Subscribers to telecom company Du in the UAE also confirmed they were once again receiving pictures from the giant Qatar sports broadcaster after channels were blocked for more than 24 hours.

“A deal has just been signed and programmes are back on Du,” said the source on condition of anonymity.

Earlier on Sunday, beIN said “lengthy” talks had broken down and their programmes would not be carried on Du — including games from the upcoming World Cup.

Du is one of only two telecom companies in the UAE — the other being Etisalat — to show channels from beIN, which has exclusive rights to show all 64 World Cup matches live across the Gulf.

Services to Du had been interrupted since Saturday, with the UAE firm saying the blank screens were the result of action taken by beIN.

The contract squabble came not only less than a fortnight before the World Cup starts but also on the eve of the one-year anniversary of a diplomatic dispute between the countries, raising tensions between Doha and Dubai.

A group of countries including the UAE cut all ties with Qatar on June 5, 2017, accusing Doha of supporting extremism and being too close to regional rival Iran. Qatar denies the allegations.

In the immediate aftermath of the diplomatic crisis beIN channels were blocked in the UAE, but were back on air by July last year.

And as well as ongoing political tensions, beIN says its channels are being pirated in a sophisticated operation across the region, with pictures broadcast illegally by a company called beoutQ.

The source earlier told AFP that the dispute with Du had been caused by ongoing commercial negotiations over TV carriage rights, and had nothing to do with political tensions or pirating claims.

BeIN has urged FIFA to launch legal action against those bootlegging their broadcasts in the region.

Eighty years after his debut in Action Comics #1, dated June 1938, Superman is still an American cultural icon, the hero of reference and the undisputed star of DC Comics.

And today, the comic book publisher — also known for Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash and Green Lantern, among others — is counting on Superman more than ever.

“He is the mold people worked with, the template for the idea of a superhero,” explains Jared Smith, who works in a comic book store in Washington.

“Superman is a very idealized character. They call him the Boy Scout of America. He always does the right thing and tries do to the good thing.”

In Action Comics #1, 13 pages were dedicated to the story of Kal-El, an alien from the planet Krypton with supernatural strength, sent to Earth by his father before his home planet was destroyed.

Superman’s debut was a smash success. A year later, DC Comics gave the Man of Steel his own book, and introduced another formidable hero: Batman.

Eighty years on, the formula has not changed: Superman has more or less always appeared in his red, blue and yellow suit with the “S” symbol on the chest.

In his appearances on the silver and small screen, in comic strips and videogames, he has fought for truth, justice and the “American Way.”

In Illinois, the town of Metropolis — which shares a name with Superman’s fictional home — organizes an annual festival celebrating the hero.

This summer, on the heels of a “Man of Steel” mini-series, DC Comics will reboot the standalone “Superman” series. For the challenge, they tapped Brian Michael Bendis, a legend in the genre who worked for two decades at rival publisher Marvel.

“You always feel the legacy of the character when you hop on, and I’ve had that joy a couple of times, but there’s something different about Superman,” Bendis said in an interview with pop culture website Nerdist.

“I think there’s something fascinating about the fact that not only did this character invent the genre but it stayed true and became the core, soul, and center of the genre for the entirety of its existence.”

– Too perfect?-

Superman is an immigrant on Earth, raised by a farmer and his wife from infancy in fictional Smallvillle.

Eventually, he takes the name Clark Kent, moves to Metropolis and becomes a journalist.

His two creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, were Jewish high school students when they first came up with the idea for Superman.

Their parents were immigrants, and their character personified the American dream — a metaphor for immigrants who fled Europe in the 1930s for the peace and prosperity of America.

It’s a theme that Bendis plans to pick up.

“People would come from all over the world just to live in Metropolis, to be watched over by the most famous immigrant,” Bendis told The Washington Post.

“It’s not going to be this huge message, it’s just going to be there — just flavor, the way we see the world.”

From time to time in the past, Superman’s popularity waned — his chiseled perfection was sometimes too much for an imperfect audience, who turned to Spider-Man and the X-Men, whose flaws they could identify with more readily.

“They made him so powerful as a character that there was nothing that could really threaten him, so after that, they introduced the idea of Kryptonite from his planet that could take away some of his powers,” Smith explains.

To keep Superman in step with society, writers tried to keep him in sync with political and societal changes of the times — in 1978, he met boxing legend Muhammad Ali, who took him to the ghettos of Metropolis.

More recently, Superman wanted to surrender his American nationality in protest at the government, which he felt had betrayed him.

In another storyline, he saved migrant workers from a white supremacist, a nod to far-right violence seen in some corners of the country.

Smith even recalls that the Man of Steel had something of a “socialist start,” fighting capitalists “who were taking too much money or not treating their workers well” in the 1930s and 1940s.

As ever, he fights for the American Way, whatever the definition.

Tickets for all shows were sold out by midday of the cult cinema’s final curtain.

Even the popcorn was sold out before the last show began.

Fans unable to grab tickets snapped the last photos and selfies, freezing their last moments at their beloved moviehouse. Inside, boards were plastered with colourful notes reflecting the emotional connection among many filmgoers, including “Thank you for screening quality films … we’ll miss you” and “Goodbye my friend, Lido”.

It was a memorable night for film lovers from different generations. I was among the audience of 270 who savoured the last screening at 8.30pm – silent films from the early years of filmmaking that highlighted cinema culture and its value, and were accompanied by live piano.

The final screening, the closing film in the fifth edition of the Silent Film Festival, was a special treat organised by the Film Archive as a fond farewell for this pioneer art house.

It featured the 1926 US Shortfilm, “45 Minutes from Hollywood” and the newly restored 1924 US feature “Sherlock Jr”. The comedic silent films were even more fun with the lively synchronized piano by Richard Siedhoff.

The hour-long delight ended with loud applause as the big screen turned white and the light broke the darkness.

The spotlight then turned to the guys behind the projector room, who also were honoured with loud audience applause, and returned the respect with wais to the audience. Fans captured the moments with snapshots.

Stepping out of the cinema, the audience appeared surprise as the dozens of members of the theatre’s team greeted them. Led by the owners of Apex Cinema, the crew in typical – men in yellow suits and women in pink – offered their thank-yous and goodbyes with warm and respectful “wai” gestures.

As my eyes watered, a staff member in her official pink touched my hand and suggested I meet them again at the Scala, the sister cinema run by Apex and now the only surviving stand-alone cinema in the heart of Bangkok.

The Lido’s landlord – Chulalongkorn University’s property management office – later confirmed the impending demise of the building in a Facebook post, but were ambiguous about the planned fate of neighbouring Scala Theatre.

The property office wrote that it aimed to develop the land and would therefore be ending Lido’s lease by May.

The Film Archive is joining with urban conservationists, architects and cinema lovers in a campaign to save the Scala.

Production has begun on the sequel to smash hit “Maleficent”, Disney announced on Tuesday, with Elle Fanning and Angelina Jolie reprising their roles as Sleeping Beauty and her conflicted surrogate mother.

The movie is being filmed at Pinewood Studios, near London and in locations around Britain, the world’s largest movie studio said in statement.

“It’s bring your mum to work day on the Maleficent II set,” 20-year-old Fanning joked in an Instagram post that had been shared a quarter of a million times within an hour.

Alongside the message, she posted a picture of her in front of a laughing Jolie, who was in the famous “Maleficent” horns, as well as a pair of sunglasses and a toweling bathrobe.

“Maleficent”, a modern retelling of the life of Sleeping Beauty’s archnemesis, cast an instant spell on audiences in 2014, debuting at the top of the North American box office and going on to gross more than $750 million (Bt24 billion) worldwide.

Joining Fanning and Jolie for the latest adventure are Oscar nominees Michelle Pfeiffer (“Dangerous Liaisons”, “Ant-Man and the Wasp”) and Chiwetel Ejiofor (“12 Years a Slave”, “Doctor Strange”).

Disney also confirmed that acclaimed British stage and screen actor Robert Lindsay (“Wimbledon”) would be among the newcomers, while Sam Riley, Imelda Staunton, Juno Temple and Lesley Manville return from the original movie.

In the sequel, directed by Joachim Ronning (“Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales”), Disney’s most notorious villain continues to explore her complex relationship with Princess Aurora, the soon-to-be queen, as they form alliances against new adversaries.

Fan reaction on social media was mostly positive, with much of the excitement being generated over the addition of screen legend Pfeiffer, 60, to the cast. Disney began scouring its back catalogue in the 1990s for animated classics that it could turn into live-action remakes – a strategy that has so far netted several billion dollars.

Tim Burton’s “Dumbo”, Guy Ritchie’s “Aladdin” and Jon Favreau’s “The Lion King” are all due for release next year, while “The Little Mermaid” will see Lin-Manuel Miranda of “Hamilton” fame collaborating with legendary Disney composer Alan Menken.

Two remakes of “Peter Pan” are in the works along with new versions of “Fantasia”, “Pinocchio”, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” and “The Sword in the Stone”.

Today they walk among us, in our movie theaters and in the real world, where pacemakers are prolonging lives and prostheses are helping paralympians win gold medals.

More plausible than zombies or interstellar travel, cyborgs offer sci-fi fans a glimpse of a future that is already upon us, speaking to ancient paranoias about untrammeled technology wielded without responsibility.

“I worry a lot more about human beings than tech,” says Leigh Whannell, the writer of the best “Saw” movies and the entire “Insidious” franchise, whose cyborg thriller “Upgrade” hits US theaters on Friday.

“Even my fears about tech have to do with human beings. We are the ones creating this stuff, the great minds of tech, from Elon Musk to Steve Jobs, at one time,” the 41-year-old Australian tells AFP.

“These are the minds that are able to conceive and build these worlds and I’m worried about our tendencies.”

A cyborg — short for “cybernetic organism” — is a person with restored or enhanced mechanical or electrical body parts, typically giving them abilities beyond those of normal humans.

They are not to be confused with androids, robots that have been made to appear human. So the Terminator, for example, doesn’t count — but Robocop does.

Their first appearance in fiction is generally credited to the 1843 Poe short story “The Man That Was Used Up,” which describes a disabled war veteran with extensive prostheses.

‘Undercurrent of anxiety’

“Upgrade” is the latest of several dozen mainstream cyborg, android and robot movies made since 1980, with Box Office Mojo attributing an average North American box office among the wide releases of about $100 million.

Cyborgs have been good guys and baddies down the years, from “The Six Million Dollar Man” through “Inspector Gadget” and perhaps the most iconic cyborg of them all, “Darth Vader.”

They continue to captivate, says Whannell, because they tap into a persistent dread about augmented reality, artificial intelligence and other advances — that the technology is gradually becoming our master.

Whannell uses the example of his smartphone, which makes him anxious whenever he opens it and checks the news. And it’s the messenger, not the message, that’s the problem.

“You could say smartphones are a first world problem, like people in Syria aren’t worried about Twitter, they’ve got bigger things to worry about,” the Australian tells AFP.

“But I think that there is an undercurrent of anxiety in modern society that has to do with our reliance on tech and the bombardment of information that comes from it.”

In “Upgrade,” curmudgeonly mechanic Grey Trace (Logan Marshall-Green), a technophobe sore thumb in a digital near-future, takes his wife Asha as he delivers a restored classic car to tech billionaire Erin King.

On the way home their self-driving car crashes and they are attacked by a gang who shoot dead Asha (Melanie Vallejo) and leave Grey a quadriplegic.

King (Harrison Gilbertson) visits Grey in hospital and convinces him that his cutting-edge computer chip — he calls it “Stem” — will help him regain control over his ravaged body.

Souped-up Siri

Stem operates like a souped-up Siri, speaking in a voice only Trace can hear and able to operate his body independently, turning him into a cross between Usain Bolt and Bruce Lee.

Since his 2004 portrayal as terrified hostage Adam Stanheight in James Wan’s “Saw,” Whannell has become one of the most influential voices in 21st century horror.

He wrote three of the “Saw” movies — including that landmark first film, an early pioneer in the controversial “torture porn” genre — while his “Insidious” films made half a billion dollars worldwide on a combined budget of $27 million.

Whannell made his directorial debut with the third chapter in the series three years ago and was asked to direct 2018’s “Insidious: The Last Key,” but declined, preferring instead to strike out on his own.

He still speaks with awe — and no small amount of humility — about his involvement in “Saw,” and recalls, laughing, how Wan phoned him with the idea for the first and last scenes while Wan was on the toilet.

“It still gives me goosebumps to this day to think that this idea that we talked about back in Melbourne has connected with people around the world, that it has become a part of the pop culture zeitgeist,” Whannell said.

“You can make a ‘Saw’ reference now and everyone knows what you’re talking about. You just to see an image of that puppet’s face and people know what it’s all about.

“It’s up there with ‘E.T.,’ ‘Jaws’ and ‘The Simpsons’ and Coca-Cola and all the other pop culture memes that go around the world. That’s pretty amazing for us.”

Set at the height of the Cold War in the 1980s, the hit TV series “The Americans” sees a pair of KGB agents and their children living deeply undercover as a perfect suburban Washington family, while they do their spymasters’ bidding.

After launching five years ago, the FX network series found particular relevance in the era of Donald Trump, with a return of Cold War tensions amid accusations that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election.

“The Americans” wrapped up an award-winning run with its final episode Wednesday after six seasons.

The show’s stars — Elizabeth and Philip Jennings — were on the run and caught up in a plot by their own agency to sabotage the looming historic summit between president Ronald Reagan and Soviet reformer Mikhail Gorbachev that could lead to the end of the Cold War.

Would Stan, the FBI counterintelligence agent who is the Jennings’ neighbor, finally expose them? Would they escape? What about their completely Americanized kids?

No giveaways here. What can be said was that the episode underscored the lack of any closure in the clandestine struggle between spies of both sides.

“The Americans” will linger in a US capital consumed fears that Russian intelligence manipulated Trump’s election and possibly even coopted the White House.

Lauded for realism

The show’s premise was simple: how the Jennings — actors Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys — live under deep cover in a northern Virginia home, raising two children in American schools, keeping the house clean and the pantry stocked, while taking orders from KGB bosses to steal top government secrets, eliminate rivals, and remain hidden from US spy chasers.

Torn between allegiances as simultaneously hard-bitten Russian operatives and comfortable, middle-class American parents, they had to navigate a marriage forced on them by their KGB bosses, deal with angsty teen children, and parry factionalism back in the home office in Moscow.

In the final year they were caught up in the split between old-school communist and the reformers represented by Gorbachev, which leads to murder and mayhem in the last episodes.

While Hollywood is replete with spy series and movies — the often over-the-top “Homeland” another recent hit — Washington intelligence officials lauded “The Americans” for its realism.

Even new CIA director Gina Haspel, a three-decade veteran of covert services, is a fan.

That comes, in part, from deep cooperation between FX and real spies. Series creator and executive producer Joe Weisberg spent three years with the CIA before turning his hand to writing.

His idea got the go-ahead not long after the 2010 arrest of a dozen Russian deep-cover operatives in the United States. A number of former CIA officials were advisors.

“‘The Americans’ gets the tradecraft and the technology of the 1980s generally right,” said Jonna Hiestand Mendez, who was a married, undercover CIA operative in Europe for years before becoming the chief of disguise at the agency.

“The script is littered with dead drops and communication protocols, disguises and cyanide pills, secret writing and signals that were used for impersonal communication with your agent or your team. It is all properly executed; it is done the way we did it.”

Speaking in a CIA-sponsored forum on the show in Los Angeles Wednesday, former agency counterintelligence chief Mark Kelton said the show rightly depicted the simultaneously “thrilling and terrifying” activities of the spy-versus-spy world.

There were some differences, though.

“The one thing about the show, the sex bit is used a lot. “That’s very rare in my experience… unfortunately for me, when I was younger,” he said.

The drudgery also didn’t make it to the Hollywood version, he added.

“What’s not covered in the show is how much time even the KGB spent documenting their activities. Some of the things you did, you would have spent days typing,” he said.

At the same time, former agents said, the show really got right the complications of personal life for spies. The final episode is heavily focused on what happens to the Jennings as a family.

“There is great strain. The show depicted that quite well,” said Kelton. “It does take a toll on families.”

Analysts had predicted the Disney/Lucasfilm project — directed by Ron Howard and with Alden Ehrenreich as a young version of the swashbuckling Han Solo — would reach up to $150 million, possibly setting a Memorial Day weekend record.

But the film, with a cast including Donald Glover, Woody Harrelson and Emilia Clarke, fell short not only in North America but also abroad.

“The news is grim overseas,” said Hollywood Reporter, saying the film was heading for barely half the $300 million global take many had predicted.

Last weekend’s top film, 20th Century Fox’s “Deadpool 2,” took second spot this weekend, with a four-day estimate of $53.8 million.

That movie stars Ryan Reynolds as the foul-mouthed, irreverent title character as he forms an X-Force team to protect a young mutant from the evil Cable (Josh Brolin).

Third place went to Marvel’s “Avengers: Infinity War,” which took in $22.5 million in its fifth weekend out. It stars Robert Downey Jr., Benedict Cumberbatch, Scarlett Johansson and Chris Hemsworth.

In fourth, with $13.1 million in ticket sales, was a movie featuring no superheroes or interplanetary battles, and with a sedate sounding title — “Book Club” — that belies its racy story line.

The Paramount film tells the story of four aging friends — Jane Fonda, Diane Keaton, Candice Bergen and Mary Steenburgen — who decide to read the steamy book “Fifty Shades of Grey” and find it stimulating more than just their intellects.

And in fifth was Warner Bros. comedy “Life of the Party,” at $6.9 million. It stars Melissa McCarthy as a newly divorced mother who returns to college, only to find herself in class with her (deeply embarrassed) daughter.

Rounding out the top 10 were:

“Breaking In” ($4.3 million)

“Show Dogs” ($4.3 million)

“Overboard” ($4.1 million)

“A Quiet Place” ($2.4 million)

“RBG” ($1.3 million)

Bangkok’s cinephiles with a love for tradition will no doubt be shedding tears tomorrow, as Lido Multiplex in Siam Square screens its last films before closing for good.

Viewer numbers have been up in recent days as Thais and long-time Bangkok expats have flocked to Bangkok’s “cinema paradiso” to bid farewell to the end of an era.

One mother brought her two teenage kids to one showing, telling The Nation that the teens wanted to experience “old style” cinema just once before it disappeared for good. But she added that even though they don’t live far from Siam Square, the family favoured the modern Paragon Cineplex over the old-fashioned Lido.

Siam, Lido and Scala theatres in Siam Square are all part of the Apex chain, which leases the land they occupy from Chulalongkorn University. Opened on June 27, 1968, two years after its sister Siam cinema, and premiering with the Western “Guns for San Sebastian” (“Suek Sebastian”), Lido quickly became a popular venue for Bangkokians to watch films, especially as Siam Square grew into a centre for both shopping and fashion. A fire closed the cinema for a while in 1993 and Apex decided to remodel the 1,000-seat theatre into a three-screen multiplex before opening it again in 1996.

Lido Cinema manager Ubol Klarythong, who has witnessed plenty of ups and downs during his 50-year career with Apex, says that he is counting down to the closure.

“I’ll wear the yellow suit on May 31. My wife has already mended and cleaned it for me,” says the 71-year-old manager. The yellow suit has been the uniform of ticket collectors of the Apex theatres for five decades and become something of a logo. Ubol, who started work as a ticket collector at Lido in 1968, has kept his yellow suit even though he was promoted to manager years ago.

“I always knew my last day would come, either because I chose to retire or the cinema itself closed. I didn’t know which would happen first but I would much have preferred to retire than to see the end of this cinema. I was shocked when I heard the news a few months ago,” says Ubol, who will spend the rest of his days at home.

Sarot Sookproa

Another veteran is Sarot Sookproa, aka Ae, whose voice is instantly recognised by callers phoning to ask about showtimes. The popular operator, who always has a witty and fun response to questions, is a former DJ who switched to the cinema because of his mother. “She asked me to stay with her and that changed my life forever,” says Sarot, adding that he doesn’t know yet what his future will hold but hopes he’ll be able to continue working at Apex’s last cinema Scala. “I love working here, everyone is like family,” he says.

Now 51, Sarot has been with Lido for more than 10 years. He admits he was hesitant about taking the job at first but now can’t imagine any other career. Indeed, he does more than answer the phones. He’s also the gatekeeper of the Apex office on the third floor of the cinema and deals with everyone from film companies to clients who lease space. He also has to watch every movie screened at Lido so he can give information to anyone who phones in.

“They come regularly to Lido and some of them become telephone friends. I don’t ask their names but I remember their voices. Many of them often ask me to set a schedule that will allow them to see three or four movies in one day, as they live far away and don’t have time to come here often,” he says.

And now some of his phone pals are coming to meet him in person. “It is a great moment and I am very happy working here. They are like my family. I don’t want the cinema to close down,” says Sarot.

Rumours have circulated in recent years that Scala, the only standalone theatre left in Thailand, would close because Chulalongkorn University didn’t want to extend lease. Every time there appears to be some truth to the rumour, movie fans come out to protest. But now a compromise has finally been reached, with Chula and Apex agreeing to close Lido on May 31 and extend the life of Scala.

While Apex theatres draw students and movie lovers to watch blockbusters, Lido has gradually morphed into a cinema for alternative films, Asian movies and festival favourites. It is also one of the few theatres to show independent Thai films as well as host film students’ showreel events,

“For me, probably the most memorable moment is when the cinema showed “McKenna’s Gold”, which ran for more than eight months. Tickets were always sold out and we were busy everyday,” recalls Ubol.

In their heyday, the Apex cinemas had around 140 staffs working at the three venues. Today it has half that number and unlike other companies, Apex has no retirement programme in place, leaving the staff, most of whom are 50 and over, in the lurch.

Lido’s switch to the multiplex model coincided with the birth of the multiplex era but the cinema never enjoyed the same success as the newer venues. Ubol says that in 1997, Lido was in crisis, viewers weren’t coming and showtimes had to be cancelled due to lack of audiences. The situation improved when South Korean and Japanese movies began screening at Apex cinemas. These movies were on limited release and showed in the original language with subtitles rather than being Thai dubbed.

Korean movies like “Il Mare”, “The Classic” and Japanese films like “Nobody Knows” and “Be With You” proved the true saviours of the cinema.

Krittayanon Chamnanpanich from Mongkol Cinema, who has brought many Japanese movies to the Lido including “If Cats Disappear from the World” is both disappointed and annoyed at the closure though she acknowledges that the cinema has been struggling for the past few years.

“It’s a business cycle but the closure means that we are going to lose our movie culture. Multiplex theatres are spoiling the way we used to operate. For example, when a movie is in high demand such as Marvel’s superhero outings, the multiplex theatres set the best showtime schedules at the cost of local or art films, which are screened in off-peak periods. Social media have also changed behaviour in that they push viewers into watching a film so they can join the crowd and talk about it online. Their interest in watching alternative movies wanes and so Lido cannot survive in business,” she says.

But Mongkol Film is at least saying goodbye to this bastion of Asian films in style.

“Tonight, At Romance Theatre” and “Kids on the Slope” will be shown at 6.45pm and 8.45pm on Thursday (May 31). The former is particularly well suited to the farewell as it chronicles the romance between a movie director and the princess in a black-and-white film and references the old movie theatres that were forgotten when television was introduced to Japanese society.

The film will be preceded by a brief talk while after the screening, the audience will have a chance to take photographs with the yellow-suited “Lido Guys”.

The curtain will fall on Lido with “Kids On the Slope” and a farewell to the staff.

Ubol and Sarot will be around to welcome customers both old and new.

They expect to spend another four months clearing out cinema and finding out their fate.

It’s about the refugee situation in Europe as seen through the eyes of a wide range of characters, but it’s told in a heart-warming way.

At the heart of the story is the large Hartmann family, each of whose members is going through a crisis. Successful doctor Richard doesn’t want to age or retire and his idealistic wife Angelika is drifting away from him.

Their workaholic lawyer-son Philipp neglects his son Basti, who ends up with problems in school. Their daughter Sofie dislikes her study-courses and doesn’t know what she wants to do until she meets the Arab doctor, Tarek Berger, whom her father dislikes.

Into this dysfunctional family’s home is welcomed Nigerian refugee Diallo Makaburi, who slowly starts making a difference in all their lives. It’s a learning process for him too, since many things in Germany confuse him.

But in the end, they know they can’t do much about ensuring him asylum in their country, thanks to wary neighbours, terrorist threats, suspicious police and rightwing activists. It is a moment of reckoning for them all.

The movie has won audience awards at several festivals and was a hit in Germany, being Best National Film at the German Film Awards and the German Cinema Award for Peace.

The movie has subtitles in English and Thai.

The film screening in the new RCB Forum room on the second floor is free, supported by the German Embassy and the Goethe-Institut, which will host a reception afterwards. German Ambassador Peter Prugel will introduce the movie.

Reserve seats at https://goo.gl/forms/dRsMIbNZgp9rNhcr1 or rcbfilmclub@gmail.com

Analysts had predicted the Disney/Lucasfilm project — directed by Ron Howard and with Alden Ehrenreich as a young version of the swashbuckling Han Solo — would reach $130 million to $150 million, possibly setting a Memorial Day weekend record.

But the film, with a cast including Donald Glover, Woody Harrelson and Emilia Clarke, was falling short not only in North America, box office tracker Exhibitor Relations predicted, but also abroad.

“The news is grim overseas,” said Hollywood Reporter, saying the film was heading for barely half the $300 million global take many had predicted.

Last weekend’s No. 1 film, “Deadpool 2” from 20th Century Fox and Marvel, took second spot this weekend, with a four-day estimate of $53.5 million.

That movie stars Ryan Reynolds as the foul-mouthed, irreverent title character as he forms an X-Force team to protect a young mutant from evil Cable (Josh Brolin).

Third place went to Disney/Marvel collaboration “Avengers: Infinity War,” which took in $20.1 million in its fifth weekend out. It stars Robert Downey Jr., Benedict Cumberbatch, Scarlett Johansson and Chris Hemsworth.

In fourth, with $12 million in ticket sales, was a movie featuring no superheroes or interplanetary battles, and with a sedate sounding title — “Book Club” — that belies its racy story line.

The Paramount film tells the story of four aging friends — Jane Fonda, Diane Keaton, Candice Bergen and Mary Steenburgen — who decide to read the steamy book “Fifty Shades of Grey” and find it stimulating more than just their intellects.

And in fifth was Warner Bros. comedy “Life of the Party,” at $6.5 million. It stars Melissa McCarthy as a newly divorced mother who returns to college, only to find herself in class with her (deeply embarrassed) daughter.

Rounding out the top 10 were:

“Breaking In” ($5 million)

“Show Dogs” ($4.2 million)

“Overboard” ($4.1 million)

“A Quiet Place” ($2.7 million)

“RBG” ($1.4 million)