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Daniel Craig Leads Hollywood Stars to Toronto for 50th Film Fest

Netflix's popular 'Knives Out' whodunit franchise returns, with former 007 actor Daniel Craig back investigating the latest murder in 'Wake Up Dead Man'. Frederic J. Brown / AFP/File
Netflix's popular 'Knives Out' whodunit franchise returns, with former 007 actor Daniel Craig back investigating the latest murder in 'Wake Up Dead Man'. Frederic J. Brown / AFP/File
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Daniel Craig Leads Hollywood Stars to Toronto for 50th Film Fest

Netflix's popular 'Knives Out' whodunit franchise returns, with former 007 actor Daniel Craig back investigating the latest murder in 'Wake Up Dead Man'. Frederic J. Brown / AFP/File
Netflix's popular 'Knives Out' whodunit franchise returns, with former 007 actor Daniel Craig back investigating the latest murder in 'Wake Up Dead Man'. Frederic J. Brown / AFP/File

Hollywood stars arrived in Toronto Thursday for a celebratory 50th edition of North America's biggest film festival, with new movies from Daniel Craig, Sydney Sweeney and Matthew McConaughey among a packed lineup.

The Toronto International Film Festival dwarfs more famous rivals like Venice and Cannes for sheer scale, if not glitz and glamour, drawing an estimated 400,000 annual visitors to the Canadian metropolis.

Over 11 days of red-carpet galas, the "audience-first" fest showcases splashy crowd-pleasers in front of giant public audiences, while also serving as a key launchpad for Oscars campaigns.

This year, Netflix's popular "Knives Out" whodunit franchise returns, with former 007 actor Craig back investigating the latest murder in "Wake Up Dead Man" in a Saturday night world premiere, alongside Glenn Close, Mila Kunis and Josh O'Connor, AFP reported.

Josh Brolin plays an unnerving demagogue with a cult following in a film that "tackles current issues in a fun, locked-room, classical-plot way," said TIFF director of programming Robyn Citizen.

Sweeney aims to pivot from her recent jeans ad controversy to Academy Award contender with Friday's premiere of "Christy," a gritty, raw biopic of US female boxing pioneer Christy Martin.

In another harrowing true-life tale, launching Friday, McConaughey rescues schoolchildren from California wildfires in the emotionally searing action-thriller "The Lost Bus."

For the festival's 50th anniversary celebrations, stars Russell Crowe, Paul Mescal, Angelina Jolie and Anya Taylor-Joy will all hit the screenings and soirees.

TIFF "started out as festival of festivals, choosing the best work from around the world to show to Toronto audiences," Citizen said.

While it has increasingly prioritized discovering new filmmakers, "certainly our public audience is what distinguishes us as a big festival," she said.

French invasion

French directors are sure to bring a European flair.

Matt Dillon appears in Claire Denis' drama "The Fence," about a mysterious death on an African construction site, while Arnaud Desplechin launches love story "Two Pianos" starring Charlotte Rampling.

Alice Winocour directs Jolie for Paris fashion drama "Couture."

Romain Gavras's celebrity climate-change satire "Sacrifice" stars Taylor-Joy and Chris Evans as an eco-terrorist and a waning movie star, respectively.

Elsewhere, Crowe gives what organizers describe as a nuanced and eerily charismatic performance as Nazi Hermann Goering on trial in historical drama "Nuremberg," opposite fellow Oscar-winner Rami Malek.

"You don't expect to be disarmed by this person, who you know has done horrible things," said Citizen. "And then, through the course of the movie, you are."

Keanu Reeves plays an incompetent angel in Aziz Ansari's body-swapping farce "Good Fortune," while Channing Tatum portrays a real-life fugitive who lives clandestinely inside a toy store in "Roofman."

Brendan Fraser plays a lonely actor for hire at funerals and weddings in Tokyo-set "Rental Family."

The Bard and the King

Toronto follows hot on the heels of the small but influential US-based Telluride festival, and invites a selection of movies to make a bigger, second splash.

Among them, Mescal plays a young William Shakespeare in literary adaptation "Hamnet" from Oscar-winning director Chloe Zhao -- though the focus is squarely on the Bard's long-suffering wife Agnes, played by a "transcendent" Jessie Buckley, says Citizen.

The film earned rave reviews and plenty of Oscar buzz in Telluride.

Director Edward Berger, on a hot run after "All Quiet on the Western Front" and "Conclave," will present Colin Farrell as a down-on-his-luck gambler in "Ballad of a Small Player."

And fresh from Venice, director Guillermo del Toro brings his reimagining of "Frankenstein," while Dwayne Johnson will promote "The Smashing Machine," which has already drawn gushing predictions of a first Oscar nomination for the former pro wrestler known as "The Rock."

TIFF runs until September 14.

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Entertainment

‘The Devil Wears Prada’ Struts to 1st Place with $77 Million Debut

People walk below an electronic billboard advertising the movie "The Devil Wears Prada 2" at a shopping mall in Beijing on May 2, 2026, on the second day of a five-day national May Day holiday. (Photo by GREG BAKER / AFP)
People walk below an electronic billboard advertising the movie "The Devil Wears Prada 2" at a shopping mall in Beijing on May 2, 2026, on the second day of a five-day national May Day holiday. (Photo by GREG BAKER / AFP)
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‘The Devil Wears Prada’ Struts to 1st Place with $77 Million Debut

People walk below an electronic billboard advertising the movie "The Devil Wears Prada 2" at a shopping mall in Beijing on May 2, 2026, on the second day of a five-day national May Day holiday. (Photo by GREG BAKER / AFP)
People walk below an electronic billboard advertising the movie "The Devil Wears Prada 2" at a shopping mall in Beijing on May 2, 2026, on the second day of a five-day national May Day holiday. (Photo by GREG BAKER / AFP)

Twenty years after the original, the sequel to “The Devil Wears Prada” made a splash in its first weekend in theaters.

Driven largely by women, “The Devil Wears Prada 2” earned $77 million in the US and Canada, and $156.6 million internationally, according to studio estimates Sunday. It easily topped the box office and bumped “Michael” to second place, though the musical biopic held well in its second weekend, falling only 44%.

The Walt Disney Co.’s 20th Century Studios opened “The Devil Wears Prada 2” in 4,150 locations in North America. Women made up about 76% of the ticket buyers, according to PostTrak exit polls; 74% said they would “definitely recommend” the movie to friends.

According to The Associated Press, critics were a bit mixed on the sequel, which finds Anne Hathaway’s Andy Sachs working once more for Meryl Streep’s Miranda Priestly at the fictional “Runway” magazine in a much-depleted media landscape.

The movie cost a reported $100 million to produce — a significant boost from the first movie’s $35 million production budget. But as filmmaker David Frankel told AP recently, “As it turns out, you know, by the time you finish paying all the biggest movie stars in the world, you still end up with basically the same budget for making the movie as we did the first one.”

Stars Streep, Hathaway, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci have been on a fashion-forward global publicity blitz for weeks, with glamorous stops in Tokyo, London and New York. Even Anna Wintour, the inspiration for the Prada-clad devil, has been involved this time, appearing with Hathaway on the Oscars stage and with Streep on the cover of “Vogue.”

The first movie opened in June 2006 and would go on to earn over $326 million worldwide, not adjusted for inflation. And perhaps more importantly, it firmly became part of the culture thanks in part to its ever-quotable likes (“gird your loins,” “groundbreaking,” “that’s all”).

Legacy sequels are never a sure thing, but this time anticipation was high: According to Nielsen, streaming viewership for “The Devil Wears Prada” was up 428% from March 2026 to April 2026.

Second place went to Lionsgate’s Michael Jackson biopic “Michael,” which made $54 million in its second weekend in North America, where it’s playing on 3,955 screens. Its running worldwide total is already $423.9 million.

Universal Pictures is handling the international release.

This weekend marks the start of Hollywood’s summer movie season, a crucial 18-week corridor that runs through Labor Day and often accounts for around 40% of the annual box office. There are often Marvel blockbusters programmed as the season's kickoff, but the combined power of “The Devil Wears Prada 2” and “Michael” wasn't a shabby substitute.

“This is a really solid weekend,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the head of marketplace trends for Comscore. “It’s this irresistible combination that more than makes up for the fact that there’s not a Marvel movie to kick off the summer movie season.”

“Prada” alone actually did better business than last year’s summer kickoff Marvel movie, “Thunderbolts.” There were several other new films in theaters this weekend as well, including the Adam Scott-led horror movie “Hokum,” Andy Serkis’s animated adaptation of “Animal Farm” and the Aaron Eckhart- and Ben Kingsley-led survival movie “Deep Water.”

They all opened behind “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” which made $12.1 million in its fifth weekend, and “Project Hail Mary,” which made $8.6 million in its seventh weekend. Neon's “Hokum” led the newcomers with $6.4 million, rounding out the top five, followed by the very poorly reviewed “Animal Farm” with $3.4 million. “Deep Water” opened to $2.2 million.

In the top four movies, Dergarabedian has noticed a trend: “Over the past couple of months, moviegoers have really embraced pure, escapist entertainment,” he said.

The annual box office is currently running about 14% up from last year, with about $2.8 billion in domestic ticket sales to date.

Entertainment

Shakira Thrills Crowd of 2 Million with Free Concert on Brazil's Copacabana Beach

Colombian singer Shakira (C) performs during a concert on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 02 May 2026. EPA/ANDRE COELHO
Colombian singer Shakira (C) performs during a concert on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 02 May 2026. EPA/ANDRE COELHO
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Shakira Thrills Crowd of 2 Million with Free Concert on Brazil's Copacabana Beach

Colombian singer Shakira (C) performs during a concert on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 02 May 2026. EPA/ANDRE COELHO
Colombian singer Shakira (C) performs during a concert on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 02 May 2026. EPA/ANDRE COELHO

Colombian superstar Shakira gave a free concert on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday night, an event that the city's mayor said drew 2 million people to one of the world’s most iconic waterfronts.

The performance followed similar shows by Madonna in 2024 and Lady Gaga last year, which also were attended by huge crowds that danced on the sprawling sands.

For Shakira, it was part of her “Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran,” or “Women No Longer Cry,” world tour named after her 2024 album.

Shakira's set kicked off around 11 p.m., more than an hour after the scheduled slot, to her fans screaming with excitement and frantic applause as skywriting drones flew overhead, spelling out in the sky, “I love you Brazil” in Portuguese.

The megastar spoke fondly about the first time she came to Brazil, some three decades ago.

“I arrived here when I was 18 years old, dreaming about singing for you,” Shakira told the crowd shortly after coming on stage. “And now look at this. Life is magical.”

The much-loved pop star sang fan favorites such as “Hips Don’t Lie,” “La Tortura” and “La Bicicleta." She ended with “BZRP Music Sessions #53/66,” which followed her separation from Spanish soccer player Gerard Piqué.

She also took the time to celebrate women’s resilience during the show. “Us women, every time we fall we get up a little wiser,” she said.

People attend a concert by Colombian singer Shakira on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 02 May 2026. EPA/ANTONIO LACERDA

According to The Associated Press, Rio Mayor Eduardo Cavaliere said on X that 2 million people attended the performance. “The She-Wolf made history in Rio,” he posted, referring to Shakira's 2009 hit.

When Shakira first performed in Brazil in the 1990s, she established an amazing connection with the Brazilian public, according to Felipe Maia, an ethnomusicologist pursuing a doctoral degree in popular music and digital technologies at Paris Nanterre University.

That success in Brazil “has a lot to do with the fact that she comes from Colombia, a country whose culture has many similarities with Brazil,” Maia said, adding that Saturday’s performance “crowns the relationship she has had with Brazil for a very long time.”

Erica Monteiro, a 38-year-old accountant, said she has listened to Shakira since childhood.

“For me she represents the strength of our Latino community,” Monteiro said ahead of the concert. “We’re treated as if we were inferior but in fact we have much more strength.”

Heading home after Saturday's show, Hellem Souza da Silva said Shakira's performance, like Bad Bunny's concerts in Sao Paulo in February, helped consolidate Brazil's Latino identity.

These artists “are making it clear that Brazil, Puerto Rico, Colombia and other countries are part of Latin America. And that America is not the United States,” she said.

Entertainment

Netflix to Give Greta Gerwig’s ‘Narnia’ Wide Theatrical Release, Marking a First

Cast member Greta Gerwig poses on the red carpet for the screening of the movie "Jay Kelly" in competition, at the 82nd Venice Film Festival, in Venice, Italy, August 28, 2025. (Reuters)
Cast member Greta Gerwig poses on the red carpet for the screening of the movie "Jay Kelly" in competition, at the 82nd Venice Film Festival, in Venice, Italy, August 28, 2025. (Reuters)
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Netflix to Give Greta Gerwig’s ‘Narnia’ Wide Theatrical Release, Marking a First

Cast member Greta Gerwig poses on the red carpet for the screening of the movie "Jay Kelly" in competition, at the 82nd Venice Film Festival, in Venice, Italy, August 28, 2025. (Reuters)
Cast member Greta Gerwig poses on the red carpet for the screening of the movie "Jay Kelly" in competition, at the 82nd Venice Film Festival, in Venice, Italy, August 28, 2025. (Reuters)

Netflix on Friday said it would put filmmaker Greta Gerwig’s "Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew" movie in wide theatrical release next year, where it will play exclusively for more than 45 days - a first for the streaming service.

Written and directed by Gerwig, the film is the first adaptation of C.S. Lewis’ 1955 book, which explores the origins of Narnia. It will be released in theaters on February 12 and made available on the streaming service on April 2.

This marks a ‌departure for ‌Netflix, which typically releases movies exclusively on its ‌streaming ⁠service. There have ⁠been some exceptions, including for movies with the potential to win an Academy Award. Movies must debut in theaters to be eligible for consideration for an Oscar.

Netflix said it opted for a wide theatrical release for "Narnia" because of the series' broad appeal across generations and geographies.

Theater owners applauded Netflix's decision. “This is welcome ⁠news," Cinema United President Michael O'Leary said in ‌a statement, adding, "Greta Gerwig's 'Narnia: The Magician’s ‌Nephew' is a movie audiences will want to see on the big ‌screen. Now they’ll have that opportunity.”

Netflix has shown an ‌increasing willingness to embrace the theatrical experience, last year releasing a sing-along version of its popular animated film, "KPop Demon Hunters" in movie theaters.

During the pursuit of Warner Bros. Discovery, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos also ‌said the company would continue to release Warner Bros movies in theaters and honor the traditional 45-day ⁠window of ⁠exclusivity.

"Narnia" was originally scheduled to be released for two weeks in IMAX theaters, starting on Thanksgiving. Gerwig lauded Netflix for opting to offer the film more widely.

"I cannot wait for people to see the film in theaters on February 12 and on Netflix on April 2,” Gerwig said.

Adam Aron, chairman and CEO of AMC Entertainment, said the nation's largest theater chain would "throw everything we have" to support Netflix.

"We are in their corner fully," Aron wrote on the social media platform X. "We are and will be all in."