Reuters Entertainment News Summary

Reuters

Following is a summary of current entertainment news briefs.

Jolie in 'Eternals', Ali as 'Blade' highlight Marvel's star-studded slate

Walt Disney Co's Marvel Studios on Saturday unveiled a star-packed slate of superhero films for the next two years that includes Angelina Jolie in "The Eternals," Mahershala Ali in a remake of "Blade" and Natalie Portman as a female "Thor." The announcements at San Diego Comic-Con charts Marvel's course following mega-blockbuster "Avengers: Endgame," which Disney said was set to top 2009 film "Avatar" by Sunday as the highest-grossing movie of all time.

Box office: 'The Lion King' rules with $185 million debut

Simba and Mufasa reigned supreme this weekend as Disney's "The Lion King" dominated box office charts. Director Jon Favreau's remake of the animated classic collected a massive $185 million from 4,756 North American theaters during its first three days of release. In yet another win for Disney, the movie landed the best domestic launch for a PG film and set a new record for the month of July. That figure represents the second-best domestic debut of the year behind Disney and Marvel's "Avengers: Endgame" ($357 million). The Buena Vista company now holds five of the top six biggest movies of 2018 so far.

Will life imitate art? Steppe queen movie makes Kazakhs wonder

An aging central Asian leader grooms his daughter to succeed him, and she then overcomes suspicion from her patriarchal society to unite her people. It could describe the future trajectory of Dariga Nazarbayeva, the 56-year-old daughter of Kazakhstan's former leader Nursultan Nazarbayev, who many people believe will eventually become president of the oil-producing nation.

'Avatar' and 'Avengers' trade compliments as 'Endgame' becomes box-office champ

Director James Cameron on Monday handed over the baton for the biggest box-office movie of all time to the makers of "Avengers: Endgame" after it ended the 10-year record of "Avatar." The Marvel Studios superhero movie "Avengers: Endgame" at the weekend overtook the $2.789 billion record set by Cameron's 2009 sci-fi film "Avatar" to bring its global total to $2.790 billion, according to box-office data.