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'Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’ is No. 1 with $45.2M

(From L) US actor Ernie Hudson, US actor Paul Rudd, Canadian actor Finn Wolfhard, US actress Mckenna Grace and British-US filmmaker Gil Kenan pose during a photocall for "Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire" in Lonon on March 21, 2024. (Photo by Ben Stansall / AFP)
(From L) US actor Ernie Hudson, US actor Paul Rudd, Canadian actor Finn Wolfhard, US actress Mckenna Grace and British-US filmmaker Gil Kenan pose during a photocall for "Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire" in Lonon on March 21, 2024. (Photo by Ben Stansall / AFP)
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'Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’ is No. 1 with $45.2M

(From L) US actor Ernie Hudson, US actor Paul Rudd, Canadian actor Finn Wolfhard, US actress Mckenna Grace and British-US filmmaker Gil Kenan pose during a photocall for "Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire" in Lonon on March 21, 2024. (Photo by Ben Stansall / AFP)
(From L) US actor Ernie Hudson, US actor Paul Rudd, Canadian actor Finn Wolfhard, US actress Mckenna Grace and British-US filmmaker Gil Kenan pose during a photocall for "Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire" in Lonon on March 21, 2024. (Photo by Ben Stansall / AFP)

Ghost busting is still a good business.
“Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” collected $45.2 million in ticket sales over the weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday, handing Sony Pictures the studio’s first No. 1 film since last summer.
The opening weekend for “Frozen Empire,” in 4,345 theaters, was nearly exactly the same as the $44 million launch for “Ghostbusters: Afterlife" in 2021. “Afterlife” rebooted the franchise with a sequel built around the descendants (Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, Mckenna Grace) of Harold Ramis’ Egon Spengler, along with Paul Rudd’s seismologist Gary Grooberson.
Neither film has been a hit with critics, but audiences have been more receptive. “Frozen Empire” garnered a B+ CinemaScore from moviegoers, a tick down from the A- score for “Afterlife.” “Frozen Empire” isn't assured of profitability, but it will hope for sustained business over spring break.
“Ghostbusters” films tend to make a low impact internationally. In 25 overseas markets, “Frozen Empire” added $16.4 million, The Associated Press reported.
The latest “Ghostbusters” cost about $100 million to make. After Jason Reitman took over directing duties from his father, Ivan Reitman, to helm “Ghostbusters: Afterlife,” “Frozen Empire” is directed by Gil Kenan, co-writer of “Afterlife.”
Those two sequels took “Ghostbusters” in a more family-oriented, albeit PG-13 rated, direction, with original cast members Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson and Bill Murray returning in supporting roles. After the 2016 female-led “Ghostbusters” prompted a backlash, Sony rebooted the franchise.
The weekend’s other new wide release was “Immaculate,” the horror film starring Sydney Sweeney as an American nun at a remote Italian convent. The film, released by Neon following a premiere at SXSW, debuted with $5.4 million on 2,354 screens. Sweeney’s ascending star power helped make “Anyone But You” one of the most successful rom-coms in years. But “Immaculate,” an independent production that cost less than $10 million make, isn’t getting the same bounce.
“The movie features the popular Sydney Sweeney, but horror movies are not cast-driven,” wrote David A. Gross for the consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research. “They’re driven by the hook: the evil doll, the wicked smile, the invisible or silent presence, the found footage, the possessed child. That’s what terrifies the horror crowd. The hook is not completely clear here.”
The No. 2 spot went to “Dune: Part Two,” which continues to hold well. The Denis Villeneuve-directed sci-fi sequel starring Timothée Chalamet added $17.6 million in its fourth weekend of release, bringing the Warner Bros. release's domestic total to $233.4 million. Overseas sales are just as strong, adding up to a $574.4 million worldwide haul.
After two weeks atop the box office, Universal's “Kung Fu Panda 4” slid to third place with $16.8 million over its third weekend. The well-performing DreamWorks animated sequel is up to $133.2 million domestic. It debuted with $25.7 million in China, where the movies have historically been popular. When the 2008 “Kung Fu Panda” was released, its success partly inspired China to expand its own film production.
Estimated ticket sales are for Friday through Sunday at US and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire,” $45.2 million.
2. “Dune: Part Two," $17.6 million.
3. “Kung Fu Panda 4,” $16.8 million.
4. “Immaculate,” $5.4 million.
5. “Arthur the King,” $4.4 million.
6. “Late Night With the Devil,” $2.8 million.
7. “Imaginary,” $2.8 million.
8. “Love Lies Bleeding,” $1.6 million.
9. “Cabrini,” $1.4 million.
10. “Bob Marley: One Love,” $1.1 million.

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Video Game Performers Will Go on Strike Over Artificial Intelligence Concerns 

SAG-AFTRA signage is seen on the side of the headquarters in Los Angeles on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. (AP)
SAG-AFTRA signage is seen on the side of the headquarters in Los Angeles on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. (AP)
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Video Game Performers Will Go on Strike Over Artificial Intelligence Concerns 

SAG-AFTRA signage is seen on the side of the headquarters in Los Angeles on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. (AP)
SAG-AFTRA signage is seen on the side of the headquarters in Los Angeles on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. (AP)

Hollywood's video game performers announced they would go on strike Thursday, throwing part of the entertainment industry into another work stoppage after talks for a new contract with major game studios broke down over artificial intelligence protections.

The strike — the second for video game voice actors and motion capture performers under the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists — will begin at 12:01 a.m. Friday. The move comes after nearly two years of negotiations with gaming giants, including divisions of Activision, Warner Bros. and Walt Disney Co., over a new interactive media agreement.

SAG-AFTRA negotiators say gains have been made over wages and job safety in the video game contract, but that the two sides remained split over the regulation of generative AI. A spokesperson for the video game producers, Audrey Cooling, said the studios offered AI protections, but SAG-AFTRA’s negotiating committee said that the studios’ definition of who constitutes a "performer" is key to understanding the issue of who would be protected.

"The industry has told us point blank that they do not necessarily consider everyone who is rendering movement performance to be a performer that is covered by the collective bargaining agreement," SAG-AFTRA Chief Contracts Officer Ray Rodriguez said at a news conference Thursday afternoon. He said some physical performances are being treated as "data."

Without guardrails, game companies could train AI to replicate an actor’s voice, or create a digital replica of their likeness without consent or fair compensation, the union said.

"We strike as a matter of last resort. We have given this process absolutely as much time as we responsibly can," Rodriguez told reporters. "We have exhausted the other possibilities, and that is why we’re doing it now."

Cooling said the companies' offer "extends meaningful AI protections."

"We are disappointed the union has chosen to walk away when we are so close to a deal, and we remain prepared to resume negotiations," she said.

Andi Norris, an actor and member of the union's negotiating committee, said that those who do stunt work or creature performances would still be at risk under the game companies' offer.

"The performers who bring their body of work to these games create a whole variety of characters, and all of that work must be covered. Their proposal would carve out anything that doesn’t look and sound identical to me as I sit here, when, in truth, on any given week I am a zombie, I am a soldier, I am a zombie soldier," Norris said. "We cannot and will not accept that a stunt or movement performer giving a full performance on stage next to a voice actor isn’t a performer."

The global video game industry generates well over $100 billion dollars in profit annually, according to game market forecaster Newzoo. The people who design and bring those games to life are the driving force behind that success, SAG-AFTRA said.

Members voted overwhelmingly last year to give leadership the authority to strike. Concerns about how movie studios will use AI helped fuel last year’s film and television strikes by the union, which lasted four months.

The last interactive contract, which expired in November 2022, did not provide protections around AI but secured a bonus compensation structure for voice actors and performance capture artists after an 11-month strike that began in October 2016. That work stoppage marked the first major labor action from SAG-AFTRA following the merger of Hollywood’s two largest actors unions in 2012.

The video game agreement covers more than 2,500 "off-camera (voiceover) performers, on-camera (motion capture, stunt) performers, stunt coordinators, singers, dancers, puppeteers, and background performers," according to the union.

Amid the tense interactive negotiations, SAG-AFTRA created a separate contract in February that covered independent and lower-budget video game projects. The tiered-budget independent interactive media agreement contains some of the protections on AI that video game industry titans have rejected. Games signed to an interim interactive media agreement, tiered-budget independent interactive agreement or interim interactive localization agreement are not part of the strike, the union said.