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Box Office: “Lilo & Stitch” Nears $300 Mil, “Mission” Crawls Past $100 Mil, “Karate Kid” Reboot Choppy

Roger Friedman
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It was a better weekend at the box office than it’s been in some time apart from Memorial Day.

“Lilo & Stitch” is still a phenom for Disney. The animated hit is now at $280 million domestic, and will hit $300 mil in the next couple of days.

Total worldwide: $610 million.

“Mission Impossible Final Reckoning” finally crossed $100 mil on Friday, and ended the weekend at $122 million. The slow down is apparent, which ain’t good for a $400 mil movie.

“FR” is also slowing internationally. They just got numbers from China — $25 mil — which brings worldwide to over $150 million. Most countries that matter are accounted for, but there will be dribs and drabs. Can “Reckoning” actually get to $00 mil worldwide?

The new “Karate Kid” chopped up $21 million, but the budget is low enough that they may be ok.

“The Phoenician” did $570,000 in six theaters. Die hard Wes Anderson fans filled up seats. But enthusiasms dim in the suburbs for the coming week. In Manhattan, AMC Lincoln Square has plenty of seats at all times.

The Weeknd’s “Hurry Up Tomorrow” is ending its theater run this week with just $5 million in receipts. It’s streaming in all the usual places, and coming on DVD if you need to have it in your possession.

PS! Barry Levinson’s “The Alto Knights” is coming to MAX this Friday, June 6th. Warner’s kind of threw it away, but watch it — it’s a total pleasure to see Robert De Niro in double roles. Debra Messing and Kathrine Narducci are top notch. Levinson is a master.

Netflix Wild Tudum Special: Lady Gaga “Wednesday” Performance, “Stranger Things” Return Date, “Frankenstein” Heads to Oscars (Videos)

Roger Friedman
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Netflix Wild Tudum Special: Lady Gaga “Wednesday” Performance, “Stranger Things” Return Date, “Frankenstein” Heads to Oscars (Videos)

Netflix’s two hour Tudum special was wild.

“Stranger Things” final season will commence on November 26th, hit a peak on Christmas Day and end on January 1, 2026.

Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein” looks like a big Oscar movie. I hope they let it have a theatrical release.

Rian Johnson’s “Wake Up Dead Man,” or Knives Out 3, also looks like a hit.

Did I mention Ben Affleck and Matt Damon in “RIP”?

“Wednesday” is coming back and Lady Gaga is in it. She just performed live an amazing performance singing “Zombie Boy” and “Abracadabra” in a staging for all time. Netflix had to have paid her a million dollars! Extraordinary.

The whole Tudum special took the place of an ‘upfront’ in New York. It was slickly produced, a total winner. It could be the first upfront to get an Emmy nomination.

Patti Lupone Apologizes for Terrible Things She Said About Audra McDonald and Kecia Lewis After Being Shunned by Peers

Roger Friedman
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Patti Lupone Apologizes for Terrible Things She Said About Audra McDonald and Kecia Lewis After Being Shunned by Peers

Broadway star Patti Lupone says she’s sorry.

Lupone is apologizing after the dreadful — and maybe racist — things she said about fellow performers Audra McDonald and Kecia Lewis.

The comments were made in a New Yorker article in which Lupone was over the top nasty, not just snarky. She claimed McDonald was not her friend despite their past relationship. And she went after Lewis, because her musical, “Hell’s Kitchen,” made too much noise while Lupone was on stage next door in a play.

It didn’t help that both McDonald and Lewis are Black actors starring in Black shows.

The result was 500 Broadway artists signing a letter in support of McDonald and Lewis, and castigating Lupone. They asked that she be disinvited from the Tony Awards.

She must have hired crisis PR over night because now she’s contrite.

“I made a mistake,” she says in the statement below. Will it work? The Tony Awards are a week away, and believe me, this will be the talk of the town, indeed.

One addendum: When I ran into Lupone at the opening of “Dead Outlaw,” she was particularly mean about McDonald starring in “Gypsy,” in a role Lupone is famous for. I was taken aback. She needs to muzzle herself going forward.

Elon Responds to New York Times Investigation: “I am NOT Taking Drugs” But Doesn’t Explain Why He Always Looks Zoned Out

Roger Friedman
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Elon Responds to New York Times Investigation: “I am NOT Taking Drugs” But Doesn’t Explain Why He Always Looks Zoned Out

Elon Musk is fighting back against the New York Times.

The Times says in a well researched piece that the Tesla SpaceX founder has been out of his gourd for some time on drugs.

The Times has the goods. It sure looks like Musk is high a lot of the time. He’s constantly zoning out during press conferences. He swings and sways, his neck can’t support his head. He’s like a living bobblehead doll. If the Times is right, that means Musk might have been stoned when he destroyed thousands of lives by dismissing a huge part of the government including USAID.

What a legacy!

But Musk says it’s not true. He X’d this afternoon: “The 3 years of random drug testing was just because of one semi-puff during a Joe Rogan podcast! Also, to be clear, I am NOT taking drugs! The New York Times was lying their ass off. ”

He adds:

“I tried *prescription* ketamine a few years ago and said so on X, so this not even news. It helps for getting out of dark mental holes, but haven’t taken it since then.”

We’re lucky he’s left the government. But he’s also offered no explanation for his black eye (other than his toddler hitting him by accident). There’s also a lot of chatter about Musk hiring Stephen Miller’s wife to come work with him. None of it is good. But Miller is so unsympathetic a character, no one really cares if something tawdry is going on.

“Stranger Things” Season 5 Date Announcement Coming As Broadway Show Picks Up Steam at Box Office After Early Struggle

Roger Friedman
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“Stranger Things” Season 5 Date Announcement Coming As Broadway Show Picks Up Steam at Box Office After Early Struggle

We’ll finally learn tonight when “Stranger Things” season 5 drops on Netflix this year.

At 8pm, while the Yankees and the Knicks are each in huge games, Netflix will air a live special called Tudum featuring all their stars and Lady Gaga.

It’s presumed that the “Stranger Things” announcement will come since three cast members are featured on social media promoting the event.

These are the “kids” from “Stranger Things” who are now in their 20s. Time flies!

Meantime, the “Stranger Things” Broadway show improved its box office last week. The show grossed a million dollars for the first time in a month.

“Stranger Things: The First Shadow” hasn’t been a runaway hit, and has just 1 big Tony nomination. It should attract customers during the summer, and maybe the anticipation of Season 5 will gin up business.

Come back later for the TV announcement.

EXCLUSIVE Jake Tapper Ratings Fall to 387K Thursday as CNN Viewers Reject Biden Trash Talk, Book Promotion

Roger Friedman
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EXCLUSIVE Jake Tapper Ratings Fall to 387K Thursday as CNN Viewers Reject Biden Trash Talk, Book Promotion

CNN may soon regret backing Jake Tapper and his book, “Original Sin.”

I reported exclusively this week that Tapper’s ratings had fallen precipitously in the last week as he promoted the book that bashes Joe Biden 24/7. (Other outlets then helped themselves to that story, natch.)

I also reported exclusively that sales of “Original Sin” were just 53K in its first week — not the blockbuster Tapper and co. had hoped for.

Now I can tell you that two nights ago, Tapper’s ratings fell wildly, to an average of 387,000.

The first hour of “The Lead” yielded 415,000 viewers. The second hour scratched up just 360,000.

Tapper was crushed at 5pm by MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace, with over 1 million. At 6pm, MSNBC’s Ari Melber took him down with 945,000 viewers.

Wallace and Melber each beat Tapper in key age demo share as well.

CNN viewers are sick of the non stop shilling by Tapper and other network personalities who have beaten a dead horse into dust over unsourced Biden criticism.

And what does Biden say? He told reporters this week of Tapper and co-author Alex Thompson: “I can beat the hell out of both of them.”

Wes Anderson’s “Phoenician Scheme” Faces Uphill Battle with C+ Reviews, Limited Run Opening to Stir Interest

Roger Friedman
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Wes Anderson’s “Phoenician Scheme” Faces Uphill Battle with C+ Reviews, Limited Run Opening to Stir Interest

Wes Anderson used to be the darling of Hollywood.

But several movies ago, his cuteness faded. He kept making the same movie over and over.

After such favorites as “The Grand Budapest Hotel” and “The Royal Tennenbaums,” Anderson fell into a rut.

His last couple of offerings, like “The French Dispatch” and “Asteroid City,” drifted off into a place where no one wanted to go.

Anderson wasn’t always this twee. Thirty years ago, his first films — “Bottle Rocket” and “Rushmore” — were real movies with characters and without over stylized set designs.

On Friday, Focus Features released “The Phoenician Scheme” in 6 theatres. Total take was $270,000 as Anderson diehards turned out en masse. limited theaters.In the UK, the movie has made just $1.6 million in the last week.

“The Phoenician Scheme” has a 77% on Rotten Tomatoes, a C plus. On Metacritic, it’s 71. Audiences aren’t crazy about it. One civilian reviewer, Jason A, summed it up: “Wes Anderson is stuck. Visually stunning still but the stories are uninteresting and disjointed.”

In Cannes, there were TikTok videos of the audience pouring out of the premiere and telling interviewers that they hated it.

Still, Focus had a big premiere Thursday night as if nothing was wrong. But “Phoenician” is going to sink like a stone. It may never get more than a limited release once the novelty wears off in NY and LA.

Taylor Swift Bombshell News Sends 15 Albums to Top 100, “Reputation” Returns to Number 1 on iTunes

Roger Friedman
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Taylor Swift Bombshell News Sends 15 Albums to Top 100, “Reputation” Returns to Number 1 on iTunes

Hey Donald Trump, You thought Taylor Swif5 wss over?

Yesterday’s bombshell announcement has triggered an avalanche of sales.

Taylor bought back the albums she lost in the Scooter Braun deal. She paid $10 million or more.

The result is the fans have gone crazy! They’ve returned FIFTEEN albums to the top 100. “Reputation” is number 1!

The main single from “Reputation,” called “Look What You Made Me Do,” has also charted this morning. That’s good news for the band Right Said Fred. The song contains a big sample of “I’m Too Sexy for My Shirt.”

Swifties are fiercely loyal. You’d think they have all these downloads and various CDs and LPs. Maybe they stockpile them for the future.

Keep refreshing…

Renaissance Superstar Judy Collins Launches Cool Poetry Collection with A List Night of Songs and Stars (Video)

Roger Friedman
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Renaissance Superstar Judy Collins Launches Cool Poetry Collection with A List Night of Songs and Stars (Video)

Judy Collins continues to be a Renaissance woman.

The legendary Grammy award winning singer and composer never stops creating and moving forward.

She’s performing to sold out audiences all the time, thrilling them with her rich voice on songs like “Send in the Clowns,” “Both Sides Now,” and “Amazing Grace.”

On Thursday night, Judy’s pal Paige Peterson welcomed a small group of friends to her new high up corner apartment on Central Park West to celebrate Collins’ new book of poetry called “Sometimes It’s Heaven: Poems of Love, Loss, and Redemption.”

Quite a little group showed up including pals Paul Shaffer, Marlo Thomas, Kathie Berlin, Susan Cheever, Lorraine Alterman Boyle, famed record producer Russ Titelman, producer Paula Silver, rock and roll impresario Danny Fields (he signed the Ramones, and the MC5 among others), our own Regina Weinreich, and more.

There’s nothing like watching Judy Collins — a master pianist with the most piercing blue eyes anywhere– improvise underscore music while performing her lyrical semi-autobiographical poems as the “Manhattanhenge” sun is setting! Even better, when Judy left the bench to lead the guests in “Where Have All the Flowers Gone,” Paul Shaffer took over at the piano impromptu.

One of the evocative poems, called “Hockney in the Mountains,” could be turned into a song. Judy says some 30 of the 200 poems she wrote may be converted in that direction. I hope so!

The summer night was cold and we were giddy
Standing there looking out at Ajax when a heart-stopping, blood-curdling scream split the air and struck us, like knives to the heart
I said someone is having glorious sex
David said someone is being murdered We debated for a while and then had another drink in the resuming quiet of the mountain air
I stumbled back into the room Our host called the man at the front desk who said there was nothing they could do about noise in the mountains; everybody screams sometimes

Alan Alda, More Friends Mourn the Loss of “MASH” Star, Two Time Emmy Winner Loretta Swit at 87

Roger Friedman
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Alan Alda, More Friends Mourn the Loss of “MASH” Star, Two Time Emmy Winner Loretta Swit at 87

Loretta Swit, who twice won Emmys for playing Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan on MASH, is being remembered by friends tonight.

Co-star Alan Alda wrote on X: “Loretta was a supremely talented actor. She deserved all her 10 EMMY nominations and her 2 wins. But more than acting her part, she created it. She worked hard In showing the writing staff how they could turn the character from a one joke sexist stereotype into a real person — with real feelings and ambitions. We celebrated the day the script came out listing her character not as Hot Lips, but as Margaret. Loretta made the most of her time here.’

Swit was nominated for Emmys every year of the “MASH” and won two of them.

When Sally Kellerman played “Hot Lips” in the “MASH” movie, the character was part of a randy group of American doctors working in the Korean war. Kellerman was very funny.

But by the time “MASH” got going in 1972, it was a different real world for women. Loretta Swit’s portrayal turned “Hot Lips” into Margaret, a forerunner of women’s rights. She was smart first and sexy second. She was the only lead female in a cast of men, and held her head high.

Loretta Swit will be sorely missed, but like Mary Tyler Moore and a a few others she won’t be forgotten as a trailblazer.

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