While it remains to be seen if the trend continues through the weekend, it seems movie audiences are eager for an opening night experience like the pre-pandemic days. Sneak previews of Marvel Studios’ Black Widow earned nearly $14 million nationwide on Thursday.
The figure bests sneaks for the first big hits of the pandemic era: A Quiet Place Part II earned $4.8 million in its preview debut back in May, and Fast 9 — the most successful movie of the year to date — made $7.1 million on its Thursday opening a month later.
Black Widow, the standalone prequel adventure of star and executive producer Scarlett Johansson‘s Avenger, has already made more than $22 million from 30 overseas markets. Stateside, it’s been buoyed by solid reviews: aggregator Rotten Tomatoes has it “Certified Fresh” with a score of 81%.
Black Widow is also available to watch via Disney+ Premier Access.
Marvel Studios is owned by Disney, the parent company of ABC News.
Earlier this year, Parmalee returned to the top of the country chart with “Just the Way,” their collaboration with Blanco Brown. Now, with that momentum behind them, the country group has announced a new album called For You.
The thirteen-song collection includes “Just the Way.” Leaning into the success they’ve had with collaborations thus far, the band also put two more duets on the album: “Greatest Hits,” with Fitz, and “Forget You” with Avery Anna. “Greatest Hits” is out today in celebration of the album announcement, as is another song, the romantic “Take My Name.”
The bulk of the For You track list was co-written by Parmalee frontman Matt Thomas, who says having a hand in so many of the songs made the album-making process more intimate.
“We feel most authentic and our best as a band when we feel like we’re having a conversation with the audience,” says Matt. “That’s what we really narrowed in on for this album and leaned into what makes Parmalee sound like Parmalee — it’s all based on our connection to the fans.”
He adds, “For You is an album for the fans — the ones who’ve supported us for years, and the new ones we’re getting to know every day.”
For You will be out July 30. It’s available to pre-add and pre-save now.
Since his new song is called “Motley Crew,” it makes sense that Post Malone would ask a member of legendary hair-metal band Mötley Crüe to join him in the video.
Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee stars in the video for the song, which premiered Friday. The clip, shot at California’s Auto Club Speedway, finds Posty hitting the racetrack with Lee, French Montana, Big Sean, SAINt JHN, Ty Dolla $ign, Tyga, Tyla Yaweh and NASCAR stars Bubba Wallace and Denny Hamlin. You can watch it streaming now on YouTube.
Prior to “Motley Crew,” Post actually released a song called “Tommy Lee,” with Tyla Yaweh. He also collaborated with Lee on a remix of the track.
“Motley Crew” is Posty’s first new original release of 2021, and the lead track from what’s described as a “companion project” to an upcoming documentary.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden is set to sign a wide-ranging executive order Friday afternoon aimed at minimizing the stranglehold of monopolies on certain industries and increasing competition among companies, which the White House believes will benefit consumers by driving down prices.
“For decades, corporate consolidation has been accelerating. In over 75% of U.S. industries, a smaller number of large companies now control more of the business than they did 20 years ago. This is true across health care, financial services, agriculture and more. That lack of competition drives up prices for consumers,” according to a White House fact sheet.
Targeting air travel, labor practices, meat processing and more, the executive order contains 72 initiatives overseen by a dozen different government agencies.
Here is some of what’s in the order:
It will allow owners of iPhones, appliances and other machinery to attempt perform repairs on their devices themselves or seek out repairs at independent shops without voiding warranty protections.
It requires the FAA to mandate efficient airline refunds for lost bags and dysfunctional WiFi service.
It aims to lower the price of prescription drugs by urging state and local tribes to import cheaper drugs from Canada, a move long supported by Democrats, and former President Donald Trump.
Hearing aids, which can often run consumers thousands of dollars, would be able to be sold over the counter under the order.
The order will encourage the FTC to limit non-compete agreements that prevent workers from seeking out better-paying jobs and affect some 30 to 60 million Americans. It also encourages the FTC to ban unnecessary licensing requirements for jobs like accounting and hair dressing, which differ from state to state and prove burdensome, especially for military families who frequently move.
These items in particular, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday, are “fulfilling [Biden’s] campaign promise to promote competition in labor markets in order to raise wages and make it easier for workers to change jobs and to move between states.”
The changes won’t be immediately evident to Americans since the executive order merely kicks off longer rule-making and regulatory processes. Some of the executive actions are only recommendations, especially on those areas governed by the FTC and FCC, which are meant to be independent agencies not obligated to carry out White House directives.
Eva Marie Uzcategui Trinkl/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
(SURFSIDE, Fla.) — At least 78 people have been confirmed dead after 14 bodies were recovered overnight from the rubble of a 12-story residential building that partially collapsed in South Florida’s Miami-Dade County last month.
As many as 62 people remain missing, officials said Friday.
The disaster occurred on June 24 around 1:15 a.m. local time at the Champlain Towers South condominium in the small, beachside town of Surfside, about 6 miles north of Miami Beach. Approximately 55 of the oceanfront complex’s 136 units were destroyed, according to officials. The rest of the building was demolished on Sunday night, due to concerns over structural integrity and an incoming tropical storm.
For over two weeks, hundreds of first responders carefully combed through the pancaked piles of debris in hopes of finding survivors. But no one has been found alive in the wreckage since the morning the building partially collapsed, and officials announced Wednesday evening that the search and rescue operation, in its 14th day, would shift to a recovery effort.
Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett told reporters that the decision was “a result of a consensus by those closest to the rescue efforts that the possibility of someone still alive is near zero.”
To mark the somber move, a moment of silence was held Wednesday in honor of all the victims, of whom 47 have been identified and their next of kin notified. A candlelight vigil was held later that night at the memorial site for the victims.
Reflecting on the transition the next day, U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., told reporters: “When that happened, it took a little piece of the hearts of this community.”
Crews paused their work atop the piles early Thursday “for a brief moment of silence to honor the two-week mark since the collapse,” according to Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava. Several families who lost loved ones were also brought to the site to pay their respects Thursday, she said.
“We have now officially transitioned from search and rescue to search and recovery,” Levine Cava said during a press conference Thursday morning. “The work continues with all speed and urgency. We are working around the clock to recover victims and bring closure to the families as fast as we possibly can.”
“We are taking as much care as ever to proceed to find victims in the rubble,” she added.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters that crews “will identify every single person” who’s found, and that officials also would continue to help the survivors and the families of the victims get back “on their feet as best as we possibly can.”
On Friday, the Broward County Medical Office started coming on-site to assist Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner Department personnel and help teams rotate more frequently, Levine Cava said.
“It is very, very valuable and critical that we provide some relief to those men and women working in the medical examiner’s office doing this vital work,” the mayor said during a press briefing Friday afternoon.
Meanwhile, 200 people who were living or staying in the condominium at the time of the disaster have been accounted for and are safe, according to Levine Cava, who has repeatedly stressed that the figures are “very fluid” and “continue to change.”
Crews have hauled away more than 13 million pounds of concrete and debris from the vast scene, and the pile of rubble is almost at ground level, Burkett said Friday. Some debris remains below ground level.
Officials said it could take several weeks to get to the bottom of the wreckage. Crews have been working virtually nonstop, with help from teams who came from across Florida and elsewhere in the United States as well as from abroad. However, their efforts were halted for almost an entire day last week due to safety concerns regarding the still-standing structure, prior to the demolition. Poor weather conditions have also forced them to temporarily pause working.
The cause of the partial collapse to a building that has withstood decades of hurricanes remains unknown and is under investigation. Built in the 1980s, the Champlain Towers South was up for its 40-year recertification and had been undergoing roof work — with more renovations planned — when it partially collapsed, according to officials.
Levine Cava asked members of the public to submit any photos or videos they have related to the collapse to the National Institute of Standards and Technology here.
“The magnitude of this tragedy is growing each and every day,” Levine Cava said Friday.
Teresa Kroeger/Getty Images for World Food Program USA
(NEW YORK) — A New York gallery owner will facilitate sales of Hunter Biden’s original artwork, an arrangement meant to diffuse concerns over buyers paying top dollar to win influence with the president’s son, according to a source familiar with the situation.
The gallerist, Georges Berges, will independently set prices on the artwork of President Joe Biden’s son and keep the identities of buyers confidential, including from the president and administration officials. Berges will be the sole person authorized to collect, reject and agree on offers. Berges has agreed to reject any offer that seems unusual, including offers above asking price.
White House officials were involved in creating the arrangement, according to the source, as a way to avoid any suggestion of preferential treatment or conflict of interest.
According to the Washington Post, which first reported the story, Berges has said Hunter Biden’s artwork could be priced anywhere from $75,000 to $500,000.
But ethics experts are raising concerns about the agreement.
“This arrangement is problematic. The best disinfectant, in this case, would have been to have a publicly open process. The public could see who the purchasers are, and then it would be incumbent upon the Bidens to bear the burden of saying why it isn’t a conflict,” said Meredith McGehee, executive director of Issue One, a nonprofit dedicated to reducing the influence of money in politics.
“The White House went the absolute opposite way they should have gone. The only people, in the end, who won’t know who the buyers are is the public. By going the shadow direction, this raises more questions than answers,” she said.
In a statement to ABC News, White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said “the president has established the highest ethical standards of any administration in American history, and his family’s commitment to rigorous processes like this is a prime example.”
But Richard Painter, who was President George W. Bush’s top ethics lawyer, told ABC News he would have counseled against a secrecy deal for the president’s son during his time in the White House.
“The best solution would be to paint now, sell later, after his father is out of office,” Painter said.
“The problem is they chose the secrecy route and that just never works. I don’t want to say it’s like Trump’s tax returns, because he’s not the president. But whenever you don’t disclose something, whenever there’s secrecy people will assume the worst,” he added.
Still, Painter acknowledged Hunter Biden is not a government employee and has the right to do what he wishes with his art.
Hunter Biden has long used art as a way to cope with addiction and life tragedies, including the death of his brother Beau in 2015.
Biden said in a New York Times interview that painting “put my energy towards something positive.”
“It keeps me away from people and places where I shouldn’t be,” he said in the interview.
Don Fox, former general counsel of the Office of Government Ethics under the Obama administration, noted that career opportunities for children of any president are always subject to intense scrutiny.
“With visual art, the name of the artist is a huge factor in a piece’s value. The screening mechanism that has been put in place for the sale of Hunter Biden’s art may not be perfect, but it’s the best that could be done where the value of the product is so highlight subjective. Hunter Biden is entitled to earn a living,” Fox told ABC News.
Chris Clark, attorney for Hunter Biden, did not respond to a request for comment. A representative at Berges’s gallery declined to comment on the record.
A new documentary focusing on the poetry, prose and artistry of late Doors frontman Jim Morrison is being developed as part of a partnership between JAM Inc. — the managers of Morrison’s estate — and the Gunpowder & Sky production company.
The film will incorporate the singer’s recently unearthed personal diaries, as well as rare home-movie footage. News of the documentary comes on the heels of the recent publication of The Collected Works of Jim Morrison: Poetry, Journals, Transcripts and Lyrics. The book that features most of Morrison’s previously published work, as well as a bounty of unpublished writing, including the aforementioned diaries.
“Jim was a poet and a writer and a filmmaker long before he ever thought about music,” JAM Inc. CEO Jeff Jampol tells Billboard. “All these decades everybody talked about Jim Morrison the rock star, which he certainly was. But we really felt it was time to even the playing field and talk about these other aspects of Jim, which were either not as known or celebrated or discussed.”
Jampol also notes that the producers are searching for a director “who understands the import and the depth and the gravity” of Morrison.
“You need a director who is empathetic to the human and the artist and the art, [who] understands the history and context,” Jampol maintains. He adds that he’s hoping the as-yet-untitled film will be ready for release by late 2022 or early 2023.
July 3 marked the 50th anniversary of Morrison’s death at age 27 in Paris.
What do you get when Ed Sheeran teams up with BTS? An insanely catchy song and memorable video.
BTS is out with their new single, “Permission to Dance,” co-written by Ed, his frequent collaborators Steve Mac and Johnny McDaid, and Jenna Andrews, who co-wrote “Butter.” It celebrates the joys of dancing your troubles away, with the group singing, “We don’t need to worry/’Cause when we fall, we know how to land
Don’t need to talk the talk, just walk the walk tonight/’Cause we don’t need permission to dance.”
In the first verse, the group sings, “When it all seems like it’s wrong/Just sing along to Elton John.” It’s not clear who wrote that line, but it’s worth noting that Ed is friendly with Elton John, was once managed by Elton’s company, and mentioned Elton’s song “Tiny Dancer” in his own hit, “Castle on the Hill.”
As for the video, it features BTS performing in several different buildings in the middle of a desert, intercut with people dancing in different situations — in an office, a school, a diner. They’re all wearing masks, but at the end of the video they all pull their masks off with a flourish and continue to dance.
The clip ends with a huge choreographed number as the guys, joined by dozens of dancers wearing white, all dance as the sky fills with balloons. There are also some outtakes at the end worth watching.
“Permission to Dance” is on BTS’ new Butter CD single. It was released today, July 9, to mark the eight-year anniversary of the naming of their fan group, ARMY. BTS has also put together a special playlist for the occasion, featuring a solo track by each member.
A demo of a previously unreleased George Harrison song called “Cosmic Empire,” from the sessions for his landmark 1970 solo effort All Things Must Pass, has just been made available in advance of the upcoming deluxe reissue of the late Beatles legend’s classic album.
“Cosmic Empire” has been released digitally and via streaming services, and an animated lyric video for the track has premiered on Harrison’s YouTube channel. The clip features a kaleidoscopic montage of collages celebrating the natural and cosmic worlds, and including photos of Harrison and depictions of animals, plants, planets and much more.
The track was recorded on the second day of a prolific two-day session for All Things Must Pass, during which Harrison recorded demos of 30 songs. “Cosmic Empire” features George accompanying himself on acoustic guitar.
As previously reported, an expanded 50th anniversary edition of All Things Must Pass will be released August 6, and can be pre-ordered now. It’s available in multiple formats and configurations, including a Super Deluxe eight-LP or five-CD/Blu-ray-audio set. The Super Deluxe reissue features a new mix of the original 23-track album, the 30 aforementioned demos, and various outtakes and studio jams. Forty-two of the tracks are previously unreleased. The Blu-ray disc features three high-res versions of the album.
The collection comes with a 60-page scrapbook curated by Harrison’s widow, Olivia, that features rare images and memorabilia, handwritten lyrics, diary entries, studio notes and more. A replica of the original album poster also is included.
Released in November 1970, All Things Must Pass spent seven weeks at #1 on the Billboard 200. It features George’s chart-topping spiritual anthem “My Sweet Lord,” plus “Isn’t It a Pity,” “What Is Life,” “Wah-Wah” and many other memorable songs.
Beck has collaborated with Natalie Bergman of the band Wild Belle on a new cover and remix.
The cover is a joint version on the 1975 track “You’ve Got a Woman,” originally recorded by the duo Lion, while the remix is a new spin on Bergman’s solo track “Paint the Rain.”
“It is slightly touching on almost grunge,” Bergman tells Billboard of the remix. “It’s very unusual because I don’t really have that much of a repertoire with that music, but that’s kind of where he came out of in some ways.”
You can download both tracks now via digital outlets.
Beck, meanwhile, just released a video for the Chloé Caillet remix of his song “Chemical,” in honor of his birthday Thursday.
