Guilty Pleasures
By Associated Press
‘Deadpool’ and ‘Alien’ top charts again as ‘Blink Twice’ sees quiet opening
LOS ANGELES | In a sleepy summer weekend at the box office, holdovers reigned supreme as newcomers landed without a splash.
“Deadpool & Wolverine” reclaimed first place at the North American box office in its fifth weekend with $18.3 million. Its cumulative international earnings now sit at over $1.2 billion.
The Walt Disney Co., which owns 20th Century Studios, claimed the top two spots on the charts for the second weekend in a row with “Alien: Romulus” following close behind the foul-mouthed superhero movie. The latest installment in the 45-year-old franchise brought in $16.2 million in its second weekend after a promising opening. Disney’s “Inside Out 2” also remained on the charts, raking in $2.1 million domestically in its 11th weekend. Its global earnings are now over $1.6 billion.
“This is an incredible turnaround for Disney, who almost fell off the radar, shockingly enough, last year and over the course of the pandemic,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. “They got a couple of billion-dollar films out so far and ‘Moana 2’ is still up on the way. This is a huge comeback year for Disney – no question about it.”
Romantic drama “It Ends With Us,” another repeat chart-topper, landed in third place for the second consecutive weekend with $11.9 million. The Sony movie starring Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, who also directed, has made $242.6 million to date globally. It cost only $25 million to produce.
The new releases were victim to the crowded movie marketplace, resulting in what Dergarabedian called “box office déjà vu,” with the familiar films dominating and making it harder for the new releases to find their footing. Dergarabedian says the upcoming Labor Day holiday will likely benefit the newer titles as word-of-mouth spreads and more people head to theaters during the long weekend.
“Blink Twice,” directed by Zoë Kravitz and starring her life partner Channing Tatum, saw a modest opening, taking in $7.3 million and claiming fourth place on the charts. The Amazon MGM Studios psychological thriller follows Tatum as tech magnate Slater King, who whisks two women away to his private island. While it may seem like a picture-perfect vacation at first, much more sinister events unfold as the visitors learn the truth about the island and the billionaire. The film’s budget has been reported at $20 million.
Reviews have been mixed, with audiences giving the film a B- CinemaScore, but the film has been deemed Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with a 79% score.
Rounding out the top five was “The Forge,” a faith-focused coming-of-age movie about a young man finding his way through Christianity. The film opened with $6.6 million and received an A+ CinemaScore from audiences. It was released by Affirm Films, Sony’s faith-based banner.
Another new release, “The Crow,” was beat out by “Twisters” and “Coraline” in the rankings. “Twisters” entered its sixth week with $6.2 million in domestic earnings and “Coraline,” which was re-released for its 15th anniversary last week, brought in an additional $5.1 million in its second weekend.
Lionsgate’s “The Crow,” an R-rated adaptation of the acclaimed graphic novel and a remake of the 1994 film of the same name, opened with $4.6 million. The studio also floundered in August with the release of “Borderlands,” an adaptation of the video game, which made $15.2 million over three weekends compared to its reported $120 million budget.
To complete the “tale of the holdovers,” as Dergarabedian put it, “Despicable Me 4” and “Inside Out 2” closed out the top 10 films of the weekend, bringing in $4.4 million and $2.1 million, respectively. “Inside Out 2” has been on the charts for 11 consecutive weekends and remains the No. 1 animated film of all time globally.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. “Deadpool & Wolverine,” $18.3 million.
2. “Alien: Romulus,” $16.2 million.
3. “It Ends With Us,” $11.9 million.
4. “Blink Twice,” $7.3 million.
5. “The Forge,” $6.6 million.
6. “Twisters,” $6.2 million.
7. “Coraline,” $5.1 million.
8. “The Crow,” $4.6 million.
9. “Despicable Me 4,” $4.4 million.
10. “Inside Out 2,” $2.1 million.
Macklemore says he canceled Dubai show over UAE arming Sudan paramilitary forces
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates | American rapper Macklemore said he canceled an upcoming October concert in Dubai over the United Arab Emirates’ role “in the ongoing genocide and humanitarian crisis” in Sudan through its reported support of the paramilitary force that’s been fighting government troops there.
The announcement by Macklemore reignited attention to the UAE’s role in the war gripping the African nation. While the UAE repeatedly has denied arming the Rapid Support Forces and supporting its leader Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, United Nations experts reported “credible” evidence in January that the Emirates sent weapons to the RSF several times a week from northern Chad.
Sudan plunged into chaos in mid-April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between its military and paramilitary leaders broke out in the capital, Khartoum, and spread to other regions including Darfur. Estimates suggest over 18,800 people have been killed in the fighting, while over 10 million have fled their homes. Hundreds of thousands are on the brink of famine.
At a contentious U.N. Security Council meeting in June, Sudan’s embattled government directly accused the UAE of arming the RSF, and an Emirati diplomat angrily told his counterpart to stop “grandstanding.” The UAE has been a part in ongoing peace talks to end the fighting.
The Emirati Foreign Ministry offered no immediate comment on Macklemore’s public statement Sunday, nor did the city-state’s Dubai Media Office. Organizers last week announced the show had been canceled and refunds would be issued, without offering an explanation for the cancellation.
In a post Saturday on Instagram, Grammy winner Macklemore said he had a series of people “asking me to cancel the show in solidarity with the people of Sudan and to boycott doing business in the UAE for the role they are playing in the ongoing genocide and humanitarian crisis.”
Macklemore said he reconsidered the show in part over his recent, public support of Palestinians amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war raging in the Gaza Strip. He recently has begun performing a song called “Hind’s Hall,” in honor of a young girl named Hind Rajab killed in Gaza in a shooting Palestinians have blamed on Israeli forces opening fire on a civilian car.
“I know that this will probably jeopardize my future shows in the area, and I truly hate letting any of my fans down,” he wrote. “I was really excited too. But until the UAE stops arming and funding the RSF I will not perform there.”
He added: “I have no judgment against other artists performing in the UAE. But I do ask the question to my peers scheduled to play in Dubai: If we used our platforms to mobilize collective liberation, what could we accomplish?”
The RSF formed out of the Janjaweed fighters under then-Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who ruled the country for three decades before being overthrown during a popular uprising in 2019. He is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of genocide and other crimes during the conflict in Darfur in the 2000s.
Dubai, home to the long-haul carrier Emirates, the world’s tallest building the Burj Khalifa and other tourist destinations, long has tried to draw A-list performers in the city-state at a brand-new arena and other venues. However, performers in the past have acknowledged the difficulties in performing in the UAE, a hereditarily ruled federation of seven sheikhdoms in which speech is tightly controlled.
That includes American comedian Dave Chappelle, who drew attention in May in Abu Dhabi when he referred to the Israel-Hamas war as a “genocide” while also joking about the UAE’s vast surveillance apparatus.
Macklemore, a 41-year-old rapper born Benjamin Hammond Haggerty in Kent, Washington, won Grammy awards in 2014 for his breakout song, “Thrift Shop.”
Delon wanted his dog buried with him. The dog gets to live
PARIS | Before he died this week, French film icon Alain Delon once suggested he wanted his beloved sheepdog Loubo buried with him. To the relief of animal lovers around France, Loubo will be allowed to survive.
Delon, an internationally acclaimed and prolific actor and producer, died Sunday, aged 88, and will be buried on Saturday at his family home in Douchy, south of Paris.
He was quoted in a 2018 interview with Paris Match as saying he wanted Loubo, a Belgian Malinois he adopted in 2014, buried with him. “I’ve had 50 dogs in my life, but I have a particular relationship with this one,’’ he told the magazine. “If I die before him, I’ll ask the veterinarian for us to leave together. … I’d prefer that to knowing that he would let himself die on my tomb amid so much suffering.’’
After Delon’s death, animal rights activists and concerned citizens raised the alarm about Loubo’s fate.
An official with the Brigitte Bardot Foundation — a prominent animal rights group founded by the famed French film star, who was close with Delon — said he contacted Delon’s family after foundation members expressed concern.
“They said the question was not even raised, and they would let the dog live. They said he has a home in Douchy, and will live there,’’ the official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to be publicly named according the Foundation’s communications policies.
The official said Delon was a longtime “friend of the foundation’’ and helped raise money for its causes.
Delon’s family didn’t publicly comment about the dog.
France’s Society for the Protection of Animals welcomed the family’s decision.
‘’Our phone lines were saturated’’ with calls by people worried about the dog, SPA President Guillaume Sanchez told The Associated Press.
Loubo “will probably be very sad to have lost the affection of Mr. Delon,’’ Sanchez said. But “we are totally against the idea that anyone euthanizes an animal for this reason, Delon or no Delon. … Organizations that work to protect animals want society to develop awareness that an animal is an individual, separate being.’’
One of France’s most memorable leading men and best-known film stars, Delon was also a producer and appeared in plays, and in later years, in television movies.
—From AP reports
