Scouting Hollywood: March 14-20

A roundup of news, gossip and history of the entertainment business brought to you from Hollywood, Calif.

Dune: Part 2 buried the competition under sand and spice with a domestic weekend take of $81.5 million, the highest gross since Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (with an inflated ticket price of $19.89) last fall. It also nearly matched Barbie’s opening weekend. One noteworthy accessory was a $49 popcorn pail that promoted the feature. I don’t know if that price included the popcorn.  Bob Marley: One Love was second at $7.4 million. It has done $82.8 million over the last three weeks.

Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the armorer on the ill-fated Rust production, has been found guilty in Santa Fe, New Mexico of involuntary manslaughter in the fatal on-set shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. It took the jury two hours to reach a verdict on the main charge. She was found not guilty of evidence tampering in the case. Gutierrez was found responsible for bringing six live rounds onto the set 12 days before the accidental shooting that also wounded the director. Facing up to 18 months in prison, she was ordered into custody and will be sentenced in April. Next up will be Alec Baldwin’s trial.