Here is a headline SOURCE: yahoo.com
Entertainment - AP
'Exorcist' Begins Big With $18.2 Million
LOS ANGELES - God vs. Satan cast out space creatures at the box office. Demon thriller "Exorcist: The Beginning" debuted as the No. 1 weekend movie with $18.2 million, displacing "Alien vs. Predator," which tumbled to No. 4 with $12.5 million, studio estimates showed Sunday.
"Without a Paddle," a slapstick comedy about three pals on a canoe trip in search of treasure, opened in second place with $13.7 million.
"Without a Paddle," starring Seth Green (news), Matthew Lillard and Dax Shepard, played largely to the 21-and-younger crowd but, surprisingly, drew slightly more females than males. Distributor Paramount had expected the buddy comedy to score a mostly male audience.
Exorcist: The Beginning," a prequel to the 1973 horror blockbuster "The Exorcist," stars Stellan Skarsgard as the priest of the original movie in his first encounter with the devil in late 1940s Africa.
The movie could follow the same path as "Alien vs. Predator," whose $12.5 million second weekend was down a steep 67 percent from its opening gross.
1. "Exorcist: The Beginning," $18.2 million.
2. "Without a Paddle," $13.7 million.
3. "Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement," $13.2 million.
4. "Alien vs. Predator," $12.5 million.
5. "Open Water," $11.75 million.
6. "Collateral," $10.5 million.
7. "The Bourne Supremacy," $6.6 million.
8. "The Manchurian Candidate," $4.2 million.
9. "The Village," $3.7 million.
10. "Garden State," $3.2 million.
Here is another SOURCE: yahoo.com
USA Team Beats Angola 89-53
Meanwhile, the United States easily defeated Angola 89-53 to finish 3-2 in the preliminary round. The Americans were beaten by Lithuania 94-90 on Saturday, but had clinched a spot in the quarterfinals even before Monday's game.
Lithuania also closed out a perfect preliminary round Monday by defeating Australia 100-85. Lithuania became the first team in the tournament to reach 100 points.
The game couldn't change any of the placings as Lithuania (5-0) had already locked up first place in Group B, while Australia (1-4) was fifth, the first time since 1976 it didn't reach the quarterfinals.
One More SOURCE: Bloomberg.com
Munch Masterpiece `The Scream' Wasn't Insured (Update2)
Aug. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Edvard Munch's painting of a person screaming and another work stolen from an Oslo museum yesterday weren't insured against theft, said John Oyaas, managing director at the insurance company of the city of Oslo, which owns the Munch collection.
``The Scream,'' a tourist attraction in Norway, and ``Madonna,'' were taken at gunpoint by two hooded men while museum visitors looked on. They were insured against fire or flood though not robbery, said Oyaas, who runs the Oslo Forsikring. This is the second time in a decade that a work by Munch has been stolen in Oslo.
Many of the world's most valuable artworks aren't insured because of the cost, according to art and insurance experts. Museums may have to reinforce their security in light of the robbery, they said.
``If museums want cheap or no insurance they have a responsibility to protect their art pretty well,'' said Robert Hiscox, chairman of art insurer Hiscox Plc in London. ``I can walk into a museum up to six inches next to a priceless painting. As an art lover I want to do that, but as an insurer I'm appalled at the lack of security.''