Tag: General News

By Auzinea Bacon, CNN

(CNN) — Ryan Coogler’s supernatural horror “Sinners” drove a stake through the competition this weekend to finish No. 1 at the box office while shattering industry expectations.

“Sinners” pulled in $45.6 million domestically, surpassing estimates of about $35 million, and edging “A Minecraft Movie,” which grossed $41.3 million in its third weekend, to put its domestic total at nearly $345 million.

Both “Sinners” and “A Minecraft Movie” are distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. Warner Bros. Discovery is the parent company of CNN.

Shawn Robbins, director of movie analytics at Fandango and founder of Box Office Theory, told CNN that “Sinners” was boosted by the duo of Coogler and actor Michael B. Jordan, who have teamed up on four films, including Disney’s “Black Panther.”

“That star power for ‘Sinners’ (and) really kind of a fresh, original take on the vampire movie (genre) … helped bring out moviegoers,” he said.

“Sinners” has also been boosted by critics’ reviews, which can help a film’s long-term box-office success. It has a 98% rating on movie-ratings site Rotten Tomatoes and an 84 score — the seventh highest for a film in 2025 — on Metacritic.

“This may be one of the best-reviewed No. 1 films ever, especially for the horror genre,” said Paul Dergarabedian, a senior analyst at Comscore.

The success of “Sinners” is encouraging for the horror genre, which was most successful in 2017, when “It” and “Get Out” were released, according to Dergarabedian. Horror movies earned more than $1 billion at the box office in 2017, according to Comscore data. In 2024, the genre earned $948 million.

“Horror movies can be very budget-friendly and have a very strong profitability factor, so that makes them particularly of interest to studios and filmmakers,” Dergarabedian told CNN.

Universal Pictures is set to release two horror sequels this year, “M3GAN 2.0” and “Black Phone 2” in June and October, respectively.

Meanwhile, the industry’s overall domestic earnings, which were down 13% at the opening of “A Minecraft Movie,” are now up 5.3% compared to 2024, according to Comscore.

Box office analyst David A. Gross of FranchiseRe said “A Minecraft Movie” is trekking toward $1 billion at the worldwide box office. After its strong opening, the fantasy adventure comedy has gone viral for engaging audiences with its chicken jockey scene.

“Audiences are totally engaged — this is mainstream action-adventure entertainment at its best,” Gross told CNN.

Dergarabedian expects the overall box office to maintain this momentum as the first slate of summer movies debuts in May, followed by a strong Memorial Day weekend with Disney’s live-action “Lilo & Stitch” and Paramount’s “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning.”

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By Homero De la Fuente, CNN

(CNN) — The NBA Playoffs officially tipped off with a sizzling four-game slate on Saturday.

In the night’s finale, the Los Angeles Lakers fell to a heavy defeat in front of their home fans, losing 117-95 to the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 1 of their Western Conference best-of-seven series.

The Lakers hit the halftime break reeling, down 59-48, and things only got worse as Minnesota jumped out with an 11-0 run in the third to extend the lead to 22. Anthony Edwards, who finished with 22 points, eight rebounds and nine assists, torched the Lakers with a 3-pointer that stretched the lead to 27 points with just over five minutes left in the third.

But the Lakers, sparked by their new superstar Luka Dončić, refused to go quietly. A 13-3 run clawed them back into the fight, and Dončić sent the crowd at Crypto.Com Arena into a frenzy, drilling a halfcourt buzzer-beater at the end of the third to cut the deficit to 94-78.

Minnesota weathered the Lakers surge, countering with a 12-2 run in the fourth quarter to shut down any hopes of a comeback.

Jaden McDaniels led the Wolves’ charge with 25 points and nine rebounds, while Julius Randle added 16 points. The Timberwolves knocked down a franchise playoff-record 21 3-pointers.

For the Lakers, Dončić finished with eight rebounds and game-high 37 points – tying George Mikan for the second-highest haul in a Laker postseason debut. LeBron James contributed 19 points in the loss.

“I’m not sure physically we were ready, if that makes sense,” said Lakers head coach JJ Redick. “And really, when they started playing with a lot of thrust and physicality, we just didn’t respond immediately to that, and then that stretch from the start of the second through four, five minutes to go in the third.

“We lost that stretch by 34, so that’s a blowout.”

Both teams will return to the court for Game 2 on Tuesday, April 22.

Elsewhere, the New York Knicks stunned the Detroit Pistons at Madison Square Garden, orchestrating a 21-0 run in the fourth quarter to erase an 11-point deficit and seal Game 1, 123-112.

Jalen Brunson scored a game-high 34 points, overcoming early shooting struggles and a late injury scare to hand the Pistons an NBA record-extending 14th straight playoff loss.

Brunson started the first half shooting 2-of-13 from the field, but finished 12-for-27, including eight points in the game-clinching run. In the fourth quarter, the star guard appeared to tweak his right ankle on several occasions, before going to the locker room to change his shoes

“Obviously, we didn’t end the third quarter the way we wanted to, but there was never a doubt that we’re going to just lay down and not fight,” Brunson said after the game. “We had to find a way to figure things out and keep battling and I mean, it turned around quickly.”

Both squads will return to the court on Monday in New York.

It was a back-and-forth battle between the Denver Nuggets and the Los Angeles Clippers in Game 1, with the Nuggets escaping with a 112-110 win in overtime.

The Clippers took a 15-point lead in the first half but the Nuggets battled back and by the final minutes of regulation the teams were trading the lead back and forth.

Neither team was willing to give an inch and, in the end, 48 minutes was not enough to settle things.

In overtime, the decisive moment came from an unlikely source in Christian Braun, who hit a 3-pointer with a minute left to put Denver up by four.

Pesky defense from veteran Russell Westbrook created a key turnover to let the Nuggets ice it from the free-throw line.

In the first game of the four-game slate, the Indiana Pacers’ strong first half set the pace en route to a 117-98 win over the Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday.

In a rematch of last year’s first-round series, the Pacers held a 67-43 lead at halftime and never looked back to win Game 1 of the Eastern Conference first-round series.

Pascal Siakam led Indiana with 25 points and seven rebounds, while Tyrese Haliburton added 10 points and 12 assists in the win.

For the Bucks, Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 36 points and 12 rebounds in the loss. Milwaukee was without star guard Damian Lillard, who missed the contest with deep vein thrombosis in his right calf. According to reports, Lillard could come back to play in either Game 2 or 3.

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By Tierney Sneed, Tami Luhby and Sarah Owermohle, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump’s Justice Department is defending the Affordable Care Act before the Supreme Court – a notable contrast to his first term, when his administration sought to repeal the law in Congress and then refused to defend it in a major challenge brought by GOP-led states.

But a win for the federal government in the current case, concerning the law’s mandates that certain preventive services are covered cost-free, could boost the power that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has in shaping those requirements.

It comes as Kennedy shakes up the health agency with mass layoffs and plans to consolidate huge swathes of its authorities in a new, $20 billion “Administration for a Healthy America.” Kennedy has questioned a litany of public health recommendations, and a victory in this case could put him in more direct control of at least one expert panel focused on those policies.

On Monday, the justices will be considering the legality of certain no cost-sharing coverage mandates that were created by a government entity known as the US Preventive Services Task Force, which issues recommendations that are supposed to be shielded from political influence.

At stake is the ability of millions of Americans to access cost-free preventive services that include cancer screenings, statins that help prevent cardiovascular disease, PrEP drugs that help prevent HIV infections, and counseling referrals for pregnant and postpartum women at increased risk of depression.

Cost sharing was an “enormous barrier” to people getting such care, according to Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association.

“Simple stuff, like more people getting their blood pressure checked, more people getting their flu shots, more people getting the cholesterol screenings, more people getting some cancer screenings, like colonoscopy, breast screenings, those kinds of things,” Benjamin told reporters at a press briefing organized by the advocacy group Protect Our Care.

The case is part of the latest wave of conservative legal attacks on the Affordable Care Act, but one that doesn’t threaten to take down the landmark health reform law, which has expanded health insurance coverage to tens of millions of Americans.

The challengers argue that mandates are unconstitutional because, under Obamacare, they come from a task force whose membership hasn’t been Senate confirmed.

A ruling in the government’s favor would leave those mandates intact for now, but the fight over how those mandates are crafted will continue, both in court and in the control that Kennedy attempts to exert over Obamacare’s requirements.

“The Supreme Court ruling in favor of preserving these services is not going to end the issue,” said Andrew Pincus, a partner at the law firm Mayer Brown who filed an amicus brief supporting the mandates on behalf of the American Public Health Association.

Pincus, speaking at the Protect Our Care briefing, predicted that the Supreme Court was likely to say, “that the Secretary of HHS has some authority to oversee how the task force operates and the decision that it makes.”

“So, the question will then be, will HHS follow the science and uphold the USPSTF recommendations, or will it take a different course?” he said.

CNN has reached out to HHS for comment.

Part of a larger war over Obamacare

The lawsuit was filed at the end of the first Trump administration by a Texas business and other individuals who did not want to offer coverage of certain preventive services, including PrEP medications for HIV, because of their religious and moral objections to those treatments.

They are represented by Jonathan Mitchell, a well-known conservative lawyer who has been involved in other culture war disputes in court, including a significant abortion case at the Supreme Court, and who represented Trump when he was a presidential candidate in a challenge to the state of Colorado’s attempt to remove him from the ballot.

The challengers’ religious liberties claims were spun off into separate proceedings. The dispute in front of the court Monday focuses on a constitutional clause known as the Appointments Clause, which establishes the president and Senate’s role in appointing and confirming officials that wield significant government power.

Lower courts agreed with the challengers’ Appointments Clause arguments, but only as they applied to one of the three different entities that issue the recommendations that become the preventive coverage mandates under Obamacare.

As the Supreme Court’s weighs in on the taskforce’s constitutionality, another round of litigation will continue before US District Judge Reed O’Connor about the mandates based on the ACA recommendations of the other two entities, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, and the Health Resources and Services Administration, which provides guidelines on preventive care for women and children, including annual visits and an array of screenings.

Those proceedings focus on procedural questions about those mandates, rather than whether those entities’ role in the process was constitutional.

Outside the courtroom, however, Kennedy has been particularly critical of ACIP, the committee overseeing vaccine recommendations.

The secretary has accused the panel — typically an assembly of pediatricians, vaccine experts, and other physicians — of being too close to the manufacturers that develop those vaccines. As secretary, he could remove and replace members of the committee.

Dispute over HHS secretary’s role

In the dispute the justices are hearing Monday, the US Solicitor General and Obamacare’s foes will spar over the role the HHS secretary plays in deciding which of the Preventative Services Task Force’s recommendations ultimately become coverage mandates.

The challengers argue that the secretary has virtually no say over the matter, and thus the task force is acting like a so-called “Principal Officer” that should have been appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate.

The administration argues in its briefs that the taskforce members are what’s known as “inferior officers” and that the “Secretary, not the Task Force, is ultimately responsible for deciding what recommendations will have final, binding legal effect.”

The Justice Department’s current argument is a continuation of how the Biden administration was approaching the case, and “it’s every bit as legally appropriate” now, said Nicholas Bagley, a professor at University of Michigan Law School who specializes in administrative and health law.

“But the ideological valiance has shifted, because you’re vesting the right to make important decisions about preventive services in someone who has medical views very outside of the mainstream,” Bagley said.

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