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‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ Scares Off 'Transformers' for 3rd Week as Box Office No. 1

Michael DeLuca, from top left, Catherine O'Hara, Monica Bellucci, Tim Burton, Michael Keaton, Jenna Ortega, Winona Ryder, Arthur Conti, Amy Nuttall, Burn Gorman, Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, Tommy Harper, from bottom left, Justin Theroux, Pamela Abdy, and Willem Dafoe arrive at the premiere of "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" on Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024, in London. (Photo by Scott Garfitt/Invision/AP)
Michael DeLuca, from top left, Catherine O'Hara, Monica Bellucci, Tim Burton, Michael Keaton, Jenna Ortega, Winona Ryder, Arthur Conti, Amy Nuttall, Burn Gorman, Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, Tommy Harper, from bottom left, Justin Theroux, Pamela Abdy, and Willem Dafoe arrive at the premiere of "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" on Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024, in London. (Photo by Scott Garfitt/Invision/AP)
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‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ Scares Off 'Transformers' for 3rd Week as Box Office No. 1

Michael DeLuca, from top left, Catherine O'Hara, Monica Bellucci, Tim Burton, Michael Keaton, Jenna Ortega, Winona Ryder, Arthur Conti, Amy Nuttall, Burn Gorman, Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, Tommy Harper, from bottom left, Justin Theroux, Pamela Abdy, and Willem Dafoe arrive at the premiere of "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" on Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024, in London. (Photo by Scott Garfitt/Invision/AP)
Michael DeLuca, from top left, Catherine O'Hara, Monica Bellucci, Tim Burton, Michael Keaton, Jenna Ortega, Winona Ryder, Arthur Conti, Amy Nuttall, Burn Gorman, Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, Tommy Harper, from bottom left, Justin Theroux, Pamela Abdy, and Willem Dafoe arrive at the premiere of "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" on Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024, in London. (Photo by Scott Garfitt/Invision/AP)

It’s a three-peat for “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.”
The Tim Burton legacy sequel to his 1988 horror comedy topped the North American box office charts for the third straight weekend with $26 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday.
It edged out the animated new release “Transformers: One,” which brought in $25 million. The Optimus Prime origin story from Paramount Pictures features the voices of Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry and Scarlett Johansson.
“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” a Warner Bros. release with Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder returning as stars, has earned more than $226 million domestically in its three weeks after a monster opening of $110 million — the third best of the year — and a second weekend of $51.6 million, The Associated Press reported.
Third place went to the James McAvoy horror “Speak No Evil,” which came in at $5.9 million in its second week for a total of $21.5 million.
On the whole, the box office was in a quiet phase that is expected to break when “Joker: Folie à Deux” dances its way onto the big screen on Oct. 4.
The year’s second-highest grosser “Deadpool & Wolverine” remained in the top 5 in its ninth weekend with another $3.9 million and a domestic total of $627 million. Only Pixar's “Inside Out 2” has earned more.
The Demi Moore-starring, Coralie Fargeat-directed body horror “The Substance," which made a splash at the Cannes Film Festival, brought in $3.1 million on limited screens in its first weekend for the sixth spot.
The Daily Wire movie “Am I Racist?” — in which conservative columnist Matt Walsh goes undercover as a “DEI trainee” — stayed in the top 10 after a fourth place finish last week, earning $2.9 million for seventh place and a two-week total of $9 million.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at US and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

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Music Review: Katy Perry Returns with the Uninspired and Forgettable ‘143’

Katy Perry attends the MTV Video Music Awards in Elmont, New York, US, September 11, 2024. (Reuters)
Katy Perry attends the MTV Video Music Awards in Elmont, New York, US, September 11, 2024. (Reuters)
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Music Review: Katy Perry Returns with the Uninspired and Forgettable ‘143’

Katy Perry attends the MTV Video Music Awards in Elmont, New York, US, September 11, 2024. (Reuters)
Katy Perry attends the MTV Video Music Awards in Elmont, New York, US, September 11, 2024. (Reuters)

Katy Perry's new album title, “143,” is code for “I love you,” based on the number of letters in each word of the phrase. She may love us, but the album is more like 144 — “I made mush.”

Perry's first LP since 2020’s lackluster “Smile” is just as lackluster, an 11-track blur of thick electronic programming and simplistic lyrics. There's none of her past cheeky humor, virtually no personality. Even the title is filler.

The rollout has been snakebit from the jump, with the artist under fire for collaborating with music producer Dr. Luke and the video for “Woman’s World” emerging as a sloppy, puzzling attempt at satire. Then her video shoot on a Spanish beach for “Lifetimes” was investigated for potential environmental damage.

It doesn’t help that the first three singles are just OK. “Woman’s World” is a frothy Lady Gaga-esque arena pop anthem, the techno-stomper “Lifetimes” smacks of Calvin Harris from the 2010s and “I’m His, He’s Mine,” featuring Doechii, lazily lifts Crystal Waters’ “Gypsy Woman (She’s Homeless)” from 1991. It’s a trio of tunes that doesn’t scream 578 (“Katy's totally relevant”).

“Gimme Gimme,” featuring 21 Savage, just lacks bite, a nursery rhyme from a new mother masquerading as a pop song (with crib-adjacent lyrics like “Say the right thing, maybe you can be/Crawling on me, like a centipede”).

“Crush” isn’t bad, but it’s built on the repetitive, unyielding synths you’d find in Eastern European discos in the ’90s. That’s a complaint for all the Dr. Luke tracks, really — Perry may rue their reunion simply based on the ugly, unsophisticated production. “All the Love” has the phrase “back to me” repeated 23 times during its 3:15 length.

“My intuition’s telling me things ain’t right,” she sings on “Truth,” a lyric that may sum up her album and a song that includes a fake voicemail at the end. Other artists are incorporating real dialogue and recorded snippets of their lives. Perry is faking it.

She has always preferred gangs of songwriters, but “143” pushes it to an insane level, with “Nirvana” credited to an even dozen. Listen to it and see if 12 songwriters were necessary for a song that sounds like a warmed-over club track from La Bouche.

If the best song on “143” is “Lifetimes,” the worst is easily the closer, a sticky-sweet, wide-eyed plea for innocence in “Wonder,” sticking out like a sore thumb. This is a cynical attempt to have moms in the audience wave their hands in unison as balloons float up, even as it decries cynicism.

“One day when we're older/Will we still look up in wonder?” she sings, name-checking her daughter, Daisy, who also makes a cute appearance. But by this point, she's lost our trust, with the 10 previous songs a sonic slog. “143” has no soul or emotion; it's just a number.