Guilty Pleasures
By NewsPress Now
‘Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” roars to an $80 million box office opening
LOS ANGELES | The Godzilla-King Kong combo stomped on expectations as “ Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire “ roared to an $80 million opening on 3,861 North American screens, according to Sunday studio estimates.
The monster merger from Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures starring Rebecca Hall and Brian Tyree Henry brought the second-highest opening in what has been a robust year, falling just short of the the $81.5 million debut of “Dune: Part 2.”
Projections had put the the opening weekend of “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,” which sees the monsters teaming up instead of squaring up, at closer to $50 million.
“It’s a cinematic event, and we’re seeing these iconic characters doing things we’ve never seen them do before,” said Mary Parent, chairman of worldwide production for Legendary. “There’s big swaths of the film that don’t have any dialogue, where we put you with the characters, it’s a very mythic experience.”
Last week’s No. 1 at the box office, “ Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire,” was second with $15.7 million for a two-week total of $73.4 million.
“ Dune: Part Two “ stayed strong in its fifth week, falling in the third spot with an $11.1 million take and a domestic total of $252.4 million.
The last matchup of the two monsters from Warner Bros. and Legendary, 2021’s “ Godzilla vs. Kong,” had a much smaller opening weekend of $48.5 million, but for a film slowed by the coronavirus pandemic and released simultaneously on HBO Max, it was a serious success that signaled what was to come for the pairing.
“It was a really big number all things considered,” Parent said.
The newer film had the second biggest opening of the studios’ broader MonsterVerse franchise. “Godzilla” brought in $93.2 million in 2014. It was the biggest earner in the nearly 70-year cinematic history of the creature that originated and spent most of its screen life in Japan. It earned more than $200 million in North America and more than $500 million globally.
“Godzilla x Kong” comes just four months after the most recent Japanese rendition, the critical favorite and Oscar winner “Godzilla Minus One.”
But there was clearly no Godzilla glut for audiences, many of whom were willing to pay extra for IMAX and other special formats.
“These are literally two of the biggest movie stars in the world, and you have to see them on the biggest screen possible with the biggest sound possible,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for data firm Comscore.
The combination of “Godzilla x Kong,” “Dune Part Two” and “Ghostbusters” has put the year to date 6 percent behind 2023, while it was 20 percent behind on the eve of the March 1 release of “Dune.”
“The industry was feeling pretty glum right before ‘Dune Part 2’ opened, but they’ve made up a lot of ground,” said Dergarabedian.
The summer is full of titles that are not guaranteed megahits but could break big, including Ryan Gosling’s “The Fall Guy” and the next installments of “Planet of the Apes,” “Mad Max,” “Inside Out” and “Deadpool.”
That brings cause for optimism as the theatrical movie business seeks to hang on, though it’s highly unlikely it will surpass 2023, which saw “Barbie” surpass $1 billion globally with its release-date mate “Oppenheimer” not far behind.
“’Barbenheimer’” is kind of a once-in-a-lifetime event,” Dergarabedian said.
Estimated ticket sales are for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
New trial
denied for ‘Rust’ armorer convicted
in fatal shooting
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. | A New Mexico judge on Friday rejected an effort by a movie set armorer to challenge her conviction of involuntary manslaughter in the 2021 fatal shooting of a cinematographer by Alec Baldwin on the set of the Western film “Rust.”
After hearing brief arguments during a virtual hearing, Santa Fe-based Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer said she would be staying the course and that armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed would remain in custody pending her sentencing in April.
Gutierrez-Reed was convicted by a jury in early March in the October 2021 shooting on the outskirts of Santa Fe, New Mexico, during a rehearsal. Baldwin was indicted by a grand jury in January and has pleaded not guilty to an involuntary manslaughter charge, with trial set for July.
Defense attorneys for Gutierrez-Reed had filed a request earlier this month for a new trial and urged the judge to release their client from jail as deliberations proceeded. Attorney Jason Bowles told the judge Friday that his client had no violations during the trial, takes care of her father and has been in counseling.
“She hasn’t done anything wrong. She’s not a danger or a flight risk,” he said.
The judge responded: “Keep in mind there was a death that the jury determined was caused by her so I’m not releasing her.”
Involuntary manslaughter carries a sentence of up to 18 months in prison and a $5,000 fine. Gutierrez-Reed is being held at the Santa Fe County Adult Detention Facility.
In court filings, defense attorneys asserted that the jury instructions in the case could confuse jurors and lead to a nonunanimous verdict. Similar objections to the jury instructions were rejected at trial, but Bowles on Friday brought up a new ruling from the New Mexico Supreme Court in an unrelated case that addressed situations when jurors have two or more specific acts to consider when deliberating a charge.
In the case of Gutierrez-Reed, he explained that one act was loading a live round in the gun used on set and the other was the accusation that she did not perform an adequate safety check of the firearm. He was unsuccessful in his argument that jurors should have had separate instructions for each act.
Gutierrez-Reed could be sentenced as soon as April 15 under current scheduling orders.
Baldwin was pointing a gun at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins when the revolver went off, killing Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.
Baldwin has maintained that he pulled back the gun’s hammer, but not the trigger. Testimony by an independent gun expert during Gutierrez-Reed’s trial cast doubt on Baldwin’s account that his gun went off without pulling the trigger.
Prosecutors blamed Gutierrez-Reed for unwittingly bringing live ammunition onto the set of “Rust” where it was expressly prohibited. They also said she failed to follow basic gun safety protocols.
“Rust” assistant director and safety coordinator Dave Halls last year pleaded no contest to negligent handling of a firearm and completed a sentence of six months unsupervised probation.
Tori Spelling files
for divorce from Dean McDermott
LOS ANGELES | Tori Spelling filed for divorce Friday from her husband and former reality TV co-star Dean McDermott.
The former “Beverly Hills, 90210” actor petitioned to end the marriage of nearly 18 years in Los Angeles Superior Court. She cited irreconcilable differences.
Spelling’s petition says the two have been separated since June 17.
She is asking for sole physical custody and joint legal custody of their three sons and two daughters, whose ages range from 7 to 17. Physical custody determines with which parent the children primarily reside, while legal custody is who makes their major life decisions.
Spelling is asking the court to order McDermott to pay her spousal support and to pay for her divorce attorneys. No dollar amount was given.
The marriage was the subject of a reality show, originally titled “Tori & Dean: Inn Love” and later “Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood,” that ran on the Oxygen network from 2007 to 2012.
Spelling, the 50-year-old daughter of the late TV magnate Aaron Spelling, starred alongside Luke Perry,Shannen Doherty and Jennie Garth in the original “Beverly Hills, 90210” from 1990 to 2000. She also appeared in the films “Scary Movie 2” and “The House of Yes.”
McDermott, a 57-year-old Canadian actor, appeared on the Canadian TV series “Due South” and hosted the cooking competition show “Chopped Canada.”
It was the second marriage for both.
American Academy of Arts and Letters honors Doris Kearns Goodwin, Laurie Anderson
NEW YORK | Doris Kearns Goodwin, Laurie Anderson and the president of the Harlem School of the Arts, James C. Horton, are being honored by the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
The academy announced Friday that Goodwin, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, is receiving a Gold Medal for biography. Anderson, the celebrated avant-garde performer, will be given a Gold Medal for music. Horton, who has run the renowned Harlem school since 2022 and has worked in education for decades, is being cited for his “significant contribution to the arts.”
All three will be presented their awards in May, when the academy formally inducts its new members, among them the Oscar-winning composer John Williams and the novelist Alice McDermott.
The arts academy is an honor society founded in 1898 that has 300 core members and each year awards numerous prizes and grants.
—From AP reports
