An employee looks on at Saudi Aramco oil facility in Abqaiq, Saudi Arabia October 12, 2019.
Maxim Shemetov | Reuters
Saudi oil giant Aramco reported a stunning 90% surge in second quarter net income and record half year results on Sunday, as high oil prices continue to drive historic windfalls for “Big Oil.”
Aramco said strong market conditions helped to push its second quarter net income to $48.4 billion, up from $25.5 billion a year earlier. The result easily beat analysts estimates of $46.2 billion.
“Our record second-quarter results reflect increasing demand for our products — particularly as a low-cost producer with one of the lowest upstream carbon intensities in the industry,” Aramco President and CEO Amin Nasser said.
Aramco said half year net income soared to $87.9 billion, easily outpacing the largest listed oil majors, including Exxonmobil, Chevron and BP and other “Big Oil” companies, which are all benefiting from a commodity price boom.
Oil prices surged above $130 dollars a barrel earlier this year, as the global energy crisis, made worse by supply disruptions stemming from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, roiled global markets and contributed to decades high inflation.
“While global market volatility and economic uncertainty remain, events during the first half of this year support our view that ongoing investment in our industry is essential — both to help ensure markets remain well supplied and to facilitate an orderly energy transition,” Nasser added.
Aramco said it expects the post-pandemic recovery in oil demand to continue for the rest of the decade, despite what it called “downward economic pressures on short-term global forecasts.”
The blowout results are also a major windfall for the Saudi Arabian government, which relies heavily on its Aramco dividend to fund government expenditure. The Kingdom reported a $21 billion budget surplus in the second quarter.
Aramco said it would maintain its dividend payout of $18.8 billion in the third quarter, covered by a 53% increase in free cash flow to $34.6 billion.
Major gains
Aramco is using its major gains to invest in its own production capabilities in both hydrocarbons and renewables, while also paying down debt.
“We are progressing the largest capital program in our history, and our approach is to invest in the reliable energy and petrochemicals that the world needs, while developing lower-carbon solutions that can contribute to the broader energy transition,” the company said.
Saudi Arabia, alongside its OPEC+ counterparts, has been under increasing pressure to boost oil output to ease high prices. Company executives said limited global spare production capacity was a major concern for the global pricing outlook.
Aramco said it achieved total hydrocarbon production of 13.6 million barrels of oil equivalent per day in the second quarter, and was working to boost capacity from 12 million barrels of oil per day to 13 million barrels of oil per day by 2027.
The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, along the banks of the Dnipro River, is occupied by Russian forces.Credit…David Guttenfelder for The New York Times
ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine — Artillery fire resumed on Sunday from the direction of a nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, with shells streaking into a town from which the Ukrainian army has been unable to return fire, for fear of causing a meltdown or releasing radiation at the plant.
Hours before the barrages, there were reports that conditions were unraveling in and near the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. The flight of civilians from the area accelerated on Saturday.
The plant is the first active nuclear power plant in a combat zone. The United States and European Union have called for the formation of a demilitarized zone, as the fighting in and around the plant and its active reactors and stored nuclear waste has sparked particular worry.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, said in his nightly address on Saturday that Russia had resorted to “nuclear blackmail” at the plant, reiterating a Ukrainian analysis that Moscow was using it to slow a Ukrainian counteroffensive toward the Russian-occupied city of Kherson, where Russian conventional military defenses appear increasingly wobbly.
Contrary to the fears of some analysts when Moscow launched its invasion in February, the more urgent nuclear threat in the Ukraine war now appears to be Russia damaging the civilian plant, rather than deploying its own nuclear weapons. Russia says it’s Ukrainian forces who are shelling the plant.
Engineers say that yard-thick reinforced concrete containment structures protect the reactors from even direct hits. International concern, however, has grown that shelling could spark a fire or cause other damage that would lead to a nuclear accident.
The six pressurized water reactors at the complex retain most sources of radiation, reducing risks. After pressurized water reactors failed at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan in 2011, Ukraine upgraded the Zaporizhzhia site to enable a shutdown even after the loss of cooling water from outside the containment structures, Dmytro Gortenko, a former plant engineer, said in an interview.
Ukraine’s military intelligence agency said that on Saturday, Russian artillery fire hit a pump, damaged a fire station and sparked fires near the plant that could not be immediately extinguished because of the damage to the fire station.
In fields near the Russian-controlled town of Enerhodar, close to the plant, long lines of cars carrying fleeing civilians formed on Saturday, according to social media posts and another former engineer at the plant who has remained in touch with local residents.
“Locals are abandoning the town,” said the former engineer, who asked to be identified by only his first name, Oleksiy, because of security concerns. Residents had been leaving for weeks, but the pace picked up after Saturday’s barrages and fires, he said.
Since Russia captured the plant in March, its army has controlled the facility, while Ukrainian engineers have continued to operate it.
Ukrainian employees are not fleeing but sending their families away, said Oleksiy, who left in June. Enerhodar was built for plant employees in the Soviet period and had a prewar population of about 50,000.
Ukraine has accused Russia of staging artillery attacks targeting Ukrainian towns across the Dnipro River from the plant starting in July, as Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the south ramped up.
Overnight into Sunday morning, Russian howitzers fired on the Ukrainian town of Nikopol, which lies across a reservoir from the power plant, Yevheny Yetushenko, the Ukrainian military governor of the town, said in a post on Telegram.
The Ukrainian military has said it has few options for firing back. In July, it used a self-destructing drone to strike a Russian rocket artillery launcher that sat about 150 yards from one of the plant’s reactors.
On 8 August, 2021, 192 laser beams pumped vastly more power than the entire US electric grid into a small gold capsule and ignited, for a faction of a second, the same thermonuclear fire that powers the Sun.
The experiment in fusion power, conducted by the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, is explored in detail in three new papers — one published in Physical Review Lettersand twopapers published in Physical Review E — that argue the researchers achieved “ignition,” a crucial step proving that controlled nuclear fusion is achievable. But definitions of what constitutes “ignition” vary, and however defined, the results of 2021 are still very far away from a practical fusion reactor, despite producing a very large amount of energy.
Nuclear fusion involves the fusion of two elements, typically isotopes of hydrogen, into the heavier element helium. It releases tremendous amounts of energy in the process, which is the process that powers stars like the Sun.
A fusion power plant would produce abundant energy using only hydrogen from water as fuel, and producing helium as waste, without the risk of meltdowns or radiation. This is in contrast with nuclear fission, the type of reaction in contemporary nuclear power plants, which splits the nuclei of heavy elements like uranium to produce energy.
While fusion reactions take place in the Sun, and uncontrolled fusion takes place in thermonuclear weapon explosions, controlling a sustained fusion reaction for generating power has eluded nuclear engineers for decades. Experiments of varied design have managed to produce fusion reactions for very small amounts of time, but never have they reached “ignition,” the point where the energy released from a fusion reaction is greater than the amount of energy required to generate and maintain that reaction.
The team at the National Ignition Facility and authors of one of the three new papers, the one published in the journal Physical Review Letters, argue that “ignition is a state where the fusion plasma can begin ‘burn propagation’ into surrounding cold fuel, enabling the possibility of high energy gain.” That is, fusion began in cold hydrogen fuel and the reaction expanded to generate far more power than in previous experiments.
The 8 August 2021 experiment required 1.9 megajoules of energy in the form of ultraviolet lasers to instigate a fusion reaction in a small, frozen pellet of hydrogen isotopes, — an inertial confinement fusion reaction design — and released 1.3 megajoules of energy, or about 70% of the energy put into the experiment. The output, in other words, was more than a quadrillion watts of power, even if released for only a small fraction of a second.
“The record shot was a major scientific advance in fusion research, which establishes that fusion ignition in the lab is possible at NIF,” Omar Hurricane, chief scientist for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s inertial confinement fusion program, said in a statement. “Achieving the conditions needed for ignition has been a long-standing goal for all inertial confinement fusion research and opens access to a new experimental regime where alpha-particle self-heating outstrips all the cooling mechanisms in the fusion plasma.”
Subsequent attempts to replicate the experiment have produced far less output energy, most in the 400 to 700 kilojoules range, leading some researchers to suggest that the experimental design of the National Ignition Facility is a technical dead-end, according to reporting by the news department at the journal Nature.
“I think they should call it a success and stop,” physicist and former US Naval Research Laboratory laser fusion researcher Stephen Bodner told Nature.
The National Ignition Facility cost $3.5 billion, more than $2 billion more than expected, and is behind schedule, with researchers initially targeting 2012 as the deadline to prove ignition was possible using the design.
The new studies suggest that researchers are willing to keep exploring what the National Ignition Facility is capable of, especially because unlike other fusion researchers, the researchers at the facility are not primarily focused on developing fusion power plants, but better understanding thermonuclear weapons.
“We’re operating in a regime that no researchers have accessed since the end of nuclear testing,” Dr Hurricane said. “It’s an incredible opportunity to expand our knowledge as we continue to make progress.”
Anne Heche’s ex-husband Coley Laffoon said their son Homer, 20, is “strong” and will be “OK” in an emotional message after her death on Friday.
“I loved her and I miss her and I’m always going to,” Laffoon said in a video posted to Instagram. “Homer is OK. He’s grieving, of course. It’s rough, it’s really rough as probably anybody can imagine. But he’s surrounded by family and he’s strong and he’s going to be OK.”
Laffoon thanked those who had checked in to see how he and Homer were doing amid Heche’s hospitalization following a fiery car crash in Los Angeles on Aug. 5 and her death on Friday.
“Your check-in, showing us your heart, offering prayers and everything, so beautiful, thank you,” Laffoon said. “It’s hard for me, it’s hard for my family, it’s hard for Homer. But we’ve got each other and we have a lot of support and we’re going to be OK.”
ANNE HECHE’S SON PAYS TRIBUTE AFTER MOTHER’S DEATH: ‘HOPEFULLY MY MOM IS FREE FROM PAIN’
WEST HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA – NOVEMBER 19: Anne Heche and Homer Laffoon attend the celebration launch of Christian Siriano’s new book ‘Dresses to Dream About’ at The London West Hollywood at Beverly Hills on November 19, 2021 in West Hollywood, California. (Photo by Rachel Murray/Getty Images for Christian Siriano) (Photo by Rachel Murray/Getty Images for Christian Siriano)
Laffoon and Heche were married from 2001-2009.
The “Six Days, Seven Nights” actress was hospitalized in a coma a week ago after she crashed her car into a home in the Mar Vista neighborhood of Los Angeles last Friday. She was suspected of driving under the influence.
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Heche suffered a “severe” brain injury following the crash and was declared brain-dead on Friday.
“Anne is probably – I’d like to think she is free from pain and enjoying or experiencing whatever’s next in her journey,” Laffoon continued. “She came in hot and she had a lot to say.”
Actress Anne Heche, her husband Coley Laffoon and baby Homer wait for a car at 59th Street and 5th Avenue December 13, 2002 in New York City. (Photo by Arnaldo Magnani/Getty Images)
He continued while holding back tears, “She was brave and fearless and loved really hard and was never afraid to let us know what she thinks and what she believed in, and it was always love. It was all about love. So, goodbye, Anne. Love you. Thank you. Thank you for all the good times. There were so many. And see you on the other side. In the meantime, I’ve got our son. He’ll be fine. Love you.”
ANNE HECHE DEAD AT 53
Homer Laffoon is Heche’s oldest son.
Actress Anne Heche with sons Atlas, middle, and Homer, right, attend Disney On Ice Presents Let’s Celebrate! at Staples Center on December 11, 2014 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Ari Perilstein/Getty Images for Feld Entertainment)
She also has a son, Atlas, 13, with actor James Tupper, whom she was with from 2007 to 2018.
Homer paid tribute to his mom on Friday. “My brother Atlas and I lost our Mom. After six days of almost unbelievable emotional swings, I am left with a deep, wordless sadness. Hopefully my mom is free from pain and beginning to explore what I like to imagine as her eternal freedom,” Homer said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
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“Over those six days, thousands of friends, family, and fans made their hearts known to me. I am grateful for their love, as I am for the support of my Dad, Coley, and my stepmom Alexi who continue to be my rock during this time. Rest In Peace Mom, I love you, Homer,” the statement concluded.
Stock investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, dubbed India’s Warren Buffett with an estimated net worth of $6 billion, died early on Sunday at age 62, his family said.
A chartered accountant by profession from the desert state of Rajasthan, Jhunjhunwala started dabbling in stocks while in college and went on to manage a stock trading firm, RARE Enterprises.
“Rakesh-ji passed away surrounded by his family and close aides,” a family member told Reuters, using a term for respect.
The cause of death was not immediately announced.
The promoter of India’s newest airline, the ultra low-cost Akasa Air, Jhunjhunwala appeared days ago at its public launch. He is survived by his wife and three children.
An ambulance leaves the Breach Candy hospital carrying Rakesh Jhunjhunwala in Mumbai on August 14, 2022. AFP via Getty Images
Jhunjhunwala’s excellent communication skills helped small investors understand the stock market, said businessmen and bankers based in India’s financial capital, Mumbai, who had interacted with him for over 30 years. His insights on the economy and companies made him a popular TV celebrity.
Jhunjhunwala’s bets include a number of companies run by Tata Group, one of India’s largest conglomerates. These include Tata Motors, watchmaker Titan, Tata Communications and Indian Hotels Co, which runs the Taj hotels.
Other investments include Indiabulls Housing Finance, Star Health Insurance and Federal Bank.
Media cameras are seen outside the Breach Candy hospital where Rakesh Jhunjhunwala was admitted in Mumbai on August 14, 2022. AFP via Getty Images
Major politicians and business leaders mourned his death on social media.
“Rakesh Jhunjhunwala was indomitable,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote on Twitter.
“Full of life, witty and insightful, he leaves behind an indelible contribution to the financial world. He was also very passionate about India’s progress. His passing away is saddening. My condolences to his family and admirers.”
Modi ended with “Om Shanti”, an invocation of peace.
Uday Kotak, the chief executive of Kotak Mahindra and a friend from school days, said Jhunjhunwala had “believed stock India was undervalued” and that he was right.
“Amazingly sharp in understanding financial markets,” Kotak tweeted. “We spoke regularly, more so during COVID. Will miss you Rakesh!”
Russians threatening Zaporizhzhia are “special targets”
G7 nations call on Moscow to withdraw troops from plant
Fear of nuclear catastrophe unless fighting stops
Russia warns it may cut bilateral ties with United States
More grain ships depart Ukraine
KYIV, Aug 14 (Reuters) – Ukraine is targeting Russian soldiers who shoot at Europe’s largest nuclear power station or use it as a base to shoot from, as G7 nations, fearing a nuclear catastrophe, called on Moscow to withdraw its forces from the plant.
Ukraine and Russia have traded accusations over multiple incidents of shelling at the Zaporizhzhia facility in southern Ukraine. Russian troops captured the station early in the war.
“Every Russian soldier who either shoots at the plant, or shoots using the plant as cover, must understand that he becomes a special target for our intelligence agents, for our special services, for our army,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in an evening address on Saturday.
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Zelenskiy, who did not give any details, repeated claims that Russia was using the plant as nuclear blackmail.
The plant dominates the south bank of a vast reservoir on the Dnipro river. Ukrainian forces controlling the towns and cities on the opposite bank have come under intense bombardment from the Russian-held side. read more
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak accused Russia of “hitting the part of the nuclear power plant where the energy that powers the south of Ukraine is generated.”
“The goal is to disconnect us from the (plant) and blame the Ukrainian army for this,” Podolyak wrote on Twitter.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, which is seeking to inspect the plant, has warned of a nuclear disaster unless fighting stops. Nuclear experts fear fighting might damage the plant’s spent fuel pools or the reactors.
United Nations chief Antonio Guterres has called for the establishment of a demilitarised zone around the Zaporizhzhia facility, which is still being run by Ukrainian technicians.
Kyiv has said for weeks it is planning a counteroffensive to recapture Zaporizhzhia and neighbouring Kherson provinces, the largest part of the territory Russia seized after its Feb. 24 invasion and still in Russian hands.
Russian and Ukrainian forces earlier fought for control of Chornobyl, the still-radioactive site of the world’s worst nuclear accident, also raising fears of a disaster.
RUSSIA STRENGTEHEN SOUTHERN FORCES
Russia’s priority over the past week has likely been to reorient units to strengthen its campaign in southern Ukraine, British military intelligence said on Sunday.
Russian-backed forces of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic in the eastern region of Donbas continued assaults to the north of Donetsk city, the British Defence Ministry said in its daily intelligence bulletin on Twitter.
Particularly heavy fighting has focussed on the village of Pisky, near the Donetsk airport, it said. Ukraine’s military command said on Saturday “fierce fighting” continued in Pisky, an eastern village over which Russia had earlier claimed full control. read more
Ukrainian servicemen prepare a D-30 howitzer for fire near a frontline in Mykolaiv region, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, Ukraine August 13, 2022. REUTERS/Oleksandr Ratushniak
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The British military said the Russian assault likely aims to secure the M04 highway, the main approach to Donetsk from the west.
UKRAINE GRAIN SHIPS
Two more ships carrying grain left Ukraine’s Black Sea ports on Saturday, Turkey’s defence ministry said, bringing to 16 the number of vessels to depart under a U.N.- and Turkey-brokered deal in late July aimed partly at easing a global food crisis.
Ukraine’s infrastructure ministry said on Saturday that 16 ships carrying 450,000 tonnes of agricultural products had departed from Ukrainian sea ports since early August under the deal, which ensured safe passage for vessels.
The U.N.-chartered ship MV Brave Commander will depart Ukraine for Africa in coming days after it finishes loading more than 23,0000 tons of wheat in the port of Pivdennyi, a U.N. official said. read more
The ship, bund for Ethiopia, will be the first humanitarian food aid cargo to Africa since the start of the war, amid fears the loss of Ukrainian grain supplies could lead to outbreaks of famine.
Zelenskiy said that in less than two weeks, Ukraine had managed to export the same amount of grain from three ports as it had done by road for all of July.
Ukraine hopes to increase its maritime exports to over 3 million tonnes of grain and other farm products per month in near future.
Ukraine and Russia are major grains exporters. The blockage of Ukrainian ports has trapped tens of millions of grain in the country, raising fears of severe food shortages and even outbreaks of famine in parts of the world. read more
DIPLOMATIC RIFT DEEPENS
Russia’s invasion, which it calls a “special military operation” to demilitarise and “denazify” its smaller neighbour, has pushed Moscow-Washington relations to a low point, with Russia warning it may sever ties.
The United States has led Ukraine’s Western allies in supplying it with weapons to defend itself and punitive sanctions against Moscow.
A senior Russian official on Friday said Moscow had told Washington that if the U.S. Senate passed a law singling out Russia as a “state sponsor of terrorism”, diplomatic ties would be badly damaged and could even be broken off.
On Saturday a senior Russian foreign ministry official warned that any seizure of Russian assets by the United States would completely destroy bilateral relations, TASS reported.
Alexander Darchiev, head of the ministry’s North American Department, was quoted as saying U.S. influence on Ukraine had increased to the degree that “Americans are increasingly becoming more and more a direct party in the conflict”.
The United States and Europe, wary of being dragged directly into the war, have refused Ukraine’s request to establish a no-fly zone to help it protect its skies from Russian missiles and warplanes.
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Reporting by Natalia Zinets in Kyiv and Reuters bureaux; Writing by Michael Perry; Editing by William Mallard
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
A closely followed crypto analyst is predicting a surge for a popular Ethereum (ETH) challenger while saying that Bitcoin (BTC) may have already printed this cycle’s low.
Pseudonymous analyst Cantering Clark tells his 142,300 Twitter followers that smart contract platform Solana (SOL) is gearing up for a move that could trigger a strong rally from current prices.
“Just look at the chart. SOL looks like it is consolidating against resistance and compressing to fly… This daily [chart] looks good, and we haven’t seen nearly as much mean reversion as I would expect. SOL.”
Source: Cantering Clark/Twitter
Looking at the analyst’s charts, it appears that the next major resistance for Solana is around $75. At time of writing, SOL is swapping hands for $46.98, indicating a nearly 60% upside potential for the Ethereum competitor, according to Cantering Clark.
As for Bitcoin, the trader posits that BTC revisiting its 2017 bull market high around $20,000 and holding it as support on the weekly timeframe could be a fitting bottom signal.
“Crowds, is it possible that Bitcoin really was this simple?
Everyone talking about a drawdown that should match prior drawdowns but disregarding the fact that the recent bull market was less intense than priors.
We kind of did revert to a good historical mean regardless.”
Source: Cantering Clark/Twitter
Cantering Clark points out that during the 2017 bull market, Bitcoin rallied by over 11,000% from the bottom. Meanwhile, the 2021 bull market saw Bitcoin posting gains of less than 2,000%.
“Eyes having issues?”
Source: Cantering Clark/Twitter
The crypto analyst also warns traders who are planning to short sell Bitcoin due to its relative underperformance over the past weeks.
“Bitcoin is being very dull and giving the impression of weakness.
‘Never short a dull market.’
This kind of reminds me of 2020 structure off March lows.”
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The Yooka-Laylee developer and publisher Playtonic Games has issued a warning via social media about a new scam currently doing the rounds – linked to a game it’s publishing.
It seems “someone” is offering a beta test opportunity for MegaWobble’s Lil Gator Game. scheduled to be released on the Nintendo Switch and multiple other platforms this year. Apparently, it’s actually a scam.
Here’s the full rundown from Playtonic, advising players not to click any links provided in scam messages:
“It has come to our attention that someone is offering beta testing for Lil Gator Game. We can confirm this is a SCAM and not from Playtonic or @LilGatorGame. If we were offering this to our communities we would announce it on our Twitter and not via any other channels.
“Please do NOT click the links provided in the scam message! If you receive any suspicious messages claiming to be from Playtonic please let us know. Stay safe everyone”
In Lil Gator Game, players will embark on an “adorable” adventure – discover new friends and uncover everything an island has to offer as they climb, swim, glide and slide about. You can learn about this game in our original story:
Be on the lookout for a Lil Gator release date announcement in the near future.
Television actress Denise Dowse died at age 64 following a battle with viral meningitis, family said Saturday.
Tributes poured in for the “Beverly Hills, 90210” and “Insecure” actor after her death was announced by her sister Tracey on Instagram.
“I want to take this moment to thank our friends and family for all of the love and prayers,” she wrote. “It is with a very heavy heart that I inform everyone that my sister, Denise Dowse, has gone forward to meet our family in eternal life,” Tracey wrote.
“Denise Yvonne Dowse was the most amazing sister, a consummate, illustrious actress, mentor and director. She was my very best friend and final family member. Denise loved all of you. I know that she is watching over us with all the love she has.”
Her passing was initially reported by TV Line.
Dowse had been in a coma for at least a week after suffering inflammation in the protective membranes that surrounded her brain and spinal cord.
Dowse at the tribute concert for the late legendary Ray Charles on October 22, 2004.Paul Mounce/Corbis via Getty Images
Ian Ziering, who played student to Dowse’s West Beverly Hills High vice principal Yvonne Teasley on “90210,” remembered her as a great actor and “loving soul.”
“So heartbreaking to say Denise Dowse has passed away. Throughout all my years working on Beverly Hills 90210, my scenes with Denise will alwars [sic] be remembered with the utmost in respect for her talent, and fondness for the loving soul she was.
“Some of my heartiest off camera laughs were between she and I hammering out the the [sic] discipline her Mrs. Teasley would dish out to my Steve Sanders. My sincere condolences to her family, and all others who she was dear to. God bless you Denise, pay forward that Legacy Key A,” he wrote on Instagram.
Dowse at the 26th Annual NAACP Theatre Awards on November 21, 2016.Leon Bennett/Getty Images
Dowse was frequently seen on network TV in the 90s, with credits on shows like “Grey’s Anatomy,” “The X-Files,” “Criminal Minds,” “Bones,” “House,” “Monk,” “Law & Order,” “Gilmore Girls,” “Charmed,” “The Bernie Mac Show,” “Nip/Tuck,” “Moesha,” “Sister, Sister,” “ER,” “Step by Step,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Seinfeld” and “Full House” — among others.
Tracey told Page Six her sister was most proud of “Remember Me: The Mahalia Jackson Story,” a picture she recently directed that premiered at the 2022 Pan African Film Festival in April.
“She has won several best director awards at this year’s film festivals,” Tracey gushed.
SATURDAY PM: Sony’s Bullet Trainwill have a softer second weekend ease than expected at -56% with $13.3M at No 1 in a low wattage August frame that is around $64M for all movies, -2% off of the same weekend a year ago. Even worse, this is the lowest grossing weekend of summer 2022 so far. The May 20-22 frame, when Downton Abbey opened to $16M, repped the previous weekend low of this summer with all titles grossing $75.6M.
That’s not great when you consider how this summer’s weekend-to-weekend box office has rallied over last year’s. But, again, that’s not because nobody wants to go to the movies. It’s because there isn’t a movie that’s intriguing enough which merits a trip to the cinema.
A24/Stage 6 Films
A24 opted to go wider, but not super wide on Bodies Bodies Bodieswhich has a lower Rotten Tomatoes audience score at 78% and only 3 stars/63% on CinemaScore/Screen Engine’s PostTrak. That indicates another divide by the studio between moviegoers and critics (90% certified fresh) who love this horror social satire. The Pete Davidson title still has a shot at $3M for the weekend at 1,285 theaters after a $960K Saturday that’s 27% down from Friday’s $1.3M. The guy skewing R-rated movie at 52% men, and 78% between 18-34 played best in the cities, i.e. LA, NY, San Francisco, Chicago, Dallas, Austin, DC, Boston and Seattle and fared quite well in the Alamo Drafthouses which notched seven of the pic’s top ten runs. Diversity demos were 48% Caucasian, 23% Latino and Hispanic, 13% Black, and 16% Asian/other.
Lionsgate
While Lionsgate did have something to offer to exhibition during this theatrical dry period, they didn’t go wide on their YA title Fall, which actually did earn a B CinemaScore, but lower PostTrak at 69% positive and a 44% recommend. Those who showed up for Fall were 53% guys 56% between 18-34. The pic’s most notable business was in the South and West but didn’t wow with less than 100 theatres of its 1,548 run cracking $1K on Friday. Saturday grossed $835K, -10% from Friday’s $923K, in what looks like a $2.3M opening. The pic is vying for No. 10 with Universal’s second weekend of Jo Koy’s Amblin family comedy, Easter Sunday.
Paramount has the Hindi Forrest Gump remake Laal Singh Chaddha from Advait Chandan Booked at 516 theaters in 154 markets, the pic has good numbers in Toronto, Vancouver, and some solid figures in NYC, San Francisco, Houston and Seattle. $580K on Saturday, +33% over Friday’s $435K, will get this movie to a $1.47M weekend and $1.8M over 5-days. Twenty five reviews on Rotten Tomatoes are so-so at 60% fresh.
Universal’s Imax re-release of E.T.is seeing $310K on Saturday, -37% from Friday’s $490K for a $1M take over FSS.
Gravitas Ventures’ Diane Keaton-Taylour Paige comedy,Mack & Rita, didn’t impress with a D+ CinemaScore and 61% PostTrak and low 46% recommend. Pic made $370K on Saturday for a $988K opening at 2,000 theaters. Those who dared to spend very little money were in the West and Southeast.
Typically mid-August is a prime place to launch a horror movie that carries the domestic box office over into the fall, i.e. Don’t Breathe ($89.2M) or Annabelle Creation ($102M). Perhaps Universal’s campy Idris Elba lion hunt movie, Beast, does the trick next weekend.
FRIDAY PM: Those cricket noises you’re hearing are the sounds of the summer box office slowing down.
Sony’s No. 1 movie from a week ago, David Leitch’s Bullet Train, will hold the top spot again this weekend in a session that technically doesn’t have any uber-wide releases backed by a multimillion-dollar major studio campaign spend. The Brad Pitt action title is looking at $12.6 million for the frame, off 58% week over week, after a $3.75M Friday at 4,357 theaters.
The pic by the end of the weekend is eyeing $53.6M through 10 days, with some rival distributors believing it has a shot at $100M by the end of its run, and that it might even hold better than what we’re seeing here this weekend.
Pete Davidson in “Bodies Bodies Bodies” A24
A24 is going wide with their Pete Davidson horror comedy Bodies Bodies Bodies, but not super wide as it stokes word of mouth; it stands at 85% on Rotten Tomatoes’ audience score with a 90% certified fresh rating. The millennial meltdown movie is eyeing $1.3M today at 1,275 venues for a second weekend of $3M in what looks like a sixth-place rank, +1,224% from last weekend and good for a 10-day total of $3.3M. (A24’s Everything Everywhere All at Once in the spring expanded to around 1,200 runs in its third weekend, grossing $6M after a first weekend in 10 theaters and a second in 38 locations.)
Lionsgate has the Scott Mann-directed YA movie Fall on 1,548 theaters. It’s an experimental release for the studio: a pic not exactly prime for streaming but that tested well with audiences and intended for a big-screen release. The thriller is currently at 71% among critics on Rotten Tomatoes with an 84% audience score.
Lionsgate’s “Fall” Lionsgate
Logline: For best friends Becky (Grace Caroline Currey) and Hunter (Virginia Gardner), life is all about conquering fears and pushing limits. But after they climb 2,000 feet to the top of a remote, abandoned radio tower, they find themselves stranded with no way down. Now their expert climbing skills will be put to the ultimate test as they desperately fight to survive the elements, a lack of supplies, and vertigo-inducing heights. No m.g. on the movie from the producers of 47 Meters Down franchise (Jamie Harris and Mark Lane) and a low $4M P&A spend on a 46-day window; a title for exhibition in what is the start of a 2 1/2-month desert on the marquee. Fall is looking like $800,000 today and anywhere between $1.75M-$2M on the lower end of the top 10 chart.
RelishMix noticed on social media that the buzz for Fall “runs mixed-leaning positive as fans are wondering the extent and the complexity of the storyline — or if it’s a one note, with a predictable outcome. Fans are very intrigued with the outrageous visual hook of the trailers, while some are questioning the CGI. Chatter is onboard the reminder that “Fall drops into theatres on August 12th.” RelishMix also noticed, “On an 8 week digital ramp-up for Fall since the first trailer drop, the studio has 5 videos which have clocked moderate counts and moderate viral reposting. Page engagement on Facebook and Instagram for the show are also on the light side for the genre.”
Universal has the exclusive Imax 40th anniversary re-issue of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial which is seeing $430,000 today at 389 auditoriums for a $1M three-day and $438.2M running total. The pic’s 20th anniversary release in 2002 racked up $35.3M domestic, $69M worldwide. It’s the first time the Steven Spielberg-directed movie is being presented in Imax. Jaws is also hitting Imax and RealD on September 2
“Mack & Rita” Gravitas Premiere
All the way down the chart is Gravitas Ventures’ femme comedy Mack & Rita starring Taylour Paige, Diane Keaton and Elizabeth Lail with an estimated $300K today, and three-day of $865K. Thirty-nine critics on Rotten Tomatoes are at 26% Rotten, with audiences not wowed at 46%. “Awareness tracks light on social networks with few materials in rotation and light engagement momentum across Facebook, Instagram and YouTube,” observes RelishMix, which indicates social media chatter saying “been there, done that” as the pic looks like Big and 13 Going on 30.
In the movie, a 30-year-old self-proclaimed homebody Mack Martin (Lail) reluctantly joins a Palm Springs bachelorette trip for her best friend Carla (Paige), and her inner 70-year-old is released — literally. The frustrated writer and influencer magically transforms into her future self: Aunt Rita (Keaton). Freed from the constraints of other people’s expectations, Rita comes into her own, becoming an unlikely social media sensation, sparking a tentative romance with Mack’s adorable dog-sitter Jack (Dustin Milligan).
