Guilty pleasures
By NewsPress Now
‘Megalopolis’ flops, ‘The Wild Robot’ soars at box office
NEW YORK | Francis Ford Coppola’s decades-in-the-making, self-financed epic “Megalopolis” flopped with moviegoers, while the acclaimed DreamWorks Animation family film “The Wild Robot” soared to No. 1 at the weekend box office.
“The Wild Robot,” Chris Sanders’ adaptation of Peter Brown’s bestseller, outperformed expectations to launch with $35 million in ticket sales in U.S. and Canada theaters, according to studio estimates Sunday. “Wild Robot” was poised to do well after critics raved about the story of a shipwrecked robot who raises an orphan gosling. Audiences agreed, giving the film an A CinemaScore. “Wild Robot” is likely set up a long and lucrative run for the Universal Pictures release.
Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Comscore, predicts “The Wild Robot” “may take a page from the ‘Elemental’ playbook by opening to respectable box office and then looking toward long-term playability.” Pixar’s “Elemental,” which like “The Wild Robot” wasn’t a sequel, debuted with a modest $30 million but went on to gross nearly $500 million worldwide.
Family movies, led by the year’s biggest hit in “Inside Out 2,” have particularly powered the box office this year. David A. Gross, a film consultant who publishes a newsletter for Franchise Entertainment, said the genre should reach $6 billion worldwide in 2024 — which, he noted, “is back to pre-pandemic levels.”
“Megalopolis,” Coppola’s vision of a Roman epic set in modern-day New York, was never expected to perform close to that level. But the film’s $4 million debut was still sobering for a movie that Coppola bankrolled himself for $120 million. Following its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, critics have been mixed on Coppola’s first film in 13 years. Audiences gave in a D+ CinemaScore.
By any financial measure, “Megalopolis” was a mega-flop. But from the start, the 85-year-old Coppola maintained money wasn’t his concern. Coppola fashioned the film, which he first began developing in the late 1970s, as a grand personal statement about human possibility.
“Everyone’s so worried about money,” Coppola told The Associated Press in an interview ahead of the film’s release. “I say: Give me less money and give me more friends.”
Studios passed on “Megalopolis” after Cannes. Lionsgate ultimately stepped forward to distribute it, for a fee. Coppola also picked up the tab for most of its $15 million in marketing costs. The film, which stars Adam Driver, Nathalie Emmanuel and Aubrey Plaza, also played in about 200 IMAX locations, which accounted for $1.8 million of its ticket sales.
After three weeks atop the box office, Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” slid to second place with $16 million in its fourth weekend of release. The Warner Bros. sequel to the 1988 “Beetlejuice,” starring Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder, has amassed $250 million domestically in a month of release.
Third place went to “Transformers One,” the Transformers prequel starring Chris Hemsworth and Brian Tyree Henry. After its lower-than expected debut last weekend, the Paramount release collected $9.3 million on its second weekend.
“Megalopolis” was even bested by the Indian Telugu-language action film “Devara: Part 1.” It grossed $5.1 million in its opening weekend, good enough for fourth place.
Also debuting in theaters was Jason Reitman’s “Saturday Night,” an affectionate dramatization of the sketch-comedy institution on the night it first aired in 1975. On the same weekend the NBC series began its 50th season, Reitman’s movie launched in five New York and Los Angeles theaters and collected $265,000, good for a strong $53,000 per-theater average. “Saturday Night” goes nationwide in two weeks.
Maya Rudolph, Dana Carvey open the 50th season of SNL
NEW YORK | “Saturday Night Live” began its 50th season with a parade of former co-stars, including Maya Rudolph as Vice President Kamala Harris, Andy Samberg as her husband Doug Emhoff and Dana Carvey as President Joe Biden.
“We’ve got to stay focused,” Rudolph-as-Harris said at a mock rally in the show’s cold open. “If we win, together, we can end the drama-la and the trauma-la and go relax in our pajama-las.”
After bringing out running mate Tim Walz, played by comedian and actor Jim Gaffigan, she invited Samberg-as Emhoff to the stage and then, almost as an afterthought, Biden, played by the oldest of the group, the 69-year-old Carvey.
“A lot of people forget I’m president, including me,” said Carvey, best known on the show for playing President George H.W. Bush in the late 1980s.
Rudolph and Carvey jointly delivered the “Live from New York, it’s Saturday night” that launched season 50 of the sketch comedy institution.
Rudolph’s return to play Harris — she won an Emmy for playing her previously — had been reported, but it was not certain when she would appear. The guest spots from Carvey, Samberg and Gaffigan were all surprises.
“Designing Women” star Jean Smart, fresh off winning her sixth Emmy for her lead role in “Hacks,” was host, a role the 73-year-old has somehow never played in a four-decade career.
“I remember watching the first episode of ‘SNL’ and thinking, ‘someday I’m going to host that show,” Smart said in her opening monologue. “And this is the first Saturday that fit my schedule.”
That first episode came on Oct. 11, 1975, with Lorne Michaels at the helm, just as he is now.
George Carlin hosted and the nation got its first dose of the Not Ready for Prime Time Players: Chevy Chase, John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Dan Akroyd, Jane Curtin, Laraine Newman and Garrett Morris.
There were two musical guests — Billy Preston and Janis Ian — playing two songs apiece, the norm in the early days.
The country singer and rapper Jelly Roll had the music role to himself Saturday, singing his songs “Liar” and “Sober.” Like Smart, he was a first-timer.
Smart introduced Jelly Roll with her “Hacks” co-star Hannah Einbinder, the daughter of original cast member Newman.
That debut show is documented and reenacted in the newly released Jason Reitman film “Saturday Night,” part of a wave of reflection and celebration the show is getting on the cusp of its 50th anniversary.
Despite the showy guest stars on this Saturday night, regular cast members took on the bulk of the show, which quickly settled into its regular routine.
James Austin Johnson was back playing Donald Trump at his own rally, saying he wanted Biden as an opponent instead of Harris.
“We miss Joe Biden, folks,” Johnson’s Trump said. “What we wouldn’t give to have him stand next to me and be old.”
Colin Jost and Michael Che returned for another season of the mock-news “Weekend Update.”
“There were so many insane political stories this summer and everyone kept asking, ‘Are you are you so bummed you aren’t on the air right now?” Jost said to open the segment. “And I was like, ‘I have a feeling there’s going to be more that happens when we get back.’”
Rudolph, Carvey, Gaffigan and Samberg joined Smart, Jelly Roll and the cast on stage for the traditional sign-off.
Upcoming episodes are scheduled to feature host Nate Bargatze with musical guest Coldplay, Ariana Grande with Stevie Nicks, Michael Keaton with Billie Eilish and John Mulaney with Chappell Roan.
Those shows will lead up to a three-hour primetime special on Feb. 16 that will serve as the official 50th season celebration. It’s sure to feature a wide range of the many stars the show has spawned, including Bill Murray, Eddie Murphy, Billy Crystal, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Robert Downey Jr., Mike Myers, Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and Will Ferrell.
Footage of motorcade racing JFK to the hospital sells at auction
DALLAS | Newly emerged film footage of President John F. Kennedy’s motorcade speeding down a Dallas freeway toward a hospital after he was fatally wounded sold at auction Saturday for $137,500.
The 8 mm color home film was offered up by RR Auction in Boston. The auction house said the buyer wishes to remain anonymous.
The film has been with the family of the man who took it, Dale Carpenter Sr., since he recorded it on Nov. 22, 1963. It begins as Carpenter just misses the limousine carrying the president and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy but capturing other vehicles in the motorcade as it traveled down Lemmon Avenue toward downtown. The film then picks up after Kennedy has been shot, with Carpenter rolling as the motorcade roars down Interstate 35.
The shots had fired as the motorcade passed through Dealey Plaza in front of the Texas School Book Depository, where it was later found that assassin Lee Harvey Oswald had positioned himself from a sniper’s perch on the sixth floor. The assassination itself was famously captured on film by Abraham Zapruder.
Carpenter’s footage from I-35, which lasts about 10 seconds, shows Secret Service Agent Clint Hill — who famously jumped onto the back of the limousine as the shots rang out — hovering in a standing position over the president and Jacqueline Kennedy, whose pink suit can be seen. The president was pronounced dead after arriving at Parkland Memorial Hospital.
Bobby Livingston, executive vice president of the auction house, said in a news release that the film “provides a gripping sense of urgency and heartbreak.”
Carpenter’s grandson, James Gates, said that while it was known in his family that his grandfather had film from that day, it wasn’t talked about often. So Gates said that when the film, stored along with other family films in a milk crate, was eventually passed on to him, he wasn’t sure exactly what his grandfather, who died in 1991 at age 77, had captured.
Projecting it onto his bedroom wall around 2010, gates was at first underwhelmed by the footage from Lemmon Avenue. But then, the footage from I-35 played out before his eyes. “That was shocking,” he said.
The auction house has released still photos from the portion of the film showing the race down I-35, but it is not publicly releasing video of that part.
—From AP reports
