'Secret Life of Pets' debuts to massive $103.2 million

LOS ANGELES: "The Secret Life of Pets" dominated the weekend box office, racking up a massive $103.2 million and launching the first new franchise of the summer.

Its success is a feather in the cap for Illumination chief Chris Meledandri, confirming his status among the ranks of animation giants. The family film, which explores what dogs, cats and other animal companions do while their owners are busy at work, cost an economical $75 million to produce, roughly half of what most studios spend making animated movies. Universal is backing the picture, which launched across 4,370 locations.

"Illumination just has a way of creating 'want to see' movies," said Nick Carpou, Universal's domestic distribution chief. "They make movies that resonate with audiences."

And ones that spawn toylines. The cuddly creatures that populate "Pets" seem tailor made to sell stuffed animals and t-shirts, creating a financial windfall for the studio. The film deftly exploited dog and cat obsessed moviegoers to appeal to both parents and children. In the United States alone, Americans are expected to spend more than $62 billion in 2016 on their pets.

"Somebody at Illumination is popping the champagne and pouring out the Kibble," said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at comScore. "The love that people have for their fish, their bird, their dogs, or their hamsters is demonstrated by their insatiable appetite for a movie like this."

"The Secret Life of Pets" easily supplanted Disney and Pixar's "Finding Dory" from first place on the box office charts -- a ranking it has held for the three previous weeks. The sequel to "Finding Nemo" slid to second place with $20.4 million, having made $422.6 million to lap "Captain America: Civil War" as the highest-grossing film of the year on a domestic basis. It also ranks as the highest-grossing animated film in North America, unseating "Toy Story 3."

The weekend's other new release, Fox's "Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates," opened to $16.6 million at 2,982 sites for a fourth place finish. The comedy about a pair of party animal brothers (Zac Efron and Adam DeVine) who enlist two women (Anna Kendrick and Aubrey Plaza) to accompany them to their sister's wedding, cost $33 million to make. Chernin Entertainment produced the film. Its audience was nearly evenly split between the genders, with women making up 52% of ticket buyers.

"We were very opportunistic about this date," said Chris Aronson, Fox's domestic distribution chief. "This seemed to be a good time to release an R-rated comedy."

"Pets" will post the sixth-best opening of 2016 following "Captain America: Civil War," "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice," "Finding Dory," "Deadpool" and "The Jungle Book" -- all members of the elite group of 39 titles that have opened with more than $100 million domestically. It's also a new opening weekend domestic record for an original animated film, topping the $90.4 million launch of "Inside Out" last summer.

The "Pets" voice cast includes Louis C.K., Eric Stonestreet, Kevin Hart, Jenny Slate, Ellie Kemper, Lake Bell, Dana Carvey, Hannibal Buress, Bobby Moynihan, Steve Coogan and Albert Brooks. "Despicable Me's" Chris Renaud directs and Yarrow Cheney co-directs from a script by Cinco Paul, Ken Daurio and Brian Lynch.

"Pets" is the biggest opening of the year for Universal, which has struggled to replicate last year's record-annihilating results. The studio has fielded some duds, such as "Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising" and "The Huntsman: Winter's War," failing to find a substitute for 2015 juggernauts like "Jurassic World" and "Furious 7."

It's also another success for Illumination, which opened "Minions" a year ago with $115 million on its way to a $336 million domestic total and $1.16 billion worldwide. Comcast, Universal's parent company, is betting heavily in the animation space. It has a deal in place to buy DreamWorks Animation for $4.1 billion, with the hopes of challenging Disney's dominance of the family film genre. Meledandri's role is unclear -- Universal backs Illumination -- but Jeff Shell, chairman of Universal Filmed Entertainment Group, has said he hopes that he will be the studio's equivalent of John Lasseter, the creative guru at Pixar.

In fourth place, Warner Bros.' "The Legend of Tarzan" picked up $20.6 million, bringing its stateside total to $81.4 million. Universal's "The Purge: Election Year" rounded out the top five, adding $11.7 million to its $58.1 million domestic haul.

Steven Spielberg's "The BFG" now definitively ranks as one of the year's biggest flops. The $140 million children's book adaptation only managed to pick up $7.6 million in its second weekend, bringing its domestic total to a disastrous $38.7 million.

In limited release, Bleecker Street debuted the Viggo Mortensen dramedy "Captain Fantastic" to strong reviews and $98,451 from four theaters. That translates into a $24,613 per-screen average. The film, which screened at Cannes and Sundance, will expand next weekend to 11 new markets, including San Francisco, Boston and Seattle.

After struggling at the beginning of summer, as sequels such as "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows" and "Alice Through the Looking Glass" failed to gain much traction, ticket sales are on the upswing. Receipts this weekend are up roughly 2% over last year when "Minions" debuted. The hope is that upcoming releases such as "Jason Bourne," "Star Trek Beyond" and "Suicide Squad" can continue to forward momentum.

"There's a lot of breadth in the marketplace," said Aronson. "I think summer is shaping up to finish strongly with some of the tentpoles left to come."

 

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'Secret Life of Pets' debuts to massive $103.2 million

LOS ANGELES: "The Secret Life of Pets" dominated the weekend box office, racking up a massive $103.2 million and launching the first new franchise of the summer.

Its success is a feather in the cap for Illumination chief Chris Meledandri, confirming his status among the ranks of animation giants. The family film, which explores what dogs, cats and other animal companions do while their owners are busy at work, cost an economical $75 million to produce, roughly half of what most studios spend making animated movies. Universal is backing the picture, which launched across 4,370 locations.

"Illumination just has a way of creating 'want to see' movies," said Nick Carpou, Universal's domestic distribution chief. "They make movies that resonate with audiences."

And ones that spawn toylines. The cuddly creatures that populate "Pets" seem tailor made to sell stuffed animals and t-shirts, creating a financial windfall for the studio. The film deftly exploited dog and cat obsessed moviegoers to appeal to both parents and children. In the United States alone, Americans are expected to spend more than $62 billion in 2016 on their pets.

"Somebody at Illumination is popping the champagne and pouring out the Kibble," said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at comScore. "The love that people have for their fish, their bird, their dogs, or their hamsters is demonstrated by their insatiable appetite for a movie like this."

"The Secret Life of Pets" easily supplanted Disney and Pixar's "Finding Dory" from first place on the box office charts -- a ranking it has held for the three previous weeks. The sequel to "Finding Nemo" slid to second place with $20.4 million, having made $422.6 million to lap "Captain America: Civil War" as the highest-grossing film of the year on a domestic basis. It also ranks as the highest-grossing animated film in North America, unseating "Toy Story 3."

The weekend's other new release, Fox's "Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates," opened to $16.6 million at 2,982 sites for a fourth place finish. The comedy about a pair of party animal brothers (Zac Efron and Adam DeVine) who enlist two women (Anna Kendrick and Aubrey Plaza) to accompany them to their sister's wedding, cost $33 million to make. Chernin Entertainment produced the film. Its audience was nearly evenly split between the genders, with women making up 52% of ticket buyers.

"We were very opportunistic about this date," said Chris Aronson, Fox's domestic distribution chief. "This seemed to be a good time to release an R-rated comedy."

"Pets" will post the sixth-best opening of 2016 following "Captain America: Civil War," "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice," "Finding Dory," "Deadpool" and "The Jungle Book" -- all members of the elite group of 39 titles that have opened with more than $100 million domestically. It's also a new opening weekend domestic record for an original animated film, topping the $90.4 million launch of "Inside Out" last summer.

The "Pets" voice cast includes Louis C.K., Eric Stonestreet, Kevin Hart, Jenny Slate, Ellie Kemper, Lake Bell, Dana Carvey, Hannibal Buress, Bobby Moynihan, Steve Coogan and Albert Brooks. "Despicable Me's" Chris Renaud directs and Yarrow Cheney co-directs from a script by Cinco Paul, Ken Daurio and Brian Lynch.

"Pets" is the biggest opening of the year for Universal, which has struggled to replicate last year's record-annihilating results. The studio has fielded some duds, such as "Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising" and "The Huntsman: Winter's War," failing to find a substitute for 2015 juggernauts like "Jurassic World" and "Furious 7."

It's also another success for Illumination, which opened "Minions" a year ago with $115 million on its way to a $336 million domestic total and $1.16 billion worldwide. Comcast, Universal's parent company, is betting heavily in the animation space. It has a deal in place to buy DreamWorks Animation for $4.1 billion, with the hopes of challenging Disney's dominance of the family film genre. Meledandri's role is unclear -- Universal backs Illumination -- but Jeff Shell, chairman of Universal Filmed Entertainment Group, has said he hopes that he will be the studio's equivalent of John Lasseter, the creative guru at Pixar.

In fourth place, Warner Bros.' "The Legend of Tarzan" picked up $20.6 million, bringing its stateside total to $81.4 million. Universal's "The Purge: Election Year" rounded out the top five, adding $11.7 million to its $58.1 million domestic haul.

Steven Spielberg's "The BFG" now definitively ranks as one of the year's biggest flops. The $140 million children's book adaptation only managed to pick up $7.6 million in its second weekend, bringing its domestic total to a disastrous $38.7 million.

In limited release, Bleecker Street debuted the Viggo Mortensen dramedy "Captain Fantastic" to strong reviews and $98,451 from four theaters. That translates into a $24,613 per-screen average. The film, which screened at Cannes and Sundance, will expand next weekend to 11 new markets, including San Francisco, Boston and Seattle.

After struggling at the beginning of summer, as sequels such as "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows" and "Alice Through the Looking Glass" failed to gain much traction, ticket sales are on the upswing. Receipts this weekend are up roughly 2% over last year when "Minions" debuted. The hope is that upcoming releases such as "Jason Bourne," "Star Trek Beyond" and "Suicide Squad" can continue to forward momentum.

"There's a lot of breadth in the marketplace," said Aronson. "I think summer is shaping up to finish strongly with some of the tentpoles left to come."

 

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Son, nephew kill woman in name of ?honour? in Karachi

KARACHI: A woman was killed by her son and nephew on Monday in name of ‘honour’ in Karachi’s Orangi Number 4 area, police said.

According to police, the son and nephew opened fire on the woman, killing her.

Police said it arrested the suspects identified as Qasim and Hussain in the case.

A man was also injured in the firing incident who has been identified, police added.

Hundreds of women are murdered by their relatives in Pakistan each year on the pretext of defending what is seen as 'family honour'.

In June, sixteen year-old Zeenat Bibi was killed in Lahore by her mother for marrying a man of her own choice in a case that sparked condemnation throughout the country.

It was swiftly followed by another killing, of a couple in Lahore who married without their family´s consent.

A film on honour killings in Pakistan won an Oscar for best documentary short in February.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif vowed to eradicate the "evil" amid publicity for the film, "A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness".

Also earlier in June, the Sunni Ittehad Council had issued a fatwa, or religious ruling, declaring "honour killing" over perceived damage to a family's reputation against the teaching of Islam, and anyone who carries out such an attack a heretic.

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Pakistan becomes sixth most populated country

Pakistan has made it to number six in the list of most populated countries of the world, a recent report by the United Nations points out.

In a country mired with poverty and a large uneducated workforce this population bomb could prove disastrous. Pakistanis are among the 60 percent people in this world who live in developing countries, the report which was launched to mark World Population Day claims.

The theme for this year is ?development for teenage girls?. Teenage girls make up a large chunk of the 1.8 billion world population aged between 10 till 24.

As life expectancy world over has improved, population is increasing at a rate of 1.8 percent every year, experts point out. Going by these figures at the break of the 22nd century 11.2 billion will inhabit the earth.

"Governments everywhere need to invest in teenage girls in ways that empower them to make important life decisions and equip them to one day earn a living, engage in the affairs of their communities and be on an equal footing with their male counterparts," said UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Osotimehin in an official statement on the occasion of World Population Day 2016.

Since the year 1989, July 11 is observed as world population day.

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Pakistan becomes sixth most populated country

Pakistan has made it to number six in the list of most populated countries of the world, a recent report by the United Nations points out.

In a country mired with poverty and a large uneducated workforce this population bomb could prove disastrous. Pakistanis are among the 60 percent people in this world who live in developing countries, the report which was launched to mark World Population Day claims.

The theme for this year is ‘development for teenage girls’. Teenage girls make up a large chunk of the 1.8 billion world population aged between 10 till 24.

As life expectancy world over has improved, population is increasing at a rate of 1.8 percent every year, experts point out. Going by these figures at the break of the 22nd century 11.2 billion will inhabit the earth.

"Governments everywhere need to invest in teenage girls in ways that empower them to make important life decisions and equip them to one day earn a living, engage in the affairs of their communities and be on an equal footing with their male counterparts," said UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Osotimehin in an official statement on the occasion of World Population Day 2016.

Since the year 1989, July 11 is observed as world population day.

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Son, nephew kill woman in name of ?honour? in Karachi

KARACHI: A woman was killed by her son and nephew on Monday in name of ?honour? in Karachi?s Orangi Number 4 area, police said.

According to police, the son and nephew opened fire on the woman, killing her.

Police said it arrested the suspects identified as Qasim and Hussain in the case.

A man was also injured in the firing incident who has been identified, police added.

Hundreds of women are murdered by their relatives in Pakistan each year on the pretext of defending what is seen as 'family honour'.

In June, sixteen year-old Zeenat Bibi was killed in Lahore by her mother for marrying a man of her own choice in a case that sparked condemnation throughout the country.

It was swiftly followed by another killing, of a couple in Lahore who married without their family´s consent.

A film on honour killings in Pakistan won an Oscar for best documentary short in February.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif vowed to eradicate the "evil" amid publicity for the film, "A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness".

Also earlier in June, the Sunni Ittehad Council had issued a fatwa, or religious ruling, declaring "honour killing" over perceived damage to a family's reputation against the teaching of Islam, and anyone who carries out such an attack a heretic.

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Most people don?t know what?s in cigarette smoke

Many people in a recent study said they?d tried to find out what chemicals are in tobacco products or smoke, but most were not familiar with components other than nicotine. 

Surveyed by phone, more than half the respondents said they?d like to see this information on cigarette packs and a quarter would like to have access to it online.

Of the 7,000 constituents of cigarette smoke, 93 in particular are quite toxic, said Dr. Kurt M. Ribisl of the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

?It?s pretty surprising how relatively few people have heard of these yet many were interested in hearing more about them,? Ribisl told Reuters Health by phone.

The most simple and effective messaging may be to list the chemicals and, briefly, their health effects, he said. For example, cigarette smoke contains arsenic, which causes heart damage, and formaldehyde, which causes throat cancer.

Ribisl and colleagues surveyed nearly 5,000 U.S. adults by phone, targeting high smoking/ low income areas and cell phone numbers.

Almost a quarter of respondents reported being smokers, most saying they had smoked every day for the past month.

The researchers chose 24 harmful chemicals in tobacco and divided them into six groups of four. Each participant answered questions about one group of four chemicals, selected at random.

More than a quarter of respondents said they had looked for information on the constituents of tobacco smoke, most commonly young adults and smokers. More than half said they would most prefer to see this information on cigarette packs.

Only eight percent of respondents knew that at least three of the four chemicals they were asked about are present in cigarette smoke, the researchers reported in BMC Public Health.

?Many people seek information on smoke components but not many find it,? said Dr. Reinskje Talhout of the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment at the Center for Health Protection in The Netherlands.

?Here they also seek it but in general don?t understand it very well, so we developed fact sheets for the general public,? Talhout told Reuters Health by phone.

Having this information may help smokers make an informed decision, but there is no evidence yet on how it may change smoking behavior, Talhout said.

?If people hear about these components they are quite shocked,? she said.

The US Food and Drug Administration has a list of harmful and potentially harmful tobacco components available to consumers (online here: bit.ly/1lNyDVo), and tobacco manufacturers are obliged to send this list and amounts in their products to the FDA, Talhout said.

It?s still not clear how providing this information on packs might change behavior, Ribisl noted, and it is possible that listing amounts of chemicals will simply lead consumers to ?comparison shop? and choose a brand with marginally lower amounts of the same dangerous chemicals, rather than quitting altogether.

?Both the Centers for Disease Control and FDA are very credible sources about this information,? he said.

?One of the things I would like the FDA and others to think about is what they can put on the side of the cigarette pack, what kind of message can we put there to help create informed smokers,? he said.

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