steeped in both tradition and conflict, giving viewers a chance...

Tom Cruise is to receive a BFI Fellowship, the highest honor bestowed by the UK’s lead organization for film.

The award will be presented to Cruise at the BFI Chair’s dinner in London on Monday 12 May, hosted by BFI Chair Jay Hunt. The day before, Cruise will take part in an onstage In Conversation session at the BFI Southbank where he will discuss his decades-long career.

The Fellowship presentation will be the centerpiece of a month-long retrospective of Cruise’s film career at the BFI. A season of 27 films featuring Cruise will screen at the BFI Southbank and BFI IMAX throughout May 2025.

“I am truly honored by this acknowledgment,” Cruise said in a statement. “I’ve been making films in the UK for over 40 years and have no plans to stop. The UK is home to incredibly talented professionals — actors, directors, writers, and crews, as well as some...

In director Barry Levinson's The Alto Knights, Robert De Niro plays not one, but two mob bosses. You'd think that with double the screen time, the mafia drama would be a big hit with fans and critics who have been following De Niro's career since the days of Mean Streets, but unfortunately that isn't the case here. The Alto Knights has landed with an echoing thud on Rotten Tomatoes, signaling that the two-hour movie is probably worth skipping this weekend in theaters.

Holding a rotten rating of just 38% on Rotten Tomatoes, noted Canadian critic Richard Crouse says, "The Alto Knights is a slick movie, with nice period details, but the shallow look at the relationships of the protagonists and a repetitive, drawn-out script blunts the power of the story." Odie Henderson from The Boston Globe adds:

"When we're not being fed warmed-over narration and editing tricks that remind...

There are, by the organization’s current count, some 160,000 members of the Screen Actors Guild, many of whom are booking gigs on the regular. To be fair, very few of these performers are genuine 1970s cinema icons, not to mention the brand-name embodiment of a whole genre. Robert De Niro is to Mob movies what John Wayne was to Westerns, and though he’s played every type of role imaginable — boxers, bakers, bishops, ballplayers, cops, robbers, revolutionaries, a stitched-together corpse having an existential crisis, even the devil himself — it’s...

In the aftermath of the Oscars, a new slate of blockbusters and indie films are hoping to drum up excitement about what 2025 has to offer in the cinema landscape.

Starting with the weekend’s wide releases, Disney is back with the live-action adaptation of “Snow White,” starring “West Side Story” breakout Rachel Zegler in the lead alongside “Wonder Woman” star Gal Gadot as the wicked queen. The film has already been marked by controversy, mainly for Gadot and Zegler’s opposing views on Palestine and Israel, but Variety’s Owen Gleiberman gave the film an overall positive review, calling it “chirpy, vivacious, just-romantic-enough-to-get-by.”

Barry Levinson’s “The Alto Knights” stars Robert De Niro, Debra Messing and Cosmo Jarvis in a biographical crime drama set in ’50s New York. As Frank Costello (De Niro) and Vito Genovese (Jarvis) fight for control of the streets, betrayals lead to the downfall of the...

Robert De Niro has been a consistent presence in mob movies for the past five decades. One of his first Mafia movies was 1973's Mean Streets, which marked De Niro's first of several collaborations with Martin Scorsese and is considered by many to be one of the greatest gangster movies ever made. The following year, De Niro played a younger Vito Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather Part II, and won an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, his first of eight Oscar nominations over his illustrious career.

Over the years, De Niro has collaborated with Scorsese on many more mob movies, including Goodfellas and Casino, both of which were co-written by Nicholas Pileggi based on his nonfiction books, and frequently rank among the greatest Mafia movies ever made. Other mob movies that De Niro has starred in over the years include Sergio Leone...

Robert De Niro stars in dual roles in Barry Levinson's new gangster epic, 'The Alto Knights,' which is written by Nicholas Pileggi and produced by Irwin Winkler. The two close De Niro collaborators discuss the actor's involvement in the film and its connection with 'Goodfellas.' 'The Alto Knights' is in theaters on March 21 from Warner Bros. Pictures.

In 'The Alto Knights,' a power struggle between Vito Genovese and Frank Costello, the top bosses of the Mafia, spills into open conflict when Vito orders a hit on Frank. Barely surviving, Frank maneuvers to protect himself and his family from Vito while also planning to retire from the Mafia.

If the digital de-ageing of the holy trinity of Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci in Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman was a bit distracting at times, get a load of double De Niro in Barry Levinson’s long-gestating The Alto Knights. Demonstrating that when it comes to the greats you can never have too much of a good thing, De Niro plays both leading roles: that of don Frank Costello on the verge of a quiet retirement, and his hot-headed childhood friend and drug baron Vito Genovese, with whom he’s forced to go toe-to-toe.

Based on a true story of mob warfare and penned by GoodFellas screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi, the film has been in the works since the 1970s and was finally greenlit in 2022. Watching the early sequences certainly gives one a sense of déjà vu: the film opens in media res in 1957 with an act of violence,...

From the mind of Award-winning director Barry Levinson and legendary screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi (Goodfellas), The Alto Knights is an ambitious attempt to recapture the golden age of mob cinema. With an all-star cast led by Robert De Niro—who takes on the daunting task of portraying both real life Mafia bosses Frank Costello and Vito Genovese—the film explores the volatile power struggle that reshaped the American crime families in the late 1950s.

Supported by a talented ensemble, including Debra Messing (Will & Grace), Cosmo Jarvis (Lady Macbeth) , Katherine Narducci, and Michael Rispoli, this crime saga is rich in historical detail and beautifully layered performances.

The Alto Knights follows Costello and Genovese, once the closest of allies, as they become bitter rivals vying for control of New York’s underworld. The film does a great job of depicting their rise through the ranks, illustrating how friendships in organised crime can be...

Robert De Niro pulls Mafia double duty, portraying mobsters Frank Costello and Vito Genovese in The Alto Knights, the latest crime epic from acclaimed Goodfellas screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi. The film's slick editing, make-up, and prosthetic effects sell both performances as De Niro chews up the screen with a familiar gusto. The narrative does suffer from a continuous voice-over narration that wears thin. But Oscar-winning director Barry Levinson overcomes the talk-a-thon by channeling Scorsese's frenetic visual style, rapid pacing, and flashback structure. The result is a breezy and thoroughly entertaining gangster flick that gets laughs aplenty with its stereotypical Italian portrayals.

Double Duty De Niro

The Alto Knights opens in 1957 New York City with Frank Costello surviving an assassination attempt in the lobby of his Upper West Side apartment. Bobbie (Debra Messing), his faithful wife of 40 years, races to his side at the hospital. Frank miraculously escaped with just a scratch.

If you’re going to take a shot at the king, you’d better not miss.

That aphorism, credited to everyone from Ralph Waldo Emerson to Omar on “The Wire,” could be one of the unspoken Cosa Nostra credos in “The Alto Knights,” a dense yet fiercely compelling gathering of some of the heaviest hitters in the contemporary gangster genre: “Goodfellas” screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi, “Bugsy” director Barry Levinson and acting icon Robert De Niro in a dual role. That latter stunt makes for a novel hook — one-upping the Pacino-De Niro sit-down in “Heat” by serving up double De Niro as underworld friends-turned-rivals Frank Costello and Vito Genovese, both of whom he embodies beneath heavy makeup.

The movie abruptly kicks off in 1959, with a botched execution in the lobby of Frank’s New York apartment building — a tense, effective scene that finds Levinson operating like the old pro. The rest is narrated from the distant future,...

In 1995, Michael Mann's "Heat" gave cinephiles a face-off for the ages: at long last, legendary actors Robert De Niro and Al Pacino would share the screen in an epic crime thriller. Now, in 2025, we have a new crime thriller that has Robert De Niro coming face-to-face with ... Robert De Niro. This isn't such a bad idea: despite a string of questionable roles in the latter half of his long, acclaimed career, De Niro remains one of our finest actors, and he's turned in some recent performances — specifically his work in two Martin Scorsese movies, "The Irishman" and "Killers of the Flower Moon" — that prove he's still got it.

With Barry Levinson's "The Alto Knights," De Niro pulls double duty, playing two real-life gangsters who grew up as friends before becoming bitter enemies. There's a lot of room for potential mob movie fun here, and yet, Levinson's film...

There are some good reasons for actors to play multiple roles in a film. If they’re playing twins, for example. Or clones. Or if the film is so outlandish that it feels appropriate, like Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove.

But having Robert De Niro play real-life gangsters Frank Costello and Vito Genovese at once simply feels like a casting stunt. The end result is that Barry Levinson’s otherwise sober-minded The Alto Knights too often feels like The Patty Duke Show if Patty and Cathy had become mafiosos.

If this film feels familiar, that’s because it is. From its pedigree to its casting to its themes, Levinson’s new effort comes across like a retread. Even its original title, Wise Guys, well, you know. That doesn’t make The Alto Knights (a terrible title, by the way, taken from the name of the social club where the gangsters...

The actor plays Frank Costello and Vito Genovese, two warring mob bosses in 1950s New York, in a caper that lacks the richness of its writer’s earlier Goodfellas

‘They’re the same – he’s marrying himself!” The speaker is an aghast Bobbie Costello, played by Debra Messing, addressing her shruggingly detached mob boss husband, Frank Costello, played by Robert De Niro. They are guests at the wedding of mercurial club owner Anna (Kathrine Narducci) to Frank’s hot-tempered mafia associate Vito Genovese. And Vito is played by … Robert De Niro.

This film is a laborious true-crime account of Frank and Vito’s homicidal falling out in 1950s New York, directed by Barry Levinson and written by Nicholas Pileggi, though with little of the perspective, light and shade and narrative richness of Pileggi’s earlier scripts. As Vito, De Niro is gloweringly resentful, taciturn, bad-tempered and wears glasses and a hat.

Plot: A personal rivalry between Mafia bosses Frank Costello and Vito Genovese inadvertently changes the balance of power in the mob forever, revealing to the American public just how vast of a criminal empire it really is.

Review: I understand why The Alto Knights must have been a passion project for everyone involved. Producer Irwin Winkler, star Robert De Niro and writer Nicholas Pileggi are three of the men responsible for the greatest mob movie ever made – Goodfellas -, and it’s fitting that they’d want to be the ones to tell one of the most important Mafia stories of all time. Indeed, Vito Genovese’s attempt to kill Frank Costello kicked off a series of events that eventually led to the testimony of Joseph Valachi, who was the first member of the Mafia to ever acknowledge its existence and popularized the term “Cosa Nostra.”

Whether or not you...

It’s rare to see a film in which not a single interesting thing happens over the course of its entire running time. Not only is that true of Barry Levinson’s “The Alto Knights,” but this tired-as-hell mafia story — which wouldn’t merit so much as a footnote in the history of mob cinema if not for the gimmick of casting Robert De Niro as real-life crime boss Vito Genovese and his best frenemy Frank Costello — seems totally at peace with it.

From the moment it starts, Levinson’s first theatrical feature since 2015’s “Rock the Kasbah” is comfortably entombed in the same deep sense of resignation that inspires its main character to get out of the game. Frank Costello knows that his era in the underworld has come to a close, and he narrates the limp saga of his own life as if it were already irrelevant. As...

The problem with calling a movie “bad” is that some people, myself included, will only want to see it more. It’s fun to hear about a good movie. It’s boring to hear about a mediocre one. But a film that’s so punishing you can physically feel it? Now that’s fascinating. Truly terrible movies are like the puzzle box from “Hellraiser,” offering pain and pleasure, indivisibly. Only by experiencing both extremes can some lifelong moviegoers truly feel alive.

So let me be absolutely, 100% clear: “The Alto Knights” is indeed a bad movie, but not the good kind. It doesn’t make you feel alive, it makes you feel dead. It’s a tedious, directionless, bumbling chore of a gangster picture, incoherently written and edited, featuring two of the limpest performances of Robert De Niro’s career.

Oh yes, you read that right. De Niro plays two different...

A classic Disney tale will be going up against a classic mob story starring one of the genre’s biggest stars, Robert De Niro, written by one of the genre’s most prolific writer, Nicholas Pileggi, and directed by equally prolific director Barry Levinson. The live-action version of Snow White premieres this week. The film is a big-budgeted spectacle that adapts one of the studio’s most notable classics; however, it has also attracted a number of controversies from the public. Meanwhile, The Alto Knights brings De Niro back to the gangster genre with Goodfellas writer in tow, and De Niro plays a dual role in the film. However, for this release, despite the heavyweight names behind it, not a whole lot of buzz was carried with it.

Variety is reporting that Snow White is aiming to open the weekend with a range from $45 million to $55 million as it screens in 4,200 North American theaters.

Will “Snow White” be the fairest of them all at the box office?

Disney’s live-action remake of the 1937 animated classic is targeting $45 million to $55 million from 4,200 North American theaters in its opening weekend. Internationally, the film is estimated to collect $50 million for a global start above $100 million. Those ticket sales will easily be enough to lead the domestic box office, which is coming off the worst weekend of 2025 as Paramount’s action comedy “Novocaine” topped charts with just $8.7 million.

Based on projections, “Snow White” won’t reach the initial box office heights of prior Disney live-action remakes, including 2023’s “The Little Mermaid” ($95 million opening weekend), 2016’s “Jungle Book” ($103 million) and a trio of billion-dollar smashes, 2019’s “The Lion King” ($191 million) and “Aladdin” ($91 million), 2017’s “Beauty and the Beast” ($174 million). Instead, “Snow White” is tracking a similar start to 2019’s “Dumbo,” which took off with $45 million, only to stall out at $353 million,...

With Robert De Niro in both lead roles, The Alto Knights dives into the competition for authority between mob bosses Frank Costello and Vito Genovese. The Alto Knights, directed by Barry Levinson and written by Nicholas Pileggi, is not only a glimpse into the inner workings of mafia leadership but also reveals the complexities of crime, violence, and loyalty in a world that revolves around mob warfare.

Additional cast members Debra Messing as Frank's wife, Bobbie; Cosmo Jarvis as hired gun Vincent Gigante, and Kathrine Narduci as Anna Genovese help craft a story about two men who went from friends to rivals during the 1950s. De Niro is no stranger to movies about the mafia, with films like The Godfather, The Godfather II, Goodfellas, Casino, and The Irishman all topping the list of some of his greatest performances. The dual role in The Alto Knights is a testament to De...

Once upon a time, 2025 box office revenue was up 22 percent over last year. Now, after a string of miserable weekends, there’s actually a five percent deficit.

If tracking and exhibitor reactions are any indication, Disney’s live-action Snow White could spark a turnaround with a domestic debut in the $45 million range to $55 million range and north of $100 million globally. But there are no guarantees, and Disney execs are on high alert. Overseas, the movie — which faced numerous delays due to the pandemic and labor strikes — is unfurling in virtually every territory, save for a few Middle Eastern markets because of Ramadan.

Snow White arrives in theaters loaded with baggage after being buffeted by delays and controversy again and again, beginning with a backlash over casting Rachel Zegler in the titular role because of the color of her skin (she is of Colombian descent).

More recently, Disney took the unusual...

Organized crime, the mafia, or Cosa Nostra, has been the subject of many of the greatest releases in movie history. Nicholas Pileggi is responsible for writing a few of them, collaborating with legends like Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Martin Scorsese to name a few. Now, with The Alto Knights, Pileggi and De Niro have teamed up with producer Irwin Winkler and director Barry Levinson to put a bow on their long history of telling mob tales.

What is it that makes The Alto Knights a cap to the amazing work these men have done across decades in the genre? In our exclusive interview, Pileggi articulates, "This movie is... the end of that world. And the depiction of these two men fighting it out in the end is what brought the mob to its knees."

De Nero does double duty in The Alto Knights as the two men in question,...

Ever since he directed Robert Redford to one of his richest, most compelling performances in “The Natural,” Barry Levinson has had a knack for bringing out the best in iconic movie stars. Warren Beatty (“Bugsy”), Dustin Hoffman, Robin Williams, and Michael Douglas and Demi Moore (“Disclosure”), among many others, have done some of their finest work for Levinson in movies that capitalize on their strengths but provide opportunities to deepen and broaden their personas.

Even in this company, the relationship between Levinson and Robert De Niro is special. Since they first worked together on “Sleepers” in 1996, Levinson and De Niro have created a series of indelible characters, from the spin doctor of “Wag the Dog” and the beleaguered producer of “What Just Happened?” to real-life fraudster Bernie Madoff in “The Wizard of Lies.” These were all just a warm-up, however, for Levinson and De Niro’s latest collaboration “The Alto Knights...

The Rocky franchise was given a new lease of life with the Creed franchise, and legendary producer Irwin Winkler recently shared an update on both the next installment of the Michael B. Jordan-led movie series, along with unexpected new details about the upcoming movie looking at how the original Rocky came to be made.

Sylvester Stallone's Rocky movies delivered some knock-out punches before ending up on the canvas after the fifth movie in the franchise. Despite plenty of skepticism, when Creed was released in 2015, the film became instrumental in reviving the saga and giving it a new story to tell. Now fans have been waiting patiently to find out what is happening with Creed VI, and when we spoke to Irwin Winkler, he was happy to share an update on exactly where things are right now. He told us:

" [We're] doing a 'Creed IV' with Michael B.

The stars of the upcoming movie “The Alto Knights” — Robert De Niro, Debra Messing, and Kathrine Narducci — join Radio Andy host Andy Cohen in the SiriusXM studios for a Town Hall special.

Alto Knights Town HallExclusive interview hosted by Andy CohenListen on the App

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During the Town Hall, Debra talks about improvising with Robert during filming and reveals what she kept from the “Will & Grace” set after the show ended, Robert reveals he watches “Ms. Rachel” and “The Wiggles” with his daughter Gia and gave an update on “Meet the Parents 4,” and much more.

(From L to R) Debra Messing, Kathrine Narducci, Robert De Niro, and Andy Cohen.

Listen to the full Town Hall on Radio Andy (Ch. 102) in cars and on the SiriusXM app starting Friday, March 21, at 10am Et/Pt.

Directed by Barry Levinson, “The Alto Knights” is a biographical crime drama...

It’s difficult to pigeonhole Barry Levinson – something the Oscar-winning director is acutely aware of and is quick to point out. Though, it is true. Take, for instance, his new film, The Alto Knights, a mob movie starring Robert De Niroas both real-life mobsters Frank Costello and Vito Genovese. This is Levinson’s second mob movie – his other being the 1991 Best Picture nominee Bugsy – but no one in their right mind would think of Levinson as “a director who makes mob movies.” It’s actually remarkable that person who made Rain Man is the same director who, six years later, made Disclosure.

Despite A Minecraft Movie getting off on the wrong foot with a widely mocked teaser trailer, it appears the brand name of the game alone will carry it to an impressive opening weekend, which could take the pressure off Superman. Minecraft is the best-selling video game of all time, and since it debuted in 2011, it has been a cultural phenomenon. Attempts at a Minecraft film can be traced back to 2014, and after over a decade in development, A Minecraft Movie is set to open in theaters in April 2025. Despite featuring stars like Jack Black and Jason Momoa, the Minecraft property is the main attraction and appears to be gaining much interest among younger moviegoers.

Deadline is reporting that early tracking for A Minecraft Movie is projected to be a $60+ million opening weekend. A Minecraft Movie is reportedly resonating very well with men and women under 25, likely the target demographic who...

Seth Meyers cracked up guest Robert De Niro on Tuesday night with a corny dad joke about his new gangster movie “The Alto Knights.”

Drawing attention to the fact that De Niro stars in the movie as two 1950s mob bosses, Vito Genovese and Frank Costello, Meyers brought out a still from the Barry Levinson film that shows the two characters sitting opposite one another — in other words, De Niro facing off with De Niro.

“You are playing two different gangsters in the film,” Meyers said as he looked at the image. That’s when he cracked his dad joke. “I apologize for the first thing that popped in my head when I saw this.”

“What?” De Niro asked.

“You talkin’ to you?” Meyers deadpanned.

“Ok,” De Niro said, chuckling and apparently charmed while Meyers again said, “I apologize.”

Watch the moment below:

De Niro was tickled at the “Taxi Driver...

1982’s Diner was the comedy that dared to ask: What if some dudes hung out in a greasy spoon restaurant and just talked about stuff?

The movie starred Steve Guttenberg, Mickey Rourke, Daniel Stern, Kevin Bacon, Ellen Barkin and Paul Reiser, just to name a few. It followed a group of friends in the late ‘50s who routinely meet at the local diner to chat about the music, sex and the minutiae of their day-to-day lives.

While that concept may not sound all that novel today, at the time, it was so unusual for mainstream entertainment, that some found it tough to grasp. According to writer-director Barry Levinson, during the editing process, a studio executive tried to get him to cut an argument over a roast beef sandwich because it didn’t do anything to “advance the story.”

Play

Diner, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay,...

Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film starring Leonardo DiCaprio — which, in quintessential PTA fashion, still doesn’t have an official title — packs a budget that’s not just several time higher than anything the 11-time Oscar-nominated director has ever worked with, but far bigger than his films have ever earned at the box office.

Some reports pegged it at $180 million, but an individual with knowledge tells IndieWire it’s actually $130 million. That almost as much as what Anderson’s most successful film to date, “There Will Be Blood,” made globally in 2007 ($76 million), if you factor in inflation ($143 million).

It’s also way more than the budget of his previous film, 2021’s “Licorice Pizza,” which seemed like a big gamble, even with $40 million. Turns out, it was: that film only grossed $33 million globally. But though Anderson has moved from MGM to Warner Bros., the same film chiefs gave Anderson both of...

War movies concerning the Vietnam War encompass the specific traits that make them easily distinguishable from other films within the war genre. The majority of Golden Era war movies, which heavily depicted World War II, feature propagandistic angles and hero-worshipping sentiments that reflected the nation's attitudes at the time. While World War II movies may dominate the genre, there are plenty of stunning films about the Vietnam War, from the unconventional Good Morning, Vietnam to the landmark Apocalypse Now.

Vietnam War movies are more reflective of the counter-culture era, containing anti-establishment views, addressing the psychological effects war has on soldiers, and preaching anti-war themes. Internationally, countries such as Hong Kong have produced important works about the Vietnam War that provide an added perspective toward fully understanding the implications of the conflict worldwide. Some of the best movies about the Vietnam War rank among cinema's greatest war films, and many publications...

Usually, it’s the films that are loud at the SXSW Film & TV Festival in Austin. This year, however, the parade of personalities in the City of the Violet Crown will be creating plenty of thunder including Blake Lively, Jenna Ortega, Michelle Obama, Disney co-chairman Alan Bergman, Amazon and MGM Studios head Jennifer Salke, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Conan O’Brien fresh off the Oscar Dolby Theatre stage.

There are an intriguing amount of sit-downs here at SXSW this year after the fest kicks off Friday, rivaling the number of sidebar chats at a San Diego Comic-Con and certainly towering over the few at this past year’s Sundance, where the best chats were off-menu and not contained in any program: Elvis Mitchell’s conversations with Bill Murray and Quentin Tarantino.

In a déjà vu to Comic-Con, O’Brien will be on stage twice: once in a Sunday comedy event with...

German composer Hans Zimmer began his career playing keyboards for various New Wave bands around Europe. He played with Krakatoa in his native Germany, with The Buggles (of "Video Killed the Radio Star" fame) in England, with Krisma in Italy, and with Mecano in Spain. In the early '80s, he started to produce pop singles as well, overseeing "History of the World, Part 1" for the punk band The Damned. About the same time, he started to write commercial jingles and TV theme tunes, effectively giving him an "in" into film-scoring work. His first film as a composer was 1982's "Moonlighting," one of Jerzy Skolimowski's movies. 

For there, Zimmer's output increased exponentially, and he brought his unique, sweeping sensibilities (but with a pinch of New Wave) to over 20 features. He scored Stephen Frears' "My Beautiful Laundrette," (soon to be remade) and Bernard Rose's underrated "Paperhouse." In 1988, he...

It’s said that all of the greatest movie stars can make the camera fall in love with them. But something else that the camera is undoubtedly besotted by is the casino. There’s something about these places that make them a natural for filmmakers, in fact there are plenty of things.

Firstly, they’re uniquely glamorous locations that are also full of action. From spinning roulette wheels to slots games flashing enticingly, they make for a great background to the action. Then there’s the drama of the games themselves. We see characters winning and losing fortunes on the turn of a card thus reversing their role in the movie.

The fact that conflict lies at the heart of all drama also makes them a great place for adversaries to face off against each other. Nowhere is this better exemplified than in the first of out audacious moves.

Casino Royale...

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This March, we are getting a ton of entertainment on various platforms, including streaming services, television networks, and, last but not least, theatres. This upcoming month, we will finally see the release of the extremely controversial Disney film Snow White and the movie I am looking for is Bong Joon-ho‘s Mickey 17. So, we are here to sort out all of the brilliant upcoming movies that you might not want to miss seeing in theatres.

Mickey 17 (March 7) Credit – Warner Bros. Pictures

Mickey 17 is an upcoming sci-fi dark comedy adventure film written and directed by Bong Joon-ho. Based on the 2022 novel Mickey7 by Edward Ashton, the 2025 film is set in the distant future, and it follows Mickey Barnes, a disposable employee who can be regenerated with most of his memories still intact, who is sent on...