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Captain America sets new box office record

Published on April 07, 2014 | 11:03 PM

MONEYSPINNER: Captain America: The Winter Soldier

The film also scored the biggest opening weekend of 2014, and took in another $9.6mn at IMAX screenings, which charge a premium

Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the sequel to Marvel’s 2011 film about the red, white and blue superhero, smashed its way to $96.2mn in weekend ticket sales in the US, setting a new record for an April release and speeding past last week’s winner, Noah.

The film, which stars Chris Evans as a scrawny World War II reject given super powers from an experimental serum, easily exceeded the April take for the racing movie Fast Five, which collected $86.2mn in ticket sales in April 2011.

Noah, starring Russell Crowe as the biblical figure, was second with $17mn in ticket sales from Friday to Sunday, and has collected $72.3mn in overall domestic sales in the US since opening last week, according to studio estimates. The dystopian action film Divergent was third with $13mn, for a total of $114mn since its March 21 release in US and Canadian theatres.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier also scored the biggest opening weekend of 2014, and took in another $9.6mn at IMAX screenings, which charge a premium. That also set a new April record. “We’re off to a great start. This was a great jumping off place for what we expect to be a fantastic run,” said Dave Hollis, Walt Disney Studios’ executive vice president of film distribution, citing the $177mn film’s opening.

“I would certainly expect we can broaden out” beyond the usual Marvel film buyers, said Hollis, noting that some 90% of critics had given positive notices as collated by the Rotten Tomatoes website and audiences rated the film an A. Approaching school holidays should boost ticket sales further, he added.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier is the most recent in a growing number of films that Marvel, a unit of Disney, has made from its library of comic book heroes.

Its star, Evans, was among the actors playing their superhero roles in the 2012 film Marvel’s The Avengers, which ranks as the third highest grossing film in Hollywood history with $623.4mn in domestic sales and $1.5bn worldwide, according to the movie site Box Office Mojo. Hollis said the latest installment was “tapping into that extraordinary momentum”.

Scarlett Johansson, playing the Marvel character Black Widow, also appeared in The Avengers and reprises her role in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

After only 10 days in release, the new film had surpassed the total international box office of the original installment, Captain America: The First Avenger, according to Disney. The film was well on its way to a record weekend by Thursday night, when it collected $10.2mn in late-night showings. It opened a week early in several international markets, where it has already surpassed $207mn, for a global total of $303mn.

Fourth for the weekend with sales of $7.7mn was the independently-released Christian drama God’s Not Dead, which continued its impressive run despite being panned by critics. Only two of 10 reviewers liked the film, according to Rotten Tomatoes, although 86% of those who saw it told the site they liked it.

The Grand Budapest Hotel rounded out the top five, taking in $6.3mn. Starring Ralph Fiennes as a scheming concierge and directed by Wes Anderson, the film started slowly, playing in only four theaters on March 7 and has grown steadily. It is currently playing in 1,263 theaters.

Walt Disney Co distributed Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Noah was released by Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom. Lionsgate distributed Divergent. The Grand Budapest Hotel was released by Fox Searchlight, a unit of Twenty-First Century Fox. God’s Not Dead was distributed by Freestyle Releasing. – By Ronald Grover and Chris Michaud, Reuters

Johnny Depp assumes tech persona for Transcendence

US actor Johnny Depp, who admits that he is “an old-school guy,” transforms himself into a techie in the new sci-fi film Transcendence, the first project by Wally Pfister, the regular cinematography director for Christopher Nolan. “Bad things happen between technology and me all the time,” the 50-year-old actor said during the film’s presentation at a Beverly Hills hotel. “I’m not familiar enough (with it). My brain is from the old school. I’m a bit dumb when it comes to knowing how (tech devices) work. Anything I have to use for a while with my thumbs makes me feel stupid, and so I try to avoid it as much as possible,” Depp said.

The actor plays Dr Will Caster, the main researcher in the artificial intelligence field, who is working to create a self-aware machine that combines global collective intelligence with the entire spectrum of human emotions. His controversial experiments have secured great fame for him, but they have also made him a target for anti-tech extremists who will do anything they can to stop him. However, when they seem to have achieved this it leads to a series of unforeseen events whereby Caster obtains his own objective. “The film plays with the notion of immortality,” said Pfister, who won an Oscar for best cinematography for his work on Inception. — IANS

Stewart sports orange locks for new film

Twilight star Kristen Stewart has dyed her glossy chocolate locks for a tangerine tone for her new role in actioner American Ultra. The 23-year-old actress went for the colour change at Maison de Cheveux in New Orleans. A photograph of her new look was shared on the salon’s Instagram account, reports contactmusic.com. The salon accompanied the photograph with the caption: “Kristen Stewart getting her hair ready for a new role!”

Rachael Taylor opens up about domestic violence

Model-turned-actress Rachael Taylor opened up during a high-profile lunch about her experience with domestic violence. She spoke about the issue at the Autumn Racing Ladies Lunch at the David Jones and Crown Resorts. The actress stunned a room-full of Australia’s most powerful women and offered to chat and help any of the 250 women in the room who are struggling through the abuse, reports www.femalefirst.co.uk.

The Transformers star candidly talked about becoming a victim after admitting it was a “difficult thing to talk about”. Taylor has never named the former beau who subjected her to domestic violence.

However, she said: “The one thing is profoundly distressing, is that loss of self-value and self-esteem, the female self-worth is of such profound importance. But not all survivors of domestic violence get to stand up here and talk to you all about this and I feel very privileged that I do.”

She added: “Please come and talk to me if you would like. I am sitting on table 13. I want to say what is happening to you, it is not your fault.” — IANS