Fantastic Beasts Flies; Bleed for This and Billy Lynn Bomb

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them landed exactly where it was expected to this weekend, raking in almost $75 million in the U.S. to establish a new five-film franchise for Warner Bros. Doctor Strange hung in tight at a distant second, followed closely by Trolls. New openers The Edge of Seventeen ($4.6 million) and Bleed for This ($2.3 million) showed up farther down in the top 10, but Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk struggled to make $930,000 in almost 1,200 theaters, earning it the worst per-theater average in the top 20. Limited openers included Nocturnal Animals, which made $490,000 on 37 screens, and Manchester by the Sea, which pulled in $230,000 at four theaters. [Movie City News]

Is the Ad Industry Out of Touch?

Is ad imagery in the U.S. centered too much around New York and Los Angeles, and too little around Des Moines and Scranton? Following the election of Donald Trump, some ad executives are rethinking their strategies. [The Wall Street Journal]

Dave Chappelle Returns to the Screen via Netflix

Comic Dave Chappelle must have had a good time sticking his feet back in the water on Saturday Night Live last week, as he has now announced a return to television — via three stand-up comedy specials that are set to premiere in 2017 on Netflix. Only one of the shows is a new Chappelle set; the other two are previously unaired performances. Deadline notes that Netflix recently paid $40 million for two Chris Rock specials, but suggests Chappelle's package didn't earn quite that much. [Deadline]

Shaw Brothers Hong Kong Film Studio Is Back in Business

Venture capital firm CMC Holdings has bought a 30% stake in the fabled Shaw Brothers film studio of Hong Kong, best-known for its films of the 1960s and 1970s. With a 2017 budget of $147 million, the new Shaw Brothers is looking to make eight films in partnership with a Hong Kong broadcaster. Fans of Hong Kong's golden age shouldn't get too excited, though — as the recent relaunch of Hammer Films proved, it's hard to conjure that creative spark decades after a studio's heyday. [Nikkei Asian Review]

Snowpiercer Set for Adaptation to Series

Snowpiercer

TNT is looking at expanding Bong Joon-ho's 2014 hit science-fiction parable Snowpiercer into a series, ordering an hour-long pilot from showrunner Josh Friedman and Tomorrow Studios. [The Wrap]