text: Paramount paid $20m for the film’s domestic distribution rights. The film, in which a linguist is tasked by the government to communicate with newly arrived aliens, has drawn good reviews.
  Ang Lee’s Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk also made its much awaited debut, albeit on just two screens. The Sony Pictures release, which opens nationwide next week, grossed $120,300 from two theaters (one in New York, one in Los Angeles).
  The two locations are the only places in North America the film is screening in Lee’s innovative 120 frames-per-second version (five times the normal rate), in addition to being in 3D and at 4k resolution.
  The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent are in again. ‘Jason Bourne’ tops the chart this week, followed by ‘Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children’. ‘Finding Dory’ completes the top three.
  A strong batch of new films drew audiences to US theaters in large numbers this weekend, including Marvel’s Doctor Strange, the animated Trolls and Mel Gibson’s second world war drama Hacksaw Ridge, waking up a sleepy fall box office. The top three films all received largely positive reviews from critics.
  As the superhero in the bunch, Doctor Strange easily dominated with $85m in North American theaters, according to studio estimates on Sunday. Starring Benedict Cumberbatch as a neurosurgeon turned sorcerer, Doctor Strange opened internationally last weekend. It has already grossed $325.4m globally.
  It’s the 14th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the 14th to open at No 1. As one of the lesser-known properties, it far surpassed Ant-Man’s $57.2m launch, but fell a little short of Guardians of the Galaxy’s $94.3m debut.