Box Office

After months of undisputed dominance, Top Gun: Maverick was ousted from the Italian box-office podium this week by the three new releases: Minions 2, Bullet Train - an action comedy starring Brad Pitt - and Crimes of the Future, David Cronenberg's directorial comeback. With another €3.

China changed the ending of Minions: The Rise of Gru to a politically correct one, and Universal Pictures had no comment. On screenshots shared by users of Weibo, China’s premier social media platform, moviegoers in China showed the altered ending.

There’s a huge shakeup but it’s not one anyone would have expected: with three new releases in the charts, two of them made in Germany, the unlikeliest one took the top spot. After Forever, which is called After Ever Happy in the original version, is the fourth part of this popular young adult romance franchise.

Bullet Train is back at 1st place. Directed by David Leitch with Brad Pitt, Joey King, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Bullet Train is an action comedy about five assassins aboard a fast-moving bullet train who find out their missions have something in common.

Beast was no match for Dragon Ball. In an unusual development, an anime film, Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero topped the domestic box office and beat Idris Elba’s Beast.

Despicable yet adorable, the Minions came to rescue Italy's box office. After sluggish weeks, audiences flocked back to theaters for the animated new entry Minions 2 - The Rise of Gru.

The longer the summer the more boring the charts. Or so it seems.

China Daily reported the remarks of a Chinese official who was asked whether the tension between China and the US is having an impact on the import of Hollywood movies. Sun Yeli, deputy head of the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China responded at a news conference in Beijing, “We are ready to introduce foreign films from any country as long as it can produce good films that cater to the needs and interests of Chinese audiences.

One Piece Film – Red is the new number 1 in France. Directed by Goro Taniguchi with Stephane Excoffier, Mayumi Tanaka, and Marie Braam, this animated movie is about Luffy and his crew  - they are about to attend an eagerly awaited music festival in which the daughter of the legendary pirate Shanks Le Roux will reveal her exceptional voice power, capable of changing the world.

With no major new releases, Top Gun: Maverick was, at one point on Sunday, poised to re-claim the number two spot even after 12 weeks of release. But as this report is being written, it looks like DC League of Super-Pets narrowly edged out Tom Cruise’s blockbuster to win second place.