Bond soars with record $87.8M ‘Skyfall’ debut

LOS ANGELES (AP) — James Bond‘s “Skyfall” has extended its worldwide box-office rule to North America, hauling in a franchise-record $ 87.8 million in its first weekend at U.S. theaters.

Adding in $ 2.2 million from Thursday night previews at IMAX and other large-format theaters, “Skyfall” has taken in $ 90 million domestically, according to studio estimates Sunday.

That lifts the worldwide total for “Skyfall” to $ 518.6 million since it began rolling out overseas in late October. Internationally, the 23rd Bond flick added $ 89 million this weekend to raise its overseas revenue to $ 428.6 million.

The third installment starring Daniel Craig as British super-spy Bond, “Skyfall” outdid the $ 67.5 million U.S. debut of 2008′s “Quantum of Solace,” the franchise’s previous best opening. “Skyfall” more than doubled the $ 40.8 million debut of Craig’s first Bond film, 2006′s “Casino Royale.”

“Skyfall” already has passed the $ 407.7 million overseas total for “Quantum of Solace” and by Monday, it will top the $ 432.2 million international haul for “Casino Royale.”

The Craig era has reinvigorated one of Hollywood‘s most-enduring franchises, whose first big-screen Bond adventure, “Dr. No,” debuted 50 years ago.

“It’s quite a testament to Bond, considering it’s the 50th anniversary. What a great anniversary present,” said Rory Bruer, head of distribution at Sony, which produces the Bond films along with MGM.

“Skyfall” was the weekend’s only new wide release, but Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln” had a huge start in a handful of theaters. Starring Daniel Day-Lewis as the 16th president, “Lincoln” took in $ 900,000 in 11 theaters for a whopping average of $ 81,818 a cinema. By comparison, “Skyfall” averaged $ 25,050 in 3,505 theaters.

“Lincoln” centers on the months leading up to the president’s assassination in April 1865, as he maneuvers to pass the 13th amendment abolishing slavery and end the Civil War. Distributor Disney will expand “Lincoln” into nationwide release of about 1,600 theaters Friday and may widen the film further over Thanksgiving week.

The film has strong Academy Awards prospects for two-time directing winner Spielberg, two-time acting recipient Day-Lewis and the rest of the cast, which includes Oscar winners Sally Field and Tommy Lee Jones.

“The performances are some of the greatest of recent time,” said Dave Hollis, head of distribution for Disney. “I don’t know if you’re ever going to think about it again without seeing our actor as Lincoln. Daniel is extraordinary in the role.”

“Skyfall” took over the top spot at the weekend box office from Disney’s animated comedy “Wreck-It Ralph,” which fell to No. 2 with $ 33.1 million, raising its domestic total to $ 93.7 million.

While “Skyfall” marked a new high for Bond‘s opening-weekend revenue, the film has a long way to go to match the biggest audiences 007 has ever drawn. Adjusted for inflation, Sean Connery’s 1965 Bond adventure “Thunderball” would have taken in an estimated $ 508 million domestically in today’s dollars, with its 1964 predecessor “Goldfinger” not far behind at $ 444 million, according to box-office tracker Hollywood.com.

The Bond films over the last two decades have come in around the $ 200 million range domestically in inflation-adjusted dollars.

Still, Craig’s Bond is setting a new critical standard for the franchise. While “Quantum of Solace” had a so-so critical reception, “Skyfall” and “Casino Royale” are among the best-reviewed Bond films, with critics and fans enjoying the darker edge Craig has imprinted on 007.

“‘Skyfall’ is to the Bond franchise what ‘The Dark Knight’ was to the Batman franchise,” said Hollywood.com analyst Paul Dergarabedian. “By taking it to a whole other level, this is a different kind of Bond that can be taken really seriously.”

Directed by Sam Mendes, the Academy Award-winning filmmaker behind “American Beauty” and Craig’s director on “Road to Perdition,” ”Skyfall” continues the current franchise’s exploration into the emotional traumas that have shaped Bond‘s cool, aloof manner.

The film reveals secrets out of the past of Bond’s boss, British spymaster M (Judi Dench), and pits 007 against a brilliant but unstable former agent (Javier Bardem) who’s out for revenge.

Hollywood remains on a brisk pace this fall as the busy holiday season approaches. Overall domestic revenues totaled $ 172 million, up 26 percent from the same weekend last year, when “Immortals” led with $ 32.2 million.

For the year, domestic revenues are at $ 9.1 billion, up 4.3 percent from 2011′s, according to Hollywood.com.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Where available, latest international numbers are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. “Skyfall,” $ 87.8 million.

2. “Wreck-It Ralph,” $ 33.1 million.

3. “Flight,” $ 15.1 million.

4. “Argo,” $ 6.7 million.

5. “Taken 2,” $ 4 million.

6. “Here Comes the Boom,” $ 2.6 million

7. “Cloud Atlas,” $ 2.53 million.

8. “Pitch Perfect,” $ 2.5 million.

9. “The Man with the Iron Fists,” $ 2.49 million.

10. “Hotel Transylvania,” $ 2.4 million.

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Estimated weekend ticket sales at international theaters (excluding the U.S. and Canada) for films distributed overseas by Hollywood studios, according to Rentrak:

1. “Skyfall,” $ 89 million.

2. “Argo,” $ 12 million.

3. “Wreck-It Ralph,” $ 11.2 million.

4. “Hotel Transylvania,” $ 11.1 million.

5. “A Werewolf Boy,” $ 10.5 million.

6. “Cloud Atlas,” $ 8.7 million.

7. “Paranormal Activity 4,” $ 6 million.

8 (tie). “Asterlix and Obelix: God Save Britannia,” $ 4.4 million.

8 (tie). “Confession of Murder,” $ 4.4 million.

10. “Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted,” $ 4.1 million.

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Online:

http://www.hollywood.com

http://www.rentrak.com

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Universal and Focus are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp.; Sony, Columbia, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc.; Disney, Pixar and Marvel are owned by The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is owned by Filmyard Holdings LLC; 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a group of former creditors including Highland Capital, Anchorage Advisors and Carl Icahn; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC is owned by AMC Networks Inc.; Rogue is owned by Relativity Media LLC.

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Obama hails veterans, pledges continued support

ARLINGTON, Virginia (Reuters) – President Barack Obama laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to mark the Veterans Day holiday on Sunday, declaring that soldiers‘ needs would be met even as the country winds down wars in the Middle East and Asia.

In the ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, Obama pledged continuing support for veterans as they make the transition to civilian life.

“This is the first Veterans Day in a decade in which there are no American troops fighting and dying in Iraq,” the president said at the cemetery across the Potomac River from Washington, where soldiers’ graves are marked with row upon row of simple white stones.

“After a decade of war, our heroes are coming home,” he said. “Over the next few years more than a million service members will transition back to civilian life.”

The president touted the work of first lady Michelle Obama and Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden, for their work in the Joining Forces campaign, which urges businesses to hire veterans. He also reaffirmed his commitment to continuing the post-9/11 GI Bill program, which provides college education funding for those who have served, and said soldiers suffering war-related health problems will get the care they need.

“No one who fights for this country overseas should ever have to fight for a job, or a roof over their head, or the care that they have earned when they come home,” he said.

After the ceremony, Obama visited with people in an area of the cemetery known as Section 60, where many of the solders who died in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are buried.

The Democratic president won re-election to a second four-year term on Tuesday and now faces tough negotiations with Republican congressional leaders to avoid sharp spending cuts that loom at the end of the year. A big chunk of those reductions would come through a decline in defense spending.

During the campaign, Obama and Biden regularly pledged their commitment to bringing troops home from Afghanistan and taking care of American veterans. Obama criticized his opponent, Republican Mitt Romney, for failing to mention the war in Afghanistan during his speech to the Republican National Convention.

(Reporting by Samson Reiny, writing by Mark Felsenthal; Editing by Doina Chiacu)

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At China party congress, allegiance trumps reform

BEIJING (Reuters) – As the senior Communist Party official in one of China‘s most prosperous regions, Wang Yang is often cast as an agent of change, a potential force for economic and even political reform should he gain promotion to the party’s highest rung later this week.

But the chief of the southern province of Guangdong appears to be distancing himself from that role while attending the party congress that will usher in China’s once-in-a-decade top leadership transition.

When Wang spoke to reporters on Friday, he stuck to a well rehearsed script that could have come from any apparatchik.

“Because China has taken the strategic choice of reform and opening up, every member of the Chinese Communist Party, including myself, is a reformist – or else there would be no today,” he told reporters.

“We will follow the themes of the 18th party congress to push for reform,” he said. “As for the next steps for reform, General Secretary Hu Jintao has already clearly stated those, so I won’t recite the report for you.”

China’s twice-a-decade party conclave, at which high ranking officials make speeches and hold rare press conferences, is providing a lesson into just how tightly the senior leadership controls the message it wants both the Chinese people and the outside world to hear.

At his speech at the opening of the congress on Thursday, outgoing President Hu spoke of the need for both political and economic reform, but stressed the Communist Party must remain in charge.

Everyone else has since read from the same script, evidence, political analysts said, that the party’s over-arching goal remains the same: maintaining its tight grip on power.

Wang Yang, a Hu protégé, now appears to be a long shot to ascend to the Politburo Standing Committee. Likely to consist of just seven members, the body will steer the world’s second-largest economy for the next five years.

Seen by many in the West as a beacon of political change, Wang lobbied for reform in Guangdong out of concern about the social impact of three decades of blistering development.

However, this approach drew criticism from party conservatives and Wang has more recently adopted the party’s more familiar method of control and punishment to keep order.

But Wang would not have even made it as far as he has without expressing fealty to a party that brooks little dissent and no challenge to its rule.

“In the Chinese context he is a reformer, but that only takes you so far,” said Tony Saich, a China expert at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

“The bottom line is all these people at heart are loyal Communist Party members, and most of the reforms that they see as being effective are all geared to ensuring the Communist Party’s continued rule.”

MARXIST RADIANCE

The only two certainties on the standing committee to be unveiled on Thursday are Xi Jinping, Hu’s anointed successor, and Li Keqiang, tipped to be the next Premier. Both are considered at best cautious reformers.

One man who will probably make it onto the standing committee has a very different reputation that does not bode well for reform — the dour, conservative North Korea-trained economist Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang.

Zhang, 65, saw his chances of promotion boosted this year when he was chosen to replace disgraced politician Bo Xilai as party boss of the southwestern city of Chongqing.

Zhang’s appearance in front of almost 100 reporters was marked by a grave 25-minute speech in which he essentially repeated Hu’s opening address to the congress, with the turgid and repeated use of Communist terminology.

“The whole report shone a light on the radiance of Marxism,” Zhang said. “The entire report from start to finish showed that we must unswervingly follow the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics.”

Yu Zhengsheng, Shanghai’s party boss, is also viewed as a contender for promotion, and considered at least open to reform by virtue of running China’s financial hub and most cosmopolitan city.

But Yu was mostly silent during an open “discussion” session of Hu’s speech. When he finally answered a reporter’s question on what he thought the most urgent political reform China needed to undertake, Yu was extremely cautious.

“Comrade Jintao’s report raised paying more attention to making improvements to the way the party leads and guides the way, paying more attention to the building of democratic politics, paying more attention to the construction of rule of law,” he said.

“These are the main points and direction of political system reform in the future. Done. Thank you.”

ANOTHER INDICATOR

Yu and Zhang did at least appear in front of the foreign media. Li Yuanchao, widely viewed as a reform-minded candidate for promotion, did not. Li, 61, oversees the appointment of senior party, government, military and state-owned enterprise officials as head of the party’s powerful organisation department.

He has courted foreign investment and studied in the United States. Analysts are closely watching what happens to him this week as a sign of which way China’s new leadership is likely headed.

“A much better indicator for reform will be (Li’s) fate. He has implemented some political and administrative changes that were pretty radical by China’s standards, and advocated for even more serious reform,” said Duncan Innes-Ker, senior China analyst for the Economist Intelligence Unit.

Even if Li or Wang Yang don’t make it onto the standing committee this time, they are, by Chinese standards, young enough that they may make the grade at the next congress in five years time, when the likes of Zhang and Yu will have to retire.

“My understanding is that (Li’s) going to be made vice president and that gives him a status which is superior to the other regular politburo members, with an unconfirmed promise that he’ll get in next in five years time,” said Saich, the expert at Harvard, of Li Yuanchao.

“I think the understanding is that Wang Yang has a good shot in five years’ time as well.”

(Additional reporting by Sui-Lee Wee; Reporting by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

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Twin explosions strike southern Syrian city

BEIRUT (AP) — Syria‘s state-run news agency says two large explosions have struck the southern city of Daraa, causing multiple casualties and heavy material damage.

SANA did not immediately give further information or say what the target of Saturday’s explosions was.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the blasts went off near a branch of the country’s Military Intelligence in Daraa.

The Observatory, which relies on a network of activists on the ground, says the explosions were followed by clashes between regime forces and rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad.

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“Hunger Games” star Jennifer Lawrence will not diet for role

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – “The Hunger Games” star Jennifer Lawrence will not be dieting for a role any time soon.

Lawrence, 22, who plays the famished Katniss Everdeen in the life-or-death thriller series, told Elle magazine in an interview to be published on November 13 that dropping a few pounds will not be part of her script.

“I’m never going to starve myself for a part,” Lawrence said, a view out of step with many in diet-obsessed Hollywood.

Lawrence’s figure in “The Hunger Games” raised eyebrows of some critics, who believed the actress looked a little too healthy for a character struggling to eat.

“I don’t want little girls to be like, ‘Oh, I want to look like Katniss, so I’m going to skip dinner,” Lawrence said. “That’s something I was really conscious of during training…I was trying to get my body to look fit and strong – not thin and underfed.”

Suffering for a role by rapidly losing or gaining weight is part of Hollywood lore.

Natalie Portman was applauded for dropping some 20 pounds for her Oscar-winning role as a ballerina in 2010′s “Black Swan”. Likewise Robert De Niro nabbed an Oscar after packing on 60 extra pounds in 1980 boxing film “Raging Bull”.

Lawrence’s figure did not hurt the first installment of the “The Hunger Games” series, which was released in March and has grossed some $ 670 million worldwide. The actress has signed on for three sequels.

(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing by David Gregorio)

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Digging work suspended at Barrick’s Pascua Lama mine

SANTIAGO (Reuters) – Barrick Gold Corp, the world’s biggest gold producer, said on Saturday it had halted earth-moving works at its Pascua Lama mine on the Chile-Argentina border following concerns about the health of workers at the site high in the Andes.

Inspectors from the Chilean Mining Ministry‘s Sernageomin geology unit ordered the suspension of excavation works at the site on the grounds that excessive dust might pose a health risk, La Tercera newspaper reported.

The newspaper said all construction work at the site had been suspended, but Barrick said later that the order from officials applied only to earth-moving operations and that other construction activities continued.

“We voluntarily decided to stop earth-moving work, including pre-stripping activities, on Saturday, October 27,” the company said in a statement, adding that measures had been put in place in an effort to resolve the dust problem.

“These decisions were made prior to the notification we received from the authorities on October 31,” it added, without saying how long the disruption could last.

No one at Sernageomin could immediately be reached to comment.

The delay to work at the site is the latest in a series of setbacks at the vast mine.

Earlier this month, Barrick again raised its cost estimate for building the mine to between $ 8 billion and $ 8.5 billion from an earlier budget of $ 7.5 billion to $ 8 billion. It also pushed back the date when production at the project will begin.

The company blamed the increase on delays and higher labor and project-management costs.

(Reporting by Felipe Iturrieta; Writing by Helen Popper; Editing by Peter Cooney)

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Goldman in settlement talks with U.S. over trading loss

(Reuters) – Goldman Sachs Group Inc is in settlement talks with the U.S. government over an $ 8.3 billion position that one of the investment bank’s traders had concealed five years ago, according to a published report.

The Financial Times said a settlement with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which regulates U.S. futures and options markets, is expected in the coming weeks, citing two sources familiar with the plans.

Goldman declined to comment and the CFTC could not be reached for comment.

The planned settlement follows Thursday’s announcement from the regulator that accused ex-Goldman trader Matthew Marshall Taylor of hiding a large position in S&P 500 e-mini futures contracts. Taylor has denied the accusations, his lawyer said on Thursday.

(Reporting by Debra Sherman; Editing by Jackie Frank)

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Syria opposition bloc elects Christian as leader

DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Syria‘s main opposition group in exile has elected a Christian Paris-based former geography teacher as its new president.

George Sabra said Friday that his election as head of the Syrian National Council is a sign that the opposition is not plagued by sectarian divisions.

Sabra says the SNC‘s main demand is to receive weapons from the international community. The U.S. and some other foreign backers of rebels fighting the regime of President Bashar Assad have so far refused to send weapons for fear they can fall into the wrong hands.

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Korea Linux Forum 2012: Maximizing Utility

Hosted by the Linux Foundation Korea Linux Forum 2012, the first Linux Forum in Korea, was held at the JW Marriott (Central City, Seoul) on October 11^th and 12th. Samsung, a key sponsor of the event, has long been partnered with Linux. Currently a platinum member of the Linux Foundation, which is the highest level, it is cooperating actively as a director of the board. 

Jim Zemlin, Chairman of the Linux Foundation, Wonjoo Park, Director of Samsung Electronics software center, Taejun Heo, a developer of Google, and Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux participated in this year’s event and shared their expertise. 

Jim Zemlin gave the opening speech, complimenting on how well Korean users are contributing to Open Source solutions. In addition, he mentioned how Samsung utilizes Linux, an Open Source, in diverse fields ranging from mobile platforms based on Android to appliances to the like of washers, TVs, etc. Zemlin also pointed out that not only Samsung but other global companies such as Google, IBM, and HP are actively utilizing Open Source. 

Wonjoo Park, Vice President at Samsung Electronics Convergence Platfomr Lab, explained about the kinds of technology that had been developed by Samsung using Open Sources. Check out more about his lecture in the video below:

Other than lectures, Korea Linux Forum 2012 also featured a set of panel discussions. A popular session starred Jon Cobet, Taejun Heo, Greg Kroah Hartman, and Ted T’so where they talked about the difficulties Linux developers face, as well as the and marketability of Linux. These star figures drew many developers’ attention by talking about a wide range of topics from the bright employment prospects for Linux kernel developers to the kernel development. 

Lastly, Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux also had a Q/A session. The most common question he received was whether Linux would remain as the most popular brand of Open Source in the future. You may check out his answer through this video! 

If you’d like to see more about this event, here’s the last video we have regarding this event: 

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U.S. author Philip Roth says he’s done with writing

(Reuters) – Seminal American novelist Philip Roth, one of the world’s most revered authors, is retiring from writing, his publisher Houghton Mifflin said on Friday.

The “American Pastoral” author slipped his retirement announcement under the radar in an interview with French magazine Les Inrocks last month.

“To tell you the truth, I’m done,” Roth was quoted as telling the magazine. ” ‘Nemesis’ will be my last book,” he said of his 2010 short novel.

“He told me it was true,” Lori Glazer, Houghton Mifflin’s vice president and executive director of publicity, told Reuters on Friday.

Roth, 79, whose most famous works include “Goodbye, Columbus” and the sexually-explicit “Portnoy’s Complaint,” has never won the Nobel Prize for Literature despite his name often coming up as a leading contender for the award.

He is the author of more than 25 novels in a career spanning more than 50 years. He won the Pulitzer Prize for his 1997 novel “American Pastoral” and two National Book Awards.

But Roth told Les Inrocks that he had always found writing difficult and wanted nothing more to do with reading, writing or talking about books.

He said that at the age of 74, he started re-reading all his favorite novels by authors including Ernest Hemingway, Ivan Turgenev and Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and then re-read all his own novels

“I wanted to see whether I had wasted my time writing,” he explained.

“After that, I decided that I was done with fiction. I no longer want to read, to write, I don’t even want to talk about it anymore,” he was quoted as saying.

“I have dedicated my life to the novel: I studied, I taught, I wrote, I read – to the exclusion of almost everything else. Enough is enough! I no longer feel this fanaticism to write that I have experienced all my life. The idea of trying to write again is impossible,” Roth told the French magazine.

The New Jersey-born novelist is best known for his semi-autobiographical and unreliable narrator Nathan Zuckerman.

The novella “Goodbye, Columbus” catapulted Roth onto the American literary scene in 1959 with its satirical depiction of class and religion in American life.

Published along with five other short stories, “Goodbye, Columbus” won the National Book Award in 1960 – an award he would go on to win again in 1995 with the novel “Sabbath’s Theater.”

(Reporting By Eric Kelsey in Los Angeles, Editing by Jill Serjeant, Jan Paschal and Claudia Parsons)

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