‘Now You See Me: Now You Don’t’ conjures $21 million+ at the box office
Justice Smith as Charlie, Ariana Greenblatt as June, Dominic Sessa as Bosco, Jesse Eisenberg as Daniel Atlas, Isla Fisher as Henley Reeves, and Dave Franco as Jack Wilder in ‘Now You See Me: Now You Don’t.’ (Katalin Vermes for Lionsgate)
The film, the third installment of the franchise about a team of magicians called The Four Horsemen who pull off heists, topped the rankings, taking in $21.3 million, according to Box Office Mojo. A fourth installment is in the works.
Glen Powell‘s new film The Running Man, based on the Stephen King novel, sprinted to second place with a disappointing $17 million, while last week’s box office champ, Predator: Badlands, fell to third place with a take of $13 million.
The other new movie this weekend, the indie horror film Keeper, only made it to #7 with $2.5 million — a bad showing for writer-director Osgood Perkins, whose previous films, Longlegs and The Monkey, did much better in their opening weekends.
Here are the top 10 films at the box office:
1. Now You See Me: Now You Don’t — $21.3 million 2. The Running Man –– $17 million 3. Predator: Badlands — $13 million 4. Regretting You-– $4 million 5. Black Phone 2 — $2.65 million 6. Nuremberg –– $2.60 million 7. Keeper— $2.5 million 8. Sarah’s Oil — $2.34 million 9. Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc — $1.6 million 10. Bugonia — $1.6 million
Aunt Vivian is putting her mental health first in the fourth and final season of Bel-Air. Cassandra Freeman, who plays Aunt Viv on the Peacock series, tells ABC Audio the season finds her once again balancing family and ambition, but doing so on her own terms.
“I’m really big on this philosophy of the more women center themselves in their life and work, the easier life is, and I feel that a lot with Aunt Viv,” she says. “She could go back to her old ways in season 1 and only center her family, and in this [season] she’s like, ‘No, I’m gonna redo this thing.’ And she’s gonna put her own sanity and mental health in the driver’s seat, which is why she makes a lot of the decisions that she makes.”
Aunt Viv, as fans know, is the matriarch of the Banks family; the other women in the family are Hilary and Ashley, played by Coco Jones and Akira Akbar, respectively.
Coco says fans “will be gagged” by her storyline in the fourth season, especially when it comes to her relationships with LeMarcus and Jazz.
“Ithink Hilary has a lot on her shoulders this season. And it does get rocky, I can’t even lie, but it comes out with her finding a purpose and finding a reason behind all of the things,” Coco explains.
And Akira says Ashley becomes “more comfortable with who she is and her identity” while growing up and still going through “teenager problems.”
The first three episodes of Bel-Air‘s fourth season are now streaming on Peacock.
Lucy van Pelt and Snoopy in ‘It’s the Small Things, Charlie Brown.’ (Apple TV)
Sony has announced plans to acquire control of the Peanuts franchise.
The franchise created by Charles M. Schulz that stars beloved characters like Snoopy, Charlie Brown and Linus will be majority owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment and Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) through a definitive agreement they’ve entered into with the media company WildBrain, Sony has confirmed to ABC Audio.
Sony will indirectly acquire the 41% stake held by WildBrain in Peanuts Holdings LLC. This, combined with Sony Music Entertainment (Japan)’s existing approximately 39% stake, comes to Sony owning 80% of Peanuts Holdings LLC, while Schulz’s family members will continue to own the remaining 20%.
Deadline reports Sony is set to pay roughly $457 million for WildBrain’s 41% stake. Its closing is subject to certain conditions, such as regulatory approvals.
Shunsuke Muramatsu, the president and group CEO of Sony Music Entertainment (Japan), said in a statement that the company has been proud to partner with Peanuts since 2018.
“With this additional ownership stake, we are thrilled to be able to further elevate the value of the Peanuts brand by drawing on the Sony Group’s extensive global network and collective expertise. We are deeply committed to carrying forward the legacy of Charles Schulz and the Schulz family,” Muramatsu said.
Ravi Ahuja, the president and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment, said that “Peanuts is enduring and iconic. We value the deep collaboration we have with our SMEJ colleagues and look forward to building on their meaningful partnership with WildBrain and the Schulz family. With our combined strengths, we have the unique capability and extraordinary opportunity to protect and shape the future of these beloved characters for generations to come.”
Schulz’s first Peanuts comic strip debuted on Oct. 2, 1950. The franchise has grown in the decades that followed, now including TV specials, theme park attractions, cultural events and comic strips available in all formats.
Jimmy Kimmel and Cleto Escobedo III on the ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ set. (Richard Cartwright/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)
Jimmy Kimmel opened his show Tuesday night with a heartfelt monologue dedicated to his longtime best friend and bandleader Cleto Escobedo III, who died Tuesday morning at age 59.
“We’ve been on the air for almost 23 years, and I’ve had to do some hard monologues along the way, but this one’s the hardest,” Kimmel said while holding back tears. “Early this morning we lost someone very special, who was much too young to go, and I’d like to tell you about him.”
“He would call me. He’d send me notes all the time, big stuff, little stuff, whatever, telling me, ‘Oh, this was so funny. I love this. I’m proud of you. I’m so happy that we get to be together all the time.’ He would tell me how lucky he was. He was just a great older brother. No baggage, all love,” he continued. “There’s no one in my life I felt more comfortable with.”
“Always cherish your friends,” Kimmel added. “We’re not here forever.”
Escobedo, who went by Junior, was the saxophonist and leader of the Jimmy Kimmel Live! house band, Cleto and the Cletones, alongside his father, Cleto Escobedo II, an accomplished sax player who had previously put his own career with the band Los Blues on pause in 1966 when his son was born, in order to be close to home and raise a family.
Kimmel also regaled Tuesday’s audience about his lifelong friendship with the younger Escobedo, which began in 1977 in the Las Vegas suburbs, where his family had relocated from Brooklyn. According to Kimmel, Escobedo and his family lived “across the street and two houses over.”
After the two boys met, they became fast friends, Kimmel said.
“Not just regular friends either. We became like 24/7, ‘Mom, please, let me sleep over, please’ kind of friends,” Kimmel said. “One summer, I slept over at the Escobedo house 33 nights in a row … we were never bored. We were always up to something.”
From playing baseball and dressing up as cowboys to boxing, attempts at body building, and navigating puberty and girls, the pair were inseparable and later went on to be best man at each other’s weddings, Kimmel said.
That bond extended decades, and eventually, amid Escobedo’s own successful career playing sax on tour with Paula Abdul, recording studio albums and more, Kimmel had the opportunity to make his best friend his right-hand man in late night TV.
“In September 2002, I got a talk show out of nowhere — when you do a show like this you need a desk, you need an announcer, you need a Guillermo, and you need a band. And of course, I wanted Cleto to lead my band,” Kimmel said. “The idea that anyone other than him would lead the band was terrifying. It had to be him.”
Kimmel said he set up an audition for Escobedo and his father with ABC executive Lloyd Braun.
“Cleto and his dad played ‘Pick up the Pieces’ by Average White Band. And Lloyd saw it, saw the father and son together, he said, ‘I love it.’ And he just got up and left. And we’ve been working together every day for almost 23 years,” Kimmel said.
He continued, “We had our own language that almost no one else understood. We didn’t have to say anything. We’d sit here at rehearsal every day, we’d have to look at each other — and that would be it.”
While Escobedo’s cause of death has not yet been revealed, Kimmel gave a special thank you on Tuesday to a long list of doctors and nurses at UCLA Medical Center “for taking incredibly good care of him.” He also thanked “the team at Sherman Oaks Hospital that initially took him in.”
“I’m grateful for my friends, Cleto’s friends … everyone who checked in on him, everyone who called and visited him, who’ve been helping his family. Everyone here at our show [has] been so supportive,” Kimmel said, giving a shout-out to his family and Escobedo’s family, “who all did their best to be strong during these awful few months.”
“Mostly, I want to thank Cleto’s parents, Cleto and Sylvia, for making him and for sharing him with me and with all of us, and for treating me like their own son, always,” he added, before announcing Tuesday’s guest — one of Escobedo’s favorite people — Eddie Murphy.
Kimmel said Tuesday that he planned to “take the next couple nights off,” but that he had wanted “to be here tonight to tell you about my friend.”
