Buddy cop comedy Ride Along, starring Kevin Hart and Ice Cube, cruised to a third straight weekend at the top of the box office charts, outearning new release That Awkward Moment.
Ride Along collected $12.3mn in ticket sales over what was a slow Super Bowl weekend at many domestic movie theaters in the US. The film has collected $93mn since its January 17 release.
Second place went to the long-running Disney hit, Frozen, which earned $9.3mn and benefited from newly added “sing-along” shows, pushing its total since opening in late November to more than $360mn, according to box office tracking firm Rentrak.
That Awkward Moment was third with $9mn in ticket sales at US and Canadian theatres last week. The film stars Zac Efron as one of three friends who pledge to stay single.
Marketed heavily to women, That Awkward Moment, which received generally lacklustre reviews, fell short of the industry’s $12mn forecast. Only 22 of 99 reviewers gave it a “fresh,” or positive, rating, according to the website Rotten Tomatoes. Of moviegoers who saw the film, 58% said they liked it, according to the site.  
Focus Features, the studio that released the low-budget $8mn film, said it was “designed as counter programming with a target audience of female movie-goers,” noting that it “scored best with our primary audience of younger females.”
Labor Day, the other new release, collected $5.3mn in ticket sales to open in the No. 7 slot, and fell short of industry expectations of about $8mn. The film stars Josh Brolin and Kate Winslet in an adaption from Joyce Maynard’s novel of the same name about an escaped convict who takes refuge in the home of a depressed single mother.
Paramount Pictures, the Viacom-owned unit that distributed the film, promoted the film in conjunction with the American Pie Council. The January 23 National Pie Day was promoted through posters distributed to pie shops and bakeries that showed the two stars making a pie.   
Paramount said the film also skewed female, with females making up 59% of the audience. Rounding out the top five, the animated film The Nut Job was took fourth with sales of $7.6mn, while Mark Wahlberg’s Afghanistan war film Lone Survivor was fifth with $7.2mn.
The Awkward Moment was distributed by Focus Features, a unit of Comcast’s NBC Universal. Ride Along and Lone Survivor were distributed by Universal Pictures, a unit of NBC Universal. Labor Day was distributed by Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom.  
Walt Disney distributed Frozen. The Nut Job, was distributed by Open Road Films, a joint venture of AMC Entertainment and Regal Entertainment. — By Ronald Grover and Chris Michaud, Reuters



Farrell, Weisz in The Lobster

Actors Colin Farrell and Rachel Weisz will play the lead roles in dystopian love story The Lobster. Farrell and Weisz have joined in the cast ensemble of Ben Whishaw, Lea Seydoux, and Olivia Colman, reports aceshowbiz.com. The actors are expected to begin shooting the film in Ireland next month.
The Lobster, which will be directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, is an unconventional love story, it is set in a dystopian future where finding a partner is a matter of life or death. — IANS


Cara Delevingne bored of modelling


Actress-model Cara Delevingne is said to be bored of modelling now and wants to take her acting career forward. The 21-year-old reportedly finds modelling “gossipy” and “exhausting”, reports contactmusic.com. “Cara doesn’t want to model any more. She finds it boring, too gossipy and exhausting. She’s made a stand with her agency and, aside from big campaigns and shows, she will be slowing down her fashion word involvement. She just isn’t interested in modelling being her main job,” Sunday People newspaper quoted a source as saying. Delevingne was seen in the film Anna Karenina. — IANS

Justin Theroux devastated

Actor-director Justin Theroux is said to be devastated with actor Philip Seymour Hoffman’s sudden demise. He paid a visit to see Hoffman’s estranged partner Mimi O’Donnell, as well as their children Cooper, 10, Tallulah, seven and Willa, five. “Justin is totally broken up about losing Phil. He’s doing his best to provide some comfort to Mimi and the kids. He can’t believe this happened,” usmagazine.com quoted a source as saying. Hoffman, who was found dead in his apartment on earlier this week, is said to have been close to Theroux. — IANS

Lindsay Lohan refused entry in clubs

Actress Lindsay Lohan has reportedly been refused entry in a number of nightclubs. The 27-year-old is said to have been recently banned from New York clubs after a series of incidents including one where she claimed that her fur coat has been stolen, reports contactmusic.com. “She stared the doorman down and was surprised that they wouldn’t let her in. She was definitely shaken up,” a source told Bang Showbiz. — IANS

Judi Dench never expected an Oscar

Veteran actress Judi Dench never thought that she will win an Oscar as she was told that she will never become a star and was advised to stick to theatres. Dench is nominated in the best actress category at the 86th Academy Award for her role in Philomena after previously scooping a best supporting actress award in 1999 for her role as Queen Elizabeth I in Shakespeare In Love. The 79-year-old admits the possibility of landing an Oscar nomination, let alone winning, never crossed her mind, reports femalefirst.co.uk.
“I was told very early on that I would never make films and I settled for that. I was a theatre actor and films didn’t come into my thinking or anything. It has all changed very much since Mrs Brown (for which she was nominated for an Oscar in 1998). So, now I do more films than I do work in the theatre. So, an Oscar is something I never considered,” Dench said. — IANS