
Lilo & Stitch' stays on top in third week
The Disney film beat the latest 'Mission: Impossible' and 'Ballerina'. PHOTO: File
Disney's family-friendly Lilo & Stitch kept up its dominance of the early summer North American box office, winning for a third week in a row with $32.5 million in ticket sales, industry estimates showed Sunday, as reported by AFP.
The live-action remake of a 2002 animated film of the same name has so far raked in $335.8 million in the United States and Canada, and another $436 million abroad, Exhibitor Relations said.
Debuting in second place at $25 million was Lionsgate's Ballerina, a John Wick spin-off starring Ana de Armas as a dancer turned contract killer, and co-starring Anjelica Huston. Keanu Reeves makes a brief appearance as the hitman Wick.
"This is a weak opening for an action thriller spin-off," said David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research.
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning – the latest, and ostensibly last, in the hugely successful Tom Cruise spy thriller series based on a 1960s TV show – took third place with $15 million.
The Paramount film has now grossed more than $449 million worldwide.
In fourth place was Sony's Karate Kid: Legends, a sequel featuring Ralph Macchio - the star of the original 1984 classic - and action flick icon Jackie Chan, along with Ben Wang in the title role.
It made $8.7 million at the domestic box office in its second week in theaters.
And finishing up the top five was Warner Bros. and New Line's horror film Final Destination: Bloodlines, at $6.5 million. It has grossed $123.6 million so far at the domestic box office.
Rounding out the top 10 were: The Phoenician Scheme ($6.25 million), Bring Her Back ($3.5 million), Dan Da Dan: Evil Eye ($3.1 million), Sinners ($2.9 million) and Thunderbolts ($2.5 million).
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Express Tribune
6 hours ago
- Express Tribune
Lilo & Stitch' stays on top in third week
The Disney film beat the latest 'Mission: Impossible' and 'Ballerina'. PHOTO: File Disney's family-friendly Lilo & Stitch kept up its dominance of the early summer North American box office, winning for a third week in a row with $32.5 million in ticket sales, industry estimates showed Sunday, as reported by AFP. The live-action remake of a 2002 animated film of the same name has so far raked in $335.8 million in the United States and Canada, and another $436 million abroad, Exhibitor Relations said. Debuting in second place at $25 million was Lionsgate's Ballerina, a John Wick spin-off starring Ana de Armas as a dancer turned contract killer, and co-starring Anjelica Huston. Keanu Reeves makes a brief appearance as the hitman Wick. "This is a weak opening for an action thriller spin-off," said David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning – the latest, and ostensibly last, in the hugely successful Tom Cruise spy thriller series based on a 1960s TV show – took third place with $15 million. The Paramount film has now grossed more than $449 million worldwide. In fourth place was Sony's Karate Kid: Legends, a sequel featuring Ralph Macchio - the star of the original 1984 classic - and action flick icon Jackie Chan, along with Ben Wang in the title role. It made $8.7 million at the domestic box office in its second week in theaters. And finishing up the top five was Warner Bros. and New Line's horror film Final Destination: Bloodlines, at $6.5 million. It has grossed $123.6 million so far at the domestic box office. Rounding out the top 10 were: The Phoenician Scheme ($6.25 million), Bring Her Back ($3.5 million), Dan Da Dan: Evil Eye ($3.1 million), Sinners ($2.9 million) and Thunderbolts ($2.5 million).


Express Tribune
6 hours ago
- Express Tribune
I have to say what's necessary for society: Banu Mushtaq
All writers draw on their experience, whether consciously or not, says Indian author Banu Mushtaq – including the titular tale of attempted self-immolation in her International Booker Prize-winning short story collection, as reported by AFP. Mushtaq, who won the coveted literature prize as the first author writing in Kannada – an Indian regional language – said the author's responsibility is to reflect the truth. "You cannot simply write describing a rose," said the 77-year-old, who is also a lawyer and activist. "You cannot say it has got such a fragrance, such petals, such colour. You have to write about the thorns also. It is your responsibility, and you have to do it." Her book Heart Lamp, a collection of 12 powerful short stories, is also her first book translated into English, with the prize shared with her translator Deepa Bhasthi. Critics praised the collection for its dry and gentle humour, and its searing commentary on the patriarchy, caste and religion. Mushtaq has carved an alternative path in life, challenging societal restrictions and perceptions. As a young girl worried about her future, she said she started writing to improve her "chances of marriage". Born into a Muslim family in 1948, she studied in Kannada, which is spoken mostly in India's southern Karnataka state by around 43 million people, rather than Urdu, the language of Islamic texts in India and which most Muslim girls learnt. She attended college, and worked as a journalist and also as a high school teacher. 'Confused' But after marrying for love, Mushtaq found her life constricted. "I was not allowed to have any intellectual activities. I was not allowed to write," she said. "I was in that vacuum. That harmed me." She recounted how as a young mother aged around 27 with possible postpartum depression, and ground down by domestic life, she had doused petrol on herself and on the "spur of a moment" readied to set herself on fire. Her husband rushed to her with their three-month-old daughter. "He took the baby and put her on my feet, and he drew my attention to her and he hugged me, and he stopped me," Mushtaq told AFP. The experience is nearly mirrored in her book – in its case, the protagonist is stopped by her daughter. "People get confused that it might be my life," the writer said. Explaining that while not her exact story, "consciously or subconsciously, something of the author, it reflects in her or his writing". Books line the walls in Mushtaq's home, in the small southern Indian town of Hassan. Her many awards and certificates – including a replica of the Booker prize she won in London in May – are also on display. She joked that she was born to write – at least that is what a Hindu astrological birth chart said about her future. "I don't know how it was there, but I have seen the birth chart," Mushtaq said with a laugh, speaking in English. The award has changed her life "in a positive way", she added, while noting the fame has been a little overwhelming. "I am not against the people, I love people," she said, referring to the stream of visitors she gets to her home. "But with this, a lot of prominence is given to me, and I don't have any time for writing. I feel something odd... Writing gives me a lot of pleasure, a lot of relief." 'Patriarchy everywhere' Mushtaq's body of work spans six short story collections, an essay collection and poetry. The stories in Heart Lamp were chosen from the six short story collections, dating back to 1990. The Booker jury hailed her characters – from spirited grandmothers to bumbling religious clerics – as "astonishing portraits of survival and resilience". The stories portray Muslim women going through terrible experiences, including domestic violence, the death of children and extramarital affairs. Mushtaq said that while the main characters in her books are all Muslim women, the issues are universal. "They (women) suffer this type of suppression and this type of exploitation, this type of patriarchy everywhere," she said. "A woman is a woman, all over the world." While accepting that even the people for whom she writes may not like her work, Mushtaq said she remained dedicated to providing wider truths. "I have to say what is necessary for the society," she said. "The writer is always pro-people... With the people, and for the people."


Express Tribune
6 hours ago
- Express Tribune
Artist goes to prison 'willingly' at LA museum
The Russian artist was jailed in 2012 for protesting against Putin. PHOTO: File Nadya Tolokonnikova, the co-founder of the feminist art collective Pussy Riot, is back in a prison cell – but this time, she has gone willingly, as reported by AFP. At the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the Russian activist is staging Police State – a two-week piece of performance art aimed at raising awareness about the dangers of authoritarianism and oppression. Tolokonnikova – who spent nearly two years in a Russian penal colony for performing a protest song against Vladimir Putin in a Moscow church in 2012 – knows a bit about the topic. Through the installation, which opened Thursday and runs through June 14, she says she hopes to teach visitors about what she believes to be the advent of a new means of control – technology. While she is in the mock cell, during all museum opening hours, she will eat, use the toilet, sew clothes as she once did in her real cell and create "soundscapes". Visitors can observe her through holes in the cell or on security camera footage. "People don't treat authoritarianism seriously," Tolokonnikova told AFP. Seated in a makeshift Russian prison cell, wearing a green tracksuit, the 35-year-old activist says in several countries, the concept of a "police state" is expanding. "As someone who lived under authoritarian rule for over 25 years, I know how real it is and how it starts, step by step, on the arrest of one person. You think, 'Well, it's not about me'," she explained. "And then next thing we know, the entire country is under the military boot." For Tolokonnikova, US President Donald Trump's return to the White House in January has sparked an "erosion of the system of checks and balances," which she deemed "very dangerous." She says the artistic community, and society in general, should do more to counter governmental abuses of power, wherever they may occur, and stop "outsourcing politics and political action." "I feel like it's as if there is someone else who's going to save us from everything. That's not what works really. We all have to contribute." Some who visited the installation said they agreed with Tolokonnikova that society had become too passive. For Alex Sloane, the museum's associate curator, the installation shows how "increased surveillance and government overreach" are becoming more and more widespread, and "freedoms are at risk."