Friday, September 20, 2024
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Box Office: Blake Lively Tops Husband Ryan Reynolds as “It Ends With Us” Beats “Deadpool and Wolverine” On Opening Night

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Headlines will today read Blake Lively beats husband Ryan Reynolds at box office.

Lively stars in Justin Baldoni’s “It Ends with Us” based on the lowbrow novel by Colleen Hoover. The film made $24 million on its opening including $7 million from Thursday previews.

Ryan Reynolds — Lively’s hubby — stars in “Deadpool and Wolverine.” It made $15.7 million on Friday night. Shawn Levy directed the Marvel satire of superhero movies.

Of course, “D&W” has already taken in over $450 million, so Friday’s finish is irrelevant. But it’s a good publicity hook for the Baldoni movie.

It’s a better publicity hook than the other story that involves all these people. Apparently, Lively and Baldoni clashed during the making of their film. She asked Reynolds to rewrite scenes, which was a surprise to the “Ends” screenwriter. Baldoni came to the New York premiere, but took no pictures or did any press with his cast. He wasn’t invited to any of the international premieres, where Lively has been front and center.

Baldoni also told an interviewer that he won’t be directing the inevitable sequel because he said Lively could direct it herself. Backstage, it seems, Baldoni has been eliminated from the equation.

Will “End” continue to stare down Marvel all weekend? Unclear, but ticket sales last night were ferocious. Stay tuned…

Trump Attacks NY Times Reporter “Maggot Hagermann” After Willie Brown Copter Story Debunked

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You can’t make this up.

This morning Donald Trump attacks New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman, calling her “Maggot Hagerman.”

He’s like six year old who needs punishment like having his mouth washed out with soap. The Times separately reported that behind closed doors Trump calls Harris a “bitch.”

Trump is mad because Haberman among others has disproved his story about being on a helicopter with former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown, who he says told him — as the copter was crashing — “terrible things about Kamala Harris.”

Brown says this never happened. Then there was the thinking that Trump meant Jerry Brown, then governor of California. But that never happened. Trump says he has the flight records, but, as with his taxes and grades from college, can’t produce them.

Last night in Montana, Trump spoke to a very empty arena of followers and made no sense. Harris and Tim Walz filled an arena in Arizona.

Box Office: Blake Lively Tops Husband Ryan Reynolds as “It Ends With Us” Beats “Deadpool and Wolverine” On Opening Night
Charts: Taylor Swift Bests Kanye West Again, Beating Longtime Rival Handily for Number 1 with 4 Month Old Album

Katy Perry Goes for a Straight Up Dance Club Hit With “Lifetimes” After Striking Out with “Woman’s World”

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Katy Perry takes a different tack with her new single, “Lifetimes.”

She goes for a straight up dance club after striking out with “Woman’s World.”

So far she’s got 1 million views on the video, which was released last night. The song is at number 3 on iTunes, which is a good beginning.

Katy’s album, “143,” will be out next month.

Rod Stewart Latest Rock Star to Get COVID, Postpones Shows for a Week

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Even Rod Stewart, a rock deity, can get COVID.

Sir Rod has postponed his shows this weekend for a week and says he’ll resume work on August 18th.

Rod gave some interviews recently saying he “knew his days were numbered” or something like that because he was turning 80. Then he book a bunch of shows for 2025, so he’s not going anywhere.

Some guys have all the luck, and except for COVID, Rod Stewart has a lot of it. Now take some time off, Rod. We want to see you out there a long time!

Charts: Taylor Swift Bests Kanye West Again, Beating Longtime Rival Handily for Number 1 with 4 Month Old Album

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UPDATED Kanye West will probably not like this news.

His “Vultures 2” album came in at 82,845 albums.

That’s around 60,000 fewer than Taylor Swift’s “Tortured Poets Department.” Swift finishes at number 1 with a four month old album while West is a distant second.

It probably doesn’t help that “Vultures 2” was offered for free on West’s website. After a strong start at number 1, “Vultures 2” is at number 4 on iTunes. It’s available for streaming and downloading, but there’s no physical product.

“Vultures 2” has also not given birth to any single tracks. The album has no streaming of individual songs.

The crazier part of this story is that Swift sold almost three times as many albums as West. His were from downloads. Hers were from downloads and CDs, and LPs.

Kanye knows he’s not going to the Grammys next winter. But maybe he’ll turn up and protest Swift winning Album of the Year yet again. So far, that seems to be the story of the 2025 Grammys, same as the 2024 Grammys. And many others.

Cate Blanchett’s Video Game Movie “Borderlands” Up to 6% on Rotten Tomatoes, $1.2 Mil in Previews

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“Borderlands,” starring Cate Blanchett, has finally risen on Rotten Tomatoes.

The Eli Roth-directed video game adaptation started with a Zero yesterday. It’s now up to 6%.

Last night, “Borderlands” made an astonishing $1.2 million in previews. Considering that RT’s Audience Score is only 49%, that’s pretty good.

But it does indicate that whoever saw it last night satisfied their curiosity.

This is Blanchett’s worst reviewed movie by far. It’s hard to imagine the two Oscar winner took this job, but maybe the paycheck was too much to pass up.

Box Office: “It Ends with Us” Starts with $7 Mil in Previews Despite Middling Reviews

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Blake is lively after all.

Blake Lively’s “It Ends with Us” made a whopping $7 million last night in previews.

Reviews are middling but there’s strong interest from fans of Colleen Hoover’s best selling book.

Extra promotional help from Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds, and his buddy, Hugh Jackman, didn’t hurt.

There are still many questions, though, about director and co-star Justin Baldoni. He’s been snubbed by the cast, who don’t talk about him or take pictures with him. He wasn’t even at the London premiere. At the NY premiere he was largely ignored. What’s going on? Very strange.

We’ll see over the weekend if interest holds up in “It Ends with Us.” Aside from “Deadpool and Wolverine” there isn’t much out there, so this domestic drama about abuse may over perform.

Sony needs a hit. “Fly Me to the Moon” never launched. “Harold and the Purple Crayon” is DOA. Their only hit this year is “Bad Boys Ride or Die, ” which is nothing to brag about really.

Popster Shawn Mendes is Back After 4 Years, Kinda, With Two New Songs on Slow Take Off

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You’d have to go back five years to remember when Shawn Mendes was hot on the pop charts.

It was 2019 when he and Camila Cabello were number 1 with “Senorita.”

Mendes — who turned 26 yesterday — had two more hits in 2020, one with Justin Bieber, and then started a fade out. He stopped touring and mostly recording or having a career while he dealt with mental health issues. (He also had trouble, and still does, finding a shirt.)

Now Mendes is back today with two new songs preceding an album release in October. So far this morning, “Why Why Why” has had an uneasy launch, currently at 74 on iTunes. The other song, “Isn’t that Enough,” hasn’t charted yet.

Mendes apparently played a small show last night in Woodstock, NY. He has a few more coming up including one on the album’s release, October 18th, in Brooklyn. He’s coming back in small steps.

Mendes has pretty much missed four years of his career. That’s okay when you’re older, but when you’re establishing yourself four years is a high school cycle. So now he has turn to more adult listeners and rebuild. He’s a very good songwriter. I was at his actual first show years ago at the then Nokia Theater in Times Square (my nieces, who were 14, insisted on it). How will this all play out? Last night, Mendes played a birthday show in Woodstock. He’s taking it easy, starting with small shows in London next, then back here.

Ratings: Finale of “House of the Dragon” Sees Season High, But Down 31% from Season 1

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“House of the Dragon” had a season finale on Sunday up by 20% in total viewers.

The final episode, in which almost nothing happened, brought in 1.47 million people. That was up from 1.2% the week before.

The last episode helped boost the season overall, but “Dragon” still finished an average of 31% down from Season 1.

HBO just announced there will be two more seasons, and then they’ll wrap up this slow moving spin off of “Game of Thrones.”

“House of the Dragon” has so far just not caught on like its predecessor. Maybe the next two seasons can be more fun and outrageous and not just a series of wars among characters few care about.

Atlantic Records Exec Overthrow as Longtime Chief Julie Greenwald Out In Moves OK’d from Warner Music

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Wow.

There’s a coup going on at Atlantic Records, the formerly great music label of Ahmet Ertegun.

It’s not 1980 anymore.

Long time chief Julie Greenwald — a huge success for 20 years — has been ousted. She announced it at a company town hall, according to hitsdailydouble.com.

Greenwald saw the writing on the wall. Last week, Elliot Grainge — son of Universal Music chief Lucien Grainge — was given her job. Greenwald was sent — as we used to say about Conde Nast — “to the 34th floor.” This is amazing.

Grainge is 30 and married now to Lionel Richie’s daughter, Sofia. He’s been a music manager, with some success from Ice Spice and a bunch of hip hop artists we’ve never heard of. Oy vey.

According to hitsdailydouble, all this volatility within the Warner Music groups is attributed to Val Blavatnik. Who he? The young son of WMG owner Len Blavatnik. In April, 25 year old Val was put on the Warner board by his dad. Seems like he called another Elliott and formed an alliance of young sons of moguls.

Atlantic is part of the Warner Music Group, which recently put Robert Kyncl in charge after he wrested power from Max Lousada, who was successful and popular.

Hits points out that Atlantic — which was booming a short time ago with Ed Sheeran and hit soundtracks from “Hamilton” and “The Greatest Showman” — has fallen behind. So change was in the wind. Atlantic doesn’t have much going on this summer aside from Charlie XCX and her “Brat” album. Pointing that out to Blavatnik Sr. was probably enough to get the ball rolling for major changes.

Greenwald is far from ancient. She’s 54, and among her finds was Cardi B. Bruno Mars is also on her resume, although he’s not released anything new in a long time, and seems to be embroiled in vast personal financial drama.

Atlantic has never been pacific. Just read former exec Jerry Greenberg’s book about the label’s history, “Whole Lotta Music.” That will tell you the whole bloody story.

All this and there are no new artists be played on radio, the charts are frozen with Taylor Swift, and there will four different awards shows this coming year celebrating the same small group of acts. Unreal.