Sideshow: Box office friends Facebook
Movie fans are spending some face time with a story about the founders of Facebook. The Social Network, director David Fincher's drama about the quarrelsome creation of the online juggernaut, made its debut as the No. 1 weekend film, with $23 million.
Movie fans are spending some face time with a story about the founders of Facebook.
The Social Network
, director
David Fincher
's drama about the quarrelsome creation of the online juggernaut, made its debut as the No. 1 weekend film, with $23 million.
Rory Bruer, Sony's head of distribution, said The Social Network had a good shot at becoming a $100 million hit.
The weekend's other new wide releases had weak starts. Horror flick Case 39, starring Renee Zellweger, opened at No. 7, with $5.35 million, and the vampire tale Let Me In made its debut at No. 8, with $5.3 million.
The animated Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, retained the No. 2 spot in its second weekend, with $10.9 million. The previous weekend's top earner, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, starring Michael Douglas and Shia LaBeouf, slipped to third place, with $10.1 million.
The Social Network traces the history of Facebook from Harvard University, where computer whiz Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) and best friend Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield) launched the site, through its meteoric rise with 500 million members and a stock value in the billions.
The film also follows the nasty legal fight as Zuckerberg faces lawsuits by Saverin, who says he was cheated out of millions, and three other students who say he stole the idea from them. Justin Timberlake costars as Napster founder Sean Parker. Facebook has called the film "fiction."
- AP
Levine returns to the BSO
James Levine
has returned to the stage as conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Levine had back surgery in the spring and missed the orchestra's summer series at Tanglewood in western Massachusetts. Welcomed back with a standing ovation Saturday night, he placed his hands over his heart to show his thanks. Levine led an all-Wagner program of orchestral and vocal excerpts.
This will be his seventh season as Boston music director. He is also music director of New York's Metropolitan Opera. - AP
Funnies in pink
The Sunday funnies will be in shades of pink ink Sunday in support of breast cancer awareness month. King Features Syndicate Inc. said more than 50 cartoonists would participate. Each comic strip will feature a pink ribbon for breast cancer awareness with the tag line "Cartoonists Care." The pink strips will run in newspapers nationwide, including The Inquirer, and online.
Participating strips include Blondie, Zits, The Family Circus, Hagar the Horrible, and Beetle Bailey. The pink strips will be shown on the ComicsGoPink website, where donations to breast cancer organizations will be accepted.
John Stamos wants to be heard
Actor
John Stamos
can't make it to federal court in Michigan's Upper Peninsula on Friday, but federal prosecutors have asked a judge to let them read a statement from him when two people are sentenced for trying to extort $680,000 from him.
In July, Allison Coss and Scott Sippola were found guilty of conspiracy and using e-mail to threaten a person's reputation. They were accused of demanding money from Stamos in exchange for turning over embarrassing photos of him. The FBI says there were no photos. Stamos has known Coss for years after meeting her in Orlando, Fla., in 2004, when she was 17.