New documentary commemorates James Solomon Russell

The James Solomon Russell – Saint Paul’s College Museum and Archive will host a dinner and documentary premiere from 4 to 7 p.m. Saturday, March 25, at the Gateway Event Center at Virginia State University.

The commemorative dinner will precede the premiere of a documentary about the life of James Solomon Russell that was produced and directed by actress and St. Paul’s College graduate Nicci Carr.

Mr. Russell was born enslaved in Mecklenburg County in 1857. He would become an Episcopal priest and educator, founding what would become St. Paul’s College in Law- renceville in 1888.

In 2020, following a push by the museum’s board of directors, the General Assembly honored Mr. Russell by establishing March 28 as James Solomon Russell Day in Virginia.

Tickets for the free dinner event are currently sold out online, but there is a waiting list at https://forms.gle/zyJPhXMHcapwaCaVA. If tickets become available closer to the event, people on the wait list will be contacted.

There also will be a special James Solomon Russell Day service at Saint Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Petersburg at 10 a.m. Sunday, March 26.

A box office KO: ‘Creed III’ debuts to $58.7M

The Associated Press

“Creed III” punched above its weight at the domestic box office in its first weekend in theaters. The MGM release knocked “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” out of first place and far surpassed both

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expected the film to open in the $30 million range. The first “Creed” debuted to $29 million in 2015 and “Creed II” opened to $35 million in 2018.

Michael B. Jordan made his directorial debut with “Creed III,” which pits his character Adonis against a childhood tested the movie and it tested great, but the public responded so resoundingly to it,” said Erik Lomis, MGM’s head of distribution. “Everything went right here starting with the movie itself ... It was just up to us not to break it when they gave it to us and we didn’t.”

Strong reviews helped “Creed III,” which is currently sitting at an 87 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, while audiences gave it an A- CinemaScore. The audience was largely male (63 percent), diverse (36 percentBlack, 28 percent Latino, 23 percent white and 13 percent Asian/other) and young (55 percent between 18 and 34), according to exit polls.

Over 80 percent of general audiences said the film was a “definite recommend.” With Black audiences, that number ballooned to 89 percent.

“I’ve been doing this a long time and that’s rarefied air,” Mr. Lomis said. “People love the movie.” billion last year, and could have simply released “Creed III” on its streaming service with a limited theatrical run. But they chose theatrical, and it paid off.

“Amazon threw their weight behind this movie like only they can do,” Mr. Lomis said. “They supercharged the campaign with marketing support across all their verticals on the platform and beyond the platform. That shows a commitment to the theatrical business model from Amazon and MGM, which I think should be exciting to everybody.” industry expectations and the opening weekends of the first two movies in the franchise.

The company’s next major theatrical release is the Ben Affleck-directed “Air,” starring Matt Damon, out next month.

“Ant-Man 3” slipped to a distant second in its third weekend in theaters with $12.5 million from North America and $22 million internationally. The Marvel and Disney film’s global cume now stands at $419.5 million.

Playing in 4,007 locations in North America, “Creed III” earned an estimated $58.7 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday. Going into the weekend, analysts friend, Dame, played by Jonathan Majors. It’s the first in the Rocky/Creed films to not feature Sylvester Stallone, who chose not to return because of creative differences.

“This is beyond all of our expectations. And we knew that we had something special — we

It’s also the most expensive “Creed” film, with a reported production budget of $75 million, compared to the others which cost $35 million and $50 million. Internationally, “Creed III” earned $41.8 million from 75 markets, making its global debut $100.4 million.

It’s a big moment for Amazon, who acquired MGM for $8.5