Guilty pleasures
By NewsPress Now
‘Inside Out 2’
scores $100M in
its second weekend
NEW YORK | Weekend number two was just as joyous for “Inside Out 2.”
The Pixar sequel collected $100 million in ticket sales in its second weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday, setting a new record for an animated movie in its follow-up frame in theaters. The previous best second weekend for an animated title was the $92 million for “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.” Only six movies ever have had better second weekends.
In just a week and a half, “Inside Out 2” has become 2024’s highest-grossing film to date with $724.4 million globally, including $355.2 million in U.S. and Canadian theaters. That passes the $711.8 million worldwide total of “Dune: Part Two.” “Inside Out 2” will likely blow through the $1 billion mark in about a week, which would make it the first film since “Barbie” to do so.
The extent of the “Inside Out 2” success startled Hollywood, which had grown accustomed to lower expectations as the film industry watched ticket sales this year slump about 40% below pre-pandemic totals, according to data firm Comscore, before “Inside Out 2” came along.
The record haul for “Inside Out 2,” though, recalled past years when $1 billion grosses were more commonplace for the Walt Disney Co. It is also a much-needed blockbuster for Pixar, which after experimenting with direct-to-streaming releases, reconsidered its movie pipeline and approach to mass-audience appeal.
Now, “Inside Out 2,” which dipped a mere 35% from its $154 million domestic debut, is poised to challenge “The Incredibles 2” ($1.2 billion) for the all-time top grossing Pixar release. It could also steer the venerated animation factory toward more sequels. Among its upcoming films is “Toy Story 5,” due out in 2026.
For theater owners, “Inside Out 2” could hardly have been more needed. But it also reminded exhibitors of how feast-or-famine the movie business has become in recent years. Since the pandemic, movies like “Barbie,” “Spider-Man: No Way Home” and “Top Gun: Maverick” have pushed ticket sales to record heights, but fallow periods in between box-office sensations have grown longer. Ticket sales over Memorial Day last month were the worst in three decades.
Some of 2024’s downturn can be attributed to release-schedule juggling caused by last year’s writers and actors strikes. The biggest new release over the weekend was Jeff Nichols’ motorcycle gang drama “The Bikeriders,” a film originally slated to open in 2023 before the actors strike prompted its postponement.
“The Bikeriders,” starring Jodie Comer, Austin Butler and Tom Hardy, came in on the high side of expectations with $10 million from 2,642 venues in its opening weekend. “The Bikeriders,” which cost about $35 million to produce, was originally to be released by Disney before New Regency took it to Focus Features last fall.
The strong business for “Inside Out 2” appeared to raise ticket sales generally. Sony Pictures’ “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” held well in its third week of release, collecting $18.8 million. It remained in second place. The “Bad Boys” sequel, starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, has grossed $146.9 million domestically thus far.
Next week, the sci-fi horror prequel “A Quiet Place: Day One” and Kevin Costner’s Western epic “Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 1” will hope some of the “Inside Out 2” success rubs off on them.
Judge rejects request to compel new testimony from movie armorer
SANTA FE, N.M. | A New Mexico judge denied a request Friday to use immunity to compel testimony from a movie set armorer in the involuntary manslaughter trial of actor Alec Baldwin who fatally shot a cinematographer during rehearsal for the Western movie “Rust.”
Armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was convicted in March of involuntary manslaughter for her role in the shooting of Halyna Hutchins on a movie-set ranch and she was sentenced to 18 months in prison. Her statements to investigators and workplace safety regulators will likely feature prominently in Baldwin’s trial, scheduled for July.
Further testimony could be limited by the armorer’s reluctance to testify, and Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer said Friday that other witnesses can fill in most of the gaps if she doesn’t testify. At a pretrial interview in May, Gutierrez-Reed exercised her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and declined to answer all questions.
“It’s pretty clear that she does not intend to cooperate,” Marlowe Sommer said. “I haven’t heard of anything that she might testify to that someone else could not testify to.”
But the judge acknowledged that Gutierrez-Reed could offer new testimony about gun-safety training and whether Baldwin fully participated.
Special prosecutor Kari Morrissey indicated that the state could still call on Gutierrez-Reed to testify without immunity. Baldwin and Gutierrez-Reed both oppose efforts to compel her testimony.
Baldwin figured prominently at her trial, which highlighted gun-safety protocols and his authority as a co-producer and the lead actor on “Rust.”
Gutierrez-Reed is appealing her conviction and has also been charged separately with carrying a firearm into a Santa Fe bar weeks before the fatal shooting.
An attorney for Gutierrez-Reed said compelling her to testify, even with immunity, would “virtually eliminate” the possibility of a fair trial on the pending firearms charge and could disrupt her appeal.
The virtual hearing also cleared the way for testimony at trial by a “Rust” crew member who says he witnessed the shooting at close range.
In a recent pretrial interview, boom operator Zac Sneesby “revealed that he was standing very close to Mr. Baldwin when he shot and killed Halyna Hutchins,” special prosecutor Erlinda Ocampo Johnson told the court Friday. “Mr. Sneesby specifically said he saw Mr. Baldwin pull the trigger. And as you know, the defense position has always been that he didn’t pull the trigger. Well, now there’s an eyewitness.”
Also during Friday’s hearing, Marlowe Sommer ruled against a request by defense attorneys to dismiss the trial because they said Baldwin had no reason to believe the gun could contain live ammunition and wasn’t “subjectively aware” of the risks.
The court delayed until Monday discussion of a second motion for dismissal based on the argument that the firearm was heavily damaged during FBI forensic testing before it could be examined for possible modifications that might exonerate the actor.
“The government took the most critical evidence in this case — the firearm — and destroyed it by repeatedly and pointlessly striking it with a mallet,” defense attorneys said in court filings. “Government agents knew that the firearm would not survive.”
Attorneys for Baldwin are highlighting a previously undisclosed expert analysis that outlines uncertainty about the origin of “toolmarks” on the gun’s firing mechanism. The hearing is scheduled to reconvene Monday.
During the fatal rehearsal on Oct. 21, 2021, Baldwin was pointing the gun at Hutchins when it went off, killing her and wounding director Joel Souza, who survived. Baldwin says he pulled back the gun’s hammer but did not pull the trigger.
Prosecutors plan to present evidence at trial that they say shows the firearm “could not have fired absent a pull of the trigger” and was working properly before the shooting.
At Gutierrez-Reed’s trial, an FBI expert testified the gun was fully functional with safety features when it arrived at an FBI laboratory. The expert said he had to strike the fully cocked gun with a mallet and break it for the gun to fire without depressing the trigger.
Baldwin has pleaded not guilty to the involuntary manslaughter charge, which carries a maximum sentence of 18 months in prison.
Marlowe Sommer previously rejected another Baldwin motion for dismissal, ruling that the grand jury was able to make an independent judgement on the indictment.
Last year, special prosecutors dismissed an involuntary manslaughter charge against Baldwin, saying they were informed the gun might have been modified before the shooting and malfunctioned. But they pivoted after receiving a new analysis of the gun and successfully pursued a grand jury indictment.
Ex-gang leader facing trial in Tupac Shakur killing seeking release
LAS VEGAS | A former Los Angeles-area gang leader accused of killing hip-hop music legend Tupac Shakur in 1996 in Las Vegas will ask a judge next week to let him out of jail to prepare for his trial on a murder charge.
Duane “Keffe D” Davis’ attorney filed documents Thursday and a judge scheduled a hearing Tuesday at which Davis will ask permission to post $750,000 bond to be freed to house arrest with electronic monitoring.
Davis’ defense attorney, Carl Arnold, and a spokesperson did not immediately respond Friday to email and telephone messages about the court filing.
Davis has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and has remained jailed at the Clark County Detention Center in Las Vegas since his arrest last Sept. 29. His trial is scheduled Nov. 4. If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in prison.
Prosecutors asked Clark County District Court Judge Carli Kierny to require a “source hearing” for Davis to demonstrate that any funds used to secure his release are obtained legally.
Representatives at Crum & Forster Insurance and North River Insurance Co., the Morristown, New Jersey-based backer of the bond identified in the court filing, did not respond Friday to telephone messages.
Davis is originally from Compton, California, but has lived in recent years with his wife and son in Henderson, a Las Vegas suburb.
He and prosecutors say he is the only person still alive among four people who were in a car from which shots were fired in the September 1996 shooting that killed Shakur and wounded rap mogul Marion “Suge” Knight at an intersection just off the Las Vegas Strip. Knight is serving 28 years in a California prison for an unrelated case, the use of a vehicle to kill a Los Angeles-area man in 2015.
In the 27 years since the Shakur killing, Davis has publicly described himself as the orchestrator of the shooting, but not the gunman. A renewed push by Las Vegas police to solve the case led to a search warrant and raid at his Henderson home last July.
Prosecutors say they have strong evidence that Davis incriminated himself during police and media interviews since 2008, and in a 2019 tell-all memoir of his life leading a Compton street gang.
In the book, Davis wrote that he was promised immunity when he told authorities in Los Angeles what he knew about the fatal shootings of Shakur and rival rapper Christopher Wallace six months later in Los Angeles. Wallace was known as The Notorious B.I.G. or Biggie Smalls.
Arnold maintains that Davis’ word can’t be trusted and his accounts were told so he could make money.
“He himself is giving different stories,” Arnold told reporters outside a courtroom in April.
Arnold has said he does not expect Davis will testify at trial, but he intends to call Knight to testify. The defense attorney said police and prosecutors lack proof Davis was in Las Vegas at the time of Shakur’s killing and don’t have key evidence including the gun or car used during the shooting.
Julie Chrisley to be resentenced in bank fraud, tax evasion case
ATLANTA | Reality TV star Julie Chrisley’s sentence for bank fraud and tax evasion was thrown out Friday by federal appeals judges, who ordered a lower court to redo her punishment over what the appellate panel called a “narrow issue.”
Julie Chrisley and her husband, Todd Chrisley, who earned fame for the show “Chrisley Knows Best” that chronicled the exploits of their tight-knit family, were convicted in 2022 of conspiring to defraud community banks out of more than $30 million in fraudulent loans. The Chrisleys were also found guilty of tax evasion by hiding their earnings while showcasing an extravagant lifestyle.
The couple’s accountant, Peter Tarantino, stood trial with them and was convicted of conspiracy to defraud the United States and willfully filing false tax returns.
A three-judge panel of 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the convictions of the Chrisleys and Tarantino in a ruling that found a legal error only in how the trial judge calculated Julie Chrisley’s sentence by holding her accountable for the entire bank fraud scheme. So the appellate panel sent her case back to the lower court for re-sentencing.
“We’re pleased that the Court agreed that Julie’s sentence was improper, but we’re obviously disappointed that it rejected Todd’s appeal,” Alex Little, an attorney for the couple, said in an email message. He added that the Chrisley family was “hopeful for more good news in the future.”
Before the Chrisleys became reality television stars, they and a former business partner submitted false documents to banks in the Atlanta area to obtain fraudulent loans, prosecutors said during the trial. They accused the couple of spending lavishly on luxury cars, designer clothes, real estate and travel, and using new fraudulent loans to pay off old ones. Todd Chrisley then filed for bankruptcy, according to prosecutors, walking away from more than $20 million in unpaid loans.
Julie Chrisley was sentenced to seven years in federal prison, and Todd Chrisley got 12 years behind bars. The couple was also ordered to pay $17.8 million in restitution.
Their defense attorneys argued unsuccessfully on appeal that at an IRS officer lied at the trial when he testified about the couple still owing taxes and that prosecutors knowingly failed to correct that false testimony. They also asserted that prosecutors failed to show enough evidence to convict the Chrisleys of tax evasion and conspiracy, or that Julie Chrisley participated in bank fraud.
Tarantino’s lawyer argued that the accountant was harmed by being tried with the Chrisleys. His request for a new trial was denied.
The appellate judges found only one error with the case. They ruled that the trial judge at sentencing held Julie Chrisley responsible for the entire bank fraud scheme starting in 2006. The panel ruled neither prosecutors nor the trial judge cited “any specific evidence showing she was involved in 2006.”
The panel found sufficient evidence tying her to fraud from multiple years starting in 2007.
“We must vacate Julie’s sentence so the district court can address the narrow issue of what the proper loss amount attributable to Julie is” so that her sentence can be re-calculated, the appeals panel wrote.
Todd Chrisley, 56, is at a minimum security federal prison camp in Pensacola, Florida, with a release date in September 2032, while Julie Chrisley, 51, is at a facility in Lexington, Kentucky, and is due for release in July 2028, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons website.
Tarantino, 61, s being held in a minimum security federal prison camp in Montgomery, Alabama, with a release date in August of next year.
—From AP reports
