The Twilight Saga: New Moon

It was speculated something such and the makers of the vampire saga were not let down. “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” wolfed $140.7 million in its opening weekend. On the first three days the movie minted total $258.8 million worldwide as per reports of studio estimates on Sunday.

A year back “Twilight”, the first installment of Stephenie Meyer’s popular vampire series, grossed $69.6 million haul over the same weekend. A year after the picture was completely changed. The No. 1 domestic debut for Summit Entertainment’s “New Moon” was more than twice.

“Obviously, with the success of ‘Twilight’ itself, sequels being what they are will generate X-number of dollars more, particularly if it’s a satisfying sequel”, Richie Fay, head of distribution for Summit, was quoted as saying.

“New Moon” ranked third on the all-time domestic chart, with Batman blockbuster “The Dark Knight” ranking 1st with a gross of $158.4 million opening weekend and “Spider-Man 3″ ranking 2nd with a gross of $151.1 million. On the opening day itself, “New Moon” earned $72.7 million, which is an all time domestic high for opening day. This surpassed the previous record of $67.2 million by last year’s “The Dark Knight”. “New Moon” is also the second-biggest non-holiday weekend ever in Hollywood, the top being none other than the July 18, 2008 release of “The Dark Knight”.

Outside “New Moon” debuted in 25 countries and took in $118.1 million over the first weekend. There was no doubt that “New Moon” would emerge this big.

The third installment of Meyer’s next “Twilight” chapter, “Eclipse,” arrives in the heart of summer, next June 30 and is expected to do as big as this.

Twilight had showcased the supernatural teen romance between a school girl and a vampire (Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson) and New Moon adds a love triangle with a werewolf (Taylor Lautner) to the plot. Both the films have been hot favorite among female fans resulting to around 80% of the audience for “New Moon” being female. The “Twilight” franchise “taps into something primal and visceral that drives women crazy, and they’re willing to pay for the privilege” commented Dergarabedian. The viewers for the film were mostly young who apparently left to chance to fall in love with vampire and werewolf heartthrobs.

The five films that grossed highest during last weekend are:

1. “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” ($140.7 million)
2. “The Blind Side” ($34.5 million)
3. “2012″ ($26.5 million)
4. “Planet 51″ ($12.6 million)
5. “A Christmas Carol” ($12.2 million)

Michael Buble

Second week in a row and Michael Buble still continues to dominated the US Pop Album Chart. The soundtrack from “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” topped the second place of the billboard after its release. Buble gave it a strong fight by occupying the top spot for a second consecutive week.

The album named “Crazy Love” by the singer sold over 203,000 copies in a week that ended on 18th October. This is marked as the second-best sales week of Buble’s career as per a report presented by Nielsen SoundScan. Earlier his debut album “Call Me Irresponsible” recorded a weekly sale of 213,000 for in 2007.

As compared to Buble’s “Crazy Love”, the “New Moon” soundtrack marked a sale of 115,000 copies. In order to leave behind the leaks, the soundtrack of New Moon was released on 16th October, 4 days ahead of it scheduled date on 20th October.

In the coming week country king Tim McGraw’s new album, “Southern Voice”, will hit the stores. New Moon will have to give it a big fight to secure the top position on Billboard 200 in the next week.

Following the success of “Crazy Love”, a close second debut was “Embryonic” by Flaming Lips. The album entered Billboard 200 at number 8 after a sale of a little under 32,000 copies. This is the highest rank that the rock band has ever received in US charts. With a sale of 48,000 in its first week, the last album of Flaming Lips, “At War With the Mystics”, was ranked at number 11 on Billboard 200 in 2006.

The 3rd rank is secured by Jay-Z’s “The Blueprint 3″ with 55,000 sales. And the 5th spot is reigned by Miley Cyrus’ “The Time of Our Lives” with 40,000. Black Eyed Peas’ “The E.N.D.” took a huge leap from No. 23 to No. 6 with just under 40,000.

Michael Jackson is up with 5 posthumous nominations at AMA

It has been a little over four months after the shocking death of the king of pop, and now he has been nominated for a posthumous award at AMA. Michael Jackson has received a nomination for favorite male artist and favorite album in both the pop/rock and soul/R&B categories.

Besides MJ, the other performers up for nomination in the American Music Awards (AMAs) are Lady Gaga, rapper Eminem and rockers King of Leon. The country crooner Taylor Swift leads the nomination list with six nomination.

The AMAs, which will be presented on November 22nd at Los Angeles, will be decided based on the sale of each artists’ record and radio airplay. Based on the sales count the winners will be finally awarded after voting through online selection.

The late pop singer, Michael Jackson, is up with five nominations at the American Music Awards. These nominations also include a posthumous artist of the year. The “Thriller” singer will face tough competition from some of the very popular singers of the present in the key categories.

The American Music Awards (AMAs) will have a live telecast on ABC network of America on 22nd November night. Fans will be able to vote for their favorite singer or performer through online voting system.

MJ has the credit of winning most number of AMAs till date amounting to 20 till date as a solo artist. The Moon Walker has also won an artist of the century award in AMA earlier. The “Thriller” album of the late pop king won 8 nods in 1983. This record win of Jackson was leveled by Whitney Houston only after 12 years.

Among his other prominent ideas the most mentionable ones are his 13 Grammy wins. The singer has also the fame to be included in the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.

The Black Eyed Peas, along with Alicia Keys and Jennifer Lopez, who are also nominated in AMA, are expected to perform in the ceremony.

Star Trek

The new Star Trek film, which has released on May 7th, has shot up to the top of the North American box office chart as per the early figures. Director JJ Abrams’ prequel to the sci-fi franchise earned an approximated $76.5m (£50.3m) in its opening weekend. Star Trek has easily  its nearest rival. This amount has also far exceeded the opening totals of the previous 10 Trek films.

With Star Trek’s quite an impressive earning in the opening week itself,  X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the previous chart topper, has been moved down to the 2nd place in the chart.  Star Trek earned an amount of $27m (£17.7m) in the opening week. But the  comic book hero movie, Wolverine, with a taking of $85m (£56m) in its opening weekend, still ranks as the biggest film opening so far this year.

Starring debut actor, Chris Pine in the lead role, the film Star Trek,  said the inside stories of Captain Kirk, Mr Spock and the rest of the crew of the USS Enterprise.  It has been estimated by the Paramount Pictures that Star Trek  would make about $50m (£33m) for the weekend. But after all those raving reviews the film now in every probability seems to carry it to a bigger opening.

Vice chairman Rob Moore is hopeful that even with Terminator: Salvation and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in the theater this summer, Star Trek will gross over $200m (£132m), gross over $200m (£132m).

]]> http://celeb9.com/blog/2009/05/star-trek-shines-to-top-of-chart.html/feed 2 http://celeb9.com/blog/2009/04/kylie-minogue-in-uks-rich-list.html http://celeb9.com/blog/2009/04/kylie-minogue-in-uks-rich-list.html#comments Wed, 29 Apr 2009 12:34:58 +0000 doyeeta http://celeb9.com/blog/?p=7182

Kylie Minogue

The global economic recession has not spared the rich. Yet, they are rich. Pop queen Kylie Minogue, has landed a place in the UK rich list despite having lost money in the economic crisis.

According to the list compiled by The Sunday Times, the 40-year-old singer has made it to the 46th spot among the Top wealthiest music with her personal fortune of over $70 million. Minogue’s wealth, however, has come down from last year when her fortune was estimated to be worth $83.5 million. That puts her in league with Paul McCartney, Robbie Williams and Mick Jagger whose earnings dropped by 10% last year due to the global meltdown.

The UK rich list shows that Minogue was worth $71.25 million which equals that of Ronnie Wood, Mick Hucknell and Jamiroquai frontman Jay Kay. South African-born record executive 62-yer-old Clive Calder tops the UK rich list with a personal fortune of $2.6 billion. Economic crisis or not, Kylie can now celebrate because she remains one of world’s richest female singers.

Amy Winehouse

Singer Amy Winehouse, who has an estimated fortune of £10m has been secured a position in this year’s Sunday Times young music rich list for the first time. Winehouse, the 24 year old “Rehab”  singer was ranked at the 10th position in the list of Britain’s top 100 richest people in music under 30 that also included  R&B star Craig David and pop star Will Young.

With a fortune amounting to £11m the 22 year old Charlotte Church shared the 9th position with rugby star Gavin Henson. Joss Stone came close eighth. But the list as topped by Dhani Harrison, the son of Late George Harrison, with a £160m fortune. Dhani, the 29 year old musician is the only child of the former Beatles member. Dhani also finished the unfinished last album of Harrison after he passed away in 2001.

the 2nd place was secured by 29 year old violinist Vanessa-Mae Nicholson. She was followed by Coldplay trio Guy Berryman, Jonny Buckland and Will Champion, with an estimated £30m each in the bank to hold a third place in the list.

Former Blue star Simon Webbe and jazz musician Jamie Cullum have also been included in the list.

Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie

It has been reported that Aniston has earned a sweeping $27 million, while the Tomb Raider actress brought home $14 million. Among Aniston’s 2008 films was “Marley & Me.” But, both these stars fall behind R&B singer Beyonce who  earned a cool $80 million last year on the basis of her film career and latest album “I’m Sasha Fierce.¨”An even better figure is owned by her rapper husband Jay-Z who pocketed $82 million, thus adding to his already expanding bank balance.

Actor/Director Tyler Perry added a whopping $125 million to his fortune, and funnyman Will Ferrell’s 2008 earnings amounts to $31 million. Wow!!

Top WAGs: (Clockwise from left) Cheryl Cole, Victoria beckham, Alex Curran, Abigail Clancy, Caryl Zucker

WAGs??!! Did that puzzle you? It is an acronym for Wives And Girlfriends of British soccer players. Where did it come from?! The British press invented it during the 2006 World Cup to describe the lady loves (wives/girlfriends) of England´s national players whose good looks and heavy bank accounts have made them paparazzi´s favorite boys. AskMen.com has created a top 10 list of WAGs of only British soccer players based on their looks, fashion obsession and their popularity. Lets take a look at some of the glam  WAGs who made it to the list.

At no. 10 is Carly Zucker, who got married to British soccer player Joe Cole this summer. Like her profile, she keeps her weight low. She is a weight trainer and created news when she became size zero from size eight. The question arose whether she was trying to give fellow WAG Victoria Beckham competition. Carly said no. She lost weight because she stopped weight training.

British soccer player Steven Gerrard´s wife Alex Curan stands at number 8 in the list. She has been described as an “uber WAG¨ for depicting all the qualities required to be a perfect WAG. She is a model with a shopping obsession that not only makes her buy stuff but also write about it in a weekly column. This WAG has also been in a brawl at a Liverpool bar. ´Alex´ became a top selling fragrance in 2007. Another soccer wife, who called all WAGs leeches, got it back from Alex who said ¨ She’ll be glad to know I don’t know her boyfriend’s name, but Steven thinks he’s a non-league player.¨ The latest about her is that she is fighting an imposter who has stolen her persona on Facebook. Phew! What a WAG.

Abigail Clancy, at number 5, is dating British soccer player Peter Crouch. This lovely WAG moved on to make an appearance on ´Britain´s Next Top Model´ in 2006 from being a member of British girl group ´Genie Queen.´ She has done a number of modeling assignments for magazines and newspapers. The tabloids displayed the drama between the love birds that took place after Abigail cheated on Peter. Afterward, she starred in a reality show with a supermodel. The show was a flop, but Peter went back to her. The couple has reconciled.

The stylish and sexy Victoria Beckham, wife of British soccer superstar David Beckham, has acquired the third position in the list. The New Yorker has named her ¨Queen of the WAGs¨ and her fame with the paparazzi has been growing ever since she married David Beckham. Victoria has designed a whole range of jeans, and handbags and also her a fragrance on her name.

Leading the list is Ashley Cole´s wife Cheryl Cole. She started her career in 2002 as star of reality TV show ´Popstars: The Rivals´ and later, landed a modeling contract for Coca Cola. She has been inspiring songs from The Streets and Lily Allen.. Her latest onscreen appearance has been on British talent show ´X Factor´ in which she plays a judge. Rumors have it that Ashley´s dates with other women will soon end the couple´s marriage.

Check the whole story: AskMen.com

Frankie Avalon at American Idol Top 8 Results

Last night, American Idol had a big surprise for its viewers. No, it was not the elimination of Scott Mactintyre. It was Frankie Avalon! joining Kellie Pickler and Flo Rida on stage for performances.

After an introduction of what was going on in 1959, the year Simon was born, American Idol host Ryan played a clipping of the number one song from that year. The song was ´Venus´ by Frankie Avalon. And then, there was the man himself! The surprise guest came on stage singing ´Venus´ and looking as good as ever.

Born in 1939, Frankie Avalon is an actor/singer, and more importantly, was a teen icon of his times. He joined the US television at the young age of 12. His roles in ´Beach Party´ film genre made him hugely popular and he became a sex-symbol. On television, he starred in approximately two-dozen episodes. Despite taking up marketing in 1980s, Avalon did not resign from his acting/singing career. He appeared in the stage productions of ´Grease´ and in 2007, he performed the song ¨Beauty School Dropout.¨

Frankie Avalon´s ¨Venus¨ was released in 1959 and it became an instant hit. The song hit the charts acquiring number one position on Billboard Hot 100 chart where it remained for five consecutive weeks. When Avalon gave a live performance of the song last night on American Idol Top 8 Results, it was awesome to see the iconic figure on stage with his old hit.

Apart from Avalon, Kellie Pickler performed and Flo Rida sang ¨Right Round.¨ There was a group performance song, which was “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” by Kylie Minogue. But after Frankie Avalon´s surprise visit to the ´Idol´ stage, all seemed a blur.