Category: 5. Entertainment

Everyone’s favorite rambunctious little blue alien has crossed an important milestone.

The Walt Disney Studios’ live-action reimagining of Lilo & Stitch has officially crossed the $1 billion mark at the global box office, making it the first Motion Picture Association (MPA) title of 2025 to reach the milestone. The film now stands as the #1 MPA release of the year both globally and internationally.

This achievement marks a significant moment for Disney, which has now delivered four billion-dollar films in the past 13 months. Alongside Lilo & Stitch, the studio’s recent billion-dollar hits include Moana 2 from Walt Disney Animation Studios, Marvel Studios’ Deadpool & Wolverine, and Disney and Pixar’s Inside Out 2.

“We knew there was a lot of love for Lilo & Stitch with audiences around the world, yet we never take that for granted, and we’re proud of how this new film has connected with people,” Alan Bergman, Co-Chairman of Disney Entertainment, said. “I’m thankful to our filmmakers, our cast, and all on our Studio team who have made this film such a success, and we look forward to more adventures with these characters ahead.”

Domestically, Lilo & Stitch opened with a staggering $183 million over four days, setting a new record for the biggest Memorial Day weekend debut in history. It is one of only two films this year to surpass $400 million at the North American box office.

The film’s success has reignited global interest in the Lilo & Stitch franchise. Viewership of the original 2002 animated film and related content on Disney+ has surged, with more than 640 million hours streamed globally. A sequel to the live-action film is already in development.

“Stitch is an example of what Disney actually does best,” David Greenbaum, President of Disney Live Action and 20th Century Studios, said in May. “An extraordinary animated film from 2002 that becomes a series that then over time creates a real fanship, which leads to us looking at the idea of creating this wonderful film that we now are bringing out to the world.”

Lilo & Stitch’s performance underscores the studio’s continued box office dominance as well as its ability to revitalize beloved classic stories for new generations. The film’s success also reinforces the global reach of the Disney brand showcasing the company’s ability to craft stories that touch multiple parts of Disney’s businesses from theatrical to streaming to experiences to consumer products.

Chris Martin, the lead singer of Coldplay, called out a couple who hid their faces after being caught on a kiss camera during a show on Wednesday, saying they looked like they were having an affair.

A blonde woman and a man with grey hair were spotted embracing on the big screen at the Gillette Stadium during the Massachusetts stop of Coldplay’s world tour.

Video of the moment, which was shared online, shows the pair appearing on screen. As they realize they’re being broadcast to the entire stadium, the woman covers her face with her hands and the man ducks completely out of frame.

J.Lo is bound for Kazakhstan and it’s a signal of Russia’s declining influence in Central Asia. Okay, let’s not plant an American flag just yet – this concert may not be part of a State Department strategy to increase US soft power in the energy-rich region, but rather a last-ditch effort by a somewhat faded pop icon Jennifer Lopez to wring the last dollars from her career.

But did you also hear the Backstreet Boys will be performing in Uzbekistan?

The Westernisation of Central Asia is a notable cultural phenomenon. Music can serve as a powerful instrument for great powers to expand their influence in certain parts of the world. In Central Asia, a region traditionally within Russia’s geopolitical orbit, the United States seems to be slowly winning hearts and minds through pop music – whether by design or by a twist of circumstances.

Russian singers seem to have a hard time balancing their political views with their careers, especially if they aim to perform in what Moscow sees as its near abroad.

American bands and singers performing in the strategically important region is nothing new. Back in 2009, the North Carolina-based Brian Horton Quartet played a series of concerts in Uzbekistan. That same year, another jazz group, the Ari Roland Quartet, toured Central Asia, while in 2019 the rock band Aberdeen performed in Kyrgyzstan. Four years later, Kanye West performed at the wedding of the grandson of then Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev in Almaty.

But apart from the famous rapper, most American bands that have played in Central Asia over the past 15 years were not globally popular. That will change with the high-profile acts scheduled to play in the region in the coming months.

These performances come as regional states seek to establish deeper political, economic, and even military ties with the West. The fact that Jessica Lynn, a country artist from New York, is set to perform in Turkmenistan – one of the most closed nations in the world – perfectly illustrates that even Ashgabat has begun to gradually follow other former Soviet republics in developing closer relations with the United States and European powers.

Russia’s declining influence in the region accelerated when its nominal allies started turning their backs on Moscow following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. However, the region’s Soviet past has undoubtedly left a deep mark on its culture. Although Hollywood movies and American pop music dominate globally, local artists and Russian stars still maintain a strong presence in Central Asia. That is why, more than three decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russian musicians remain very popular in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan.

But while some Russian singers and bands freely perform in Central Asia, attracting thousands to their concerts, musicians who openly supported the Kremlin’s actions in Ukraine have been banned from playing there. Russia’s oldest still-active rock band, Mashina Vremeni, received threats ahead of its concerts in Kyrgyzstan in 2023, because its founder, Andrey Makarevich, while condemning Russia’s actions in Ukraine, expressed support for Israel’s actions in Gaza.

His fellow performer Morgenstern also found himself in a difficult position. Recognised as a foreign agent at home, where he faces up to two years in prison, he was labelled a “bad influence” on young people in Kyrgyzstan, which is why he had to cancel his concerts in the landlocked Central Asian state. Russian singers, therefore, seem to have a hard time balancing their political views with their careers, especially if they aim to perform in what Moscow sees as its near abroad.

American musicians, on the other hand, do not seem to face such challenges. Their growing presence in Central Asia resembles socialist Yugoslavia’s opening toward the West, following the country’s 1948 split from the Soviet sphere of influence. Nowhere was that break more visible than in the field of pop culture.

In the mid-1950s, American jazz performers such as Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, and Dave Brubeck, among others, played in Yugoslavia, which contributed to the growing popularity of jazz music – and later, rock ‘n’ roll – in the country. It was, therefore, no surprise that in 1974, amid the Cold War, Tina Turner performed in Belgrade, marking the beginning of a trend that saw popular American musicians regularly tour the Balkan nation throughout the 1980s and up to its breakup in 1991.

But unlike Central Asian states, Yugoslavia was never part of the Eastern Bloc, let alone the Soviet Union. That is why Soviet cultural influence in the country remained limited, while growing Western presence led to the emergence of the Yugoslav rock ‘n’ roll scene. In Central Asia, the region’s Soviet legacy means that American musicians, for the foreseeable future, are likely to face strong competition from Russian performers.

Walt Disney Co.’s live-action adaptation “Lilo & Stitch” has now generated more than $1 billion in worldwide box office revenue, becoming the first U.S. film of the year to do so.

The movie, based on the 2002 animated film of the same name, made $416.2 million in the U.S. and Canada and an additional $584.8 million internationally. It is the highest-grossing Disney live-action film ever in Mexico, where it brought in $67 million.

“We knew there was a lot of love for ‘Lilo & Stitch’ with audiences around the world, yet we never take that for granted,” Disney Entertainment co-Chairman Alan Bergman said in a statement. “We’re proud of how this new film has connected with people.”

The Burbank-based media and entertainment giant has already announced that a sequel to “Lilo & Stitch” is in development.

The movie was released on May 23 and hauled in $183 million domestically during its opening weekend, a total that edged out 2022’s “Top Gun: Maverick” to claim the mantle of biggest Memorial Day weekend opener ever.

The original animated movie was only a modest box-office performer at the time, bringing in $273 million. Yet over time, Stitch has become increasingly popular, ranking in the top 10 bestselling Disney franchises, alongside stalwarts like Mickey and Minnie Mouse, the princesses, Star Wars and Marvel, Disney has said.

Sales of Stitch-themed merchandise totaled about $2.6 billion last year. And before the new film was released, the “Lilo & Stitch” franchise, which includes animated series, TV films and direct-to-video movies, drove 546 million hours of global viewership on Disney+, with the original movie accounting for more than half of that.

Bergman said in May that the popularity of the little blue alien “definitely” played a role in greenlighting the live-action film.

The success of “Lilo & Stitch” comes as family-friendly movies have ruled the box office. The momentum began in April with Warner Bros. Pictures’ “A Minecraft Movie,” which has now made $955 million worldwide, and continued with “Lilo & Stitch” and Universal Pictures’ live-action adaptation “How to Train Your Dragon,” which released in June and collected more than $564 million globally.

“Lilo & Stitch” is just the most recent Disney film to cross the $1-billion mark. Last year, Disney and Pixar’s animated “Inside Out 2,” Walt Disney Animation’s “Moana 2” and Marvel Studios’ “Deadpool & Wolverine” each made $1 billion in global box office revenue.

Globally, the biggest film of the year remains “Ne Zha 2,” a Chinese animated juggernaut that grossed more than $2 billion in ticket sales, the vast majority of which came from its home country.

Fifteen years after he helped assemble One Directon on The X Factor, Simon Cowell is searching for a new boy band.

Cowell will star in and executive produce a Netflix docuseries called Simon Cowell: The Next Act, in which he will attempt to “create the next global boyband sensation.” The six-episode series, set to premiere in December, is one of several unscripted orders and renewals Netflix announced Thursday; among the others are Let’s Marry Harry, featuring Too Hot to Handle and Perfect Match alum Harry Jowsey, and Love Con Revenge, in which Cecilie Fjellhøy (featured in The Tinder Swindler) teams with a private investigator to expose romance scanners.

Netflix has also renewed The Ultimatum: Marry or Move On and King of Collectibles: The Goldin Touch and set fall premiere dates for season nine of Love Is Blind and a trio of real estate shows: Selling Sunset, Selling the OC and Owning Manhattan. Additionally, the streamer announced former Bachelor Nick Viall and his wife, Natalie Joy, will host the dating show Age of Attraction.

Simon Cowell: The Next Act is the latest in a spate of music-oriented unscripted shows at Netflix. Building the Band (featuring the late Liam Payne of One Direction) premiered July 9, and the songwriter-focused Hitmakers is set to debut on July 24.

Cowell’s Syco Entertainment and Box to Box Films (Formula 1: Drive to Survive) are producing The Next Act. Cowell, James Gay Rees, Paul Martin, Warren Smith, Cassie Bennet are the executive producers, and Tayla Richardson is co-EP.

Let’s Marry Harry comes from Alex Cooper’s Unwell, with Cooper, Matt Kaplan and Mina Lefevre executive producing. The series will be a Bachelor-esque dating show, but with some of Jowsey’s closest friends choosing who stays in the running. Love Con Revenge will team Fjellhøy and P.I. Brianne Larson in a series from EPs Chris McLaughlin and Ruth Kelly.

Netflix also picked up Calabasas Confidential, about a group of young adults in the wealthy L.A. exurb, and Members Only: Palm Beach, following women as they navigate the high society enclave in South Florida.

As for the premieres, Love Is Blind is set to debut its ninth season on Oct. 1. Selling Sunset will premiere Oct. 29, followed by Selling the OC (Nov. 12) and Owning Manhattan (Dec. 5).

Campsites prone to flooding won’t be used, and “adding more drainage and reinforcing primary water runoff pathways” is also planned ahead of next year’s fest

Have you heard? Oasis is back! The Brothers Gallagher have reunited to head out on their first tour in 15 years — bringing them to stadiums all around the world, including five sold-out nights in America. Elsewhere in the world, Oasis spent a decade or longer as massive pop stars, but in the U.S., their ability to fill the country’s biggest venues can mostly be tied to one year: 1996, when the Manchester quintet became the first band of the Britpop moment to really break America — with a best-selling album, a trio of signature hit singles and videos, and enough reckless behavior to both cap their short-term prospects and guarantee their long-term immortality.

On this week’s supersized Vintage Pop Stardom episode of the Greatest Pop Stars podcast, host Andrew Unterberger is joined by his longtime partner (and an even-longer-time Oasis superfan) Lisa Ebe to relive all things 1996 Oasis, a year in which the biggest band in the world was finally at least in contention for being the biggest band in America. We follow the lads through their meteoric rise as stateside alt-rock stars — which, in the Alternative Nation of ’96, also equated to them being pop stars — while taking over radio and MTV, playing numerous legendary and/or infamous live dates, before largely imploding on tour in the U.S. at year’s end and retreating back to their home country.

Along the way, we ask all the most important questions about Noel, Liam, Bonehead, Guigsy and Whitey at their ’96 peak: What made “Wonderwall” the first Britpop song to finally penetrate U.S. top 40? Are we bothered either by Noel’s proclivity for lyrical nonsense or his shamelessness in swiping from rock history? Was Liam’s Unplugged no-show a blessing in disguise? Can we narrow down Noel’s year of incredible media quotes to a mere top 10? How do the band’s two historic gigs at Knebworth hold up decades later? And what allowed these songs to be so impossibly enduring, to the point where Oasis can still play stadiums around the world, including to millions of fans who weren’t even alive for its original run?

Today, Disney unveiled a brand-new trailer and poster for TRON: Ares, the highly anticipated third installment in the groundbreaking TRON franchise, opening in theaters on October 10.

GRAMMY^® Award-winning rock band Nine Inch Nails composed the score for TRON: Ares, and today, the band dropped “As Alive as You Need Me to Be,” the soundtrack album’s first single and the first official music from the band in five years. The track is featured in the new trailer for TRON: Ares.

TRON: Ares (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), featuring all original music by Nine Inch Nails, will be released September 19 via Interscope Records. The release marks the first-ever film score by the pioneering band, although bandmates Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have composed 20 scores under their own names, winning two Oscars^®, three Golden Globes^®, a GRAMMY, and an Emmy^® in the process.

TRON: Ares follows a highly sophisticated Program, Ares, who is sent from the digital world into the real world on a dangerous mission, marking humankind’s first encounter with A.I. beings.

The feature film is directed by Joachim Rønning and stars Jared Leto, Greta Lee, Evan Peters, Hasan Minhaj, Jodie Turner-Smith, Arturo Castro, and Cameron Monaghan, with Gillian Anderson and Jeff Bridges. Sean Bailey, Jeffrey Silver, Justin Springer, Leto, Emma Ludbrook, and Steven Lisberger are the producers, with Russell Allen serving as executive producer.

When singer-songwriter Cam began drawing together the concepts that would anchor her new album All Things Light, out Friday (July 18) via RCA Records, she took inspiration from the emotionally heavy, isolating early days of the COVID pandemic, but also from the questions of a curious toddler—her daughter Lucy, now 5.

“We have backyard chickens, and one of them died, and she would ask, ‘What happens when they die?’ And I was like, ‘We don’t know, but I guess your body gets still and our light goes back to the stars,’ because to me, on a science level [and] a spiritual level, I don’t think anything is lost,” Cam tells Billboard. “This album is trying to find little stories, metaphors, guideposts in a way, so that at least if my daughter knows she’s not alone in feeling what she’s feeling, she can test herself as she’s trying to figure things out.”

In 2021, Cam found herself with time alone in a studio. That duality of welcoming in a new life during a season of pronounced global grief, anxiety and death caused Cam to deeply consider the motive behind the new music.

“I didn’t set out like, ‘Hey, I want to write a spiritual album or a transformational album,’” she recalls. “This stuff just started pouring out. When you’re alone — and this sounds cheesy — then I get to be a vessel for whatever is coming through, and it’s not getting augmented by anyone else.”

The beginning threads of some of the earliest songs for the album, such as “Hallelujah” and “Turns Out That I Am God,” came from those solo moments. “Hallelujah” was born from a deep look at how the world seemed to shift into high gear following the pandemic, without taking the time to grieve the brokenness.

“I’m a very face-the-abyss type of person,” she says. “I don’t think there is any other way for me to exist. If I sense an existential dread coming on, I have to sit down and look at it.”