'How to Train Your Dragon' holds top spot in North America box office
"How to Train Your Dragon," a live-action reboot of the popular 2010 animated film, set the North American box office ablaze again in its second week, industry estimates showed Sunday.
The family-friendly film from Universal and DreamWorks Animation tells the story of a Viking named Hiccup (Mason Thames) who strikes up a friendship with Toothless the dragon.
Its $37 million haul was enough to beat out Columbia Pictures' zombie sequel "28 Years Later," which took in $30 million despite coming nearly two decades after the last release in the trilogy, "28 Weeks Later."
"This is an excellent opening for the third episode in a horror series," said David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research.
"The weekend figure is above average for the genre, and pending final numbers it's approximately three times the opening of the last episode."
Critics' reviews and audience ratings have been strong for the Danny Boyle-directed threequel, which picks up -- as the title suggests -- more than a generation after the initial outbreak of the Rage Virus.
"The long layoff has had no negative impact; in fact, it's given the sequel time to add a new younger age group to the audience," Gross added.
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the weekend was the poor performance of Pixar Animation's "Elio," which limped into third place with $21 million in ticket sales, on a $150 million budget.
Gross said that while the tally would be respectable for most animation studios, it was the lowliest theatrical debut in Pixar's history -- despite excellent reviews.
Disney's "Lilo & Stitch," another live-action remake, added $9.7 million in its fifth week, extending a triumphant run for the film about a Hawaiian girl (Maia Kealoha) and her blue alien friend (Chris Sanders).
The fourth-placed entry has now grossed a whopping $910 million worldwide, according to Exhibitor Relations.
In fifth place -- and also in its fifth week -- is "Mission: Impossible -- The Final Reckoning," the latest, and supposedly final, entry in the hugely successful Tom Cruise spy thriller franchise.
The Paramount film took $6.6 million in North America, pushing it to $540 million worldwide.
"Kuberaa" ($1.8 million)
© 2025 AFP
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'How to Train Your Dragon' holds top spot in North America box office
Mason Thames is the star of the new live-action version of 'How To Train Your Dragon' "How to Train Your Dragon," a live-action reboot of the popular 2010 animated film, set the North American box office ablaze again in its second week, industry estimates showed Sunday. The family-friendly film from Universal and DreamWorks Animation tells the story of a Viking named Hiccup (Mason Thames) who strikes up a friendship with Toothless the dragon. Its $37 million haul was enough to beat out Columbia Pictures' zombie sequel "28 Years Later," which took in $30 million despite coming nearly two decades after the last release in the trilogy, "28 Weeks Later." "This is an excellent opening for the third episode in a horror series," said David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research. "The weekend figure is above average for the genre, and pending final numbers it's approximately three times the opening of the last episode." Critics' reviews and audience ratings have been strong for the Danny Boyle-directed threequel, which picks up -- as the title suggests -- more than a generation after the initial outbreak of the Rage Virus. "The long layoff has had no negative impact; in fact, it's given the sequel time to add a new younger age group to the audience," Gross added. Perhaps the biggest surprise of the weekend was the poor performance of Pixar Animation's "Elio," which limped into third place with $21 million in ticket sales, on a $150 million budget. Gross said that while the tally would be respectable for most animation studios, it was the lowliest theatrical debut in Pixar's history -- despite excellent reviews. Disney's "Lilo & Stitch," another live-action remake, added $9.7 million in its fifth week, extending a triumphant run for the film about a Hawaiian girl (Maia Kealoha) and her blue alien friend (Chris Sanders). The fourth-placed entry has now grossed a whopping $910 million worldwide, according to Exhibitor Relations. In fifth place -- and also in its fifth week -- is "Mission: Impossible -- The Final Reckoning," the latest, and supposedly final, entry in the hugely successful Tom Cruise spy thriller franchise. The Paramount film took $6.6 million in North America, pushing it to $540 million worldwide. "Kuberaa" ($1.8 million) © 2025 AFP
Tokyo Weekender
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How a Terrible Japanese Porn Franchise Became the World's Longest-Running Film Series
There's a lot to be said about Japan's porn industry. It's huge , earning tens of billions of dollars a year. It helped keep people indoors during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. And it even has its own porn actress theme park . It pushes the envelope on the definition of porn. The world of Japanese adult entertainment also has another claim to fame: the creation of the (likely) longest-running film series on the planet. However, it's really more of a claim to infamy, as it belongs to the Groper Train (Japanese title: Chikan Densha ) movies. List of Contents: Defining the Longest-Running Film Series A Dark Journey Into the Films The Destructive Reality Behind Groper Train Final Stop for Groper Train Related Posts Still from 'Chikan Densha: Ikenai Yume Ryoko' (2014) | IMDB Defining the Longest-Running Film Series How, exactly, do you define the world's 'longest-running' film series? If you're going by which series debuted first, then Universal's The Mummy — kicking off in 1932 and last in cinemas in 2017 before going on hiatus — is due the title. You could also make a case for Batman , since his first serial came out in 1943, and we're still getting new movies about the Dark Knight. Those, however, would be the oldest franchises. If you measure the longest series by the number of entries it produced, some sites will tell you that the title should go to the Wong Fei-Hung filmography about the titular Chinese martial artist and folk hero who's been portrayed by Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Sammo Hung and other actors who starred in 123 movies. However, 123 is just a little over half of the number of entries in the Groper Train movies. The exact number is actually a matter of some discussion, as a lot of the Groper Train films — and information on them — have been lost. Online sources put their total number at 227 films. The films in the series were written and directed by dozens of different people and were primarily distributed by Xces Film, Okura and Shintoho, according to the documentary Riding the Groper Train — Part Two . And if that last studio name sounds familiar, it's because it is related — in a roundabout way — to Toho, which is best known as the producer and distributor of Godzilla , Akira Kurosawa movies and Studio Ghibli productions. Still from 'Chikan Saishu Densha' (1978) | IMDB A Dark Journey Into the Films The Groper Train films primarily and sort of self-explanatorily take place on trains where a woman — and also a man in one gay take on the theme — gets molested by a groper. You'd think that such a concept might wear thin after a few dozen movies, but the Groper Train series has been around since 1975. The films in the series are all fictional, featuring adult film actors — although some of the earliest entries were shot guerilla-style on real trains. 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Obviously, none of the Groper Train films rise to those levels of filmmaking, but the point is that they weren't just porn without a story. They had actual plots — some of the films were framed as detective thrillers, for instance, and at least one involved time travel — and that allowed them to stick around and eventually break filmmaking records. Still from 'Chikan densha: Chibusa ga Yureru' (1990) | IMDB The Destructive Reality Behind Groper Train The reality behind Groper Train is sobering. Sexual assault on Japanese trains is a pervasive problem, so well-known around the world that the governments of Canada and the UK are warning tourists about it . Even the Japanese word chikan — meaning molester, groper or simply pervert — has started to appear in international travel advisories. Most victims, though, remain Japanese. A 2024 government survey found that 56.3% of women and 15.2% of men had experienced groping on trains, with up to 3,000 attacks occurring per year. And that's just the reported cases. It's alleged that most attacks happen in the morning when the trains are packed, meaning that many of the victims are minors on their way to school. Nearly 40% of victims don't engage the groper out of fear and end up traumatized by the assault, suffering from physical and mental distress, flashbacks and agoraphobia. Studies have shown that the best way to stop a groper is to get the people around you to intervene. There are some apps that help with that, with one of them, Digi Police, downloaded 800,000 times between its release in 2016 and April 2024. The only real long-term solution to groping is other passengers stepping up to help. A study has shown that 96.8% of gropers stop when they're called out by a third party, because train perverts are cowards who prey on the vulnerable. 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