Superman soars to top of North American box office
The Warner Bros and DC Studios film – directed by James Gunn – stars up-and-comer David Corenswet as the Man of Steel, and The Marvelous Mrs Maisel star Rachel Brosnahan as his perennial love interest Lois Lane.
"This is an outstanding domestic opening for the seventh episode in a superhero story that's been filmed for over 75 years," said analyst David A Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research.
"Mr Gunn chose not to rely on big stars. The storytelling and filmmaking are doing the work here."
Jurassic World: Rebirth – the latest installment in the blockbuster dinosaur saga – slipped to second place in its second week of release at US$40 million in the United States and Canada, Exhibitor Relations said.
The Universal film, starring Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey and Mahershala Ali, takes viewers to an abandoned island research facility for the original Jurassic Park theme park, where secrets – and genetically mutated dinosaurs – are lurking.
F1: The Movie, the Apple and Warner Bros flick starring Brad Pitt as a washed-up Formula One driver who gets one last shot at redemption, took third place at US$13 million.
How To Train Your Dragon, Universal and DreamWorks Animation's live-action reboot of the popular 2010 film, came in at fourth place with US$7.8 million.
"It's summertime and the big pictures are loud and visually dazzling: Superman, Jurassic, F1, and How To Train Your Dragon," Gross said.
"Audiences want to be transported and taken away, and they're getting what they want."
Disney/Pixar Animation's latest original film Elio, the story of a young boy who is mistaken by aliens as an intergalactic ambassador for Earth, finished up the top five with US$3.9 million.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNA
3 hours ago
- CNA
Severance leads Emmy nominees with 27 and The Studio tops comedies as Apple TV+ dominates
Severance separated itself from the field with 27 Emmy nominations on Tuesday (Jul 15), while The Studio led comedy nominees with a record-tying 23 in a dominant year for Apple TV+. No other dramas came close to the dystopian workplace series Severance, which achieved a convergence of acclaim and audience buzz for its second season that brought an expected Emmy bounty. 'It's been the best kind of morning,' Apple TV+ head of programming Matt Cherniss told The Associated Press. Lead acting nominations came for Severance stars Adam Scott and Britt Lower for what amounted to dual roles as their characters' 'innie' work selves and 'outie' home selves. Tramell Tillman got a supporting nod for playing their tone-shifting, pineapple-wielding supervisor. Patricia Arquette was nominated for supporting actress for playing an ousted outcast from the sinister family business at the centre of the show. And Ben Stiller got a nomination for directing the Season 2 finale. Apple's Hollywood satire The Studio was expected to make a significant showing for its first season, but it romped over more established shows like Hacks, which got 14, and The Bear, which got 13. And The Studio tied a record set by The Bear last year when it also got 23 nominations, the most ever for a comedy. Seth Rogen, who co-created The Studio with longtime collaborator Evan Goldberg, personally got three nominations – for acting, writing and directing. Rogen told the AP that 'my ego is in shock' and called the raft of nominations "very validating in a way that I'm not used to being validated'. His show's A-list roster of guest stars brought in a bounty, with nominations for Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard, Bryan Cranston, Anthony Mackie, Dave Franco and Zoe Kravitz. The men made for five of the six nominees in the guest actor in a comedy category. The Penguin, HBO's dark drama from the Batman universe, was also surprisingly dominant in the limited series category with 24 nominations, including nods for leads Colin Farrell and Cristin Milioti. Netflix's acclaimed Adolescence got 13 limited series nominations, including a supporting actor nod for 15-year-old Owen Cooper, who plays a 13-year-old suspected of a killing. Many expect Cooper to become the youngest Emmy winner in more than 40 years, largely because of a breath-taking episode that is one long therapy session inside a juvenile jail. Like all Adolescence episodes, it's done in one long shot. His psychologist scene partner, Erin Doherty, was also nominated, for limited series supporting actress. 'If you just sit and listen, and let someone talk, that is such a gorgeous offering," Doherty told the AP. "I don't think we do it that often. I'm trying to take that forward.' THE WHITE LOTUS, THE PITT AND MATLOCK SCORE IN ACTING CATEGORIES HBO's high-end soap The White Lotus got its usual flowering of drama acting nominations for its Thailand-set third season, with four cast members including Carrie Coon getting supporting actress nods, and three including Walton Goggins up for supporting actor. It was second in the drama categories to Severance with 23 nominations. The Pitt, HBO Max's prestige medical procedural, got 13 nominations, including best drama and best actor for its star, ER veteran Noah Wyle. One of its nurses, Katherine LaNasa, was able to squeeze in among the women of The White Lotus for a supporting actress nod. Wyle, who was nominated five times without a win for ER, could join Scott to make best actor in a drama a two-man race, with both seeking their first Emmy. The broadcast networks have largely become Emmy non-entities in the top categories. Oscar-winner Kathy Bates was a big exception this year. She's considered a heavy favoUrite to win best actress in a drama for CBS' Matlock. She's the first person nominated in the category from a network show since 2019, and would be the first to win it since 2015. At 77, she's also the oldest ever nominee in the category. ABC's Abbott Elementary, which has kept hope alive for the networks in recent years, got six nominations including acting and writing nods for creator Quinta Brunson. HBO IS STILL KING IN OVERALL NUMBERS The Last Of Us brought in 16 nominations in drama categories for HBO to add to the elite cable and streaming giant's totals run up by The White Lotus, The Pitt and The Penguin. Bella Ramsey got a nod for best actress in a drama for The Last Of Us. Pedro Pascal was nominated for lead actor despite appearing in only about half of the season's episodes. HBO with its streaming counterpart HBO Max has been so prolific for decades in Emmy nominations that it almost felt like an off year without it having a Succession or a Game Of Thrones atop the drama category. But it definitely wasn't. It led all outlets with 142 nominations, the most it's ever gotten. Netflix followed with 120 nominations overall, including 11 for Monsters: The Lyle And Erik Menendez Story and 10 for Black Mirror. Apple TV+ had 79 nominations overall. Shrinking added to its total with seven in the comedy categories, including acting nominations for Harrison Ford and Jason Segel. Andor represented Disney+ with 14 nominations. The gritty series from the Star War' galaxy is up for best drama series and a slew of technical categories. Forest Whitaker was nominated for best guest actor in a drama. He's one of several Oscar winners in the guest acting categories along with Scorsese, Howard and Jamie Lee Curtis and Olivia Colman for their performances in The Bear. Andor star Diego Luna was surprisingly omitted from the lead actor in a drama category. Other snubs included former Emmy powerhouses The Handmaid's Tale, which got just one nomination, and Squid Game, which got none. Actors Harvey Guillén and Brenda Song announced the nominations in key categories. SEVERANCE DELIVERS BIG FOR APPLE TV+ Severance has become a signature show for Apple TV+. The streamer has gotten plenty of Emmy nominations for dramas including The Morning Show and Slow Horses, and Ted Lasso thrived the comedy side. But Apple has lacked the kind of breakaway prestige drama that HBO seems to produce perennially. Severance became its most-nominated show ever and could easily become its biggest winner when the Emmys are handed out in September, reaching the upper echelons previously enjoyed by Succession and Shogun, which left room for others by taking this year off. Cherniss said Apple TV+, which has been knocked as the streamer with big stars and big budgets for shows that go unnoticed, was rewarded for taking big swings. 'Severance is such an ambitious show," he said, adding that 'all of the shows that have been nominated took big risks.' HOW STREAMING HAS CHANGED TV AND THE EMMYS All the shows are living in the splintered world of the streaming era, and like the Oscars its most acclaimed nominees rarely have the huge audience they once did. While an impressive average of 10 million people per episode watched Wyle on The Pitt on HBO Max, according to Warner Bros Discovery, 30 years ago an average of 30 million sat down and watched him on ER on NBC. The broadcast networks rotate on who airs the Emmys. This year is CBS' turn. It will air the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on Sep 14. Nate Bargatze is slated to host.
CNA
10 hours ago
- CNA
Roblox launches IP licensing platform, partners with Netflix, Lionsgate
Roblox launched a licensing feature on its videogame platform on Tuesday, allowing intellectual property holders to integrate their characters and worlds into its games. It has signed licensing partnerships with companies such as Netflix, which would allow developers to use characters and names from the streaming giant's popular shows "Stranger Things" and "Squid Game" in their games. Other licensing partners include Lionsgate, Sega and Japanese publisher Kodansha. Roblox has been aggressively trying to grab a larger share of the videogame market and expand its revenue sources by diversifying beyond gaming and turning the platform into a hub for socializing, commerce and advertising. Introducing a platform for licensing property with popular characters and names from highly recognizable media could draw more people to its games, which appeal to a large cohort of Gen Z users. "We have a goal to have 10 per cent of all gaming content revenue flowing through the Roblox ecosystem and benefiting our community," said Manuel Bronstein, chief product officer at Roblox. "This will require having a wide range of experiences and giving creators the opportunity to partner with rights holders of the most recognizable IP," he said. Roblox had previously worked with media companies such as Warner Bros Discovery, launching special advertising campaigns and games around a specific property to drive consumer engagement. The License Manager would enable rights holders to register and create licenses, offering them quickly to creators in days or hours rather than months, Roblox said. The company also plans to onboard more IP holders throughout the year and aims to open the License Manager to all eligible IP holders in the coming months. It is even exploring additional license types.
Straits Times
20 hours ago
- Straits Times
Asian Rom-Com Producers Reject Hollywood Pressure to Cast White Actors
Find out what's new on ST website and app. In Worth The Wait, Lana Condor and Ross Butler play a couple in a long-distance relationship. SINGAPORE – Producers on the US-Canada romantic comedy-drama Worth The Wait wanted their movie to showcase Asians falling in love, navigating awkward encounters with former lovers and coping with loss. But they faced pressure from Hollywood financiers, who suggested a change they thought was minor, but was anything but to Rachel Tan. The Malaysia-born, Los Angeles-based producer says they wanted to add a white male to the cast rather than letting the film be an all-Asian ensemble. 'They gave me a list of white guys we could cast. If we could give one of the roles to them, we could get funded. It was so tempting,' the 43-year-old recalls. She was in town with her producing partner and husband, Chinese-American Dan Mark, for a screening of their film – which the couple also co-wrote – at Tanglin Club on July 10. The investors held the belief that, except for genres such as martial arts, Asian male characters are not bankable, with little appeal for Western audiences, she says. Tan and her team ignored the suggestion, completing Worth The Wait without watering down their goal of an all-Asian cast in stereotype-breaking stories. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore $3b money laundering case: MinLaw acts against 4 law firms, 1 lawyer over seized properties Singapore Air India crash: SIA, Scoot find no issues with Boeing 787 fuel switches after precautionary checks Opinion What we can do to fight the insidious threat of 'zombie vapes' Singapore $230,000 in fines issued after MOM checks safety at over 500 workplaces from April to June Business 'Some cannot source outside China': S'pore firms' challenges and support needed amid US tariffs Opinion Sumiko at 61: Everything goes south when you age, changing your face from a triangle to a rectangle Multimedia From local to global: What made top news in Singapore over the last 180 years? Singapore 'Nobody deserves to be alone': Why Mummy and Acha have fostered over 20 children in the past 22 years For years, Asian Americans have been viewed by the majority as the 'model minority', the ethnic group to be the most well educated, well adjusted and upwardly mobile, but the film seeks to show a more complete picture, she says. Slated to open in Singapore cinemas in August, Worth The Wait is directed by Taiwanese film-maker Tom Shu-Yu Lin, known for his Golden Horse-nominated drama The Garden Of Evening Mists (2019), adapted from the 2011 Booker Prize-shortlisted novel of the same name by Malaysian author Tan Twan Eng. Set in Seattle and Kuala Lumpur, it revolves around a group of singles and couples of different ages, and features actors of Asian or mixed descent from North America and Europe, including Ross Butler, Lana Condor, Andrew Koji, Sung Kang and Elodie Yung, as well as Singapore actors Tan Kheng Hua and Lim Yu-Beng. (From left) Lim Yu-Beng, Ross Butler, Tan Kheng Hua and Osric Chau at the red carpet event for Worth The Wait on July 10 at Tanglin Club. PHOTO: LIANHE ZAOBAO Producer Mark, 43, says audiences will see that Butler (Shazam!, 2019: 13 Reasons Why, 2017 to 2020) fits the profile of the romantic lead, while also being Asian. 'He's a masculine Asian man. He's stereotype-breaking, and we love that – we need to have that in our culture,' he says. Singapore-born American actor Butler plays Kai, the son of a corporate bigwig (Lim). On why on-screen white male-Asian female couples are the more common representation, Butler feels it has to do with Asian men being seen as not desirable. 'It's a deep topic to talk about. In the West, for a hundred years, the Asian man has been emasculated,' the 35-year-old tells The Straits Times at the same event. Butler drew on his personal experience to play Kai, who is under pressure to live up to his father's goals for him. The performer took chemical and biomolecular engineering at Ohio State University, but left his studies to pursue acting as a career. 'A lot of this was generational legacy pressure from my mum. She is from Malaysia, and she took me to the US for the opportunities. We all know about the immigrants' dream,' he adds. (From left) Osric Chau and Karena Lam play a couple dealing with the trauma of a miscarriage in Worth The Wait. PHOTO: WORTH THE WAIT MOVIE LLC In another of the film's intertwining story threads, a couple played by Chinese-Canadian actors Osric Chau and Karena Lam find their marriage becoming strained after a miscarriage, while a young man, Blake (Chinese-Canadian actor Ricky He), has priorities other than school. Tan says: 'Osric's character is vulnerable and Blake failed maths. There are so many layers to the characters. We are so much more than what's usually shown.' Worth The Wait opens in Singapore cinemas in August.
