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Want a little autumn in your August? Youre in luck. Starbucks said Monday that its Pumpkin Spice Latte will return to store menus in the U.S. and Canada on Aug. 26. The Pumpkin Spice Latte is Starbucks most popular seasonal beverage, with hundreds of millions sold since the espresso drink’s 2003 launch. Its also produced a host of imitations. Dunkin introduced pumpkin-flavored drinks in 2007; it will beat Starbucks to market this year when its fall menu debuts on Aug. 20. McDonalds introduced a pumpkin spice latte in 2013. Heres a look at the Pumpkin Spice Latte by the numbers: 100: Number of Starbucks stores that sold the Pumpkin Spice Latte during a test run in Vancouver and Washington in 2003. The following year it launched nationally. 79: Number of markets where Starbucks sold the Pumpkin Spice Latte in 2024. At the time, the company had stores in 85 markets around the world. It now operates in 88 markets. $36.2 billion: Starbucks’ net revenue in its 2024 fiscal year, which ended last September. Starbucks’ net revenue was $4.1 billion in 2003, when the Pumpkin Spice Latte first went on sale. 33.8%: Increase in mentions of pumpkin spice on U.S. menus between the fall of 2014 and the fall of 2024, according to Technomic. 4: Number of spices in McCormicks Pumpkin Pie Spice. They are cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and allspice. 2022: The year Merriam-Webster added pumpkin spice to the dictionary. Less common, it said, is the term pumpkin pie spice. 3: The Pumpkin Spice Latte was the third seasonal beverage introduced by Starbucks, after the Eggnog Latte and the Peppermint Mocha. Sept. 8: Date the Pumpkin Spice Latte went on sale in 2015. The on-sale date has edged earlier since then. 24%: Amount foot traffic rose at U.S. Starbucks last year on Aug. 22, the day the Pumpkin Spice Latte went on sale, according to Placer.ai. The company compared traffic that Thursday to the previous eight Thursdays. 45.5%: Amount foot traffic rose at Starbucks stores in North Dakota on Aug. 22, 2024, the most of any state, according to Placer.ai. Foot traffic in Mississippi rose the least, at 4.8%. 42,000: Number of members of the Leaf Rakers Society, a private Facebook group Starbucks created in 2018 to celebrate fall all year long. Dee-Ann Durbin, AP business writer
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James Gunns Superman showed staying power in its second weekend at North American box offices, collecting $57.3 million in ticket sales and remaining the No. 1 movie in cinemas, according to studio estimates Sunday. None of the week’s new releasesI Know What You Did Last Summer, Smurfs, and Eddingtoncame close to touching Warner Bros. and DC Studios superhero success. Superman dipped 54% from its domestic opening, an average decline for a big summer film. In two weeks, Superman has grossed $406.8 million worldwide, a good start for the movie DC Studios is banking on to restart its movie operations. A big test looms next weekend, when the Walt Disney Co. releases Marvel’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Strong audience scores and good reviews should help propel the $225 million-budgeted Superman toward profitability in the coming weeks. For Warner Bros. and DC Studios, Superman is key to kicking off a 10-year plan for the comic book adaptation studio. Co-heads Gunn and Peter Safra were tasked with rehabilitating the flagging operation. Next on tap are the films Supergirl and Clayface in 2026. But Superman is far from flying solo in theaters right now. Universal Pictures Jurassic World: Rebirth came in second this weekend, with $23.4 million in its third week of release. The seventh Jurassic movie, this one starring Scarlett Johansson, held its own despite the competition from Superman. In three weeks, it accrued $648 million worldwide. Apple Studios and Warner Bros. F1: The Movie has also shown legs, especially internationally. In its fourth weekend, the Brad Pitt racing drama dipped just 26% domestically, bringing in $9.6 million in North America, and another $29.5 million overseas. Its global total stands at $460.8 million. But both of the biggest new releasesSony Pictures I Know What You Did Last Summer and Paramount Pictures Smurfsfell flat. I Know What You Did Last Summer opened with $13 million, a fair result for a movie budgeted at a modest $18 million, but a disappointing opening for a well-known horror franchise. The film, directed by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, is set 27 years after the 1997 original. Teenagers played by Madelyn Cline and Chase Sui Wonders are again haunted for covering up a car accident. The movie’s reviews (38% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) were poor for I Know What You Did Last Summer and audiences graded it similarly. The film notched a C+ on CinemaScore. The original collected $72.6 million in its domestic run in 1997. Paramount Pictures Smurfs debuted in fourth place this weekend with $11 million. The latest big-screen reboot for the woodland blue creatures prominently features Rihanna as the voice of Smurfette. But reviews (21% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) were terrible. Audiences were kinder, giving it a B+ on CinemaScore, but the $58 million-budgeted release will depend largely on its international sales. In 56 overseas markets, Smurfs earned $22.6 million. Ari Asters Eddington opened with $4.2 million on 2,111 screens for A24. Since its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, Eddington has been particularly divisive. The pandemic-set Western features Joaquin Phoenix as the right-wing sheriff of a small New Mexico town who faces off with its liberal mayor (Pedro Pascal). While Asters first film, 2018s Hereditary ($82.8 million worldwide against a $10 million budget) helped establish A24 as an indie powerhouse, but the less-than-stellar launch of Eddington marks the second box-office disappointment for Aster. His 2023 film Beau Is Afraid cost $35 million to make but collected just $12.4 million worldwide. Eddington cost about $25 million to produce. Audiences gave it a C+ on CinemaScore. None of Asters previous films have been graded higher. Yet collectively, Hollywood is enjoying a very good summer. According to data firm Comscore, the 2025 summer box office is up 15.9% over the same period last year, with the year-to-date sales running 15% ahead of 2025. Summer ticket sales have amassed about $2.6 billion domestically, according to Comscore. Top 10 movies by domestic box office With final domestic figures being released Monday, this list factors in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore: 1. Superman, $57.3 million. 2. Jurassic World Rebirth, $23.4 million. 3. I Know What You Did Last Summer, $13 million. 4. Smurfs, $11 million. 5, F1: The Movie, $9.6 million. 6. How to Train Your Dragon, $5.4 million. 7. Eddington, $4.3 million. 8. Elio, $2 million. 9. Lilo & Stitch, $1.5 million. 10. 28 Years Later, $1.3 million. ___ This story has been updated to correct the title of Hereditary. Jake Coyle, Associated Press film writer
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Alaska Airlines has resumed operations after the failure of a critical piece of hardware forced the airline to ground all its flights for approximately three hours, but the effects will linger into Monday, the company announced. The carrier issued a system-wide ground stop for Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air flights around 8 p.m. Pacific time Sunday. The stop was lifted at 11 p.m., the Seattle-based company said in a social media post. More than 150 flights have been canceled since Sunday evening, including 64 Monday. The airline said a critical piece of multi-redundant hardware at our data centers, manufactured by a third-party, experienced an unexpected failure. That affected several of the airlines key systems, but hacking was not involved, and the airline said the incident was not related to any other events like the attack involving Microsoft’s servers over the weekend or the recent cybersecurity event at its Hawaiian Airlines subsidiary in June. We appreciate the patience of our guests whose travel plans have been disrupted. Were working to get them to their destinations as quickly as we can, the airline said in a statement. The airline also said it is working with its vendor to replace the hardware at the data center. Alaska Airlines led all airlines in cancellations Monday, according to the FlightAware website. Many of the cancellations were at the airline’s major hub of Seattle, but it also canceled flights at airports all over the country. The Federal Aviation Administration website had confirmed a ground stop for all Alaska Airlines mainline and Horizon aircraft, referring to an Alaska Airlines subsidiary. But the FAA referred all questions to the airline Monday. The National Transportation Board last month credited the crew of Alaska Airlines flight 1282 with the survival of passengers when a door plug panel flew off the plane shortly after takeoff on Jan. 5, 2024, leaving a hole that sucked objects out of the cabin. In September, Alaska Airlines said it grounded its flights in Seattle briefly due to significant disruptions from an unspecified technology problem that was resolved within hours. John Funk, AP business writer
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