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The Barbie movie has been out for mere days but it is already making history. The Greta Gerwig directed film scored a US$377m (£293m, A$560m) opening weekend around the world, making it the biggest debut ever for a film directed by a woman. Now that is the Kenergy we love to see. At the North American box office – combining the US and Canada – Barbie claimed top spot with $155m in ticket sales from 4,243 locations, surpassing The Super Mario Bros Movie and every Marvel film released this year to become the biggest opening of the year. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Internationally, Barbie earned $182m from 69 territories and women made up 65 per cent of the audience, according to PostTrak, with 40 per cent of ticket buyers under the age of 25. “It was a truly historic weekend and continues the positive box office momentum of 2023,” said Michael O’Leary, president and CEO of the National Association of Theatre Owners. “People recognised that something special was happening and they wanted to be a part of it.” It comes after director Gerwig revealed the scene in Barbie that she refused to cut, despite pressure from the studio. The Academy Award-nominated director said that it was suggested she remove a scene where Barbie meets an elderly woman on a bench and tells her she’s beautiful. “I love that scene so much,” Gerwig told Rolling Stone. “And the older woman on the bench is the costume designer Ann Roth. She’s a legend. It’s a cul-de-sac of a moment, in a way - it doesn’t lead anywhere." "And in early cuts, looking at the movie, it was suggested, ‘Well, you could cut it. And actually, the story would move on just the same.’ And I said, ‘If I cut the scene, I don’t know what this movie is about.'” Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

One of the most famous lines in Oppenheimer is when J. Robert Oppenheimer, the protagonist, thinks of the Hindu holy book Bhagavad Gita when the first bomb is detonated during tests. Oppenheimer’s line “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds,” is, apparently, true to real life. It also appeared in the Bhagavad Gita when the god Vishnu is trying to persuade Prince Arjuna that he should do his duty and to impress him, takes on his multi-armed form and says the same words. Now, it turns out some members of the Hindu community in India are upset about how this quote is first brought into the movie – when he is having sex with Florence Pugh’s character, Jean Tatlock. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter While in bed, she gets up and goes to his bookshelf, taking a book written in a language she doesn’t know. Presumably, we can interpret this to be the Bhagavad Gita. Then, she asks him to read it while they continue having sex, feeding the scientist’s ego and further inflating the god complex he has over his own intelligence. Perhaps unsurprisingly, some on social media aren’t too happy about their holy book being read during a sex scene. Uday Mahurkar, an Indian journalist and founder of the Save Culture Save India Foundation, called it a “direct assault on religious beliefs of a billion tolerant Hindus” in an open letter addressed to Nolan. The post argues that Hollywood is deliberately “very sensitive” about Islam and asks why “the same courtesy” can’t be shown to Hindus. It adds that if Nolan does not remove the scene from the film, it will be interpreted as a “deliberate assault on Indian civilization”. News outlet Variety reports that Oppenheimer got a “U/A Certificate” from India’s board of film certification, which is roughly equivalent to a 12A rating in the UK. The publication also reports that Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut originally contained a song on the soundtrack with a line from the Bhagavad Gita during an orgy scene. Warner Bros. later removed the scene and issued a public apology. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Greta Gerwig has revealed the scene in Barbie that she refused to cut. The Academy Award-nominated director said that it was suggested she remove a scene where Barbie meets an elderly woman on a bench and tells her she’s beautiful. “I love that scene so much,” Gerwig told Rolling Stone. “And the older woman on the bench is the costume designer Ann Roth. She’s a legend. It’s a cul-de-sac of a moment, in a way - it doesn’t lead anywhere. "And in early cuts, looking at the movie, it was suggested, ‘Well, you could cut it. And actually, the story would move on just the same.’ And I said, ‘If I cut the scene, I don’t know what this movie is about.'” Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter In another interview, Gerwig called the scene a "transaction of grace" and said it is vital to understand how the living doll perceives the human world. “The idea of a loving God who’s a mother, a grandmother - who looks at you and says, ‘Honey, you’re doing ok’ - is something I feel like I need and I wanted to give to other people,” Gerwig told The New York Times. “If I cut that scene, I don’t know why I’m making this movie,” the director added. “If I don’t have that scene, I don’t know what it is or what I’ve done.” Gerwig's critically lauded and box-office-smashing movie was released worldwide last Friday with seemingly everyone heading out to see the Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling starring comedy about the iconic toy. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

The Australian dollar has been on an upswing this month as the greenback weakened. But risks are building

Cinemas finally have something to celebrate. Barbie, a comedy about the famous fashion doll, and Oppenheimer, a biography

Want to enrage a bunch of angry men on the internet? Just make an incredibly popular film with a strong feminist message. It works like a charm. Greta Gerwig’s Barbie has done just that. As most people queued around the block decked out in pink feather boas and sunglasses this weekend, the keyboard warriors took a different approach: hate-watching the film of the summer then slating it online. So here are some hilarious reviews of a totally harmless movie. And before you read on: SPOILER ALERT! Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter The infamous Ben Shapiro kicked things off by declaring on his YouTube channel that Barbie was a "s**tshow" and one of the worst movies he'd ever seen. Blogger Jim Schembri wrote on Rotten Tomatoes: “For the first 30 minutes or so Barbie is a fun, feather-weight satire...Then the stuff about patriarchy kicks in and the film turns into a thinly disguised #metoo rant, trading comedy for man-bashing and a lot of confused point-scoring about sexism.” Meanwhile, Christian Toto wrote on the same platform: “Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling can't save story captured by man-hating agenda.” Comedy writer Aaron Gillies, who posts on Twitter under the pseudonym @TechnicallyRon, took some similar reviews from Letterboxd and put them on the movie poster. Turn over to IMDB, and it’s much the same. One account, nhsiposm, denounced the film’s “radical views” and called it “an extended radical feminist diatribe packaged within the guise of a fun summer blockbuster.” Meanwhile, pat-394 said it was “a shameful piece of cinema, unless you're of a certain ideological bent, in which case you'll love it. For everyone else: Avoid like the plague.” And finally, we have to give a little bit of credit to jasonburnscorp for coming up with the headline: “Barbage”. That’s nice. He goes on: “Though initially pretty in detail, this junk box Frankenstein of a film quickly turned into a radical feminist fair, mixed with corporate propaganda. Ken (the arch enemy) never had a chance...because he is a man..and men are bad...because they are patriotic?” We’ll gloss over the fact that the last one doesn’t make sense, and simply extend our thoughts and prayers to all of these angry men at this difficult time. Never change, guys. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

The outspoken conservative commentator Ben Shapiro has called Greta Gerwig's widely praised Barbie movie "horrific" and one of the worst films he's ever seen. The 39-year-old, who has previously criticised the likes of Glass Onion and The Last of Us, did not hold back on the critically praised film, which he "s**tshow" and accused it of using up all of its jokes within the first 40 seconds of the film. He did find time to praise the production design and costumes in the film but used the majority of his 43 YouTube review to berate the messaging of the movie which he feels fails the intended audience of mothers and young girls. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Shapiro accused Gerwig and her partner Noah Baumbach, who co-wrote the film with the Oscar-nominated director of being "smug and self-satisfied" and not being able to decide if they love or hate the Barbie character. Ben Shapiro DESTROYS Barbie for 43 minutes www.youtube.com Shapiro does start his review by mentioning that he was going to quickly say which of Barbie and Oppenheimer he prefers while holding a Barbie doll and toy atomic bomb. Without actually saying which of the two blockbusters he prefers, he instead proceeds to torch a Barbie and Ken doll in a nearby bin, thus telling us he thought Oppenheimer was better. On Twitter on Friday, Shapiro has hinted that he didn't like Barbie by writing: "My producers dragged me to see ‘Barbie’ and it was one of the most woke movies I have ever seen." Shapiro's mini-review of Barbie was soon mocked, which is a frequent occurrence whenever he voiced his contrary opinion on any cultural matter. Before he was known as a political commentator and YouTuber, Shapiro did have a brief stint as a failed Hollywood screenwriter. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

By now you may have already seen the Barbie movie which has become a smash hit at the box office but if you haven't - fear not. The film is likely to be in cinemas for quite a while given its early success. Regardless of whether you have seen the movie or not, we're sure you are aware of the cultural sensation that it has sparked especially. around Ryan Gosling's Ken who arguably steals the movie from lead star Margot Robbie. Despite Gosling's charming and charismatic performance, people are also obsessed with getting their hands on Ken merchandise, specifically the 'Kenough' sweatshirt and hoodie, which Ken wears in the movie. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter The fleece hoodie features a tye-dyed design and the phrase 'I am Kenough.' One fan after seeing the film: "Ryan Gosling (Ken) wearing the ' I am Kenough.' hoodie at the end! I need that so dope." Well, the good news is that you can buy the hoodie on the Mattel Creations website but you won't be able to get your hands on any of them until August when they will start to be shipped. The rather fetching hoodie costs £58 ($60) but that is the only garment that Mattel is selling. If you do want to get our hands on other 'Kenough' merchandise you can seek out unofficially third-party outlets Sites such as Eletees, Zerelam, Etsy, and eBay are all selling their own Kenough merchandise at a much cheaper price than what is available on Mattel. However, if you would rather get your hands on the officially hoodie you might have to wait a while as Mattel currently only has size small available. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Zack Martin is threatening to hold out of Dallas Cowboys training camp. With the front office juggling multiple contract negotiations, let's rank Dallas' priorities as camp gets underway.As the Dallas Cowboys gear up for the new season, Zack Martin is here to infuse some stakes into Je...

As buzz builds into the premieres of Barbie and Oppenheimer, some on Wall Street are doubting whether the

After weeks of high-budget lurid pink publicity, it’s easy to forget that Barbie director Greta Gerwig is the indie writer and producer behind Frances Ha, Little Women and Lady Bird. Now, Gerwig has revealed the films that inspired the candy coloured sensation. One of the most prominent influences is The Wizard of Oz, the 1939 Judy Garland classic which a US Library of Congress exhibition described as “America's greatest and best-loved home-grown fairytale”. Gerwig said during her interview with Letterboxd it is an “extraordinary, beloved” movie. “It does something which I wanted to emulate which is these incredible sound stages and these painted skies, and this sense of authentically artificial, which I think is very beautiful and emotional. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter “In our movie we have the pink brick road instead of the yellow brick road … and we executed it like they would have done in the 30s and 40s.” However, another important influence is a less obvious one: The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, a 1964 musical romantic drama film written and directed by French movie icon Jacques Demy. Greta Gerwig’s Official Barbie Watchlist www.youtube.com The film centres around two young lovers in the French city of Cherbourg, separated by war. It is entirely sung-through, similar to a musical or an opera. Gerwig said she “loved the use of colour” in the film. “The surrealness of the colour was a big part of it”, she added, saying that Barbie’s use of “five different shades of pink or red in one shot and not have it overwhelm anything” was influenced by the film. Other films on the list of influences include Saturday Night Fever, The Truman Show and The Godfather (yep, you read that right). Of Saturday Night Fever, she said: “I always had a sense of wanting this to be a movie with an amazing soundtrack. “Saturday Night Fever obviously has this incredible soundtrack by The Bee Gees. I had watched a documentary about them and was so touched by The Bee Gees and Barbie seemed so disco to me. Actually in her heart. Because Barbie and disco are a little bit dorky, in the best way. “It had that quality and Saturday Night Fever was a kind of movie that was driven by music but was not a musical.” The whole list is as follows: The Wizard of Oz The Umbrellas of Cherbourg Saturday Night Fever The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart The Godfather Grease 2001: A Space Odyssey The Truman Show The Young Girls of Rochefort Oklahoma! Model Shop An American in Paris Singin' in the Rain The Red Shoes A Matter of Life and Death All That Jazz Heaven Can Wait Women on the Verge of a Nervous BreakDown His Girl Friday The Philadelphia Story Gold Diggers of 1935 Twentieth Century The Ladies Man Rear Window And the Ship Sails On Wings of Desire The Earrings of Madame de… Close Encounters of the Third Kind Modern Times Pee-wee’s Big Adventure Mon Oncle PlayTime Splash Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Britain’s performing arts union plans two rallies on Friday as it warns Hollywood studios not to exploit what