Page 30 - ARUBA TODAY

A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Tuesday 21 augusT 2018

In a comeback season for Hollywood, a summer without bombs

By JAKE COYLE lated to about 1 million ad-
Associated Press missions or about 4 percent
NEW YORK (AP) — Have of U.S. moviegoers at AMC
you noticed something theaters, the country’s larg-
oddly tranquil about this est chain.
summer movie season? Jeff Bock, senior box-office
For the first time in recent analyst for Exhibitor Rela-
memory, there hasn’t been tions, said it’s difficult to ex-
one major bomb. trapolate how big a driver
Usually by now, there subscription services have
would be blockbuster-sized been, though he credited
craters left on the charred the copious attention and
summer-movie battlefield, drama around MoviePass
the inevitable toll of Hol- with fueling moviegoing
lywood’s most high-stakes awareness.
season. This image released by Disney Pixar shows a scene from “Incredibles 2.” He’s more inclined to point
But this year, summer-mov- Associated Press to the improved studio
ie bomb-watching, long nual Marvel movie kickoff lieve it for a second. I think MoviePass, the flailing project, specifically sequels
one of the most depend- to summer slid just ahead people are ready every subscription service, has like “Incredibles 2,” ‘’Ant-
able spectator sports of the of the official first weekend weekend: ‘Give me a rea- claimed responsibility. Sub- Man and the Wasp” and
season, has gone entirely of May start, shifting the son to come.’” scription moviegoing has “Deadpool 2.”
without the sight of a “Lone $678.5 million domestic for Paramount didn’t have surely had an additive ef- “The one thing that was
Ranger”-sized mushroom Disney’s “Avenger: Infinity a lot of releases over the fect, bringing more regular very different from last
cloud. War” to the spring. summer but coming off the visitors to theaters. year’s sequels is that peo-
After the cataclysmic, the- Amid a remarkably turbu- spring success of “A Quiet But how much? There’s no ple wanted to see these.
sky-is-falling summer of lent time for the movie busi- Place,” Davies said, “Things statistical evidence of Mov- That’s what it comes down
2017, when overall grosses ness, this summer has been have turned around.” iePass boosting bottom to,” said Bock.
slid 14.6 percent from the surprisingly, almost weirdly, ‘’Mission: Impossible — Fall- lines, and studio executives “You can say Hollywood’s
year before, Hollywood has steady. out,” the sixth installment in downplay its influence as running on good credit
rebounded. Ticket sales “The studios did what they the Tom Cruise franchise, is minimal. (“Mission: Impossi- and that’s probably one
in North America this sum- were supposed to,” said approaching $500 million ble,” for one, wasn’t initially of the reasons people are
mer are up 11.3 percent, Kyle Davies, domestic distri- worldwide, and the Diane available on MoviePass.) coming out weekend after
according to comScore. bution chief for Paramount Keaton-Jane Fonda-star- MoviePass, which this week weekend.”
The comeback is even Pictures. “This notion that ring “Book Club” has, with reduced its plan to three The difference in Pixar re-
more pronounced when people are tired of going $68.6 million, fared better movies a month, says it ac- leases alone accounts for a
you factor in that the an- to the theaters, I don’t be- than most comedies this counts for 6 percent of all yawning $440 million gap.
year. domestic tickets. Last summer, the little-loved
But even Tom Cruise, de- Mid-summer, AMC trotted “Cars 3” grossed $152.9 mil-
spite all his powers, can out its own $20-a-month lion domestically; this year,
do only so much to tip subscription option, attract- “Incredibles 2,” the sum-
the overall box office. So ing 260,000 subscribers in its mer’s biggest smash, has
what’s behind the bounce first seven weeks. AMC on earned $590.3 million in
back? Thursday said that’s trans- North America.q

Backstreet Boys fans treated for

injuries after storm

Associated Press
THACKERVILLE, Okla. (AP)
— An Oklahoma casino
says 14 people suffered
cuts and bruises when a
powerful rainstorm top-
pled entrance trusses and
disrupted the start of an
outdoor concert by the
Backstreet Boys. Kym Koch-
Thompson, spokeswoman
for the WinStar World Ca-
sino and Resort, says the
concertgoers were treated
at the scene following Sat- In this June 6, 2018 file photo, Kevin Richardson, Howie Dorough,
urday’s storm, then taken Nick Carter, Brian Littrell, and AJ McLean of Backstreet Boys,
to hospitals in Oklahoma perform “Don’t go Breaking My Heart” in Nashville, Tenn.
and Texas. She says they Associated Press
were all treated for minor about 70 miles (110 kilome- concert was postponed. A
injuries and released. The ters) northwest of Dallas. new date hasn’t yet been
casino in Thackerville is Koch-Thompson says the set. q