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Dec. 12, 2025, 4:16 PM ESTBy Rebecca KeeganLONG BEACH, Calif. — Commuters who were snaking along the 405 freeway in Southern California on Wednesday morning caught an unusual sight. Just about 800 feet above them, a 135-foot orange blimp drifted along the coast. Inside a gondola below the airship, the pilot was gently pumping foot pedals to steer the blimp over the Queen Mary and the L.A. River as the sun rose over the Pacific. The aim of this peaceful morning ride was in fact a bold one: to save independent film, or at least one film. Indie studio A24 rented the blimp to promote “Marty Supreme,” its new Timothée Chalamet movie that rolls out in theaters on Christmas Day. The blimp, which floated from Nashville to Los Angeles last month, is just the latest in a series of unusual marketing techniques the studio is deploying to spread the word about the film, which is about an aspiring ping-pong champion in post-World War II New York.“Marty Supreme” represents A24’s biggest production budget to date, at about $60 million. The marketing is an additional cost, which A24 has not disclosed, though it is widely believed to be less expensive than a traditional campaign because of its reliance more on unconventional stunts than on costly TV and outdoor ads.“It’s both more expensive and less effective to market a movie today than ever before,” said Daniel Loria, senior vice president of the Boxoffice Company, a theatrical e-commerce and data services firm. “Peoples’ attention spans are really divided.”A24 has dropped limited-edition merchandise, like a highly coveted $250 windbreaker, put their star on the cover of a Wheaties box and orchestrated a surprise premiere at the New York Film Festival. With an Instagram post from Chalamet, they alerted fans to a “Marty Supreme” streetwear popup in East Hollywood, generating crowds so big the LAPD was called. Chalamet and the film’s director, Josh Safdie, traveled to a fan event in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where they danced to Soulja Boy’s “Crank That” and handed out orange ping-pong balls. The movie’s maximum effort promotional campaign has even poked fun at itself, in an 18-minute mock Zoom meeting between Chalamet and a marketing team in which he proposed painting the Statue of Liberty orange. The strategy has been both weirder and more original than simply dropping a movie trailer and buying TV ads and billboards, a technique that used to be known as “spray and pray.” That’s because it takes creativity to get people to go see an offbeat movie in a theater in 2025, even when it stars Hollywood’s hottest young actor. During the pandemic, audiences learned to stay home and stream instead of heading to theaters, and domestic box office last year was still 24% below pre-pandemic levels. Enticing ticket buyers for movies that are not part of a well-known franchise is especially hard, and even stars don’t guarantee a big turnout. Despite Dwayne Johnson in the lead, A24’s “The Smashing Machine” opened to a disappointing $6 million in October, and Sydney Sweeney’s “Christie,” from Black Bear Pictures, also underperformed, earning just $1.3 million in a wide opening release.“What used to work doesn’t work now. It’s such a fractured, competitive environment,” said a veteran marketing executive, who spoke off the record because she was not authorized to comment on competitors. “People don’t think they need to go to the movie theaters anymore. The question becomes, ‘Is this theater worthy for me?’”Other studios have also been experimenting with unorthodox promotions this year. To help them open “Final Destination: Bloodlines” this spring, Warner Bros. sent logging trucks spattered with fake blood out onto highways, in a reference to one of the horror franchise’s infamous kill scenes. For an influencer screening of their Stephen King adaptation “The Long Walk,” Lionsgate had the audience walk on treadmills for the duration of the movie. To get crowds to Yorgos Lanthimos’s “Bugonia” this fall, Focus Features held “bald screenings“ for hairless moviegoers, a nod to Emma Stone’s character in the film. (Focus Features is a division of NBCUniversal, the parent company of NBC News.)There is a long history of Hollywood and movie theater owners getting inventive to attract crowds. To generate buzz around the 1973 dystopia “Soylent Green,” some theater owners filled their concession slushy machines with green food coloring, a reference to the film’s title, a mysterious and ultimately cannibalistic food source on an environmentally devastated future Earth. Also in 1973, for “The Exorcist,” theater owners paid to have ambulances parked outside, to imply to would-be moviegoers that the film is just that scary. “The showmanship aspect has always been there,” Loria said. “What’s new is the virality.”“Marty Supreme” will open in 70mm in a handful of theaters in New York City and Los Angeles on Dec. 18, ahead of a nationwide release on thousands of screens on Christmas Day. “This is the type of movie that needs all the help it can get,” Loria said. “It’s coming a week after ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash.’ It doesn’t have IP to grow on. It needs conversation starters.”With Chalamet nominated for a Golden Globe, and a likely Academy Award front-runner, for “A Complete Unknown,” A24 will look to keep the conversation rolling into the New Year. The blimp, however, is on its way home to Nashville.Rebecca KeeganRebecca Keegan is the senior Hollywood reporter for NBC News Digital, where she covers the entertainment industry.
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Savewith a NBCUniversal ProfileCreate your free profile or log in to save this articleNov. 19, 2025, 6:00 AM ESTBy Peter Guo and Jay GanglaniHONG KONG — Japan has been feeling the sting of China’s economic retaliation as their diplomatic spat over Taiwan worsens, with travel agencies canceling group tours and fears mounting over an outright ban on Japanese seafood and movies.China hinted that it might halt seafood imports from Japan on Wednesday after warning its citizens to avoid traveling there and postponing the release in China of at least two Japanese movies.The two largest economies in Asia have been locked in a war of words that began when Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told lawmakers on Nov. 7 that a Chinese attack on Taiwan could force a military response from Tokyo. It was the first time such a comment had been made by a sitting prime minister of Japan, a U.S. ally that has a mutual defense pact with Washington.The first day of the auction at the Hamasaka fishing port in Toyooka, Japan, on Nov. 6.Buddhika Weerasinghe / Getty ImagesChina, which claims self-ruling Taiwan as a breakaway province to be seized by force if necessary, has repeatedly demanded that Takaichi retract her “egregious” remarks, saying it will take “severe” countermeasures if she refuses.Though unspecified, Beijing’s threats have fueled concerns for Japan’s already fragile economy that is heavily dependent on China, especially as Tokyo grapples with the effects of U.S. tariffs.On Wednesday, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs suggested that China might reimpose its ban on imports of Japanese seafood because Japan has “so far failed” to provide documents proving the quality and safety of its aquatic products.China resumed importing seafood from all but 10 Japanese prefectures earlier this month after suspending imports two years ago over the release of treated radioactive wastewater from Japan’s wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.Takaichi’s comments on Taiwan have triggered “strong public outrage in China,” ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said. “Under the current circumstances, even if Japanese aquatic products were exported to China, they would have no market.”China’s newest sign of economic retaliation came days after authorities advised Chinese citizens not to travel to Japan, saying Takaichi’s “blatantly provocative” Taiwan remarks posed a “significant risk” to the safety of Chinese people in the country.Japan, which says it continues to prefer a peaceful solution to the Taiwan issue, has also advised its citizens to take extra safety precautions while in China. “The government will continue to closely monitor the situation, including the impact of the series of measures by China, and take appropriate action,” Minoru Kihara, the Japanese government’s top spokesperson, told reporters Tuesday.Following the government’s instructions, several major Chinese airlines have started offering free refunds or itinerary changes for eligible flight tickets to and from Japan.While the number of canceled flights was not immediately clear, some travel businesses have reported disruption and losses amid the China-Japan tensions.A Chinese tour group visit the Ginza shopping district in Tokyo on Monday.Greg Baker / AFP via Getty ImagesEast Japan International Travel Agency, a Tokyo-based tour operator offering tailored services to Chinese tourists, said about 70% of its group tours had been canceled, marking a “significant surge,” and that new inquiries had also decreased about 90%.“Normally, the period from late December to the Lunar New Year is peak season for corporate incentive travel,” Yu Jixin, the agency’s vice president, told NBC News in an emailed statement. “But this year, almost none of these groups are expected to visit Japan.”Beijing Huatu International Travel Agency said it had suspended bookings for Japan-related tours until further orders from Chinese authorities.“We are all Chinese people of flesh and blood,” it said Monday in a statement on RedNote, China’s Instagram-like platform. “We will never waver when it comes to the fundamentals of right and wrong.”At least two Japanese movies, “Crayon Shin-chan the Movie: Super Hot! The Spicy Kasukabe Dancers” and “Cells at Work!,” will have their releases postponed in mainland China, state-backed media China Film News said Monday.Chinese film importers and distributors said they made the “cautious” adjustment in response to viewers’ “widespread and intense dissatisfaction” with Takaichi’s remarks.Tanjiro Kamado in “Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle.”Sony PicturesThe delays were announced as Japanese anime sensation “Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle” has raked in more than $60 million since its Chinese premiere on Friday, accounting for 50% of the country’s daily box office through Wednesday, according to data from Chinese box office tracker Beacon.The pausing of film premieres by China, though a “fairly normal practice,” sends a “clear signal” to Japan, said Hong Zeng, professor of cultural studies at Hong Kong Baptist University.“This is not an isolated gesture within the film sector,” Zeng said, noting that it would be “surprising” if all these actions taken by Beijing, including its travel warning, “were merely coincidental.”Peter GuoPeter Guo is an associate producer based in Hong Kong.Jay GanglaniJay Ganglani is NBC News’s 2025-26 Asia Desk Fellow. Previously he was an NBC News Asia Desk intern and a Hong Kong-based freelance journalist who has contributed to news publications such as CNN, Fortune and the South China Morning Post.Arata Yamamoto contributed.
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Oct. 17, 2025, 12:58 PM EDTBy Evan BushAt a meeting of top conservation groups this week, a bioethics question took center stage: Should scientists be allowed to tinker with the genes of wild plants and animals?The tentative consensus so far seems to be yes.In a vote Tuesday, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) approved further exploration of the use of genetic engineering tools to aid in the preservation of animal species and other living organisms. The decision is not a full-throated endorsement of the practice, but it could nonetheless have wide implications. Researchers are already pursuing projects that involve changing some species’ DNA. Scientists are genetically modifying mosquitoes to reduce transmission of diseases like malaria, for example, and synthesizing horseshoe crab blood, which is used in drug development. Controversial efforts to “de-extinct” archaic creatures — such as the so-called “dire wolf” that a biosciences company announced it had revived this spring — fall under the umbrella, as well. So do possibilities like modifying organisms to help them adapt to a warming world, which are on the table but further off in development.
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