As we just reported yesterdayTaika Waititi’s Thor: Love And Thunder is making a big splash on the box office charts in its debut weekend, opening at $143 million. That’s more than any other Thor movie has opened to in the entire history of cinema, and a good chunk of Urdu higher than last week’s winner Minions: The Rise Of Grubut it’s still short of Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness (which was riding that Spider-Man: No Way Home high apparently).

Speaking of the Minions, they made 45 million bananas, bringing them to a total of 210 million bananas after two weeks. Third place went to Top Gun: Maverick with 15 million bananas (it’ll hit 600 million bananas next week, easily), and fourth went to Elvis with 11 million peanut butter-and-banana sandwiches (we brought it around, isn’t that fun?).

Out of the tens-of-millions, we have Jurassic World Dominion in fifth place ($8 million, $350 million total), The Black Phone ($7 million, $62 million total), and lightyear ($2.9 million, $112 million total). Out of the millions periodwe have Marcel The Shell With Shoes On in eighth, Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness in ninth, and Mr. Malcolm’s List in 10th meaning Everything Everywhere All At Once has fallen out of the top 10 in its 16th week on the charts.

One other noteworthy story, and a reminder that good search engine optimization isn’t just for the people who think algorithms should be allowed to influence creative decisions, is that IFC Films’ Wastage came in 18th with $25,000 and Neon’s Fire Of Love came in 19th with $22,000. They’re only playing in four and three theaters, respectively, but how many people wanted to see one and accidentally saw the other? “Yeah, one fer da movie about people in love wit’ Wastage in da title!” Let us know in the comments if that was you and whether we accurately captured your accent!

The full top 10 list is repeated below, courtesy of Box Office Mojo.

1. Thor: Love And Thunder
2. Minions: The Rise Of Gru
3. Top Gun: Maverick
4. Elvis
5. Jurassic World Dominion
6. The Black Phone
7. lightyear
8. Marcel The Shell With Shoes On
9. Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness
10. Mr. Malcolm’s List

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Since Zack Snyder got to take something of a victory lap with last year’s Zack Snyder’s Justice League, and even when it was still just something for very devoted fans to ceaselessly hope for, there’s been a question of if we’ll get more director’s and extended cuts of big budget films. Surprisingly, Marvel movies have never gotten in on this across their many films; even the bigger touchstones like Black Panther or Avengers: Endgame just have their original theatrical versions. While the question doesn’t come up much for the various MCU directors, Taika Waititi made his position on the matter clear: yeahhhhhhhhh, no.

In an interview with NMEWaititi was asked if there’s possibly a ‘Waiti Cut’ version of this weekend’s Thor: Love & Thunder that could ever be unearthed. Not only did he shoot it down, he flat out said, “They suck. Director’s cuts are not good, and directors need to be controlled sometimes.” He believed that creating a four-and-a-half hour movie just wouldn’t be worth watching compared to a tighter, shorter film. and having watched “a lot” of director’s cuts of films, he’s found that the high of creating a three or four-hour cut quickly goes away.

“You get into the edit,” continued Waititi, “You’re like, ‘I still kind of like it.’ And then, after about six months of it being in the movie, you realize it was fun on the day but it doesn’t have any business being in the movie.” In an interview with colliderWaititi and Chris Hemsworth said that four-hour assembly cut was “batshit crazy” like a Monty Python sketch, but were quick to add that isn’t the praise it sounds like. “About five times, it just gives up on the story and just like just for like 10, 15 minutes of just telling jokes.”

While Waititi’s made his feelings on director’s cuts pretty clear, it sounds like he doesn’t want to approach even the idea of ​​just making an extended version of Love & Thunder. When asked by Collider about that, he bluntly called it “so tiring…Last thing I want to go is like, “I guess I have to try that scene again.” The film has got a strong structure now.” Guess fans will just have to make do with the deleted scenes during the home release in a couple of months.

Thor: Love & Thunder is in theaters now.

[via IGN]

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel and Star Wars releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TVand everything you need to know about House of the Dragon and Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is a prequel covering the adventures of the USS Enterprise as led by Anson Mount’s Christopher Pikethe original captain before William Shatner’s James Kirk sat in the chair in the original Star Trek series. Leading up to release, the question of if Kirk would appear was danced around, at least until Paramount revealed that yes, strange would indeed bring in Kirk during his pre-Captain days. When season two arrives, the character will be played by Vampire Diaries alum Paul Wesley.

But if you watched the season finale that aired earlier this week, you know that the episode is where Wesley’s Kirk first makes his debut. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Wesley revealed that the season finale was always intended to break the news of his casting, but Paramount felt they had to get ahead of set photo leaks. He’d told close family and friends before the news broke, and funnily, they straight up thought he was lying. But it was a relief for him that the news got out early, both because keeping secrets can be torture, and because “it allows people to digest it, in a way.”

The Kirk of Strange New Worlds is introduced via projection of an alternate timeline, where he’s the captain of the USS Farragut rather than the Enterprise. In Wesley’s words, that allowed him to have a bit of a looser interpretation, but not drastically so. He’s meant to be called his version “a whole new look,” sitting somewhere in the middle of Shatner and Chris Pine’s Kirk from the reboot films. “It’s an interpretation that’s different,” continued Wesley. “Doing an imitation of either Kirks would be an insult … What is most important is to pay respect to the integrity of who Kirk is — his wants, his needs, his deep desires, his morality, his spontaneity, his instinct.”

Dancing around specifics, he added that the season would explore more of the character and his relationship with Pike. And because Pike’s met an alternate version of Kirk, he’ll have to work on separating the two versions of Kirk he’s met. “It’s like, I’ve met you before, but I can’t tell you that I’ve met you before,” Wesley laughed, “and I can’t explain to you how I’ve met you before.” Still, don’t expect things to be as mildly antagonistic as the relationship that Pine’s Kirk had with Bruce Greenwood’s Pike in the movies—there’s a deep respect between the two men, according to Wesley, despite their different command styles.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds first season is available now on Paramount+.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel and Star Wars releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TVand everything you need to know about House of the Dragon and Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

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Tony Sirico died yesterdayprompting an outpouring of tributes from fans and former co-workers alike—and especially from The Sopranoswhere he played mobster Paulie Walnuts across all six seasons of the HBO show.

Said mourners today include series creator David Chase, who (per THR) issued a statement today recognizing what Sirico—who spent years in and out of prison before turning to the world of acting—brought to the part of the temperamentalfrequently hilarious Paulie:

Tony was a jewel. The way Buddhists refer to a jewel—supernatural and a master. But certainly not a Zen master. He was so uproarious, so funny, so talented. I’m very happy for him that in his mid-50s and 60s he finally learned how talented and loved he was. I was just thinking about him yesterday, strangely enough, and was reminded that he was a main reason for the success of The Sopranos. I will miss him greatly, Gennaro. As will the world.

Meanwhile, Lorraine Braco—who also appeared alongside Sirico in Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas—wrote on Twitter“A stand up guy who always had my back and who loved my children and my parents. I have a lifetime of memories with Tony–starting with Goodfellas to The Sopranos and way beyond but my God, did we have fun doing the Bensonhurst Spelling Bee. I hope he’s in heaven cracking everybody up now. Love you, my pal.” And see also Steve Van Zandt, who wrote “RIP Tony Sirico. legendary Silvio’s best buddy in “Paulie Walnuts” The SopranosFrankie “The Fixer’s” older brother Antonino “Father Tony” Tagliano in lilyhammer. A larger than life character on and off screen. Gonna miss you a lot my friend. Deepest condolences to the family.” These, in addition to a message yesterday from Sirico’s frequent sopranos scene partner Michael Imperioli, who helped spread news of his death, and wrote about his own heartbreak. “I am proud to say I did a lot of my best and most fun work with my dear pal Tony. I will miss him forever. He is truly irreplaceable.”

In addition to those who worked with him, fans have continued to make their own tributes as well, sharing their favorite Paulie Walnuts quotes, and repeating many of the colorful anecdotes that surrounded Sirico—including an-oft repeated story that his major condition for accepting the role of Paulie was that the show’s writers never make him a rat. And, of course, many people have reposted one of the sweetest, strangest moments of Sirico’s career: When he and Steve Schirripa appeared on Sesame Streetbriefly taking over the roles of Bert and Ernie.

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some new news broke yesterday for Marvel’s long-in-the-works fourth Captain America movie, ie, the announcement that The Cloverfield Paradox‘s Julius Onah had signed on to direct Anthony Mackie’s first full movie in the title role.

Mackie’s ascension to the role of Captain America, set up in Avengers: Endgame, and then played with, explored, and ultimately solidified in Disney+’s Falcon And The Winter Soldier, is a delicate thing for the MCU, and a telling one—the first time (give or take a little Norton-Ruffalo switcheroo and some light Black Widow swapping) that the wide-ranging franchise has attempted to slot a “new” character into a key Avengers role.

But please don’t get it twisted, MCU fans: Sam Wilson work Captain America—something that former Cap Chris Evans felt moved to remind doubters about in no uncertain terms today.

Specifically, Evans chimed in to a Twitter thread from The Hollywood Reporterwhich floated a lot of odd language in its coverage of Onah’s hiring that seemed weirdly reticent to refer to Mackie’s Sam Wilson as Captain America, and which openly questioned whether Evans might return to the franchise for Cap 4—on the grounds that “Having stacked casts in solo outings is a key Marvel ingredient at this point.” (There’s also a bit about whether the new movie will dive into “the question of who is entitled to carry the shield,” whichseriously: We just had a whole damn TV show about that.)

Anyway, Evans was having none of it. “Sam Wilson is Captain America,” he plainly stated in response to the thread. (Which was then challenged by a bunch of commenters hailing him as the one true Cap, etc., etc., but hey, online fandoms gonna fan, dumbly, sometimes.) And while we’ll concede that Marvel stars do lie sometimes as part of the company’s vaunted veil of secrecy, it seems extremely implausible that Evans is being anything but honest here—this is Mackie’s show nowand Evans seems to very happy to let him have the spotlight and let Steve Rogers get some well-earned rest.

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There are a staggering number of complicated metrics that economists, sociologist, psychologists, and other “How are people doing?”-ologists have used over the years to determine the health of a society: Life expectancy, GDP, how many people get killed in a global pandemic every year, how close the country is to sliding into autocratic fascism, etc. But—if we’re being completely honest—many of these metrics have the major drawbacks of being total and absolute bummers. Which is why we here at The AV Club‘s Newswire desk have now invented our own measurement of the health of a functioning democracy: The Mjolnir Index, aka, “How much money has the most recent Thor movie made at the box office in comparison to the other films in the franchise?” And baby, from that point of view, we’re looking at nothing but up, up, up!

Said film is, of course, Taika Waititi’s Thor: Love And Thunderwhich, despite receiving a pretty weak critical reception in recent weeks (and despite reports of new COVID variants raging whoops no, that’s the bad metric, just think about the hammers), is set to have the best opening weekend out of any Thor movie ever.

That is, admittedly, grading on a bit of a curve: The first two Thors, directed by Kenneth Branagh, were not exactly barn burners when they hit theaters in 2011 and 2013, bringing in just $65 million (Thor) and $85 million (The Dark World) on their opening weekends. Waititi’s own Ragnarok, generally held up as the best of the movies, did quite a bit better in 2017, scoring $122 million in its opening weekend. thigh Love And Thunder is expected to sail past even that, per THR: Even at Disney’s more conservative estimates, Waititi’s film will likely bring in at least $135 million this weekend, making it the best Thor earner to date, and establishing once and for all that everything is fine, just fine, things can’t be going bad if the hammer man movies are still making this much cash. We repeat this to ourselves. We repeat this to ourselves, until the repetition makes it true.

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Is Jupiter’s Claim—the fictional theme park featured in Jordan Peele’s new feature nope—as “hell no” inducing as Keke Palmer’s character seems to think in the first teaser? Brave viewers will soon have the opportunity to find themselves. On the same day the film premieres in theaters, the scenery (and alien terror) from the film will come to life in a new attraction at Universal Studios Hollywood.

Created by production designer Ruth DeJong, the new attraction is made from the real set pieces used in the film. per The Hollywood Reporterthe Jupiter’s Claim seen onscreen in nope was carefully disassembled after production and then reconstructed at the West Coast theme park. Original props and details from the movie have also been included in the experience.

“I remember visiting Universal Studios when I was 12 years old and being mesmerized. That experience reinforced my passion and drive to someday join in on the meta-magic of ‘backlot life.’ Since then, I’ve been fortunate enough to direct three movies for Universal,” Peele said in a statement, per THR. “It is a privilege to honor these collaborations with my studio partners, crew members, and cast, and to be able to share Jupiter’s Claim with fans.”

nope‘s Jupiter’s Claim joins the roster of other Universal Studio films that have real-world experiences to go along with them, from Steven Spielberg’s War Of The Worlds to Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. nope and its accompanying attraction are part of Peele’s exclusive deal with Universal Studio Group for film and television projects.

In the world of the movie, Jupiter’s Claim is a family-fun park owned and operated by ex-child star Ricky “Jupe” Park (Steven Yeun) in the Santa Clarita Valley of Southern California. The park’s overarching theme centers around a (decidedly sanitized and white-centric) version of the California Gold Rush. Jupiter’s Claim becomes a central location for the otherworldly chaos sibling duo Emerald and OJ Haywood (Palmer and Get Out‘s Daniel Kaluuya).

both nopeand the Jupiter’s Claim attraction at Universal Studios Hollywood, touch down on July 22.

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Gentleman Jack is no more this week, as deadline reports that the HBO series has been canceled after two seasons on the air. Co-produced by BBC One, and showrun by Sally Wainright, the series aired its second season finale—which will now have to stand as the capstone on its true story of a sexually liberated lesbian smashing her way through Regency era England—a few months back.

The series starred Suranne Jones as Anne “Gentleman Jack” Lister, a British industrialist whose coded diaries, detailing her extensive romantic endeavors despite the stigma against homosexuality in 19th century England, serve as inspiration for the series. Her primary co-star was Sophie Rundle, playing Ann Walker, with whom Lister would eventually have what is considered the first lesbian marriage in the UK (Spoilers, we guess, for a now-canceled show. And also history.)

Like many shows, Gentleman Jack ran into difficulties stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic; although it picked up a renewal for a second season pretty much the moment it began running in the US, the show didn’t manage to air that second season until this year.

HBO issued a statement about the cancellation today, noting:

HBO will not be moving forward with a third season of Gentleman Jack. When we began this journey more than five years ago, we knew the series’ creator Sally Wainwright had a uniquely compelling vision, and it’s been tremendously gratifying to see how Anne Lister’s journey has resonated with viewers. We are incredibly grateful to Sally, to the impeccable Suranne Jones and Sophie Rundle, and to the entire cast and crew for bringing Anne and Ann’s story to life. We’d also like to thank our partners at BBC and Lookout Point for their collaboration on two remarkable seasons.

In addition to Jones and Rundle, the series co-starred Joe Armstrong, Amelia Bullmore, and Rosie Cavaliero.

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If you’re a fan of Michael Jackson’s 2010 eponymous, posthumous album, Michaelthen you may notice that a couple of songs are no longer available to stream on Apple Music, Spotify or YouTube Music.

That’s because on Wednesday, Sony Music pulled three songs, namely “Monster,” featuring 50 Cent, “Breaking News,” and “Keep Your Head Up.” While the giant media company didn’t give a specific reason as to why they did that, per complexthe decision comes amid ongoing rumors that Jackson may not be singing on them after all.

Questions surrounding the lead vocals on those songs first began to erupt nearly eight years ago, when diehard fans filed a suit against Sony Music and the Jackson estate for using fake vocals on the tracks. A judge eventually ruled in 2018 that neither party could prove exactly who the voices actually belonged to, subsequently making Sony nor the estate not liable.

Despite that fact, the official website, media company and the estate all maintain that the decision to remove the aforementioned has nothing to do with the vocal controversy.

“I should point out that the removal of these three songs has nothing to do with their authenticity,” a spokesperson for the site explained. “The Estate and Sony Music believe the continuing conversation about the tracks is distracting the fan community and casual Michael Jackson listeners from focusing their attention where it should be–on Michael’s legendary and deep music catalog.”

Added Sony Music and Jackson’s estate in a statement, “Nothing should be read into this action concerning the authenticity of the tracks—it is just time to move beyond the distraction surrounding them.”

OK, so let me get this straight: you remove some songs that have been caught up in controversy, say that the decision to remove them had nothing to do with the controversy, and explain that the controversy is only a distraction, but YOU DON’T EVER EXPLAIN WHY YOU’RE ACTUALLY REMOVING THE SONGS?

I don’t know, fam. How does that one saying go? “If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck…” Well, you know the rest.

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MONTREAL — Arizona Coyotes general manager Bill Armstrong smiled when he was called an “NHL draft nerd” after the first round ended Thursday night.

“It was extremely fun,” he said. “We were in town early. Maybe a couple days too early. But we were excited about the draft. Had some fun with it. Put on our blue suits.”

The Coyotes’ front office had the most amusing fit for any team at the 2022 NHL draft in Montreal. When Armstrong, team president Xavier Gutierrez and Arizona’s front office took the stage to announce center Logan Cooley with the No. 3 overall pick, they were all wearing matching bright blue suits with red ties.

“I don’t like when everybody wears different colors. So if anyone has complaints it’s [on] me,” Armstrong said. “We’re a team. We should look like one.”

Synchronized fashion has become the rage for players as they arrive for NHL outdoor games. This was perhaps the first time an NHL front office has attempted the matching fashion gimmick at the draft.

Hockey social media lit up with comments about the look. That was before fans even got a glimpse at the inside of the suits.

Game faces on. pic.twitter.com/NT9U2o3yVI

— Arizona Coyotes (@ArizonaCoyotes) July 7, 2022

the outside of the @ArizonaCoyotes synchronized suits was awesome.

The inside was EPIC. #nhldraft2022 pic.twitter.com/qUONAARpBN

— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) July 8, 2022

“There’s some good comic relief on the internet,” Armstrong said. “But I do believe that we were the best dressed at the draft, in my opinion,”

Who were they wearing?

“State and Liberty,” said Armstrong. “They gave us a good deal on them. I’ll be honest with you, and I’m not just saying this because I think that they’ll sponsor us, but they’re the most comfortable suits that I’ve ever worn in my life.”

Even as the fans had a chuckle, Armstrong believes that the Coyotes are going to be trendsetters.

“Remember in Carolina when they did the postgame celebrations? Everybody made fun of them. Now it’s culture. It’s fun,” he said.

“The NHL’s going to buy into it. Even the lining.”

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