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People who have mild traumatic brain injuries may be more likely to have lasting functional deficits that get in the way of daily activities than patients who experience other types of injuries, a US study suggests. 

Although long-term cognitive and physical impairments are well known after-effects of moderate to severe traumatic brain injuries, doctors are less certain of the expected course of recovery for people with mild traumatic brain injuries, researchers note in JAMA Neurology. 

The new study involved 1,154 patients with mild traumatic brain injuries and 299 patients with orthopaedic injuries but no head trauma. 

Two weeks after their injuries, 87 per cent of brain injury patients and 93 per cent of the other trauma patients reported functional limitations, a difference that was too small to rule out the possibility that it was due to chance. The groups remained on a similar trajectory until six months after their injuries. 

After one year, however, brain injury patients fared worse. By this point, 53 per cent of them still had functional limitations, compared with 38 per cent of the other trauma patients. 

“Unfortunately, many patients with mild traumatic brain injuries do not get any follow-up care after being discharged from the hospital,” said study leader Lindsay Nelson of the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. 

“We need to do more to learn how to improve on the natural course of recovery so patients can get back to their lives more quickly,” Nelson said by e-mail. 

While patients with moderate to severe brain injuries are almost always admitted to a hospital or intensive care unit, there is less consensus about the best way to manage people with milder injuries. 

Even when brain injuries are called “mild”, they can still lead to persistent physical, psychiatric and cognitive problems that result in lasting impairments and disability, especially when people go untreated. 

Car crashes were the most common cause of brain injury in the study, accounting for 36 per cent of cases, followed by falls at 24 per cent. 

Most of the brain injury patients lost consciousness and more than three in four had amnesia; these conditions were not reported for any of the patients treated for other types of trauma. 

At two weeks after injuries, people most often had difficulty completing work and other complex tasks. Social functioning was also a common problem. 

After one year, 17 per cent of patients in both groups reporting struggles with work and other complex tasks. And 17 per cent of brain injury patients and 18 per cent of trauma patients had trouble with social functioning. 

The study was not a controlled experiment designed to prove whether or how different types of traumatic injury might directly cause distinct functional deficits over time. 

One limitation of the analysis is that researchers only included patients treated at level 1 trauma centres — hospitals that see the most serious cases, the study team notes. And, they only looked at patients who had head CT scans to confirm whether they had brain injuries. 

“Many people with a concussion might not seek treatment and recover spontaneously with no lasting effects,” said Dr Jack Tsao, a researcher at the University of Tennessee Health Science Centre in Memphis who was not involved in the study. 

But they should seek treatment, Tsao said. 

 “Currently the accepted treatment is rest as well as education about what symptoms to look out for and what the typical course of recovery will be [managing expectations],” Tsao said by email. 

Seeking medical care may help people resume their full range of daily activities sooner, Tsao added. “One key thing is to prevent re-injury while the brain is still recovering from the concussion — so no further injuries to the head and no video games, cognitive challenges during recovery.” 

One of the world’s consistently best-selling cars and among the best in its compact family car segment, the Ford Focus is a highly versatile platform. Including a broad range of models from frugal turbo-diesels and small displacement petrol versions, functional estates and high performance hot hatch versions, the Focus has however not been a particularly high selling car in Jordan. That is until recent years when the For Focus Electric has become one of several individually and unofficial popular imports taking advantage of reduced Electric Vehicle (EV) duties and taxes.

Launched in 2011 and updated and improved in 2015 with a higher capacity battery, the third generation Focus Electric is very much on its way out with production ending last year, the arrival of a new fourth generation Focus in Europe and Ford announcing its withdrawal from the US passenger car market, with the exception of the Mustang. However, with no new EV replacement, the third generation Focus Electric remains listed on Ford’s US media site and is still finding its way to Jordanian roads and independent auto traders’ lots.

Seamless delivery

Less outwardly assertive in aesthetic than other post face-lift third generation Focus models, the Focus Electric is identified by its discreet badges, smoother more aerodynamic bumper with no foglight housings and its use of pre-2015 Focus headlights that are not as sharp or strongly browed as their replacement. Also using a seemingly smaller less aggressive grille, the Focus Electric otherwise features the same urgent, jutting and confident road stance, descending roofline, rising waistline and wraparound rear lights as its combustion engine sister models and even rides on somewhat large 17-inch alloy wheels.

Also using the older and flatter pre-facelift version’s bonnet, the Focus Electric is powered by a permanent magnetic electric traction motor underneath, and driving the front wheels. With more emphasis on power than some key rivals, the Focus Electric develops a healthy 143BHP, which better balances and reconciles its comparatively high 184lb/ft torque output, as compared with other EVs with a wider disparity between the two. Responsively instant from standstill and low speeds, the Focus Electric is confidently accelerates though 0-100km/h in around 10-seconds in a seamless stretch with its single-speed auto gearbox.

Efficient electric

Accelerating in a smooth, silent and seamlessly sweeping wave of uninterrupted torque, the Focus Electric’s single speed gearbox does however contribute to its rather limited 135km/h top speed. And like most EV’s the single speed gearbox also contribute to making the Focus Electric more efficient in town where it returns the equivalent of 2l/100km fuel efficiency and 2.45l/100km on highway, as opposed to combustion engine cars. Capable of 185km/h on a single charge depending on conditions, the Focus Electric’s recharge times vary from 3.6- to 20-hours, depending on voltage and charging system used.

Less efficient and with shorter range when driven hard, and particularly on steep inclines, the Focus Electric’s high, accessibly immediate and over-arcing torque output makes responsively muscular at cruising speeds in particular for easy overtaking. Its torque bias also comes in handy in lugging its hefty batteries and consequently (and significantly) heavier mass compared with regular Focus hatchbacks. High, near instant torque also means more noticeable torque steer and momentary wheel spin before traction control systems intervene to modulate grip and slip when launching aggressively on incline.

Agile among peers

Among segment leaders in handling agility and driver involvement in combustion engine guise, the Focus Electric however many not be quite as adept, but similarly stands out among its own EV peers for its well-weighted and direct steering, tidy turn-in, good body control and relative nimbleness. But, at 1,651kg and near immediate torque surge of the driven front wheels, it understeers more readily if pushed hard, and requires one to more gently power out of corners. More flickable than some other EVs, the Focus electric’s heavy rear battery is, however, more noticeable next to regular versions.

Smooth and stable at speed with good refinement and a good mix of ride comfort and body control, the Focus Electric feels reassuring yet alert. Inside, its somewhat high seating feels similarly alert and gives good front views and support. 

User-friendly inside if slightly busy in layout, the Focus Electric features decent cabin materials and rear seat space, while luggage 402-litre volume is noticeably reduced in the Electric version, but still usefully sized. Other useful standard features include rear view camera and sensors, rear child seat anchors, dual zone climate control and more.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: Permanent magnetic electric traction, front-mounted electric motor

Battery/capacity: Liquid-cooled lithium-ion/33.5kWh

Gearbox: One-speed automatic, front-wheel-drive

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 143 (145) [107]

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 184 (250)

0-100km/h: approximately 10-seconds (estimate)

Top speed: 135km/h

Range: 185km*

Fuel consumption equivalency, city/highway/combined: 2-/2.45-/2.2-litres/100km*

Charging time, min.max: 3.6-/20-hours (depending on voltage, capacity and charger type)

Length: 4,391mm

Width (mirrors folded): 1,882mm

Height: 1,478mm

Wheelbase: 2,649mm

Track, F/R: 1,536/1,513mm

Headroom, F/R: 972/965mm

Legroom, F/R: 1,094/843mm

Shoulder room, F/R: 1,412/1,336mm

Hip room, F/R: 1,369/1,341mm

Seating capacity: 5

Luggage volume: 402-litres

Kerb weight: 1,651kg

Steering: Electric-assisted rack & pinion

Suspension: MacPherson struts/multi-link

Brakes, F/R: Ventilated discs, 278mm/discs, 271mm, regenerative

Tyres: 225/50R17

*US Environmental Protection Agency figures

Men who were overweight as teens may be more likely to develop a rare type of heart muscle damage that can cause heart failure than men who maintained a healthy weight during adolescence, a Swedish study suggests. 

Researchers examined data on height, weight and fitness levels from more than 1.6 million men who enlisted in compulsory military service in Sweden between 1969 and 2005, when they were 18 or 19 years old. At the start, about 10 per cent were overweight and about 2 per cent were obese. 

After a median follow-up of 27 years, 4,477 men developed a disease called cardiomyopathy that makes it harder for the heart to pump blood to the body. This can lead to heart failure. 

Compared to men whose weight was right in the middle of a healthy range in adolescence, men who had a healthy weight that was slightly higher during their teen years were 38 per cent more likely to develop cardiomyopathy, the study found. Men who were overweight as teens were at least twice as likely to develop this heart muscle damage, and men who were obese had at least five times the risk. 

Men who developed cardiomyopathy were about 46 years old on average at the time of their disorder. 

“We postulated that the increase in heart failure rates in the young might be due to increasing rates of overweight and obesity,” said senior study author Dr Annika Rosengren of the Sahlgrenska Academy and the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. 

“We were able to demonstrate that there was a very strong link between being obese when young and early heart failure,” Rosengren said by e-mail. 

Cardiomyopathy is still rare, and only 0.27 per cent of the men were diagnosed with any one of the different forms of this disorder during the study. 

People with a body mass index (BMI) below 20, lean but within a healthy weight range, had a low risk of cardiomyopathy, researchers report in Circulation. 

However, that risk steadily increased as weight increased, even among men on the high end of what’s considered a healthy weight, with BMIs ranging from 22.5 to 25. 

There are several types of cardiomyopathy, but the causes are poorly understood. In one form, called dilated cardiomyopathy, the heart muscle becomes weak and cannot pump blood efficiently. In another, called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, the heart muscle becomes stiff and the heart cannot fill with blood properly. 

In the study, men who were extremely obese with a BMI of 35 and over in their youth were eight times more likely to develop dilated cardiomyopathy as adults compared to men who were lean in their youth. It was not possible to estimate increased risk for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in men with BMI 35 and above because there were too few cases to provide a meaningful analysis. 

The study was not designed to prove whether or how obesity directly causes cardiomyopathy. It is also not clear if results from this study of predominantly white men would apply to women or to other racial or ethnic groups. 

It is possible that hormonal and metabolic changes in obesity, including high levels of the hormones insulin and leptin, could play a role in causing cardiomyopathy, said Dr David Ludwig of Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital. 

“Exposure to high levels of these two hormones, for years or decades, could adversely affect heart muscle structure and function,” Ludwig, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by email. “It’s also possible that other more commonly recognised changes in obesity, such as high blood pressure and high blood sugar, could be involved.”

Broadly speaking, being overweight or obese as a teen and young adult sets people up for more health issues later in life, heart problems included, said Dr June Tester of the University of California San Francisco Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland. 

 “There are some health complications such as cardiomyopathy that evidence has long suggested that some people are simply more `hard-wired’ than others to have risk just because of their genes,” Tester, who was not involved in the study, said by e-mail. “However, this research suggests that the relationship is more complex.”

Madam Ataturk: The First Lady of Modern Turkey

Ipek Calislar

Translated from Turkish by Feyza Howell

London: Saqi Books, 2019

Pp. 364

A few decades ago, a new trend in literature emerged to tell the stories of women who were known mainly due to their relationship to famous men. One such book, a novel, was “Ahab’s Wife” (1999) imagining the woman who waited on shore while Captain Ahab pursued the legendary white whale, Moby Dick. Another example, also a novel but adhering to known facts, was “The Paris Wife” (2011) about Hadley Richardson, Ernest Hemingway’s first wife. While these books were more or less fictionalised accounts, “Madam Ataturk” is a true story and falls in the genre of biography.

Even in her own country, little meaningful has been written about Latife Hanim, who at the age of 24 married Mustafa Kemal, the founder of modern Turkey, known as Ataturk. Hugely popular among those who saw the establishment of the Turkish Republic as the path to modernity and improvement in women’s status, Latife was largely ignored and even defiled after he divorced her a scant two and a half years later, despite her having been highly educated and active in public affairs. Turkish journalist Ipek Calislar took this lacuna as a challenge: “The moment I discovered she had demanded Ataturk change the law to enable her to stand for parliament, I knew I had found the woman whose biography beckoned”. (p. 7)

The book stands as evidence that Calislar threw herself wholeheartedly into the project, researching in a myriad of sources — books, newspapers and magazines of the times, Turkish, European and American. She also interviewed surviving relatives and others who had known Latife and Ataturk personally. The result is an engaging account of their life together in which the personal and political are closely intertwined. There are many issues on which different sources give conflicting accounts, from the question of whether theirs was a love marriage or not, to the reasons for their separation and Latife’s life post-divorce. Calislar presents the many viewpoints and then states her own opinions, making the book a shining example of how history can and should be written, both exploring new interpretations of the past and drawing well-grounded conclusions.

The author is adept at painting a scene, so that the reader feels privy to pivotal events as well as small, sometimes amusing, incidents in Latife’s and Ataturk’s life that reveal their respective personalities and motivations. What is less clear is the rendering of the historical events of the time. If one is not well-versed in the first years of the Turkish Republic, things can be a little confusing, but the main point of the book, to reinstate Latife’s important political role, is abundantly clear. While she ran the household smoothly, even elegantly, she was most distinguished as Ataturk’s companion, his secretary, and someone he could discuss ideas with, especially what needed to be done to advance the liberation of women. Moreover, with her fluency in English, French, German, Farsi and Arabic, and her knowledge of European society gained while studying in London and Paris, Latife was a great assert to the new Turkey’s foreign relations, interacting gracefully with ambassadors and sought after by the foreign press. 

One also gets a lovely impression of Izmir, Latife’s home city, where her father, Muammer Ussakizade, was the leading businessman and provided an advanced education for all six of his children, girls as well as boys. According to the author, “The family faced west, but preserved eastern values.” (p. 27)

Latife and Ataturk discussed and agreed on many issues, such as that education should be secular, the veil should be discarded and unilateral divorce and polygamy abolished. The interesting thing is that these opinions on her part predated her 1923 marriage to Ataturk and even her time studying in Europe (after 1919); as the author points out, “By 1916 Latife was reading all she could get her hands on regarding women’s issues…” (p. 33)

Calislar also paints a sobering picture of the prevailing situation which Latife and Ataturk wanted to change: “Seclusion [of women] still dominated the social life of the nation. Social life, especially in Ankara, excluded women entirely… “(p. 187)

In this context, Latife appearing unveiled at a public event alongside her husband rippled throughout Turkish society. Calislar does not claim that Latife was the founder or leader of the Turkish women’s movement but explains how she was able to exert much influence by virtue of being Ataturk’s wife and her own persistent personality. “I consider it a great loss to the women’s movement that Latife’s pioneering role at the time has been forgotten, and worse, deliberately obliterated”. (p. 197)

Ironically, “Latife was the iconic woman who had made women visible, although she herself lived the rest of her life as the invisible woman”. (p. 313)

This book is a well-researched and well-written effort to make her visible again.

By Ibrahim Mango

Life Coach and Positive Psychologist

To achieve anything in life (mastering a sport, becoming a better manager, writer, singer, or programmer), one would need to learn and practice. Similarly, to become happier, you would need to practice happiness skills.

We often seek happiness in the wrong places, such as our looks, wealth, promotions at work and fame. Although these things might bring happiness, rewound psychologist and author Dr Dan Gilbert asserts that they bring a little happiness, for a short time. What then contributes a person’s happiness level? While genetics and circumstances play a role, our intentional thoughts and behaviours constitute 40 per cent — that is a not a small portion! 

Positive Psychology Interventions

Techniques to boost happiness levels are called Positive Psychology Interventions (PPIs). Psychologists and life coaches often use PPIs to enhance personal qualities and strengths of their clients. Once these PPIs are learned they can be practised alone as scientifically-based self-help exercises. Here are a few examples of PPIs (there are more than a hundred in total): 

Best possible self

This exercise requires you to visualise yourself at a time in the future when you have achieved all your goals (possibly at your retirement). Here are the steps for this PPI:

• Set a timer for 15 minutes each day when you can quietly visualise yourself at a future point in time where you have achieved all your goals

• Write down in as much detail as you can what it feels like, what you see and hear (even touch and smell) having reached your goals

• While writing, do not pay much attention to grammar or punctuation; focus on writing all your emotions and thoughts in an expressive way

Gratitude

Gratitude is linked to improved mental and physical health and is a proven antidote to negative emotions, hostility, worry and irritation. Journal writing is a useful way to intentionally reflect on your life and focus on three to five things that you are grateful for. They can be ordinary things (such as you are so lucky to be able to have hot showers in Amman) or magnificent things (such as having advanced medication that helped you recover from a serious disease).

Research shows that for most people, this PPI should be done once a week while with others, it would be more effective to do it daily, or three times a week. You would have to find out which timetable works best for you. 

Acts of kindness

Acting kind towards others can be helpful to the recipient, but recent research has revealed that the actor also reaps benefits.

How you can be kind are endless; you just need to have an open mind and look around. Buy the person behind you in the queue a shawarma or give your restaurant server a genuine compliment for his good service. Or volunteer at a local centre that helps refugees or underprivileged youth.

Research has shown that you need to find out precisely how, when and how frequently to use the kindness PPI to get the best results. However, as a rough guide, performing acts of kindness regularly for a longer time and making variation in your acts of kindness increases their effectiveness.

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours
magazine

People with diabetes may have better brain function if they follow a Mediterranean diet rich in fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, fish and healthy fats, a US study suggests. 

Mediterranean diets have long been linked to better heart and brain health as well as a lower risk of developing diabetes. But research to date has not offered a clear picture of whether any cognitive benefits of eating this way might differ for people with and without diabetes, said lead study author Josiemer Mattei of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston. 

“A healthy Mediterranean diet includes foods that are rich in fruit and vegetables, which has antioxidants, and in fish and oils, which include healthy fats,” Mattei said by e-mail. “These nutrients help sustain cognitive function by reducing inflammation and oxidation in the brain.”

These benefits may help people whether or not they have diabetes. When people do have diabetes, however, the abundance of whole grains and legumes in a typical Mediterranean diet may help keep blood sugar well controlled and improve cognitive function, Mattei added. 

As reported in Diabetes Care, researchers followed 913 participants in the Boston Puerto Rican Health Study over two years, assessing their eating habits, testing for type 2 diabetes, and administering a series of tests for cognitive function, memory and executive function. 

For diet evaluations, researchers scored participants’ eating habits based on how much they consumed of the main foods that make up a Mediterranean diet, plus how much they ate of foods typically included in two other types of heart-healthy diets, including the DASH diet recommended by the American Heart Association. 

Among people without diabetes, more closely following a Mediterranean diet was associated with memory improvements during the study period, but not with changes in other types of cognitive function. For these participants, the other two heart-healthy diets were both tied to better cognitive function. 

For diabetics, however, the Mediterranean diet was associated with a wide range of improvements in brain health. People with diabetes who more closely followed a Mediterranean diet had bigger gains in cognitive function, word recognition, and clock drawing skills than their counterparts who did not eat this way. 

When people had diabetes, the brain health benefits of the Mediterranean diet were limited to individuals who had well-controlled blood sugar at the start of the study or experienced improvements in blood sugar control during the study. There was not a clear benefit for people who started out with poorly controlled blood sugar or individuals who got worse during the study. 

The study was not a controlled experiment designed to prove whether or how a Mediterranean diet might directly improve brain health. 

One limitation of the study is that its focus only on Puerto Rican people means the results might not apply to individuals from other racial or ethnic groups or with different dietary traditions. Researchers also relied on study participants to accurately recall and report what they ate and drank, which is not always accurate. 

Still, following a Mediterranean diet may make sense for many people with and without diabetes, said Allen Taylor of the Tufts University USDA Human Nutrition Research Centre on Aging in Boston. 

“There are many salutary effects of consuming a Mediterranean diet that is rich in fruits and vegetables, lower in simple sugars, lower in red and processed meats, with a few servings per week of fish,” Taylor, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by e-mail. 

TOKYO — Having trouble waking up in the morning? Not getting enough sleep? The company that brought you Pokemon Go may have a solution: a game “played” by sleeping.

Pokemon Company said on Wednesday it would release a new smartphone game called “Pokemon Sleep” in 2020, turning sleep into entertainment.

The firm created the wildly popular Pokemon Go app, a game that let players walking the real world hunt virtual Pokemon, in 2016.

“Now we set our sights on sleeping,” President Tsunekazu Ishihara told reporters.

“It’s a game with which you look forward to waking up,” he said.

“Turning sleeping... into entertainment is our next goal.”

Ishihara offered little detail on the game, but Nintendo — which helped develop Pokemon Go — said during the press conference in Tokyo that they are rolling out a new device that can track players’ sleep and send data to their smartphone.

The announcement sparked a social media frenzy, and plenty of quips.

“I can’t wait to be an esports player now that sleeping is part of gaming,” wrote one Twitter user.

“Pokemon Sleep. At last, a valid excuse for that extra six hours in bed,” wrote another.

At the very least, the game seems unlikely to spark the sort of trouble caused by Pokemon Go, which saw players blamed for traffic accidents and other violations as they roamed the streets — buried in their phones — hunting “monsters”.

The free game uses satellite locations, graphics and camera capabilities to overlay cartoon characters on real-world settings, challenging players to capture and train the creatures.

Pokemon, short for “pocket monsters”, has been a constant in Japan since it was launched as software in 1996 for Nintendo’s iconic Game Boy console. 

Its “Gotta Catch ‘Em All” slogan has been turned into a song.

The game has expanded into other media, most notably a hugely popular TV animation show and a recent film.

Children who suffer adverse experiences like abuse and neglect may be less likely to have mental health problems in adulthood if they play team sports as teenagers, a US study suggests. 

Adverse childhood experiences, commonly called ACEs, can include witnessing parents fight or go through a divorce, having a parent with a mental illness or substance abuse problem, or suffering from sexual, physical or emotional abuse. ACEs have been linked to what’s known as toxic stress, or wear and tear on the body that leads to physical and mental health problems that often continue from one generation to the next. 

The current study focused on whether team sports — which have been linked to a variety of physical and psychological benefits — might diminish the potential for lasting mental health problems among adults with a history of ACEs. Researchers followed 4,888 teens exposed to ACEs and 4,780 teens without this exposure for more than a decade, starting when they were 15 years old on average. 

Teens who played team sports had 24 per cent lower odds of receiving a depression diagnosis by young adulthood and 30 per cent lower odds of receiving an anxiety diagnosis, the study found. 

“Our data indicate that team sports participation in adolescence may be associated with better mental health outcomes in adulthood due to increased self-esteem, increased feelings of social acceptance, and feeling more connected to the school environment,” said lead study author Dr Molly Easterlin of the University of California Los Angeles and Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre. 

“It may change how kids navigate school or develop relationships,” Easterlin said by e-mail. “It may make them more resilient.” 

Among the teens in the study with ACE exposure, 21 per cent reported two or more ACEs, according to the study in JAMA Paediatrics. 

The most common ACE was having a single parent, which impacted about 27 per cent of all study participants, followed by parental incarceration, which impacted 17 per cent and parental alcohol misuse, reported by 14 per cent. 

Sexual abuse was the least commonly reported ACE, affecting about 5 per cent of the teens, followed by physical abuse at 9 per cent and emotional neglect at 11 per cent. 

Much of the connection between team sports and the reduced potential for anxiety or depression appeared to be explained by social rather than physical aspects of sports participation, researchers report in JAMA Paediatrics. 

Feeling more connected to the school community, feeling socially accepted, and having a higher self-esteem together explained 16 to 36 per cent of the reduced depression and anxiety risk associated with team sports. 

The study was not a controlled experiment designed to prove whether or how team sports during adolescence might directly impact mental health in adulthood. It is also possible that instead of team sports causing better mental health, that the reverse was true and youth with better mental health were more likely to choose to play team sports. 

Even so, the results offer fresh evidence of the potential for team sports to help at-risk kids, said author of an accompanying editorial Mercedes Carnethon of the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago. 

“Team sports are particularly beneficial for youth because they bring together a group who works together to achieve a shared goal,” Carnethon said by e-mail. 

“The lessons learned about helping one another, compromise, persisting through difficulties and dealing with inevitable losses have parallels with life,” Carnethon added. “These lessons can help youth weather the challenges that they face in their personal lives as a result of their adverse childhood experiences.” 

LOS ANGELES — Disney’s live-action “Aladdin” is flying high with an estimated $105 million in North America during the four-day Memorial Day holiday weekend.

It is the sixth-highest Memorial Day weekend total ever, topping the 2011 mark of $103.4 million for “The Hangover Part II”. The top total came in 2007, when “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” took in $139 million in its first four days. “Aladdin” is also dominating moviegoing internationally with $121 million in 56 markets.

“Aladdin” has outperformed Disney’s pre-opening domestic projections, which were in the $75 million to $85 million range, taking in $86.1 million in its first three days. The reboot of the original 1992 animated movie — which generated $502 million in worldwide box office — stars Mena Massoud as Aladdin, Will Smith as the Genie, Naomi Scott as Jasmine and Marwan Kenzari as Jafar. Guy Ritchie directed “Aladdin”, produced by Dan Lin and Jonathan Eirich.

Comscore’s PostTrak general audience survey found that 67 per cent of patrons said they would “definitely recommend” the film to their friends. Notably, 39 per cent said their affection for the original was their primary reason for seeing the film, a high percentage that reflects moviegoers’ love for the “Aladdin” brand and the characters in the film.

“A very strong 22 per cent said they would see the film again in theatres — much higher than the norm of 14 per cent,” noted Paul Dergarabedian, Comscore’s senior media analyst.

Comscore estimated that total domestic business for the four-day weekend was $226 million. That was about $1.8 million shy of the total for the same frame last year, when “Solo: A Star Wars Story” launched with $103 million. The top Memorial Day weekend took place in 2013 when “Fast and Furious 6” launched and North American moviegoing totalled $314 million for the four days.

“A very solid Memorial Day weekend was led by the bigger-than-expected performance of Disney’s ‘Aladdin’ conjured up huge numbers of moviegoers looking for the perfect family-friendly treat over the extended holiday weekend,” he said.

Sony’s launch of horror-thriller “Brightburn” should pull in about $9 million for the holiday weekend to finish fifth and United Artists-Annapurna’s teen comedy “Booksmart” will open in sixth at around $8 million. Both were positioned as counter-programmers to “Aladdin” and finished slightly below forecasts.

Lionsgate’s second session of “John Wick: Chapter 3” should be runner-up with $30.5 million following its surprisingly strong opening of $56.8 million. The actioner will wind up the holiday weekend with $107 million domestically.

Disney’s fifth frame of “Avengers: Endgame” will finish third in the $22 million range, increasing its haul to about $803 million domestically by the end of Memorial Day. “Endgame” trails only “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” in domestic gross, with the space saga having grossed $936 million.

Warner Bros.’ third weekend of “Pokemon Detective Pikachu” will follow in fourth with about $17 million. The family adventure will finish the weekend at the $120 million mark in North America.

Overall moviegoing for 2019 has hit $4.34 billion as of Sunday, down 10 per cent from the same point last year. The lag is due to a dismal performance during the first two months of this year.

“Aladdin” is the third biggest launch of 2019, following the record-setting $357 million for “Avengers: Endgame” and $153 million for “Captain Marvel”.