Sunday, December 7, 2025

USA box office for the 49th weekend 2017-2025

 
USA box office on the 49th weekend of 2025 is up 12% compared to last year when "Moana 2" was the top-grossing movie.  This year "Five Nights at Freddy's 2" is the #1 movie this weekend. 



Variety, 12/7/2025

Brent Lange reports on the impact of the latest Hollywood retreads:
Theater owners, who have struggled through a rough fall filled with flop films, are hoping that holiday hits like “Wicked: For Good” and “Zootopia 2”, along with upcoming blockbusters like “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” will help them end a roller-coaster year on a high note. Overall, revenues are running roughly 1% ahead of 2024, which is a disappointment as many analysts expected this year to be more in line with pre-pandemic periods that saw ticket sales routinely top $9 billion annually.

More box office posts
2025
48th weekend.  (11/30) 
47th weekend.  (11/23)
46th weekend.  (11/16)
45th weekend.  (11/9)
44th weekend.  (11/2)
43rd weekend.  (10/26)
42nd weekend.  (10/19)
41st weekend.  (10/12)
40th weekend.  (10/5)
39th weekend.  (9/28)
38th weekend.  (9/21)
37th weekend.  (9/14)
36th weekend.  (9/9)
35th weekend.  (9/9)
34th weekend.  (8/24)
33rd weekend.  (8/17)
32nd weekend.  (8/10)
31st weekend.  (8/3)
30th weekend.  (7/27)
29th weekend.  (7/20)
28th weekend.  (7/13)
27th weekend.  (7/6)
26th weekend.  (6/29)
25th weekend.  (6/22)
24th weekend.  (6/15)
23rd weekend.  (6/8)
22nd weekend.  (6/1)
20th weekend.  (5/18)
19th weekend.  (5/11)
18th weekend.  (5/4)
17th weekend.  (4/27)
16th weekend.  (4/20)
15th weekend.  (4/13)
14th weekend.  (4/6) 
13th weekend.  (3/30)
12th weekend.  (3/23)
11th weekend.  (3/16)
10th weekend.  (3/9)
9th weekend.  (3/2)
8th weekend.  (2/23)
7th weekend.  (2/16)
6th weekend.  (2/9)
5th weekend.  (2/2)
4th weekend.  (1/26)
3rd weekend.  (1/19)
2nd weekend.  (1/12)
1st weekend.  (1/5)

2024
Easter weekend.  (3/31)

2023

2022
Third weekend in December.  (12/19)
First weekend in December.  (12/5)
Thranksgiving 2022 daily top 10 movie grosses (Wednesday-Sunday)  (11/28)
Pre-Thanksgiving box office weekend down 47% from 2017 peak.  (11/21)
Going down: October 2022 box office drops 44% compare
d to 2018. (11/3)

Thomas Anthony (1940-2025) Warren High School class of 1959

 
1959 Dragon yearbook


1967 Warren City Directory

1983 Warren City Directory


The popularity of Thomas was previously graphed in 2014, when it ranked #54 . Let's take a another look.


Thomas has a long history as one of the most popular baby names for boys.  Since 1900, it has never ranked before #63 (2010) and has moved up 24 places since then.  Its peak occurred during the 1940s and 1950s when it held the #8 spot.


Other members of the class of '59 (34)
2025
Gail Page.  (4/30)

2024
James Eldridge.  (7/23)

2023
George Frederick.  (11/14)
David White.  (1/11)

2022
Robert Hulings.  (10/8)

2021
Ronald Nuhfer.  (7/22)

George Ball.  (5/27)
Gary Rowley.  (4/25)


Avian flu kills more than 70 vultures in Ohio

 
Photos and headline:  People, 

More than 70 dead birds were found on the campus of St. Bernadette School in Pierce Township, located about 20 miles outside Cincinnati, after students returned from Thanksgiving break, according to local outlets WLWT and FOX 19. 
Although authorities have no official answers yet, Pierce Township Fire Chief Craig Wright told WLWT the deaths were likely due to bird flu. 
The photos of the dead vultures were taken on Monday, Dec. 1, but the birds were still on campus as of Friday, Dec. 5, according to Wright.

Related posts:
December 2025

November 15-30, 2025

November 1-15, 2025

October 2025

September 2025

April-August 2025

Are The Melanias splitting up? Trump rumored to be considering giving Ice Barbie Kristi Noem the boot.

 
Headline:  The Bulwark, 12/6/2025

For weeks, a rumor has been circulating in political circles that Noem may soon be on the outs. It briefly surfaced in a CNN report a few weeks back that listed her first among the cabinet officials who could be caught in a year-end turnover, noting that while Trump himself has been happy with Noem, top White House officials have grown frustrated with her tenure—specifically, her employment of her divisive and combustible chief adviser, Corey Lewandowski. Noem has downplayed any tensions or concerns. 
And in a text to me, Lewandowski called bullshit on any talk of turnover. “None of that is true,” he said Thursday evening.

Related reading:
The Trumpification of Kristi Noem.  New York Times, 3/20/2024

Related posts:
July-October  2025

January-June 2025
The Melanias leave behind a sketchy legacy in South Dakota.  (6/24)
Feeling snookered yet, South Dakota?  Maybe your ex-governor, Melania wannabe Kristi Noem, will come to your rescue.  (3/15)

2024
Dear Maggie Haberman:  Maybe Kristi Noem can go as Melania's alternate.  Who would know the difference?  Best, Retiring Guy, (11/13)
Meet MAGA Makeover Queen Misti Kristi, America's latest laughingstock.  (5/25)

2023

White House ballroom: With Donald Trump, it's just one scam after another

 
Top headline:  Pro Publica, 1/22/2020
Bottom headline:  Washington Examiner, 12/6/2025

David Zimmerman reports for the Examiner:
“It is going to be double the size, and the quality of finishes and interiors has been brought to the highest level. Also, the column SPAN has been substantially increased for purposes of viewing,” Trump wrote. “It is actually under budget and ahead of schedule, as my jobs always are. It’s just much bigger and more beautiful than originally planned.”

Without a full set of construction documents, which do not yet exist, there is no way to know if the project "is actually under budget and ahead of schedule".
 

Related posts:
December 2025
Quote from Shalom Baranes, Trump's new White House ballroom architect:  "My work would be impossible without my fellow immigrants".  (12/7)

November 2025
White House Ballroom oversight gaps emerge: Let us count the ways  (Part 1:  National Capital Planning Commission).  (11/18)
What did Donald Trump know about the demolition of the East Wing of White House and when did he know it?  (11/2)

Quote from Shalom Baranes, Trump's new White House ballroom architect: "My work would be impossible without my fellow immigrants"


Baranes photo credit:  Shalom Baranes Associates Architects
Headline:  Punch List Architecture Newsletter, 12/5/2025

 Christopher Hawthorne reports:
What might turn a few heads are these details: The new architect in question, Shalom Baranes, is a self-described refugee who was born in Italy to Jewish parents who had fled Libya, and who arrived in New York with his family at age six. During Trump’s first term, Baranes published an op-ed in the Washington Post that delicately, but unmistakably, challenged the administration’s policies on immigration, taking aim at the Muslim travel ban in particular. 
“I came here a refugee. And then I renovated the Pentagon,” the headline on the 2017 piece read. The subhed? “My work would be impossible without my fellow immigrants.”
“To this day, I remember the excitement of my father’s first glance at the Statue of Liberty as our ship sailed into the harbor,” wrote Baranes, who would later earn citizenship. “I was only six at the time and still mourning the loss of the red two-wheeled bike we had to leave behind.” [emphasis added]

Related posts:
December 2025

November 2025
White House Ballroom oversight gaps emerge: Let us count the ways  (Part 1:  National Capital Planning Commission).  (11/18)
What did Donald Trump know about the demolition of the East Wing of White House and when did he know it?  (11/2)