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lifestyle TUESDAY, MAY 26, 2015 Features Box Office: ‘Tomorrowland’ stumbles to $41.7 million in slow Memorial Day weekend summer box office that was hurtling towards “Tomorrowland,” which starred George Clooney and was $26.5 million across 3,240 screens. The haunted house record breaking numbers hit its first speed bump directed by Brad Bird, will result in a write-down for the film carried an economical $35 million to produce. Athis Memorial Day after “Tomorrowland” landed studio. In the absence of a Memorial Day juggernaut, There was some good news for Disney. Fifth place fin- with more of a whimper than a bang. The Disney adven- Universal’s “Pitch Perfect 2” continued to draw crowds, isher “Avengers: Age of Ultron” crossed the $400 million ture film debuted to a disappointing $41.7 million across picking up an estimated $38.5 million over the four-day mark domestically, after bringing in $27.8 million over 3,972 theaters, less than the $50 million it was projected period. The a cappella comedy has earned $126 million the holiday weekend. Globally, the superhero adventure to make over the four-day weekend. Even if it had hit in its first two weeks in the theaters. has made more than $1.1 billion. Overall box office num- those estimates, “Tomorrowland” faced an uphill climb if “Mad Max: Fury Road” also showed some staying bers were not immediately available, but they will likely it hoped to make back its $180 million production budg- power, dropping 45% in its sophmore weekend and be down sharply from last year when “X-Men: Days of et plus tens of millions more spent hawking and distrib- earning $32.1 million over the four-day holiday. The Future Past” debuted to a massive $110.6 million, the uting the fantasy film. Warner Bros. release has earned $95.5 million domesti- sixth biggest Memorial Day opening in history. In con- More troubling, foreign numbers for the film were cally-a respectable figure, but one that will have to rise trast, “Tomrrowland’s” debut ranks 22nd on the all-time lackluster. The picture brought in $26.7 million through higher if the studio wants to recoup the $150 million it list of Memorial Day bows. — Reuters Sunday, from 56 percent of the international market- says it spent making the picture. Fourth place went to place. There are still several major territories left to open “Poltergeist,” a remake of the 1982 horror classic from such as China and Japan, but it seems likely that Fox and Metro-Goldwyn Mayer that brought in a solid US actor George Clooney and his wife Amal pose for photographers at a photo (From right) US movie star George Clooney, Japanese actress Mirai Shida, US actress Britt Robertson, British actress Raffey Cassidy and US film director Brad Bird smile call for Disney’s latest film Tomorrowland in Tokyo yesterday. — AFP photos at the Japan premiere of their latest movie ‘Tomorrowland’ in Tokyo yesterday. Clooney and casts are here for the Japanese premiere of their new film ‘Tomorrowland’, a retro-futuristic spectacle mixing environmental themes with sci-fi wizardry. — AFP It’s a China office block, Jim, but not as we know it! Chinese millionaire and self-confessed Star Trek fan has NetDragon told reporters that the building is called boldly gone where no man has gone before with the ‘Enterprise’,” the report added. “It is understood that Adesign of his company headquarters, erected in the NetDragon chairman Liu Dejian, himself a Star Trek fan, shape of the USS Enterprise. The office block in the eastern bought the USS Enterprise copyright from CBS,” it said, refer- city of Fuzhou has the emblematic circular contours and tubu- ring to the US broadcaster. The USS Enterprise explored lar features of the show’s spaceship, according to images on strange new worlds and sought out new life and new civiliza- the website of the People’s Daily newspaper. tions in death-defying odysseys in the Star Trek television It was built by “Trekkie” Liu Dejian, the boss of mobile series and films.— AFP Internet app developer NetDragon Websoft, at a cost of $160 million, the newspaper said. “An informed source at The NetDragon Websoft headquarters building with the iconic circular contours and tubular features of the USS Enterprise, from the US television and film series Star Trek, in Fuzhou, in eastern Chinaís Fujian province. — AFP Actress and comedian Anne Meara, mother of Ben Stiller, dies at 85 nne Meara, the Emmy- and Tony-nominated comedian episode of “Homicide: Life on the Street,” in which she played a Meara and sister Amy both had roles, but Jerry was unaccount- ments in an Off Broadway staging of “Love, Loss, and What I Wore,” long paired personally and professionally with Jerry Stiller schoolteacher in a very tense hostage situation, drawing her ably absent except in the credits, where he was thanked. The the Nora and Delia Ephron play based on Ilene Beckerman’s book. Aand the mother of actor-director Ben Stiller, died Saturday, fourth Emmy nomination. In 1984 Meara shared a Writers Guild Stiller family frequently appeared in the same movies even when The actress made her screen debut in 1954 on NBC series “The her husband and son told the Associated Press. She was 85. No Award for penning the telepic “The Other Woman,” in which Hal Ben wasn’t directing. Meara had a small role in the Shawn Levy- Greatest Gift.” She also appeared on an Arthur Penn-directed “The further details have been revealed. A statement released to the AP Linden played a widower who toys with the notion of romance directed hit “Night at the Museum,” starring Ben. Jerry was the star Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse” adaptation of Robert Alan said Jerry Stiller was Meara’s “husband and partner in life.” “The with his daughter’s sexy roommate but ultimately finds love with of 2000 mockumentary “The Independent,” in which he played Arthur’s “Man on the Mountaintop” and, in 1959, in an ABC adap- two were married for 61 years and worked together almost as a woman played by Meara. Morty Fineman, a director of comically bizarre exploitation films tation of “Ninotchka” that starred Maria Schell. long,” the statement said. Stiller and Meara were a top comedy act with a message such as 1969’s “Groovy Hippie Slumber Party,” in the 1960s, appearing on “The Ed Sullivan Show” some 36 times. Powerful guest performances “Kent State Nurses” and-taking credit for the use of Roman numer- Emmy nominations Meara and Stiller were members of the improv group the Meara recurred as Mary Finnegan (the mother of Doug’s nerdy als in film titles-war epic “World War III II.” Even in this low-profile, In the brief 1964 animated series “Linus! The Lion Hearted,” Compass Players, which later became Second City. friend Spence, played by Patton Oswalt) on “The King of Queens,” low-budget film, Ben Stiller, Amy Stiller and Meara supported the Stiller & Meara were credited for three episodes. She Although Meara had converted to Judaism when the couple where Stiller was a series regular from 1998-2007 as the much- effort with cameos. appeared in a 1971 TV adaptation of the musical “Dames at Sea,” got married, Stiller & Meara’s material centered on the differ- married Arthur Spooner, the father of Leah Remini’s Carrie starring Ann-Margret. Meara also starred in her own, brief NBC ences in their ethnic backgrounds, epitomized by their signature Heffernan; in the final season of the series, the two characters Screen debut series, “Kate McShane,” in which she played an attorney who “Hershey Horowitz/Mary Elizabeth Doyle” routines. In 2010 the married. The actress recurred on “Sex and the City” as the mother Similarly, in the much-earlier horror film “Highway to Hell” solves mysteries, in 1975 — drawing her first Emmy nomination, couple had their own Yahoo comedy series, “Stiller & Meara,” of bartender Steve Brady and guested on “Will & Grace” in (1991), Jerry Stiller, Meara, as well as Ben and Amy, all had roles. In for lead actress in a drama. She was a series regular on “Archie produced in part by son Ben. 2001. “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” afforded Meara the 1998’s “Southie,” starring Donnie Wahlberg in the story of hoods in Bunker’s Place,” from 1979-82, as Veronica Rooney, the bar’s wise- opportunity to give two powerful guest performances. In 2004 Boston’s famous working-class Irish neighborhood, Meara played cracking, alcoholic chef-picking up her second and third Emmy Bravura performance she played the mother of a serial killer who, with anguish, helps the Wahlberg character’s ailing mother “with warm grit,” according nominations, for supporting actress in a comedy, in 1981 and But Meara was also a serious dramatic actress who received a the police apprehend her son before he can kill again; in a 2012 to the Boston Phoenix. Meara was born in Brooklyn to parents of 1982. She recurred on the brief ABC series “The Corner Bar” in 1993 Tony nomination for best featured actress in a play for her episode she played the mother of a prostitute (played by Patricia Irish descent. She studied drama at HB Studio in Greenwich 1972-73 as well as on “Rhoda” as one of the title character’s friends, work in a production of Eugene O’Neill’s harrowing “Anna Christie” Arquette) who’s involved with an armed and dangerous man and Village; decades later she would teach a course there herself. Sally Gallagher or “Big Sally,” a divorced flight attendant.