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The long-awaited return of the iconic Alien franchise has proven to be a resounding success, with Alien: Romulus claiming the top spot at the North American box office in its opening weekend. The 20th Century Studios horror-thriller raked in an impressive $41.5 million domestically, demonstrating the enduring appeal of the sci-fi horror series.

With a global haul of $108.2 million, Alien: Romulus has made a strong start. The film set in the universe between the original Aliens and Aliens, introduce a fresh cast of young actors led by Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, and Isabela Merced. 

Director Fede Alvarez, known for his work on Evil Dead and Don’t Breathe, brings a distinct horror sensibility to the franchise, appealing to both longtime fans and a new generation of moviegoers.

While critical reception has been mixed, with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 81%, audience enthusiasm has been high, as evidenced by the film’s B+ CinemaScore. Alien: Romulus clearly taps into the enduring appeal of the Alien franchise,offering a blend of classic horror elements and modern filmmaking techniques.

Meanwhile, Disney continues its box office dominance with Deadpool & Wolverine holding strong in second place with $29 million in its fourth weekend. The film’s enduring popularity is a testament to the enduring appeal of the Marvel characters and the film’s blend of action, comedy, and heart.

The romantic drama It Ends With Us starring Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni maintained its momentum, landing in third place with $24 million. The film, adapted from Colleen Hoover’s bestselling novel, has already grossed $97.8 million against a modest $25 million budget. While the film has been a commercial success, it has also generated significant buzz due to rumors of behind-the-scenes drama, a familiar pattern that echoes the Don’t Worry Darling phenomenon.

Twisters continued its strong performance, securing fourth place with $9.8 million in its fifth weekend, bringing its domestic total to over $238.4 million.

In a surprising fifth place finish, the stop-motion animated classic Coraline made a triumphant return to theaters for its 15th anniversary. Re-released by Fathom Events, the film earned $11.3 million in just four days, demonstrating the enduring charm and artistry of Henry Selick’s work.

On the other end of the spectrum, the video game adaptation Borderlands struggled to find an audience. The film, starring Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, and Jamie Lee Curtis, managed only $2.4 million in its second weekend, bringing its total to a disappointing $13.5 million against a reported $120 million budget.

As the summer box office winds down, Alien: Romulus has injected a much-needed dose of excitement into the marketplace. With strong word-of-mouth and a devoted fan base, the film has the potential to sustain its box office momentum in the weeks to come.

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DENVER (AP) — A man who was convicted of pointing a gun at Burger King drive-thru worker who wouldn’t accept drugs for payment and later shooting at other people elsewhere the same night has been sentenced to 143 years in prison.

Prosecutors who announced the sentence Thursday said the drive-thru incident was the beginning of a series of crimes Eugene Robertson carried out in the Denver suburb of Aurora on Oct. 17, 2022. No one was wounded.

In April, a jury found Robertson guilty of 17 crimes, including eight counts of attempted murder. The sentences for many of the crimes were stacked on top of each other, leading to a long sentence. Robertson, 40, had faced a maximum sentence of more than 400 years when he was sentenced Aug. 9.

“We consider this 143-year sentence justice for the multiple victims he put in fear that night. Jurors recognized the severity of the crimes this defendant committed. We believe the judge imposed an appropriate sentence,” Eric Ross, a spokesperson for 18th Judicial District Attorney John Kellner, said Friday.

After Robertson pointed the gun at the drive-thru worker, prosecutors said he walked into a convenience store across the street and pointed a gun at the head of a clerk. When Robertson saw there was a surveillance video camera system there, he shot at the screen and left, then shot toward two people outside in the parking lot, Kellner’s office said.

The Sentinel Colorado in Aurora previously reported that a witness at the convenience store store told police there seemed to be “something off” about Robertson and that he was “talking about God” and carrying a Bible with a purple cover.

Later that night, a woman who was friends with Robertson called 911 to report that he had fired shots after she refused to open the door of her apartment, where she was with several people, prosecutors said.

Police spotted Robertson at the woman’s apartment complex. He hid behind some bushes before being arrested, prosecutors said.

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Sydney Sweeney, the in-demand actress known for her roles in Euphoria and The White Lotus, is the latest name linked to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. According to industry insider My Time To Shine Hello, Sweeney has been offered the role of Black Cat in the upcoming Spider-Man 4.

This news comes after Sweeney’s recent appearance as Spider-Woman in Sony Pictures’ Madame Web. However, with the film’s box office performance, a sequel is uncertain, making it unlikely that those characters will be revisited in the near future.

The actress has been a fan-favorite choice for the role of Black Cat, known for her complex and alluring character. Given Sweeney’s rising star and Marvel’s penchant for casting popular choices, the rumor has generated significant buzz among fans.

However, it’s important to approach this news with caution. While Sweeney’s talent is undeniable, the source of the rumor has a history of mixed accuracy. As with any industry speculation, confirmation is needed before definitive statements can be made.

Whether or not this rumor proves true, Sweeney’s involvement in the Marvel universe would undoubtedly be a major event for fans of the actress and the franchise alike.

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OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The latest search for the remains of 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre victims has ended with three more sets containing gunshot wounds, investigators said.

The three are among 11 sets of remains exhumed during the latest excavation in Oaklawn Cemetery, state archaeologist Kary Stackelbeck said Friday.

“Two of those gunshot victims display evidence of munitions from two different weapons,” Stackelbeck said. “The third individual who is a gunshot victim also displays evidence of burning.”

Forensic anthropologist Phoebe Stubblefield, who will remain on site to examine the remains, said one victim suffered bullet and shotgun wounds while the second was shot with two different caliber bullets.

Searchers are seeking simple wooden caskets because they were described at the time in newspaper articles, death certificates and funeral home records as the type used for burying massacre victims, Stackelbeck has said.

The exhumed remains will then be sent to Intermountain Forensics in Salt Lake City for DNA and genealogical testing in an effort to identify them.

The search ends just over a month after the first identification of remains previously exhumed during the search for massacre victims were identified as World War I veteran C.L. Daniel from Georgia.

There was no sign of gunshot wounds to Daniel, Stubblefield said at the time, noting that if a bullet doesn’t strike bone and passes through the body, such a wound likely could not be determined after the passage of so many years.

The search is the fourth since Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum launched the project in 2018 and 47 remains have now been exhumed.

Bynum, who is not seeking reelection, said he hopes to see the search for victims continue.

“My hope is, regardless of who the next mayor is, that they see how important it is to see this investigation through,” Bynum said. “It’s all part of that sequence that is necessary for us to ultimately find people who were murdered and hidden over a century ago.”

Stackelbeck said investigators are mapping the graves in an effort to determine whether more searches should be conducted.

“Every year we have built on the previous phase of this investigation. Our cumulative data have confirmed that we are finding individuals who fit the profile of massacre victims,” Stackelbeck said.

“We will be taking all of that information into consideration as we make our recommendations about whether there is cause for additional excavations,” said Stackelbeck.

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Brenda Nails-Alford, a descendant of massacre survivors and a member of the committee overseeing the search for victims, said she is grateful for Bynum’s efforts to find victim’s remains.

“It is my prayer that these efforts continue, to bring more justice and healing to those who were lost and to those families in our community,” Nails-Alford said.

Earlier this month, Bynum and City Councilor Vanessa Hall-Harper announced a new committee to study a variety of possible reparations for survivors and descendants of the massacre and for the area of north Tulsa where it occurred.

The massacre took place over two days in 1921, a long-suppressed episode of racial violence that destroyed a community known as Black Wall Street and ended with as many as 300 Black people killed, thousands of Black residents forced into internment camps overseen by the National Guard and more than 1,200 homes, businesses, schools and churches destroyed.

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Stella Artois, the Belgium beer brand renowned for its commitment to unique dining experiences, teamed up with entertainer and brand ambassador Ludacris hosted an exciting summer picnic at Atlanta’s iconic Piedmont Park, celebrating Atlanta’s Black Restaurant Week on August 14th for their Let’s Do Dinner Series. 

The pop-up dining event highlighted the vibrant food scene and rich cultural heritage of Atlanta, featuring a carefully curated lineup of local restaurants selected by Ludacris himself.

Attendees were greeted to a feast that showcases the best of Atlanta’s culinary offerings, with participating Atlanta  restaurants including Pepper’s Hotdogs, Whatcha Cooking Baby, Life Bistro, BlkNBlu BBQ, Apt 4B, Chicken & Beer, Not as Famous Cookies, and Sugarhi.

Ludas Cookout

Ludas Cookout

Ludas Cookout

Ludas Cookout

As part of the broader initiative, Stella Artois continues to celebrate the intersection of food, music, and community, making this summer series a must-attend for food lovers. With the excitement building around this unique culinary experience, attendees are sure to enjoy an unforgettable evening filled with great food, music, and the spirit of community.

The ‘Let’s do Dinner Summer Series’ tour has two stops left including Chicago and New York City. 

For more information and to enter the sweepstakes, fans can visit Stella Artois’ official website here.

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Disney’s D23 Expo is a chance for fans of the House of Mouse to celebrate the company’s various brands, including films, TV, animation, theme parks and others. While we got previews of upcoming films like “Moana 2” and series like “Agatha All Along,” we also heard plenty of news about its Black stars and projects. To save you some time on the internet, we’ve gathered a helpful roundup of what’s Black at Disney’s D23 Expo.

Angela Bassett: Disney Legend

The Disney Legends Class of 2024 included big names like Harrison Ford, James Cameron, Kelly Ripa and Miley Cyrus, but the one we care about is our queen Angela Bassett. The “9-1-1” star was introduced by her “Black Panther” director Ryan Coogler, who said, “To see her and what she does is truly a gift.”

Bassett took the stage at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif. To thank her family and friends for their “encouragement.” She also thanked fans for their consistent support of her work.

“To the fans, you are the magic,” she said. “There are not enough words to let you know how much I appreciate you, how much I love you. I stand here today because you have the tickets, you have watched the television shows, you have cheered me on my best days and lifted me up on the more difficult ones. Thank you, always.”

‘Ironheart’ Is Finally On the Way

If it feels like it’s been an eternity since we last saw Riri Williams in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” it’s because it actually has been a long time.

At the Disney Entertainment Showcase, we got a look at new footage from the Disney+ series starring Dominique Thorne as the MIT genius who builds her own Iron Man suit out of scrap metal. Riri’s been stuck since her experience in Wakanda, because now she sees what she can truly accomplish with her suit.

Her obsession with building another high tech suit drives her to make some questionable decisions and get involved with people who have their own agendas.

Between COVID-19, the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes; and issues with the direction of the MCU and new directives from Disney, “Ironheart” has been rescheduled multiple times. As of now, we’re supposed to get it sometime in 2025. Fingers crossed!

We Can Never Have Too Much Wakanda

Since T’Challa and Wakanda were introduced in “Captain America: Civil War,” we’ve wondered how the African superpower fits into the larger MCU. “Eyes of Wakanda” will answer some of those questions with stories about warriors from the country’s past and present. Ryan Coogler offered an update on what animation fans can expect from the new series.

“I’m most excited to see the animation style and how it’s received. It’s really unique. It doesn’t look like anything I’ve ever seen before,” Coogler said. “Our director and show runner is a guy named Todd Harris, who’s an incredible storyboard artist…He’s incredible, a true artist.”

The four episode series is currently scheduled to premiere later this year.

Colman Domingo vs. Spider-Man

Audiences have been fan-casting Colman Domingo in the Marvel universe for years. Now, it’s finally happening, as the Oscar nominee will be the voice of Norman Osborn in the new animated series, “Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.”

It follows Peter Parker during his early days as Spider-Man, before he meets Tony in “Captain America: Civil War.”

Technically, the MCU hasn’t introduced its Norman Osborn. The one we met in “Spider-Man: No Way Home” was from Tobey Maguire’s universe. We don’t know when he turns into Green Goblin, but it will reportedly be devastating for Peter.

Tiana’s Bayou Adventure Comes to Disneyland

While guests at Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World have been enjoying the new attraction Tiana’s Bayou Adventure all summer, Disneyland fans have had to wait a little longer to join Tiana and her friends for Mardi Gras fun.

Well, wait no more, because we finally have an opening date. “The Princess and the Frog” themed water ride will open in the newly renamed Bayou Country Nov. 15.

Kayla Reed was born in a predominantly African American section of St. Louis where, like her own kin, many Black families had been transplanted out of the Deep South.

After the death of her grandmother, Reed moved with her father from the city to a St. Louis County town located within one mile of Ferguson, Missouri, where 10 years ago, a Black teenager’s fatal shooting by a white police officer changed Reed’s life and shook awake a nation.

“It was like in my backyard,” she recalls. “I don’t really feel like I considered myself much of an activist. I definitely think I had the type of Black consciousness that comes with being raised by a Black preacher and seeing Black people go through so much.”

Reed was not a community organizer. She was a pharmacy technician with a second job at a furniture store. Like so many others, on Aug. 9, 2014, she learned by word of mouth, as she clocked out of a shift, that an unarmed 18-year-old from the neighborhood had been killed.

His name was Michael Brown.

A march toward measurable change

When Reed joined hundreds of grieving community members out at the scene, Brown’s bloodied body had been removed from the middle of Canfield Drive, a two-lane street in Ferguson, a majority-Black city where the relationship between local police and residents had long been tenuous. The tensions worsened after detectives left Brown’s corpse covered with a white sheet for four traumatizing hours in the summer heat, in full view of an apartment complex.

Darren Wilson, the Ferguson police officer who fatally shot Brown, had driven a police vehicle up to the teenager and his friend on Canfield Drive. The officer ordered them to get up on the sidewalk before a scuffle ensued. Although Brown was unarmed, Wilson described Brown as menacing at 6-foot-4 and claimed the teenager charged at him before he opened fire.

Some nearby residents said Brown had his hands up in surrender when he was shot.

For Reed, Brown’s encounter with the Ferguson officer was familiar. Her brothers, her dad and other loved ones had been subjected to mistreatment, disrespect and indignity by the area’s police. Nonetheless, she was shocked.

“I just found myself sort of returning to (Canfield Drive) day after day, and then to what becomes the uprising,” says Reed, who became an organizer amid the protests and civil unrest.

Largely peaceful demonstrations — some blemished by vandalism, theft and arson among residents and outside opportunists — were met with violent police response. But the demonstrations weren’t contained to Ferguson. Over the next decade, the deaths of Black people at the hands of police and vigilantes would draw support, resources and democratic change to communities all over the nation. “This time,” residents vowed, things must be different.

Today, Reed is the executive director of Action St. Louis, a Black-led political activist group that she co-founded in 2014. She says the passage of time has proven that what began as an uprising in Ferguson has resulted in measurable change for Black Americans.

Movement-minded leaders have been elected and anti-progressive leaders unseated. Local legislation has been passed to dismantle prisons and jails, and federal legislation has been introduced in Congress. Most critically, more people are politically educated and engaged with the idea that they can build communities that work for them and not simply exist in an ecosystem of systemic racism.

“What we’ve tried to show over the last 10 years is that there is no landmark piece of legislation that we’re chasing,” Reed says. “What we are chasing is the fundamental uprooting of a system rooted in anti-Blackness, rooted in the form of white supremacy that has been continuously violent for over a century to our people.”

Strength in numbers — and coalitions

The death of Michael Brown prompted an eruption of protests and gave a boost to a then-nascent Black Lives Matter movement. In subsequent years, a new generation stepped forward to pick up the work of civil rights and racial justice started by their parents and grandparents. In racial justice movements, the uprooting of white supremacy is a lesser-invoked aim — one that also demands white people reckon with their race’s complicity in generations of disadvantage faced by Black Americans and other people of color.

It’s not just BLM. Over the last decade, Indigenous people defended land and water, Latinos resisted draconian immigration detention and deportation practices, and Asian American activists pushed back on xenophobia that endangers their lives. Together these movements, benefitting from multiracial coalition-building, are changing American democracy and the broader culture, encouraging activism the world over.

Michael Brown inspired much of that. But a decade later, the future of racial justice in the United States remains in question.

“Michael Brown embodied the anger, that was so obvious and evident after decades of dismissing it, of holding it back, of telling ourselves we’re going to overcome,” says Karla Scott, a communications professor and the former African American Studies program director at St. Louis University. “It just became the moment we said, we can’t be polite anymore. He set fire to all of the anger that had been smoldering for centuries. And it was not just the Black community.”

The Brown case and the Ferguson uprising prompted a generation of activists in Black-led organizations to work collectively on strategy, yielding the policy platform known as “Vision for Black Lives.” But there was also a recognition that the vision couldn’t be achieved without building a multiracial movement, says Loan Tran, national director of Rising Majority, a coalition of advocacy organizations.

“All of these struggles are interconnected,” says Tran, who uses they/them pronouns. “The whole objective under the system that we live under is to pit communities against each other, to participate in an Olympic competition of their own oppression.”

Instead of arguing about who is more oppressed, multiracial coalition building over the last decade has helped communities of color get clear about common problems and opportunities, Tran says.

“We are interested in building powerful movements that actually change and shift the conditions,” they say. “So when we think about this upcoming election, it calls at some of the foundational questions that we’re grappling with: What does a genuine multiracial democracy in this country look like? What does a non-exploitative economy actually look like? And how are we going to get there?”

A glimpse from 10 years down the road

Years after the U.S. Department of Justice issued a scathing indictment of Ferguson’s police department, nearly half of its officers are Black. Police receive training on de-escalation and community relationship building.

Ferguson’s mayor, police chief, city attorney and other leaders are Black. The city’s residents, who are 70% Black and 21% white, can find more jobs in the area because of a career development initiative launched after the protests. But the city remains under federal watch, the result of a consent decree that required sweeping changes to the way its police force and municipal court systems are run.

These changes in Ferguson came as the deaths of Black Americans at the hands of police drew more protests and civil unrest in other cities. In 2015, Walter Scott in North Charleston, South Carolina, and Freddie Gray in Baltimore; in 2016, Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, and Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; in 2018, Stephon Clark in Sacramento and Botham Jean in Dallas, Texas.

The backlash to BLM and racial justice conversations was significant. Even though former President Barack Obama convened a task force in which law enforcement leaders and Ferguson protesters compiled recommendations for policing reforms, the fatal ambush of police officers in New York City and Dallas in 2014 and 2016, respectively, brought about strong condemnations of Black protesters and organizers.

Still, the list of Black citizen casualties grew until, in 2020, the deaths of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky sparked an unprecedented mobilization of racial justice protests and civil unrest. This time, many felt, things really would be different.

But after four years, Congress hasn’t passed legislation meant to impose national policing reforms. Earlier this month, Democratic senators reintroduced the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act that would ban police chokeholds, eliminate the use of no-knock warrants and limit the federal transfer of excess military equipment that local police departments have used to quell protests. There were no Republican cosponsors.

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Even this year, ahead of a national election between a former prosecutor whose record receives mixed reviews among racial justice advocates and a former president who has pledged to offer police immunity from criminal prosecution, hopes for progress appear foggy.

Days before the anniversary of Brown’s death this month, Missouri Rep. Cori Bush, a movement-supported congresswoman who had been teargassed with Ferguson protesters, lost a Democratic primary to St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell. The prosecutor, a Black man who campaigned in 2018 on reopening the Brown case, announced in 2020 that he would not charge the officer who killed the teen.

In Ferguson, residents marked 10 years to the day since Brown was killed. But an afternoon protest ended with a Black Ferguson police officer hospitalized and fighting for his life after he was assaulted by participants. Community leaders cautioned police officials against reviving the us-versus-them mentality, even as they condemned the attack on the Ferguson officer.

The recent developments haven’t deterred movement stalwarts. Reed, the St. Louis area activist, rejects the premise that a decade is long enough to achieve all the aims of any racial justice movement. This is about a “lifetime of work,” she says. “When people ask what have you gotten, what have you won, I say I’m in this until we actually do live in a country … where we are not weaponizing forces to harm our people.”

“For us, it’s not from protest to policy. It’s from protest to power.”