PEOPLE IN THE NEWS
With minuscule drop, ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ No. 1 again at box office
The opening weekend for “Crazy Rich Asians” was historic. Its second weekend was even more impressive.
The romantic comedy sensation slid just 6 percent from its chart-topping debut to again lead the box office with $25 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. Almost as many people turned out over the weekend for “Crazy Rich Asians” as they did for its opening. That’s virtually never the case for non-holiday releases, which typically drop about 50 percent.
It was helped by weak competition. The critically slammed R-rated puppet caper “The Happytime Murders” debuted with $10.1 million, a career low for Melissa McCarthy. Robot-dog fantasy “A.X.L.” flopped with $2.9 million.
Playwright Neil Simon, Broadway’s master of comedy, dies at age 91
Playwright Neil Simon, a master of comedy whose laugh-filled hits such as “The Odd Couple,” “Barefoot in the Park” and his “Brighton Beach” trilogy dominated Broadway for decades, has died. He was 91.
Simon died early Sunday morning of complications from pneumonia surrounded by family at New York Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan, said Bill Evans, his longtime friend and the Shubert Organization director of media relations.
In the second half of the 20th century, Simon was one of the American theater’s most successful and prolific playwrights, often chronicling middleclass issues and fears.