Day: October 27, 2024

New York — “Venom: The Last Dance” showed less bite than expected at the box office, collecting $51 million in its opening weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday, significantly down from the alien symbiote franchise’s previous entries.

Projections for the third “Venom” film from Sony Pictures had been closer to $65 million. More concerning, though, was the drop off from the first two “Venom” films. The 2018 original debuted with $80.2 million, while the 2021 follow-up, “Venom: Let There Be Carnage,” opened with $90 million even as theaters were still in recovery mode during the pandemic.

“The Last Dance,” starring Tom Hardy as a journalist who shares his body with an alien entity also voiced by Hardy, could still turn a profit for Sony. Its production budget, not accounting for promotion and marketing, was about $120 million — significantly less than most comic-book films.

But “The Last Dance” is also performing better overseas. Internationally, “Venom: The Last Dance” collected $124 million over the weekend, including $46 million over five days of release in China. That’s good enough for one of the best international weekends of the year for a Hollywood release.

Still, neither reviews (36% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) nor audience scores (a franchise-low “B-” CinemaScore) have been good for the film scripted by Kelly Marcel and Hardy, and directed by Marcel.

The low weekend for “Venom: The Last Dance” also likely insures that superhero films will see their lowest-grossing year in a dozen years, not counting the pandemic year of 2020, according to David A. Gross, a film consultant who publishes a newsletter for Franchise Entertainment.

Following on the heels of the “Joker: Folie à Deux” flop, Gross estimates that 2024 superhero films will gross about $2.25 billion worldwide. The only upcoming entry is Marvel’s “Kraven the Hunter,” due out Dec. 13. Even with the $1.3 billion of “Deadpool & Wolverine,” the genre hasn’t, overall, been dominating the way it once did. In 2018, for example, superhero films accounted for more than $7 billion in global ticket sales.

Last week’s top film, the Paramount Pictures horror sequel “Smile 2,” dropped to second place with $9.4 million. That brings its two-week total to $83.7 million worldwide.

The weekend’s biggest success story might have been “Conclave,” the papal thriller starring Ralph Fiennes and directed by Edward Berger (“All Quiet on the Western Front”). The Focus Features release, a major Oscar contender, launched with $6.5 million in 1,753 theaters.

That put “Conclave” into third place, making it the rare adult-oriented drama to make a mark theatrically. Some 77% of ticket buyers were over the age of 35, Focus said. With a strong opening and stellar reviews, “Conclave” could continue to gather momentum both with moviegoers and Oscar voters.

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

1. “Venom: The Last Dance,” $51 million.

2. “Smile 2,” $9.4 million.

3. “Conclave,” $6.5 million.

4. “The Wild Robot,” $6.5 million.

5. “We Live in Time,” $4.8 million.

6. “Terrifier 3,” $4.3 million.

7. “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” $3.2 million.

8. “Anora,” $867,142.

9. “Piece by Piece,” $720,000.

10. “Transformers One,” $720,000.
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Baalbek, Lebanon — Since war erupted between Israel and Hezbollah, the famed Palmyra Hotel in east Lebanon’s Baalbek has been without visitors, but long-time employee Rabih Salika refuses to leave — even as bombs drop nearby.

The hotel, which was built in 1874, once welcomed renowned guests including former French President Charles de Gaulle and American singer Nina Simone.

Overlooking a large archaeological complex encompassing the ruins of an ancient Roman town, the Palmyra has kept its doors open through several conflicts and years of economic collapse.

“This hotel hasn’t closed its doors for 150 years,” Salika said, explaining that it welcomed guests at the height of Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war and during Israel’s last war with Hezbollah in 2006.

The 45-year-old has worked there for more than half his life and says he will not abandon it now.

“I’m very attached to this place,” he said, adding that the hotel’s vast, desolate halls leave “a huge pang in my heart.”

He spends his days dusting decaying furniture and antique mirrors. He clears glass shards from windows shattered by strikes.

Baalbek, known as the ‘City of the Sun’ in ancient times, is home to one of the world’s largest complex of Roman temples — designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

But the latest Israel-Hezbollah war has cast a pall over the eastern city, home to an estimated 250,000 people before the war.

Life at a standstill

After a year of cross-border clashes with Hezbollah, Israel last month ramped-up strikes on the group’s strongholds, including parts of Baalbek.

Only about 40 percent of Baalbek’s residents remain in the city, local officials say, mainly crammed into the city’s few Sunni-majority districts.

On October 6, Israeli strikes fell hundreds of meters (yards) away from the Roman columns that bring tourists to the city and the Palmyra hotel.

UNESCO told AFP it was “closely following the impact of the ongoing crisis in Lebanon on the cultural heritage sites.”

More than a month into the war, a handful of Baalbek’s shops remain open, albeit for short periods of time.

“The market is almost always closed. It opens for one hour a day, and sometimes not at all,” said Baalbek mayor Mustafa al-Shall.

Residents shop for groceries quickly in the morning, rarely venturing out after sundown.

They try “not to linger on the streets fearing an air strike could hit at any moment,” he said.

Last year, nearly 70,000 tourists and 100,000 Lebanese visited Baalbek. But the city has only attracted five percent of those figures so far this year, the mayor said.

Even before the war, local authorities in Baalbek were struggling to provide public services due to a five-year economic crisis.

Now municipality employees are mainly working to clear the rubble from the streets and provide assistance to shelters housing the displaced.

A Baalbek hospital was put out of service by a recent Israeli strike, leaving only five other facilities still fully functioning, Shall said.

‘No one’

Baalbek resident Hussein al-Jammal said the war has turned his life upside down.

“The streets were full of life, the citadel was welcoming visitors, restaurants were open, and the markets were crowded,” the 37-year-old social worker said.

“Now, there is no one.”

His young children and his wife have fled the fighting, but he said he had a duty to stay behind and help those in need.

“I work in the humanitarian field, I cannot leave, even if everyone leaves,” he said.

Only four homes in his neighborhood are still inhabited, he said, mostly by vulnerable elderly people.

“I pay them a visit every morning to see what they need,” he said, but “it’s hard to be away from your family.”

Rasha al-Rifai, 45, provides psychological support to women facing gender-based violence.

But in the month since the war began, she has lost contact with many.

“Before the war… we didn’t worry about anything,” said Rifai, who lives with her elderly parents.

“Now everything has changed, we work remotely, we don’t see anyone, most of the people I know have left.”

“In the 2006 war we were displaced several times, it was a very difficult experience, we don’t want this to happen again,” she said.

“We will stay here as long as it is bearable.”
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Bangkok — Thousands of well-wishers lined the banks of Bangkok’s Chao Phraya River Sunday to watch King Maha Vajiralongkorn ride a glittering royal barge procession to mark his 72nd birthday.

A flotilla of 52 ornately decorated boats, paddled by more than 2,000 oarsmen decked out in scarlet and gold, carried the king and Queen Suthida in formation through the heart of the Thai capital to a Buddhist ceremony at Wat Arun, the city’s ancient Temple of Dawn.

The king, officially regarded as semi-divine but who came in for unprecedented criticism in street protests in 2020 and 2021, took his place on a century-old royal barge known as the “Golden Swan” to deliver robes to monks in a ceremony marking the end of Buddhist Lent.

Royal barge processions date back hundreds of years, but are held rarely, saved for the most significant occasions — most recently, the king’s coronation in 2019.

During the 70-year reign of the previous king, Bhumibol Adulyadej, only 16 barge processions were held.

King Vajiralongkorn turned 72 in July, completing his “sixth cycle” in the 12-year astrological calendar — a milestone regarded by Thais as important and auspicious.

Normally the intricately ornamented barges — their prows decorated with garudas, nagas and other mythical creatures from Buddhist and Hindu mythology — are kept in a museum.

But on days of national importance, navy oarsmen in sarongs, red tunics and traditional hats propel them through the water to the banging of drums, as perfectly coordinated golden paddles break the waters.

Only four of the barges are actually deemed “royal,” while the others are officially royal escort vessels.

The barge procession dates back to Thailand’s 1350-1767 Ayutthaya period. When Bangkok was built more than 250 years ago, kings used the boats to travel through the capital’s network of canals.

As Thailand modernized, the barges fell out of use, but king Bhumibol revived the tradition in 1957 to celebrate the 25th century of the Buddhist era.
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