‘The Wild Robot’ dethrones ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ with $35 million debut, ‘Megalopolis’ fizzles

September 30, 2024

‘The Wild Robot’ dethrones ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ with million debut, ‘Megalopolis’ fizzles

Dreamworks

The Wild Robot topped the domestic box office, earning an estimated $35 million in its opening weekend. The animated adventure — with a voice cast including Lupita Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal, Catherine O’Hara, Bill Nighy, Kit Connor and Stephanie Hsu — added an estimated $18.1 million internationally, for a global total of $53.1 million.

After a three-week run at No. 1, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice slipped to second place, grabbing an estimated $16 million at the North American box office, bringing its four-week tally to $250 million. The film has grossed $373 million worldwide to date.

Transformers One took third place, delivering an estimated $9.3 million in its second week of release, for a total of $39.2 million. Its global tally now stands at $72 million.

Fourth place went to India’s Devara Part 1. The action drama collected an estimated $5.6 million at the North American box office and $32.9 million worldwide. Rounding out the top five was Speak No Evil with an estimated $4.3 million domestically, bringing its tally to $57.7 million worldwide.

Opening in sixth place was Francis Ford Coppola‘s much-hyped Roman epic Megalopolis. The film — starring Adam Driver, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Chloe Fineman and Dustin Hoffman — earned just $4 million at the domestic box office and $6.1 million worldwide against a $120 million budget in its opening weekend.

Ellen DeGeneres’ final stand-up special, ‘For Your Approval’, hits Netflix Sept. 24

Netflix

Netflix has revealed that comedian and former talk show giant Ellen DeGeneres‘ final stand-up special ever will hit the streamer on Sept. 24.

Ellen DeGeneres: For Your Approval will be her second original comedy special for the streamer following 2018’s Relatable.

Ellen’s daytime talk show ended its 19-year run in 2022, following a BuzzFeed expose in 2020 that The Ellen DeGeneres Show‘s behind-the-scenes environment was the opposite of its “be kind” mantra: accusations of racism, sexual misconduct and intimidation were leveled by former staffers.

Following that, supposed examples of DeGeneres being “mean” went viral.

Her fall from grace will apparently be a part of the new show, which was teased with the tagline, “This will be Ellen’s last special and yes, she’s going to talk about it.”

Netflix further teases, “Ellen gets personal and reveals what she’s been doing since being ‘kicked out of show business.’ From the mundane world of raising chickens and parallel parking to the harsh reality of becoming a brand name celebrity, she goes deep into her stand-up roots and brings the laughs through life’s most real and absurd realities.”

As reported in July, DeGeneres has been talking onstage about being “canceled,” with SFGate reporting she told an audience member at a show at the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts in Santa Rosa, “This is the last time you’re going to see me. After my Netflix special, I’m done.”

Shailene Woodley on working with Lisa Taddeo for ‘Three Women’

Starz

Shailene Woodley stars in the new limited series adaptation of Lisa Taddeo’s New York Times bestselling nonfiction book, Three Women.

The show follows Woodley as Gia, a character loosely based on Taddeo, as she interviews three different women from across the United States, exploring their varied sexual and emotional experiences.

Woodley told ABC Audio that after she read Three Women, she felt Taddeo had written everything she “felt but didn’t know how to articulate.”

According to Woodley, crafting a character based on Taddeo was more than just collaborating with her.

“It wasn’t a collaboration as much as it felt like a connection and then a true desire to honor what our natural connection elicited,” Woodley said. “Gia is not Lisa, but Gia also isn’t me. It almost felt like she was the intersection of both of us.”

Taddeo wholeheartedly agreed, saying Woodley’s performance made her feel seen “in the most dynamic way.”

“Shailene’s performance made me feel seen without even, like, mimicking or mirroring me,” Taddeo said. “She’s one of the most talented actors out there, but she also has one of the warmest hearts.”

The show covers many serious topics ripe for discussion. So, what does Woodley hope viewers take from it?

“I hope that they walk away feeling a little less alone and maybe feeling like it isn’t weird or obscure to go through things that are very normal, everyday experiences that women have, like miscarriages or, like, having sex on your period or having body dysmorphia,” Woodley said. “I don’t know one woman who hasn’t been through one … if not all of those things. And I think it’s important that we take these situations that have become such taboo in our culture and really normalize them.”

Lacey Chabert’s daughter asks why people keep trying to make “fetch” happen

MediaPunch/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images

Lacey Chabert‘s Mean Girls character, Gretchen Wieners, will forever be tied to the word “fetch,” and apparently so is the actress.

The star explained to Today on Monday that the word — and the diss that followed, “Stop trying to make ‘fetch’ happen” — follows her everywhere in real life, to the apparent confusion of her now-8-year-old daughter, Julia.

“When she was younger … she was like, ‘What’s “fetch,” why does everyone say that to you?'”

Chabert added, “And she asked me a couple years ago, she goes, ‘Mom, do other people watch those movies that you make?’ And I was like, ‘Yes, baby, they’re not just for you.'”

Chabert did not appear in the recent Mean Girls musical movie, reportedly because of scheduling conflicts, but she did reprise her role in 2023, in a Walmart Black Friday commercial, along with her fellow “Plastics” of a certain age, Lindsay Lohan and Amanda Seyfried.