- Clash of the Titans made its debut over the weekend and managed to lead the way for a record-setting three-day span for the movie business. Clash of the Titans earned $61.4 million for the weekend, a total that inches up to $64 million when you factor in its added tally from some Thursday night showings and making for a per-screen average of $16,256. That is good enough for an Easter weekend record, besting Scary Movie 4′s $40.2 million in 2006.. Coming in second place was a movie I thought I made perfectly clear should not happen, Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married Too. In short, I dropped a ban on all Tyler Perry movies because a) they suck and b) they are juvenile, unimaginative and all feel like the same freaking movie with a few minor tweaks. America failed to honor my ban and because of that, Perry’s eighth movie posted a $30 million take, a per-screen average of $13,991, making it the second-best opening for a Perry movie, behind last year’s Madea Goes to Jail, which opened to $41 million. Holding down the third spot was How to Train Your Dragon, which dropped 33 percent its second weekend in theaters with a take of $29.2 million for a 10- day cumulative total of $92 million. Despite the debut of Clash, Dragon still managed to rake in a significant chunk of its earnings from IMAX screenings, which accounted for 12.5 percent of the film’s total weekend gross. The second crappy movie of the top five came in next, with Miley Cyrus’s Last Song rallying up $16.2 million for the weekend. Rounding out the top five was Alice in Wonderland, which conjured up another $8.2 million in its fifth weekend in releas for a cumulative total of $309 million domestically and a gross of over $700 million worldwide. Hot Tub Time Machine was sixth with $8 million, falling 43 percent to put its cumulative total at $27.8 million. Next on the list was The Bounty Hunter with $6.2 million, good enoguh for seventh place and an overall gross of $48.9 million. Eighth place went to Diary of a Wimpy Kid, with the adaptation of the popular kids’ book earning $5.5 million to put its three-week take at $46.2 million. In ninth place was the lowest-common-denominator comedy making an additional $1.4 million. Shutter Island wrapped up the top 10, also making $1.4 million to put its seven-weekend tally at $123 million. The overall box office for the weekend was up 18 percent over the same frame last year, although last year Easter wasn’t on this same weekend in April. Next weekend, the Tina Fey and Steve Carrell-led Date Night will debut. Until next Monday…………
- What’s the fine for putting the lives of thousands upon thousands of drivers in danger by failing to notify them of potentially deadly defects in the basic structure of their vehicles? Based on my research, that fine is in the neighborhood of $16.4 million. I establish my thesis on the fact that the Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is seeking the maximum fine of $16.4 million against Toyota Motor Corp. for its failure to notify the agency of its “Gas Pedal of Death” defect in its cars for at least four months. Federal regulations mandate that automakers inform the agency within five days of learning that a safety defect exists in one of its products. NHTSA investigators are also continuing to dig into the situation to determine if Toyota committed any additional violations that may warrant more penalties, so this might not be over yet. The NHTSA might ask for a larger fine, but under federal regulations, $16.4 million is the most allowed for a penalty. In response to the NHTSA announcement, Toyota said that it has not been notified of any such penalty, but issued a prepared statement about the matter. "We have already taken a number of important steps to improve our communications with regulators and customers on safety-related matters as part of our strengthened overall commitment to quality assurance," the company said in a statement. "These include the appointment of a new Chief Quality Officer for North America and a greater role for the region in making safety-related decisions." That’s great, but it doesn’t excuse your spineless and reprehensible actions over the past year-plus, you kooks. First, you stonewalled everyone in regards to the "sticky pedal" situation in which gas pedals stick in a partially depressed position. Then, you failed to promptly address and solve the problem in which gas pedals that can stick on some floor mats. To finish off the trifecta, we were treated to braking problems on Toyota Prius hybrid cars. Taking in all of that information, it seems fitting that the potential $16.4 million fine would be by far the largest ever levied against an automaker, vastly exceeding the $1 million taken from General Motors in 2004 for failing to deal promptly with a windshield wiper issue. That fine was bartered down from the $3 million NHTSA originally asked for, but I doubt I’m alone in rooting for the $16.4 million penalty to remain right where it is. No one is buying the lies Toyota spouted in the case documents it filed with NHTSA, saying it did not originally believe the sticky gas pedals were a genuine safety issue. Feeble spin attempt denied, Toyota. Pay the fine, shut your mouths, be glad it wasn’t higher and keep moving…………
- Not that the iPad wouldn’t have done itself in sooner or later as people got to know more about it (sorry Steve Jobs, I love your products for the most part, just not this one), but Hewlett-Packard attempted to steal some of the spotlight from Apple’s big iPad release party over the weekend by readying and letting flying with the release of some details about its "slate" computer on Monday released. The slate, which will go on sale later this year, is noteworthy if for nothing else than for having one thing the iPad does not have: a camera. Actually, HP’s offering will have two video cameras, a USB connection and also support for Flash animations. Not having those features has been a chief source of criticism among non-iPad fans like myself and all three are huge reasons I will not own an iPad, not in its current form. The HP slate is similar to the iPad in that it is a smaller-sized, touch-screen device that pretends to be similar to a laptop without a keyboard when it is actually more of like an oversized smartphone. HP vice president and chief technology officer Phil McKinney wrote a blog post about the slate device, stating that the gadget will allow people to create content as well as consume it. “Think about the last time you chatted with friends over Skype on your notebook. Or uploaded a picture from your mobile phone to Facebook or Flickr. How about the last time you viewed images or video from an SD card or a USB device. We know that you expect to be able to capture and share digital content on your mobile devices. And the HP slate device excels there,” McKinney wrote. HP also posted a short YouTube video showcasing deigns for the tablet-like machine, showing how it will have two video cameras - one on the back and one facing the user. That user-facing camera would allow users to do things like video chat, something they cannot do on an iPad. HP initially teased the slate at the Consumer Electronics Show in January and has since been leaking details ever since. Make no mistake about it; I’m not going to buy a slate device either, but at least it’s better than the iPad…………
- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! Those crazy anti-government protesters aren’t backing down from their government and I am loving every second of it. Opposition members spent another night in the capital city of Bangkok on Monday night, defying a court ruling allowing the government to evict them. The Red Shirts, rocking their trademark apparel, are refusing to leave until their current government, which they view as illegitimate, steps down and fresh elections are held. They have spent a month demonstrating in downtown Bangkok and are now blocking streets in commercial districts and in areas with government buildings. On Monday, a huge chunk of protestors shut down Bangkok's shopping district for a third day and stormed election commission offices. You read that right, they freaking stormed the election commission offices! Well done, Thai protestors. If The Man tries to ignore you, then you make him listen. Plus, the election commission doesn’t seem to have much to do right now, so having its offices occupied shouldn’t be a huge issue. The Red Shirts had added motivation to break the doors down at the commission’s offices as they believe the commission to be biased in favor of the main governing party. While I would have loved to see these brave demonstrators stick and stay, I’m not going to penalize them too many Riot Points for dispersing
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