‘Happy Death Day’ scares off ‘Blade Runner’ at box office

‘Happy Death Day’ scares off ‘Blade Runner’ at box office

LOS ANGELES

The box office might be struggling this year, but the horror genre is alive and well.

This weekend the “Groundhog Day”-like horror pic “Happy Death Day” scored a first-place finish, surpassing expectations and blowing the much costlier and star-driven “Blade Runner 2049” out of the water.

Studio estimates Sunday show “Happy Death Day” took in $26.5 million from 3,149 North American theaters. With a $5 million production price tag, “Happy Death Day” is already a hit.

1. “Happy Death Day,” $26.5 million ($5 million international).

2. “Blade Runner 2049,” $15.1 million ($29.3 million international).

3. “The Foreigner,” $12.8 million ($5.2 million international).

4. “It,” $6.1 million ($10.4 million international).

5. “The Mountain Between Us,” $5.7 million ($4.1 million international).

Hogwarts Express rescues stranded family in Scotland

LONDON

As if by magic, the Hogwarts Express has come to the rescue of a stranded family in Scotland.

The train that took Harry Potter to school was played onscreen by the Jacobite steam train , which runs on a remote and scenic route through the Scottish Highlands.

On Friday, it made an unscheduled stop to pick up a family of six that was stranded when a storm washed away their canoe.

Jon Cluett, his wife and four children between the ages of 6 and 12 were staying in a lakeside hut on Loch Eilt when they awoke to find their canoe was gone.

Faced with walking several miles over boggy ground to get back to the family car, Cluett called police to see if any form of rescue was available.

“The policeman said, ‘We’ve arranged for the next train passing to stop for you, and you’re not going to believe this but it’s the Hogwarts Express steam train. Your kids are going to love it,”’ Cluett said Sunday.

Cluett said his children, all Harry Potter fans, were “really excited” by the adventure.

Richard Wilbur, Pulitzer-winning poet, dies at 96

Richard Wilbur, the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and translator who intrigued and delighted generations of readers and theatergoers through his rhyming editions of Moliere and his own verse on memory, writing and nature, has died. He was 96.

Wilbur’s friend, poet Dana Gioia, said he died Saturday night with his family by his side.

The U.S. poet laureate in 1987-88, Wilbur was often cited as an heir to Robert Frost and other New England writers.

Wilbur’s poems were often brief, subtle, temperate, reflecting upon childhood, family, nature and the creative process.

“Moliere has had no better American friend than the poet Richard Wilbur,” The New York Times’ Frank Rich wrote in 1982. “Mr. Wilbur’s lighter-than-air verse upholds the idiom and letter of Moliere, yet it also satisfies the demands of the stage.”

He received numerous literary honors, including the National Book Award and two Pulitzer Prizes.

Associated Press