It looks like fans want to get back to theaters, and according to Fandango, what they want to see is Black Widow.
Advanced ticket sales for standalone adventure starring Scarlett Johansson‘s titular super-spy are the biggest of the year for the retailer, outpacing Fandango sales numbers of A Quiet Place Part II and F9, which are the pandemic period’s biggest hits to date. In fact, the ticket sales for Black Widow are even besting those for pre-pandemic Marvel hits Spider-Man: Homecoming and Doctor Strange.
Fandango conducted a survey of 4,000 advance ticket buyers for Black Widow, noting — no surprise — that 97% are champing at the bit just to see a new Marvel Studios movie in theaters. Of course, 96% say they’ll stay for Black Widow’s post-credit scene — perhaps prompting the question, what’s wrong with the other 4%?
Eighty-one percent say they want to see Black Widow on the biggest screen possible, and 79% say they’ve wanted to see ScarJo in a stand-alone movie for “a very long time.”
Black Widow, which also stars Florence Pugh, Rachel Weisz and David Harbour, opens Friday.
Marvel Studios is owned by Disney, the parent company of ABC News.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden is expected to deliver remarks on the drawdown of the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan Thursday, providing an update as the withdrawal nears completion, and as instability and violence ratchet up in the region.
Prior to delivering the speech, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will receive a briefing on the drawdown from their national security team.
The White House has stood firm in defense of Biden’s decision to pull out, citing internal analysis concluding that a military solution to the conflict in Afghanistan is unlikely.
But the Taliban are coming closer to achieving one, with an aggressive summer offensive through northern provinces in recent weeks that has seized control of dozens of districts.
Biden administration officials have also defended the military withdrawal by saying that U.S. intelligence indicated the threat to U.S. forces from Taliban militants would have significantly increased throughout summer.
“When he announced our drawdown, he made clear that the Taliban would have been shooting at U.S. troops again after May 1. And the withdrawal deadline negotiated by the previous administration kind of set that timeline,” Psaki said July 2, adding that an administration review of options to advance U.S. interests in Afghanistan “did not sugarcoat what the likely outcomes would be” with continued engagement in the region.
The withdrawal, which Biden said would wrap up by Sept. 11, unfolded ahead of schedule. Bagram Air Base, the main hub of military operations in Afghanistan for the past two decades, was handed over to Afghan forces July 2. In a July 5 statement, U.S. Central Command indicated the withdrawal is about 90% complete. A small force of about 650 will remain in Afghanistan after the withdrawal to protect the U.S. Embassy and, for now, the Kabul airport.
“Our presence is small, both materially and physically,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said Tuesday.
But since U.S. troops began pulling out of Afghanistan, security has rapidly deteriorated. Taliban militants have swept through dozens of districts, seizing control and either slaughtering Afghan troops or winning their surrender. Hundreds of Afghan forces also fled across the northern Afghan border into Tajikstan when faced with the growing Taliban threat, although they are now expected to return to the country. Some have already been flown back into Afghanistan.
Amid the recent clashes, the Biden administration is still emphasizing a negotiated settlement between the Taliban and the Afghan government. Those talks, hosted in Doha, Qatar, have been all but dead since they launched last September and reached an agenda in November.
The two sides met again Wednesday in Tehran and agreed that “war is not the solution to Afghanistan’s problems,” according to the Taliban spokesperson in Doha.
In those districts retaken by the Taliban last month, militants have evicted families and looted and torched their homes, according to Human Rights Watch, allegedly in retaliation for working with the Afghan government.
There is also concern for the safety of thousands of translators, drivers and other Afghans who assisted U.S. forces and diplomats during the war, and are now targets of Taliban militants. While the Biden administration has confirmed it is working to move some of the affected Afghans out of the country to safe locations to await special immigrant visas that would allow them to move to the U.S., the administration has not specified how many will be moved, how quickly or where.
A U.S. official confirmed to ABC News on Friday that the group may be moved to Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan — three of Afghanistan’s northern neighbors in Central Asia — but stressed the planning was still early and no decisions had been made. A second U.S. official confirmed Thursday the list also includes Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
President Biden hosted his Afghan counterpart, President Ashraf Ghani, and High Council for National Reconciliation Chairman Abdullah Abdullah at the White House June 25.
Sitting down with the pair of Afghan leaders, Biden shared an optimistic message.
“The partnership between Afghanistan and the United States is not ending. It’s going to be sustained. And, you know, our troops may be leaving, but support for Afghanistan is not ending, in terms of support and maintenance of their — helping maintain their military, as well as economic and political support,” Biden said.
But Biden grew visibly agitated Friday when reporters peppered him with questions about the future of Afghanistan.
“Look, we were in that war for 20 years, 20 years. And I think — I met with the Afghan government here in the White House, in the Oval. I think they have the capacity to be able to sustain the government. There are going to have to be, down the road, more negotiations, I suspect,” Biden said. “But I am — I am concerned that they deal with the internal issues that they have to be able to generate the kind of support they need nationwide to maintain the government.”
Prior to the Fourth of July weekend, Biden groused about continued questions on the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan.
“I want to talk about happy things, man,” Biden complained.
Dua Lipa is ready to take her talents to the big screen.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the singer has signed on to make her acting debut in a new spy thriller called Argylle.
Dua will be in good company for the Matthew Vaughn-directed flick. She’ll join an all-star cast including Henry Cavill, Sam Rockwell, Bryce Dallas Howard, Bryan Cranston, Catherine O’Hara, John Cena and Samuel L. Jackson.
THR reports that not only will Dua show off her acting skills for the first time, she’ll be bringing her tried and true music skills to film as well, providing original music for the title track and score.
The film is based on an upcoming book by Ellie Conway about “the world’s greatest spy Argylle as he is caught up in a globe-trotting adventure.” It’s planned as the first of three films in a franchise.
Argylle will begin shooting this August in Europe.
(WASHINGTON) — After playing coy on the subject, GOP House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is planning to appoint Republicans to the select committee to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, Republican sources familiar with his plans tell ABC News.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced last week that Democrats would move forward with creating the select committee after Senate Republicans blocked a proposal for an independent, bipartisan commission.
McCarthy — who will get five appointments to the committee — hadn’t initially decided whether he would appoint anyone at all and reportedly privately threatened Republicans who would accept an appointment by Pelosi.
When asked at a press conference last week about his intentions he said: “When I have news on that, I’ll give it to you.”
A senior GOP aide familiar with the process said there are ongoing efforts to decide which members to appoint, with some likely being allies of former President Donald Trump who have attempted to downplay the rioting and attack at the Capitol on Jan. 6.
Some Republicans expect McCarthy to use the appointments to undermine what they see as the key aim of Pelosi in creating the commission — to politically damage Trump and other allies who objected to certifying President Joe Biden’s election victory.
However, McCarthy is also getting pressure from some in the party to appoint more moderate Republican lawmakers. The timing of an announcement is unclear, but is likely to happen within the next two weeks, sources say.
Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., one of the Democrats Pelosi has already tapped for the committee, told on CNN on Thursday that Republicans “have an obligation to put in a good-faith effort to get all the facts.”
“We’re going to start with having law enforcement officers testify to share their experiences that day,” she said when asked whether Trump would be called to testify.
Pressed whether McCarthy himself could be called to testify, as it’s known that he and Trump shared a phone call while rioters stormed the building, Murphy didn’t rule it out.
“I think that members of congress could be and will be probably called to testify under oath about their different perspectives on that day,” she said.
Pelosi last month introduced the measure to from the committee comprising 13 members after a bipartisan 9/11-style commission failed to pass the Senate. Eight committee members are to be selected by Pelosi and the other five chosen by McCarthy must be picked in consultation with the House speaker, the measure dictates.
Pelosi announced last week her selections for the committee, with much of the spotlight on Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, an outspoken critic of Trump who was stripped of her No. 3 GOP leadership role earlier this year.
Pelsoi also said House Homeland Security Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., will chair the committee, which will include Murphy and Reps. Zoe Lofgren, Adam Schiff, Pete Aguilar, Jamie Raskin and Elaine Luria.
Following Pelosi’s press conference, McCarthy denied reports that he threatened GOP members with taking away committee assignments if they were to accept a select committee position but took the chance to question Cheney’s place in the Republican Party.
“I was shocked that she would accept something from Speaker Pelosi. It would seem to me, since I didn’t hear from her, maybe she’s closer to her than us,” McCarthy said.
The resolution to form the House committee to investigate the attack passed last month mostly along party lines — other than Cheney and Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., who broke from Republicans to vote for its passage.
Twenty One Pilots have premiered the video for “Saturday,” a track off their new album, Scaled and Icy
The clip finds Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun performing a concert for a party inside a submarine when their underwater vessel is attacked by a giant sea creature that looks a lot like the dragon on the Scaled and Icycover.
Ever the professionals, the duo keeps playing even as the sub fills up with water, before they eventually swimg to the surface.
You can watch the “Saturday” video streaming now on YouTube.
Scaled and Icy, the follow-up to 2018’s Trench, was released in May. It also includes the lead single “Shy Away.”
Kelsea Ballerini at the 2021 CMT Awards; Erika Goldring/2021 CMT Awards/Getty Images for CMT
The CMT Music Awards show is going through changes in 2022.
Varietyreports that the show will broadcast on April 3, 2022, which is a departure from its usual June airing. The announcement comes just a couple weeks after Viacom revealed that the annual country music awards show is moving from its original home of CMT to CBS, the former’s much larger sister broadcast network.
Of course, April is the month that CBS formerly aired another country music awards show: The ACM Awards. The ACMs most recently aired on CBS in April 2021, but the network and the Academy subsequently parted ways after failing to agree on terms for a deal renewal.
There’s no word yet on whether the ACMs will keep its usual April broadcast slot or move to another time of year in order to avoid competition with the rescheduled spring CMT Awards. It is also not yet known where the ACMs will air next year, though per Variety, the Academy has reportedly been in negotiations with NBC.
Meanwhile, the CMT Awards are riding the momentum of the success of their 2021 show, which saw a ten-percent increase in total viewership on CBS and was the top social program of the night across TV.
ViacomCBS has also announced a string of special programming, dubbed “Country Music Week,” to surround the next CMT Awards.
(WASHINGTON) — The Democratic National Committee is investing an additional $25 million in its voting rights initiative, Vice President Kamala Harris is set to announce Wednesday, underscoring the Biden-Harris administration’s commitment to a cause that has become a rallying cry for the party.
“This campaign is grounded in the firm belief that everyone’s vote matters. That your vote matters,” Harris plans to say, according to excerpts of her prepared remarks shared with ABC News. “I want to make clear that this is about all voters. It doesn’t matter to us if you are a Democrat or not. We want to help you vote, and we want to help make sure your vote is counted. Why? Well, because our democracy is strongest when everyone participates, and it is weaker when people are left out.”
DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison previously announced a $20 million initial commitment to the initiative, called “I Will Vote.” Priorities USA, one of the largest Democratic super PACs that litigated over 15 voting-centric cases, has also committed $20 million to fighting efforts to curtail access to the ballot box.
Harris will announce the investment when she gives remarks at Howard University in Washington at 1 p.m. President Joe Biden and Harris are also meeting with civil rights leaders at the White House at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday and will discuss this issue and the effort to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. Representatives from the NAACP, National Urban League and National Action Network, among others, will attend.
The $25 million will be used to fund voter education and protection efforts, targeted voter registration and technology to increase voting accessibility and combat “Republicans’ unprecedented voter suppression efforts,” according to the DNC.
“Republicans know that their policies are unpopular — and that the only way for them to hold on to power is to attack the constitutional right to vote, held by the people they swore to serve. That’s why the Republican Party has made unprecedented efforts to keep people from voting,” Harrison said in a statement. “I’ve said time and again that the ‘D’ in Democrat stands for deliver, and today we are delivering innovative and historic resources to protect this fundamental part of our democracy.”
The investment comes amid a nationwide Republican effort to pass what they call “election integrity” laws that often tighten voting restrictions and restrict access to the ballot box. Republicans endorsing these bills often point to the diminished trust among voters in U.S. elections but fail to address former President Donald Trump’s repeated attempts to undermine the 2020 election by falsely claiming there was mass voter fraud and that he actually won in November.
In the 2021 legislative sessions alone, state lawmakers across the country introduced nearly 400 bills that include restrictive voting provisions, according to the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice’s analysis. At least 17, mostly GOP-led states, have enacted 28 new laws this year that at least in part restrict voter access.
2021 is definitely a comeback year for Jazmine Sullivan, who in January released her first project in six years, Heaux Tales.
The vulnerable EP features transparently explores the singer’s personal experience with heartbreak and love, which landed Sullivan a spot on Rolling Stone’s 2021 Hot List.
“In my music, I feel like I can talk about things that I wouldn’t normally have talked about and just be proud of who I am, and own who I am,” Sullivan tells Rolling Stone. “When I’m making music and I’m in a studio, it really feels so personal.”
“I’m just literally telling my story, and it’s for me,” she explains. “I know people are going to hear it, but it’s just me getting out these thoughts and these feelings that are inside of me.”
Heaux Tales features duets with fellow R&B vocalists Ari Lennox, H.E.R. and Anderson .Paak. The EP is also intertwined with interludes from Lennox and other women expressing their needs and wants in regards to love sex and taking control of one’s body. But Sullivan says her favorite ‘heaux tale’ on the EP is “The Other Side.”
“It was refreshing to write that story,” Sullivan says. “It’s very different from who I am, and my perspective. I feel like people were able to look at what they would consider a gold digger through a different lens after that.”
Sullivan promises not to make fans wait another six years before she releases the follow-up to Heaux Tales, the way she made fans wait following her 2015 album, Reality Show. “Life is not promised. So I just want to be able to do as much as I can but in my healthiest state,” she adds.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson just revealed on Instagram that his much-anticipated action comedy Red Notice will drop on Netflix on November 12.
“I’m officially serving you your notice,” Johnson told his 252 million followers, capping it with the “siren” emoji.
In Red Notice, Johnso plays “the FBI’s top profiler,” on the hunt for Gal Gadot‘s character, “the world’s most wanted art thief,” with Ryan Reynolds playing, “the greatest conman the world has ever seen.”
Johnson previously starred with Gadot in the fifth Fast & Furious installment, and with Reynolds in the Fast spin-off Hobbs & Shaw.
Star and co-producer Johnson shouted out his pals, saying, “Thank you to my insanely talented (and highly unattractive) costars @gal_gadot & @vancityreynolds [Reynolds] for our globetrotting heist,” revealing a photo of the movie’s stars. Wonder Woman star Gadot looks stunning in a red gown, flanked by Reynolds in a white dinner jacket, and Rock in a black tuxedo.
For his part, Reynolds tweeted, “True story. They made my entire tuxedo out of one of @TheRock’s socks.”
Ryan added, “last piece of gossip: @GalGadot is wonderful.”
Johnson also thanked “205 million+ Netflix subscribers who are already making #RedNotice the most highly anticipated movie on the platform in 2021.” He added, “This is my career first streaming film and I wanted to make it big and special for all the fans worldwide.”
Red Notice was supposed to debut in theaters for Universal Pictures, but Netflix scooped up distribution rights in 2019. The film’s title refers to INTERPOL’s alert for the world’s most wanted fugitives.
The hard-rocking film — which features Papa Roach‘s Jacoby Shaddix in his film acting debut, as well as appearances by artists including Mötley Crüe‘s Tommy Lee and members of Five Finger Death Punch — will make its debut at London’s FrightFest, taking place August 26-30.
The Retaliators, which was first announced in 2020, follows a mild-mannered pastor who’s thrust into a world of violence as he tries to solve the mystery of his daughter’s murder. It’s being produced by Better Noise Films, an offshoot of the Better Noise Music record label.
Other artists appearing in The Retaliators include members of The Hu, Ice Nine Kills and Escape the Fate. Those bands also appear on the film’s soundtrack, as do Papa Roach, Five Finger Death Punch, From Ashes to New and Cory Marks.
