BE ENTERTAINED THIS WEEK

It's Saturday. Enough of COVID, Ukraine, gun violence and global warming for today. I don't go to movie theaters anymore, but, as I reported on Top Gun Maverick earlier this week, let me praise the film by indicating that it will continue to be #1 this weekend.

Rotten Tomatoes reviewers gave it a 97% rating, while audiences bestowed 99%.
Looking like this movie will get close to a total of $300 million in box office revenues by the end of this second weekend.
And, if last week is any indication, this sum could well double when world-wide sales are added.
And China has banned the film for showing a Taiwanese flag.

In 2020 China led the world at $3 billion.
The total of U.S. and Canada was $2.2 billion, only $6/person for the whole year.
Japan was $1.3 billion, or $10/person/year. The average price of a ticket in Japan and North America is about $10.
Overseas revenues were 82% of the total market.

Global box office revenues fell by 72% in 2020. Why? The Pandemic. Digital home entertainment accounted for 82% of the entire entertainment sector.

Today, I think it is still too dangerous to be in any enclosed environment with a lot of strangers.
Plus, at home, viewing Netflix/Prime is almost free ($13/month for unlimited viewing), always available and more enjoyable with food and drinks in a safe home. Also, no driving and parking.
The movie industry is at a new crossroads, similar to the earlier advent of home television.

Of course, 2022 attendance in theaters will show some recovery, which should reach a new normal next year. New meaning lower in percent relative to home streaming.
I might add one more bit of info:

Netflix stopped playing the original Top Gun on May 31.
However, if you are an Amazon Prime member, this channel is currently showing this film for free.

As high as Top Gun Maverick was rated on Rotten Tomatoes, last night we were just scrolling around on Netflix and found something called Old Enough. 100% by Rotten Tomatoes. A 2013 series from Japan with 10 episodes. We watched the first. Really cute. A two-year old boy is asked to go shopping. Simple as that. Cute. Only 10-15 minutes/episode. So we watched the second...and ended up completing all ten, in less than 2.5 hours. Cute.

The original Old Enough was released in 1991 on Nippon TV.

These programs were part of a documentary information series, gained in interest, and became regular specials. And that started more than 30 years ago.
Netflix just this spring showed the first series. Surely, more will come.
In each episode, children from 1-6 are sent on their first individual journey alone outside the home. Of course they make mistakes, but these are cute ones.
Sometimes they are overwhelmed by their failure, become emotional and cry.
Isn't this controversial? Yes and no. Sure, you don't want parents to send off any very young child to run errands anywhere in the world. Japan is relatively safe, but...still. However, the wonder of this show is that camera people and staff are all around the youngling, and these victimized actors don't show this. It feels real on film. And it is cute.

Jurassic World Dominion will open nationally Friday, June 10, with all the trimmings: IMAX, 4DX RealD 3D and Dolby Cinema. It actually already premiered in Mexico City on 23 May 2022. Thus, Rotten Tomatoes already has a score, 88% by reviewers.

This third of a Jurassic World trilogy was planned as early as 2014, but all kinds of things got in the way, like the pandemic. Dominion is actually the sixth installment of the Jurassic Park franchise.

Began with Michael Crichton's novel Jurassic Park in 1990.
Steven Spielberg released the first film in 1993.
The Lost World was a 1995 sequel by Crichton, which became a movie in 1997, then Jurassic Park III in 2001.
So in 2015 came the second trilogy with Jurassic World. Became the first film to gross over $500 million worldwide in its opening weekend.
The sequel was Fallen Kingdom in 2018, and became the third in the series to gross over a billion dollars.
Thus #6, Dominion on June 10.

I could say a lot more, but will end with something most interesting. This is the first time that the characters in both trilogies unite, with Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum and Sam Neill joining Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard. This film takes place four years after Isla Nublar was destroyed in Jurassic World.

A NEXT COVID SUBVARIANT?

By now most know that the Omicron BA.5 subvariant has become the dominant infectious agent, now accounting for more than 80% of all COVID-19 cases. Very few are aware that a new one, BA.4.6, is sneaking in and steadily rising, now accounting for 13% of sequenced samples . However, as BA.4.6 has emerged from BA.4, while there is uncertainty, the scientific sense is that the latest bivalent booster targeting BA.4 and BA.5 should also be effective for this next threat. One concern is that Evusheld--the only monoclonal antibody authorized for COVID prevention in immunocompromised individuals--is not effective against BA.4.6. Here is a reference as to what this means. A series of two injections is involved. Evusheld was developed by British-Swedish company AstraZeneca, and is a t ixagevimab co-packaged with cilgavimab . More recently, Los Angeles County reported on subvariant BA.2.75.2 . which Tony Fauci termed suspicious and troublesome. This strain has also been spreading in

Part 3: OUR NEXT AROUND THE WORLD ODYSSEY

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HONOLULU TO SEATTLE

The story of the day is Hurricane Milton, now a Category 4 at 145 MPH, with a track that has moved further south and the eye projected to make landfall just south of Sarasota. Good news for Tampa, which is 73 miles north. Milton will crash into Florida as a Category 4, and is huge, so a lot of problems can still be expected in Tampa Bay with storm surge. If the eye had crossed into the state just north of Tampa, the damage would have been catastrophic. Milton is a fast-moving storm, currently at 17 MPH, so as bad as the rainfall will be over Florida, again, a blessing. The eye will make landfall around 10PM EDT today, and will move into the Atlantic Ocean north of Palm Bay Thursday morning. My first trip to Seattle was in June of 1962 just after I graduated from Stanford University. Caught a bus. Was called the Century 21 Exposition . Also the Seattle World's Fair. 10 million joined me on a six-month run. My first. These are held every five years, and there have only been

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