Entertainment News Roundup: U.S. keeping music licensing decrees that help Spotify; Liam Neeson's 'The Marksman' ends 'Wonder Woman 1984' reign and more

Protests against Amazon.com have been organised for Monday to warn it not to show scenes insulting Hindu gods and goddesses, Ram Kadam, a BJP member of the Maharashtra legislative assembly, said in a tweet after filing a complaint with police in Mumbai on Sunday.

Following is a summary of current entertainment news briefs.

U.S. keeping music licensing decrees that help Spotify, others

The U.S. Justice Department's top antitrust official said on Friday the administration will not scrap decades-old agreements with music licensing groups ASCAP and BMI that hold down costs for Spotify and others. The department's review of the matter had been closely watched since scrapping the 1941 consent agreements could upend the business of licensing music to online companies like Spotify and Pandora as well as movie companies, commercials, bars and restaurants.

Amazon faces backlash from Indian ruling party lawmakers over web series 'Tandav'

A local official from India's ruling Hindu nationalist party on Sunday registered a police complaint against an Amazon Prime web series alleging it insults Hindu gods and goddesses, and threatened to launch a protest at the company's office in Mumbai. Protests against Amazon.com have been organised for Monday to warn it not to show scenes insulting Hindu gods and goddesses, Ram Kadam, a BJP member of the Maharashtra legislative assembly, said in a tweet after filing a complaint with police in Mumbai on Sunday.

Box Office: Liam Neeson's 'The Marksman' ends 'Wonder Woman 1984' reign

If time is a flat circle, then it's only fitting that a second Liam Neeson movie is ruling over the U.S. box office during the pandemic. Months after his action thriller "Honest Thief" led domestic charts, another Neeson (you guessed it!) action thriller "The Marksman" has debut at No. 1 with $3.2 million in ticket sales. Robert Lorenz directed "The Marksman," about a rancher and retired Marine living in Arizona who helps a young boy escape a Mexican drug cartel. The film, which premiered in 1,975 locations, should rake in $3.7 million through the Martin Luther King holiday on Monday. Open Road, the distributor behind "The Marksman," also backed "Honest Thief." That film bowed to $3.7 million last October and ended its theatrical run with $14 million in the U.S. and $28 million globally.

Music producer Phil Spector, convicted of murder, dead at 81

Rock producer Phil Spector, who changed the sound of pop music in the 1960s with his "Wall of Sound" recordings and was convicted of murder for the 2003 murder of a Hollywood actress, has died at age 81 of COVID-19, according to authorities and media reports. Spector produced 20 top 40 hits between 1961 and 1965 and went on to work with the Beatles on "Let It Be," as well as Leonard Cohen, the Righteous Brothers and Ike and Tina Turner.

(With inputs from agencies.)