‘The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes’ Devours $99M Global Opening; ‘Trolls Band Together’ Tops $100M WW – International Box Office

After one Japanese title delivered at the sleepy December box office last weekend, that being Godzilla Minus One, here’s another that’s set to dominate: Studio Ghibli and GKIDS’ Hayao Miyazaki‘s The Boy and the Heron which is looking at a No. 1 lead with $10M+ after $2.39M Thursday and early access previews.

Deathloop developer Arkane Lyon is making a new Blade game based on the popular Marvel character.Blade is a half-vampire half-human hunter first appearing in Marvel Comics in 1973. In the early 2000s, Wesley Snipes played the character in a trilogy of successful movies.

Little Simz spoke out about the importance of “pushing the boundaries” in art and where she finds power in music at a public event in London.The Mercury Prize-winning rapper took part in an exclusive Q&A panel in Central London last night (December 7) to unveil her collaboration with Bose alongside musician Kelvin Krash and director Dexter Navy.The motto of the global campaign is “Sound is Power”, which has a clear meaning for Little Simz.“I’ve always described sound as intention,” she said. “People think they’re hearing sounds, but what they’re really hearing is intention,” she said.

Plans to move the English National Opera (ENO) to the North of England have been warmly welcomed in Greater Manchester which will become the 'main home' for the cultural institution. But the news, which was announced on Tuesday (December 5), was met with some strange responses from the rest of the country on social media - including from some angry Londoners.

The trailer for the nine-part AppleTV+ series Masters of the Air has arrived!

Ethel Cain has announced her 2024 ‘The Childish Behaviour’ tour, with stops in North America, Europe and the United Kingdom.The alt-pop singer – who released her first album ‘Preacher’s Daughter’ in May last year, took to her official social media pages to share the handful of tour dates slated to commence in June 2024.Cain’s first show of the tour is set to Kick off on June 3 at Le Trianon in Paris, France. From there, the singer will head out to Amsterdam to play Paradiso on June 4 followed by a show at the Roundhouse in London on June 5.

King Charles and Kate Middleton getting outed as the royals who allegedly questioned what baby Archie’s “skin color” would be – but, not to be outdone, now the Spanish royal family is having their own drama. Queen Letizia’s ex-brother-in-law has claimed that he had a relationship with the 51-year-old royal before he married her sister, Telma Ortiz, 50. Jaime Del Burgo, 53, who is currently based in the UK, recently contributed to a tell-all book about Queen Letizia, “Letizia & I,” by journalist Jaime Peñafiel.Del Burgo, who is an entrepreneur and the son of former politician Jaime Ignacio del Burgo, was married to Letizia’s sister Telma from 2012 to 2014.

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Feeling festive? With this stellar line-up at The Bridgewater Hall, Christmas 2023 promises to be an absolute cracker.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Queen Bey is about to take on the box office. “Renaissance,” a concert film written, directed and produced by Beyoncé, is expected to bring in $17 million to $20 million in its opening weekend. The film will play in approximately 2,539 domestic locations, as well as 94 international territories, including Mexico, the U.K., South Africa, Kenya, Australia and Germany.

Following last night's anncounment that Girls Aloud would be reuniting for a 2024 UK and Ireland tour, the band have revealed more details about what it may entail. The most successful girl group of the noughties will be heading out on tour next May, starting off in Dublin before going across the UK, including two nights in Manchester.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Was there anyone who didn’t have an opinion — and the strong need to express it — when the Beatles‘ “last single,” “Now and Then,” came out earlier this month? The surviving members’ long-aborning completion of a 1970s John Lennon demo profoundly moved millions of fans, and put off some others, but no one in practically any demographic — not boomers or even Gen-Z-ers and millennials — wanted to hold their tongue about it. And that’s the kind of marketing that money and promotion can’t buy.

George Harrison‘s widow Olivia has shared a “surprising magical” story about how The Beatles‘ ‘Now And Then’ artwork came about.In a video posted on her late husband’s official social media channels, she explained how he once bought a clock featuring the title of their final song.“We were in this store, George saw this clock made out of bits and pieces and it had some Scrabble letters and it just said ‘Now And Then’,” she said. “He was attracted to it for some reason, he just took it off the wall and bought it.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Local crime drama film “Last Suspect” returned to the top spot at the mainland China box office over the latest weekend, as “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” opened quietly in third place. Narrowly beaten last week by “The Marvels,” “Last Suspect” climbed one place while “The Marvels” fell out of the top five in China. In its third weekend of release, “Last Suspect” recorded $10.1 million (RMB76 million), according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway.

EXCLUSIVE: Music has continually been a facet of Lionsgate‘s $3 billion Hunger Games franchise going back to ditties from Taylor Swift, Coldplay and Lorde, and with today’s theatrical release of Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, the studio teamed with Spotify for a multi-faceted partnership that shines a spotlight on music’s legacy in the Suzanne Collins franchise.

EXCLUSIVE: Lionsgate‘s prequel The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is looking at a Thursday night between $5.75M-$6M after showtimes that began at 3PM.

Charlie Travers is making a splash with her first red carpet appearance following rumors that she might be dating singer Shawn Mendes.

Tom Blyth is putting his physique on display at the L.A. premiere of The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes!

The cast of the new movie The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes gathered together on the red carpet for the L.A. premiere and we have all the photos!

Olivia Rodrigo performs the theme song for the new movie The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and she has dropped the music video for the track!