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A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Monday 16 october 2017
‘Happy Death Day’ scares off

‘Blade Runner’ at box office

By LINDSEY BAHR said. “Blumhouse owns this upon release.
AP Film Writer space no doubt about it, Jackie Chan’s “The For-
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The and they do this better than eigner” debuted in third
box office might be strug- anybody consistently.” place with $12.8 million
gling this year, but the hor- The film also had the ben- from 2,515 screens, while
ror genre is alive and well. efit of coming on the heels “It” landed in fourth place
This weekend the “Ground- of the massive success in its sixth weekend in the-
hog Day”-like horror pic of “It,” which has earned aters.
“Happy Death Day” scored $314.9 million domestically The Kate Winslet and Id-
a first-place finish, surpass- to date. The “Happy Death ris Elba disaster pic “The
This image released by Universal Pictures shows Jessica Rothe in
a scene from “Happy Death Day.” ing expectations and blow- Day” trailer played in front Mountain Between Us”
Associated Press ing the much costlier and of “It” at theaters, which rounded out the top five
star-driven “Blade Runner “exponentially increased” with $5.7 million.
2049” out of the water. audience awareness, said Other new releases land-
Studio estimates Sunday comScore senior media ed outside the top 10. The
show “Happy Death Day” analyst Paul Dergarabe- Thurgood Marshall biopic
took in $26.5 million from dian. “Marshall” took in a prom-
3,149 North American the- Horror continues to be one ising $3 million from 821
aters. With a $5 million pro- of the bright spots during a theaters. “Marshall is off to
duction price tag, “Happy roller-coaster year at the a solid start,” said Open
Death Day” is already a hit. box office. Road Films CEO Tom Orten-
With a PG-13 rating, the film “This is a horror gold rush at berg in a statement. “We
scored big with younger the theaters,” Dergarabe- expect Marshall to hold
audiences — 63 percent dian said. “It’s been per- very well and run well into
were under 25. haps the most consistently the fall.” But the Wonder
It’s the latest success story positive story this year.” Woman creator biopic
from Blumhouse Produc- One film that does not look “Professor Marston and the
tions, which earlier this year destined for a happy end- Wonder Woman” failed to
released “Split” and “Get ing is “Blade Runner 2049,” capitalize from the massive
Out,” with the help of Uni- which fell 54 percent in its success of “Wonder Wom-
versal Pictures, which dis- second weekend in the- an” earlier this year. The film
tributed. aters, adding $15.1 million earned only $737,000 from
Jim Orr, executive vice to bring its domestic total over 1,200 locations.
president of domestic dis- to $60.6 million. “Goodbye Christopher
tribution for Universal, said The film was a costly en- Robin,” about author A.A.
“Happy Death Day” is an deavor with a production Milne and the creation
original film that’s reimag- price tag north of $150 mil- of the beloved children’s
ing the genre. lion and was well-reviewed books and characters, also
“It’s as much thriller as it is by critics. But it couldn’t got off to a poor start with
horror film. It’s scary, it’s fun- manage to draw in signifi- $56,000 from nine theaters.
ny, and it has an extraor- cant audiences beyond “October is off to a slow
dinarily clever script that the fans of the 1982 origi- start,” Dergarabedian
is very well executed,” Orr nal, which was also a flop said.q

‘Game of Thrones’ cast

gets no scripts, star says

The Associated Press He recalled that during
The need-to-know policy the first couple of seasons,
for the “Game of Thrones” actors got the usual hard-
cast is going to extreme copy scripts in advance.
lengths during filming of the Then, to tighten security,
series’ final season. When it scripts were distributed on
comes to keeping scripts digital files. In recent sea-
under wraps, producers sons, actors got their parts
are taking no chances, ac- through verified email.
cording to Nikolaj Coster- Then, a few months ago,
Waldau, who plays Jaime HBO was hacked and vari-
Lannister in the wildly popu- ous show files were stolen. In this July 12, 2017 file photo,
lar HBO fantasy thriller. The culprits demanded a Nikolaj Coster-Waldau arrives
Speaking on the Scandina- ransom of several million at the “Game of Thrones”
vian chat show “Skavlan,” dollars to prevent episodes premiere in Los Angeles.
Coster-Waldau revealed from being leaked online. Associated Press
the unprecedented mea- According to Coster-Wal- each scene are equipped
sures now being imple- dau, security for this final with earpieces and are fed
mented to plug any leaks “Game of Thrones” season their dialogue to deliver,
of top-secret story details. is the tightest yet. Actors in line by line.q