- Now THAT is how the weekend box office earnings race is
supposed to look. Not one, but two whole movies cracked the eight-figure
barrier and one even crept up on the $50 million mark. That would be newcomer “Hotel
Transylvania,” which debuted with $43 million to easily outduel fellow new film
“Looper” for the top spot. “Looper” landed in second place with $21.2 million
in its debut, well ahead of last weekend’s top movie, “End of Watch,” which
fell to third with a modest $8 million weekend to bring its two-week domestic
total to $26.1 million. Fourth place belonged to the mediocre, Clint
Eastwood-fronted “Trouble with the Curve,” which made just $7.5 million and has
managed only $23.7 million domestically in its first two weeks. That was barely
enough to hold off horror underwhelmer “House at the End of the Street,” which
scared up $7.1 million to rank fifth and has garnered $22.2 million in its
first two weeks. The first weekend was a strong one for song-and-dance flick
“Pitch Perfect,” which opened in very limited release – 335 theaters – and
still managed to place sixth with $5.2 million and the best per-theater average
of the top 10. “Finding Nemo (3D)” was seventh as the latest example of Disney
shamelessly grabbing for cash by re-releasing old movies in 3-D, making $4
million to up its three-week haul to $36.4 million. “Resident Evil: Retribution”
snagged eighth place with $3 million and has $38.7 million overall after three
weeks in theaters. Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s latest, “The Master” remained in
limited release but managed to finish ninth with $2.8 million for a cumulative
bank roll of $9.6 million. Newcomer “Won't Back Down” was a colossal
disappointment, managing to barely hold the last spot in the top 10 with $2.7
million. “Dredd” (No. 11) and “The Possession” (No. 12) both dropped out from
last weekend’s top 10……..
- Recluses living in the farthest reaches of the United
States need a way to connect with the world too and high-speed Internet can be
tricky when one lives on the side of a mountain, 20 miles from the nearest
town. Satellite
TV company Dish Network Corp. is well aware of this fact and looking to cash in
by launching a broadband Internet service that’s aimed at rural areas —
including in Wyoming — that don’t currently have high-speed Internet. The
company announced Thursday that the satellite broadband service, dishNet, will
start at $40 per month for people who bundle it with certain Dish’s TV
programming packages. Interested parties need not wait long, as the new service
goes on sale Monday. Dish’s target market is about 14.5 million Americans who,
according to a Federal Communications Commission report, live in rural areas
and don’t have access to high-speed Internet. In total, about 19 million people
in the U.S. don’t have high-speed Internet service, but that number could
shrink if Dish provides a viable service with reliable connections and
consistent download speeds. In its official statement, the company said the
dishNet service will offer download speeds of up to 10 megabytes per second.
That speed is quick enough for common Internet uses such as accessing social
networks, music or video streaming and Internet telephone services. Of course,
it will also cost $50 per month on top of a Dish TV account, as opposed to $40
per month for download speeds of 5 megabytes per second. Those who have a
different cable or satellite provider will also have to chip off an additional
$10 per month. This service is available in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa,
Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota,
Utah, Washington and Wyoming, the usual suspects for kooky, über-rural
dwellers………
- As if the basketball scene in New York City wasn’t
already crazy enough, the city’s primary NBA team is adding a major dose of
insanity to the mix. The New York Knicks are seeking to fend off the attempts
of the Nets to seize Manhattan’s basketball hearts as they move from New Jersey
to Brooklyn this season and to do that, the Knicks will need to be much better
than they have been in recent seasons. Perhaps veteran forward Rasheed Wallace,
38, can assist in that endeavor. The always-combustible Wallace has informed
the Knicks that he will come out of retirement to play
for the team this season. He first worked out for the Knicks last Saturday and
had been contemplating a return over the past week to revive a career that
supposedly ended when the 15-year veteran retired after the 2009-10 season.
Wallace has yet to sign a contract, but the Knicks expect him at the first day
of camp Tuesday. Throughout his career, he has always been an enigma with
immense talent but a short fuse and questionable commitment to conditioning. He
was last seen waddling and jiggling up and down the court with the Boston Celtics
more than two years ago and after a run to the
2010 NBA Finals with the Celtics, retired and left nearly
$12 million in guaranteed money on the table. He won't be a major factor with
the Knicks, but could be serviceable backing up power forward Amare Stoudemire.
He will also add to the AARP vibe the Knicks have created in their locker room
with Jason Kidd, 39, Marcus Camby, 38, and Kurt Thomas, 39, on the roster. Even
if his tenure in New York is an abject failure, Wallace is a cheap (relatively
speaking) mistake playing for what will likely be the veteran's minimum of $1.7
million……….
- Give an unidentified Swedish convict credit for creativity
and getting over on the system for a little while. Maybe Swedish prison
officials should have paid closer attention to a man convicted of smuggling, but how often does a
convicted criminal try to outwit his jailers by sneaking in a friend to serve
most of his yearlong sentence? Whoever this scammer is, he was nearly able to
get away with his crime and his replacement inmate’s identity was discovered
only when he'd been released on probation after serving about two-thirds of his
friend's sentence, Elisabeth Lager of Sweden's Prison and Probation Service
said. How did this dynamic duo pull off their plot? The fake convict came to
serve the sentence with a false ID -- a driving license in the name of the
smuggler friend but with his photograph. Because Lager selfishly refused to
give the name of either the convict or his friend, the world may never have the
answers it demands about this unususal plot. For example, what kind of friend
willingly serves time in jail for another? Was there money exchanged or did the
individual posing as someone else do so in order to pay off some sort of debt?
Not releasing the identities of those involved is a weak way for the prison
system to avert further embarrassment, but the names will eventually come out
somehow. Swedish authorities issued an international arrest warrant
for the real
convict earlier this year, mysteriously some three years after the switch. Also
left unsaid was whether or not the smuggler's friend would be punished for
misleading prison authorities and assuming a false identity. The convict’s
original crimes were a series of smuggling offences in southwestern Sweden in
2008. He has supposedly fled the country for Asia and paid his friend to serve
his sentence, although those rumors have never been confirmed………
- Duuuuuude, this is totally uncool. The old, boring,
out-of-touch residents of Farmingdale, N.Y. are attempting to mimic the
ass-hatted ideals of a few other backwards-thinking communities around America
by enacting a ban on skateboarding. The town already prohibits skateboarding in
three of its parks, but is debating a for wide-ranging ban because (allegedly)
officials are worried about injuries and lawsuits. Local dudes and dudettes who
enjoy hopping on their board and doing tricks on stairs, ramps and hills are
understandbly worried. When they look around and see all sort of great
landscapes for skateboarding, the idea that the powers that be might rip their
right to shred is downright offensive. The epicenter of the controvery seems to
be a place known locally as Lenox Hill, where the time-tested adage that a few
morons can ruin the fun for everyone is proving true once more. “It’s a dangerous
situation. Sometimes you’re backing out of the driveway and they’re whizzing
by. They are smaller than a car so you don’t see them,” resident Joyce
Merzbacher said in explaining her reasons for joing the chorus of skate-haters.
Farmingdale Village officials have inexplicably hinted that the may kowtow to
the complainers and implement a skateboarding ban on the residential hill, with
$100 fines for violators. Those on the other side of the debate have pointed
out that there are far more hazardous activites going on amongst the town’s youth
and perhaps stamping out those happenings should take priority. To win the
battle, they will need to win over their own mayor, who seems to have turned
against the future X-Gamers of Farmington. “I’d like to see them revisit this
when they have their own kids 20 years from now, skateboarding down the street
at 30 mph with four intersections and people coming out of the driveway,” Mayor
Ralph Ekstrand said. Wrong thinking, mayor. The future is now, not 20 years
down the road. Quit being such a square and stand up for those who can't vote
or make laws themselves. A public hearing set for Monday night is the next step
in the process………
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