Weekend news roundup 30/09: Box office flop & darts’ young star

Jonathan Victoria • 30 Sep 2024 News

Plus golf and cricket triumphs and a Disney flop gets worse…

Littler qualifies for World Grand Prix

Darts young sensation Luke Littler will be continuing his strong 2024 campaign as he has gained qualification for the World Grand Prix.

This will be his first appearance at the event, which will take place from 7th-13th October at the Mattiollo Arena in Leicester.

Littler was one of the ProTour Order of Merit Qualifiers, which he earned a place in by claiming five ranking titles this year.

But this will be an entirely new challenge for the 17-year-old, as the World Grand Prix takes on a different format to the standard, requiring players to start and finish each leg on a double.

Not only that, but the field will be a tough one to fight through too, with familiar foes such as the reigning champion Luke Humphries, six-time champion Michael van Gerwen and 2020 champion Gerwyn Price.

Megalopolis’ mega-bad box office debut

Megalopolis, from the mind of legendary film director Francis Ford Coppola, has provided one of the worst big-budget box office debuts in Hollywood history, bringing in just $4m over the weekend on its $120m budget, which Coppola bankrolled himself.

The film, which stars Adam Driver (Logan Lucky), was the product of decades in the making by the director, but unfortunately, it has fallen flat, with many reviews and critics panning it.

Currently sitting at a 5.2 out of 10 on IMDB and 49% on Rotten Tomatoes, people didn’t exactly flood to their local cinemas to witness the latest offering from the ingenious mind behind iconic movies such as The Godfather and Apocalypse Now.

Team USA wins Presidents Cup

Team USA extended their impressive winning streak in the Presidents Cup, taking victory over the International Team once more with a final score of 18.5 to 11.5.

The Ryder Cup-esque tournament saw many high-profile players competing on both sides, including world number one Scottie Scheffler and 2024 Open champion Xander Schauffelle for Team USA, with 2021 Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama and 2015 PGA Championship winner Jason Day on the International side.

USA put a firm grip on the trophy from day one, winning five points to zero during Thursday's fourballs. The International team fought back during Friday’s foursome though, this time flipping the score to take a tie into the weekend.

Saturday’s double session saw USA run out to a strong lead, taking six points to their opponent's two for the day, before beating them in Sunday’s singles matches with six match wins to the International teams’ three plus three ties.

The win this year sees USA extend their winning run in the Presidents Cup to 12, having lost only once since the tournament was created, with that loss coming in 1998 (there was a tie in 2003 but as USA had won the previous edition, they kept the trophy).

Disney series flop has major budget revealed

Disney’s The Acolyte has been hit once more since its first season end and subsequent cancellation, with tax returns revealing that the series was significantly over budget.

The Star Wars story series has mixed reviews among fans and critics, which may have been part of Disney’s reasoning for cancelling the show's run.

But a bigger part likely will have come from how much it cost to make, with it being found that Lucasfilm spent an eye-watering £172 million ($231 million) on it - with just eight episodes in its run, that comes out to £21.5 million ($28.75 million) per episode.

This budget makes it the second most expensive Star Wars show to date, coming second to the much higher rated Andor, which came with a reported cost of $250 million but crucially a better reception, with an 8.4 rating on IMDB compared to The Acolyte’s 4.1.

Australia takes victory over England in ODI series

Ben Duckett’s second career ODI century wasn’t enough to help England beat Australia in their five-game series, with the visitors claiming the victory by 49 runs via DLS method.

Australia started the series well, taking a quick 2-0 lead before England fought back to bring it to Sunday’s fifth game decider at the Bristol County Ground.

England batted first and posted a respectable score for the visitors to chase of 310, although it arguably could’ve been more after a strong start that saw them race out to 202-3. Duckett’s 107 from 91 balls led the team, but his supporting cast for the most part was too weak to act on his big day.

Australia’s chase was halted by rain, with the weather subsequently causing the game to be abandoned, but with them finishing their batting at 165-2 from 20.4 overs, they were ahead of the required run-rate, giving them the win via the DLS method, which calculated the Aussies to win by 49 runs.

England will head straight into their next series, travelling to Pakistan for a three-match Test series starting on 7th October.