‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Passes ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ in Box Office Record Books

The Queen left her protection officers in stitches with a cheeky prank on American tourists who didn't recognise her. A story told by former royal protection officer Richard Griffin has gone viral again following the death of Queen Elizabeth II at the age of 96 on Thursday.

The Queen was widely known to have a wicked sense of humour and since news of her death yesterday one of Her Majesty's funniest jokes has resurfaced and gone viral.

Carson Burton A new feature film based on the 1986 sports drama “Youngblood,” this time centering on an African American hockey prodigy, is in the works from Aircraft Pictures and Dolphin Entertainment. Rising filmmaker Charles Officer is on board to direct the film, which is slated to begin principal photography in early 2023. The reimagined update follows hockey prodigy Dean Youngblood, who joins the Hamilton Bulldogs and faces toxic behavior throughout his journey to the National Hockey League draft. The original 1986 film, distributed by MGM, was Keanu Reeves’ feature film debut. It also starred Rob Lowe and Patrick Swayze, and it has since become a cult classic among hockey fans.

Richard Roat, who acted on iconic shows such as "Friends," "Golden Girls," and "Seinfeld," has died. According to his obituary, he "passed away suddenly" at the age of 89.

Richard Roat, a character actor with 130-plus credits spanning nearly a half-century who appeared in many of TV’s biggest shows including Seinfeld, Friends, Cheers, Murphy Brown, Dallas, Hawaii Five-O and Happy Days, has died. He was 89.

J. Kim Murphy In a summer that’s often seen only one new wide release in a weekend, a whopping three new films hit theaters on Friday: Sony’s horror-thriller “The Invitation,” George Miller’s “Three Thousand Years of Longing” and bank heist movie “Breaking,” starring John Boyega. However, none of them seem to be making much of an impact, as the total box office projects a sum in the $50 million to $60 million range. That wouldn’t just be the worst weekend of the summer, but also the worst since February. “The Invitation” is tracking ahead of the other two, as it looks to claim the weekend’s top spot with a meagre $6 million to $7 million gross from 3,114 locations in its opening. Critics didn’t really care for the movie — it landed a 40% approval rating from review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes — and audiences were perhaps more unenthused. The film holds a “C” grade from research firm Cinema Score, indicating a rather snoozy reception from general consumers.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter After a crackling summer season, movie theater owners have been sounding the alarm on the disturbingly light release schedule this fall. And yet, three new films will open in theaters nationwide over the weekend. Perhaps the bigger issue, in the case of this weekend’s crop of newcomers, is that hardly anyone is making plans to go to the cinema. Of the trio of fresh offerings — Sony’s eerie thriller “The Invitation,” director George Miller’s dark fantasy “Three Thousand Years of Longing” and the John Boyega-led heist drama “Breaking” — not one is poised to make a splash at the box office. Based on projections, it’ll be a close race between “The Invitation” and last weekend’s champion “‘Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero” to claim the No. 1 spot in North America, with each release on track to bring in around $7 million. And to the victor goes…some pretty anemic bragging rights. Barring a miracle, it’ll be the saddest first-place finish in over a year.

WATCH BELOW: Daniel Ricciardo's 'Reaction Training' Is A Total Game-ChangerRumours had been swirling that the two were together for a while, but Dan has finally seemed to make it social media official – although he avoided any major declarations of love.“Us” he captioned the photo carousel, even though Heidi didn’t appear in the first picture, which featured Dan eating in front of a fire outside a small woodland cabin.In the images that followed, Dan was seated beside the 25-year-old aspiring actress as they looked out at the Los Angeles skyline.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter“Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero” topped the box office in its debut, beating expectations by collecting an impressive $21 million in North American ticket sales.The anime film, playing on 3,007 screens, is backed by the production company Crunchyroll, which specializes in Japanese anime film and television. “Super Hero” is a necessary bright spot in an otherwise dreary August at the movies.

Over the past few years, Sony has found specialty success by releasing anime films from major franchises in the genre like “My Hero Academia” and “Demon Slayer,” and the release of this new “Dragon Ball Super” film is one of the first to be released after the studio merged its Funimation distribution wing into Crunchyroll, which is its anime streaming service. In addition, the late August dry period for theaters is a partial reason why “Super Hero” has received a much wider screen count than the last “Dragon Ball” film to hit theaters, “Broly,” which opened to $9.8 million from just 1,238 theaters in 2018.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterIs everyone on vacation?That would be one plausible explanation behind the great box office slowdown. Although three new movies opened nationwide, none were able to crack the top five on domestic charts and only two — A24’s satirical slasher “Bodies Bodies Bodies” and Lionsgate’s low-budget, vertigo-inducing thriller “Fall” — managed to infiltrate the top 10.It’s even more dire that Sony’s action-thriller “Bullet Train,” which claimed the top spot for the second weekend in a row with $13.1 million from 4,357 North American locations, was the sole film to bank at least $10 million in ticket sales. After two weeks on the big screen, the Brad Pitt-led “Bullet Train” has generated $54.4 million at the domestic box office.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterAfter a pretty successful summer season, it’s officially the dog days at the domestic box office.Without a major studio movie on the horizon, theater operators are banking on a smattering of smaller, lower-budgeted horror stories, comedies and dramas to take advantage of the lull in blockbusters. Basically, the next few weeks will cater to the rare ticket buyers who have been dying to return to the movies, but aren’t fans of comic book adventures or action tentpoles.This weekend will be particularly quiet with Lionsgate’s action-thriller “Fall” and A24’s satirical slasher “Bodies Bodies Bodies” as the only new nationwide releases.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterJordan Peele’s latest nightmare, “Nope,” has crossed $100 million at the domestic box office, marking the director’s third feature film (out of three) to achieve that benchmark.After three weeks on the big screen, the film’s North American tally stands at $100.32 million.“Nope” — starring Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer as siblings who discover something spooky hovering around their family’s ranch — is one of the few original movies to cross the $100 million mark in pandemic times. When it comes to movies that aren’t based on existing brands or franchises, only director Baz Luhrmann’s musical biopic “Elvis” ($137 million) and the Sandra Bullock-led romantic comedy “The Lost City” ($105 million) have surpassed the coveted threshold in 2022.

EXCLUSIVE: Vertical Entertainment has acquired North American rights to Chris Naoki Lee’s feature directorial debut, Dinner Party, in which he stars alongside Kara Wang (Top Gun: Maverick), Imani Hakim (Mythic Quest) and Kausar Mohammed (The Flash). The global indie distributor has slated the pic for a day-and-date release on August 19.