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A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Tuesday 3 March 2020
The Invisible Man' tops box

office with $29 million

from writer-director Leigh life in a very clever and rel- million in its seventh week-
Whannell earned $29 mil- evant way." end. The Will Smith and
lion from North American The studio expects it to Martin Lawrence pic is just
This image released by Universal Pictures shows Elisabeth Moss theaters. Internationally, continue to play well into shy of reaching the $200
in a scene from "The Invisible Man." the Blumhouse production March, although it will have million mark in North Amer-
Associated Press ' picked up an additional some extra competition ica and has earned over
$20.2 million. when "A Quiet Place Part II" $400 million globally.
By LINDSEY BAHR wave of good reviews to Whannell helped dust off opens on March 20. In limited release, "Wendy,"
AP Film Writer a very visible spot atop the the classic H.G. Wells story Paramount Pictures' "Sonic Benh Zeitlin's long-await-
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The box office this weekend. and update it for modern the Hedgehog" slid to sec- ed follow-up to his Oscar-
Elisabeth Moss-led thriller Universal Pictures on Sun- audiences by focusing on ond place in its third week- nominated film "Beasts of
"The Invisible Man" rode a day estimated that the film Moss' victim character in- end in theaters adding $16 the Southern Wild," got off
stead of the Invisible Man million and bringing its do- to a bumpy start with just
character, who here is an mestic total to $128.3 mil- $30,000 from four theaters.
abusive ex-boyfriend. lion. "The Call of the Wild," The Peter Pan-inspired film
"The Invisible Man" carried with Harrison Ford, placed has garnered mixed re-
a relatively modest budget, third in its second weekend views from critics and will
costing under $10 million to with $13.2 million. be expanding in the com-
produce, and exceeded Fourth place went to the ing weeks.
expectations by a few mil- anime superhero film "My Although it's still early in the
lion dollars. The film, which Hero Academia: Heroes year, overall the box office
had been well-received by Rising" which opened to is up nearly 3.5%.
critics, drew diverse audi- $6.3 million from just 1,260 "This weekend it was busi-
ences to the theaters (46% screens. ness as usual in North Amer-
Caucasian, 20% African "We should never under- ican theaters," Dergarabe-
American and 18% Hispan- estimate films like this that dian said. "People went to
ic), according to exit polls. may not have broad rec- the movies to escape the
"We couldn't be more ognition among the gener- trials and tribulations of the
pleased," said Jim Orr, Uni- al public," said Comscore's real world."
versal's president of domes- senior media analyst Paul Estimated ticket sales for Fri-
tic distribution. Dergarabedian. day through Sunday at U.S.
"(Whannell) brought this "Bad Boys for Life" rounded and Canadian theaters,
century-old character to out the top five with $4.3 according to Comscore.q

AT&T launches new online TV service as

video customers fall

other streaming apps, the
way Comcast's X1 cable
box does. Additional boxes
cost $120. The channel line-
ups and prices are compa-
rable with what's available
from DirecTV, but AT&T TV
doesn't have NFL Sunday
Ticket, a package of out-
of-market football games.
The company is trying to
adapt to the shift to stream-
ing video, as subscribers to
traditional cable and satel-
lite TV services fall. In May,
it's launching HBO Max,
This file photo combo shows the AT&T logo on the side of a cor-
porate office in Springfield, Ill., left, and a DirecTV satellite dish a $15-a-month streaming
atop a home in Los Angeles. service that will marry HBO
Associated Press shows with original pro-
grams and TV shows and
NEW YORK (AP) — AT&T is internet rather than a sat- movies from WarnerMedia.
launching a new internet- ellite dish. AT&T has been AT&T also has an online
delivered TV service Mon- testing the service in 13 package that started as a
day as it struggles with a markets and is now making cheaper service with fewer
shrinking DirecTV satellite it available to anyone. channels than a traditional
business. AT&T will send subscrib- bundle, but it is shedding
The new service, AT&T TV, ers an Android streaming- customers after price in-
will have most of the same TV box to use the service. creases. AT&T is now trying
channels offered on Direc- The free device will also to downplay that service in
TV, but it'll come over the come with Netflix and favor of the new AT&T TV.q