‘Fast X’ Speeds to No. 1; Knocks ‘Guardians 3’ to 2nd 

This image released by Universal Pictures shows Vin Diesel in a scene from "Fast X." (Universal Pictures via AP)
This image released by Universal Pictures shows Vin Diesel in a scene from "Fast X." (Universal Pictures via AP)
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‘Fast X’ Speeds to No. 1; Knocks ‘Guardians 3’ to 2nd 

This image released by Universal Pictures shows Vin Diesel in a scene from "Fast X." (Universal Pictures via AP)
This image released by Universal Pictures shows Vin Diesel in a scene from "Fast X." (Universal Pictures via AP)

The 10th installment of the “Fast and Furious” franchise was off to the races this weekend, knocking “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” out of first place and easily claiming the No. 1 spot at the box office. “Fast X” earned $67.5 million in ticket sales from 4,046 North American theaters, according to estimates from Universal Pictures on Sunday.

It’s on the lower end of openings for the series which peaked with “Furious 7’s” $142.2 million launch, the sole movie in the series to surpass $100 million out of the gates. “Fast X’s” domestic debut only ranks above the first three. The last movie, “F9,” opened to $70 million in 2021.

But this is also a series that has usually made the bulk of its money internationally, often over 70%. True to form, overseas it’s on turbo drive. “Fast X” opened in 84 markets internationally, playing in over 24,000 theaters, where it earned an estimated $251.4 million. The top market was China with $78.3 million, followed by Mexico with $16.7 million. And it adds up to a $319 million global debut — the third biggest of the franchise.

“It’s a global franchise with a very broad audience,” said Jim Orr, Universal’s head of domestic distribution. “The themes resonate across the world.”

Directed by Louis Leterrier (who took over from Justin Lin during production), “Fast X” brings back the familiar crew including Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson and Jordana Brewster and adds several newcomers, like Brie Larson, Rita Moreno and a villain played by Jason Momoa. The ever-expanding cast also includes Jason Statham, Charlize Theron, Scott Eastwood and Helen Mirren.

Reports say the movie cost $340 million to produce, not including marketing.

Reviews were mixed for “Fast X,” the beginning of the end for the $6 billion franchise, which currently has a 54% on Rotten Tomatoes. AP’s Mark Kennedy wrote in his review that, “It has become almost camp, as if it breathed in too much of its own fumes” and that it’s also “monstrously silly and stupidly entertaining.”

According to exit polls audienecs were 29% Caucasian, 29% Hispanic and 21% Black, and 58% were between the ages of 18 and 34. They gave the film a B+ CinemaScore.

In its third weekend, Disney and Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” made an estimated $32 million in North America to take second place. It’s now made $266.5 million domestically and $659.1 million globally.

Third place went to another Universal juggernaut, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” which is now in its seventh weekend and available to rent on VOD. Nevertheless, it earned an additional $9.8 million in North America, bringing its domestic total to $549.3 million.

“Book Club: The Next Chapter” added $3 million in its second weekend to take fourth place, while “Evil Dead Rise” rounded out the top five in its fifth weekend with $2.4 million.

“Mario” and “Fast X” are just the latest success stories for Universal, following hits like “Cocaine Bear” and “M3GAN.” And later this summer, on July 21, they’ll release Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer.”

“Universal as a studio is just on a roll like no other by having this incredible slate of films from all different types of genres,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. “They’ve created a release strategy that’s really picture perfect so far.”

“Fast X” doesn’t have an entirely open runway though. Next weekend there will be sizable competition in Disney’s live-action “The Little Mermaid,” in addition to a slew of crowd-pleasers hoping to catch a Memorial Day weekend audience, including Julia Louis-Dreyfus in “You Hurt My Feelings” and the broad comedy “About My Father,” with Sebastian Maniscalco and Robert De Niro.



Movie Review: St4llone, St4tham Are Back in ‘Expend4bles,’ Yet Another Expend4ble Sequel

 This image released by Lionsgate shows Sylvester Stallone in a scene from "The Expend4bles." (Lionsgate via AP)
This image released by Lionsgate shows Sylvester Stallone in a scene from "The Expend4bles." (Lionsgate via AP)
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Movie Review: St4llone, St4tham Are Back in ‘Expend4bles,’ Yet Another Expend4ble Sequel

 This image released by Lionsgate shows Sylvester Stallone in a scene from "The Expend4bles." (Lionsgate via AP)
This image released by Lionsgate shows Sylvester Stallone in a scene from "The Expend4bles." (Lionsgate via AP)

It’s a throwaway line, but maybe a bit too meaningful, under the circumstances. “Gravity is setting in,” says Barney, Sylvester Stallone’s aging character in “Expend4bles,” when someone asks how he’s doing.

Indeed. Gravity is setting in throughout “Expend4bles,” a movie whose most enticing mystery is not the secret identity of its shadowy villain, but how you pronounce the film’s title. Are we supposed to enunciate the mid-word numeral, or is it merely visual? Is this what stands for a smart new spin on a tired franchise? Will we soon have “My Big F4t Greek Wedding”? Are these questions supposed to distract us from how stunningly mediocre the film is?

Perhaps we digress. This is, obviously, the fourth “Expendables” film, but our considered scientific opinion is that you needn’t see the first three to catch up. True, there’s no explanatory intro, but if you’ve seen earlier “Expendables” films, you’ll know there’s not much to know. These guys are the indestructible mercenaries who swoop in – literally, on Barney’s turboprop plane – to do dirty work in miserable places. The body count is head-spinningly high (this film, directed by Scott Waugh, returns to an R rating after a switch to PG-13 for the last installment). The dialogue is head-spinningly mundane. The flow of testosterone is, well, head-spinning.

Leading the pack, as ever, is Stallone’s Barney Ross and his expert knife-wielding best bud, Lee Christmas — Jason Statham, reveling in his Cockney charm and smiling more than usual. (This is not a bad thing. Statham has a nice smile. This may be the only good thing.) Also back are Dolph Lundgren’s Gunner and Randy Couture’s Toll Road.

And now, perhaps in a nod to the previously unrecognized fact that half the human race is female, we have Megan Fox as mercenary leader Gina. More on her in a bit. Also providing new blood is Andy Garcia as a prickly CIA handler, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson as an ex-Marine and new team member, and two martial arts stars: Iko Uwais as ruthless arms dealer Rahmat, and Tony Jaa as quiet warrior Decha. Other additions: Jacob Scipio is the son of Antonio Banderas’ character from the last film, and Levy Tran is a new female teammate, adept with a whip chain.

Got all that? In a prelude scene in New Orleans, we reconnect with Barney, who now has salt-and-pepper hair, and a bad back — so bad, he enlists Christmas to help him recover his prized skeleton ring at a biker bar, which he’s lost in a thumb-wrestling contest. The thugs dispatched and the ring collected, it’s time to get back to work.

This means a trip to Libya, where aforementioned arms dealer Rahmat (Uwais) is securing detonators for a nuclear weapon. CIA handler Marsh (Garcia) needs the Expendables to stop him. The other thing you should know is that Barney is determined to unmask a shadowy figure codenamed Ocelot who’s maybe pulling all the strings.

Not surprisingly, the Expendables run into resistance. The body count mounts, and then something happens that will change the trajectory of the film. We can’t give it away, but let’s just say it brings Statham’s Christmas to the forefront for much of the film.

But he makes an early error that sidelines him for a bit. Leading the next stage of the mission will be Gina (Fox), his ex (or maybe current?) girlfriend. Gina is introduced to us the only way a woman in a testosterone-dripping franchise like this can be: Sexy AND crazy, yelling like the dickens in a hot little dress. She also wears an absurd amount of makeup, including on the mission. Apparently, there’s a brand of matte lipstick that holds up very well through mortal combat. Which is convenient if your ex-boyfriend may or may not be showing up.

All this action takes place on a freighter where the aforementioned nuclear bomb is being stored. It includes countless killings and also a motorcycle chase (on a freighter!) It all gets very tiresome.

It doesn’t help that the special effects sometimes seem thrown together with about as much care as the script. Some of the most obvious green screens provide inadvertent comedy. As for intended comedy, the only truly funny scene is when Christmas, sidelined, tries out a job as security detail for an obnoxious social media influencer.

The likable British action star is having a busy year. In “Expend4bles,” as mentioned, they let him smile a lot, and it’s a nice touch. Still, if there’s an “Expend5bles,” they’re gonna need more than a Statham smile and another mid-word numeral in the title.


No Deal Yet as Hollywood Writers, Studios Talk for Third Straight Day

SAG-AFTRA actors and Writers Guild of America (WGA) writers walk the picket line outside Disney Studios in Burbank, California, US, July 25, 2023. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo
SAG-AFTRA actors and Writers Guild of America (WGA) writers walk the picket line outside Disney Studios in Burbank, California, US, July 25, 2023. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo
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No Deal Yet as Hollywood Writers, Studios Talk for Third Straight Day

SAG-AFTRA actors and Writers Guild of America (WGA) writers walk the picket line outside Disney Studios in Burbank, California, US, July 25, 2023. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo
SAG-AFTRA actors and Writers Guild of America (WGA) writers walk the picket line outside Disney Studios in Burbank, California, US, July 25, 2023. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo

Striking Hollywood writers and top studio executives met for a third straight day on Friday, ending with a decision to continue talks on Saturday as they try to end a work stoppage that has shut down film and TV production for months.
While workers across the entertainment industry waited for word of the outcome, no agreement was announced as the strike reached its 144th day.
The WGA said in a statement early on Saturday that the two sides would meet again on Saturday, Reuters reported.
Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger, Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos, Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav and Donna Langley, chairman of Comcast's NBCUniversal Studio Group, took part in the talks with the Writers Guild of America (WGA) for a third day.
Representatives for the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents the studios, had no comment.
While the two sides met, union members turned out in large numbers in response to an appeal from WGA negotiators on Thursday to flood picket lines outside the studios.
In the crowd outside Netflix on Friday was "Mad Men" creator and writer Matthew Weiner, who like others voiced optimism that the recent talks signaled progress was being made.
"I'm hopeful," Weiner said of the possibility that the strike could be coming to an end. "I would like to go back to work and I would like to start mending these relationships."
Roughly 11,500 WGA members walked off the job in May, demanding higher pay and residuals in the streaming TV era plus limits around the use of artificial intelligence.
Producer and WGA member Al Septien, also picketing outside Netflix on Friday, said he wanted to get back to work, but only under the right terms.
"We've been out here a long time. We don't want to fold for a less-than-fair and good contract for the writers,” he said.
The SAG-AFTRA actors union also is on strike after walking off the job in July.


Amazon to Start Ads on Prime Video from 2024

FILE PHOTO: The logo of Amazon is seen, November 15, 2022.  REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Amazon is seen, November 15, 2022. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol/File Photo
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Amazon to Start Ads on Prime Video from 2024

FILE PHOTO: The logo of Amazon is seen, November 15, 2022.  REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Amazon is seen, November 15, 2022. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol/File Photo

Amazon.com said on Friday Prime Video shows and movies will include limited advertisements from early 2024.
The US tech giant said the advertisements will be introduced in the United States, the UK, Germany and Canada in early 2024, followed by France, Italy, Spain, Mexico and Australia later in the year.
Amazon will roll out an ad-free subscription tier for an additional $2.99 per month for US Prime members. Prime subscription in the US costs $14.99 per month or $139 per year.
Live event content such as sports will continue to include advertising even if the subscriber has paid for the ad-free plan, Amazon said.


Japan TV Network Will Acquire Totoro Creator Studio Ghibli as Animation Studio Prepares for Future 

Hayao Miyazaki of Japan, director of the animated film "Ponyo," poses at a special screening of the film in Los Angeles on July 27, 2009. (AP)
Hayao Miyazaki of Japan, director of the animated film "Ponyo," poses at a special screening of the film in Los Angeles on July 27, 2009. (AP)
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Japan TV Network Will Acquire Totoro Creator Studio Ghibli as Animation Studio Prepares for Future 

Hayao Miyazaki of Japan, director of the animated film "Ponyo," poses at a special screening of the film in Los Angeles on July 27, 2009. (AP)
Hayao Miyazaki of Japan, director of the animated film "Ponyo," poses at a special screening of the film in Los Angeles on July 27, 2009. (AP)

Studio Ghibli, the famed Japanese animation studio of Hayao Miyazaki, will become a subsidiary of Nippon Television Network Corp., both sides said Thursday.

Succession worries had been a priority at Ghibli, as Miyazaki has turned 82, and producer Toshio Suzuki is 75, the companies said in a joint statement.

The boards of both companies agreed at meetings Thursday that the major commercial broadcast network will become Studio Ghibli’s top shareholder, with a 42.3% stake. Financial details were not given.

Nippon TV said it will send executives to support Ghibli’s management, while honoring its creative independence so it can focus on animation and other artistic projects.

The deal was first discussed last year at an “onsen” hot springs, the companies said, when Suzuki asked Nippon TV executive Yoshikuni Sugiyama for help in managing Ghibli. Sugiyama promised to give support.

Miyazaki’s son Goro is also an animation director and has been mentioned as a possible successor. But he had expressed doubts, saying the responsibility was too great.

Ghibli and Nippon TV have collaborated in the past, since “Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind” aired on TV in 1985. Nippon TV has also helped produce various Ghibli works, starting with Miyazaki’s 1989 “Kiki’s Delivery Service.” It also helped set up the museum devoted to Ghibli works in Tokyo.

Earlier this year, Miyazaki finished “The Boy and the Heron,” completed after seven years. It is based on a book but is also loosely based on Miyazaki’s wartime childhood. The Japanese title, which better expresses its theme, translates to: “How Will You Live?”

Miyazaki won an Oscar for his 2001 “Spirited Away.” He has occasionally declared he was retiring but has always returned to his craft.

He has produced an extensive range of animation works enjoyed by adults as well as children, including “My Neighbor Totoro” and “Ponyo.”


Sophie Turner Sues to Force Estranged Husband Joe Jonas to Turn Over Children’s Passports 

Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner attend the 2022 Vanity Fair Oscar Party following the 94th Oscars at the The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, California on March 27, 2022. (AFP)
Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner attend the 2022 Vanity Fair Oscar Party following the 94th Oscars at the The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, California on March 27, 2022. (AFP)
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Sophie Turner Sues to Force Estranged Husband Joe Jonas to Turn Over Children’s Passports 

Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner attend the 2022 Vanity Fair Oscar Party following the 94th Oscars at the The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, California on March 27, 2022. (AFP)
Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner attend the 2022 Vanity Fair Oscar Party following the 94th Oscars at the The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, California on March 27, 2022. (AFP)

Actor Sophie Turner sued her estranged pop star husband Joe Jonas on Thursday to force him to turn over the passports of the couple’s two young daughters so she can take them to England.

Turner, who was served with divorce papers this month after four years of marriage to Jonas, said in her petition that the couple had planned to raise their daughters in her native England. It also said that the girls, ages 3 and 1, “are both fully involved and integrated in all aspects of daily and cultural life in England.”

Best known for playing Sansa Stark on HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” Turner filed her petition in federal court in New York under the child abduction clauses of the Hague Convention, an international treaty aimed at compelling the return of a child taken from their country of “habitual residence.”

Turner, 27, says that she and Jonas, 34, made a mutual decision to raise their daughters in England and to relocate there in April of this year.

During part of August and September, while Jonas began a tour with his band the Jonas Brothers in the United States, Turner would be working long hours filming a television series in England. So, Turner said she and Jonas had agreed that the children would travel with Jonas and a nanny.

The plan was for Turner to travel to New York after filming wrapped on Sept. 14 to collect the children, but in the meantime “the breakdown of the parties’ marriage happened very suddenly,” Turner said.

According to Turner, Jonas filed for divorce in Florida on Sept. 1 and she learned about it through the media on Sept. 5. The pair issued a joint statement on their Instagram accounts on Sept. 6 saying they had mutually decided to amicably end the marriage.

Turner says she and Jonas saw each other on Sept. 17 — and she asked him for the children’s passports so she could take them back to England, but Jonas refused to turn over the passports of the girls, who were born in the United States, and have dual US and British citizenship.

The court filing says the girls are temporarily living with Turner in a Manhattan hotel. The Jonas Brothers were scheduled to perform in Philadelphia on Thursday and in Baltimore on Friday.

Jonas said in a statement that he is “seeking shared parenting with the kids so that they are raised by both their mother and father” and that he is “okay with the kids being raised both in the US and the UK.”

“This is an unfortunate legal disagreement about a marriage that is sadly ending,” he added. “When language like ‘abduction’ is used, it is misleading at best, and a serious abuse of the legal system at worst.”

Jonas said he did not surprise Turner with divorce papers but rather filed for divorce after what he said were “multiple conversations with Sophie.”

Jonas has been a pop idol since he and his brothers Nick and Kevin formed the Jonas Brothers in 2005. He and Turner met in 2016 and married in 2019.


 Striking Hollywood Writers, Studios to Meet Again Friday 

Strike signs await striking SAG-AFTRA actors and Writers Guild of America (WGA) outside Disney Studios in Burbank, California, US, July 25, 2023. (Reuters)
Strike signs await striking SAG-AFTRA actors and Writers Guild of America (WGA) outside Disney Studios in Burbank, California, US, July 25, 2023. (Reuters)
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 Striking Hollywood Writers, Studios to Meet Again Friday 

Strike signs await striking SAG-AFTRA actors and Writers Guild of America (WGA) outside Disney Studios in Burbank, California, US, July 25, 2023. (Reuters)
Strike signs await striking SAG-AFTRA actors and Writers Guild of America (WGA) outside Disney Studios in Burbank, California, US, July 25, 2023. (Reuters)

Negotiators for Hollywood's major studios and striking film and television writers plan to meet again on Friday, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) said in a statement.

The two sides on Thursday negotiated for more than 10 hours but failed to reach an agreement to end a months-long stalemate over pay and the use of artificial intelligence, CNN reported.

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Roughly 11,500 WGA members walked off the job in May, angered by how working conditions have changed in the streaming TV era.

To help spark a deal, negotiations on Wednesday and Thursday were attended by Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, Comcast's NBCUniversal Studio Group Chairman Donna Langley and Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav, according to a source close to the studios.

The SAG-AFTRA actors union went on strike in July, putting Hollywood in the midst of two simultaneous work stoppages for the first time in 63 years.


'Game of Thrones' Creator and Other Authors Sue ChatGPT-maker OpenAI for Copyright Infringement

George R.R. Martin speaks onstage at the “House of the Dragon” panel during 2022 Comic Con International: San Diego at San Diego Convention Center on July 23, 2022 in San Diego, California. Image: Getty Images/Kevin Winter via AFP
George R.R. Martin speaks onstage at the “House of the Dragon” panel during 2022 Comic Con International: San Diego at San Diego Convention Center on July 23, 2022 in San Diego, California. Image: Getty Images/Kevin Winter via AFP
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'Game of Thrones' Creator and Other Authors Sue ChatGPT-maker OpenAI for Copyright Infringement

George R.R. Martin speaks onstage at the “House of the Dragon” panel during 2022 Comic Con International: San Diego at San Diego Convention Center on July 23, 2022 in San Diego, California. Image: Getty Images/Kevin Winter via AFP
George R.R. Martin speaks onstage at the “House of the Dragon” panel during 2022 Comic Con International: San Diego at San Diego Convention Center on July 23, 2022 in San Diego, California. Image: Getty Images/Kevin Winter via AFP

John Grisham, Jodi Picoult and George R.R. Martin are among 17 authors suing OpenAI for “systematic theft on a mass scale,” the latest in a wave of legal action by writers concerned that artificial intelligence programs are using their copyrighted works without permission.
In papers filed Tuesday in federal court in New York, the authors alleged “flagrant and harmful infringements of plaintiffs’ registered copyrights” and called the ChatGPT program a “massive commercial enterprise” that is reliant upon “systematic theft on a mass scale”, The Associated Press said.
The suit was organized by the Authors Guild and also includes David Baldacci, Sylvia Day, Jonathan Franzen and Elin Hilderbrand among others.
“It is imperative that we stop this theft in its tracks or we will destroy our incredible literary culture, which feeds many other creative industries in the US," Authors Guild CEO Mary Rasenberger said in a statement. “Great books are generally written by those who spend their careers and, indeed, their lives, learning and perfecting their crafts. To preserve our literature, authors must have the ability to control if and how their works are used by generative AI.”
The lawsuit cites specific ChatGPT searches for each author, such as one for Martin that alleges the program generated “an infringing, unauthorized, and detailed outline for a prequel" to “A Game of Thrones” that was titled “A Dawn of Direwolves” and used “the same characters from Martin’s existing books in the series “A Song of Ice and Fire.”
In a statement Wednesday, an OpenAI spokesperson said that the company respects “the rights of writers and authors, and believes they should benefit from AI technology.
“We’re having productive conversations with many creators around the world, including the Authors Guild, and have been working cooperatively to understand and discuss their concerns about AI. We’re optimistic we will continue to find mutually beneficial ways to work together to help people utilize new technology in a rich content ecosystem,” the statement reads.
Earlier this month, a handful of authors that included Michael Chabon and David Henry Hwang sued OpenAI in San Francisco for “clear infringement of intellectual property.”
In August, OpenAI asked a federal judge in California to dismiss two similar lawsuits, one involving comedian Sarah Silverman and another from author Paul Tremblay. In a court filing, OpenAI said the claims “misconceive the scope of copyright, failing to take into account the limitations and exceptions (including fair use) that properly leave room for innovations like the large language models now at the forefront of artificial intelligence.”
Author objections to AI have helped lead Amazon.com, the country's largest book retailer, to change its policies on e-books. The online giant is now asking writers who want to publish through its Kindle Direct Program to notify Amazon in advance that they are including AI-generated material. Amazon is also limiting authors to three new self-published books on Kindle Direct per day, an effort to restrict the proliferation of AI texts.


All BTS Members Renew Contracts with HYBE

People look at medals unveiled to mark the 10th anniversary of global K-pop sensation South Korean boy band BTS, also known as the Bangtan Boys, at a department store in Seongnam, south of Seoul, South Korea, 01 September 2023. (EPA)
People look at medals unveiled to mark the 10th anniversary of global K-pop sensation South Korean boy band BTS, also known as the Bangtan Boys, at a department store in Seongnam, south of Seoul, South Korea, 01 September 2023. (EPA)
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All BTS Members Renew Contracts with HYBE

People look at medals unveiled to mark the 10th anniversary of global K-pop sensation South Korean boy band BTS, also known as the Bangtan Boys, at a department store in Seongnam, south of Seoul, South Korea, 01 September 2023. (EPA)
People look at medals unveiled to mark the 10th anniversary of global K-pop sensation South Korean boy band BTS, also known as the Bangtan Boys, at a department store in Seongnam, south of Seoul, South Korea, 01 September 2023. (EPA)

All seven members of K-pop sensation BTS have renewed their contracts with agency HYBE, the company said Wednesday, with the group currently on "hiatus" as some of them perform South Korea's mandatory military service.

Since their debut in 2013, BTS have been credited with generating billions of dollars for their country, as well as boosting the image and soft power of South Korea -- now a global cultural powerhouse.

The K-pop juggernaut announced a "hiatus" from group activities last year and two members are currently undertaking their some 18 months of military duty.

Local reports have said the band could reunite around 2025, when all of its seven members will have completed their service in the army.

"Our company has completed the Board of Directors' resolution to renew the exclusive contracts of seven BTS members," the band's agency, HYBE, said in a regulatory filing on Wednesday.

"This fact was judged to be a management matter that could affect the company's financial status and investor decision-making, and was therefore disclosed," it added.

Since their debut 10 years ago, the band had previously renewed their contracts with HYBE in 2018, which would have expired in 2024.

The company did not disclose details of how long the new contracts were or when they would expire, but the latest announcement indicates that all seven members of the group will likely remain with the label even after they have completed their military service.

Some male K-pop stars have faced challenges in resuming their careers after fulfilling their duties, in an intensely competitive industry where artists can be easily replaced.

In March, Bang Si-hyuk, chairman of HYBE and the mastermind behind BTS, said making BTS do their military service was slowing the global growth of K-pop.

All able-bodied men in South Korea must serve at least 18 months in the military and, after a years-long debate about whether BTS deserved an exemption, Jin, the oldest member of the group, enlisted last year.

His bandmate J-Hope started his mandatory service in April.

A third member, SUGA, will begin his service on Friday.

HYBE shares closed down 0.82 percent in Seoul Wednesday.

K-pop contract renewals can be complex, with shares of BLACKPINK's agency YG Entertainment tumbling last week, after local media reports claimed member Lisa had rejected a renewal offer.

They subsequently bounced back, although the agency has yet to announce details of new contracts for BLACKPINK -- one of K-pop's most successful girl groups.


For Filmmakers, ‘Oppenheimer’s’ $900M-Plus Haul Is an Important Moment for Hollywood and Theaters

 This image released by Universal Pictures shows Cillian Murphy in a scene from "Oppenheimer." (Universal Pictures via AP)
This image released by Universal Pictures shows Cillian Murphy in a scene from "Oppenheimer." (Universal Pictures via AP)
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For Filmmakers, ‘Oppenheimer’s’ $900M-Plus Haul Is an Important Moment for Hollywood and Theaters

 This image released by Universal Pictures shows Cillian Murphy in a scene from "Oppenheimer." (Universal Pictures via AP)
This image released by Universal Pictures shows Cillian Murphy in a scene from "Oppenheimer." (Universal Pictures via AP)

Hopes were always high for Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer.” The studio knew the film was great, and commercial. But no one in the industry expected that a long, talky, R-rated drama released at the height of the summer movie season would earn over $900 million at the box office.

After an early screening, “Dune” filmmaker Denis Villeneuve said he knew he’d just seen “a masterpiece.” He even remembered saying that it would be a big success.

“But where it is right now has blown the roof off of my projection,” Villeneuve told The Associated Press. “It’s a three-hour movie about people talking about nuclear physics.”

As of Monday, “Oppenheimer’s” global total was nearly $913 million, making it Nolan’s third highest grossing film, trailing only the “Dark Knight” sequels. It's also the third biggest film of the year behind “Barbie” and “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” and the most successful biopic ever, surpassing “Bohemian Rhapsody.” It’s a staggering sum that has been driven by audiences of all ages and an enthusiasm for film and large format screenings.

“When you make a film, you hope that you’re going to connect with an audience in some form or another,” “Oppenheimer” producer Emma Thomas told the AP. “But, particularly with a three-hour film that has a serious subject and is challenging in many ways, this sort of success is beyond our wildest imaginings.”

Even after nine weeks in theaters, 11 of the 25 screens capable of projecting the coveted IMAX 70mm prints (Nolan’s preferred format) continued to play the film on some of the busiest screens, like the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles and the AMC Lincoln Square in New York.

“The reason we’re still in those theaters is because the audience is demanding it,” Thomas said. “This is not something that we can impose — I wish we could, but it’s genuine.”

Thomas, who is married to Nolan, has produced all of his films going back to his short “Doodlebug.” From “Memento” and “The Prestige” to “Inception,” “Interstellar” and “Dunkirk,” their original films have often defied conventional box-office logic. With “Oppenheimer,” they felt good about what they’d made but also knew that the marketplace, and box-office tracking, has been a little unpredictable since the pandemic.

“Chris has always made films that challenge audiences,” Thomas said. “He has faith in his audiences and, generally, they’ve met him where he is.”

Their “pipe dream,” she said, was that it would beat “Dunkirk’s” opening weekend. Instead, it nearly doubled it. Now, “Oppenheimer” has many in the industry looking at the Universal Pictures release as a gratifying affirmation that projection and format aren’t just the domain of a few. Mass audiences are interested too.

“When a filmmaker as strong as Chris is pointing a finger at you and telling you where to go...you listen...and audiences have been rewarded for it,” filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson wrote in an email. “I know some film buffs who drove from El Paso to Dallas to see the film properly. That’s about 18 hours round trip.”

Twenty-four of the 25 top earning theaters showing “Oppenheimer” played it in IMAX 70mm or 70mm. Domestically, the 25 IMAX 70mm screens have grossed some $20 million; standard 70mm locations accounted for over $14 million. And this a decade after production of Kodak motion picture film stock nearly ceased.

“I don’t think there’s anyone who could disagree - seeing ‘Oppenheimer’ on film is superior in every single way,” Anderson said. “Not to mention, people are tired of asking, ‘Why would I go to a movie theater to watch TV?’ Good question...you don’t have to anymore.”

Theaters rallied around “Oppenheimer” from the beginning. The historic TCL Chinese Theatre even brought a film projector back into operation and built a custom booth. It was an effort that was richly rewarded: “Oppenheimer” is the highest grossing film in its 97-year history with $2.3 million and counting, passing the previous record holder, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” which grossed $1.5 million in 15 weeks, after just four.

The highest grossing theater overall, though, is AMC Lincoln Square, where every IMAX 70mm showing was sold out for over four weeks. Both locations are among the 10 that will continue to present the film in IMAX 70mm in its 10th weekend. By contrast, “Dunkirk” finished its IMAX 70mm run in week eight.

What to make of theaters projecting movies on film often outgrossing the digital projection?

“I would call this is nature’s way of healing,” Anderson said.

Nolan, and other influential film enthusiasts like Anderson, Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino have been beating the drum for celluloid for years, but Thomas said it feels like, “This is a moment where everyone else is sort of catching that bug.

“Chris has always talked a lot about the formats and wanting people to see the best version possible, as far as the way that he intended the film to be seen. ... Now I’m hearing that there are other studios who are interested in putting their films out on those film screens,” she said. “It's not that we think that film is the only way. Every project is different and requires a different toolkit. We’ve always just wanted filmmakers to have that option.”

And it’s not exclusively film that’s succeeding either. IMAX overall has seen some of its biggest profits ever from “Oppenheimer,” with over $179 million globally.

“The future of cinema is IMAX and the large formats,” Villeneuve said. “The audience wants to see something that they cannot have at home, that they cannot have on streaming. They want to experience an event.”

About a month into “Oppenheimer’s” run, Thomas took her kids to see a matinee of “Theater Camp” and peeked into the auditorium where their movie was playing “just to see how it was doing.

“It was packed, like it was 7pm, Friday night, opening weekend,” she said. “But what was fantastic was seeing the broad range of people in that screening. It was younger people, it was older people. That excitement in theaters is why we make movies.”

Thomas has found it especially gratifying that the film has reached younger audiences and teenagers, whom she was told time and time again don’t have the attention span for a film like “Oppenheimer.”

“We have teenagers and everyone’s sort of dismissing them as potential audiences,” Thomas said. “They think they’re just not into longform storytelling or big ideas and that’s complete nonsense. ... It’s just been incredibly touching, honestly, to hear people talk about the film and hear about young people going to see it multiple times.”

“Oppenheimer” is also continuing to play exclusively in theaters into the fall, in a time when even the biggest movies are often released in homes after just 45 days. Though its opening weekend companion, “Barbie,” is newly on video-on-demand, “Oppenheimer” won’t be available to watch at home until late November, Thomas said.

As far as what happens to the 600lb, 11-mile-long IMAX 70mm prints, Thomas laughed that after nine weeks of use, some are probably going to need a bit of a rest. But she hopes that there will be opportunities for re-releases with the ones that are in good shape.

“We’ve been incredibly lucky in our careers. We’ve had some really great moments before. We’ve had some very successful films that have allowed us to continue making films,” she said. “But I would argue that this one is the most successful when you look at what the film was and then how it’s played out.”

For filmmakers, its import extends beyond a single movie.

“There’s this notion that movies, in some people’s minds, became content instead of an art form. I hate that word, ‘content,'” Villeneuve said. “That movies like ‘Oppenheimer’ are released on the big screen and become an event brings back a spotlight on the idea that it’s a tremendous art form that needs to be experienced in theaters.”


Michael Jackson’s Moonwalk Hat up for Auction 

A Fedora hat that belonged to US singer Michael Jackson, made of wool and lined with silk, is displayed before being put on sale at auction, in Paris, on September 12, 2023. (AFP)
A Fedora hat that belonged to US singer Michael Jackson, made of wool and lined with silk, is displayed before being put on sale at auction, in Paris, on September 12, 2023. (AFP)
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Michael Jackson’s Moonwalk Hat up for Auction 

A Fedora hat that belonged to US singer Michael Jackson, made of wool and lined with silk, is displayed before being put on sale at auction, in Paris, on September 12, 2023. (AFP)
A Fedora hat that belonged to US singer Michael Jackson, made of wool and lined with silk, is displayed before being put on sale at auction, in Paris, on September 12, 2023. (AFP)

Just before performing his famous moonwalk dance for the first time, Michael Jackson tossed his hat to the side of the stage. Four decades later, it's up for auction in Paris.

The sale at the Hotel Drouot in Paris takes place on September 26. The black fedora is expected to fetch between 60,000 and 100,000 euros ($64,000-$107,000).

Though it is the star among some 200 items of rock memorabilia, organizer Arthur Perault of the Artpeges gallery admitted that valuations for Jackson items had fallen lately due to "the sale of fakes and the accusations against him".

Jackson has long been accused of child abuse, which his heirs still contest and which the singer denied up to his death in 2009 at the age of 50.

The King of Pop whipped off the hat while breaking into his hit "Billie Jean" during a televised Motown concert in 1983, at the height of his fame.

Moments later, Jackson showed off what would become his trademark move -- the moonwalk -- a seemingly effortless backwards glide while appearing to walk forwards.

A man named Adam Kelly picked up Jackson's hat, "thinking the singer's staff would come to collect it but they didn't", said Perault.

He held on to it for several years, but it has since passed through a couple of private collectors on its way to Paris.

Also being auctioned are a guitar owned by the legendary bluesman T-Bone Walker that could fetch up to 150,000 euros; a suit worn by Depeche Mode's Martin Gore; and one of Madonna's gold records.

A chunk of wall from the Bus Palladium, a Paris venue that shut down last year, signed by numerous rock stars including members of The Libertines, Air and The Dandy Warhols, is valued at between 5,000 and 8,000 euros.

"Personally, I hope this wall stays in France. It is part of our heritage for all lovers of music and rock," said Perault.

Music memorabilia has become big business.

Co-organizers Lemon Auction made a splash last year with the sale of a guitar smashed by Noel Gallagher on the night Oasis split up in Paris following a fight with his brother Liam. The instrument went for 385,500 euros.

This month, a series of auctions for items belonging to Freddie Mercury -- including the piano on which he composed "Bohemian Rhapsody" -- have made a total of 46.5 million euros at Sotheby's, attracting bidders from 76 countries.