Year: 2018

Categories
Movies

Box office record or not, VENOM is absolutely awful. A STAR IS BORN is great, but VENOM is total garbage!!

Venom sets October box office record with $80M, A Star Is Born nabs $42.6M
A slimy alien symbiote and a pop star on the rise are heating up the box office this weekend.
Sony’s Spider-Man-adjacent superhero movie Venom is on track to sell an estimated $80 million in tickets in the U.S. and Canada from Friday through Sunday, topping the box office and dethroning Gravity ($55.8 million) as the highest-opening October film ever. Meanwhile, Warner Bros’. music-driven romantic drama A Star Is Born is also off to a strong start, taking in an estimated $42.6 million (including select early screenings).
The two films are powering the biggest October weekend on the books, according to ComScore, with an estimated $174.5 million. The previous high-water mark of $151.5 million was set in 2015, led by The Martian.
Heading into the weekend, Venom was expected to earn about $55 million to $70 million. Its robust opening should come as welcome news for Sony, which is trying to to build an interconnected movie universe with characters licensed from Marvel Comics (others include Silver Sable, Black Cat, and Morbius). Venom cost about $100 million to produce, and it will collect an estimated $125.2 million in international markets this weekend.
Based on the titular Spider-Man villain (but not related to last year’s Spider-Man: Homecoming), Venom stars Tom Hardy as a journalist who becomes bonded to an extraterrestrial life form that grants him extraordinary powers and has a taste for human flesh. Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland) directed, and the cast also includes Riz Ahmed, Michelle Williams, and Jenny Slate. Critics panned the movie, but audiences gave it a B-plus CinemaScore.
The weekend’s No. 2 film, A Star Is Born, is pleasing both critics and moviegoers: It’s rated 91 percent “fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes and has an A CinemaScore. In the wake of a buzzy premiere at the Venice International Film Festival in August, the movie is widely regarded as a serious Oscar contender with mass appeal. It cost about $40 million to make and was projected to open in the $30 million to $35 million range. Overseas, the film will take in about $14 million this weekend.
Bradley Cooper makes his directing debut on the fourth (or fifth) incarnation of a timeless Hollywood tale, which this time centers on a hard-living country music star (played by Cooper) who mentors and falls for a talented young singer-songwriter (Lady Gaga).
Rounding out the top five this weekend are Warner Bros’. animated movie Smallfoot, with about $14.9 million; Universal’s comedy Night School, with about $12.3 million; and Universal’s kid-friendly fantasy The House With a Clock in Its Walls, with about $7.3 million.
In limited release, Fox’s critically acclaimed drama The Hate U Give, based on Angie Thomas’ novel about a black teen who witnesses the police shooting of a childhood friend, is on track to earn $500,000 in 36 theaters (a per-screen average of $13,889).
George Tillman Jr. directed the film, which stars Amandla Stenberg, Regina Hall, and Russell Hornsby. The script was written by Audrey Wells, who died Thursday at 58, after a long battle with cancer.
Overall box office is up 9.2 percent year-to-date. See the Oct. 5-7 figures below.
1. Venom — $80 million
2. A Star Is Born — $23 million
3. Smallfoot — $14.9 million
4. Night School — $12.3 million
5. The House With a Clock in Its Walls — $7.3 million
6. A Simple Favor — $3.4 million
7. The Nun — $2.6 million
8. Hell Fest — $2.075 million
9. Crazy Rich Asians — $2.06 million
10. Met Opera: Aida (2018) — $1.2 million
Categories
People

Glad you’re still around, Tina!!

Tina Turner considered assisted suicide before husband gave her his kidney

Tina Turner considered assisted suicide before undergoing a secret kidney transplant.

The music icon revealed her health woes in her new book, My Love Story, and explained her attempts to try treat her high blood pressure with homeopathic treatments led to her kidneys functioning at just 20 per cent.

Turner was urged by doctors to start dialysis, as the chances of her receiving a kidney were “extremely low,” but the What’s Love Got To Do With It hitmaker refused to live on a machine.

At that point, the 78-year-old singer, who lives in Switzerland with her husband Erwin Bach, thought about assisted suicide – which is legal in the European country – and signed up to be a member of Exit, an assisted dying organization.

“It wasn’t my idea of life. But the toxins in my body had started taking over. I couldn’t eat. I was surviving, but not living,” she wrote in the excerpt published by Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper.
“I began to think about death. If my kidneys were going, and it was time for me to die, I could accept that. It was OK. When it’s time, it’s really time. I didn’t mind the thought of dying, but I was concerned about how I would go,” Turner added.

It was then that German music executive Bach, who she married in 2013, offered up his own kidney.

“He said he didn’t want another woman, or another life,” Turner wrote. “Then he shocked me. He said he wanted to give me one of his kidneys.”

The op went ahead in April last year, and the Grammy award-winning singer is “revelling in the sheer joy of being alive” after the generous gift from her husband.

“The best moment was when Erwin came rolling into my room in his wheelchair,” she recalled. “He somehow managed to look good, even handsome, as he greeted me with an energetic: ‘Hi, darling!’ I was so emotional – happy, overwhelmed and relieved that we’d come through this alive.”

Bach is fully recovered after the operation, however Turner must continue to take strong doses of immunosuppressants to prevent her body from rejecting the new organ.

Categories
People

He was always great. Rest In Peace, Mr. Wilson

‘The Walking Dead’ Actor Scott Wilson Dies

NEW YORK — Scott Wilson, who played the murderer Robert Hickock in 1967’s “In Cold Blood” and was a series regular on “The Walking Dead,” has died. He was 76.

AMC, the show’s network, announced Wilson’s death Saturday. The network calls Wilson’s character on “The Walking Dead,” veterinarian Hershel Greene, “the emotional core of the show.”

Wilson starred on series from 2011 to 2014. His return for the upcoming season was announced just hours earlier on Saturday. Wilson already filmed his scenes for season nine.

In the same year as Wilson’s breakthrough in “In Cold Blood,” he also played murder suspect Harvey Oberst in “In the Heat of the Night.”

He appeared in 1974’s “The Great Gatsby” as George Wilson, in “The Right Stuff” as pilot Scott Crossfield and earned a Golden Globe nomination in 1980 for his performance in “The Ninth Configuration,” in which he played a former astronaut.

Categories
Music

It’ll be tough to listen to this all in one setting. Hope he’s resting in peace.

Chris Cornell / 4CD box set

November sees the first ever complete retrospective of Chris Cornell’s career covering Soundgarden, Temple of the Dog, Audioslave and his solo works.

Simply called Chris Cornell, the four-CD box set edition (there are two other physical formats) features 64 tracks and includes 11 unreleased recordings, notably ‘When Bad Does Good’, a song found in Chris’ personal audio archive which was performed, recorded and mixed by Chris himself. Other unreleased tracks include live performances such as Chris’ duet with Yusuf/Cat Stevens on ‘Wild World’, Bob Marley’s ‘Redemption Song’ (recorded with his daughter, Toni Cornell) as well as ‘Reach Down’, ‘Stargazer’, ‘One’ and ‘Show Me How To Live’.

The set includes a 54-page booklet with unreleased photos and sleeve note contributions by Kim Thayil, Matt Cameron, Tom Morello, Mike McCready and Brendan O’Brien. The box comes wrapped in a custom die-cut o-card that “showcases Seattle with tree-line graphics on the front and other various cities Chris lived in throughout his life on the back.”

A 17-track version of Chris Cornell is also available on single CD and 2LP vinyl. This will be released on 16 November 2018.

Chris Cornell 4CD box set

Disc: 1
1. Hunted Down – Soundgarden
2. Kingdom of Come – Soundgarden
3. Flower – Soundgarden
4. All Your Lies – Soundgarden
5. Loud Love – Soundgarden
6. Hands All Over – Soundgarden
7. Say Hello 2 Heaven – Temple of the Dog
8. Hunger Strike – Temple of the Dog
9. Outshined – Soundgarden
10. Rusty Cage – Soundgarden
11. Seasons – Chris Cornell
12. Hey Baby (Land of the New Rising Sun) – M.A.C.C.
13. Black Hole Sun – Soundgarden
14. Spoonman – Soundgarden
15. Dusty – Soundgarden
16. Burden in My Hand – Soundgarden

Disc: 2
1. Sunshower – Chris Cornell
2. Sweet Euphoria – Chris Cornell
3. Can’t Change Me – Chris Cornell
4. Like a Stone – Audioslave
5. Cochise – Audioslave
6. Be Yourself – Audioslave
7. Doesn’t Remind Me – Audioslave
8. Revelations – Audioslave
9. Shape of Things to Come – Audioslave
10. You Know My Name – Chris Cornell
11. Billie Jean – Chris Cornell
12. Long Gone (Rock Version) – Chris Cornell
13. Scream – Chris Cornell
14. Part of Me (Steve Aoki Remix) – Chris Cornell
15. Ave Maria (With Eleven) – Chris Cornell

Disc: 3
1. Promise (Feat. Chris Cornell) – Slash
2. Whole Lotta Love (Feat. Chris Cornell) – Santana
3. Call Me a Dog (Live Acoustic) – Chris Cornell
4. Imagine (Live Acoustic) – Chris Cornell
5. I Am the Highway (Live Acoustic) – Chris Cornell
6. The Keeper – Chris Cornell
7. Been Away Too Long – Soundgarden
8. Live to Rise – Soundgarden
9. Lies (With Chris Cornell & Ace) – Gabin
10. Misery Chain (With Joy Williams) – Chris Cornell
11. Storm – Soundgarden
12. Nearly Forgot My Broken Heart – Chris Cornell
13. Only These Words – Chris Cornell
14. Our Time in the Universe – Chris Cornell
15. ‘Til the Sun Comes Back Around – Chris Cornell
16. Stay With Me Baby – Chris Cornell
17. The Promise – Chris Cornell
18. When Bad Goes Good – Chris Cornell

Disc: 4
1. Into the Void (Sealth) [live at the Paramount] – Soundgarden
2. Mind Riot (Live at the Paramount) – Soundgarden
3. Nothing to Say (Live in Seattle) – Soundgarden
4. Jesus Christ Pose (Live in Oakland) – Soundgarden
5. Show Me How to Live (Live in Cuba) – Audioslave*
6. Wide Away (Live in Sweden) – Chris Cornell*
7. All Night Thing (Live in Sweden) – Chris Cornell*
8. Nothing Compares 2 U (Live at Sirius XM) – Chris Cornell*
9. One (Live at Beacon Theatre) – Chris Cornell*
10. Reach Down (Live at the Paramount) – Temple of the Dog*
11. Stargazer (Live at the Paramount) – Temple of the Dog*
12. Wild World (With Chris Cornell) [live at Pantages Theatre] – Yusuf/Cat Stevens*
13. A Day in the Life (Live at the Royal Albert Hall) – Chris Cornell*
14. Redemption Song (With Toni Cornell) [live at Beacon Theatre] – Chris Cornell*
15. Thank You (Live in Sweden) – Chris Cornell

*previously unreleased

Categories
People

Sad news Rest In Peace, Marty Balin.

Jefferson Airplane guitarist Marty Balin dead at 76

Jefferson Airplane star Marty Balin has died, aged 76.

The guitarist, who co-founded the psychedelic rock band in 1965, passed away on Thursday.

The sad news was confirmed by his wife Susan in a statement on Friday.

“Marty and I shared the deepest of love – he often called it Nirvana – and it was,” she wrote. “But really, we were all touched by his love. His presence will be within my entire being forever.”

Born Martyn Jerel Buchwald, Balin was a San Francisco folk artist when he formed a band with Paul Kantner, guitarist Jorma Kaukonen, bassist Jack Casady, drummer Slip Spence and singer Signe Toly Anderson.
Calling themselves Jefferson Airplane, they released a debut album, Jefferson Airplane Takes Off, in 1966 and quickly became one of the most important bands to come out of the San Francisco hippie scene.

Anderson left the group in 1967 and was replaced by Grace Slick. Balin quit a year later.

After a spell in management, he rejoined Kantner and Slick in 1974, but his return lasted for only four years before he opted for a solo career. In 1989, he participated in the short-lived Jefferson Airplane reunion tour and returned four years later to the renamed Jefferson Starship, finally leaving for good in 2008.

In 2016, Balin underwent open-heart surgery in New York City and later sued bosses at Mount Sinai Beth Israel hospital for medical malpractice, claiming medics left him with kidney damage and the loss of his left thumb, among other things.

In legal papers, the musician detailed how his wife, Susan, had complained to staff about the quality of care provided.

“The branch was closing up, and they were supposed to have special nurses and special doctors to help the serious patients to get the rehab they needed and to monitor them,” lawyer David Jaroslawicz wrote. “It was a horror show… He has become totally disabled.”

He was demanding unspecified damages.

Categories
Sports

I want to care. I wish I cared.

Alessia Cara to perform at 2018 Grey Cup halftime

How do you follow Shania Twain?

That was the challenge for Christina Litz, the CFL’s marketing director, who was charged with finding the halftime show for the 106th Grey Cup game in Edmonton.

Twain was the featured performer not only at last years Grey Cup halftime show but also at the last Grey Cup in Edmonton in 2010.

“I think Alessia Cara is actually the perfect follow to Shania,” said Litz of her selection announced at halftime of Saturday’s Edmonton Eskimos game against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

“This year she presented Shania with her lifetime achievement award at the Canadian Country Music Awards in Hamilton. We thought that was perfect. We had a legend like Shania and then this up-and-coming legend that is going to be around for decades to follow her in her footsteps,” she said of the young star coming off a run of six multi-platinum hits with the release of ‘Growing Pains.’

“Right now in all of airplay, no matter American or Canadian, she has the No. 3 song ahead of all of the biggies and this year, she became the first Canadian ever to win Best New Artist at the Grammys. We don’t need that kind of validation from Americans to know how good our Canadians are but it just speaks to her being a world class talent.”

Speaking to fans via video on the scoreboard and to the national TV audience in the halftime announcement, Cara said she couldn’t wait to ‘Bring The Heat’ to Edmonton.

“Performing at the Grey Cup as a Canadian is such an honour. I’m excited to be part of the halftime show and freeze my finger tips off with you guys.”

Quote-unquote Shania Twain on Cara: “I’m a huge fan of yours. I’m inspired by you, so much. I really am. You’re amazing.”

Categories
Movies

I saw LOVE, GILDA this weekend and it was wonderful. Too short, but wonderful.

Kevin Hart and Tiffany Haddish’s Night School tops box office with $28 million

Kevin Hart and Tiffany Haddish are teaching the competition a lesson this weekend.

The duo’s adult-education comedy Night School is on track to earn an estimated $28 million in ticket sales at 3,010 theaters in the U.S. and Canada from Friday to Sunday, outpacing fellow new release Smallfoot to become the No. 1 film at the box office.

Heading into the weekend, Night School was projected to gross about $25 million to $30 million. Made for about $29 million and released by Universal Pictures, the film reunites Haddish with her Girls Trip director, Malcolm D. Lee, and producer Will Packer. For comparison, Girls Trip debuted with $31.2 million back in July 2017. As for Hart, Night School’s debut is coming in lower than 2016’s Central Intelligence ($35.5 million) and Ride Along 2 ($35.2 million), as well as 2015’s Get Hard ($33.8 million), but higher than 2015’s The Wedding Ringer ($20.6 million).

Night School centers on a high school dropout (Hart) who starts taking evening classes to get his GED and make himself a better man, with the help of an unconventional teacher (Haddish) and some fellow misfits (Rob Riggle, Romany Malco, Keith David). Critics’ reviews have been tepid, but moviegoers gave it an A-minus CinemaScore.

Taking second place this weekend is Warner Bros’. animated movie Smallfoot, which will earn about $23 million at 4,131 theaters. That figure is slightly below industry projections, which were also in the $25 million to $30 million range.

Directed by Karey Kirkpatrick and made for about $80 million, Smallfoot tells the story of a Yeti who forms an unlikely friendship with a human. The voice cast includes Channing Tatum, James Corden, Zendaya (as Meechee), Common, LeBron James, and Gina Rodriguez. Reviews were generally positive, and audiences gave it an A-minus CinemaScore.

Rounding out the top five this weekend are last week’s winner, The House With a Clock in Its Walls ($12.5 million), followed by A Simple Favor ($6.6 million) and The Nun ($5.4 million). Lionsgate’s slasher movie Hell Fest arrives with an estimated $5.1 million at 2,297 theaters, good for sixth place.

In limited release, National Geographic’s critically acclaimed climbing documentary Free Solo will earn an estimated $$300,804 in four theaters, notching the best per-screen average of the year ($75,201).

According to ComScore, overall box office is up 8.4 percent year-to-date. Check out the Sept. 28-30 figures below.

1. Night School — $28 million
2. Smallfoot — $23 million
3. The House With a Clock in Its Walls — $12.5 million
4. A Simple Favor — $6.6 million
5. The Nun — $5.4 million
6. Hell Fest — $5.1 million
7. Crazy Rich Asians — $4.2 million
8. The Predator — $3.7 million
9. White Boy Rick — $2.4 million
10. Peppermint — $1.8 million

Categories
Movies

I miss the days when there were movies I’d actually pay to see. I’m not interested in any of these ones.

Box Office: ‘The House With a Clock in Its Walls’ Leads With $26.8 Million, ‘Fahrenheit 11/9’ Falls Flat

“The House With a Clock in Its Walls” easily topped the domestic box office in an otherwise quiet weekend at multiplexes.

Eli Roth’s adaptation of the popular children’s book picked up a better-than-expected $26.8 million when it opened in 3,592 locations. The fantasy film, starring Jack Black and Cate Blanchett, didn’t face much competition. A number of holdovers filled out the top five as a trio of new releases came in way under expectations.

“The House With a Clock in Its Walls” topped “Hostel” as Roth’s biggest opening to date. The family-friendly film bowed with $3.1 million overseas for a global start of $29.9 million. Imax screens accounted for $2.5 million of its box office total.

Universal’s head of domestic distribution Jim Orr said the release date in a wide open market, along with the team of Roth, Black, and Blanchett, helped bolster the film above earlier projections.

“Obviously, we couldn’t be more pleased,” Orr said. “It’s always great to kick off your fall slate at No. 1.”

Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 11/9,” a satirical look at President Donald Trump, fared the best among newcomers. The Briarcliff Entertainment political documentary landed in eighth place, coming in way under estimates with $3.1 million from 1,719 venues. Launching the film in over a thousand theaters might have hurt its box office potential. Most specialized films start small in a select amount of theaters before slowly expanding nationwide as word of mouth builds.

It was a good summer for docs — “RBG,” “Won’t You Be My Neighbor,” and “Three Identical Strangers” all hit double digits, but they all had modest expansions. Dinesh D’Souza took a similar route to Moore just a few months ago, opening “Death of a Nation” on over 1,000 screens. The pro-Trump doc was the worst showing for the right-wing conservative filmmaker, bowing with $2.3 million and picking up just $5.8 million. It’s a tough time to be serving up even more Trump. Moore’s 2004 film “Fahrenheit 9/11” is still the highest grossing documentary ever. It debuted with $23 million in North America and went on to earn $22 million globally.

“Life Itself,” a tear-jerker from “This Is Us” creator Dan Fogelman, didn’t even crack the top 10, pocketing just $2.1 million from 2,609 screens. That’s cause for concern, especially considering Amazon Studios paid $10 million for the star-studded drama with Oscar Isaac, Olivia Wilde, Antonio Banderas, and Annette Bening. It didn’t help that the movie was savaged by bad reviews ahead of its release. It currently holds a 13% average on review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes, as well as a B+ CinemaScore.

Meanwhile, Neon’s “Assassination Nation” scraped together a disappointing $1 million in 1,403 locations. Sam Levinson wrote and directed the edgy teen thriller.

Lionsgate’s “A Simple Favor,” the neo-noir mystery drama starring Anna Kendrick, Blake Lively, and Henry Golding, landed in second place with $10.4 million in 3,102 locations in its second frame. To date, it has earned $32 million. In third is Warner Bros.’ “The Nun” with $10.2 million, taking its domestic tally to $100 million.

Fox’s “The Predator” dropped to No. 4 after leading the domestic box office last weekend. The sci-fi thriller earned $8.6 million for a domestic total of $40.3 million. Rounding out the top five is Warner Bros.’ “Crazy Rich Asians.” The acclaimed romantic comedy earned another $6.5 million, bringing its North American earnings to $159 million.

In limited release, Bleecker Street’s “Colette” earned $156,788 when it showed in four theaters. That translates to a solid $39,197 per theater. The biographical drama with Keira Knightley and Dominic West about the life of the French novelist who was forced to publish her novels under her husband’s name.

Annapurna’s “The Sister Brothers,” Jacques Audiard’s western dark comedy stars John C. Reilly and Joaquin Phoenix, picked up $122,028 from four locations for a per-theater average of $30,507.

Even with the sleepy weekend, the domestic box office remains up 8.5%, according to comScore. However, the frame is down 21.8% compared to the same weekend last year when “Kingsman: The Golden Circle” launched with $39 million.

Categories
James Bond

Hurry up and get it done!!

Bond 25 Finally Got Some Good News

It’s been a long and challenging road for Bond 25. The 25th James Bond movie hasn’t had much momentum since Spectre hit theaters, but it seemed like it things were finally coming together when Danny Boyle signed on to direct. However, the film hit a significant snag when Boyle departed over creative differences, sending Bond 25 back to square one. It was a severe blow to be sure, and now the movie is on the road to recovery. It’s still unclear what exactly this movie will be about, but the writers are getting the go-ahead to turn their treatment into a script.

Danny Boyle was initially hired to write and direct Bond 25, which would see the return of Daniel Craig to the iconic role. However, creative differences forced Boyle to leave the project, and screenwriters Neal Purvis and Robert Wade were brought onboard to write a new treatment. Purvis and Wade have a long history with the Bond franchise since 1999’s The World Is Not Enough, so it makes sense that they’d be involved with the latest movie.

According to Deadline, the screenwriters have turned in their treatment, which the duo will now work on turning into a script. It’s not quite as big as finding a new director, but it’s progress. The writing duo is reportedly using elements from Danny Boyle’s script, so the director’s version of Bond 25 will live on in some form. There’s no word on any plot details, which probably won’t surface in an official capacity until sometime after the script is turned in. The hunt for a director is still underway with names like Edgar Wright, Yann Demange, and David Mackenzie being floated around.

While the news that progress is being made on getting Bond 25 to the big screen is good, it can also be viewed as a mixed bag. Neal Purvis and Robert Wade have written some good Bond movies, but it could also mean that we are getting more of the same. Part of the reason people were excited about Danny Boyle’s involvement was that is signaled something new and unique was in store for the franchise. However, getting more of a good thing is not necessarily bad, and Purvis and Wade were the writers of great films like Skyfall and Casino Royale.

The movie is still scheduled to be released on November 8, 2019.

Categories
Movies

I still need to see Crazy Rich Asians. Hopefully this week!!

The Predator returns to Earth with so-so $24 million opening

The Predator is eliminating its box office competition, though not without taking some blows.

The latest installment in Fox’s action-packed film series about extraterrestrial big-game hunters is on track to debut with an estimated $24 million in ticket sales from Friday through Sunday, at 4,037 theaters in the U.S. and Canada. In doing so, it will dethrone last week’s No. 1 movie, The Nun, and keep fellow new releases A Simple Favor, White Boy Rick, and Unbroken: Path to Redemption at bay.

Although it’s poised to top the box office, The Predator is coming in on the low end of industry forecasts, which ranged from $25 million to $35 million. The film, which cost $88 million to produce, is also trailing its most recent predecessor, Predators, which opened with $24.8 million eight years ago. Overseas, The Predator will add about $30.7 million this weekend.

Marking the sixth film in the Predator franchise (counting two Aliens vs. Predator crossovers) and arriving 31 years after the Arnold Schwarzenegger-led original, The Predator finds the titular alien stalking humans in suburbia, including an Army Ranger played by Boyd Holbrook, a scientist played by Olivia Munn, and a young boy played by Jacob Tremblay. Shane Black (who played a supporting role in 1987’s Predator) directed, from a script he wrote with Frank Dekker.

Critics’ reviews were underwhelming, while audiences gave it a weak C+ CinemaScore, which does not bode well for word of mouth.

Warner Bros. and New Line’s horror flick The Nun will earn about $18 million in its sophomore weekend, good for second place. That brings the film’s domestic total to about $85 million after 10 days in theaters. Internationally, the film has grossed an estimated $143.6 million, for a global total of $228.7 million.

Arriving alongside The Predator this weekend are Lionsgate’s thriller A Simple Favor, in third place with an estimated $16.1 million; Sony’s crime drama White Boy Rick, in fourth place with an estimated $8.8 million; and PureFlix’s biopic Unbroken: Path to Redemption, in ninth place with an estimated $2.4 million.

A Simple Favor is directed by Paul Feig (Bridesmaids) and stars Anna Kendrick as a mommy blogger who tries to solve the disappearance of a glamourous new friend (played by Blake Lively). The film is coming in slightly ahead of industry projections, which were in the $12 million to $15 million range.

White Boy Rick is based on the true story of Richard Wershe Jr., a young drug kingpin and FBI informant in 1980s Detroit. The film stars Richie Merritt, Matthew McConaughey, and Bel Powley; Yann Demange directed. Its opening is in line with projections.

Finally, Path to Redemption is a sequel to Angelina Jolie’s 2014 film Unbroken, about Olympic runner and World War II veteran Louis Zamperini. Directed by Harold Cronk (God’s Not Dead), the new film chronicles Zamperini’s return from the war, his struggles to readjust to civilian life, and his religious reawakening.

According to ComScore, overall box office is up 8.9 percent year-to-date. Check out the Sept. 14-16 figures below.

1. The Predator — $24 million
2. The Nun — $18 million
3. A Simple Favor — $16.1 million
4. White Boy Rick — $8.8 million
5. Crazy Rich Asians — $8.7 million
6. Peppermint — $6.1 million
7. The Meg — $3.8 million
8. Searching — $3.2 million
9. Unbroken: Path to Redemption — $2.4 million
10. Mission: Impossible — Fallout — $2.3 million