newsmakers

newsmakers

‘Fault’ tops Tom Cruise film with $48.2 million

NEW YORK

In a box-office battle that pitted young against old, female against male, modest drama against big-budget spectacle, the teenage romance “The Fault in Our Stars” easily bested the time-shifting Tom Cruise action film “Edge of Tomorrow.”

With a $48.2 million domestic debut, “The Fault in Our Stars” thumped the $29.1 million opening for “Edge of Tomorrow,” according to studio estimates Sunday. It did so with a far less-seasoned star in Shailene Woodley and a $12 million budget a fraction the size of that for “Edge of Tomorrow,” made for approximately $175 million.

The results offered a stark illustration of shifting box-office trends. Whereas big-budget, male-oriented action films with stars such as Cruise have long ruled the day at North American multiplexes, those movies are increasingly under siege from films ignited by passionate, young, female moviegoers.

Twentieth Century Fox said that an overwhelming 82 percent of the audience for the film was female, an unusually large gender gap for such a popular movie.

Disney’s fairy tale “Maleficent,” starring Angelina Jolie, slid to second place in its second week with $33.5 million. With a two-week global sum of $335.5 million, “Maleficent” has performed well, but it remains to be seen if it can be a real moneymaker for Disney.

Last stop, Texas, for country star Strait

ARLINGTON, Texas

Country-music king George Strait capped off the last tour of his career with an epic, star-studded final performance at the billion-dollar stadium where the Dallas Cowboys play, dazzling an audience of nearly 105,000 people with duet after duet with some of the biggest names in country music.

The attendance shattered the previous record set by The Rolling Stones at The Louisiana Superdome in 1981. More than 10,000 fans took in the three-hour show from the stadium floor.

Known for his honky-tonk style, classic interpretation of Western swing and Texas cowboy get-up, Strait is the undisputed patriarch of a generation of country-music stars, none of whom left the stage Saturday without paying homage to or receiving a hug from the country music legend.

“In the early 80s when I was a young man in Georgia, I was a big fan of ‘Unwound,”’ Alan Jackson said of the 1981 hit that propelled Strait to stardom. “You’re the reason I came to Nashville, Tennessee. God bless you.”

Jason Aldean credited Strait as “not only a huge influence for me but everyone else in Nashville.

Associated Press