‘Mother!’ crumbles with $7.5 million opening, ‘It’ repeats No. 1

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) | “It” continues to post terrifyingly huge numbers, while “Mother!” opens with a thud.

“It,” from Warner Bros. and New Line, expects to finish its second weekend with $60 million from 4,103 locations. That would make its domestic gross so far $218.7 million — a record for the highest earning September release ever. The old record-holder was 1986’s “Crocodile Dundee” with $174.8 million.

Broken down by day, this past weekend “It” earned $19.4 million on Friday and $26.2 million on Saturday. Sunday’s take is estimated to be about $14.5 million. 389 Imax screens are expected to account for just over $3 million of the film’s take in North America this weekend.

Overseas, “It” is pulling in an additional $60.3 million in 56 markets. That raises its international total to $152.6 million and the worldwide tally to $371.3 million.

Based on Stephen King’s novel, “It” opened last weekend with an enormous domestic pull of $123.4 million. The R-rated title, reportedly made for about $35 million, stars Bill Skarsgard as an evil clown named Pennywise who terrorizes children.

The rest of the cast includes Jeremy Ray Taylor, Sophia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard, Wyatt Oleff, Chosen Jacobs, Jack Dylan Grazer, Nicholas Hamilton, Jaeden Lieberher, and Jackson Robert Scott.

Meanwhile “Mother!” is struggling. The Paramount release directed by Darren Aronofsky is expected to earn $7.5 million from 2,368 locations. That’s an all-time low for wide releases starring Jennifer Lawrence.

One contributing factor to the movie’s bottom line is that audiences entirely rejected it and bestowed an F CinemaScore. That’s despite a critical split that landed the polarizing movie a generally positive 68% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Women made up the bulk of the audience (56%), and slightly more than half of the audience (52%) was over the age of 35. The launch was driven by a marketing campaign that shrouded the R-rated movie in mystery and didn’t give much away regarding plot. In addition to Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Ed Harris, and Michelle Pfeiffer also star.

Another fresh R-rated launch, “American Assassin” — a joint production between CBS Films and Lionsgate — is expecting an opening of $14.8 million from 3,154 locations. The audience breakdown was 55% male and 29% under the age of 35.

The film is an adaptation of Vince Flynn’s 2010 novel, and stars Dylan O‘Brien as a CIA black ops recruit who is trained by a Cold War veteran (Michael Keaton). The film’s opening is comparable to 2014’s “John Wick,” which opened to $14.4 million on its way to launch a franchise with $43 million in domestic earnings.

“We feel that we’re off to a very solid start,” Shaun Barber, Lionsgate’s EVP and general sales manager of domestic theatrical distribution, said, pointing to the A CinemaScore the movie earned from the under 25 audience, and a strong September box office so far. As for plans to make the movie a franchise, he said “it’s very early in the run” and “too soon to call.”

Open Road’s “Home Again” should land in fourth this weekend with $5.3 million from 3,036 locations (only a 38% drop from last weekend). “The Hitman’s Bodyguard,” from Lionsgate, continues to stay in the top five with about $3.6 million from 3,272 spots.

The rest of the top ten is made up of “Annabelle: Creation” ($2.6 million); Taylor Sheridan’s “Wind River” ($2.6 million), which has now out-grossed “Hell of High Water” in North America; “Leap!” ($2.1 million); “Spider-Man: Homecoming” ($1.9 million); and “Dunkirk” ($1.3 million).

In limited release, Annapurna and Amazon’s “Brad’s Status” is tracking to earn $100,179 this weekend from four locations. Mike White wrote and directed the movie starring Ben Stiller as a man who is constantly comparing his life to those of his college friends.

Austin Abrams, Jenna Fischer, Luke Wilson, and Michael Sheen also star in the flick, which has been generally well-reviewed (83% on Rotten Tomatoes). The film is expected to expand to 100 locations next weekend.

Amazon Studios’ head of marketing and distribution Bob Berney noted that “fathers are really relating to the film” and Stiller’s performance.

After a catastrophic summer of moviegoing, a strong September so far (39.4% better than last year, powered by “It”) is leading a gradual recovery. The year to date box office is now 4.9% behind last year — up from 6.5% behind at the end of the summer. The domestic box office so far this year has earned $7.9 billion.

source: interaksyon.com

Pennsylvania man to plead guilty to hacking celebs’ email, iCloud accounts

LOS ANGELES | A Pennsylvania man has agreed to plead guilty to a felony computer hacking charge after authorities said he illegally accessed private phone and email accounts of celebrities such as Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Lawrence to leak information including nude pictures.

The U.S. attorney for the Central District of California charged Ryan Collins, 36, from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, according to court documents filed on Tuesday.

Collins signed a plea agreement to plead guilty to a felony violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. He faces up to five years in federal prison, with a recommended prison term of 18 months and a fine of $250,000.

The case has been transferred from California to the Middle District of Pennsylvania, where Collins is expected to surrender and plead guilty. He will be sentenced at a later date.

While no victims were named in the court documents, Lawrence and other celebrities such as actresses Kirsten Dunst and Gabrielle Union and model Kate Upton addressed the leak and online dissemination of their nude photos in interviews.

Representatives for Lawrence, Dunst, Union and Upton did not return Reuters’ requests for comment on Wednesday.

Prosecutors said in court documents that between November 2012 and September 2014, Collins “knowingly, intentionally, and in furtherance of criminal and tortious acts” accessed at least 50 Apple iCloud accounts and about 72 Google Gmail accounts belonging to more than 100 people.

Known as a ‘phishing’ scam, Collins used fraudulent email disguised to impersonate legitimate security services, such as “email.protection318@icloud.com,” and requesting usernames and passwords from the victims, according to prosecutors.

By doing so, Collins accessed the iCloud accounts, used for online data storage, for 18 celebrities and downloaded the backed-up data that included nude pictures and videos, court documents said.

It is not the first time a suspected hacker has been charged with leaking celebrity nude photos.

A Florida man was sentenced in 2012 to 10 years in prison for hacking into email accounts of Scarlett Johansson, Mila Kunis and Christina Aguilera to leak private information and nude photographs.

source: interaksyon.com

Jennifer Lawrence says Hollywood pay gap complaint was self-critical

LOS ANGELES | Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Lawrence said on Saturday that her recent critique of the gender pay gap in Hollywood raised as many questions about herself, and her willingness to be assertive, as it did about bias in the U.S. film industry.

“It was more of how did my mentality get in my own way of fighting just as hard as the men to get a better deal,” Lawrence said during a Los Angeles press conference for her latest film “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2.”

Lawrence unleashed a highly publicized attack on male-female pay discrimination in Hollywood earlier this month in an open letter published in Lena Dunham’s Lenny newsletter.

She said that in the past she worried about being labeled a spoiled brat when negotiating movie deals, but she was now finished with trying to be “adorable” while getting shortchanged.

The actress added that her “American Hustle” male co-stars Bradley Cooper, Christian Bale and Jeremy Renner “all fought and succeeded in negotiating powerful deals for themselves,” and were praised for doing so.

“I hoped to just write more about how my own fears of ‘how am I going to be portrayed,’ or ‘how am I going to look,’ or ‘how will people judge me,’” Lawrence said on Saturday.

“(That) got in my way when obviously the men in the movie don’t think that way,” she said.

The actress added that one headline called her letter a “bratty display.”

“Thank you for completely making my point that if a woman goes and speaks up, and is assertive and has a voice, she’s going to be called a brat. I just don’t see a man being called a brat,” she said.

Lawrence, 25, was the world’s highest-paid film actress last year with an estimated $52 million in earnings from movies and endorsements, according to Forbes. She has been praised by her colleagues and fans alike for being open about an issue usually kept under wraps.

In response to her complaint, Cooper told Reuters he had already begun teaming up with female co-stars to negotiate salaries.

Lawrence is currently promoting the final installment of “The Hunger Games” franchise, out in theaters next month. She plays the young heroine Katniss Everdeen, who leads a rebellion against a tyrannical ruler of a dystopian society.

source: interaksyon.com

Jennifer Lawrence, ‘Hunger Games’ stars team up in Ebola video

LOS ANGELES | Jennifer Lawrence says she’d be fine if she got Ebola, in a video that encourages Americans to focus more on West Africans far more likely to die from the dreaded virus.

The Oscar-winning actress teamed up with fellow stars from “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1″ for the nearly two-minute online public service announcement from the Ebola Survival Fund.

The video opens with a montage of clips from breathless US television news coverage of the tiny handful of Ebola cases so far in the United States.

It then points out that none of the eight “American patients” treated for Ebola in US hospitals have died — while in some parts of West Africa only two out of every 10 cases survived.

“A lot of them didn’t make it,” says Lawrence, to which her “Hunger Games” co-star Josh Hutcherson replies: “They didn’t have a lot to begin with.”

“In Liberia, they had 50 doctors for 4.4 million people,” Hutcherson said, before telling Lawrence: “I know what would happen if you got Ebola.”

“I’d be fine,” she solemnly replied.

Mahershala Ali, Liam Hemsworth, Julianne Moore and Jeffrey Wright also appear in the video.

But the core message came from Harvard medical professor and Partners in Health co-founder Paul Farmer, well-known for his work in developing health care in poor countries.

Ebola patients in West Africa, he said, urgently need IV fluids, electrolytes, food and “many more well-trained West African medical professionals.”

“With high-quality supportive care, the great majority of people in West Africa will survive Ebola,” Farmer added.

Two Ebola fatalities within the United States have been reported, but neither were native-born Americans.

Last month, another posse of Hollywood stars including Ben Affleck, Bono, Vincent Cassel, Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman, came together for an Ebola video sponsored by the ONE Campaign.

Watch the video here:

source: interaksyon.com

Apple, FBI investigate massive celebrity nude photo ‘hack’

LOS ANGELES | The FBI and Apple were urgently investigating Monday after an apparent massive hack of a cloud data service unleashed a torrent of intimate pictures of dozens of celebrities across the Internet.

Anonymous posters to online message boards boasted of having nude images of scores of female stars including Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence and top model Kate Upton.

Reports suggested hackers had “ripped” private images from Apple’s iCloud online data storage, a potentially embarrassing — and damaging — breach for the California tech giant.

“We take user privacy very seriously and are actively investigating this report,” said Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris, the Re/code website reported.

The FBI has also joined the hunt, other US reports said.

“The FBI is aware of the allegations concerning computer intrusions and the unlawful release of material involving high profile individuals, and is addressing the matter,” The Los Angeles Times quoted Laura Eimiller, spokeswoman for the FBI in Los Angeles, as saying.

“Any further comment would be inappropriate at this time,” she added.

Some of the pictures had previously been circulated on message forums, and others appeared fake, but some major stars expressed outrage and threatened legal action.

“This is a flagrant violation of privacy. The authorities have been contacted and will prosecute anyone who posts the stolen photos of Jennifer Lawrence,” Lawrence’s agent told entertainment media.

Upton’s lawyer, Lawrence Shore, told Us Magazine: “We intend to pursue anyone disseminating or duplicating these images to the fullest extent possible.”

By late Sunday, Twitter had begun suspending accounts that linked to the Lawrence photos, tech news site Mashable reported.

Among the scores of celebrities whose pictures were allegedly stolen were singer Avril Lavigne, actress Hayden Panettiere and United States soccer star Hope Solo.

Former Nickelodeon star and singer Victoria Justice said the images claiming to show her nude were anything but the real deal.

“These so called nudes of me are FAKE people. Let me nip this in the bud right now. *pun intended*” she tweeted.

A spokesperson for actress and pop star Ariana Grande told BuzzFeed that images said to be of her are “completely fake.”

‘CREEPY EFFORT’

But horror movie actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead confirmed that some of her private pictures were in circulation and condemned those who stole them and who circulated them.

“To those of you looking at photos I took with my husband years ago in the privacy of our home, hope you feel great about yourselves,” she tweeted.

“Knowing those photos were deleted long ago, I can only imagine the creepy effort that went into this. Feeling for everyone who got hacked.”

The scale of the breach became apparent on Sunday when users of the 4chan message board, a diverse online community that has been criticized in the past for misogyny, began sharing pictures.

Some more mainstream news and entertainment sites took up the story — and some linked to the images before taking them down amid legal threats and public outrage.

According to a report on news and gossip site Gawker, users of a AnonIB — an anonymous photo-sharing platform — have been boasting of a hack since last week.

Some users, hiding behind pseudonyms, made an apparent attempt to sell the pictures or to trade them with fellow hackers for others.

SECURITY HOLE?

Tech news site The Next Web reported what it said was evidence that hackers had found a weakness in Apple’s “Find my iPhone” service, an app that tracks lost or stolen handsets.

Apple has patched the alleged hole, the report said, but not before news of it spread in the hacker community, perhaps allowing unscrupulous strangers to access private online data.

But other reports suggested that the pictures could have been collated from multiple sources, perhaps not including iCloud at all, and may have been gathered over several years.

News site Deadspin said it had been contacted in early August by a source claiming he had been offered the pictures for sale.

The scale of the hack, and the targeting of women in the public eye, quickly revived the debate on social media about privacy concerns and about misogyny on the Internet.

The scandal also posed a public relations challenge to tech companies, who have been marketing online storage like iCloud, DropBox or GoogleDrive as a safe haven for users’ private data.

Several popular tech blogs marked the story by providing advice on storing private data safely, by using advanced encryption and two-step password identification or by keeping it offline.

source: interaksyon.com

J-Law, Rihanna nude pics nabbed in massive Hollywood hack

LOS ANGELES | Nude photos purportedly showing many top stars, including Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence and pop star Rihanna, bounced around social media Sunday, in an apparent massive hacking leak, US media reported.

“It’s so weird and hard how people take your privacy away from you,” Lawrence said in a tweet.

The actress’ agent, meanwhile, vowed to take legal action.

“This is a flagrant violation of privacy. The authorities have been contacted and will prosecute anyone who posts the stolen photos of Jennifer Lawrence,” her representative told TMZ entertainment website.

Word of the images began spreading early Sunday, amid reports that the photos had been obtained by hacking iCloud accounts, Mashable and other media reported.

Among the celebrities whose pictures allegedly were stolen and posted online were Avril Lavigne, Amber Heard, Gabrielle Union, Hayden Panettiere and Hope Solo, according to Mashable.

Media reports said among the other starlets targeted were Hillary Duff, Jenny McCarthy, Kaley Cuoco, Kate Upton, Kate Bosworth, Keke Palmer and Kim Kardashian.

Former Nickelodeon star and singer Victoria Justice said the images claiming to show her unclothed body were anything but the real deal.

“These so called nudes of me are FAKE people. Let me nip this in the bud right now. *pun intended*” she tweeted.

A spokesperson for actress and pop star Ariana Grande told BuzzFeed that images said to be of her, are “completely fake.”

But horror movie actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead, whose intimate photos were leaked, acknowledged her frustration.

“To those of you looking at photos I took with my husband years ago in the privacy of our home, hope you feel great about yourselves,” she tweeted.

“Knowing those photos were deleted long ago, I can only imagine the creepy effort that went into this. Feeling for everyone who got hacked.”

source: interaksyon.com

Jennifer Lawrence’s clothes from ‘Silver Linings’ up for auction

LOS ANGELES – Clothing worn by Jennifer Lawrence in her Oscar-winning role as an outspoken young widow in comedy “Silver Linings Playbook” went up for auction on Tuesday, just two days after the Academy Awards ceremony.

Memorabilia dealer Nate D. Sanders put the skin-tight white dance pants, winter coat and sports bra Lawrence wore in the film up for sale in the online auction that will end on Thursday.

The items are expected to fetch between $500 and $1,500 following the 22-year-old’s Best Actress win on Sunday.

“She’s now on the record for having an Academy Award, which definitely gives it (the items) status now,” said Laura Yntema, spokeswoman for auction house Nate D. Sanders.

“The Hunger Games” star also won awards from the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild in January for her “Silver Linings Playbook” performance.

Five items, either worn by Lawrence or from her wardrobe on the film, are up for auction with starting bids at $100.

They include the custom-tailored skin-tight white pants Lawrence wore during the film’s climactic ballroom dance scene with co-star Bradley Cooper.

The black, full-length double-breasted Moda International wool coat is a size six. The teal sports bra by Gap Body will be sold together with an extra-small blue Threads 4 Thought long-sleeved shirt.

The auction also has nine clothing items either worn or from the wardrobe of Cooper, and two items from the wardrobe of supporting actor Chris Tucker.

Movie studios often hand off costumes to auction houses, where even small outfits can fetch high prices from fans and collectors.

source: interaksyon.com

‘Silver Linings Playbook’ wins four honors at indie film awards

SANTA MONICA, California – Quirky comedy “Silver Linings Playbook” dominated the Independent Spirit Awards on the eve of Hollywood’s Academy Awards ceremony, winning four prizes including for Best Feature.

Jennifer Lawrence, 22, who plays a feisty young widow in “Silver Linings Playbook,” was named best actress and David O. Russell picked up the best directing honor on Saturday.




Lawrence and Russell are also in the running for Oscars on Sunday, where “Silver Linings Playbook” is nominated for Best Picture.

“When you make a film from the heart, there is no such thing as genre. They are just real people, and if it’s funny in or of itself, that’s what happens and that’s what my whole cast taught me,” Russell said in accepting his award.

Austrian drama “Amour,” about an elderly couple coping with the effects of the wife’s debilitating stroke, won the Best Foreign Film award on Saturday, strengthening its march toward expected Oscar success on Sunday.

The Independent Spirit Awards are handed out by the Los Angeles-based non-profit group Film Independent and are widely considered the top honors for low-budget and art house movies in the United States.

The ceremony, held in a tent on California’s Santa Monica beach, are a more laid-back affair than the formal and glitzy Academy Awards ceremony. Bruce Willis, Salma Hayek, Jeremy Renner, Daniel Radcliffe, Amy Poehler and other celebrities were treated to a casual lunch.

The awards for “Silver Linings Playbook” largely shut out rival fantasy movie “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” which won one award for cinematography but lost in three other categories.

First-time director Benh Zeitlin, 30, had been considered a front-runner at the Spirit Awards for the mythological film, set in a Louisiana swamp.

“Benh Zeitlin is a young man, so Benh Zeitlin will be back,” Russell quipped on stage.

“Amour” director Michael Haneke, 70, who also won honors at the Cesar Awards in France on Friday, was on hand to accept his award on Saturday. “I have the impression I’m the oldest man here,” he joked.

Backstage, the veteran German director told reporters through a translator that he was looking forward to the Oscars, where “Amour” is a contender in five categories including for Best Picture.

“I feel wonderful. It’s a complete surprise of course. No one expected that a film with themes like aging and death would have such success. It’s been very rewarding for everyone involved,” Haneke said.

Helen Hunt was named Best Supporting Female for her role as a sex therapist in “The Sessions,” while her co-star John Hawkes, who plays a paraplegic, took the Best Male Lead award.

Backstage, Hawkes told reporters that the role was a physical challenge, but worth it.

“Anytime people notice your work, it gives you more confidence,” Hawkes said.

“The Invisible War,” an insight into rape and sexual assault in the U.S. military, won the Best Documentary award.

Amy Ziering, one of the film’s writers, made an emotional acceptance speech, telling service members “you are heard. You are not alone and you are no longer invisible.”

Matthew McConaughey was a winner for his supporting role as a male stripper in comedy “Magic Mike.” The actor, who has enjoyed the biggest critical success in his career for the film, accepted the trophy saying, “I had to take my pants off to win an award.”

source: interaksyon.com