- Helldivers 2 CEO says they’ll ‘never’ turn off friendly fire: ‘We would have to turn off bullet damage against enemies as well’ PC Gamer
- Helldivers 2 Can Never Have One Crucial Gameplay Element That Made Assassin’s Creed Famous: “They will detect you no matter if they can see you” FandomWire
- “This will never change”: Johan Pilestedt Confirms What All Helldivers 2 Fans Wanted to Hear imdb
- Helldivers 2’s friendly fire “will never change,” because if it did the devs “would have to turn off bullet damage against enemies as well” Gamesradar
- As fans praise the “unbelievable” and silly physics, Helldivers 2 director explains it’s the result of “simulating everything and just accepting the outcome” Yahoo Entertainment
Tag Archives: bullet
Helldivers 2’s friendly fire “will never change,” because if it did the devs “would have to turn off bullet damage against enemies as well” – Gamesradar
- Helldivers 2’s friendly fire “will never change,” because if it did the devs “would have to turn off bullet damage against enemies as well” Gamesradar
- Helldivers 2 CEO says they’ll ‘never’ turn off friendly fire: ‘We would have to turn off bullet damage against enemies as well’ PC Gamer
- Helldivers 2 Can Never Have One Crucial Gameplay Element That Made Assassin’s Creed Famous: “They will detect you no matter if they can see you” FandomWire
- “This will never change”: Johan Pilestedt Confirms What All Helldivers 2 Fans Wanted to Hear imdb
- As fans praise the “unbelievable” and silly physics, Helldivers 2 director explains it’s the result of “simulating everything and just accepting the outcome” Yahoo Entertainment
Jam Master Jay’s final moments revealed at murder trial: Run DMC rapper grabbed bullet wound in his head after – Daily Mail
- Jam Master Jay’s final moments revealed at murder trial: Run DMC rapper grabbed bullet wound in his head after Daily Mail
- Accused killer of Run-DMC’s Jam Master Jay can’t have his lyrics used against him, judge rules USA TODAY
- Witness to Run-DMC member Jam Master Jay’s shooting death points out accused killer in court: ‘Couldn’t believe what I saw’ New York Post
- Jam Master Jay Trial Opens Two Decades After Run-DMC DJ’s Killing Rolling Stone
- Run-DMC star Jam Master Jay slain by childhood friend, godson, jury hears Yahoo News
Israeli-American teenager who was shot in a Hamas attack that killed his parents tells CNN he will keep the bullet in memory of their lives – CNN
- Israeli-American teenager who was shot in a Hamas attack that killed his parents tells CNN he will keep the bullet in memory of their lives CNN
- Father describes learning of daughter’s death in Israel 11Alive
- His parents shielded him from gunfire as Hamas attacked. He survived. They did not The Times of Israel
- Father admits relief that his young daughter was killed by Hamas instead of being a hostage in Gaza The Telegraph
- Parents killed in front of their Israeli-American son during Hamas attack: ‘My mom died on top of me’ KABC-TV
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Virginia teacher Abigail Zwerner shot by 6-year-old still has bullet lodged in her chest – New York Post
- Virginia teacher Abigail Zwerner shot by 6-year-old still has bullet lodged in her chest New York Post
- Teacher allegedly shot by 6-year-old can’t forget the look on student’s face, she tells NBC in first interview since the shooting CNN
- Elementary teacher shot by six-year-old student speaks out about challenges faced NBC News
- Newport News teacher shot by student discusses challenges in recovery Richmond Times-Dispatch
- Abigail Zwerner, Virginia teacher shot by a student, describes grueling recovery: “Some days I can’t get out of bed” Yahoo News
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Weight loss ‘magic bullet’ Wegovy approved by FDA for children as young as 12
The popular weight loss drug Wegovy is now available to children as young as 12.
Danish manufacturer Novo Nordisk announced that the Food and Drug Administration had extended the drug’s approval to include children. It had previously received regulatory approval for use in adults last year.
In clinical trials, teens aged 12 to 17 who took the weekly injection lost 14 percent of their body weight over 64 weeks. This nearly matches the trials for adults, where recipients lost 15 percent of their weight after 68 weeks.
Wegovy, and its sister drug Ozempic, have rocketed to popularity in 2022 because of their unprecedented success assisting in weight loss. Tech mogul Elon Musk credited it for his body transformation, and there are rumors Hollywood stars like Kim Kardashian also used it.
There are some concerns about the long-term effectiveness of Wegovy, though, with one recent study finding that users will put back on the lost weight if they stop using the drug.
The above shows changes in body mass index (BMI) among participants as a percentage. The dotted line, week 68, represents the end of the study. Afterwards, participants in both groups began to re-gain the weight that they lost
Above shows participants split by the proportion of their body weight that they lost. Overall, those who got the drug were more likely to lose weight
‘The prevalence of teen obesity in the U.S. continues to rise, affecting teens and their families. Now, more than ever, we need new options to support teens,’ Dr Aaron Kelly, a pediatric obesity expert at the University of Minnesota, said in a statement.
‘This FDA approval offers an additional tool to address this serious, chronic, progressive disease.’
The trial, which was run by the University of Minnesota, tested the weekly injection of 201 obese youngsters.
Two-thirds of them used Wegovy, while the remained were given weight loss counseling but no medication.
The teens started with an average weight of 235lbs. In the group the used Wegovy, an average of 33lbs were lost across the 16 month trial.
A third of teens that used the drug managed to lose at least one-fifth of their overall body weight.
The jab was found to be safe to use, but the most likely side effects were nausea and vomiting.
Participants were also monitored for three months after the study ended.
Both groups re-gained weight in this time, but it was most pronounced in the drug group.
Dosages for teens are the same size as they are for adults. Teens will start with a 0.25mg weekly injection that can be taken in the thigh or arm.
Every month the dosage size increases, before it reaches a maintenance dose of 2.4mg in the fourth month.
Most people access Wegovy via prescription and insurance will cover it in a majority of cases.
Some people who are not obese but attempt to use either drug will pay upwards of $1,000 out-of-pocket for it.
Getting your hands on it can be a challenge, though. Wegovy is currently in a shortage and Americans have not been able to start a new treatment course for well over a month now.
About one in five 12 to 15 year olds in the US are already classified as obese, a number that has grown after the Covid pandemic led to many spending long periods indoors
Its sister drug, Ozempic, has become an alternative. Both are manufactured by Novo and use the active ingredient semaglutide.
So many have turned to Ozempic, which has been approved to manage type 2 diabetes but can be effectively used off-label for weight loss, that it also faces shortages.
Semaglutide was originally developed to treat diabetes. It works by helping the pancreas release the right amount of insulin when blood-sugar levels are high.
But scientists found it also had the side-effect of reducing appetite leading to weight loss. When people eat food, cells in the intestine start releasing a hormone called glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1).
This travels to the hypothalamus — an almond-shaped structure in the center of the brain — activating this region to trigger feelings of fullness or saeity.
The mechanism tells the body to stop eating, but naturally only lasts for a few minutes. Semaglutide, on the other hand, keeps it active for days.
How Harold Edgerton’s ‘Bullet through Apple’ made time stand still
In Snap, we look at the power of a single photograph, chronicling stories about how both modern and historical images have been made.
Exploding with energy but perfectly still, Harold “Doc” Edgerton’s 1964 image of a .30-caliber bullet ripping through an apple showed an otherwise unseeable moment in captivating detail. The scene took on a serene, sculptural beauty as the disintegrating apple’s skin burst open against a deep blue backdrop.
The picture is widely viewed as a work of art. More importantly to its creator, however, it was also a feat of electrical engineering. The longtime Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor used it to illustrate a lecture, famously titled “How to make applesauce,” in which he explained the pioneering flash technology that helped him take the shot.
Edgerton, who died in 1990 aged 86, is considered the father of high-speed photography. Camera shutter speeds were too slow to capture a bullet flying at 2,800 feet per second, but his stroboscopic flashes — a precursor to modern-day strobe lights — created bursts of light so short that a well-timed photograph, taken in an otherwise dark room, made it appear as if time had stood still. The results were mesmerizing and, often, messy.
“We used to joke that that it took a third of a microsecond (one-millionth of a second) to take the picture — and all morning to clean up,” recalled his former student and teaching assistant, J. Kim Vandiver, on a video call from Massachusetts.
While early camera operators had experimented with pyrotechnic “flash powders” that combined metallic fuels and oxidizing agents to produce a short, bright chemical reaction, Nebraska-born Edgerton created a flash that was far shorter and easier to control. His breakthrough was more a matter of physics than chemistry: After he arrived at MIT in the 1920s, he developed a flashtube filled with xenon gas that, when subjected to high voltage, would cause electricity to jump between two electrodes for a fraction of a second.
By the time he fired the shutter for his now-famous apple photo, Edgerton had developed a microflash that used plain air rather than xenon. He had also produced decades’ worth of well-known images: hummingbirds in mid-flight, golf clubs hitting balls and even nuclear bomb blasts. (During World War II, Edgerton developed a special “rapatronic” — or rapid electronic — camera for the Atomic Energy Commission that could control the amount of light entering the camera during the explosions.)
Another of Edgerton’s famous photos, taken in 1957, shows the crown-like splash produced by milk droplets. Credit: Harold Edgerton/MIT; courtesy Palm Press
Yet, it was his 1960s bullet photos that proved some of this most memorable. According to Vandiver, who still works at MIT as a mechanical engineering professor, the challenge wasn’t producing a flash but setting the camera off at just the right time. Human reactions were too slow to take the photo manually, so Edgerton used the sound of the bullet itself as a trigger.
“There would be a microphone out of the picture, just down below,” Vandiver said. “So, when the shock wave from the bullet hit the microphone, the microphone tripped the flash and then you’d close the (shutter afterwards).”
Making of an icon
Over the years, Edgerton and his students took a rifle to objects including bananas, balloons and playing cards. For Vandiver, the reason why the apple — along with a 1957 image of a splashing milk droplet — became one of Edgerton’s defining photographs is, in part, its simplicity. “It catches your imagination… and you immediately understand what it is,” he said.
There was another factor at play: Edgerton’s artistic eye. The compositional beauty of his images saw them republished in newspapers and magazines around the world, and over 100 of his photos are held by the Smithsonian American Art Museum today. Yet Edgerton rejected the additional title.
“Don’t make me out to be an artist,” he has been quoted as saying. “I am an engineer. I am after the facts, only the facts.”
While Vandiver said “there’s definitely an artistic legacy” to Edgerton’s visual experiments, which advanced the field of photography, his research has greatly impacted science and industry, too. His hands-on approach lives on at MIT’s Edgerton Center, which was established in his honor in 1992. Vandiver, who serves as the center’s director, said every student is encouraged to take a bullet photograph of their own.
“We still teach the course, and students still think of weird things to take pictures of,” he said, recalling recent images of colored chalk and lipstick torn apart by bullets. “Apples are boring now.”
Silver bullet for cancer? Scientists use CRISPR to unlock patients’ true tumor-fighting potential
Scientists have tailored DNA-editing technology to turbocharge how the body fights cancer cells — in a potential breakthrough.
They modified patients’ genes to instruct cancer-fighting cells to swarm tumors using CRISPR, which is given as a one-off injection.
CRISPR has been previously used in humans to remove specific genes to allow the immune system to be more activated against cancer.
But the new study was able to not only take out specific genes, but insert new ones which program immune cells to fight the patient’s own specific cancer.
Dr Antoni Ribas, from the University of California, Los Angeles and co-leader of the study said: ‘This is a leap forward in developing a personalized treatment for cancer.’
Scientists at pharmaceutical company PACT Pharma used gene-editing technology to isolate and clone cancer patients’ immune cells and prime them to target mutations on cancer cells.
Researchers took blood and tumor samples from 16 patients with various forms of cancer including including colon, breast and lung.
They isolated the immune cells that had hundreds of mutations targeted specifically at the cancers plaguing their bodies.
These were modified to be able to target each patient’s specific tumor, which have hundreds of unique mutations.
One month after treatment, five of the participants experienced stable disease, meaning their tumors had not grown.
The CRISPR tool consists of two main actors: a guide RNA and a DNA-cutting enzyme. The guide RNA is a specific RNA sequence that recognizes the target piece of DNA to be edited and directs the enzyme, Cas9, to initiate the editing process.
Cas9 precisely cuts the target strands of DNA and removes a small piece, causing a gap in the DNA where a new piece of DNA can be added.
Scientists design the guide RNA to mirror the DNA of the gene to be edited, known as the target.
The guide RNA partners with the Cas9 enzyme and leads it to the target gene. When the guide RNA matches up with the target gene’s DNA, Cas9 splices off the DNA, shutting the targeted gene off.
Since the CRISPR technique has been around for about a decade and remains at the center of ambitious scientific projects.
Doctors are now exploring its application in treating rare diseases and genetic disorders such as sickle cell disease.
‘The generation of a personalized cell treatment for cancer would not have been feasible without the newly developed ability to use the CRISPR technique to replace the immune receptors in clinical-grade cell preparations in a single step,’ Dr Ribas added.
The findings give hope for 1.9 million Americans who will be diagnosed with some form of cancer this year.
Roughly 290,000 women and 2,700 men will be diagnosed with breast cancer, which makes it the most common cancer diagnosis.
Prostate cancer is the leading cancer diagnosis among men and the second most common diagnosis overall with about 269,000 expected cases this year.
Still, the technology is relatively new and poses some hefty ethical questions about its application for genetic remodeling.
Medicine has entered uncharted territory in which hereditary disabilities in an embryo could possibly be edited out.
Safety issues in gene editing technology research are not unheard of.
There is a risk of erroneously changing the DNA or RNA in regions other than the target site, which could result in unwanted side effects not just in the patient but in future generations.
A major scandal rocked the world in 2019 when Chinese scientist He Jiankui was imprisoned after modifying the DNA of twin girls Lulu and Nana before birth to make them resistant to HIV.
He’s work to manipulate the genes of human embryos was deemed ‘monstrous,’ ‘unethical,’ and ‘very dangerous’.
A group of over 100 scientists in China blasted He’s work in 2018: ‘Conducting direct human experiments can only be described as crazy.’
The group added, ‘Pandora’s box has been opened. We still might have a glimmer of hope to close it before it’s too late.’
In 2019, a group of scientists proposed a worldwide moratorium on human germline editing.
They wrote: ‘By ‘global moratorium’, we do not mean a permanent ban. Rather, we call for the establishment of an international framework in which nations, while retaining the right to make their own decisions, voluntarily commit to not approve any use of clinical germline editing unless certain conditions are met.’
PACT Pharma’s findings were published Thursday in the journal Nature.
WHO Reports Breakthrough Monkeypox Cases, Says Vaccines Are ‘Not a Silver Bullet’
Cynthia S. Goldsmith, Russell Regner/CDC via AP Monkeypox virions
The World Health Organization (WHO) has revealed there have been a number of breakthrough cases of monkeypox after preliminary reports detail the efficacy of the vaccine.
In a press briefing, Dr. Rosamund Lewis, WHO’s technical lead for monkeypox, discussed reports of breakthrough monkeypox cases in people who received a prophylaxis vaccine following exposure to the virus.
“We have known from the beginning that this vaccine would not be a silver bullet, that it would not meet all the expectations that are being put on it and that we don’t have firm efficacy data or effectiveness data in this context,” Lewis explained.
“The fact that we’re beginning to see some breakthrough cases is also really important information because it tells us that the vaccine is not 100% effective in any given circumstance, whether preventive or post-exposure,” she continued. “We cannot expect 100% effectiveness at the moment based on this emerging information.”
RELATED: Can Monkeypox Spread Through Objects like Doorknobs? An Expert Explains as U.S. Cases Surpass 6,500
RELATED: United States Confirms 9th Pediatric Case of Monkeypox as National Total Reaches 13,571
Monkeypox can be prevented with the Jynneos smallpox vaccine, which can also be effective after a person is infected, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Health officials noted that the efficacy data on the vaccine is not surprising because a study from the 1980s found that the shots could provide about 85% protection against monkeypox.
“What we’re seeing are breakthrough cases, which are not really surprises, but it reminds us that vaccine is not a silver bullet, that every person who feels that they are a risk, and appreciates their own level of risk, and wishes to lower their own level of risk have many interventions at their disposal, which includes vaccination where available but also protection from activities where they may be at risk,” Lewis said.
Monkeypox spreads primarily through skin-to-skin contact, direct contact with bodily fluids or lesions, and can also be transmitted by respiratory droplets. While the respiratory transmission may sound similar to COVID-19, monkeypox does not spread nearly as easily as the coronavirus.
The CDC states that individuals can protect themselves from the virus by avoiding skin-to-skin contact with people who have a rash that looks like monkeypox, avoiding contact with objects and materials that a person with monkeypox has used, and washing hands often.
As of Friday, there are 41,358 confirmed global cases of monkeypox across 94 countries, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The United States counts more infections from the virus than any other country in the world with 14,115.
‘Bullet Train’ No. 1 Again; Pete Davidson’s ‘Bodies Bodies Bodies’ Wide – Deadline
SATURDAY PM: Sony’s Bullet Train will 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 opted to go wider, but not super wide on Bodies Bodies Bodies which 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.
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.
Weekend estimates:
1.) Bullet Train 4,357 theaters, Fri $3.8M, Sat $5.5M, 3-day $13.3M (-56%)/Total $54.4M/Wk 2
2.) DC League of Super-Pets 3,803 (-529) theaters, Fri $1.955M, Sat $2.9M 3-day $6.8M (-38%)/Total $57.9M Wk 3
3.) Top Gun: Maverick (Par) 3,181 (+421) theaters, Fri $1.94M, Sat $2.8M, 3-day $6.7M (-4%), Total $673.3M/Wk 12
4. ) Nope (Uni) 2,760 (-256) theaters, Fri $1.56M, Sat $2.2M/3-day $5.3M (-38%)/Total $107.5M/Wk 4
5.) Thor: Love and Thunder (Disney) 3,175 (-225) theaters, Fri. $1.4M, Sat $2.2M, 3-day $5.2M (-33%)/Total $325.2M/Wk 6
6.) Minions: Rise of Gru (Uni) 3,068 theaters (-120), Fri $1.37M, Sat $2.1M, 3-day $4.9M (-30%), Total: $343.7M/Wk 7
7.) Where the Crawdads Sings (Sony) 3,164 theaters (-362), Fri $1.2M, Sat $1.6M, 3-day $4M (-29%)/Total $72.1M/Wk 5
8.) Bodies Bodies Bodies (A24) 1,285 (+1,279) theaters, Fri $1.3M, Sat $960K, 3-day $3M (+1223%), Total $3.3M/Wk 2
9.) Elvis (WB) 2,211 (-200) Fri $740K, Sat $1M, 3-day $2.5M (-36%), Total $141.2M/wk 8
10.) Fall (LG) 1,548 theaters, Fri $923K, Sat $835K, 3-day $2.3M/Wk 1
10.) Easter Sunday (Uni/DW) 3,176 (+1) theaters, Fri $660K, Sat $900K , 3-day $2.3M (-58%)/Total $9.8M/Wk 2
Notables:
Laal Singh Chaddha (Par) 516 theaters, Fri $435K, Sat $580K, 3 day $1.47M, Total $1.8M/Wk 1
E.T. (Uni) 389 theaters, Fri $490K, Sat $310K, 3-day $1M/Total $483.2M/Wk 1 of re-release
Mack & Rita (Grav) 2,000 theaters, Fri $400k, Sat $370K, 3-day $988K/Wk 1
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.
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
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
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).