Barbie’s dream haul: Margot Robbie reportedly taking home $50 million for blockbuster

Barbie’s dream haul: Margot Robbie reportedly taking home  million for blockbuster
Barbie’s dream haul: Margot Robbie reportedly taking home  million for blockbuster
Warner Bros. Pictures

Margot Robbie is seriously in the black from all that pink.

The Oscar-nominated actress, who co-produced and starred in what’s shaping up to be one of the biggest hits of 2023, Barbie, will reportedly take home $50 million for her efforts, Variety says.

As a producer of the movie through her LuckyChap company, Robbie is entitled to a cut of the blockbuster’s profits — and they’ll put anyone into a very respectable Dream House, according to the trade.

For that matter, director and co-writer Greta Gerwig will also be rewarded handsomely for her efforts, thanks to a worldwide box office take that works out to be $1.18 billion globally and still climbing.

Gerwig has also become the highest-grossing female director in history, now that the Warner Bros. film has overtaken Disney’s Frozen II, which was co-directed by Jennifer Lee.

Incidentally, Robbie told Collider before the movie’s release that she told studio execs that Barbie would “make a billion dollars,” but admitted, “maybe I was overselling.”

If Barbie — the doll version, that is — has taught us anything, it’s that “dreams can come true.”

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Escape room based on Hulu’s ‘Only Murders in the Building’ keeps packing ’em in

Escape room based on Hulu’s ‘Only Murders in the Building’ keeps packing ’em in
Escape room based on Hulu’s ‘Only Murders in the Building’ keeps packing ’em in
Hulu

While it’s not quite Saw, Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building has inspired an escape room in Los Angeles. It’s proven to be so popular its organizers have extended its run.

While initially launched to promote the return of the Emmy-nominated comedy on August 8, The Escape Game’s attraction at Los Angeles’ Westfield Century City was to wrap on Sunday, August 13.

However, its promoters have bumped the deadline to August 21, according to The Hollywood Reporter, and have plans to open up shop in Las Vegas, too, August 18-20.

If you can’t get to either place, however, there’s still hope: there’s an online version, too. According to the game’s website, players can book an appointment to play on Zoom. You’ll be given log-in info and meet up with a host to guide you through your game.

“It’s opening night of Oliver’s new show, Death Rattle, but something very important has gone missing,” the online attraction teases. “Follow clues and solve puzzles throughout The Arconia to find it and save the show.”

From there, you’ll have 60 minutes’ worth of sleuthing to solve the mystery.

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‘Bullet Train’ lead Aaron Taylor-Johnson really doesn’t care about being a movie star

‘Bullet Train’ lead Aaron Taylor-Johnson really doesn’t care about being a movie star
‘Bullet Train’ lead Aaron Taylor-Johnson really doesn’t care about being a movie star
Taylor-Johnson in ‘Bullet Train’ – Sony Pictures

Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who appeared in Avengers: Age of Ultron and more recently the hit Bullet Train opposite Brad Pitt, already has a filmography most actors would dream about.

But not him.

The 33-year-old tells Esquire, “There was Kick-Ass [in 2010] and then there was [2014’s] Godzilla and Avengers [in 2016], and all those things lined up for me. But I didn’t really care for them.”

He added, “I wanted, purely, to be with my babies. I didn’t want to be taken away from them. I battled with what that would be like.”

Taylor-Johnson and his director wife, Sam, are co-parents to four daughters, two from her previous marriage.

The actor went from playing the lead in the Spider-Man adjacent Kraven the Hunter for Sony to The Fall Guy for his Bullet Train director David Leitch, then into a remake of Nosferatu “with only twenty-four hours between each thing,” he explains.

“In my opinion, the actor that goes job to job becomes f****** boring,” the English actor says. “You know that someone’s going to pick you up, take you to work, do your makeup, tell you, ‘Here’s your mark. These are your lines. You’re f****** great!’ And on to the next job. F*** off.”

The former child actor says, “I’m sure people dream of that. If this is what you want to do, that’s great. It doesn’t feed my soul. I enjoy … the everyday stuff. Getting my kids ready in the mornings, taking them to school and activities … That feeds my soul.”

That said, there’s another potential job out there that could have Aaron’s number, or more accurately, the number 007. He’s rumored to be on the short list to succeed Daniel Craig as James Bond.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’ coming to digital on August 29

‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’ coming to digital on August 29
‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’ coming to digital on August 29
Lucasfilm

The fifth and final Indiana Jones film, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, is coming to digital August 29 via platforms including Prime Video, Apple TV and Vudu.

The movie, Ford’s last go ’round as the swashbuckling archeologist, comes packed with special features for its digital debut, including making-of documentaries centering on the movie’s stunts, costuming and production design and the digital wizardry that was used to de-age Ford by three decades for the movie’s prologue sequence.

Also included will be features on shooting in the James Mangold-directed, Steven Spielberg-produced film, to which cast and crew traveled to Morocco, Sicily and New York.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny was produced by Lucasfilm, which, like ABC News, is a subsidiary of Disney.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

With ‘Suits’ resurgence, some insiders say Meghan Markle’s reboot return may not be so far-fetched

With ‘Suits’ resurgence, some insiders say Meghan Markle’s reboot return may not be so far-fetched
With ‘Suits’ resurgence, some insiders say Meghan Markle’s reboot return may not be so far-fetched
Karwai Tang/WireImage

While there’s no official news on whether there will be a reboot of the former USA legal drama Suits, the show’s surprise resurgence, thanks to a run on Netflix, has the rumor mill buzzing.

A big part of that scuttlebutt centers on the series’ paralegal-turned law student Rachel Zane, played by a then-newbie actress by the name of Meghan Markle, who eventually left the show to marry Prince Harry.

Markle played the love interest of Patrick J. Adams‘ Mike Ross, whose photographic memory lands him a job with a high-profile law firm, despite his fudging his Harvard Law bonafides.

The show’s executive producer Gene Klein recently told TV Line he was shocked the show that ran from 2011 until 2019 suddenly broke Nielsen records, noting it wouldn’t surprise him if he got a call that a reboot is coming.

That said, he said he assumed getting Markle back “would not be possible.”

However, some insiders are now weighing in.

Kieran Elsby, director of Media PR Global, points out to the U.K. Mirror the $100 million deal Meghan and her
runaway royal husband made with Netflix. “I do wonder if the top spot is genuinely determined by viewership metrics at all. Or it is essential for Meghan to remain relevant to Netflix, hence the unaudited top spot. After all, they have invested heavily,” he muses.

While Markle’s new agents at WME stated acting wasn’t on her docket, a senior studio executive told the UK’s Sunday Express, “All that has changed on a dime with her second coming on Suits. The Netflix figures are the talk of Hollywood and, with respect to the rest of her co-stars, Meghan is, without doubt, the driving force behind that.”

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Zachary Levi blasts “garbage” content coming out of Hollywood

Zachary Levi blasts “garbage” content coming out of Hollywood
Zachary Levi blasts “garbage” content coming out of Hollywood
Good Morning America

Another fan convention, another headline-grabbing comment from Shazam series star Zachary Levi.

Weeks after New Hampshire’s Manchester Comic Con, where he called the SAG-AFTRA strike rules preventing stars from talking about their past movies “so dumb,” Levi gave fans an earful at Saturday’s Chicago Fan Expo.

“I personally feel like the amount of content that comes out of Hollywood that is garbage,” Levi vented, according to Entertainment Weekly. “They don’t care enough to actually make it great for you guys. They don’t.”

The comment reportedly drew applause from attendees.

“How many times do you watch a trailer and go, ‘Oh my god, this looks so cool!’ Then you go to the movie and it’s like, ‘This was what I get?'” Levi continued.

He added, “They know that once you’ve already bought the ticket and you’re in the seat, they’ve got your money. And the only way for us to change any of it is to not go to the garbage. We have to actively not choose the garbage. It’ll help. It’ll help a lot.”

Levi later clarified his Manchester comments to highlight his support for the strikes. As of yet, he hasn’t said anything about his “garbage” comments.

Levi’s Shazam: Fury of the Gods under-performed at the box office back in March, a failure he placed on Warner Bros.’ marketing of the movie. While the ratings aggregator Rotten Tomatoes ranked the film at an 86% with audiences, critics drubbed it. “This is a perfect family movie, and yet a lot of families aren’t aware of that. Which is just a shame,” Levi said at the time.

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Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson “heartbroken” about the Maui wildfires

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson “heartbroken” about the Maui wildfires
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson “heartbroken” about the Maui wildfires
ABC/Paula Lobo

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who spent some formative years in Hawaii, posted to Instagram his feelings about the devastating Maui wildfires.

“I’m completely heartbroken over this, and I know that all of you are too,” Johnson said in the video he posted Sunday, August 13.

“Everything that I’ve seen transpire over these past couple of days, everything that continues to transpire, hour-by-hour, minute-by-minute, it’s all heartbreaking.”

Johnson added, “Thank you guys around the world for all of your love and your support and your light, your prayers. Thank you for sending them to the islands of Hawaii, the people of Hawaii.”

The Rock also posted a slideshow of the devastation, and first responders on the scene.

He captioned the post, “Heartbroken but our faith and mana is strong. First responders, health care teams, hotels, locals businesses, boots on the ground organizations and all our local heroes, stay strong – we love you and appreciate you.”

He added, “All our local families, our ohana, our aiga, stay strong thru this devastating time. Resilience resolve is our DNA. Our ancestors are in our blood. This is who we are. This is what we do. I love you. Stay strong.”

At least 96 people have died in the wildfires, with many more still missing, in what has become the worst natural disaster in the 50th state’s history.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

In Brief: Alec Baldwin got thriller ‘Cold Deck’ in before the strike, and more

In Brief: Alec Baldwin got thriller ‘Cold Deck’ in before the strike, and more
In Brief: Alec Baldwin got thriller ‘Cold Deck’ in before the strike, and more

Alec Baldwin and Blade‘s Stephen Dorff have teamed up for the action thriller Cold Deck, according to Deadline. The movie, which completed production before the SAG-AFTRA strike commenced on July 14, follows a team of loggers who stumble upon a meth cook site deep in the forest and find themselves in a fight for survival as they’re hunted down by a drug cartel. A release date has yet to be announced…

Shelley Smith, the 1970s supermodel-turned actress best known for her work on the TV series The Associates, alongside Martin Short, died Tuesday after going into cardiac arrest days earlier, her husband Michael Maguire said in a video posted to Facebook on Wednesday. She was 70. She also starred as Captain Carolyn Engel on the NBC military series For Love and Honor with Yaphet Kotto from 1983-1984, and made guest appearances on shows like Fantasy IslandThe Love BoatDiff’rent StrokesSimon & Simon and Murder, She Wrote. Additionally, Smith appeared on numerous game shows, including Super PasswordBody Language and Dick Clark’s $10,000 Pyramid

Linda Haynes, the actress best known for her roles of barmaid Linda Forchet in the 1977 psychological thriller Rolling Thunder, and Carol in the Oscar-nominated 1980 film Brubaker opposite Robert Redford, Yaphet Kotto, Morgan Freeman and Jane Alexander, died peacefully at her home in Summerville, South Carolina on July 17, according to an obituary. She was 75. A cause of death was not given…

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‘Barbie’ rules the box office for the fourth straight week with $33.7 million

‘Barbie’ rules the box office for the fourth straight week with .7 million
‘Barbie’ rules the box office for the fourth straight week with .7 million
Warner Bros.

Barbie had another dreamy week at the North American box office, grabbing an estimated $33.7 million and bringing it four-week tally to $526.3 million. The Greta Gerwig film added an estimated $45 million overseas, bringing its global total $1.18 billion.

Oppenheimer reclaimed second place after temporarily being dethroned by Meg 2: The Trench last week. Christopher Nolan‘s biopic delivered an estimated $18.8 million at the domestic box office, bringing its four-week total to $264.3 million. Globally, the film has earned $649 million.

Coming in third was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, snapping up an estimated $15.8 million. It’s two-week North American tally now stands at $72.8 million. Globally, the animated film — featuring the voices of Maya RudolphJohn CenaSeth Rogen and Rose Byrne — has collected $94.7 million.

The aforementioned Meg 2: The Trench slipped to fourth place in its second week of release, earning an estimated $12.7 million, bringing its domestic gross to $54.1 million. The Jason Stathem-led movie grabbed $43.7 million for a worldwide total of $257 million.

Rounding out the top five was The Last Voyage of the Demeter, which bowed with a disappointing $6.5 million, against a production budget of $45 million.

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‘Jurassic Park’ headed back to theaters in 3D for special 30th anniversary event

‘Jurassic Park’ headed back to theaters in 3D for special 30th anniversary event
‘Jurassic Park’ headed back to theaters in 3D for special 30th anniversary event
Murray Close/Sygma/Sygma via Getty Images

Steven Spielberg‘s groundbreaking Jurassic Park is roaring back into theaters in 3D to celebrate the movie’s 30th birthday.

Universal Pictures and RealD 3D theaters are collaborating on the nationwide rollout, starting with sneak previews Thursday, August 24, before its official relaunch on Friday, August 25.

The movie was initially converted to 3D for its 20th anniversary in 2013, a rerelease that added more than $45 million to the blockbuster’s take — two decades after it left theaters.

“There’s truly no better way to see Jurassic Park than on the big screen,” said Jim Orr, president of domestic theatrical distribution for Universal Pictures. “The monumental impact it made back in 1993 stands as a true testament to Steven Spielberg’s unparalleled genius.”

Of the 30th anniversary presentation of the “timeless classic,” Orr says, “With this release in RealD 3D cinemas across the US and Canada, we’re thrilled to offer moviegoers the chance to rediscover this movie once again on a big screen.”

Sean Spencer, vice president of sales and marketing for RealD, added, “This is summertime event moviegoing the way it was meant to be seen.”

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