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Marvel Mania as “Deadpool and Wolverine” Has Shattering $96 Mil Opening Including Previews

Roger Friedman
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Marvel Mania as “Deadpool and Wolverine” Has Shattering $96 Mil Opening Including Previews

“Deadpool and Wolverine” had a record shattering $96 million opening day including $38.5 million from Thursday previews.

The Marvel release is on track for a $200 million weekend, eclipsing everything this year and most of the last few years.

It’s the biggest R rated movie release of all time.

With international sales, the total is already $211 million.

Right now, “D&W” could land on the all time opening weekends list at around number 6 or 7.

The first two “Deadpool” movies sit at 43 and 47 on that list. The “X Men Wolverine” movie and “Logan” are down around number 88.

Of course, who knows how much money “D&W” cost? The marketing alone could be $100 million. It’s absolutely impossible to measure how much we’ve seen Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman on social media in the last month. Or much regular media they’ve appeared on. It’s astronomical.

(Read) Paul McCartney Recalls Blues Great John Mayall: “He became a mentor to me”

Roger Friedman
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(Read) Paul McCartney Recalls Blues Great John Mayall: “He became a mentor to me”
Paul McCartney has posted a touching tribute to the late great John Mayall. Mayall, a huge influence on every British rock and blues musician, died this week at age 90. When I was a kid, reading the real Rolling Stone, Mayall was a constant — and revered. McCartney says: “he became a mentor and would educate me on a lot of the blues guitarists playing at the time.”

Billy Joel Turns the Lights Back Off as He Stops Playing New Song at Shows

Roger Friedman
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Billy Joel Turns the Lights Back Off as He Stops Playing New Song at Shows

One big surprise last night at Billy Joel’s finale residency show at Madison Square Garden: he didn’t include his new 2024 song, “Turn the Lights Back On.’

Billy seems to have turned the lights back off.

The Piano Man hasn’t performed his new song in his last three shows, not since June 8th at the Garden.

“Turn the Lights Back On” was introduced to great fanfare this past winner. It was Billy’s first new song in 30 years, written by Freddie Wexler as kind of a Joel tribute.

The single went right to the top of the charts, and Billy featured it on his NBC TV special. Everyone loved hearing Billy Joel singing something new, but “Lights” felt a lot like it came from AI.

That Billy didn’t sing it at his final Garden show seems very meaningful. The show had 26 numbers including two we don’t hear all the time — “Zanzibar” (my favorite), and “This is the Time,” which is never heard but Joel said it was requested by his wife, Alexis. The show ran almost three hours, so “Lights” could have been done.

Is the new song old news? I guess we’ll see when Billy hits the road this fall in shows featuring Sting, Rod Stewart, and Chris Isaak.

Korean Pop Group Stray Kids Soundly Beats Over Hyped BTS Star Jimin in Sales

Roger Friedman
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Korean Pop Group Stray Kids Soundly Beats Over Hyped BTS Star Jimin in Sales

It’s a case of Korean pop vs. K Pop.

The new album from Stray Kids, a Korean pop group, soundly thrashed the new release this week from Jimin, a singer from K Pop’s supergroup BTS.

Jimin and BTS are part of the whole Hybe hype, now run by Scooter Braun. BTS fans — and Jimin’s — regularly ballot stuff iTunes so it appears their acts are swamping the charts.

But Stray Kids, which has rival management, just does their thing. And they came out on top big time this week.

Stray Kids’ “Ate” sold a total of 225,000 — most of which came pure album sales and downloads.

Jimin’s “Muse” sold jut 94,000 copies — again, most of them were from physical albums and downloads.

The two South Korean acts finished first and second this week, knocking Eminem’s “Death of Slim Shady” to number 3 and 81,000 copies.

Several new releases hit the top 50 this week including “Glass Animals” and Childish Gambino, each with around 36,000 copies total.

How did K Pop get so popular? They’re boy bands, fashioned a decade or more after the American fads. Their releases don’t last long in the charts, they’re more of pop-up pop phenomenon.

Meantime, solo US pop boy wonder Shawn Mendes seems like he’s ready to drop his first album in four years. Mendes, who took a mental health break from his career at age 25, may be going back to his original singer songwriter roots. That’s what he was like when we met him 7 or 8 years ago.

Will his fans show up? Stay tuned…


Lady Gaga Gets the Gold for Olympics Opening Performance, And “Joker 2” Commercial

Roger Friedman
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Lady Gaga Gets the Gold for Olympics Opening Performance, And “Joker 2” Commercial

Lady Gaga’s Paris Olympics performance got her a gold medal tonight. Classy production and tremendous singing and dancing for Gaga.

Then NBC ran a short teaser for Gaga singing “Come On Get Happy” from “Joker 2.” We’re heading toward a big Gaga fall!

Madonna Wouldn’t Allow “Deadpool and Wolverine” to Include “Like a Prayer” on Soundtrack

Roger Friedman
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Madonna Wouldn’t Allow “Deadpool and Wolverine” to Include “Like a Prayer” on Soundtrack

The soundtrack to “Deadpool and Wolverine” is out, and it’s a chart hit on iTunes.

But the jukebox collection hit songs is lacking the biggest song in the movie: Madonna’s “Like a Prayer.” The song is a major piece of the movie. In their junket interviews, Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman talked all about how they persuaded Madonna to let them use it. Reynolds even said that Madonna gave them notes on how to use it. (Ridiculous but whatever.)

Now it turns out Madge said no to using “Like A Prayer” on the soundtrack album which includes Nsync, Aretha Franklin, The
Goo Goo Dolls, and Huey Lewis and the News. The movie is so meta they even included “The Greatest” by Jackman from his “The Greatest Showman” album.

It seems that this fall Madonna will release her own 35th anniversary edition of the “Like a Prayer” album and didn’t want “D&W” to take away from that. She may have made a mistake since the movie will introduce the song to a new generation that might have bought the anniversary album as well.

So much for Madonna cooperating! And she even brought her twin adopted daughters to the premiere this week! Well, at least she agreed to the song being in the movie. Hopefully, songwriter Patrick Leonard gets something out of that! But he missed a nice royalty on the soundtrack.

The track isn’t even included on Spotify, although “D&W” fans have made playlists and included “Like a Prayer” from other sources.

Let’s Go! “Deadpool and Wolverine” Jokes Way to Massive $38 Mil Preview Night, Spoilers Revealed at CinemaCon

Roger Friedman
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Let’s Go! “Deadpool and Wolverine” Jokes Way to Massive $38 Mil Preview Night, Spoilers Revealed at CinemaCon

Ryan Reynolds continues to be Hollywood’s golden boy.

Last night “Deadpool and Wolverine” clawed up $38 million in preview. An opening weekend of over $150 million is a low estimate.

That’s a lot of popcorn buckets!

“D&W” isn’t great artistic cinema, but it’s a lot of fun. The Reynolds- Hugh Jackman superhero buddy movie only has a 79% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes. But the audience number is 97%. Fans want to see it, and see it again.

Just to give you an idea of how big this movie is: the last “Deadpool” in 2018 had $18 million in previews. The opening weekend was $125 million. So this one is going to blow all the others out of the water.

Reynolds is a producer and writer on the movie, which he developed with his own writing team. He got Shawn Levy to direct it, and Jackman to co-star. Reynolds is already mega wealthy from his business ventures. So far he hasn’t had a misstep when it comes to his Aviation Gin or Metro phone companies among others. He’s traveled a journey from annoying quipster to mogul.

Yesterday at CinemaCon in San Diego, the whole cast appeared including the surprise cameo actors Chris Evans, Wesley Snipes, Jennifer Garner. Their roles are hilarious, and add to the movie’s must see designation.

So let’s f—-ing go as the say in the film! Marvel wins again!

Billy Joel Wraps 10 Years, 150 Shows at MSG with Jimmy Fallon, Axl Rose, and Daughters Della, 9

Roger Friedman
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Billy Joel Wraps 10 Years, 150 Shows at MSG with Jimmy Fallon, Axl Rose, and Daughters Della, 9

Billy Joel’s finale for his 10 year Madison Square Garden monthly residency was full of surprises.

Tonight was the 150th show at MSG, with Jimmy Fallon surprising the audience and helping to hoist a blue and white banner that will always commemorate the run.

There was a special — and odd — musical guest in rocker Axl Rose, who sang “Live and Let Die” and “Highway to Hell.” Billy Joel and Axl Rose are just a strange combination.

There were even stranger guests in the audience. Kellyanne Conway — who’s been making racist comments on Fox lately about Kamala Harris — was there with ex husband George and their kids including the heroic teen Claudia. (He was very nice. I had to restrain myself and not look at her.) Fox News’s demented Maria Bartiromo was in the audience and got featured on the audience camera. Also there: former CNN chief Chris Licht.

Billy promised the crowd he’d return to MSG, this wasn’t the end. It was just the end of the residency. He told a story about running into Frank Sinatra years ago when Ol Blue Eyes was 70 and tried to back out of a show in Italy. Sinatra was worried about his voice. Then Billy, who is more than 70, said high notes were harder to reach these days. Then he belted out “An Innocent Man” hitting all the falsetto parts perfectly.

The highlight of the evening: the appearance on stage of his two small daughters, Della and Remy. They are almost 9 and 7 respectively, and tonight they became stars. Della handily upstaged her father, fearlessly leading the crowd on “My Life.” Remy sat on the stage, ears covered with headphones, but was also pretty much at ease. Billy said when it was over, “How can I follow that?” (He introduced his brother, Alexander, who was in the audience and is an opera conductor in Europe.)

The rest of the nearly three hour show followed Billy’s career of hits much as the previous 149 shows. One surprise was that he didn’t sing the new song he released last winter, “Turn the Lights Back On.” It was as if that whole chapter never happened. But the band was exceptionally tight. You could feel the power in the arena as the fans who filled every seat and empty spot roared with delight and sang along to every song. Crystal Taliefero was, as usual, an all star on several instruments and then singing “River Deep Mountain High” as if her life depended on it. Saxaphonist Mark Rivera was on fire.

Whatever Billy does now is gravy. He’s touring with Sting this year. He pointed out on stage all the band’s achievements and firsts, like playing in Russia and in Cuba. Dozens of guests have joined him at MSG including Paul Simon, Sting, Elvis Costello, John Mellencamp, members of the Rascals, Paul McCartney, and so on.

What is there left to? Billy once played the old Yankee Stadium but he hasn’t played the new one yet. Sources tell me that may happen sooner than later — especially if the Yanks don’t get to the playoffs.

An historic night by a great artist!

Melania Trump Book Coming from Controversial Publisher, Will it Be Fiction or Non Fiction?

Roger Friedman
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Melania Trump Book Coming from Controversial Publisher, Will it Be Fiction or Non Fiction?

Melania Trump is releasing a book this fall about her life.

It’s coming from Skyhorse Publishing, a publisher controversial for printing books by a cadre of notorious people who can’t find regular publishers. A number of Trump adjacent people are among them

Melania says the book will be about her life, but this might be a mistake before the election. A lot of people who know her real story, not the alternative facts, will be at the ready to leap into the press with their notes. Among them would be Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, who was Melania’s press person at the White House and published her own book after leaving.

Wolkoff is probably already fact checking the book. Others will be, too.

It’s not known from the press release who Melania’s ghostwriter will be. It could be Meredith McIver, the ghostwriter who helped Trump plagiarize a Michelle Obama speech at the 2016 Republican National Convention. McIver hasn’t been heard from in years. But she still works for whatever is left of the Trump Organization.

Trump’s book will immediately be scrutinized for accounts of her upbringing in Slovenia, her modeling career there and in New York, her early life with Trump, and their marriage. Will she explain why we’ve never heard her 18 year old son’s voice? Why he wasn’t at this year’s RNC, or where he’s going to college?

Foremost, will Melania address Trump’s legal situations? That Stormy Daniels, an adult sex star, won hundreds of millions of dollars from a court after she claimed Trump slept with her while Melania was pregnant? That a New York judge gave a court victory and more millions to E. Jean Carroll, who said Trump raped her? Will she write about ripping up the Rose Garden? Or her failed Be Best campaign?

“Melania” will no doubt be a book with a lot of publicity that no will actually buy. I can’t wait!

Review: How Bad is “The Fabulous Four”? Bette Midler Left the Country to Avoid Reviews

Roger Friedman
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Review: How Bad is “The Fabulous Four”? Bette Midler Left the Country to Avoid Reviews

The review embargo on “The Fabulous Four” lifted earlier today. So far no one has filed a report to Rotten Tomatoes.

How bad is it? Well, Bette Midler left the country to dodge the reviews. First a publicist told me she’d gone, then one of her friends added the why to her absence. She hasn’t mentioned the film once on her very active Twitter account.

“The Fabulous Four” is the dime paperback version of a “Book Club” movie. It’s the latest in a series of so-called comedies about a squad of older women who go on a trip to a sunny place to reunite, bicker over old wounds, and resolve their friendships. As my colleague, Ed Douglas, observed one of them always gets stoned by accident. One has senior sex. They all re-evaluate their lives.

Bette plays Marilyn, a live wire who’s decided to remarry in her late 70s after her husband dies. She’s been making money from being an elder TikTok star, a la Nikki Haskell in real life. Marilyn’s been on the outs for decades with Susan Sarandon’s cardiac surgeon, Lou, because she thinks Marilyn stole her boyfriend years ago. (Why would they even still want to be friends?)

Midler and Sarandon look great but they are in their late 70s. So it makes no sense that the other pair of college pals in this quad are Megan Mullally (Alice) and Sheryl Lee Ralph (Kitty), who are each a decade or more younger. Meantime, Kitty sells weed for a living, which is objected to by daughter, who’s is in some kind of Christian cult. Mullally is the slut. They are the Tarnished Girls.

Mixed into this group of four is the otherwise talented Canadian actor Bruce Greenwood, who used to make silly bikini movies and then went on to serious performances in quality films. Unfortunately, he’s returned to his roots as a lothario (maybe) drawn so poorly he has no pulse. His character is part of a surprise plot twist that’s suddenly revealed, then abandoned. Just when you think the movie might take off, it sputters.

Off the women go to Key West, for no reason except Bette is getting married, and the younger gals trick Sarandon into tagging along. From then on, “The Fabulous Four” are not fabulous for a minute. This is a very pale version of Midler’s former glory in the great “First Wives Club.” There’s no script, not one original idea. It’s the worst attempt at a geezer movie since Julia Roberts and George Clooney in “Ticket to Paradise.”

I could nitpick through every page and frame, but why bother? I guess the tragedy is that in Midler and Sarandon’s cases, at least, their work opportunities have diminished over time. They are top notch — Sarandon has an Oscar, Midler has the stunning voice and great comedic timing. But they are all wasted. Wait for an airplane ride to see this turkey from middling director Jocelyn Moorhouse.

Key West and the Ernest Hemingway House do get a lot of plugs, as does TikTok which you can only hope footed the bill.

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