Month: December 2023

“Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” — the unlikely pair of films that dominated the box office and spawned countless internet memes this summer — are expected to lead the newly revamped Golden Globes when nominations are unveiled Monday.

Collectively dubbed “Barbenheimer” after their theatrical releases happened to fall on the same date, both movies are likely to score highly with voters for the Globes, which kick off Hollywood’s film awards season.

“Barbie” — a vivid, feminist satire about the all-conquering line of plastic dolls — was 2023’s top-grossing movie, earning more than $1.4 billion globally. It is tipped to earn nods for its stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, as well as writer-director Greta Gerwig.

“Oppenheimer,” Christopher Nolan’s critically adored drama about the inventor of the nuclear bomb, managed a remarkable $950 million at the box office worldwide.

It should rack up nominations for cast members including Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr, as well as its director.

Organizers of the Globes will hope that the enduring hype and attention surrounding “Barbenheimer,” as well as other popular and acclaimed films such as “Killers of the Flower Moon” and “Poor Things,” can shift the focus away from the gala’s recent notoriety.

The Golden Globes have endured a rough few years, after a Los Angeles Times expose in 2021 showed that the awards’ voting body — the Hollywood Foreign Press Association — had no Black members.

That revelation triggered the airing of a wide range of other long-simmering criticisms about the HFPA, including allegations of amateurism and corruption.

Earlier this year, the awards’ assets and trademarks were purchased and overhauled by a group of private investors including US billionaire Todd Boehly, and the HFPA was disbanded.

Hollywood-based former HFPA members have been banned from accepting gifts and will now be paid a salary to vote for their favorite films and shows, while more than 200 non-member (and unpaid) voters from around the world have been added to the Globes mix.

Cedric The Entertainer and Wilmer Valderrama will announce the Globes nominees on “CBS Mornings” from 1330 GMT.

One of the United States’ biggest national television networks, CBS has stepped in to become the new home of the Globes, after long-standing host NBC ended its deal to broadcast the event.

CBS bosses will be hoping for vastly improved ratings, after the 2023 Globes slumped to a new low of just 6.3 million viewers, even as other shows such as the Oscars recovered from pandemic viewership nadirs.

A new category for “best cinematic or box office achievement” has been added, paving the way for nominations for popular films that would not usually earn critical recognition, such as Universal’s $1.3 billion-grossing “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.” and Marvel superhero film “Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3.”

In another seeming bid to honor more household names, the number of nominees in each category has been increased.

A-listers such as Leonardo DiCaprio — the star of Martin Scorsese’s crime epic “Killers of the Flower Moon” — and Emma Stone for her turn in female Frankenstein-esque drama “Poor Things” are also widely expected to score nominations.

Others likely to feature are Paul Giamatti (“The Holdovers”), Bradley Cooper (“Maestro”), Timothee Chalamet (“Wonka”) and Natalie Portman (“May December.”)

The Globes also honor television, with dramas “Succession” and “The Last Of Us” likely to rack up nods, alongside comedies “The Bear” and “Ted Lasso.”

The 81st Golden Globes ceremony will take place in Beverly Hills on Jan. 7.
…

For the first time in Hayao Miyazaki’s decades-spanning career, the 82-year-old Japanese anime master is No. 1 at the North American box office. Miyazaki’s latest enchantment, “The Boy and the Heron,” debuted with $12.8 million, according to studio estimates.

“The Boy and the Heron,” the long-awaited animated fantasy from the director of “Spirited Away,” “My Neighbor Totoro” and other cherished anime classics, is only the third anime to ever top the box office in U.S. and Canadian theaters and the first original anime to do so. The film, which is playing in both subtitled and dubbed versions, is also the first fully foreign film to land atop the domestic box office this year.

Though Miyazaki’s movies have often been enormous hits in Japan and Asia, they’ve traditionally made less of a mark in North American cinemas. The director’s previous best performer was his last movie, 2013’s “The Wind Rises,” which grossed $5.2 million in its entire domestic run.

“The Boy and the Heron,” which earlier collected $56 million in Japan, for years was expected to be Miyazaki’s swan song. But just as it was making its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, Junichi Nishioka, Studio Ghibli vice president, said the previously retired Miyazaki is still working toward another film.

“The Boy and the Heron,” has been hailed as one of the best films of the year. The film, featuring an English dub voice cast including Robert Pattinson, Christian Bale, Dave Bautista and Mark Hamill, follows a boy who, after his mother perishes in World War II bombing, is led by a mysterious heron to a portal that takes him to a fantastical realm. In Japan, its title translates to “How Do You Live?”

Last week’s top film, “Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé,” dropped steeply in its second weekend. The concert film, the second pop star release distributed by AMC Theatres following Taylor Swift’s “The Eras Tour,” collected $5 million in its second weekend, a decline of 76% from its $21 million opening.
…

The Paris 2024 organizing committee president said Thursday that he still wanted the surfing competition at next year’s Olympics to take place in Tahiti, despite the controversy surrounding the construction of the judging tower at the site, where coral has been damaged. 

Speaking to media company Polynesie La Premiere, Tony Estanguet said he was going to pour “all [his] energy” into keeping the surfing in French Polynesia at the Tahiti site of Teahupo’o. 

Because Teahupo’o’s surf breaks offshore, the Olympic judges have to be out in the lagoon. Organizers intend to put them and television cameras on an aluminum tower that will be attached to the reef. 

That plan has sparked protests in Tahiti, with critics fearing for coral and other marine life. That criticism reached another level last week when organizers tried to test out a barge used to build the tower in the surfing lagoon and coral was damaged. That led local authorities to halt the construction. 

“We need to find a solution to respect environment,” Estanguet said. “As organizers, we need to adapt.” 

Critics on the island have voiced fears for coral reefs, fish and other aquatic life when the tower’s foundations are drilled into the seabed and mounted on concrete. Islanders pushed for the Olympics to use a wooden tower on existing foundations that have long been the setup for surfing competitions at Teahupo’o. They have collected more than 160,000 signatures with an online petition. 

But Estanguet said the old judging tower does not meet Olympic standards for security reasons. 

“We don’t want to compromise on safety — we won’t put anyone’s safety at risk,” Estanguet said. 

He said the objective would be to find a way to let the barge access the site without damaging the coral reef. 

Surfing’s governing body, ISA, said it “was saddened and surprised to see that a test undertaken by the French Polynesian government resulted in the coral reef at Teahupo’o being damaged.” 

ISA also welcomed the decision to pause all further testing and “urged intensified consultations to consider all available options.” 

The French towns of Lacanau and La Torche in continental France have both proposed to host the Games’ surfing events if the Tahiti site is finally abandoned. Estanguet said it’s not an option for now. 

“As a partner of the Polynesian government I want to put all my energy … to find the best solutions so we can have the surfing events in Tahiti,” Estanguet said. “We still have a bit of time to find another technical solution to have this tower installed while respecting the environment. This is the priority we all share.” 

For France, the Tahitian venue will allow the host country to highlight its long historical ties to the Pacific and involve its far-off overseas territories in the Summer Games. 

But the faraway Tahiti venue has also raised logistical and environmental questions because the rest of the Summer Games are focused in the host city, Paris, nearly 16,000 kilometers and 10 time zones away.
…

Ryan O’Neal, the heartthrob actor who went from a TV soap opera to an Oscar-nominated role in Love Story and delivered a wry performance opposite his charismatic 9-year-old daughter, Tatum, in Paper Moon, died Friday, his son said.

“My dad passed away peacefully today, with his loving team by his side supporting him and loving him as he would us,” Patrick O’Neal, a Los Angeles sportscaster, posted on Instagram.

Attempts to reach O’Neal representatives were not immediately successful.

No cause of death was given. Ryan O’Neal was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2012, a decade after he was first diagnosed with chronic leukemia. He was 82.

“My father, Ryan O’Neal, has always been my hero,” Patrick O’Neal wrote, adding, “He is a Hollywood legend. Full stop.”

O’Neal was among the biggest movie stars in the world in the 1970s, working across genres with many of the era’s most celebrated directors including Peter Bogdanovich on Paper Moon and What’s Up, Doc? and Stanley Kubrick on Barry Lyndon. He often used his boyish, blond good looks to play men who hid shadowy or sinister backgrounds behind their clean-cut images.

O’Neal maintained a steady television acting career into his 70s in the 2010s, appearing for stints on Bones and Desperate Housewives, but his longtime relationship with Farrah Fawcett and his tumultuous family life kept him in the news.

Twice divorced, O’Neal was romantically involved with Fawcett for nearly 30 years, and they had a son, Redmond, born in 1985. The couple split in 1997 but reunited a few years later. He remained by Fawcett’s side as she battled cancer, which killed her in 2009 at age 62.

With his first wife, Joanna Moore, O’Neal fathered actors Griffin O’Neal and Tatum O’Neal, his co-star in the 1973 movie Paper Moon, for which she won an Oscar for best supporting actress. He had son Patrick with his second wife, Leigh Taylor-Young.

Ryan O’Neal had his own best-actor Oscar nomination for the 1970 tear-jerker drama Love Story, co-starring Ali MacGraw, about a young couple who fall in love, marry and discover she is dying of cancer. The movie includes the memorable, but often satirized line: “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.”

The actor had at times strained relationships with three of his children, including estrangement from his daughter, squabbles with son Griffin and a drug-related arrest sparked by a probation check of his son Redmond. The personal drama often over-shadowed his later career, although his attempts to reconcile with Tatum O’Neal were turned into a short-lived reality series.

Love Story is what made him a movie star.

The romantic melodrama was the highest-grossing film of 1970, became one of Paramount Pictures’ biggest hits and collected seven Oscar nominations, including one for best picture. It won for best music.

O’Neal then starred for Bogdanovich as a bumbling professor opposite Barbra Streisand in the 1972 screwball comedy What’s Up, Doc?

“So sad to hear the news of Ryan O’Neal’s passing,” Streisand, who also starred with O’Neal in the 1979 boxing romcom The Main Event, posted on Instagram. “He was funny and charming, and he will be remembered.”

The year after What’s Up, Doc? Bogdanovich cast him in the Depression-era con artist comedy Paper Moon.

In it, O’Neal played an unscrupulous Bible salesman preying on widows he located through obituary notices. His real-life daughter, Tatum, played a trash-talking, cigarette-smoking orphan who needs his help — and eventually helps redeem him.

Although critics praised both actors, the little girl’s brash performance overshadowed her father’s and made her the youngest person in history to win a regular Academy Award. She was 10 when the award was presented in 1974.

The elder O’Neal’s next major film was Kubrick’s 18th century epic Barry Lyndon, in which he played a poor Irish rogue who traveled Europe trying to pass himself off as an aristocrat.
…

Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour is the first tour to cross the billion-dollar mark, according to Pollstar’s 2023 year-end charts.

Not only was Swift’s landmark Eras Tour the No. 1 tour both worldwide and in North America, but she also brought in a whopping $1.04 billion with 4.35 million tickets sold across 60 tour dates, the concert trade publication found.

Pollstar data is pulled from box office reports, venue capacity estimates, historical Pollstar venue ticket sales data, and other undefined research, collected from November 17, 2022, to November 15, 2023.

Representatives for the publication did not immediately clarify if they adjusted past tour data to match 2023 inflation in naming Swift the first to break the billion-dollar threshold.

Pollstar also found that Swift brought in approximately $200 million in merch sales and her blockbuster film adaptation of the tour, “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour,” has reportedly earned approximately $250 million in sales, making it the highest-grossing concert film of all time.

According to their estimates, Pollstar predicts a big 2024 for Swift as well. The magazine projects the Eras Tour will once again reach $1 billion within their eligibility window, meaning Swift is likely to bring in over $2 billion over the span of the tour.

Worldwide, Swift’s tour was followed by Beyoncé in second, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band in third, Coldplay in fourth, Harry Styles in fifth, and Morgan Wallen, Ed Sheeran, Pink, The Weeknd and Drake.

In North America, there was a similar top 10: Swift, followed by Beyoncé, Morgan Wallen, Drake, P!nk, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, Ed Sheeran, George Strait, Karol G, and RBD.

Beyond the Swift of it all, 2023 was a landmark year for concert sales: worldwide, the top 100 tours of the year saw a 46% jump from last year, bringing in $9.17 billion compared to 2022’s $6.28 billion.

In North America, that number jumped from $4.77 billion last year to $6.63 billion.

Earlier this week, Swift was named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year. Last month, Apple Music named her its artist of the year; Spotify revealed she was 2023’s most-streamed artist globally, raking in more than 26.1 billion streams since Jan. 1 and beating Bad Bunny’s three-year record.
…

Is the year of Taylor Swift over now? Not yet.

Time magazine named Swift its person of the year on Wednesday, a week after Spotify announced she was the most-played artist on the streaming platform.

Swift was picked from a group of nine finalists that included Barbie, King Charles III and OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman.

“While her popularity has grown across the decades, this is the year that Swift, 33, achieved a kind of nuclear fusion: shooting art and commerce together to release an energy of historic force,” Time said about her selection.

Her year included the wildly popular Eras Tour and concert movie, the release of her reimagined “1989” album, and her closely watched relationship with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. She’s even the subject of college courses.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was Time’s 2022 person of the year.
…

Television producer-writer Norman Lear, whose ground-breaking hit comedy shows such as “All in the Family” and “Maude” addressed social issues such as race and abortion that had rarely been seen on U.S. television, died on Tuesday at the age of 101, according to media reports. 

Lear, one of the most influential people in television, died at his Los Angeles home of natural causes, Variety reported on Wednesday, citing his publicist. 

Lear, who won six Emmy awards for his work in television, was known for his campaigning for liberal causes, including voting rights, and worked well into his 90s. 

In 2017, he rebooted his 1970s TV series “One Day at a Time” to focus on a Cuban American family, and in 2020 he earned his sixth Emmy for a live special broadcast of “All in the Family” and “Good Times.” 

In February 2021, Lear received the Carol Burnett Award, a lifetime achievement award, at the Golden Globe Awards ceremony for his contributions to television. 

In addition to “All in the Family” and “Maude,” Lear dominated American TV screens in the 1970s and ’80s with the situation-comedy shows “Sanford and Son,” “The Jeffersons,” and the soap-opera spoof “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.” At one point in the 1970s, Lear had eight shows on the air with an estimated 120 million viewers, Time magazine said. 

By drawing material from social themes of the time, Lear’s shows made network executives nervous because they had a depth and air of controversy. 

“For him to say that he didn’t have an impact on not only television, but society is … a little too humble,” said Rob Reiner, who had a co-starring role on “All in the Family” before becoming a film director. 

Lear and production partner Bud Yorkin put “All in the Family” on the air in January 1971 and the show would go on to win four Emmys for best comedy in its nine seasons. It was based on a British show, “Til Death Do Us Part,” and gave U.S. television one of its most memorable and controversial characters — Archie Bunker. 

Carroll O’Connor portrayed Archie as a crude, loud, blue-collar New Yorker who spouted racist, homophobic and antisemitic comments. He was cast against a scatter-brained wife he called “Dingbat,” a liberal daughter and an even more liberal son-in-law he referred to as “Meathead” and played by Reiner. 

“All in the Family” was the top-rated show on U.S. television for five straight years, according to CBS, and TV Guide ranked it fourth on its list of television’s all-time greatest shows.  

 

Born on July 27, 1922, in New Haven, Connecticut, Norman Milton Lear’s most lasting creation was partly based on fact. Many of the harsh words that came out of Archie’s mouth had first been spoken by Lear’s own father, Herman Lear, who went to prison for selling fake bonds, and frequently told his wife to “stifle” herself and called his son “the laziest white kid I ever saw.” 

“I grew up in a family that lived at the top of its lungs and the ends of its nerves,” Lear told Esquire magazine. Some critics said the Archie Bunker character put a laughing face on bigotry, but Lear said it only pointed to the complexity of humanity. 

A year after “All in the Family” started, Lear aired “Maude,” a spin-off that starred Bea Arthur as Archie’s acerbic sister-in-law and political opposite. 

As with Bunker, the character was like none previously seen on U.S. television. Maude was on her fourth husband, protested marijuana laws and had an abortion before the U.S. Supreme Court legalized the procedure nationwide. Her husband battled alcoholism, had two nervous breakdowns and attempted suicide. 

Black characters in U.S. television in the ’70s were mostly limited to minor roles until Lear made them the focus of some of his shows. 

“The Jeffersons” was another spin-off of “All in the Family” and featured an upwardly mobile Black couple who moved to Manhattan’s glitzy upper eastside neighborhood. The show’s lead character George was often rude and loud. Lear’s other hits included “Sanford and Son” a sitcom about a Black junkyard owner in a Los Angeles neighborhood, and “Good Times,” a portrayal of a working-class Black family in a Chicago housing project. 

Other Lear-produced hits included “Diff’rent Strokes,” “Fernwood 2 Night,” and the “All in the Family” spin-off “Archie Bunker’s Place.” But Lear also had flops such as “All That Glitters,”  “Sunday Dinner” and another “All in the Family” spin-off, “Gloria.” 

Lear, who grew up in Connecticut, dropped out of college in World War II to join the Army and flew 52 combat missions. He went to Los Angeles in 1950 with the intention of being a publicist but began writing for TV stars such as Danny Thomas, Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin and Andy Williams.

Lear shifted focus in 1981 and founded the liberal activist group People for the American Way to boost voting rights and fight right-wing extremism. He also established the Norman Lear Center at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Communication.

In 2001, he and a partner purchased an original copy of the U.S. Declaration of Independence and sent it on a three-year tour of U.S. schools, libraries and events. Lear is survived by his third wife, Lyn, and his six children. 
…

The plight of fugitives and refugees has been part of the artist Dima Alekseevs’ work since he left Russia in 2016. He now lives in the U.S. Nina Vishneva visited the artist and has this report narrated by Anna Rice. (Camera: Vladimir Badikov, Elena Matusovsky; Produced by Elena Matusovsky, Anna Rice)  
…

Millions around the world turn to Wikipedia when they want to better understand the world around them, and that apparently includes artificial intelligence — the most searched topic on the online encyclopedia in 2023.

“ChatGPT is one of the generative AI tools that is trained on Wikipedia data, pulling large amounts of content from Wikipedia projects to answer people’s questions,” says Anusha Alikhan, chief communications officer at the Wikimedia Foundation. “So, the fact that millions of people are going to Wikipedia to learn about ChatGPT is kind of an interesting twist.”

Wikipedia articles about ChatGPT garnered more than 79 million page views across all languages, according to the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that hosts and funds the site. The information found on Wikipedia is managed by volunteer editors around the world.

English-language Wikipedia drew more than 84 billion views in 2023, according to the nonprofit. The top five articles this year were ChatGPT; Deaths in 2023; 2023 World Cricket Cup; Indian Premier League; and the film “Oppenheimer.”

Cricket is a popular global sport, but this is the first time since Wikipedia started keeping track in 2015 that an article about the sport made the list.

The rest of the most popular topics in Wikipedia’s Top 25 include a couple of Indian movies, as well as the U.S. megahit film, “Barbie.” Two celebrities who died this year —Matthew Perry and Lisa Marie Presley — are on the list, as are two well-known people: singer Taylor Swift and businessman Elon Musk, who made headlines a lot this year. Sports events, the United States, and India also made the Top 25 list.

“It gives the world, in our opinion, a real deep dive into the topics that people were most interested in for the entire year,” Alikhan says. “We often say also that Wikipedia reflects the world.”

According to Wikipedia data, the top five countries that accessed the English Wikipedia in 2023 are the United States (33 billion page views); the United Kingdom (9 billion page views); India (8.48 million page views); Canada (3.95 billion page views); and Australia (2.56 billion page views).

Historical subjects that make the list are often connected to a current event, including J. Robert Oppenheimer, the so-called father of the atomic bomb.

“The fact that number seven on the list is J. Robert Oppenheimer speaks to the fact that it was, of course, connected to the ‘Oppenheimer’ movie,” Alikhan says. “The article about him was also very highly trafficked, in addition to the film. So typically, if there’s a historical article in the Top 25, it’s because it was related to a current event.”

Top 25 English Wikipedia articles that received the most pageviews in 2023:

ChatGPT  49 million page views

Deaths in 2023  43 million

2023 Cricket World Cup  38 million

Indian Premier League   32 million

Oppenheimer (film)   28 million

Cricket World Cup 25.9 million

J. Robert Oppenheimer 25.6 million

Jawan (film) 22 million

2023 Indian Premier League 21 million

Pathaan (film) 19.9 million

The Last of Us (TV series) 19.7 million

Taylor Swift 19 million

Barbie (film) 18 million

Cristiano Ronaldo 17 million

Lionel Messi 16.62 million

Premier League 16.60 million

Matthew Perry 16.45 million

United States 16.24 million

Elon Musk 14.37 million

Avatar: The Way of Water (film) 14.30 million

India 13.8 million

Lisa Marie Presley 13.7 million

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (film) 13.3 million

Russian invasion of Ukraine 12.79 million

Andrew Tate 12.72 million

 
…

The Netherlands returned six artifacts including a cannon, a ceremonial sword and two guns taken from Sri Lanka more than 250 years ago on Tuesday, as part of efforts by the former colonial power to redress historical wrongs, officials said.

Sri Lanka asked the Netherlands to return the artifacts after the Dutch government approved the restitution of historic objects in 2021.

The artifacts were taken in 1765 from Kandy, the last kingdom of ancient Sri Lanka, when the Dutch besieged the palace, a statement from the Netherlands embassy said.

“The objects were wrongfully brought to the Netherlands during the colonial period, acquired under duress or by looting,” it added.

Sri Lanka is grateful to the government and the people of the Netherlands for returning the artifacts, said Buddhasasana Religious and Cultural Affairs Minister Vidura Wickramanayake.

“There are more to come. Not only from the Netherlands but also from other countries like Great Britain. So we have already started negotiations and I hope they will be fruitful very soon,” he told reporters.

The artifacts will now be housed at the National Museum in Colombo and more are expected to follow.

“These objects represent an important cultural and historical value and they are back in Sri Lanka where they can be seen by the Sri Lankan public,” said Dewi Van de Weerd, Ambassador for International Cultural Cooperation.

“The value of returning these objects is important because it is about addressing historical injustices.”

The Netherlands returned over 300 artifacts to Indonesia earlier this year, according to its government.

Returning artifacts to former colonized countries is a long running and often sensitive issue.

A dispute between Britain and Greece over the ownership of the Parthenon Sculptures, known as the Elgin marbles, escalated last month, with both sides blaming the other for the cancellation of a planned meeting between their two leaders.

Greece has repeatedly called on the British Museum to permanently return the 2,500-year-old sculptures that British diplomat Lord Elgin removed from the Parthenon temple in Athens in 1806, during a period when Greece was under Ottoman Turkish rule.
…

The newest group of Kennedy Center honorees, including comedian Billy Crystal and actor Queen Latifah, are being feted Sunday night at a star-studded event marking their lifetime achievement in arts and entertainment.

Opera singer Renee Fleming, music star Barry Gibb and prolific hitmaker Dionne Warwick also are being honored at the black-tie gala. Each will receive personalized tributes that typically include appearances and performances that are kept secret from the honorees themselves.

In announcing the recipients earlier this year, the Kennedy Center’s president, Deborah F. Rutter, called this year’s group of inductees “an extraordinary mix of individuals who have redefined their art forms.”

Crystal, 75, came to national prominence in the 1970s playing Jodie Dallas, one of the first openly gay characters on American network television, on the sitcom “Soap.” He went on to a brief but memorable one-year stint on “Saturday Night Live” before starring in a string of movies, including hits such as “When Harry Met Sally…” “The Princess Bride” and “City Slickers.”

Crystal, who also received the Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain Prize for lifetime achievement in comedy in 2007, joins an elite group of comedians cited for both: David Letterman, Steve Martin, Lorne Michaels, Lily Tomlin, Carol Burnett and Neil Simon. Bill Cosby received both honors, but they were rescinded in 2018 following his sexual assault conviction, which later was overturned.

Warwick, 82, shot to stardom in the 1960s as the muse for the superstar songwriting team of Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Her discography includes a multidecade string of hits, both with and without Bacharach, that includes “I Say a Little Prayer,” “I’ll Never Love This Way Again” and “That’s What Friends Are For.”

Fleming, 64, is one of the leading sopranos of her era, with a string of accolades that includes a National Medal of Arts bestowed by President Barack Obama, a Cross of the Order of Merit from the German government and honorary membership in England’s Royal Academy of Music.

Gibb, 76, achieved global fame as part of one of the most successful bands in the history of modern music, the Bee Gees. Along with his late brothers Robin and Maurice, the trio launched a nearly unmatched string of hits that defined a generation of music.

Latifah, 53, has been a star since age 19 when her debut album and hit single “Ladies First” made her the first female crossover rap star. She has gone on to a diverse career that has included seven studio albums, starring roles in multiple television shows and movies and an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress for her role in the movie musical “Chicago.”

Fleming and Latifah, real name Dana Owens, also share an obscure bit of Kennedy Center Honors historical trivia. They both performed at the 2014 Super Bowl. Fleming sang the national anthem while Latifah performed “America the Beautiful.”
…

Beyoncé ruled the box office this weekend. Her concert picture, “Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé,” opened in first place with $21 million in North American ticket sales, according to estimates from AMC Theatres Sunday.

The post-Thanksgiving, early December box office is notoriously slow, but “Renaissance” defied the odds. Not accounting for inflation, it’s the first time a film has opened over $20 million on this weekend in 20 years (since “The Last Samurai”).

Beyoncé wrote, directed and produced “Renaissance,” which is focused on the tour for her Grammy-winning album. It debuted in 2,539 theaters in the U.S. and Canada, as well as 94 international territories, where it earned $6.4 million from 2,621 theaters.

“On behalf of AMC Theaters Distribution and the entire theatrical industry, we thank Beyoncé for bringing this incredible film directly to her fans,” said Elizabeth Frank, AMC Theaters executive vice president of worldwide programming, in a statement. “To see it resonate with fans and with film critics on a weekend that many in the industry typically neglect is a testament to her immense talent, not just as a performer, but as a producer and director.”

Despite several other new releases including “Godzilla Minus One,” the Hindi-language “Animal,” Angel Studios’ sci-fi thriller “The Shift,” and Lionsgate’s John Woo-directed revenge pic “Silent Night,” it was a slow weekend overall. Films in the top 10 are expected to gross only $85 million in total. But it was in this traditional “lull” that AMC Theaters found a good opportunity for “Renaissance” to shine.

“They chose a great weekend,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. “There was competition, but it was from very different kinds of movies.”

Though “Renaissance” did not come close to matching the $92.8 million debut of “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” in October, it’s still a very good start for a concert film. No one expected “Renaissance” to match “The Eras Tour,” which is wrapping up its theatrical run soon with over $250 million globally. Prior to Swift, the biggest concert film debuts (titles held by Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber for their 2008 and 2011 films) had not surpassed the unadjusted sum of $32 million.

The 39-city, 56-show “Renaissance” tour, which kicked off in Stockholm, Sweden in May and ended in Kansas City, Missouri in the fall, made over $500 million and attracted over 2.7 million concertgoers. Swift’s ongoing “Eras Tour,” with 151 dates, is expected to gross some $1.4 billion.

Both Beyoncé and Swift chose to partner with AMC Theaters to distribute their films, as opposed to a traditional studio. Both superstars have been supportive of one another, making splashy appearances at the other’s premieres. Both had previously released films on Netflix (“Miss Americana” and “Homecoming”). And both are reported to be receiving at least 50% of ticket sales.

Movie tickets to the show were more expensive than average, around $23.32 versus Swift’s $20.78, according to data firm EntTelligence.

Critics and audiences gave “Renaissance” glowing reviews – it’s sitting at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes and got a coveted A+ CinemaScore from opening weekend audiences who were polled. EntTelligence also estimates that the audience, around 900,000 strong, skewed a little older than Swift’s.

“To have two concert films topping the chart in a single year is pretty unprecedented,” Dergarabedian said. But to compare them too closely would be a mistake.

“Taylor Swift was a total outlier and the result of a very specific set of circumstances,” he said. “These two films are similar in genre only.”

Lionsgate’s “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes” fell to second place in its third weekend with an estimated $14.5 million. The prequel has now earned over $121 million domestically.

“Godzilla Minus One” took third place on the North American charts with $11 million from 2,308 locations — the biggest opening for a foreign film in the U.S. this year. The well-reviewed Japanese blockbuster distributed by Toho International cost only $15 million to produce and has already earned $23 million in Japan.

“This year, we made a concentrated effort to answer the demand of the marketplace and make Godzilla globally accessible across many different platforms,” said Koji Ueda, President of Toho Global, in a statement.

“Trolls Band Together” landed in fourth place in its third weekend with $7.6 million, bringing its domestic total to $74.8 million.

Fifth place went to Disney’s “Wish,” which fell 62% from its underwhelming first weekend, with $7.4 million from 3,900 locations. Globally, it’s now made $81.6 million.

The studio’s other major film in theaters, “The Marvels” is winding down in its fourth weekend with a disastrous global tally of $197 million against the reported $300 million it cost to make and market the superhero film.

In its second weekend, Ridley Scott’s “Napoleon” earned an estimated $7.1 million from 3,500 locations. Produced by Apple Original Films and distributed by Sony Pictures, the film starring Joaquin Phoenix has now made $45.7 million domestically against a $200 million budget.

Things should pick up in the final weeks of 2023, with films like “Wonka” and “The Color Purple” yet to come. The industry is looking at a $9 billion year — still trailing the $11 billion pre-pandemic norm, but a marked improvement from the last few years. And there are still many solid options for moviegoers, as the industry’s awards season gets into full swing.

“We had a slow Thanksgiving and we’re having a pretty slow weekend this weekend, but it’s a great weekend to be a moviegoer in terms of the breadth and depth of the movies out there,” Dergarabedian said.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. “Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé,” $21 million.

2. “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes,” $14.5 million.

3. “Godzilla Minus One,” $11 million.

4. “Trolls Band Together,” $7.6 million.

5. “Wish,” $7.4 million.

6. “Napoleon,” $7.1 million.

7. “Animal,” $6.1 million.

8. “The Shift,” $4.4 million.

9. “Silent Night,” $3 million.

10. “Thanksgiving,” $2.6 million.
    …