Brad Pitt's 'F1' cruises to top of N.America box office
'This is an outstanding opening for an original action sports drama,' said David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research, noting that both critics and audiences have loved the racing film from Apple and Warner Bros.
'How to Train Your Dragon,' Universal and DreamWorks Animation's live-action reboot of the popular 2010 film, slipped to second place with $19.4 million, according to Exhibitor Relations.
The family-friendly film tells the story of a Viking named Hiccup (Mason Thames) who strikes up a friendship with Toothless the dragon.
In third place was Disney/Pixar Animation's latest original film 'Elio,' at $10.7 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.
'M3GAN 2.0,' the sequel to Universal's 2022 film about a murderous doll, opened in a disappointing fourth place with $10.2 million.
'The idea of a child-sized humanoid robot doll powered by AI generated a lot of interest the first time, but that interest has fallen apart,' Gross said.
In fifth place was Columbia Pictures' zombie sequel '28 Years Later,' which took in $9.7 million.
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.
Rounding out the top 10 were:
'Lilo & Stitch' ($6.9 million)
'Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning' ($4.2 million)
'Materialists' ($3 million)
'Ballerina' ($2.1 million)
'Karate Kid: Legends' ($1 million) –AFP
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The Star
27-07-2025
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At 70, Godzilla keeps on smashing expectations and buildings.
Steve Ryfle remembers scouring the TV Guide each week to find the monster movies and Universal horror films he loved. 'You had to make an appointment with yourself to be by the TV, so it was really special,' recalls Ryfle, an author and co-writer of the Emmy-winning documentary Miracle On 42nd Street. 'The Japanese films always appealed to me the most. 'They were intriguing because they took place in a world that was unfamiliar, a culture that was unfamiliar.' Godzilla, he says, was especially captivating to a dinosaur-loving kid. 'Of course, when you're younger, you're into dinosaurs,' he says. 'Godzilla seemed like the greatest dinosaur I'd ever seen, and it did all these crazy things, and I just loved it.' 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'It was impossible to be inside without suffocating if you were in it for more than a few minutes ... it was almost a death sentence to do this stuff,' says Ryfle, adding that Nakajima would sweat out dozens of pounds during filming. 'They would have to pour the sweat out of the suit every day, and then dry out the interior for the next day, because it was just a sauna in there. Though the 'man-in-the-suit' aspect could sometimes be viewed as comical, Ryfle says Nakajima's work was instrumental in the creature's evolution and popularity. 'I attribute a large part of the success of those movies to Haruo Nakajima, who played Godzilla for roughly the first 18 years of the first cycle of Godzilla films,' says Ryfle, while also praising the original film's special effects wizard, director and cast. 'He was just a wonderful man who died a couple of years ago. 'He loved his work, and he's largely responsible for the personality that starts to come through.' 'He turns Godzilla from a walking nuclear bomb into a character over a period of time,' says Ryfle. In the beginning, original King Kong films served as an inspiration for Godzilla movies. Presently, the two gigantic creatures have appeared together in Hollywood films. — Handout Lasting power While we discussed a range of topics and there's much more in the book, Ryfle summed up the project as we were concluding the conversation. 'Someone asked me, like, what was your goal at the start of it?' he says. 'We wanted to make the best Godzilla book for the widest possible audience. 'I've always felt from the beginning that (the films) were unfairly maligned and misunderstood, and that maybe I could help, especially after I started meeting the creators and realising what passion they had for their work, and starting to understand how culturally specific these films are.' But he also understands another reason for Godzilla's lasting power. 'On a gut level, no matter what's going on in the film and how quote-unquote 'serious' it is as a movie,' says Ryfle, 'people really want to see the spectacle of Godzilla destroying things.' – The Orange County Register/Tribune News Service
