'Transformers' sets box office record
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Hollywood's box office record books have been transformed.
The sci-fi adventure "Transformers" had an unprecedented Tuesday haul of US$27.4 million in its official debut, beating a record of $15.7 million set last year by "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest."
"It's the biggest Tuesday ever," said Mike Vollman, spokesman for Paramount, which released "Transformers" along with fellow Viacom Inc. unit DreamWorks. "It's playing very broadly. It's the kind of summer movie that's drawing families and we're very excited for its progress going into the rest of the weekend."
Directed by Michael Bay and based on the Hasbro toys that debuted in the 1980s, "Transformers" chronicles a war between two factions of giant shape-shifting robots that bring their battle to Earth. The human cast co-starring alongside the computer-generated robots includes Shia LaBeouf, Tyrese Gibson, Jon Voight, Josh Duhamel and John Turturro.
"Transformers" opened Tuesday in 4,011 theatres nationwide. It also played in preview screenings at 3,050 theatres starting at 8 p.m. Monday, bringing in $8.8 million.
"They had great preview numbers and it's an incredible total for a Tuesday, which is just not known as a big box office day," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers. "The timing on this movie was perfect, with the holiday in the middle of the week. This film has six days plus a preview to stretch its legs."
"Transformers" is positioned to join the ranks of this summer's blockbusters, "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," "Spider-Man 3" and "Shrek the Third," all of which have surpassed or are about to cross the $300 million mark domestically.
A brisk Fourth of July week would help Hollywood recover from a month-long downturn that followed a huge start to summer in May.
"This could be the movie that transforms the summer back into the blockbuster we were hoping it would be," said Dergarabedian.
Avril sued over 'Girlfriend'
TORONTO (CP) - Canadian faux-punk princess Avril Lavigne, repeatedly dogged by accusations she doesn't write her own songs, is now being dragged into a legal battle to prove she penned her chart-topping hit "Girlfriend."
A pair of U.S. songwriters allege her contagious single sounds suspiciously like a song called "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend," released by the Rubinoos in 1979.
The American song features the upbeat chorus: "Hey, hey, you, you, I wanna be your boyfriend," much like Lavigne's boppy refrain, which declares: "Hey, hey, you, you, I don't like your girlfriend."
San Francisco lawyer Nicholas Carlin said Wednesday that the similarities are clear, and accused Lavigne of copying substantial chunks of the song from the one crafted by his client, Rubinoos founder and songwriter Tommy Dunbar.
"She's made a lot of money off of my client's song," Carlin said by phone from northern California, where the claim was filed.
"The entire song is not the same, they have different bridges, but the heart and soul of her song is directly taken from our client's song."
Lavigne's manager, Terry McBride, scoffed at the charges, calling the suit "baseless" and little more than a "case of legal blackmail."
"Avril's a great songwriter and she's proving it over and over and over again," McBride said from Vancouver, where he runs Nettwerk Music Group.
"Avril's very, very sensible. She knows music well. If the chords had been similar, the melodies had been similar, lyrics had been similar ... she would have gone, 'OK, I can see their point.' But nothing's similar."
McBride said the suit was filed July 2 but that he received a draft of the claim roughly six weeks ago.
It names as the plaintiffs songwriters Dunbar and James Gangwer and names Lavigne, Avril Lavigne Publishing, and the 22-year-old's songwriting partner Dr. Luke among the defendants.
While Carlin admitted that the lyrics and melodies differ, he insisted that the main hook of Dunbar's song was ripped off.
"You don't have to have the entire song to be similar to the original song for it to be an infringement. It just requires a certain, substantial similarity, meaning an important part of the song," he explained.
He went on to recite the lyrics to Lavigne's upbeat track, noting they morph from "I don't like your girlfriend" to "I want to be your girlfriend."
McBride said he hired a musicologist to study both tracks and the expert found no basis for the allegations.
"This one came back so solidly on our side it's just ridiculous," he said.
Still, McBride admitted he's considering settling the suit out of court if the costs of defending the case prove too high.
He noted that a similar claim against his client Sarah McLachlan about 10 years ago cost roughly $500,000 to defeat in court. When Nettwerk tried to recoup the costs from the plaintiffs, they declared bankruptcy, he said.
Veteran entertainment lawyer Paul Sanderson said copyright suits are common in the music business and are often settled out of court.
"There used to be a saying in the industry: 'Where there's a hit, there's a writ,' " said Sanderson, a Toronto lawyer who used to represent Lavigne and whose current clients include Chantal Kreviazuk and Ron Sexsmith.
"It really is about the money. If someone thinks that they have a possibility of making some money out of the claim and there's money in the pipeline that's been earned by a song ... there's money there to argue about."
McBride said his current legal battle is "an unfortunate part of this business."
"We will try and settle for costs that will be less than defending," he said. "Emotionally, it sucks. But at the end of the day you have to take that out of it."
The legal blow is just the latest in a series of jabs that question Lavigne's songwriting claims.
Last month, Kreviazuk suggested to Performing Songwriter magazine that Lavigne took credit for a song Kreviazuk wrote called "Contagious."
Kreviazuk told the publication she gave a song called "Contagious" to Lavigne two years ago and was surprised to see a track with the same name on Lavigne's current disc with a credit to Lavigne and songwriter Evan Taubenfeld.
McBride said Kreviazuk has never even heard the Lavigne track and has since retracted her statement.
"I know, personally, she regrets saying what she said," said McBride, adding the songs are nothing alike. "The interviewer obviously got Chantal on a bad day."
Lavigne, who grew up in Napanee, Ont., has also had to deflect accusations from the Matrix, the production team behind hits "Sk8er Boi" and "I'm With You."
Songwriter Lauren Christie told Rolling Stone that Lavigne did little but "change a word here or there," but Lavigne has insisted the pair crafted the melodies and lyrics together.
McBride said the barrage of criticism facing Lavigne is just part of life at the top of the charts.
"Everyone comes after the stars. If Avril was not successful, they wouldn't really care," he said.