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Out of nowhere, in the middle of a week, a record has been broken.
Universal’s “Super Mario Galaxy Movie” made a stunning $34.5 million in one day.
The animated movie, based on the video game, made more money yesterday, than almost all of this year’s Oscar movies.
The movie is voiced by Glenn Powell. Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor Joy, Jack Black, Brie Larson and a host of stars. This is despite being panned — 43% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise. Three years ago, “Super Mario Bros. Movie” opened with $31.7 million.
Clearly, Super Mario is a bigger star than any human.
The 2023 movie finished with $1.3 billion worldwide, so Universal chief Donna Langley obviously knows what she’s doing — as usual!
What’s the movie about? About 90 minutes, that’s what.
EXCLUSIVE It’s a good news, bad news situation for Daniel Day Lewis.
The three time Oscar winner will see his son get married this weekend in Miami. But the kid’s mom, French actress Isabelle Adjani, might not be there. She’s on trial in a Paris appeals court fighting a tax fraud conviction that could send her to jail. In 2023, she was hit with a $250K fine and a two year prison suspended sentence. (See details below.)
We’re waiting for the verdict. She may go to prison, which would be a first for an ex girlfriend of Warren Beatty!
Meantime, DDL and Adjani’s son, Gabriel Kane, gets hitched this weekend in Miami to Irena Dimitrova. They already have a son named Phoenix. Which makes DDL a grandfather.
According to their very public website, the couple met as teachers at Sunflower Creative Arts in Del Ray Beach, Florida. Kane proposed last July in Big Sky, Montana. I’m actually surprised there is such a website considering that DDL is extremely private. But there are photos, information, and a registry. They’re raising money for an 8-Day Alaska Inside Passage Explorer & Glacier Bay cruise. Sweet, but couldn’t dad give them a gift?
The wedding party lists bridesmaids and groomsmen. None of the latter will be Gabriel’s two half brothers through DDL and Rebecca Miller, however.
As for Adjani, a five time Cesar (French Oscar) winner, what got her into this mess? Screen Daily reported in 2023: Adjani has consistently maintained her innocence in the face of charges that include evading taxes on a €2m gift by presenting it as a loan, and also of having pretended to live in Portugal for two years, rather than at her actual home in France.
I hate to say Cannes is desperate but this really isn’t good.
They’re going to give a premiere for a John Travolta-directed movie which is going to Apple TV on May 29th.
Doesn’t this break the rule that no streaming films can debut at Cannes?
The movie is called “Propeller One-Way Night Coach,” and it’s based on a book that Travolta apparently wrote in 1997. It will be shown in the Cannes Premiere section, not the main competition. In the cast is Travolta’s daughter Ella Bleu.
Is there a Scientology aspect? Probably. Two of the cast members seem to come from Scientology families. The kid who plays Travolta has the same last name as a photographer who took pictures of ex-Scientologist Leah Remini. His mother is played by someone whose last name is in the Scientology files. They aren’t common last names, either
No producer credits yet, but that will unravel with time.
Travolta has only appeared in a string of terrible movies for the last 30 years. They include the really miserable, “Gotti,” which was also shown in Cannes before it was encased in cement and sent to the bottom of the river. Maybe he can surprise us, though.
Donald Trump’s jealousy over Bruce Springsteen continues to sting him.
This morning he ranted against the superstar rock star, calling Bruce “bad and boring.”
LOL.
This was the morning after Trump’s incoherent, rambling, repetetive speech last night in which he said absolutely nothing of substance. You could have made a drinking game for the line “No one has ever seen anything like it before” — that’s how many times he said it.
Springsteen attacked Trump on stage in Minneapolis two nights ago, rightly calling him racist, reckless, and incompetent. It was a thrilling moment in political and music history.
Trump’s response?
“Bad, and very boring singer, Bruce Springsteen, who looks like a dried up prune who has suffered greatly from the work of a really bad plastic surgeon, has long had a horrible and incurable case of Trump Derangement Syndrome, sometimes referred to as TDS. The guy is a total loser who spews hate against a President who won a Landslide Election, including the popular vote, all Seven Swing States, and 86% of the Counties across America. Under Sleepy Joe and the Dems, our Country was DEAD, and now we have the “hottest” Country, by far, anywhere in the World. MAGA SHOULD BOYCOTT HIS OVERPRICED CONCERTS, WHICH SUCK. SAVE YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY. AMERICA IS BACK!!! President DJT”
The Michael Jackson fans online, a dedicated and persistent group, are very excited.
They see online that special screenings set for Wednesday, April 22nd are sold very well and almost sold out. They think that indicates a massive box office hit for Lions Gate, which is releasing the film.
Unfortunately, they’re not looking at the real preview night of Thursday, April 23rd or opening day of Friday, April 24th — or subsequent days.
Just looking at AMC Lincoln Square in New York, those dates are far from sold out. The good news is that on the Thursday, “Michael” is well sold at the 7:30pm IMAX screening. But other shows, in the regular and Dolby Theaters, are a little meh.
At Lincoln Square, the Dolby Theater — which is where I’d like to see “Michael” for the sound — is wide open at every hour.
This scenario is much the same Friday night, as well. IMAX in good shape, everything else quite iffy.
Things are much the same for April 23rd at The Grove in Los Angeles. The prime time showings are totally open. Same at The Grove for Friday as in New York.
IMAX seems to be the best for Antoine Fuqua’s musical film. But it also feels like reviews and word of mouth are vital for this movie’s success.
A couple of things out in the public are hovering over “Michael.” First, the headlines about Michael’s daughter, Paris, suing the Estate. The details are unimportant to the moviegoing audience, but it’s a negative. There are also the posthumous sexual malfeasance accusations against Michael by the family he was close with during his life. The Cascios always defended him. Now they’re trying to get a chunk of cash from his legacy.
Smartly, “Michael” seems like it ends in 1990, just like the successful “MJ” Broadway show. Jackson is on a high from an amazing decade of “Off the Wall,” “Thriller,” and “Bad.” This is because things get weird after that, and by 1993 he’s embroiled in scandals that last til the end of his life in 2009. (A sequel is ill-advised.)
Again, the only way around the darker elements is to create a real buzz beyond Jackson’s dedicated serious fans.
But with that incredible catalog of hits, and the dazzling re-enactments of Michael Jackson singing and dancing — from his nephew Jaafar Jackson — there’s a good chance that “Michael” will be starting something.
There are thousands of tickets still available for tonight’s Kanye West show.
The racist, antisemitic, ‘cancelled’ rapper is launching his new “Bully” album at SoFi Stadium tonight and Friday night.
As tonight is the first night of Passover, ticket sales are light — as if any Jewish person would give this hustler money.
The seat map for tonight’s is a sea of blue. My guess is that anyone who shows up at the arena will get if not free tickets, very cheap ones. To make the show look like a success, Kanye’s people are going to have to “paper” the crowd.
bgeIf you’ve spent money on this, ask the people around what they paid. Should be a wide range of answers.
What time will the “Bully” party? Not 9pm, that’s for sure. We will all be asleep in NYC! Fans of this guy will be complaining, stomping, and whistling, believe me.
“Bully” is nonetheless selling, streaming and being downloaded. It’s number 1 on album charts for now. But the reviews are terrible. The rapper is accused of using AI throughout “Bully.” Every track is like particle board, chopped up pieces of sampled songs rearranged. I hope all the original artists have been paid.
You can still buy a ticket — or a dozen — with the low price at $92 and falling. The stadium is pushing VIP seats in boxes for $700!
He’s an AI construct, a fake singer who doesn’t exist.
But “Eddie” has the number 1 single on iTunes, called “Another Day Old.” It’s been lodged at the top for almost a week.
Two other “Dalton” singles have been in the top three. Now a fourth one has joined them called “Stay a Little Longer.”
Are fans really downloading these singles by an unknown non-human? I’m beginning to wonder if iTunes isn’t being conned. None of these songs have any traction from streaming at all. They only exist on iTunes.
On YouTube there are a lot of views. Again, what does that really mean?
As I also told you, this is all the brainchild of Dallas Little, a mysterious content creator/possible musician who’s down in Greenville, South Carolina. He owns a company called Crunchy Records, and is producing a ton of AI music and videos under different fictional artists’ names.
The day we hear one of these songs on the radio we’ll take this seriously.
It’s going to be tough for some people in Hollywood to rationalize an expensive trip to Cannes this year.
As I told you before, Hollywood is not coming. The big studios are so far not doing any splashy premieres. Directors like Steven Spielberg and Christopher Nolan have passed on debuting their films this year for various reasons.
Today the festival announced the opening night film is French. “La Vénus électrique” is directed by Pierre Salvadori. The opening night guest celebrity is an actress named Eye Haïdara.
I’m sure in France this will be a big deal. But in the world at large, not so much. In the US, crickets. These aren’t even French names we’ve heard, let alone seen.
All the American publicity from the festival now hinges just on Barbra Streisand coming for her Palme d’Or. But that’s not enough to sustain two weeks.
Festival grand poobah Thierry Fremaux will unveil the whole line up on April 9th. It won’t be easy if James Gray is his only American director. But Fremaux is a magician. He must have something up his sleeve! I hope he does.
She just joined the cast of Broadway’s “Moulin Rouge.”
Tonight’s performance was suddenly stopped when Megan had to be taken to the hospital. Her actual name is Megan Jovon Ruth Pete.
According to Twitter account @LorenLorosa, an observer, the show eventually continued with a Black male actor playing the role of Charles Zidler, the French impresario who created the real Moulin Rouge.
The production says: “During Tuesday night’s production, Megan started feeling very ill and was promptly transported to a local hospital, where her symptoms are currently being evaluated. We will share additional updates as more information becomes available.”
