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Entertainment

‘Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile’ Sees $575K, ‘Amsterdam’ $550K on Thursday – Deadline

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FRIDAY MIDDAY UPDATE: Paramount has everything to be happy about heading into the weekend as their horror movie Smile is coming on strong with $3.85M today for what is now looking at a $13.1M second frame at 3,659 theaters, -42% – spectacular for a horror movie considering they typically drop 60% or more in weekend 2. This will put the 10-day gross of the Parker Finn-directed and -written genre title at $45.4M.

Everett

In second place as of right now is Sony’s Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile with $3.3M today and an expected $11M opening at 4,350 theaters. This fight between Lyle, Lyle and Smile boils down to Saturday (doesn’t it always?) and how many moms and kids come out for this feature take of the 1965 Bernard Waber book. Again, this type of family film has a cap age-wise — likely below 9 years of age in regards to those who want to see it, plus, while a classic title, it’s not as marquee as say Sony’s Peter Rabbit which opened to $25M back in 2018, or Weinstein Co’s Paddington which saw a near $19M start in 2015. Audience score on Rotten Tomatoes at 82% is higher than Peter Rabbit‘s (56%) and Paddington (80%).

And Amsterdam is going up in smoke. Friday’s estimated $2.5M includes last night’s previews putting the David O. Russell directed period comedy between $6.6M-$7.3M at 3,005 locations. No amount of star power in this movie including Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Chris Rock, Anya Taylor Joy, Rami Malek, Taylor Swift, etc. could save it. More deconstruction of this period 2-hour-and-15 minute arthouse comedy later. While it’s been customary for adult skewing movies to not necessarily breakeven as moviegoers have come back from the pandemic, this is a huge bomb for New Regency/20th Century Studios; even by pre-pandemic standards an $80M production cost on a movie of this type is uncalled for. Too much for absurdist comedy. Rotten Tomatoes audience score at 67% is currently higher than critics’ 34%, but even that isn’t good.

Weekend 4 of TriStar’s The Woman King at 3,342 theaters is seeing $1.3M today, -27%, and a 3-day of $5M, -26%, for a running total of $53.8M.

New Line’s third sesh of Don’t Worry Darling booked at 3,324 locations is eyeing a $1M Friday, -57% from a week ago, and 3-day of $3.35M, -51% for a running total of $38.3M.

FRIDAY AM UPDATE: Not exactly the flashiest of Thursday nights for previews as Sony’s feature take of the classic children’s book Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile saw $575K off showtimes that began at 3 p.m. in 3,453 locations, while New Regency/20th Century Studios/Disney’s Amsterdam baked $550K off previews that began at 6 p.m. in 3,005 locations.

Constance Wu stars as Mrs. Primm in LYLE, LYLE, CROCODILE.

Here’s the thing: Sometimes studios with family movies don’t even hold previews outside of summer. There were only 15% of K-12 schools out Thursday. Sony didn’t hold previews for the first Peter Rabbit, which debuted in February 2018, but held them for Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway, which did $900K on June 10 last year at 2,572 theaters. Lyle, Lyle‘s numbers are above that of another live-action/CGI hybrid based on a classic kids book, Paddington 2, which did $325K back in January 2018. Lyle, Lyle also is higher than the $175K cashed in from 8 p.m. showtimes of the first Paddington in January 2015.

RELATED: ‘Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile’ Review: Javier Bardem And Shawn Mendes Tune Up For The Year’s Best Singing Reptile Film

It all comes down to Saturday matinee business, and Sony is betting low on Lyle, Lyle at $11M-$12M, while industry estimates are much higher between $15M-$18M. Sony put the movie here because it’s the Indigenous Peoples’ Day holiday weekend, and 42% of all K-12 schools are off Monday per ComScore. Lyle, Lyle is 67% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

Disney was hoping that David O. Russell’s absurdist period comedy would do around $10M. It might be in the high single digits if business doesn’t pick up — and the movie has all the Imax screens. The pic’s previews are ahead of the R-rated Bob Odenkirk action movie Nobody, which did $410K on its Thursday in March 2021 before filing a $6.8M opening, and they’re below Michael Bay’s Ambulance, which saw $700K in its preview night before a $8.6M opening in April. Amsterdam is suffering from bad reviews at 35% on Rotten Tomatoes. Ouch, this is an $80M movie, twice as much as Russell’s American Hustle, which boasted the star power of Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Christian Bale, Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner.

RELATED: ‘Amsterdam’ Review: Christian Bale & All-Star Cast Light Up David O. Russell’s Timely Blend Of Fact And Fiction

Taylor Swift, who also stars in Amsterdam, is doing her part to get the Swifties out to see the film:

Sosie Bacon, left, and Jessie T. Usher in ‘Smile’

Paramount’s Smile had a rich week with weekday grosses averaging $2M+ at 3,645 theaters. Thursday was $2.1M, off 13% from Wednesday bringing the horror movie’s first week total to $32.29M, 21% off from the first week of Bullet Train, which did $41M in its first seven days. Yeah, odd comp, but it just goes to show you the power of Smile — the fact that it’s $8.7M off from a Brad Pitt action movie. Smile is expected to do around $11M in weekend 2.

RELATED: ‘Smile’ Review: Procedural Horror That Makes Trauma The Antagonist

New Line’s Don’t Worry Darling finished second on Thursday with $555K at 4,121 theaters, -13% from Wednesday, for a second week of $9.5M and running total of $34.97M.

TriStar’s The Woman King at 3,504 theaters did $506K, -17%, for a $9.1M third week and running total of $48.8M.

Popping into fourth place with a full-on opening Thursday at 886 sites was Damien Leone’s Terrifier 2, which did $403,9K. Logline for the Leone-penned movie: After being resurrected by a sinister entity, Art the Clown returns to the timid town of Miles County, where he targets a teenage girl and her younger brother on Halloween night. The sequel is being handled by Iconic Events Releasing.

Universal’s Billy Eichner comedy Bros did $380K at 3,350 theaters for 5th Thursday, and a $6.74M first week at 3,350 theaters.

RELATED: ‘Bros’: Billy Eichner Reacts To “Disappointing” Box Office Results & Shares He’s “Proud Of This Movie”



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Science

A new dinosaur discovered was a ‘huge’ 32-foot-long predator with a crocodile face, say scientists

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  • Remains of Europe’s largest-ever land-based dinosaur were discovered in England, scientists say.

  • The prehistoric bones belonged to a two-legged, crocodile-faced dinosaur.

  • University of Southampton paleontologists said the predator was 32ft long and lived 125 million years ago.

Dinosaur remains found off the south coast of England could be the largest land predator that ever roamed Europe, scientists say.

Paleontologists from the University of Southampton identified the prehistoric bones as belonging to a type of two-legged, crocodile-faced predatory dinosaur known as spinosaurids.

The carnivore would have measured more than 32 feet long and lived around 125 million years ago.

PhD student Chris Barker, who led the study, said it was a “huge animal” that probably weighed several tonnes.

“Judging from some of the dimensions, it appears to represent one of the largest predatory dinosaurs ever found in Europe – maybe even the biggest yet known,” Barker said.

“It’s a shame it’s only known from a small amount of material, but these are enough to show it was an immense creature.”

The bones, which were discovered on the Isle of Wight, include huge pelvic and tail vertebrae.

This Isle of Wight has been dubbed”dinosaur island” due to its being a rich repository of dinosaur remains. No fewer than 29 species have been recorded in its soft clays and sandstones that erode quickly, revealing the secrets of life on planet earth more than 100 million years ago.

The latest discovery has been nicknamed the “white rock spinosaurid” after the geological layer in which it was found. Researchers said that it hasn’t yet been given a formal scientific name.

The dinosaur would have lived at the beginning of a period of rising sea levels and would have stalked lagoonal waters and sandflats in search of food, scientists said.

Researchers previously said that spinosaurids’ unusual, crocodile-like skulls allowed them to hunt prey on both land and in water.

The team now hopes to strip thin sections of the material to scan the microscopic internal properties of the bones to shed light on the animal’s growth rate and possible age.

“Most of these amazing fossils were found by Nick Chase, one of Britain’s most skilled dinosaur hunters, who sadly died just before the COVID epidemic,” said co-author Jeremy Lockwood, a PhD student at the University of Portsmouth and Natural History Museum.

“I was searching for remains of this dinosaur with Nick and found a lump of the pelvis with tunnels bored into it, each about the size of my index finger. We think they were caused by bone-eating larvae of a type of scavenging beetle.

The discovery of the white rock spinosaurid follows earlier work on spinosaurids done by the same team, who last year published a study on the discovery of two new species.

“This new animal bolsters our previous argument – published last year – that spinosaurid dinosaurs originated and diversified in western Europe before becoming more widespread,”  co-author Darren Naish said.

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Science

93-Million-Year-Old “Killer” Crocodile Discovered With a Baby Dinosaur in Its Stomach

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By Australia’s Nuclear Science and Technology Organization (ANSTO)
February 16, 2022

 Nuclear techniques confirm rare finding that crocodile devoured a baby dinosaur. Credit: Dr. Matt White/Australian Age of Dinosaurs

  • Advanced nuclear and synchrotron imaging has confirmed that a 93-million-year-old crocodile found in Central Queensland devoured a juvenile dinosaur based on remains found in the fossilized stomach contents
  • The discovery of fossils was made by a team from the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum and the University of New England who carried out the investigation with ANSTO scientists
  • Neutron and synchrotron instruments penetrated rock to reveal and reconstruct the concealed fossilized contents

Advanced nuclear and synchrotron imaging has confirmed that a 93-million-year-old crocodile found in Central Queensland devoured a juvenile dinosaur based on remains found in the fossilized stomach contents.

The discovery of the fossils in 2010 was made by the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum (QLD) in association with the University of New England, who are publishing their research in the journal Godwana Research.

The research was carried out by a large team led by Dr Matt White of the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum and the University of New England.

The crocodile Confractosuchus sauroktonos, which translates as ‘the broken crocodile dinosaur killer’ was about 2 to 2.5 meters in length. ‘Broken’ refers to the fact that the crocodile was found in a massive, shattered boulder.

Early neutron imaging scans of one rock fragment from the boulder detected bones of the small chicken-sized juvenile dinosaur in the gut, an ornithopod that has not yet been formally identified by species.

Dr. Joseph Bevitt and Dr. Matt White with the sample on the Imaging and Medical beamline at ANSTO’s Australian Synchrotron. Credit: Australia’s Nuclear Science and Technology Organization (ANSTO)

Senior Instrument Scientist Dr. Joseph Bevitt explained that the dinosaur bones were entirely embedded within the dense ironstone rock and were serendipitously discovered when the sample was exposed to the penetrative power of neutrons at ANSTO.

Dingo, Australia’s only neutron imaging instrument, can be used to produce two and three-dimensional images of a solid object and reveal concealed features within it.

“In the initial scan in 2015, I spotted a buried bone in there that looked like a chicken bone with a hook on it and thought straight away that it was a dinosaur,” explained Dr. Bevitt.

“Human eyes had never seen it previously, as it was, and still is, totally encased in rock.”

The finding led to further, high-resolution scans using Dingo and the synchrotron X-ray Imaging and Medical Beamline over a number of years.

The unprepared rock samples containing the fossilised crocodile. Right: 3D images of the encased crocodile reconstructed with the Imaging and Medical Beamline, and inset, the stomach contents revealed using the Dingo neutron imaging instrument. Credit: Australia’s Nuclear Science and Technology Organization (ANSTO)

“3D digital scans from the Imaging and Medical Beamline guided the physical preparation of the crocodile, which was impossible without knowing precisely where the bones were,” said Dr. Bevitt.

Conversely, the fragile samples had to be carefully reduced to a size that synchrotron X-rays could penetrate for high-quality scanning.

“The results were outstanding in providing an entire picture of the crocodile and its last meal, a partially digested juvenile dinosaur.”

It is believed to be the first time a synchrotron beamline has been used in this way.

IMBL Instrument scientist Dr. Anton Maximenko assisted the investigative team to push up against the power limits and finetune the facility to successfully scan the large samples.

Dr. Bevitt explained that the team used the full intensity of the synchrotron X-ray beam to achieve the results on dense rock.

Together, Drs Bevitt and White did all the data processing and importantly, developed new software mechanisms for processing and merging all data sets of this fragmented crocodile. In this way, the crocodile was reconstructed as a digital, 3D jigsaw puzzle.

To confirm the dinosaur was actually in the gut of the crocodile, the team observed infilled worm tunnels, plant roots and geological features that extended between rock fragments.

“The chemistry of rock provided the evidence, said Dr Bevitt.

Investigators think it is likely that the crocodile was caught up in a megaflood event, was buried and died suddenly.

“The fossilized remains were found in a large boulder. Concretions often form when organic matter, or say a crocodile, sinks to the bottom of a river. Because the environment is rich in minerals, within days the mud around the organism can solidify and harden because the presence of bacteria,” explained Dr Bevitt.

The specimens are now on display at the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum, Winton.

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Science

Australia: Newly discovered crocodile species ate a young dinosaur for its last meal, scientists say

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The fossilized bones of a confractosuchus sauroktonos were excavated in 2010 from a sheep station near the Winton Formation, a geological rock bed that is about 95 million years old.

Inside the stomach of the 2.5 meter-long crocodile, scientists identified the partly digested remnants of a young ornithopod, according to a paper naming the new species published in the scientific journal Gondwana Research on February 11.

This is the first evidence of a crocodile preying on a dinosaur in Australia, the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum, which made the discovery, said in a statement.

The crocodile sample, which was initially preserved in a siltstone mass, had been partially crushed. However, the damage revealed a number of small bones from the skeleton of a small Cretaceous creature.

Scientists used X-ray and CT scanning technologies to locate the bones inside the crocodile specimen, as well as ten months of computer processing to produce a 3D reconstruction of the bones.

With 35% of the freshwater crocodile preserved, researchers were able to recover a near-complete skull of the animal. While they were unable to classify the young dinosaur inside its stomach, they described it as a juvenile weighing nearly 1.7 kilos.

The crocodile had killed the animal, or foraged it soon after its death, the press statement added.

Such a discovery is “extremely rare, as only a handful of examples of dinosaur predation are known globally,” the press statement said.

“While Confractosuchus would not have specialised in eating dinosaurs, it would not have overlooked an easy meal, such as the young ornithopod remains found in its stomach,” Dr Matt White, an associate at the museum who led the research, said in the press statement.

“It is likely dinosaurs constituted an important resource in the Cretaceous ecological food web.

“Given the lack of comparable global specimens, this prehistoric crocodile and its last meal will continue to provide clues to the relationships and behaviours of animals that inhabited Australia millions of years ago.”

The confractosuchus sauroktonos is the second crocodile that has been named from the Winton Formation. The rock bed has exposed numerous scientific discoveries in recent years, including a 96-million-year-old pterosaur in October 2019.

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Science

Scientists Finally Know How an Ancient Reptile Lived With Such an Absurdly Long Neck

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Make a crocodile out of taffy. Take its head and tug on it until its neck extends a good few meters from its body. If you squint, this could be what one odd-looking Triassic reptile called Tanystropheus looked like. More or less.

 

This animal’s assortment of ludicrously long fossilized neck bones has confused the heck out of paleontologists for nearly 170 years. By using CT scans to unpack the crushed skulls of the reptiles’ remains, researchers finally resolved some nagging questions surrounding this strange animal in August last year.

Specimens of Tanystropheus can reach more than 5 meters (16 feet) in length, with its tail making up roughly a third of its length, and its body maybe a quarter. The rest is all neck.

Tanystropheus sizes compared to a human. (Spiekman, et al., Current Biology, 2020)

“Tanystropheus looked like a stubby crocodile with a very, very long neck,” said palaeontologist Olivier Rieppel from Chicago’s Field Museum.

Why this reptile evolved such extended dimensions is a complete mystery. The fact nobody could figure out whether it preferred to be submerged in water or to lumber about on land only made it harder to settle on any conclusions.

Part of its oddness is the shape of the neck bones. Unlike those in a snake or lizard, the cervical vertebrae in Tanystropheus fossils are stretched out like a giraffe’s. In fact, when its remains were first uncovered in 1852, the scattered bones were assumed to be the elongated wing bones of a flying pterosaur.

 

Not all of the individuals we’ve unearthed are crocodile-sized, either. A number are far smaller, prompting palaeontologists to question whether some of the specimens in their archives belong to juveniles, or represent a completely different species.

This is a common problem in palaeontology – the diminutive fossil of a dwarf species can be almost identical to the immature bones of a youngster. Separating them requires looking for clues on whether the skeleton has yet to reach full size or still has some growing to do.

Thankfully, such clues can be found deep inside the fossils. Just as the rings inside a tree’s trunk present a record of their age, bones can do the same thing.

To find these, Rieppel and his colleagues used X-rays on an assortment of Tanystropheus skeletons, turning the scans into 3D models through high-resolution computerized tomography (CT) technology.

“The power of CT scanning allows us to see details that are otherwise impossible to observe in fossils,” said lead author Stephan Spiekman, an expert in Triassic reptile evolution at the University of Zurich.

 

The growth rings revealed the smaller Tanystropheus bodies did indeed belong to adults, making it fairly clear that what the researchers had on their hands were two separate species.

To distinguish them, the team named the bigger one T. hydroides, after the hydra in Greek mythology. Its smaller cousin kept the original species name of T. longobardicus.

Transforming the scans into digital models also provided the researchers with a way to rearrange the squashed bones into a clearer configuration, making it far easier to get a good look at all of the creature’s anatomy.

“From a strongly crushed skull we have been able to reconstruct an almost complete 3D skull, revealing crucial morphological details,” said Spiekman.

With all of its bone fragments in their proper place, it looks like Tanystropheus would be well at home in the water after all.

The reptile’s skull has its nostrils perched on top, much like a crocodile’s snout – just the thing for an ambush predator to keep a lung full of air while waiting for a meal to pass by.

(Spiekman et al., Current Biology, 2020)

What had been a jumbled pile of pointy teeth can also be seen forming a rather efficient trap for snatching a cephalopod, at least for the king-sized species.

“The small species likely fed on small shelled animals, like shrimp, in contrast to the fish and squid the large species ate,” said Spiekman.

“This is really remarkable, because we expected the bizarre neck of Tanystropheus to be specialized for a single task, like the neck of a giraffe. But actually, it allowed for several lifestyles. This completely changes the way we look at this animal.”

An illustration showing T. hydroides hunting. (Emma Finley-Jacob)

The fact that the two, very similar species had such different ways of using their long bodies made it much easier for them to exist in the same habitats, sharing their environment without competing for the same food sources.

We can almost imagine the animal’s squat, croc-like body lying against the floor of a shallow coastline some 242 million years ago, its head rising high up to the surface so its nostrils can siphon down air, its bristling mouth slightly agape in anticipation of a stray squid to stumble by.

As familiar as the scene feels, Tanystropheus is still one weird critter.

This research was published in Current Biology.

A version of this article was first published in August 2020.

 

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US

Florida veterinarians remove shoe from stomach of hungry crocodile

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University of Florida veterinarians surgically removed a shoe swallowed twice by the same hungry crocodile, the school said.

The 10.5-foot, 341-pound Nile crocodile, named Anuket, consumed the apparently tasty footwear in December when it fell off a zip liner at St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park, where the reptile resides, according the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine in Gainesville.

Witnesses spotted Anuket consuming the shoe, regurgitating it and then swallowing it again, the college said.

“If the shoe fits your fancy …. swallow it?” the school said in a Facebook posting. “Not a good idea!”

Garrett Fraess, zoo medicine resident at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine, reaches into the esophagus of Anuket, a gator, to try to remove a show lodged in her stomach on Feb. 5, 2021.University of Floria College of Veterinary Medicine

The size 6.5 Walmart women’s sneaker was made of synthetic materials, meaning it couldn’t have been digested and would have stayed inside Anuket and blocked passage from the stomach to intestines, according to Gen Anderson, general curator at St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park.

“If it was leather sandals, then it would have been a whole other ballgame,” Anderson told NBC News on Tuesday.

Without surgery, the crocodile would have suffered “a very slow death,” she added.

After Anuket was brought to the University of Florida on Feb. 5, vets tried various less invasive methods to push the shoe out of the beast, with no luck.

They were eventually forced to perform “a gastrotomy which allowed easier access to the crocodile’s stomach,” according to the school.

After previous unsuccessful attempts, Anuket, a gator, finally had the shoe removed, that was lodged in her stomach, at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine on Feb. 5, 2021.University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine

“Within a short time, he was able to remove the shoe,” the school said. “After an overnight stay, Anuket returned home, and has been recuperating at the park since then.”

Anuket is at least 34 years old and is expected to live between 60 and 80 years, according to Anderson.

David K. Li

David K. Li is a breaking news reporter for NBC News.

Ali Gostanian contributed.

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World

Australian man escapes crocodile by prizing jaws off his head

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The 44-year-old Queensland man fought off the creature while swimming at Lake Placid, near Cairns, on Thursday.

He had puncture wounds on each side of his face but was “very, very calm” when health care workers arrived to treat him.

“A crocodile had bitten his head, and in his effort to remove the jaws of the crocodile he put his hands in to try and prize the jaws apart,” paramedic Paul Sweeney told reporters. “In the process of trying to remove his hands, the jaws snapped shut on his forefinger. He’s a remarkably lucky gentleman.”

“Just a few centimeters lower and we have major blood vessels … had one of those been punctured, then it would have been a very different story,” Sweeney said.

He said the unnamed man estimated the saltwater crocodile was between a meter and a half and two meters (4.92 feet to 6.56 feet) in length.

Sweeney said the man had been swimming in that area three times a week for about eight years. “Certainly not a place I’d choose to swim,” Sweeney said, describing him as a “very fit individual” and saying “his vital signs were remarkably calm when you consider the ordeal he’d been through.”

“I would not be surprised if he ventured into those waters again for further exercise,” Sweeney added.

The Queensland Environment Department sent a team to the site and said a “search for the crocodile responsible for the attack is now underway.”

“Once rangers are at the site, any crocodile found to be present will be targeted for removal,” they said.

Crocodile attacks in Australia are rare, but Queensland officials run a public safety campaign to alert residents to the risks of swimming or relaxing near croc-infested waters.

In 2019, a Queensland fisherman narrowly escaped an attack by poking a crocodile in the eye. And last year, a massive 14-foot crocodile was captured at a tourist spot in neighboring Northern Territory.

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