Can you take a vacation from your cellphone? A growing number of hotels will help you find out.

Some resorts are offering perks, like snorkeling tours and s’mores, to guests who manage to give up their phones for a few hours. Some have phone-free hours at their pools; others are banning distracting devices from public places altogether.

Hotels that limit cellphone use risk losing valuable exposure on Instagram or Facebook. But they say the policies reflect their mission of promoting wellness and relaxation. And, of course, they hope that happily unplugged guests will return for future visits.

“Everyone wants to be able to disconnect. They just need a little courage,” said Lisa Checchio, Wyndham Hotels’ chief marketing officer.

People’s inability to disconnect is an increasingly serious issue. Half of smartphone users spend between three and seven hours per day on their mobile devices, according to a 2017 global survey by Counterpoint Research, a technology consulting firm. In a separate study by the nonprofit Common Sense Media, 69 percent of parents and 78 percent of teens said they check their devices at least hourly.

Wyndham knew it had a problem when hotel managers requested more beach chairs to accommodate all the people who would sit in them and stare at their phones. It discovered that the average resort guest was bringing three devices and checking them once every 12 minutes – or roughly 80 times a day.

On Oct. 1, Wyndham Grand’s five U.S. resorts began offering prime spots by the pool, free snacks and the chance to win return visits when guests put their phone in a soft, locked pouch. The phones stay with the guests, but only hotel staff can unlock the pouches.

Wyndham says 250 people have used the pouches so far at resorts in Florida and Texas. The program will be found at more Wyndham hotels next year.

Wyndham Grand resorts also give families a 5 percent discount on their stay if they put their phones in a timed lockbox. The hotel provides supplies for a pillow fort, s’mores, a bedtime book and an instant camera for adults and kids who don’t know what to do with all the newfound time on their hands.

That appeals to Matthew Cannata, who heads public relations for the New Britain, Connecticut, schools. He worries about the impact of technology on his two young children, and he tries to keep devices out of sight during family meals.

“Any chance I can get to put the phone away is great. Sometimes, people need to be forced to do things to start a thought process and then create a habit,” he said.

At the Grand Velas Riviera Nayarit in Mexico, a so-called Detox Concierge will “cleanse” your suite of all electronic devices and replace them with games like Jenga and chess. Guests at its sister resort, the Grand Velas Riviera Maya, trade in their phones for a bracelet that gives them free access to activities like snorkeling; they must do at least four activities to earn back their phones. A timer placed in the lobby shows how long each family has lasted without their devices.

Emily Evans likes the idea of rewarding people for putting their phones away. A senior at Eastern Kentucky University, she says she barely keeps her phone charged while on vacation, but her girlfriend is constantly checking her phone.

“I feel most millennials would choose discounts and saving money over having their phone out to Instagram and Snapchat pictures of their meals,” Evans said.

At Miraval, a Hyatt-owned resort in Arizona, the emphasis is less on family time than on mindfulness and tranquility. Miraval, which will soon open two more resorts in Texas and Massachusetts, bans phone use in most public areas.

Guests are encouraged to tuck their phones into soft cotton bags and leave them on small wooden beds in their rooms. Staff wears name tags with gentle reminders that guests should unplug and “be present.”

Some resorts encourage a total ban. Wilderness Resorts, an African safari operator, intentionally provides no Wi-Fi at many of its camps. Adrere Amellal, a 40-room hotel at the Siwa Oasis in Egypt, lets guests have phones in their rooms, but there’s no electricity or Wi-Fi.

Not all vacationers want to be weaned from their devices. Phones double as cameras, music players, travel guides and e-readers. They also might be critical in an emergency.

David Bruns, a communications manager for AARP Florida, uses two phones. He tries not to check his work phone after hours, but he carries his personal phone everywhere.

“I don’t think I would like being made to put the thing down,” Bruns said. “It feels like that is more about me being told what to do by people I am paying to do something for me.”

Ayana Resort and Spa in Bali, Indonesia, understands that, so it tries to meet guests halfway. Its winding River Pool bans phones between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. But it invites guests to take photos and post away to social media before and after those times.

Story: Dee-ann Durbin

A look at the biggest box-office hits and flops of 2018:

HIT: “Black Panther”: On a budget of $210 million, Ryan Coogler’s superhero film — the first to feature a predominantly black cast — grossed more than $700 million domestically (third highest all-time, not accounting for inflation) and $1.3 billion worldwide. It became the first movie to top the weekend box office five times in a row since “Avatar.”

MISS: “Solo: A Star Wars Story”: Not everything Disney did in 2018 was perfect; “The Nutcracker and the Four Realms” and “A Wrinkle in Time” also fizzled. But few disappointments were more acutely felt than the extensively retooled Han Solo spinoff directed by Ron Howard after original directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were jettisoned. On a production budget of at least $250 million, the heavily promoted spinoff grossed $392.9 million worldwide. It did worse than every previous “Star Wars” film, and the negative reaction from fans and critics forced Disney to reconsider its future plans for the franchise.

HIT: “A Quiet Place”: With just a $17 million budget, John Krasinski’s horror thriller grossed $340.7 million worldwide. The Paramount Pictures release was the biggest original hit of a year typically dominated by sequels, superheroes and reboots. Of course, “A Quiet Place” will get its own sequel, slated for release in 2020.

MISS: “Mortal Engines”: One of the year’s worst bombs arrived just as 2018 was coming to a close. The Peter Jackson-produced $100 million fantasy, from Universal, opened with a mere $7.5 million last weekend. Young Adult fantasies aren’t selling like they used to, especially when they come with big budgets and a 27 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

HIT: “Crazy Rich Asians”: Rom-coms have for years been largely absent from theaters, but the Warner Bros. adaption of the best-selling novel grossed $238 million worldwide on a $30 million budget. As the first studio release in 25 years to feature a predominantly Asian-American cast, it was another example of how diversity sells at the box office.

MISS: “The Happytime Murders”: Who could have foreseen that an R-rated puppet comedy would disappoint? The STX Entertainment release starred one of the most bankable stars in comedy, Melissa McCarthy, but it has managed only $27.5 million worldwide on a $40 million budget.

HIT: “Incredibles 2”: Success is usually expected of Pixar; all but one of their 20 releases has opened No. 1 (and the one that didn’t, “Inside Out,” grossed $857.6 million globally). But even by their high standards, Brad Bird’s “Incredibles” sequel was a massive hit. With $1.24 billion in worldwide sales from a $200 million budget, “Incredibles 2” ranks second behind only “Frozen” among animated movies in ticket sales.

MISS: “Robin Hood”: Just as audiences didn’t want another “Girl in With the Dragoon Tattoo,” they had little interest in more Robin Hood. The Taron Egerton-led return to Sherwood Forest, released by Lionsgate, cost $100 million to make but made out with just $72.9 million worldwide.

HIT: “Halloween”: Horror continued to dominate the box office — the “Conjuring” spinoff “The Nun” also ranked as one of the year’s most lucrative hits. But Blumhouse’s “Halloween” sequel, 40 years after the original, grossed $253.5 million worldwide on a budget of just $10 million. Starring Jamie Lee Curtis, 60, it now holds the record for best opening weekend for a film with a female lead over 55.

MISS: “London Fields”: It cost a modest $8 million to make, but the long-delayed Martin Amis adaptation starring Amber Heard was among the most widely ignored films of the year. After being held up for years by lawsuits, it opened with just $160,000 on 613 screens — a per-screen average of $262. It ranks as among the worst performing wide releases ever.

NEW YORK — The movie theater was dead, they said. After ticket sales slumped in 2017, due largely to the worst summer season in more than a decade, pundits far and wide predicted the hastening demise of moviegoing, an inevitable casualty to the rise of streaming.

This year, the movies flipped the script.

This weekend, as “Aquaman,” ”Bumblebee” and “Mary Poppins Returns” arrive in theaters, ticket sales will reach a new record for the year, passing the previous 2016 high of $11.4 billion. Driven in part by zeitgeist-grabbing cultural events like “Black Panther,” ”Crazy Rich Asians” and even documentaries like “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” the box office is expected to end up around $11.8 billion for the year. The overall domestic gross is up nearly 9 percent from last year; ticket sales are up about 6 percent.

And it’s not just in North America. Propelled by Chinese moviegoers, global ticket sales should, for the second time ever, exceed $40 billion. Saudi Arabia declared itself open for business to Hollywood, after more than 35 years without theaters. In the United Kingdom, cinemas are headed to their best year since 1971.

“This year serves to confirm that the movie theater business is strong and growing in the long term, even though it can be cyclical in the short term,” said John Fithian, president of the National Organization of Theater Owners, the trade organization known as NATO. “Last summer of 2017, when there just weren’t very many movies coming out that had any traction, we confronted the inevitable story about the impending death of the movie theater business. And we said back then: It’s all about short-term product supply.”

“We knew that once the movies came back, we would be fine,” said Fithian.

Even in a year where “Star Wars” flopped, the hits have indeed returned, even if they’ve come from some predictable places. All of the year’s top 10 movies were either sequels, reboots or based on a comic book. Even this year’s Oscar front runner, “A Star Is Born” ($376.6 million worldwide and counting for Warner Bros.), is a remake. The top three films of the year — “Black Panther,” ”Avengers: Infinity War,” ”Incredibles 2″ — all come from market-leader Disney, which is also in the process of gobbling up 20th Century Fox.

But there were some less likely hits, too. Mid-budgeted films like “Bohemian Rhapsody,” ”Halloween,” ”Creed II” and the year’s best-selling original movie, “A Quiet Place,” had a significant role in driving the record box office. For the first time ever, four documentaries — “RBG,” ”Free Solo,” ”Three Identical Strangers,” ”Won’t You Be My Neighbor” — each cleared $10 million. Surprise successes — a franchise-birthing “Spider-Man” spinoff (“Venom”), a well-reviewed “Transformers” movie (“Bumblebee”) — outnumbered the disappointments (“Skyscraper,” ”Robin Hood”).

Above all, the movies were often in the center of the cultural conversation, never more so than with the history-making “Black Panther,” which became the third-highest grossing domestic release ever ($700.1 million) not accounting for inflation.

Hollywood executives say the year has demonstrated that 2017 was an aberration.

“When the experts out there were talking about the end of theatrical moviegoing, I just didn’t buy that to begin with,” said Jim Orr, distribution chief for Universal Pictures, which had hits in “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom,” ”The Grinch” and “Halloween.” ”It was just some scheduling moves that happened along with some movies that just underperformed. People want to go out. They want the social experience. They want to be in theaters. And we proved that exponentially this year.”

The box-office rebound came in a year during which Netflix launched its most ambitious original movie slate, premiering some 70 new films. Though Netflix this fall relented to a degree by playing three of its films (“Roma,” ”The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” and “Bird Box”) exclusively in theaters before premiering on its streaming service, Netflix and exhibitors remain at odds over the benefits of the traditional theatrical window.

Yet there is a growing sense that Netflix may not be public enemy No. 1 for movie theaters, after all. In 2018, Netflix has gained millions of subscribers, just as movie theaters have surged. Co-existence is possible. Last month, a NATO survey found that 33 percent of moviegoers who see nine or more movies a year also spend 15 hours per week on streaming platforms.

“We have maintained for years that streaming in the home is not taking away from the moviegoing experience,” said Fithian. “If anything, streaming in the home is damaging other forms of home entertainment. Cable television, for example. DVD sales, for example.”

Streaming will only be more omnipresent in 2019, when Disney and Warner Bros. are set to debut their own Netflix-like services. But both studios remain resolutely devoted to exhibition and in releasing some of their biggest releases in traditional slow periods on the calendar. The year’s biggest movie, “Black Panther,” opened in February. Three of Warner Bros.’ top performers — “The Meg,” ”Crazy Rich Asians” and “The Nun” — benefited from the typically quiet dog-days of summer.

“There were some really good movies that were spread out through the year,” said Jeff Goldstein, Warner Bros. distribution chief. “That’s the real takeaway: Make good movies, people will come.”

But disruption is still at the door. Subscription services remade the moviegoing experience, led by the swift rise and fall of MoviePass, which took credit for the box-office revival before its inexpensive pricing structure proved unsustainable. MoviePass ran out of cash, repeatedly revamped its business model and descended into chaos, lawsuits and even a fraud investigation.

The box office still chugged along (Fithian calls MoviePass’ impact “overblown”) and other subscription services (notably one by AMC , the world’s largest chain) entered the fray.

Other threats to the movie theater loom. When Disney’s acquisition of Fox is made official, there will be one less major studio in Hollywood. Further consolidation is expected, something Fithian grants “poses a challenge” for exhibitors that depend on a steady supply of movies. But he pointed to others that have picked up the slack: STX, Annapurna, A24, Bleecker St., Amazon and Apple, which last month partnered with A24 for a slate of films.

Whether 2019 will continue the box-office trend or see a repeat of last year will come down, as it always does, to the movies. Analysts are bullish, predicting another record-setting year thanks to a Disney-heavy lineup including sure-fire blockbusters “Avengers: Endgame,” ”Captain Marvel,” ”Frozen 2″ and “Star Wars: Episode IX.”

“On paper, that year is going to make this year look like small potatoes,” says Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Comscore.

Of course, similar predictions were made for 2017, too. That’s the problem with movie scripts. They can always be rewritten.

Story: Jake Coyle

DHAKA, Bangladesh — Facebook is shutting down a series of fake news sites spreading false information about the Bangladesh opposition days before national elections, an official from the social media platform told The Associated Press.

The sites — nine Facebook pages designed to mimic legitimate news outlets, as well as six fake personal accounts spreading anti-opposition propaganda — were created by Bangladeshis with government ties, Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of cybersecurity policy, said in an exclusive interview.

The sites would be shut down “for engaging in coordinated inauthentic behavior” by Thursday evening at the latest, he said by telephone from California.

A threat intelligence company that Facebook worked with determined that the people who created and managed the sites are “associated with the government,” he said, declining to provide further details.

Twitter later said it had suspended 15 accounts in Bangladesh, most with fewer than 50 followers, “for engaging in coordinated platform manipulation.”

“Based on our initial analysis, it appears that some of these accounts may have ties to state-sponsored actors,” it said on Twitter. It gave few other details and it was not immediately clear when the suspensions occurred.

On Facebook, the sites were all designed to look like authentic news pages, including one operated by the BBC’s Bangla-language service and another by the popular Bangladeshi online newspaper Bdnews24.com.

The sites would report false information about such things as turmoil in the camp of imprisoned opposition leader Khaled Zia.

“These are fake but look like independent news outlets,” said Gleicher, noting all were “pro-government and anti-opposition.”

Facebook began its investigation of the pages in November, and the Thursday shutdowns were “prompted by both external and internal evidence, including a tip from Graphika, a threat intelligence company that we work with,” he said.

While the nine pages did not immediately seem to have particularly large reach by Facebook standards — Gleicher said one had 11,900 followers — it comes at a key time for Bangladesh, with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina attempting to return to office for a third consecutive time in Dec. 30 elections.

“Frankly, this is a small network involving Bangladesh but this is very important for us” Gleicher said, adding that Facebook “does not want people or organizations creating networks of accounts to mislead others about who they are, or what they are doing.”

Facebook has come under intense criticism for its role in spreading false and divisive messages, from phony political accounts weighing in on the 2016 U.S. presidential election to racist statements in Myanmar.

Gleicher said Thursday’s move was part of Facebook’s efforts to remove fraudulent pages and accounts. The company disabled 754 million fake accounts globally in the third quarter of this year, up from 583 million in the first quarter in 2018.

One false post reported that Zia, the country’s most prominent opposition figure, had fired the general secretary of her Bangladesh Nationalist Party. The report, on the sham version of bdnews24.com, said Zia had ordered the firing in a videotaped message sent from prison. Another story, on the fake BBC site, falsely described deep divisions within Zia’s party. It was illustrated with a photo of a burned car, implying those divisions had led to riots during an opposition rally.

The top editor at bdnews24.com, told the AP that he was aware of multiple fake sites for his outlet and had contacted regulatory and law enforcement agencies to get them closed. But “nothing happened,” Toufique Imrose Khalidi said.

“There are other clone sites for bdnews24.com. Our readers get confused and we lose revenue because they think these are real,” he said.

Sabir Mustafa, editor of the BBC’s Bangla-language service, said from London that other fake sites had been found in the past, but were shut down after the BBC notified Facebook, or the domains where the websites operated.

“Whenever we find a fake BBC Bangla Facebook page, we report it and they are removed,” Mustafa said.

Zakir Hossain Khan, a spokesman for the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission or BTRC, told the AP by phone that it was regularly in touch with Facebook for anything that could “destabilize the public order,” but it had received no recent complaints.

Fake news is not limited to pro-government sites.

In November, security officials arrested a Bangladeshi student studying in South Korea for his alleged involvement in creating 22 fake news portals spreading anti-government propaganda, police said. Police said the student is a member of Islami Chhatra Shibir, the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami party, a key ally of Zia’s party.

Bangladesh’s chaotic politics has been dominated for years by the fierce rivalry between Hasina and Zia. Police say at least five people have died and dozens more have been injured in political clashes since Dec. 10.

Opposition leaders, along with international rights groups, have accused the government and security agencies of abusing their power to arrest opposition activists and intimidate others into silence. The government denies that.

Zia, a former prime minister, is serving seven years in prison on corruption charges in one case and 10 years in a second case. Her supporters say both were politically motivated. An appeals court recently ruled she could not run for office because of the convictions.

Story:  Julhas Alam