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PEOPLE & ARTS Tuesday 25 February 2020
Box office goes 'Sonic' again but hears 'Call of the Wild'

By ANDREW DALTON AP in the marketplace for fam-
Entertainment Writer ilies is the key to their suc-
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The cess in this part of the year,
hedgehog edged the sled a time that's usually domi-
dog by a nose at the box nated by awards holdovers
office. and R-rated films," Derga-
"Sonic: The Hedgehog" rabedian said.
zoomed to the top of the And those family audienc-
box office with a take of es may be why critics didn't
$26.3 million in its second matter for the top two films.
weekend while audiences "PG-rated films are more
ignored critics and heed- immune to reviews and are
ed "The Call of the Wild" as more about the audience.
the Harrison Ford CGI dog If a kid wants to go see a
flick finished a close sec- This image released by Paramount Pictures shows Sonic, voiced by Ben Schwartz, left, and James film, they're going to go see
ond with $24.8 million, ac- Marsden in a scene from "Sonic the Hedgehog ." it" he said.
cording to studio estimates Associated Press Best picture winner "Para-
Sunday. It was a strong site" continued its post-Os-
weekend for both films, million globally. end were it not for a late third week. cars surge in a week where
with each outperforming 20th Century Studios' "The surge from "Sonic." The weekend's other wide its victory was mocked at
expectations and over- Call of the Wild" was also "For 'Call of the Wild' head- release, "Brahms: The Boy II" a rally by President Don-
coming early doubts about mocked by many on social ing into weekend the es- starring Katie Holmes, was ald Trump, bringing in $3.2
design problems. media for its CGI dog — the timates were all over the fourth with just $5.9 million. million in North America,
Paramount Pictures' Sega first five film adaptations of place, as low as 10 million That was a disappointing where it has earned nearly
video game adaptation Jack London's 1903 novel for the weekend, some say- opening at a time of year $50 million.
"Sonic the Hedgehog" was all used real ones — and ing it could do 15, maybe when horror films often do Estimated ticket sales for Fri-
a laughingstock when its reviews were decidedly 20," said Paul Dergarabedi- well. 2020 appears to be day through Sunday at U.S.
first trailer was released last mixed with a Rotten Toma- an, senior media analyst for bucking that trend with and Canadian theaters,
year, but after a delay and toes score of 62 percent, Comscore. "So like 'Sonic' it family films thriving in the according to Comscore.
a title-character makeover, but moviegoers bought over-performed." early weeks of the year. Where available, the latest
the film has now spent two into the digital dog and his In a very distant third with "'Sonic' and 'Call of the international numbers for
weeks atop the box office 77-year-old co-star, who $7 million was "Harley Wild' represent two PG-rat- Friday through Sunday are
and brought in over $200 would have won the week- Quinn: Birds of Prey" in its ed movies where that void also included.q
Auschwitz Museum upset at scene in Amazon series ‘Hunters’

By MONIKA SCISLOWSKA ers” authors did not con-
Associated Press tact the museum for facts.
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — “If anyone wants to show
The museum of the Nazi human tragedy in Aus-
German Auschwitz death chwitz it is enough to reach
camp is objecting to a for the thousands of sourc-
scene in a new Amazon TV es (survivors’ testimonies)
series that shows a murder- that are deeply shocking,
ous game of human chess but creating fiction that
being played there, insist- distorts the history of this
ing that no such thing took real place is disrespect-
place at the camp. ful of the people who suf-
The museumand memorial fered here,” Sawicki told
that guard the Auschwitz- The Associated Press.
Birkenau site in southern He said the museum is al-
Poland, its historic facts ways willing to provide
and the memory of the factual advice to anyone
victims tweeted about the studying or working on
scene in Amazon’s series Auschwitz history. More
“Hunters.” It said inventing than 2 million people a
fake scenes is “dangerous year visit the site with its his-
foolishness and carica- toric barracks, the ruins of
ture,” encourages Holo- the gas chambers and a
caust deniers and is dis- In this file photo taken Jan. 27, 2016 Holocaust survivors walk with others through the main gate monument to the victims.
respectful of the camp’s of the former Nazi German Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in Oswiecim, Poland. “Hunters” is about a post-
some 1.1 million victims, Associated Press war hunt in New York for
including women and chil- Nazi war criminals. It in-
dren. Holocaust survivors, Weil Jews, but there were also the guards. cludes a scene where Aus-
The series’ creator, David said he was careful not to Poles, Roma, Russian pris- Museum spokesman Paw- chwitz inmates are figures
Weil stressed in a state- “misrepresent a real per- oners of war and others. el Sawicki said Monday in a chess game and are
ment it was not a docu- son or borrow from a spe- They died in the camp’s that authors and artists killed when they are taken
mentary but a narrative cific moment in an actual gas chambers or from have a special obligation off the chessboard.
with largely fictional char- person’s life.” starvation, disease and to tell the truth about Aus- “This is false. There was no
acters. As a grandson of Most of the victims were forced labor, or shot by chwitz, and that the “Hunt- such thing,” Sawicki said.q