Entertainment

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the sequel to Tim Burton‘s 1988 horror comedy Beetlejuice, delivered an estimated $110 million at domestic box office in its opening weekend. That’s the second-biggest October debut in history debut behind It‘s $123 million in 2017, according to Variety.

Starring Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Jenna Ortega and Willem Dafoe, the film’s debut was also 2024’s year’s third-biggest open, behind Deadpool & Wolverine with $211.4 million and Inside Out 2 with $154.2 million.

The spooky sequel added an estimated $35.4 million overseas, for a worldwide total of $145.4 million.

Deadpool & Wolverine took second place with an estimated $7.2 million. Its seven-week domestic tally now stands at $614 million — and $1.287 billion globally.

Third place went to Reagan, the biopic starring Dennis Quaid, which earned an estimated $5.2 million, bringing its North American total to $18.5 million.

Alien: Romulus, the seventh installment in the Alien franchise, came in fourth, collecting an estimated $3.9 million. Its four-week domestic tally now stands at $97.1 million and $314.3 million worldwide.

Rounding out the top ten was It Ends with Us, grabbing an estimated $3.7 million at the North American box office, for a five-week total of $141 million. The movie has eclipsed $300 million globally.

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Nicole Kidman arrived at the Venice Film Festival in Italy on Sept. 7, only to turn around and head back home to Australia when she learned that her mother had passed away.

Janelle Ann Kidman had been in poor health since at least 2022, according to interviews the Oscar winner gave at the time, but the death of Kidman’s mother was evidently unexpected. She was 84.

Kidman announced her mother’s passing via her director Halina Reijn, who accepted Kidman’s Best Actress award at the festival for her work in the film Babygirl. According to video shot by Deadline, Reijn quoted the star saying, “Today, I arrived in Venice to find out shortly after, that my beautiful, brave mother Janelle Ann Kidman has just passed.”

At this, there was an audible gasp from the crowd.

“I am in shock and I have to go to my family,” Kidman’s statement continued. 

Reijn continued to quote Kidman’s statement; in it, the actress said of her mother: “This award is for her. She shaped me, she guided me and she made me. I’m beyond grateful that I get to say her name to all of you through Halina. The collision of life and art is heartbreaking, and my heart is broken.”

Filmmaker Brady Corbet, who took the podium next to accept his Silver Lion award for his film The Brutalist, expressed his condolences to Kidman and her family.

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For the upcoming season, Jimmy Fallon is going to join his late night colleagues Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers by taking Fridays off. 

The Hollywood Reporter says The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon will move to a four-day-a-week schedule, as opposed to the five-day shooting schedule he’s kept for years. 

Most late night shows have been airing repeats on Fridays, even Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, but Fallon’s show had resisted the trend. 

The trade suspects NBC’s belt-tightening was behind the decision due to shifting viewer habits. As THR reported, that was behind the decision to clip Meyers’ Late Show house band and CBS’ move not to replace The Late Late Show with James Corden with another chat show, and instead air the cheaper-to-produce game show @Midnight in its place.

He may be a day short, but Fallon recently re-upped his contract through 2028. 

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Kelly Preston, the late wife of John Travolta and the mother of their children, Ella Bleu, Benjamin and the late Jett, is memorialized in a new single and music video from her daughter. 

According to Ella Bleu’s reps, “Little bird” is a “deeply personal tribute” to the actress, who died of breast cancer at 57 in 2020.

Both the song and the video, which is made up of home video snippets and snapshots of Ella and her family over the years, “captures the tender bond she shared with her mother and honors the profound impact Kelly had on her life.”

The 24-year-old’s song, which is available for download on streaming platforms, is described as “a journey of finding yourself as a young person growing up in the public eye” and “a moving expression of love, loss, and remembrance.”

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ABC Audio has confirmed that Patricia Arquette will star in a Hulu series based on the headline-grabbing Alex Murdaugh murders. 

The disgraced South Carolina attorney was found guilty in 2023 of brutally murdering his wife, Maggie, and younger son Paul on the Murdaugh family’s property in 2021.

The as-yet-untitled project will have Arquette playing Maggie Murdaugh, and it reunites the actress with Nick Antosca, the producer behind the Hulu limited series The Act, for which Arquette won an Outstanding Supporting Actress Emmy.

The series is based on Maggie and Alex Murdaugh’s “stranger-than-fiction family drama,” according to the streamer, which says it will be “a riveting account drawing from countless hours of reporting by Mandy Matney – journalist and creator of the popular Murdaugh Murders Podcast – as well as exclusive, insider knowledge from years spent following the case.”

Locke & Key veteran Michael D. Fuller will be the showrunner and is credited as the co-creator of the project, along with Britney vs. Spears alumna Erin Lee Carr.

It took a jury just three hours to convict Alex Murdaugh, who denied the murders but admitted to lying to investigators and cheating his clients.

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Beetlejuice Beetlejuice officially opens Friday, Sept. 6, but it’s already drawing crowds.

According to Deadline, the movie starring Michael Keaton, Jenna Ortega, Willem Dafoe and Winona Ryder scared up $13 million in sneak previews on Thursday.

That’s impressive by itself, but especially because Keaton’s “Ghost with the most” hasn’t haunted theaters since the 1988 original. 

While Warner Bros. is predicting the movie will do $90 million over the weekend, the trade suspects the studio is being conservative — some experts speculate the film could pull in as much as $110 million worldwide, making it one of the biggest September openings of all time. 

For the record, 2017’s Stephen King adaptation It holds the September crown: It opened to $123 million.

That said, Tim Burton‘s Beetlejuice sequel’s Thursday night sneaks were only half a million behind It‘s sneaks.

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Have no fear, your reality roundup is here! Here’s a look at what happened in the world of reality television this week:

The Bachelorette (ABC)
Even though Jenn Tran was left heartbroken by her former fiancé Devin Strader on Tuesday’s finale of The Bachelorette, she asked her fans not to cyberbully him. “I am so overwhelmed by the love you have all given me. With every message of love I want to say loud and clear I do NOT condone hate messages to anyone,” Tran wrote on her Instagram Story. “People can be held accountable for their own actions in their lives without cyberbullying. The universe will work it all out.”

Dancing with the Stars (ABC)
Speaking of Tran, she is set to compete on season 33 of Dancing with the Stars. It turns out producers offered her the spot moments after she appeared on the live finale of The Bachelorette. “I got off stage, was crying in my dressing room and then they’re like, ‘Alright, 45 minutes, you gotta get on a flight. We’re doing it,’” Tran told US Weekly. As for whether she’s open to a showmance, Tran told People she’s still healing. “Right now, I hate men, so,” Tran said.

Survivor (CBS)
Happy Survivor season to all who celebrate. The cast of season 47 of Survivor was announced on Wednesday, and it includes Pod Save America co-host and former Barack Obama speechwriter Jon Lovett. The podcast host “finds himself thrust into a world filled with a different kind of cutthroat politics” this season, according to a press release.

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Sure, Selena Gomez is a world-famous actress and singer, but it’s her makeup line that has made her a billionaire.

Bloomberg reports that the star of Only Murders In the Building is one of the country’s youngest self-made female billionaires. According to the publication’s Billionaires Index, she’s worth $1.3 billion, and most of that — $1.1 billion — comes from Rare Beauty Brands Inc., her 5-year-old makeup brand. 

Selena isn’t the first pop star to become a billionaire based on a makeup line: Rihanna hit that milestone in 2021 thanks to her line, Fenty Beauty.

Selena’s other income comes from brand partnerships, acting, music sales, streaming and her interest in her mental health start-up company, Wondermind, according to Bloomberg. Her past multimillion-dollar brand partnerships include Coach, Louis Vuitton and Puma SE. And she makes at least $6 million per season from Only Murders.

Stacy Jones, founder and CEO of LA-based branding company Hollywood Branded, tells Bloomberg Selena is “a multifaceted businesswoman with diverse income streams contributing to her impressive net worth.”

Brent Saunders, the CEO of Bausch + Lomb Corp, and an investor in Wondermind, tells Bloomberg that in Selena, “You’ve got a real role model of how a celebrity can use their influence and expertise to both do good and create good business.”

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Fox has announced exactly when Anthony Anderson, Taye Diggs, James Van Der Beek, Dancing with the Stars‘ Bruno Tonioli, Chris Jones of the Kansas City Chiefs and Teen Wolf‘s Tyler Posey will be going The Full Monty: the evening of Monday, Dec. 9.

As reported in May, the sextet will be bearing it all on The Real Full Monty to raise awareness for prostate, testicular and colorectal cancer testing and research.

The network strips it all down: “During the two-hour special, Anderson will lead Diggs, Jones, Posey, Tonioli and Van Der Beek as they train and rehearse for the most revealing performance of their careers, culminating with a big strip-tease dance … in front of a live audience.”

The action will be choreographed by Mandy Moore, veteran of Fox’s So You Think you Can Dance, the Oscar-winning La La Land and Taylor Swift‘s Eras Tour.

The network continues, “Leading up to the final disrobing, the men will expand their limits, test their modesty and strengthen their bond with a series of rehearsals and experiences, both private and public, designed to build confidence and remove them far from their comfort zone and forge a brotherhood.”

“Along the way, each of the celebrities will share their personal stories of how cancer has impacted their lives,” the producers concluded.

Back when the special was announced in May, Anderson noted, “Don’t die of embarrassment. Get checked!”

He added, “I am honored to lead the charge of rallying these fearless men to bare it all, in order to provoke, inspire and in this case, beg you to get screened for cancer. That’s our goal … so what are you waiting for!?”

The Real Full Monty will air Dec. 9 from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET on Fox.

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Jenn Tran is reflecting on her time as the first Asian American Bachelorette.

The 26-year-old physician assistant, whose journey to finding love on the show ended with a heartbreaking finale, thanked fans for their support all season and shared how she is “still healing” from her experience.

“Thank you for opening your hearts to my story,” she said in an Instagram post on Thursday. “Being the first Asian American bachelorette has been a healing experience for me and I couldn’t be happier to watch my community come alive.”

“No matter where you are in your search for your identity, please remember you are worthy and you are exactly who you need to be,” she added.

During the After the Final Rose special on Tuesday, Tran revealed that Devin Strader, the man she’d proposed to on the Bachelorette finale back in May, had called off their engagement about a month ago.

Tran also came face-to-face with Strader in front of the live studio audience during the episode and confronted him about why after ending their engagement he went on to follow a former contestant on the previous season of The Bachelor, Maria Georgas, on Instagram.

In her post, which featured photos from the finale and her proposal to Strader, Tran said that her heart is “heavy grieving,” but that she has to “make room for forgiveness.”

“While emotions were high on stage, at the end of the day, I will always have love for the person I fell in love with and I am choosing to wish him the best in his journey of life and will always root for him,” she said.

She also acknowledged the “universal experience” of heartbreak, adding, “It is easier to have loved and lost to have never loved at all.”

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