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Ralph Breaks the Box Office: Disney Sequel to Become Second Highest Grossing Thanksgiving Weekend Release

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Remember “Wreck it Ralph”? Now the animated sequel is about to set to a record for Thanksgiving weekend.

“Ralph Breaks the Internet” already has $50 million in sales since Wednesday. If it keeps up that way today and tomorrow, the new “Ralph” will pass Disney’s “Moana” and become the second highest grossing movie that opened on Thanksgiving weekend with $85 million.

The title holder is Disney’s “Frozen” with $93 million.

That also means that Disney could continue to have nine of the top 10 Thanksgiving weekend openers. So far the spoiler has been New Line’s “Four Christmases.”

Sitting at number 13 right now on the Thanksgiving list is “Creed” with $42 million. The new “Creed II” is looking at $55 million. “Creed II” and the new “Ralph” will push “Four Christmases” to number 10, and set Disney back to 8 of the top 10 Turkey weekend movies.

Ryan Coogler didn’t direct “Creed II” but he invented it. He also co-produced it. In 2018 he also co-produced another little film, “Black Panther,” which made just $700 million. He’s 32 years old.

For a Few Minutes, the Daily Mail Had the Guardian of the Galaxy Headlined as a Cold Blooded Murderer

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Every paper makes a mistake. The Daily Mail made one briefly this evening when someone accidentally turned actor Chris Pratt from the Guardian of the Galaxy into a real life cold blooded murderer. This is the actual headline they published until cooler minds prevailed and Chris Watts, the evil killer of his own family, was restored to infamy.

Pop-Rock Sales: Mariah Carey “Caution” 50 Thousand Isn’t Bad, Mumford & Sons at Number 1 with 231K

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Mariah Carey can be very proud: her “Caution” album sold a total of 50,000 copies this week. Most of that–43,000– were real sales of CDs and downloads. Only 7,000 came from streaming. “Caution” was projected to sell a little less than that, so this pretty good. Plus, Mariah did much better than a lot of current legacy acts of her generation or older.

The question now is, what happens to “Caution”? It’s nearly impossible to get real radio play for those artists like Mariah. She’s in a big pop music lifeboat. No one can sell much– not Barbra Streisand, Paul McCartney, or so on.

Meanwhile, Mumford & Sons came in at number 1 with a rocking 231,000. Most of that was sales and downloads– streaming was just about 14,000.

Another big hit this week: Michael Buble. His “Love” album, produced by David Foster, came in just under 90,000 with very little streaming. Buble has been talking about retiring, but now that his son is better, I bet he’ll change his mind.

Also big: “The Greatest Showman Reimagined.” These are songs from that movie, re-done by stars like Kelly Clarkson and Panic at the Disco. Atlantic Records A&R chief Pete Ganbarg has shown amazing acuity with repackages like this and “Hamilton Mixtape” after he’s had huge huge hits with the original project. “Reimagined” just about tied Buble, and finished at number 2.

John Travolta’s Latest Film, “Speed Kills,” Quietly Dumped on Amazon Prime After Scoring a 9 on Rotten Tomatoes

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it hasn’t been a good year for John Travolta.

His “Gotti” movie was one of the worst of the year, made no money and had terrible reviews. It was painful to watch, frankly.

Now his latest, “Speed Kills,” was quietly dropped onto Amazon Prime this past week after receiving a 9 on Rotten Tomatoes.

“Speed Kills” is the story of Cigarette boat founder Don Aronow, who was murdered back in 1987 in Miami. His boats were used for drug running. I know a little bit about it because Miami’s great reporter, Edna Buchanan, wrote a feature about Aronow for the late lamented Fame magazine back in 1988. In the movie, they’ve changed Aronow’s name to Aronoff.

Hey–James Remar is in this movie, he plays Meyer Lansky! Someone named Jodi Scurfield, with no credits, is listed as director on the imdb. Elsewhere, there’s another credit, John Luessenhop, who seems like he directed “Texas Chainsaw 3D” in 2013. I don’t know how I missed that one!

Saban Films was supposed to distribute “Speed Kills” in the US, but they may have just given up.

Why is Travolta bothering to make this crap? Is Scientology blackmailing him? He should have enough money to wait for something halfway decent. Otherwise, isn’t it time for Welcome Back Kotter: The Senior Years? Or Eddie Munster: After the Cult? He’s got at least three more of these Shit straight to video things coming– seriously, one of them is directed by Fred Durst. I mean, come on.

Watch Madonna and Fam Sing “We Are the Champions” with Adopted Son David Banda on Piano

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While Madonna finishes some new music with producer Mirwais, she’s also having a holiday. Here she and the fam sing Queen’s “We are the Champions” led by adopted son David Banda on piano. Warms the heart on this cold, cold night. Below that a nice photo of Madonna’s kids. Banda is in the blue suit– he has really grown up. They all look good. From the message they might be in Malawi. Or Portugal. Or who knows where?

(Watch) Julia Louis Dreyfus Could Win an Emmy Award for Her Own Mark Twain Prize Tribute Speech

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If you missed Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s acceptance speech for the Mark Twain Prize the other night, here it is. Watch the whole thing. No kidding, she could win an Emmy for this performance, seriously– I am not saying that in a “Veep” way. It was really marvelous and showed why she deserved the prize. Whoever wrote this — Julia? David Mandel? Brad Hall? all of them? — deserves something, too. What a relief to see a classy evening on TV.

Where the Oscars Stand on Thanksgiving Day: Don’t Believe all the Progn-Oscar-tors, Surprises Await Us

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It’s time to start ruminating. The PrognOscartors are digging in hard. The publicists are fretting. The heat is turning up. There’s still plenty to see. Academy voters must must see “Never Look Away,” a masterpiece, I must say it over and over. (I write this waiting to see Mary Poppins, Vice, The Mule, All is True, and Mary Queen of Scots.)

Best PictureA Star is Born, First Man, Green Book, Roma, The Favourite; back 5- yet to be determined, mostly because of Clint Eastwood’s “The Mule.” Widows, Blackkklansman, Can You Forgive Me, seem solid. “Vice” is still being seen and thought about. No one’s seen the Ian-McKellen-Judi Dench Shakespeare movie “All is True.” (She plays Anne Hathaway! Just the way Robert Redford plays Forrest Tucker in “Old Man.”) “Bohemian Rhapsody” shouldn’t be overlooked. Not so sure about “Beale Street.”

Best ActorBradley Cooper, natch. Ryan Gosling. Viggo Mortensen (for the win?). And then what? Rami Malek, it would seem to me, leaves one spot:  Christian Bale, mostly likely. Clint? As with “Gran Torino,” not feeling push on Clint. Could be a Warner Bros. issue. Embarrassment of riches. And Willem Dafoe— as Vincent Van Gogh in “At Eternity’s Gate” — is mesmerizing.

Best ActressGlenn Close. definitely. Wow. Then Lady Gaga, Olivia Colman. Then what? Judi Dench? (Who knows? Maybe.) I really feel Nicole Kidman must be there for “Destroyer.” And then it’s going to be Viola Davis, followed by Melissa McCarthy. Kidman’s performance is essential. It’s Close’s turn over all.

Best Supporting ActorRussell Hornsby for “The Hate You Give.” This guy is the real deal, and this is his moment. Mahershala Ali will probably win. Okay, we love him, but he did just get an Oscar. You never know. Richard E. Grant swoops into “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” and disarms everyone. He’s in. My number 4 choice is Sam Elliott, in “A Star is Born.” No debate. So who’s number 5? Timothee Chalamet is devastating in “Beautiful Boy.” Lucas Hedges gave two great performances. The door here is still open. And no one is pushing Jonathan Pryce in “The Wife,” which is a mistake.

Best Supporting Actress-– this is a weird category this year, with all kinds of talent. I’m writing this before seeing “Vice,” but I’m hearing Amy Adams. Looking at some predictions, I see Regina King is hot in “Beale Street.” She’s one of my favorites. Claire Foy just stole my heart in “First Man.” She’ll be nominated. But Amy, Amy! Rachel Weisz in “The Favourite.” And fifth? My crazy choice is Letitia Wright in “Black Panther.” I felt she leapt off the screen. But still not sure the Academy is going to really honor “Black Panther.” So Emma Stone or Nicole Kidman (“Boy Erased”) are on deck.

Foreign Film— My favorite movie of the year is Florian Henckel von Donnersmark’s “Never Look Away.” It’s an actual masterpiece. (This is a must see film.) But so is “Roma.” And Nadine Labiki’s “Capernaum” (which I hope everyone sees) and “Cold War.”

So good and what do we do? Isle of Dogs, The Old Man and the Gun, A Quiet Place. Ben is Back.

and more to come…just don’t look at lists on these so-called “Oscar sites” and think that’s it. SAG Best Ensemble– A Quiet Place? At Eternity’s Gate, The Favourite, Roma. (“Roma” actually reminds me of “Ragtime” for some reason.)

And the jockeying continues….

Soaps: Ratings Plummet for “Young and Restless,” “General Hospital” Before Holiday Break

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Going into Thanksgiving weekend,. it’s a cliff hanger for the daytime dramas and their ratings.

For the week of November 5th to the 9th, three of the four remaining soaps lost huge chunks of viewers from a year ago– and during sweeps.

“Young and the Restless” lost 475,000 viewers, “Bold and the Beautiful” lost 375K, “General Hospital” lost 326K. The only soap that gained a few fans was “Days of our Lives.”

“General Hospital” in particular should pay close attention. ABC is gunning for their time slot.

Ratings UPDATE: Rachel Maddow Took Last Friday and This Past Monday, Beats Hannity for a Week, Kardashians Reunite with Old Viewers

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Rachel Maddow is on a roll. Sean Hannity is suffering.

Maybe it’s because Hannity and Fox News are so removed from reality. But Rachel Maddow has beaten him for unbroken week with her MSNBC show.

Maddow won last Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Then she continued on Friday and Monday, two nights ago. Tomorrow we’ll learn if she picked up Tuesday night.

In other ratings news, Roseanne spin off “The Conners” has found a plateau at 7 million viewers. For now.

On Sunday night, “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” went up over 1.2 million viewers as Kloe locked Kandle in an underground panic room. Crystal Jenner, Caitlin’s evil twin, roasted marshmallows in the Wolesly fire.

 

“Sopranos” Sequel Movie Starts Rolling with Alessandro Nivola Cast as Tony Soprano’s Uncle, Christafuh’s Dad

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“The Sopranos” prequel movie is finally underway with casting, and it’s great news.

Alessandro Nivola, whose credits include everything from “American Hustle” and “Selma” to a 2015 Tony Award nomination for “The Elephant Man,” will play Dickey Moltisanti, Tony Soprano’s uncle and father of Christafuh (Michael Imperioli).

The movie, “The Many Saints of Newark,” is written and directed by David Chase, creator of “The Sopranos.” It takes place in the 60s, when Tony’s dad is in prison. Other characters should include a young Livia, Tony’s mother (played so beautifully by Nancy Marchand in the series), and Uncle Junior (Dominic Chianese).

Nivola is married to actress Emily Mortimer, and together they’ve produced the popular “Doll & Em” series at HBO. This casting bodes well for “Saints,” as Chase is due for a big next project.