‘The Suicide Squad’ debut… Marvels’s first NFT… Olympics Closing Ceremony… Bri Springs & Greg Grippo relationship… and Kanye West was on his phone during Donda event

Listen to “Showbiz – Aug 9, 2021” on Spreaker.

 

“The Suicide Squad” didn’t exactly kill it at the box this weekend. Even though critics are loving it — it’s currently got a 91% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes — it opened with just $26.5M. There are a few reasons for the low number. First, there’s growing concern over the Delta variant of COVID-19; and second, the movie was simultaneously released on HBO Max at no extra charge to subscribers. They’ve got a loooong way to go to recover their losses. “The Suicide Squad” cost $185 million to produce and millions more to promote globally. Speaking of the global box office, when you add the $35M it did overseas, “The Suicide Squad” has earned a global total of $72.2M.

Marvel is getting in on this NFT thing. Back in June, Marvel promised digital comic books and “statues.” First up — Marvel is offering five different Spider-Man collectibles. The “common” Spider-Man NFT are available to 32K buyers for $40. And there are only 1000 of the “secret-rare” Spidey NFTs, which are $400 each. More Marvel NFT content is coming this month, including a “blind box” series of Captain America NFTs and also five different NFT versions of “Marvel Comics #1,” their very first comic book from 1939 that featured the Sub-Mariner and the Human Torch.

The closing ceremony for 2020 Tokyo Olympics was held last night. When all the dust settled, Team USA took home the most medals — 113! China was second with 88, followed by the Russian Olympic Committee with 71. American athletes won 39 gold, 41 silver and 33 bronze medals. Overall, 257 members of Team USA won a medal, including 164 women and 93 men. Interesting to note — this year as a bonus, Team USA medalists earned $37K for gold, around $22K for silver, and $25K for bronze. And before you miss it too much, we only have to wait six months for the next round of competition. The 2022 Winter Olympics will be held Feb. 4-20 in China.

Maybe Greg Grippo shouldn’t have taken himself out of the running for Katie’s final rose just yet because he’s still not quite famous enough. There’s an Instagram account @BachelorNation.Scoop and a follower sent pictures of Greg and Bri Springs — who was one of Matt James’ top 4 — standing in line at Noir, which is a popular club in the Chelsea section of NYC. The fan said the two of them “couldn’t get in.” Another photo showed Greg and Bri walking down the street together. The fan said, “I literally asked for a picture and Greg didn’t speak but Bri basically spoke for him and was like ‘he said no we are trying to be discreate (sic).’” Bri would like to clear up rumors that she and Greg are dating REAL quick. She went straight to her IG Stories and re-shared a photo from earlier this summer showing her holding hands with another man, captioning it, “Current relationship status.”

After levitating into the rafters last Thursday, fans expected Kanye West to release his “DONDA” album on Friday. We’re still waiting. Apparently, the new release date is now Aug. 15, with the lead single being “Hurricane” featuring The Weeknd and Lil Baby. Why the hold up on the album? Kanye still doesn’t think it’s ready. In fact, during his second listening party, Kanye actually got on the phone in the middle of one song and called audio engineer Mike Dean because he noticed a mixing mistake and wanted it fixed immediately. So, will there be a THIRD listening party before the release? Will it ACTUALLY drop on Aug. 15?? It’s Kanye so who knows…

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