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‘Suicide Squad’ sets August opening record with $135.1M | Fox News

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NEW YORK –  The supervillain romp “Suicide Squad” shrugged off scathing reviews to open with an estimated $135.1 million in North American ticket sales, scoring one of the year’s biggest box-office debuts.

Pressure had risen on the performance of the Warner Bros. film, directed by David Ayer, following the studio’s previous poorly received DC Comics film, “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.” But “Suicide Squad” proved a massive draw despite its much-derided lead-in. It set a record for an August opening, easily besting Marvel’s 2014 hit “Guardians of the Galaxy,” which debuted with $94.3 million.

Though the Warner Bros.-DC Comics alliance was again battered by bad reviews, “Suicide Squad” delivered at the box office.

“We learn as we go,” said Jeff Goldstein, head of distribution for Warner Bros. “We’ve fine-tuned our strategy in terms of who’s in charge and how we’re approaching all our DC films. We’re modifying it in an exciting way to make all the subsequent films as great as possible.”

Not everything was roses for “Suicide Squad,” though, despite dominating the weekend. (The other new wide release, the feline animated release “Nine Lives,” debuted in sixth with a mere $6.5 million.) After fans flocked to theaters on Thursday night and Friday, audiences dropped steeply on Saturday. That could forecast further sharp declines in coming weeks for the $175 million film, which also came with a massive marketing budget.

That was the trajectory for “Batman v Superman,” which bowed with $166 million in March but didn’t make that much in its entire remaining run in North American theaters. “Suicide Squad,” the last tent-pole film of the summer, won’t have much competition in the coming weeks, but it will need better word of mouth than “Batman v Superman” to keep luring audiences.

“Suicide Squad,” starring Margot Robbie, Will Smith and Jared Leto, went into reshoots after the disappointment of “Batman v Superman,” and its marketing got a more comic, punk vibe that clicked with fans. But the film was derided as a mess by critics and others questioned the movie’s PG-13 ratingconsidering its high degree of violence.

Audiences liked it better. Opening weekend crowds gave it a B-plus on CinemaScore.

The elephant in the room is that the reviews were harsh,” Goldstein said. “Clearly there’s disconnect between audiences and critics.”

But in franchise building, leaving fans thirsting for more is nearly as important as box office. In that regard, the jury remains out on “Suicide Squad.” The coming weeks will show if crowds still materialize or quickly dissipate as they did for “Batman v Superman.” The film also opened with $132 million internationally, where it will likely go without a release in China, the world’s second-largest movie market.

Warner Bros., with years of DC films in the works, has a lot riding on its comic movie rival to Marvel. Next up is Patty Jenkins’ “Wonder Woman” in June.

“You can’t put reviews in the bank. You can put money in the bank,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for comScore. “The long-term success of any movie is predicated on positive sentiment from the fans. For any movie, that’s the most important aspect.”

Warners could on Sunday celebrate crossing $1 billion in 2016 domestic revenue, a mark it has achieved 16 years straight. The “Suicide Squad” debut also gave Smith, long one of the movies’ top draws, the biggest opening of his career. (Second is 2007’s “I Am Legend” with $77.2 million.)

The top five for the weekend box office was otherwise filled with holdovers. The Matt Damon spy sequel “Jason Bourne” grossed $22.7 million in its second weekend. It’s made $103.4 million in two weeks for Universal. SXT Entertainment’s “Bad Moms” also continued solid business with $14.2 million in its second week, bringing the cumulative gross for the comedy to $51 million.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to comScore. Where available, the latest international numbers for Friday through Sunday are also included. Final three-day domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. “Suicide Squad,” $135.1 million ($132 million international).

2. “Jason Bourne,” $22.7 million.

3. “Bad Moms,” $14.2 million.

4. “The Secret Life of Pets,” $11.6 million.

5. “Star Trek Beyond,” $10.2 million.

6. “Nine Lives,” $6.5 million.

7. “Lights Out,” $6 million.

8. “Nerve,” $4.9 million.

9. “Ghostbusters,” $4.8 million.

10. “Ice Age: Collision Course,” $4.3 million.

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Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at international theaters (excluding the U.S. and Canada), according to comScore:

1. “Suicide Squad,” $132 million.

2. “The Secret Life of Pets,” $68.6 million.

3. “Time Raiders,” 64.6 million.

4. “Jason Bourne,” $20.9 million.

5. “Finding Dory,” $11.5 million.

6. “Ice Age: Collision Course,” $11.5 million.

7. “The Last Princess,” $10 million.

8. “Sweet Sixteen,” $10 million.

9. “Operation Chromite,” $9.5 million.

10. “The Legend of Tarzan,” $8.1 million.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2016/08/07/suicide-squad-sets-august-opening-record-with-135-1m.html

Going it alone: why Frank Ocean’s style matters

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From his appearance in a Calvin Klein advert to his unusual live-stream, the singers anti-peacock take on pop culture is an original and political stance


Oceans advert for Calvin Kleins #mycalvins campaign.

The importance of Frank Oceans style was underlined again this week when he appeared on the Boys Dont Cry live stream wearing a Jesus and Mary Chain T-shirt from the label Undercover. Its as political as it is sartorial. Musically and stylistically, Ocean subverts expectations and norms. Hes not an R&B singer and he doesnt dress like Kanye West. As a person of colour, his anti-peacock image resets the subtext about how black celebrities and singers are expected to dress.

Frank
The bandana makes an appearance at All Tomorrows Parties in 2012. Photograph: Ilya S Savenok/Getty Images

Oceans look has become more refined, and his re-emergence after a quiet couple of years has been drenched in fashion references. His video for Calvin Kleins #mycalvins campaign earlier this year felt like a mini music video. Barefoot in an oversized black suit and a white, buttoned-up shirt, his hair referenced the haircut of now the Mr Robot undercut while the found footage, mise-en-scne and lighting felt very Talking Heads (David Byrne was recently a reference for Balenciaga).

Frank
Wearing Dior Homme on the red carpet at the Grammys in 2013. Photograph: Steve Granitz/WireImage

Oceans appearance in the ad shouldnt have been a surprise. Eagle-eyed Frank spotters will have noticed the visual references to Raf Simons (as well as Gosha Rubchinskiy), the new chief creative officer of the label. Its probably the most fashion move of his career so far.

Oceans initial image was defined by a stick-of-rock bandana in white and red. He wore it when he was a member of Odd Future, and it felt like a piece of juvenilia (a Karate Kid reference?), a bit of costuming that stood out awkwardly as his music matured out of the mixtape era, although it did merit its own Twitter account.

Ocean seemed to have got the memo that menswear moves at a glacial pace, and his later looks were subtly stylish so subtle that some might have called them normcore, but they could be more accurately described as classically modernist with a pop-culture twist.

Ocean incorporated designer pieces into his look, but he did it his way. He wore black Givenchy sweaters, navy Dior Homme suits and maroon Maison Margiela trousers, but he accessorised them with sportswear brands such as Supreme, Common Project and Nike. When he embraced florals, on a pastel T-shirt at the Brits, it was Supremes take on the cover of New Orders Power Corruption and Lies. And when he wore couture, a custom-made Band of Outsiders canary-yellow suit (the shade of that season), he drew comparisons away from the catwalk and towards Richie Tenenbaum.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2016/aug/05/going-alone-why-frank-ocean-style-matters

It’s Not You. Women’s Clothing Sizes Make No Sense.

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It’s a frustrating exercise many women know all too well. You walk into a clothing store and pick up an item in your usual size. But when you step into the dressing room, there’s something amiss. The item is either way too small or weirdly enormous. “What’s wrong with my body?” you may ask yourself.

The answer is: absolutely nothing.

Women’s clothing sizes simply “don’t make sense,” according to this Vox video. In fact, it turns out the size listed on your clothing tag is almost completely arbitrary.

First there’s the issue of “vanity sizing,” or the phenomenon of retailers manipulating the size on clothes.

“Vanity sizing was done as a marketing tool. I don’t think it’s done as a marketing tool anymore. I think it’s done because the women are getting bigger, and we’re just addressing that,” said Lynn Boorady, chair of the fashion and textile technology department at SUNY Buffalo State, in the video. “The original sizing charts never had sizes 0 and 2. Now we select sizes 0 and 2 because the sizes are getting smaller and smaller and we’re getting larger and larger but we’re also adding at the other end.”

A size 8 in 1958 is equivalent to a modern size 00, data obtained by The Washington Post shows. A size 12 in 1970 is similar in measurement to a size 0 today.

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Women’s clothing sizes have had a thorny history, according to Vox.

When the U.S. government attempted to create a standardized system of sizing for women’s clothes in 1939, officials used the measurements of only white, mostly poor, women.

It was “not a very diverse group of women and that’s what we started with,” Boorady said.

Today, women’s sizing is no less problematic.

But Boorady said it’s important not to sweat it.

“It’s not you, it’s the industry. It’s not women’s bodies, we’re fine the way we are. They’re just random numbers. They don’t mean anything,” she said. “If you don’t like the size, just cut it out of your clothes.” 

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/vanity-sizing-women-clothing_us_57a447a9e4b056bad21523b4?section=&