Weekend news roundup 08/01: F1 partnership, box office latest & more

Jonathan Victoria • 08 Jan 2024 News

Select news stories from across sports and entertainment.

Rafa Nadal out of Australian Open

22-time Grand Slam winner Rafael Nadal will miss this month's Australian Open to opt for treatment back in Spain on a hip injury he sustained at the Brisbane International tournament.

The Spaniard returned to competition for the tournament after spending almost a year out due to injury. He won his first two matches before picking up his injury during his quarter-final loss last Friday.

Nadal had said that while his return and subsequent initial results were “good news” he was still “not ready to compete at the maximum level.”

The clay court legend has previously admitted that 2024 will “probably” be the final year of his career, having suffered many injury problems over the last few seasons. His last Grand Slam win came fittingly at the 2022 French Open.

Wonka wins the first box office of the year

Wonka continues to sit atop the box office charts, just narrowly beating out newcomer Night Swim to win the first domestic weekend box office of 2024.

Wonka added $14.4m over the weekend to take its US domestic total to $164.6m. Add the $301.2m international total and it seems the Timothy Chalamet-led movie may stand a chance of reaching the half-a-billion dollar mark, with it sitting at $465.8m currently.

Debutant Night Swim came close to dethroning Wonka, earning $12m in its opening weekend. Another $5.6m internationally brings its first weekend worldwide total to $17.6m.

In third place was Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, which made a modest $10.6m over the weekend, which helped it cross the $100m total mark domestically. It has now made a global total of $334.8m - someways short of the first film in 2018 which made $1.152bn.

Mercedes & Williams partnership to continue

Mercedes will continue to supply Williams with engines until the 2030 season after the pair struck a contract extension.

Williams has been running Merc engines since 2014, originally finding success in the early years of the German outfit's dominance during the engine-heavy turbo-hybrid era.

As a legendary outfit on the grid, Williams are looking to find their way back towards the front of the grid and believes that sticking with Mercedes will give them the best chance at doing so, particularly when the new regulations come in 2026 that will once again put a focus on power units.

The 2024 season is creeping closer, with the first race of the year in Bahrain coming on 2nd March. Watch every race live exclusively on Sky Sports F1.

Oppenheimer wins big at Golden Globes

The 81st Golden Globes happened last night and it saw Oppenheimer pick up many of the major awards, including best Drama Motion Picture and best Actor in a Drama Motion Picture.

The latest Christopher Nolan masterpiece was beaten at the box office by Barbie bu ultimately won during the first part of award season.

Cillian Murphy’s turn as the titular character earned him the Best Actor award while Robert Downey Jr received the award for Best Supporting Actor. Nolan himself also won the award for Best Director of a Motion Picture.

Joshua vs Ngannou set for Saudi showdown

Anthony Joshua and Francis Ngannou are set to face in Saudi Arabia this March in the biggest heavyweight clash since Fury vs Wilder 3.

AJ is fresh off a win convincing against Otto Wallin on 23rd December while Ngannou contentiously lost to Tyson Fury in his first boxing match back in October 2023.

With AJ looking to return to the top of the division and Ngannou wanting to prove himself further, this will be a major matchup with both fighters likely to go for broke.

The fight will happen on 9th March in Saudi Arabia and is set to come with a major payday for both. Ngannou made $10m in his fight with Fury - more than all 14 of his UFC fights combined - and his manager has already said he will earn a lot more than that in his bout with AJ.