NEW After hearing thousands of last words, this hospital chaplain has advice for the living
Hospital chaplain J.S. Park opens up about death, grief and hearing thousands of last words, and shares his advice for the living.
Moviegoing audiences chose the horror movie over the romantic comedy to kick off the month of October. Paramount's "Smile " topped the North American charts with US$22 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday, leaving Billy Eichner's rom-com "Bros" in the dust.
Universal's " Bros " launched with an estimated $4.8 million to take fourth place behind "Don't Worry Darling" (US$7.3 million) and "The Woman King" (US$7 million). But opening weekends likely aren't the final word on either "Bros" or "Smile." Horror movie audiences are generally front-loaded, dropping off steeply after the first weekend, while something like "Bros," which got great reviews and an A CinemaScore, suggesting strong word-of-mouth potential, is a movie that could continue finding audiences through the fall. It is not unusual for R-rated comedies to open modestly and catch on later.
"Everyone who sees it absolutely loves it," said Jim Orr, Universal's president of domestic distribution. "Billy Eichner, (director) Nick Stoller and Judd Apatow have created a movie that's heartwarming and hysterically funny."
"Bros" is significant for being the first gay rom-com given a wide theatrical release by a major studio, as well as the first studio movie starring and co-written by an openly gay man. Since premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival last month, the film has gotten stellar reviews from critics and also been the target of "review bombs" on IMDB. The site last week removed removed hundreds of one-star reviews for "Bros" that were logged before the film was released.
It's also hard to compete with a new horror movie in October. "Smile," written and directed by Parker Finn in his directorial debut, stars Sosie Bacon as a therapist haunted by smiling faces after a traumatic event.
According to exit polls, 52 per cent of the audience was male and 68 per cent were ages 18-34 for the R-rated film. Playing in 3,645 locations, "Smile" started strong with US$2 million from Thursday night previews, too, and had a 4 per cent uptick Saturday, which is almost unheard of for genre films that usually decline after the first night.
"Smile" also cost only US$17 million to produce.
"It's remarkable, particularly when you take the budget into account. It's just a terrific result and validated our thoughts about the movie as a whole," said Chris Aronson, Paramount's president of domestic distribution. "That Saturday uptick bodes well for the long-term playability."
The "Smile" marketing team last weekend planted smiling actors at baseball games around the country as a marketing stunt, which Aronson said helped push the movie over the top.
"'Smile' just shows once again that the horror genre should be put on a pedestal by theater owners," said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore.
Second place went to "Don't Worry Darling" in its second weekend in theaters, with US$7.3 million, down 64 per cent from its opening. The mid-century-styled psychological thriller starring Florence Pugh and Harry Styles has earned $32.8 million domestically against a US$35 million production budget.
And "The Woman King" was close behind in third place in its third weekend, with an estimated US$7 million, down only 36 per cent from last weekend. The historical war epic directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood stars Viola Davis as an Agojie general and has made US$46.7 million.
Rounding out the top five was the re-release of "Avatar," with US$4.7 million from 1,860 locations.
Notably, the film with the highest per-theater average was the Indian epic "Ponniyin Selvan: I," which earned $4.1 million from just 510 theaters. It's one of several Indian blockbusters to perform well in North America recently, including "RRR" and "Brahmastra Part 1: Shiva."
"It was a solid weekend," Dergarabedian said. "We're not going to get into the US$100 million-plus weekends until 'Black Adam,' but audiences are getting a really diverse slate of movies to see on the big screen."
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
Hospital chaplain J.S. Park opens up about death, grief and hearing thousands of last words, and shares his advice for the living.
French police cordoned off the Iranian consulate in Paris on Friday, where a man was threatening to blow himself up, Europe 1 radio and BFM TV.
More money will land in the pockets of some Canadian families on Friday for the latest Canada Child Benefit installment.
An apparent Israeli drone attack on Iran saw troops fire air defences at a major air base and a nuclear site early Friday morning near the central city of Isfahan, an assault coming in retaliation for Tehran's unprecedented drone-and-missile assault on the country.
American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer, one of two men charged in the killings of a Canadian couple in Dominica, has been denied bail.
Canadian banks that refuse to identify the carbon rebate by name when doing direct deposits are forcing the government to change the law to make them do it, says Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault.
A woman who recently moved to Canada from India was searching for a job when she got caught in an online job scam and lost $15,000.
The World Health Organization and around 500 experts have agreed for the first time on what it means for a disease to spread through the air, in a bid to avoid the confusion early in the COVID-19 pandemic that some scientists have said cost lives.
Prince Harry, the son of King Charles III and fifth in line to the British throne, has formally confirmed he is now a U.S. resident.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.
Molly Knight, a grade four student in Nova Scotia, noticed her school library did not have many books on female athletes, so she started her own book drive in hopes of changing that.
Almost 7,000 bars of pure gold were stolen from Pearson International Airport exactly one year ago during an elaborate heist, but so far only a tiny fraction of that stolen loot has been found.
When Les Robertson was walking home from the gym in North Vancouver's Lower Lonsdale neighbourhood three weeks ago, he did a double take. Standing near a burrow it had dug in a vacant lot near East 1st Street and St. Georges Avenue was a yellow-bellied marmot.
A moulting seal who was relocated after drawing daily crowds of onlookers in Greater Victoria has made a surprise return, after what officials described as an 'astonishing' six-day journey.
Just steps from Parliament Hill is a barber shop that for the last 100 years has catered to everyone from prime ministers to tourists.
A high score on a Foo Fighters pinball machine has Edmonton player Dave Formenti on a high.
A compound used to treat sour gas that's been linked to fertility issues in cattle has been found throughout groundwater in the Prairies, according to a new study.
While many people choose to keep their medical appointments private, four longtime friends decided to undergo vasectomies as a group in B.C.'s Lower Mainland.