Guilty pleasures
By NewsPress Now
‘Sonic 3’ bests ‘Mufasa: The
Lion King’ at
the box office
NEW YORK | In the holiday season battle of big-budget family movies, Paramount Pictures’ “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” sped past the Walt Disney Co.’s “Mufasa: The Lion King” to take the top spot at the box office ahead of the lucrative Christmas corridor in theaters.
“Sonic the Hedgehog 3” debuted with $62 million in ticket sales over the weekend, according to studio estimates. With strong reviews (86% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) and a high score from audiences (an “A” on CinemaScore), “Sonic 3” is well positioned to be the top choice in cinemas during the busiest moviegoing period of the year.
It was telling of some wider trends that “Sonic 3” — made for $122 million — bested one of Disney’s top properties. Videogame adaptations, once among the most derided movie genres, have emerged as one of the most dependable box office forces in recent years. The two previous “Sonic” movies together grossed more $700 million worldwide and the third installment appears likely to do better than both of them. A fourth “Sonic” movie is already in development.
“Mufasa,” however, was humbled in its opening weekend, with its $35 million in domestic ticket sales coming in notably shy of expectations . The photorealistic “Lion King” prequel even opened wider than “Sonic 3,” launching on 4,100 theaters and gobbling up most IMAX screens, compared with 3,761 locations for “Sonic 3.”
Though “Mufasa’s” reviews were poor (56% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes), audiences gave it an “A-” CinemaScore.
“Sonic 3” nearly doubled the haul for “Mufasa,” which cost more than $200 million to make. Disney could look to $87.2 million in international sales to help make up the difference. The third “Sonic” will rollout in most overseas markets in the coming weeks.
In director Jeff Fowler’s “Sonic 3,” Ben Schwartz returns as the voice of the hedgehog, alongside Tails the Fox (Colleen O’Shaughnessey), Knuckles the Echidna (Idris Elba) and Jim Carrey in scene-stealing dual roles as Dr. Robotnik and his grandfather.
“Moonlight” filmmaker Barry Jenkins directs “Mufasa’s” voice cast, including Aaron Pierre, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Donald Glover, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, Mads Mikkelsen and Blue Ivy Carter. It follows Jon Favreau’s 2019 photorealistic “The Lion King” remake, which made $1.66 billion globally despite mixed reviews. “Mufasa” didn’t come close to that film’s huge $191 million opening weekend.
“We felt strongly that the marketplace could support both movies and we’re certainly holding up our side of the bargain,” said Chris Aronson, distribution chief for Paramount.
No major franchise movie is coming this Christmas. The most anticipated Dec. 25 release might be “A Complete Unknown,” with Timothee Chalamet as Bob Dylan. That means “Sonic 3” could be looking at several weeks in a row at No. 1.
“The family audience was 59% on ‘Sonic 2.’ This time it’s 46%. That 13% drop reflects the time of year we’re dealing with,” said Aronson. “I think once the marketplace really cooks, ‘Sonic’ is going to be the dominant force.”
Many of Disney’s live-action adaptations – including “Aladdin,” “Beauty and the Beast” and “Jungle Book” – have been big hits. Others, such as “Dumbo,” “Mulan” and “The Little Mermaid,” have been less well received. More are on the way, including a new “Snow White” in March, “Lilo & Stitch” in May, and plans for “Moana” and “Tangled” to get the same live-action treatment.
Despite “Mufasa’s” muted opening, Disney is still celebrating its strongest annual performance in years. The studio has accounted for more than $5 billion in ticket sales worldwide, including the year’s top two hits: “Inside Out 2” and “Deadpool and Wolverine.” The animated “Moana 2” could give Disney the top three movies of the year. In four weeks of release, it has collected $790.2 million globally, including $13.1 million in U.S. and Canadian theaters over this weekend.
Though Christmas often sees some of the biggest releases of the year, movies released around Thanksgiving really drove the box office this season. That includes “Moana 2” and Universal Pictures’ “Wicked,” which managed third place in its fifth weekend.
“Wicked,” the hit musical adaption starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, added $13.5 million in North American theaters to push its domestic total to $383.9 million.
Those films, among others, have led a Hollywood rebound in 2024. After a significant deficit earlier in the year, overall sales are drawing close to those of 2023. According to Comscore, the gap has narrowed to 4.4% behind last year’s results. While that’s still significantly less than pre-pandemic years, it’s enough to flip the script on what once looked like a rough year for the movies.
Family films like “Inside Out 2,” “Moana 2” and “Sonic 3” have played a major role. Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Comscore, noted animated movies have accounted for 26.5% of this year’s box office.
“The box office year was saved by the family audience being drawn to the multiplex,” said Dergarabedian.
“Homestead,” the latest release from Christian-themed Angel Studios, the distributor of “Sound of Freedom,” opened with $6.1 million. It follows a group of Doomsday preparers who take shelter in a self-sufficient compound after a nuclear attack in California.
Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist,” one of the year’s top Oscar contenders, launched on four screens in New York and Los Angeles. Its $66,698 per-screen average was one of the highest of 2024. The post-World War II epic runs three-and-a-half hours, posing obvious theatrical challenges. A24 is trying to turn the film starring Adrien Brody and Guy Pearce into an arthouse event. It was nominated for seven Golden Globes.
Blake Lively accuses Justin Baldoni of harassment and smear campaign
Blake Lively has accused her “It Ends With Us” director and co-star Justin Baldoni of sexual harassment on the set of the movie and a subsequent effort to “destroy” her reputation in a legal complaint.
The complaint obtained by The Associated Press, which The New York Times reported was filed Friday with the California Civil Rights Department, precedes a lawsuit. It names Baldoni, the studio behind the romantic drama “It Ends With Us” and Baldoni’s publicists among the defendants.
In the complaint, Lively accuses Baldoni and the studio of embarking on a “multi-tiered plan” to damage her reputation following a meeting in which she and her husband Ryan Reynolds addressed “repeated sexual harassment and other disturbing behavior” by Baldoni and a producer on the movie.
The plan, the complaint said, included a proposal to plant theories on online message boards, engineer a social media campaign and place news stories critical of Lively.
Baldoni enlisted publicists and crisis managers in a “sophisticated, coordinated, and well-financed retaliation plan” meant to “bury” and “destroy” Lively if she went public with her on-set concerns, the complaint alleges.
“To safeguard against the risk of Ms. Lively ever revealing the truth about Mr. Baldoni, the BaldoniWayfarer team created, planted, amplified, and boosted content designed to eviscerate Ms. Lively’s credibility,” the complaint states. “They engaged in the same techniques to bolster Mr. Baldoni’s credibility and suppress any negative content about him.”
The complaint also says Baldoni “abruptly pivoted away from” the movie’s marketing plan and “used domestic violence ‘survivor content’ to protect his public image.”
Bryan Freedman, an attorney representing Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and its representatives, called the claims “completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious.”
He pushed back against Lively’s allegations of a coordinated campaign, saying the studio “proactively” hired a crisis manager “due to the multiple demands and threats made by Ms. Lively during production.”
Freedman also said Lively threatened to not appear on set and not promote the film “if her demands were not met.”
Those demands were not specified in the statement, but Lively’s complaint lists 30 demands that she said Baldoni and others agreed to after their tense sit-down over her hostile work environment concerns.
Among them: “no more showing of nude videos or images of women” to Lively and others on set and no more discussions about pornography, sexual experiences or genitalia.
She also said Baldoni should not ask her trainer about her weight without her consent, should not press her about her religious beliefs and should make “no further mention of her dead father.”
An intimacy coordinator was also required to be on set whenever Lively shared a scene with Baldoni and he was barred from entering her trailer or the make-up trailer while she was undressed.
The demands also stipulated that there would be “no more improvising of kissing” scenes or adding of sex scenes to the film outside of the ones in the script Lively approved when she signed on.
“I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and helps protect others who may be targeted,” Lively said in a statement to the Times. A representative for Lively referred the AP to the Times report, in which Lively denied planting or spreading negative information about Baldoni or the studio.
“It Ends With Us,” an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling 2016 novel, was released in August, exceeding box office expectations with a $50 million debut. But the movie’s release was shrouded by speculation over discord between the lead pair. Baldoni took a backseat in promoting the film while Lively took centerstage along with Reynolds, who was on the press circuit for “Deadpool & Wolverine” at the same time.
Baldoni — who starred in the telenovela send-up “Jane the Virgin,” directed “Five Feet Apart” and wrote “Man Enough,” a book pushing back against traditional notions of masculinity — did respond to concerns that the film romanticized domestic violence, telling the AP at the time that critics were “absolutely entitled to that opinion.”
“If anybody has had that real-life experience, I can imagine how hard it would be to imagine their experience being in a romance novel,” he said. “To them, I would just offer that we were very intentional in the making of this movie.”
Baby Jesus figurine stolen from nativity scene returned
DENVER | A baby Jesus figurine snatched from a nativity scene in Colorado has been returned in time for Christmas, with an apology.
The statuette of Jesus lying in a manger, stolen from a public display in downtown Fort Collins early Sunday, was dropped off anonymously at a fire station Thursday, police said. It was accompanied by a handwritten note saying: “I’m really sorry. I made a dumb mistake in the moment. It won’t happen again.”
It was returned two days after police in the college town about 65 miles north of Denver, posted surveillance video of the suspected Grinch on social media. The person appeared to be a teen or young adult.
There’s no other information about who stole the figurine, police said Friday. The fire station has a motion-sensing door camera but it was not activated when the statue was returned, police said.
The business that takes care of the Nativity scene does not want to pursue charges.
—From AP reports
—From AP reports
