Boo! Box-Office Shocker Keeps Inferno Out of First Place

Never bet against Tyler Perry — defying expectations, Boo! A Madea Halloween led the box office in its second weekend of release as the big-ticket studio offering, the Ron Howard/Tom Hanks adventure Inferno, essentially tanked in the U.S. Inferno earned around $15 million in ticket sales, rather than the $25 million analysts expected. (Internationally, it's a different story, as Inferno has already banked over $130 millin overseas.) The big story of the weekend was the successful limited expansion of A24's Moonlight, which is now in 36 theaters. It's a small movie that's looking like an indie hit that could make some noise during Oscar season.

Will AT&T Let HBO Be HBO?

With AT&T poised to be the new owner of HBO as part of its proposed acquisition of Time Warner, some are wondering whether the telecommunications giant will push for the pay-cable giant to be less profligate and more risk-averse in its approach to entertainment. As one commenter puts it, "HBO plays to their hometown [New York City], but AT&T plays to a national audience where half of them aren't progressive, and that puts them in a bit of a bind potentially." [The New York Times]

Why Did Matt Damon Have Final Cut on Manchester by the Sea?

Manchester by the Sea

After spending years in a widely reported struggle to complete his previous feature, Margaret, writer-director Kenneth Lonergan was never going to have an easy time getting funding for his acclaimed Manchester by the Sea. It took an unusual compromise to make the financiers happy. Matt Damon, who had been replaced by Casey Affleck in the lead role due to scheduling conflicts, stayed on board with a producer credit — and the right of final cut. [Variety]

RIP, Apple Thunderbolt Display

Following the appearance of a new $1,300 LG-branded 5K (5120×2880) screen at the Apple keynote last week, The Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel tweeted that Apple admitted to him it has exited the "standalone display" market. That's not a big surprise — not only are LCD panels a notoriously low-margin item, but Apple's continued reluctance to update the Mac Pro and Mac Mini means it barely remains in the business of selling products without an integrated display device. [The Next Web]

Horror-Show Host Zacherley Dead at 98

John Zacherle, one of the first and best-known hosts of late-night horror-movie broadcasts, died last week in Manhattan at the age of 98. Beginning in the late 1950s in New York and Philadelphia, Zacherley (billed as Zacherley or Roland) was a tastemaker for viewers discovering old genre movies for the first time on TV. He appeared on screen in 1990's Frankenhooker.  [The New York Times]