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'The Croods: A New Age' tops weak Thanksgiving holiday weekend with $14.22 million

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tifonimages/iStock(NEW YORK) — The Croods: A New Age, the animated sequel to 2013’s The Croods, beat expectations and topped the box office with an estimated $9.71 million for the three-day weekend — eclipsing Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, which delivered $9.35 million in its first three days of release.

The Croods: A New Age delivered an estimated $14.22 million since opening on Wednesday — a nice haul in this age of COVID-19, but also the lowest Thanksgiving weekend haul in modern history.

Overseas, the film, featuring the voices of Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Catherine Keener, Clark Duke and Cloris Leachman — reprising their roles from the first film — along with new cast members Peter Dinklage, Leslie Mann and Kelly Marie Tran, earned an estimated $20 million, for a haul of around $35 million worldwide.

Freaky, the comedy-horror film starring Vince Vaughn, landed in second place with an estimated $770,000.

The family comedy The War with Grandpa — starring Robert De Niro, Uma Thurman, Jane Seymour and Christopher Walken — finished third with an estimated with $643,936, bringing its total to a healthy $17.2 million.

Let Him Go, the suspense drama starring Kevin Costner and Diane Lane, brought in an estimated $453,000 for a fourth place finish, bringing its cumulative total to $8.7 million in its fourth week of release.

The horror flick Come Play rounds out the top five, delivering $387,000 between Friday and Sunday, for a total of $8.7 million here in the states.

By George Costantino
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

'Star Wars' original Darth Vader, David Prowse, dead at 85

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Dave Prowse in 2013; THIERRY ZOCCOLAN/AFP via Getty Images(LONDON) — David Prowse, the British bodybuilder-turned-actor who wore the menacing black suit of Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy, has died.  He was 85.

Prowse’s managers confirmed the news via Twitter, writing in part, “It’s with great regret and heart-wrenching sadness for us and million of fans around the world, to announce that our client DAVE PROWSE M.B.E. has passed away.”

Standing 6’7″ in his prime, Prowse parlayed his physical stature into a film career, with a role as a bodyguard in Stanley Kubrick’s 1971 cult classic A Clockwork Orange, which caught the eye of Star Wars creator George Lucas when he needed to fill the menacing boots of his Dark Lord of the Sith.  James Earl Jones famously provided Vader’s unmistakable baritone growl after production, which came as a surprise to Prowse, who thought his arguably far less menacing pipes would be used onscreen.

Prowse appeared in numerous television shows and movies, including Doctor Who and as Frankenstein’s monster in several Hammer horror films.  A champion weightlifter, he used his experience to train celebrities such as Christopher Reeve for 1978’s Superman and Carey Elwes in The Princess Bride.

Prowse was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 2000 for services to charity for starring in a series of road safety ads for children in the ’70s, and he continued to be a presence at science fiction conventions and the like until his retirement in 2016.

On Twitter, his onscreen son, Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars saga, remembered Prowse as, “a kind man & much more than Darth Vader.” Hamill added, “He loved his fans as much as they loved him. #RIP.”

Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. 

Whitney Cummings, Keke Palmer and more take a comedic look at credit card fine print in new contest

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(NEW YORK) — Comedian and producer Whitney Cummings, actress Keke Palmer, and stand-up Hasan Minhaj are poking fun at fine print, as part of a million dollar contest that invites consumers to, as well. 

The company Affirm, which bills itself as a “transparent alternative” to the usual credit cards, is putting up a million dollars — 100 prizes of $10,000 each — for people who can give the funniest, most dramatic, or creative readings of the usually indecipherable fine print on everything from credit card agreements to labels on food and beauty products.

According to the company, judges are looking for, “the best fine print reading submissions based on the inclusion of a fine print ‘gotcha,'” stressing, “originality, creativity, quality, and entertainment value.”

Keke and Hasan separately gave their takes on the contest; she reads her lengthy fine print from a seemingly endless scroll of paper, he recorded a segment stressing a sneaker store’s silly return policy.

Cummings reads a credit card agreement, yelling at one point, “Who wrote this and why do you hate me?” Ashley Parker, and Taylor Perez will soon drop theirs.

Submissions will be accepted until December 10 at affirm.com/giftsnotgotchas.


 

By Stephen Iervolino
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Jason Bateman, Timothee Chalamet, Kristen Wiig to host 'Saturday Night Live' in December

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NBCUniversal(NEW YORK) — Saturday Night Live has announced its hosts and musical guests for December, including the return of a former cast member. 

Ozark‘s Jason Bateman will do the honors on December 5, with the musical guest Morgan Wallen — who had been previously bumped for violating COVID-19 guidelines when he posted a video of himself partying with female fans. He posted the news fans on social media, along with the wry caption, “Let’s try this again.”

December 12 will see upcoming Dune star Timothee Chalamet taking the stage at Studio 8H, with musical guests Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.

On December 19, former cast member Kristen Wiig returns as host, ahead of the Christmas Day debut of Wonder Woman, in which she plays Cheetah. Her musical guest is Dua Lipa.

By Stephen Iervolino
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Russo Bros. moves — Sequel to Chris Hemsworth's Netflix hit 'Extraction'; peek at Tom Holland's 'Cherry'

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L-R Anthony Russo, Joe Russo/ABC(LOS ANGELES) — After helming the biggest movie of all time, Avengers: Endgame, directors Joe and Anthony Russo are making new headlines.

Talk of a sequel to the Netflix hit Extraction began soon after the Joe Russo-penned movie drew big numbers for the streaming service after its April debut, but now it seems the follow-up to the Chris Hemsworth action film has a start date. 

Based on the Ande Parks book Ciudad, the movie had the Thor series star playing strung-out mercenary Tyler Rake, who takes a high-risk job rescuing the son of a crime boss from a rival.

In an interview with Hemsworth’s Avengers series co-director, it appears things will get underway on the follow-up next spring.

Joe Russo tells Comicbook.com, “We’re in the script phase right now but we’re hoping to shoot that sometime next year. I’m super excited, Hemsworth’s super excited, Netflix is excited so it’s really just a function of getting the script done.”

It’s not clear yet if the action movie’s director, Sam Hargrave, is set to return, and it’s also unclear whether the movie will be a sequel or a prequel, as the fate of Hemsworth’s character is left to a cliffhanger. 

Meanwhile, Vanity Fair has released images from the Russo Bros.’ upcoming reunion with another Avengers series star, Spider-Man‘s Tom Holland. 

Based on the bestselling novel by the same name from author Nico Walker, Cherry has Holland playing a former Army medic who returns from Iraq with PTSD, who falls into opioid addiction and a life of crime. 

The movie will hit theaters on February 26, and then debut on AppleTV+ on March 12, 2021.

By Stephen Iervolino
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.