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Biggest Movies

02/07/2015

BBC World Service - The Thought Show, Biggest Movies

More Or Less looks behind the box office figures for record breaking film releases.

More Or Less  looks behind the box office figures for record breaking films, BBC Trending hears from  two Muslim rappers and the Why Factor asks why we like to take risks.

The film Jurassic World broke the record for the biggest opening weekend taking $511m. Most of the top ten films with the biggest opening weekends were released in the last five years. Why are these films doing so well?  And what possessed a British newspaper to ask: ‘Who brings more to the British economy – the British Royal Family or bees. The answer? Bees of course. More or Less checks out the curious methodology.

BBC Trending talks to fans of Deen Squad, two new Muslim rappers who take hit mainstream songs and rerecord them with deeply religious lyrics. They have built up a global following online, but is their music halal? And how do you police hate speech online? A forum used by white supremacists on Reddit has been allowed to continue, while others that made fun of fat people have been closed down. A civil rights activist and a free speech advocate debate the question. 

Some people actively embrace risk by jumping out of aeroplanes, scuba-diving or motor-racing. But we all face risks every day just by eating, drinking, walking and driving -  and yet we are not very good at calculating things on which our lives may depend. Why is that? Risk-averse Mike Williams speaks to some risk-takers for The Why Factor to find out.

(Photo: Scene from Jurassic World. Credit: ILM/Universal Pictures/Amblin Entert, Associated Press)

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