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Marco Reus and Diego Fagúndez scored goals and Galaxy defeated D.C. United 2-1 on Saturday night.

Reus scored in the 23rd minute with a right-footed shot from the right side of the box to the lower left-central zone and the Galaxy carried the 1-0 advantage into the halftime break.

The Galaxy outshot the United 13-11 overall and 5-3 on goal.

Fagúndez made it 2-0 for the Galaxy early in the second half when he scored with from the center of the box to the bottom left corner.

In the 77th minute, Gabriel Pirani got the United on the board, connecting from the center of the box to the bottom right corner.

Pirani’s goal was the first for the United (4-11-7) in four games. They are winless in their past five matches.

Novak Micovic had two saves for the Galaxy (3-13-6) and Luis Barraza had three saves for United.

No club in MLS history played more games during a two-year span than the 103 LAFC played the past two seasons. It was an exhausting and unrelenting slog that saw the team play a game every five days.

Yet it may prove to be just a warm-up for what the team could face during the remainder of this season. Wednesday’s 3-0 win over the short-handed Colorado Rapids, which snapped a four-game winless streak in all competition, was LAFC’s 28^th match in less than five months. If it makes long runs in both the Leagues Cup and MLS Cup playoffs, the team will play another 29 times this season, with seven of those matches coming in the next 26 days weeks.

It’s a tortuous schedule, especially in mid-summer. But it’s also an unavoidable one.

“This schedule is what it is. We cannot change that,” said coach Steve Cherundolo, who got goals Wednesday from Denis Bouanga, Nathan Ordaz and newcomer Javairo Dilrosun. “It’s important not to waste any moments; moments meaning games you can win, moments also meaning chances in each game. So it’s important to play as effective as possible.

“That is our objective.”

Another objective would be to call for help, or at least relief, which is something LAFC figures to do as well. Because while the schedule ahead looks daunting, the team appears to have ample resources to deal with it.

The departures of Olivier Giroud, who returned to France, and Cengiz Under, whose loan from Turkish club Fenerbahce expired, frees up two designated player spots and more than $2.6 million in salary heading into the summer transfer window, which opens in two weeks. And the $10 million LAFC will receive for making the FIFA Club World Cup gives general manager John Thorrington more money to fund a roster upgrade.

“I don’t think there’s been a transfer window that LAFC has not been active in,” Cherundolo said. “We are always trying to improve the team whenever possible. That is just part of who we are and how we do things.

“So I, of course, expect the exact same demeanor this window.”

Exactly what that would look like, Cherundolo said, was a question for Thorrington, who wasn’t taking any this week. But LAFC’s needs are as obvious as they are plentiful.

LAFC’s Nathan Ordaz (27) celebrates after scoring a goal against Colorado Rapids at BMO Stadium on Wednesday.

(Shaun Clark / Getty Images)

Bouanga and Ordaz, who scored the first two goals Wednesday, have combined for 13 of LAFC’s 33 goals this season and the departures of Giroud and Under make the offense even more top heavy. Keeping Dilrosun, a former Dutch international on a short-term loan from Mexico’s Club América, could help spread out the scoring but expect LAFC to look to add another attacker in the transfer window just the same

The loss of center back Marlon, whose contract expired nine days ago, has also created a hole, this one on the back line.

Time is critical because despite the win over Colorado, which went down a man in the sixth minute when left back Jackson Travis drew a red card for elbowing defender Sergi Palencia in the face, LAFC (8-5-5) is closer to the ninth and final playoff Western Conference playoff spot than it is to the top of the 15-team table. However the team’s congested schedule means it will play at least more two games than every other team in the conference the rest of the season, something that is both a blessing and a curse.

It’s a blessing because it gives the team two extra chances to make up ground against the teams ahead of them. But it’s a curse in that it means the team’s MLS schedule is the most challenging down the stretch.

“That’s what I like,” Bouanga, whose first-half penalty-kick goal was his ninth of the season 50^th in his MLS career, said through a translator. “I like play, play, play. When we train too much it becomes tiring for me.”

The crowded calendar is mainly a result of LAFC’s participation in the Club World Cup, which forced MLS four games, including Wednesday’s match with Colorado, to be rescheduled while adding four non-league games to the schedule. Then there’s the upcoming Leagues Cup, which will force LAFC to play as least three more games and perhaps as many as six.

Ordaz, whose goal early in the second half came off the rebound of a Dilrosun shot, said its important not too look too far ahead.

“You just have to go one day at a time,” he said. “I think we’re all going to be important, the whole team. Everybody’s ready and we’re going to trust in everyone.”

His coach agreed.

“We need to take it step by step, meaning game by game,” Cherundolo said.

“When you’re winning games that’s a great time to have a congested schedule because things are flowing and going in the right direction. So it’s important to get us going, get the ball rolling in the right direction.”

LAFC has been heading in the opposite direction the last month, earning just a draw in four games in all competition and getting shut out three times. Wednesday’s win, however, was the team’s most one-sided since a 4-0 victory over Seattle in mid May. The team also got a big effort from goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, who recorded his sixth clean sheet in 16 MLS games.

“There’s no replacement for wins, and more specifically three points in the position we’re in,” Cherundolo said. “So that was very important, regardless of how it happened.”

Dinosaurs ruled the box office once again this weekend as “Jurassic World Rebirth” hauled in a strong $147.3 domestically over the five-day Fourth of July period to kick off what industry insiders hope will be an impressive month at movie theaters.

The holiday total for “Jurassic World” in the U.S. and Canada exceeded industry expectations. Universal Pictures’ “Jurassic World” reboot was expected to gross $120 million to $130 million during its long opening weekend, according to analyst and studio projections.

The movie unseated Apple’s Brad Pitt racing film “F1 The Movie,” which landed in second place with $26.1 million domestically, bringing its total to $109.5 million in North America, according to distributor Warner Bros.

“Rebirth’s” 2022 predecessor, “Jurassic World: Dominion,” debuted with $145 million from its first three days of release and went on to collect $1 billion globally. The new movie carries an estimated production budget of $180 million, not counting marketing costs.

Big-budget creature features have global appeal, as the numbers showed. Opening in 82 countries outside the U.S. and Canada, “Rebirth” grossed $171 million internationally. That included $41.5 million from China, proving that Hollywood movies can still do well in the Middle Kingdom despite the dominance of local production in the populous country.

The global total for “Rebirth’s” opening was $318.3 million.

Directed by Gareth Edwards (“The Creator,” “Rogue One”) and starring Scarlett Johansson and Mahershala Ali, “Rebirth” earned unenthusiastic reviews from critics, notching a 52% approval rating on aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.

The “Jurassic” franchise has seen multiple iterations since Steven Spielberg’s 1993 blockbuster “Jurassic Park,” based on the popular Michael Crichton science fiction novel, wowed audiences with its combination of practical and computer-generated effects that gave the T. rex and other killer dinos their stunning realism. That film spawned not only sequels but toys, theme park attractions, animated series and video games.

Although the sequels, starting with Spielberg’s own “The Lost World,” never achieved the acclaim of the original, they continued to mint money for Universal and Spielberg’s production company, Amblin.

Prior to “Rebirth,” the “Jurassic” movies had grossed a total of roughly $6 billion worldwide, not adjusting for inflation, according to box office website The Numbers. The first “Jurassic Park” grossed $978 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo, which is equal to $1.86 billion in today’s dollars.

The latest “Jurassic” movie did not get a slot at Imax theaters, since those were taken up by “F1.” Next week, the valuable Imax real estate will be taken up by Warner Bros. and DC Studios’ “Superman.” Films shown on Imax often reap bigger box office numbers, aided in part by the higher ticket prices at those theaters, and because they’re viewed as more of a must-see event.

“Jurassic World” is the first of three big tentpole films arriving this month in theaters. In addition to “Superman,” Walt Disney Co. and Marvel Studios’ “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” opens in a few weeks.

July has historically been one of the strongest summer months at the box office, putting more pressure on these three films to deliver.

Despite big box office gains in April and May, June saw a string of underperforming films such as Lionsgate’s “John Wick” spinoff “Ballerina,” Sony Pictures’ “Karate Kid: Legends” and Disney and Pixar’s original animated effort “Elio.”

Theatrical business in June was 25% lower compared to the pre-pandemic average of June 2017, 2018 and 2019, according to David A. Gross’s FranchiseRe movie industry newsletter. It was also down 5.3% compared to last June, which saw big hits like Disney and Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” and Sony’s “Bad Boys: Ride or Die.”

“We see this ebb and flow,” said Shawn Robbins, founder of the website Box Office Theory. “These next four to five weeks will certainly give us a sense of how to grade the summer overall.”

The Brad Pitt-led racing film “F1 The Movie” sped to the top of the box office this weekend, another in a string of big summer movies that Hollywood hopes will keep driving people to theaters.

The big-budget film from “Top Gun: Maverick” director Joseph Kosinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer hauled in $55.6 million in the U.S. and Canada, according to studio estimates. That’s better than analysts had expected for a non-sequel racing movie. People who read pre-release audience surveys had anticipated a debut of $40 million to $50 million.

Powered by the global appeal of Formula One racing, the film took in an additional $88 million internationally. Still, with a reported budget of more than $200 million, not including marketing costs, “F1” will still need significantly more ticket sales to break even.

Only three Hollywood films so far this year have grossed more than $500 million globally — “A Minecraft Movie,” “Lilo & Stitch” and “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” — and each of those opened above “F1” domestically.

Nonetheless, with “F1,” the iPhone maker has its first box office hit.

While Apple TV+ has found critical success with its shows, including “Severance,” “The Studio” and “Your Friends & Neighbors” — and notched its first best picture Oscar win in 2022 with “CODA” — its films had not yet clinched box office gold.

Its previous star-studded and filmmaker-driven movies have struggled at theaters, including the 2024 spy comedy “Argylle” and space-age romantic comedy “Fly Me to the Moon,” starring Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum.

“F1” benefited from a heavily promoted Imax run, which helps make it seem like a must-see on the big screen. Imax screens accounted for 23% of the domestic weekend revenue for “F1,” the cinema technology provider said Sunday. Around 55% of domestic sales came from large-screen formats including Imax, Dolby Cinema and motion seats.

As usual, Apple worked with a major studio to handle the theatrical release. “F1” is being distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, adding to the studio’s winning streak that includes “A Minecraft Movie,” “Sinners” and “Final Destination Bloodlines.” Pitt and Dede Gardner’s Plan B Entertainment produced along with Bruckheimer.

Quality also helped.

“It’s emotional, it’s exciting, it’s got romance, it’s got humor,” producer Jerry Bruckheimer told The Times earlier this month. “It’s the reason I got into this business — to make movies that thrill you on that big screen, that you walk out feeling you’ve been on a real journey and got lost for a couple of hours. That’s the goal every time.”

Strong reviews from audiences and critics bode well for the film’s future grosses and its eventual performance on streaming for Apple. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the movie a grade of “A,” while the movie holds a critics’ score of 83% “fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes.

Not faring as well was Universal Pictures’ murderous doll sequel “M3GAN 2.0,” which debuted with a weak $10 million and landed in fourth place at the domestic box office, behind holdovers “How to Train Your Dragon” and “Elio.”

The Blumhouse film was expected to open with around $20 million. It fell far short of the success of the original, which opened with $30 million in 2023 and eventually collected $180 million worldwide.

Overall, though, it’s been a strong last few months for the horror genre, starting with Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners,” which has now grossed $364 million worldwide, and followed by “Final Destination Bloodlines” and zombie franchise revival “28 Years Later.”

The staying power of movies like “How to Train Your Dragon” and “Lilo & Stitch” shows the continued draw of family-friendly films at the box office, which have been major winners since the spring. The exception has been Disney and Pixar’s original animated movie “Elio,” which notched Pixar’s worst opening weekend ever last week.

“Elio” collected about $11 million Friday through Sunday, bringing its total to a poor $42 million in the U.S. and Canada for the $150-million animated picture.

Times staff writer Josh Rottenberg contributed to this report.

He was replaced by Mexican reserve Luis Carrera for the remainder of the round, with their combined score counting towards their team Smash GC’s score.

LIV said Koepka can return for the second and third rounds but his score would contribute only to his team’s.

Players compete individually and for teams at LIV events.

They tee off at the same time on different holes, known as a shotgun start.

Koepka, who has won five times on the LIV tour, missed the cut at the Masters in April and the US PGA Championship in May, and finished tied for 12th at this month’s US Open.

Speaking about his form after the first round of the US Open, he said: “I would say from the first weekend in April until about last week, you didn’t want to be around me.

“It drove me nuts. It ate at me. I haven’t been happy. It’s been very irritating.”

The former world number one won the most recent of his majors in 2023 at the US PGA.

For decades, Pixar could hardly miss with its original animated films.

Whether the subject was toys, fish or a cantankerous old man, the Emeryville-based computer animation studio churned out hit after hit.

But since the COVID-19 pandemic, Pixar and other animation studios have struggled to break through at the box office with the same kinds of original movies that defined the industry. Instead, sequels such as “Inside Out 2” have ruled the genre.

This weekend, Walt Disney Co.-owned Pixar will face its latest test with the release of “Elio,” an original film about a young boy who seeks connection with aliens to make up for his loneliness on Earth.

The movie is tracking to bring in $18 million to $25 million in ticket sales from the U.S. and Canada during its opening weekend, according to box office analysis. (The film’s reported budget is in the range of $150 million to $200 million.)

That would be considered a soft debut by Pixar standards, indicating the dilemma the animation business — and the movie industry writ large — faces with original content. While audiences often say they want to see new stories, box office ticket sales show they gravitate toward sequels, reboots and other familiar fare.

“You need to be launching new franchises to keep the pipeline fresh,” said Doug Creutz, senior media and entertainment analyst at TD Cowen. “Since the pandemic ended, original animated films have just been getting killed at the box office … no matter how good they are.”

Pixar executives, nonetheless, say they’re committed to telling original stories, which are key to the future health of the industry.

“You wouldn’t have Pixar without ‘Toy Story,’ our first original film 30 years ago!” Pixar Chief Creative Officer Pete Docter wrote in an emailed statement. “And while we also love digging into new layers of familiar worlds and characters through our sequels, I’d say there’s a unique thrill in unearthing a new story.”

Disney and Pixar’s previous original movie “Elemental” made just $29.6 million in its opening weekend in 2023, causing many in the industry to write it off as a flop, before strong word-of-mouth reviews propelled the film to a solid worldwide gross of $496 million.

Sister studio Walt Disney Animation Studios has also recently struggled with originals, including 2022’s “Strange World” and 2023’s “Wish.”

The pandemic had a major effect on theatrical attendance for animated films. At the onset, studios including Pixar put their new animated movies on streaming services to give families something to watch during the COVID-19 stay-at-home orders and keep people from spreading the disease.

Movies such as 2020’s “Soul,” 2021’s “Luca” and 2022’s “Turning Red” were all sent straight to the Disney+ streaming service. Despite critical acclaim — winning an Academy Award for animated feature — “Soul” grossed just $121.9 million in worldwide theatrical revenue.

Even when movie theaters started reopening, families were slow to return due to health concerns and familiarity with watching movies at home, which dented animated films’ box office potential. Pixar’s 2022 “Toy Story” spinoff “Lightyear” did poorly at the box office partially due to this timing, as well as quality issues, marketing challenges and right-wing backlash to an on-screen kiss between a same-sex couple.

Other studios, too, face challenges with originals.

Universal Pictures’ 2023 original animated movie “Migration” also saw a soft box office total. The same year, Universal grossed more than $1 billion from “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” based on the Nintendo game franchise.

Last year, Universal’s “The Wild Robot,” which is adapted from a 2016 children’s book, debuted to strong reviews, but grossed $333 million in box office revenue, compared with the $492 million reaped by Paramount Pictures’ “Sonic the Hedgehog 3.”

Now family films are ruling the box office.

So far this summer, many of the films that have propelled the box office are family-friendly — Warner Bros. Pictures’ “A Minecraft Movie,” and live-action remakes “Lilo & Stitch” from Disney and “How to Train Your Dragon” from Universal.

Last year, Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” hauled in nearly $1.7 billion in global box office revenue last year, while Universal and Illumination Entertainment’s “Despicable Me 4” grossed $969.6 million worldwide and Disney’s “Moana 2” made $1 billion.

The common denominator among these films? They’re all sequels, reboots or rely on known intellectual property.

But industry insiders and analysts say that simply focusing on new chapters of existing stories risks making the animation space stale.

“If you’re trying to grow the business, you need new content, you need new franchises, you need new things for people to be excited about,” said Creutz of TD Cowen.

But beyond the box office, Pixar original films can get exposure — and drive business — through other parts of the Disney empire. Movies eventually debut on Disney+ and characters will show up on merchandise or in the theme parks, which can expand a film’s reach.

“Pixar is in the long-term business,” said David A. Gross, who writes a movie industry newsletter. “They want to create stories that last, and if that works in bringing back a sequel, great, but there is enormous value for streaming for these pictures, whatever they do in theatrical. There are a lot of revenue streams.”

Pixar intends to release three movies every two years, and the company’s strategy is to make one original for every sequel, company sources said. For instance, “Elio” was intended for release in 2024, but was delayed by the dual writers’ and actors’ strikes of 2023. Instead, it swapped with “Inside Out 2” since sequels can be easier to move through the production process due to existing assets.

“Pixar was really instrumental in defining the look and the feel and the tone of computer-animated films,” said Christopher Holliday, a senior lecturer in liberal arts and visual cultures education at King’s College London, who wrote a book about computer-animated films.

The company “is now at one of those crossroads where they are trying to balance films that have an audience built into them,” Holliday said. “And then they’re also balancing their identity as a studio of innovation that is pushing the boundaries and the limits of computer animation.”

Next year, Pixar plans to release “Toy Story 5” as well as an original film called “Hoppers” about a new technology that allows humans and animals to communicate. In 2027, Pixar said it will debut “Gatto,” an original movie about a cat with multiple lives.

“We think audiences love originals too,” Docter said. “Sure, it might be a bit harder nowadays to break through all the noise out there, but if we do our jobs, and create something that people will love, we trust that audiences will show up.”

Universal Pictures’ “How To Train Your Dragon” soared over the competition this weekend, as family-friendly films continued their dominance at the box office.

The live-action adaptation of the animated franchise from DreamWorks Animation grossed $83.7 million in its opening weekend in the U.S. and Canada, according to studio estimates.

It beat out fellow live-action remake “Lilo & Stitch” from Walt Disney Co., which hauled in $15 million over the weekend for a cumulative total of $366 million so far after 24 days. A24’s “Materialists,” Paramount’s “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning” and Lionsgate’s “Ballerina” rounded out the top five.

Expectations were high for the Universal film, which revives a profitable franchise for the studio.

The original animated movie was released in 2010 and grossed nearly $495 million in global box office revenue. A sequel soon followed in 2014 and brought in more than $621 million worldwide. The most recent film in the trilogy, “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World” came out in 2019 and made almost $540 million globally.

“How to Train Your Dragon” comes at an opportune time for family films. After a lackluster first quarter at the box office, theater attendance has been turbocharged, at least in part by the success of kid-friendly movies such as Warner Bros. Pictures “A Minecraft Movie” and Disney’s “Lilo & Stitch.”

Though family audiences were initially slow to return after the pandemic, movies that appeal to those theatergoers have turned out to be box office juggernauts.

Last summer, Disney and Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” and Universal and Illumination Entertainment’s “Despicable Me 4” drove theater revenues at a time when the industry was collectively wringing its hands after a slow Memorial Day weekend.

This summer, “How to Train Your Dragon” and “Lilo & Stitch” are demonstrating the power of the hybrid film, which combines live actors with computer-animated creatures — a strategy that has proved valuable, said David A. Gross, who writes movie industry newsletter FranchiseRe.

The trend began back in 1988 with Robert Zemeckis’ “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” but has seen recent success with films like Paramount’s “Sonic the Hedgehog” franchise and StudioCanal’s “Paddington” movies.

“It’s just a logical step in computer filmmaking,” Gross said. “It’s a very powerful storytelling tool.”

SKINCARE fans have been racing to pick up Boots’ new beauty box that has been branded as “incredible value”.

The £30 set includes £113 worth of products, with skincare favourites from Byoma, Beauty of Joseon and The Inkey List.

Boots Fresh Faced Skincare Set, £29.99 (worth £112.99)

Beauty boxes are a great way to try out new products or stock up on favourites, and the Boots Fresh Faced Skincare Set has everything needed for a routine refresh.

Six out of the nine products inside are full-size, including Lumene’s Glow Boost Essence, which is worth £34 (more than the entire beauty box) when purchased separately.

Beauty of Joseon is the Korean beauty brand that’s been all over social media lately, and shoppers will receive its popular Matte Sun Stick.

There are three cleansers inside the new beauty box, including The Inkey List’s popular Oat Cleanser and Cetaphil’s Gentle Skin Cleanser.

E.l.f’s Holy Hydration Cleansing Balm is also inside (worth £11), and the cleanser has racked up thousands of five-star ratings on the Boots website.

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The solid balm melts away make-up while hydrating the skin, with a formula made up of hyaluronic acid, ceramides and peptides.

Byoma’s Brightening Serum is another cult favourite including in the Boots beauty box, along with Pixi’s Vitamin C Serum (worth £26).

The products also come with a stylish checked print washbag that’s ideal for storing away beauty essentials.

The £30 set only has a few reviews currently, all of which are five-star.

One shopper wrote: “This set is excellent value for money if you want to try some new brands and level up your skincare routine, and the bag itself is very good quality, plus it would make an excellent gift.”

Another added: “The bag included is very good quality that will last years and I got lots of products for a great price.

I bought this for myself to try some new products but it would also make an excellent gift.”

Shoppers caused mass sell-outs on the Boots website earlier in the month after the retailer launched its Luxury Haircare Beauty Box.

Featuring £219 worth of products for £45, the haircare edit didn’t stay in stock for long.

Lookfantastic also released a new beauty box recently, and the Trending Beauty Box comes with nine viral favourites worth £110 for £40.

The Boots Fresh Faced Favourites Beauty Box is still in stock for now, but if it’s anything like the retailer’s other new releases, it’s going to sell fast.

A chaotic blue alien and the high-flying escapades of Tom Cruise propelled the Memorial Day weekend box office to record heights, giving relief to theater owners still struggling from a post-pandemic malaise among moviegoers.

Walt Disney Co.’s live-action film “Lilo & Stitch” hauled in $183 million in its opening weekend in the U.S. and Canada, according to studio estimates, placing it in first place. It’s the biggest Memorial Day weekend opener ever, not adjusting for inflation, topping “Top Gun: Maverick,” which debuted with $160.5 million in 2022.

Paramount Pictures and Skydance Media’s “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning” brought in $77 million domestically for second place. “Final Destination Bloodlines,” “Thunderbolts*” and “Sinners” rounded out the top five this weekend.

The two new studio blockbusters were big overseas, too. Globally, “Lilo & Stitch” collected $341.7 million including domestic ticket sales. The worldwide tally for “Mission: Impossible,” the eighth in the series, was $190 million.

Aria Clark fills up her Lilo and Stitch cup with slushy before going into the movie with her mom, Lexi, and brother Leo at AMC Century City.

Historically, the holiday has been one of the biggest moviegoing weekends of the year, serving as a springboard for the busy summer months. But since the 2020 pandemic and the dual writers’ and actors’ strikes in 2023, it has become a less reliable indicator of the theatrical business.

“The calendar thinned out a little bit, particularly post-pandemic,” said Eric Handler, media and entertainment analyst at Roth Capital. “You just didn’t have the depth that you used to have. But it’s good to see that there’s two big event movies this year.”

“Lilo & Stitch” and “Mission: Impossible” also largely catered to different audiences, lowering the risk that audiences would pick and choose between similar films. Box office grosses have typically done better with more genres in theaters.

The reported budget for “Lilo & Stitch” was $100 million, while “Mission: Impossible” reportedly cost $300 million to $400 million to produce, placing it among the most expensive movies ever.

Movie goers attend showings of “Lilo & Stitch” at AMC Century City.

The strong showing on Memorial Day weekend adds to a solid spring at the box office. Powered by films including Warner Bros. Pictures’ “A Minecraft Movie” and Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners,” domestic theatrical revenue for April totaled $875 million, close to the pre-pandemic average of $886 million for the same month from 2015-19, Handler said.

Then in May came Disney and Marvel Studios’ “Thunderbolts*” and Warner Bros. Pictures’ “Final Destination Bloodlines,” which have kept up steady business at theaters.

“This spring has been so good for the box office, it usually means the summer is going to be strong,” said Kimberly Owczarski, associate professor in the department of film, television and digital media at Texas Christian University. “Last year, we didn’t have those big tentpoles in April and early May that usually start the season. Because we’ve had that, people are in the moviegoing mood.”

Last year, the holiday weekend grossed just $132 million, making it the worst Memorial Day weekend box office in nearly 30 years. Films like “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” and “The Garfield Movie” brought in about $30 million each that weekend, a distinct difference from the mega-hauls that blockbusters traditionally gross during Memorial Day weekend.

KK McDermott attends a showing of “Mission: Impossible” at AMC Century City.

The slow start last year to the all-important summer movie season made distributors and exhibitors anxious. It wasn’t until Disney-Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” debuted in mid-June that the box office started to turn around.

This year, however, a seemingly strong lineup of familiar blockbusters for most of the summer has given industry insiders optimism.

Sony Pictures’ “Karate Kid: Legends” comes out at the end of the month, followed by Lionsgate’s “John Wick” spin-off “Ballerina” in early June. Other anticipated releases include Universal Pictures’ live action “How to Train Your Dragon” and “Jurassic World Rebirth,” Disney-Pixar’s original animated film “Elio,” Warner Bros.’ “Superman” and Disney and Marvel Studios’ “The Fantastic Four: First Steps.”

That’s boosted hopes for a stronger overall theatrical business this year.

Analysts say the 2025 domestic box office could gross an estimated $9.2 billion to $9.5 billion, which would be an improvement on last year’s $8.7 billion. More importantly, it’s higher than the 2023 box office total of $9 billion, which would indicate continued growth and a “true recovery,” Handler said.

However, those numbers still pale in comparison with pre-pandemic box office totals, including $11.4 billion in 2019 and $11.9 billion in 2018.

Moviegoers head to showings of “Lilo & Stitch,” one of this Memorial Day weekend’s biggest films at AMC Century City.

Even before the pandemic, theaters were starting to see declines in attendance, a trend that accelerated during COVID-19 when people got used to staying at home and watching movies on streaming platforms. As the pandemic and the strikes decreased the number of movies in theaters, and the length of time between a movie’s theatrical debut and its availability for home viewing shortened, theaters lost more of the crucial business of the casual moviegoer.

“When the content is good, people show up,” Handler said. “The content cycle is favorable right now, and hopefully we’ll see that continue through the next two years.”

SAN DIEGO — Hirving Lozano scored in the fifth minute of second-half stoppage time to lift San Diego FC to a 2-1 victory over the Galaxy on Saturday.

Lozano scored on a header from the top center of the box following a well-placed pass by Anders Dreyer.

San Diego FC (8-4-3, 27 points), in its first MLS season, swept the two-game season series from the defending MLS Cup champions, having also defeated the Galaxy 2-0 in February.

The winless Galaxy (0-11-4, 4 points) scored first when Diego Fagúndez connected with a right-footed shot from the center of the box to the middle right zone in the 40th minute.

San Diego drew even a minute later with Luca de la Torre’s right-footed shot from the center of the box to the central bottom zone.

San Diego had a 57.2 possession percentage and outshot the Galaxy 13-9 overall and 2-1 in shots on goal. There were no goalkeeper saves in the match.

San Diego visits Seattle on Wednesday and the Galaxy hosts San José.

WASHINGTON — For generations, official American documents have been meticulously preserved and protected — from the era of quills and parchment to boxes of paper to the cloud, safeguarding snapshots of the government and the nation for posterity.

Now, the Trump administration has sought to expand the executive branch’s power to shield from public view key administration initiatives. Officials have used apps like Signal that can auto-delete messages containing sensitive information rather than retaining them for record-keeping. And they have shaken up the National Archives leadership.

To historians and archivists, it points to the possibility that President Trump will leave less for the nation’s historical record than nearly any president before him.

Such an eventuality creates a conundrum: How will experts — and even ordinary Americans — piece together what occurred when those charged with setting aside the artifacts properly documenting history refuse to do so?

How to preserve history?

The Trump administration says it’s the “most transparent in history,” citing the president’s fondness for taking questions from reporters nearly every day. But flooding the airwaves, media outlets and the internet with all things Trump isn’t the same as keeping records that document the inner workings of an administration, historians caution.

“He thinks he controls history,” says Timothy Naftali, a presidential historian who served as founding director of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda. “He wants to control what Americans ultimately find out about the truth of his administration, and that’s dangerous.”

Trump long refused to release his tax returns despite every other major White House candidate and president having done so since Jimmy Carter. And, today, White House stenographers still record every word Trump utters, but many of their transcriptions are languishing in the White House press office without authorization for release — meaning there’s no official record of what the president says for weeks, if at all.

“You want to have a record because that’s how you ensure accountability,” said Lindsay Chervinsky, executive director of the George Washington Presidential Library in Mount Vernon, Va.

The law mandates maintaining records

The Presidential Records Act of 1978 mandates the preservation, forever, of White House and vice presidential documents and communications. It deems them the property of the U.S. government and directs the National Archives and Records Administration to administer them after a president’s term.

After his first term, rather than turn classified documents over the National Archives, Trump hauled boxes of potentially sensitive documents to his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, where they ended up piled in his bedroom, a ballroom and even a bathroom and shower. The FBI raided the property to recover them. The case was later scrapped.

Trudy Huskamp Peterson, who served as acting archivist of the United States from 1993 to 1995, said keeping such records for the public is important because “decision-making always involves conflicting views, and it’s really important to get that internal documentation to see what the arguments were.”

Presidential clashes with archivists predate Trump

President George H.W. Bush’s administration destroyed some informal notes, visitor logs and emails. After President Clinton left office, his former national security advisor, Sandy Berger, pleaded guilty to taking copies of a document about terrorist threats from the National Archives.

President George W. Bush’s administration disabled automatic archiving for some official emails, encouraged some staffers to use private email accounts outside their work addresses and lost 22 million emails that were supposed to have been archived, though they were eventually uncovered in 2009.

Congress updated the Presidential Records Act in 2014 to encompass electronic messaging — including commercial email services known to be used by government employees to conduct official business.

But back then, use of auto-delete apps like Signal was far less common.

“It’s far easier to copy — or forward — a commercial email to a dot-gov address to be preserved, than it is to screenshot a series of messages on an app like Signal,” said Jason R. Baron, a professor at the University of Maryland and former director of litigation at the National Archives.

Relying on ’an honor system’

There were efforts during the first Trump administration to safeguard transparency, including a memo issued through the office of White House counsel Don McGahn in February 2017 that reminded White House personnel of the necessity to preserve and maintain presidential records.

The White House now points to having recently ordered the declassification of bevies of historical files, including records related to the assassinations of Kennedy, his brother Robert and Martin Luther King Jr.

The Trump administration says it also ended a Biden policy that allowed staffers to use Microsoft Teams, where chats weren’t captured by White House systems. The Biden administration had over 800 users on Teams, meaning an unknown number of presidential records might have been lost, the Trump administration now says.

But the White House did not answer questions about the possibly of drafting a new memo on record retention like McGahn’s from 2017.

Chervinsky, author of “The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution,” said Congress, the courts and even the public often don’t have the bandwidth to ensure records retention laws are enforced, meaning, “a lot of it is still, I think, an honor system.”

“There aren’t that many people who are practicing oversight,” she said. “So, a lot of it does require people acting in good faith and using the operating systems that they’re supposed to use, and using the filing systems they’re supposed to use.”

Angered by the role the National Archives played in his documents case, meanwhile, Trump fired the ostensibly independent agency’s head, Archivist of the United States Colleen Shogan, and named Secretary of State Marco Rubio as her acting replacement.

Peterson, the former acting national archivist, said she still believes key information about the Trump administration will eventually emerge, but “I don’t know how soon.”

“Ultimately things come out,” she said. “That’s just the way the world works.”

Weissert writes for the Associated Press.

The Honesty Box star Rose Skehan has revealed that she was admitted to a medical clinic while travelling in Thailand after filming the show, with the star fainting at a restaurant

The Honesty Box runners up Rose Skehan and Tommy Biswell went off on their travels to Thailand after filming the E4 show – and have revealed that one particular day proved to be dramatic when Tommy was forced to carry Rose to a nearby clinic. The couple, who met on the dating show hosted by Vicky Pattison, have stayed together since the show’s finale and moved in together as they travel from place to place in the UK.

However, Rose revealed in a chat with The Mirror that she suddenly became ill one night during their trip to Thailand. “There was one time where I got really sick when we went to Thailand and I fainted at dinner,” she says.

“Tommy was carrying me like a baby through the streets of Thailand to this clinic and I was on an IV drip. We had the most random time ever.”

Tommy adds, “One minute she was singing having a fab time, next she was in a clinic on a drip. It was really quite mad that but Thailand was amazing time. We saw elephants, we rode horses, we saw monks.”

Rose continues, “We were walking up waterfalls, we really like broaden our horizons as well.”

The trip also made the couple even closer after Rose suffered a devastating loss back at home. “It brought us so much closer together because while were out there as well, my horse of 11 years, he passed away and Tommy really stepped up in caring for me and supporting me so we’ve got such a strong base coming back to England.”

Since leaving the show, Rose and Tommy have moved in together – revealing that they have been travelling the UK as a couple ever since. “We’re actually all over, so we jump round from cabin to cabin,” Tommy says. “We’re exploring the whole country. We’re finding nice little places that we’ve not been to in the UK.”

Rose adds, “It’s great because we both love historic houses and animals – we’re in our element going all over the countryside.”

The couple narrowly missed out on the show’s winnings as it was Chantelle and Jovan who emerged as champions of The Honesty Box. The winning pair recently revealed to the Mirror that they’re ready for marriage.

You can catch up on The Honesty Box on Channel 4.

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