Dinos rule North American box office
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.
"This is an excellent opening for the 7th episode of an action-adventure monster series," said analyst David A Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research.
"The series has been especially good overseas and so far foreign business is outstanding. Dinosaur action is understood in all languages and across all cultures."
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, slipped to second place at $26.1 million, Exhibitor Relations said.
How to Train Your Dragon, Universal and DreamWorks Animation's live-action reboot of the popular 2010 film, held in third place at $11 million.
The family-friendly film tells the story of a Viking named Hiccup (Mason Thames) who strikes up a friendship with Toothless the dragon.
In fourth place was Disney/Pixar Animation's latest original film Elio, at $5.7 million in the United States and Canada.
Elio tells the story of a young boy who is mistaken by aliens as an intergalactic ambassador for Earth. The voice cast includes Oscar winner Zoe Saldana.
In fifth place was Columbia Pictures' zombie sequel 28 Years Later, which took in $4.6 million. The Danny Boyle-directed threequel picks up - as the title suggests - more than a generation after the initial outbreak of the Rage Virus.
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Express Tribune
9 hours ago
- Express Tribune
Designer fan frenzy sweeps across sweltering Spain
Fans of fans say the items are a necessity in the heat. Photo: AFP As passengers wilted in a packed Madrid metro, one traveller defied the summer heat by snapping open her handheld fan — a quintessential Spanish accessory enjoying undimmed popularity, reports AFP. The burst of coolness drew envious eyes to a must-have item that has retained its relevance thanks to designer creativity and increasingly oppressive summer temperatures, stoked by climate change. "Everyone uses a fan here in Spain — children, the elderly, young people, men," said Arturo Llerandi, owner of the "Casa de Diego" fan boutique in Madrid. "Why? Because it's hot... It's hotter across Europe and you see fans everywhere." Llerandi's bustling shop, which has been located in the centre of the Spanish capital for more than two centuries, boasts 10,000 different models of fans. Bone and lace versions are aimed at women and smaller versions cater to men, all diminutive enough to slip into a jacket pocket, with the most luxurious costing up to 6,000 euros ($7,000). With temperatures close to 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) regularly assailing Madrid in July, the idea of buying a fan as a gift was a no-brainer for customer Carmen Pulido. "It's something to have forever... Lately, it's become essential," said the 62-year-old legal assistant. For pensioner Rosa Nunez, 69, the "good old fan" has remained her best friend after the batteries of her electronic alternative died. "With handheld fans, the battery runs for a lifetime," she said with a smile. 'Very elegant' Olivier Bernoux, a designer who heads a luxury fan store in Madrid, acknowledged the accessory has "a heavy legacy... perceived as an old object, for the elderly". But they are "not kitsch, nor for old women", insisted the man whose celebrity clients include pop idol Madonna and US actor Eva Longoria. "Even in New York you find fans due to climate change because you have to find a way to cool down," said Bernoux. His global customer base brings different expectations. "Men are more classic", while Spanish women "are more sensitive to the noise" made when fans are unfurled, he said. "For the 'Miami' American woman customer, large fans are a must-have, while the French are particularly attracted to all our linen creations," Bernoux continued. At Madrid's Pride festival in July, some dancers snapped their fans to the rhythm of the music before spectators waving rainbow-coloured equivalents, illustrating how the humble object can also be used to convey messages. "The fan has always been fundamental for us and the community. It has always been a gay icon," said Pedro Pontes, a 31-year-old waiter. Ecuadoran journalist Erika von Berliner, who lives in Madrid, sees her fan as a "very elegant" accessory. "You hold something very beautiful that goes with your clothes and if you know how to use it well, with elegance, so much the better," the 49-year-old enthused. Bernoux agreed, emphasising what he identified as the object's "sensuality". "The very opening and closing of a fan is a marvellous gesture that will attract attention," he said, advising users to sprinkle perfume on theirs. "On public transport, you take out your fan and it makes a tough moment an easier one," he concluded.
Express Tribune
a day ago
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All hail the new Harry
We may be coming up to the eighteen-year release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, (July 21, 2007, for the loyal original fans who had once carved that little event into their calendars) but thanks to HBO and Warner Bros, the boy who lived will continue to live on for a while longer yet. As reported by AFP and nearly every other entertainment outlet around the world, production on the multi-series show has kicked off, and the first images of the newest Harry (played by Dominic McLaughlin) in full Hogwarts gear have lit up screens wherever screens are to be found. A good start Have HBO and Warner Bros ticked all the boxes? The short answer is: yes. The longer answer is, we won't really find out until 2027, when the first episode is slated to hit screens at a date no one is quite sure of yet. However, if, as all Potter fans are wont to do, we crack out a magnifying glass and study this latest Harry's photo at face value, McLaughlin's Harry tallies almost perfectly with the vision JK Rowling gave us in her novels. This is a good thing, because this is the Harry who will grow up with the television series for the next ten years. It is not a short commitment. If our upcoming protagonist's face does not belong to Daniel Radcliffe, it had better tally up with the face we have carried in our heads after committing the books to memory. McLaughlin's genetics aside, how much credit we can get away with giving HBO for pulling off this costume achievement remains debatable. Over the course of seven books, Rowling took pains to describe her hero with vivid attention to detail, so for anyone who actually knows how to tick boxes of any description, it is very difficult to go wrong with attempts at recreating him. For those who are still unaware (although frankly how you have still managed to evade Potter trivia this far into the twenty-first century remains a mystery), Harry's main story begins at age 11 when he is a vertically challenged young boy. He sports a shock of untidy black hair inherited from his father. He has bright green eyes identical to his mother's. This is an important plot point that Harry Potter filmmakers treated with short shrift for the film franchise, but we will return to this tragic shortcoming momentarily. Parking eye colour in the corner for a moment, what everybody has managed to get right is the fact that Rowling's Harry wears round glasses – whatever other shortcomings his aunt and uncle had after reluctantly adopting him, they at least routinely had his eyes tested. Finally, to complete this atypical vision of our boy wonder, Harry – be it in the books or on screen – also bears a scar on his forehead, bequeathed to him by his nemesis during an ill-advised moment of wildly miscalculated fury. Unimaginative parents around the world have been stuffing their sons into Harry Potter costumes at Halloween for years, scrawling a scar with a red marker on their foreheads for good measure. If burnt-out parents can take on this onerous task, so can the full might of HBO and Warner Bros. Don't screw it up Fortunately, TV producers have managed to avoid dispelling disappointment at this embryonic stage of the filming process. We must cautiously applaud this, because they certainly did avoid disappointment when casting Paapa Essiedu as Severus Snape, with Essiedu physically resembling his character as closely as an onion does a carrot. In other words, not even a legally blind patient could confuse one for the other. But let us get back to less distressing things. As Harry, McLaughlin's hair looks as though it has been brushed with a balloon, his glasses are satisfyingly round and dark-rimmed, his tie is in Gryffindor colours, and he has the obligatory faint scar after his early liaison with Voldemort. As a special bonus, he also appears to not be suffering the medical condition that led Radcliffe's eyes to reject green contact lenses and settle for blue instead. Whilst it is no fault of Radcliffe's what colour contact lenses his eyes chose to find offensive, it is certainly the fault of the filmmakers who appeared to harbour the delusion that nobody would notice if Harry's mother had brown eyes. Perhaps this was also the same crew who thought nobody would care if a non-calm Dumbledore turned up in the Goblet of Fire film, or if Ralph Fiennes Voldemort would be seized with a desire to hug one of his Death Eaters. If so, they were dreadfully wrong on both counts. We noticed so much that someone has even chosen to re-enact a Lego version of a not-calm Dumbledore asking Harry if he put his name in the goblet of fire. When you are forced to seek solace in Lego figures to stem the pain of a filmmaker's blithe ignorance of source material, you know the cut runs deep. Will this fabulous-on-paper Harry continue to remain faithful to the books? Radcliffe certainly did not, although we cannot fault him for memorising a script he did not write or for following his directors' orders. The sad truth remains, however, that after leaving the tender loving care of Chris Columbus post-Chamber of Secrets, film Harry was apt to veer off canon with reckless abandon. As loyal book fans are aware, by the time the last two films came around, celluloid Harry found it perfectly acceptable to dance with Hermione in a tent and break a hugely important wand in two, leading to book fans drawing on epic resources of inner restraint to avoid throwing things at the screen, once they had presumably staved off an impending heart attack. Will McLaughlin's Harry be forced to carry out similar acts of lunacy? Or will he remain the Harry that book lovers have carried in their heads since 1998? We book fans may be able to forgive a temperamental Dumbledore and an off-brand Snape. But Harry is the core of these stories. Now that HBO Harry looks the part, we are requesting that he henceforth refrains from tiresome tent-dancing, that treats the Elder Wand with the respect it deserves, and that he lands a mother with the correct eye colour. We have many more demands, but this is enough to be cracking on with for now. Thank you for attending this TED talk.
Express Tribune
a day ago
- Express Tribune
How 'Butter' became a feminist phenomenon
Butter is inspired by killer Kijima, who poisoned men she met online. Photo: AFP Japanese writer Asako Yuzuki did not expect her novel Butter to capture a cult following abroad, hailed as a biting feminist critique of sexism and body-shaming. Translated into English last year, the tale of murder and misogyny has whetted an insatiable appetite, selling 610,000 copies overseas, including 400,000 in Britain - more than Japan - where it won multiple awards. Yuzuki was inspired by the real-life story of Black Widow Kanae Kijima, a woman sentenced to death in 2012 for poisoning three men she met on dating sites. The sensationalised media coverage at the time largely focused on Kijima's appearance, speculating how someone described as homely and unattractive could be considered a femme fatale. Many credited her romantic success to her homemaking prowess — notably in the kitchen. "When the case broke, the Japanese media mainly remembered that the suspect liked to cook and took classes ... to 'please men'," Yuzuki told AFP in an interview. "That deeply disturbed me." In Butter, a journalist likewise disquieted by the portrayal of a Kijima-like character (renamed Kajii) writes to the jailed suspect, hoping to secure an exclusive interview by appealing to her gourmet tastes. Via a letter soliciting the beef stew recipe that Kajii reportedly fed her final victim, the pair begin an intimate and life-changing relationship. This proves a vehicle for Yuzuki to chew over the roots of misogyny in Japan, where traditional male and female roles still dominate and women are held to impossible beauty standards. In politics and boardrooms for example, women remain rare. Japan ranks 118 out of 146 in the World Economic Forum's 2025 Gender Gap Report. "Japan is a deeply patriarchal country. Very often, it is the father who occupies the central position within the family unit. This is the basis for laws even," Yuzuki said. 'Fatphobia' Food - particularly butter, that artery-blocking symbol of pleasure and excess — forms the molten core of the story. Through sumptuous descriptions of butter-rich ramen and lavishly buttered rice, Yuzuki explores the tension between indulging appetites and the self-denial required to fulfil the societal pressure on women to stay thin. "There is an incredible amount of adverts for weight loss, cosmetic surgery and diets. This country is obsessed with fatphobia," Yuzuki said. It is also tough for women in Japan, where the #MeToo movement never really took off, to speak out about discrimination and sexual assault. Shiori Ito, a journalist who took the rare step of publicly accusing a prominent Japanese TV reporter of rape — a charge he denies — is a case in point. Ito's documentary Black Box Diaries, which was nominated for an Oscar, was not released in Japan because it used material recorded clandestinely or intended for judicial use only. "In other countries, especially the United States, from the beginning of #MeToo, many well-known journalists have seriously investigated these cases, and it is because this information was made public officially that the victims were able to be protected," Yuzuki said. But in Japan, "women who have had the courage to speak out are reduced to the role of activists and consumed by the media within that framework," she said. Another example is Masahiro Nakai, a boyband member and a star TV presenter accused of sexual assault. He initially disputed the facts and then apologised. The scandal shone a spotlight on the toxic culture of young women being pressed into attending dinners and drinking parties with powerful figures. "What strikes me is this uninterrupted chain of sexual violence, and especially that these are crimes committed within one organisation, covered up by another organisation... that of the media," Yuzuki said. Yuzuki is convinced that change can only come from outside. "When foreigners take up a topic, especially the English-language media, it completely changes the way it is perceived in Japan," she said. "If the European media" continue to be interested in these issues, then "the situation could perhaps change a little."
