- A violent and forceful infusion of new movies left last
weekend’s earnings champion on its back and newcomer “Prisoners” on top of the
heap. Hugh Jackman’s new flick claimed first place with $21.4 million, besting
“Insidious
Chapter 2,” which dropped to second with $14.5 million and has earned $60.8
million domestically so far. Third place went to “The Family,” down one spot
from its debut last weekend but still bringing in $7 million for a two-week
haul of $25.6 million. Fourth place went to “Instructions Not Included” on the
strength of $5.7 million in weekend earnings, good for a $34.3 million
four-week bankroll. The second newcomer of the top 10 was “Battle of the Year,”
slotted fifth after bringing in $5 million in its first weekend. “We’re the
Millers” somehow continued to hang tough, adding $4.7 million to its domestic
total to elevate the number to $138.1 million after seven weeks. “Lee Daniels'
The Butler” snagged seventh place despite a so-so frame, conjuring up $4.3
million for its impressive domestic total, which now rests at $106.4 million.
One of the biggest goats of the weekend – no surprise – was “Riddick,” which is
simultaneously proving that a) Vin Diesel still cannot act a lick and b) a
tired outer-space action franchise dragged out several films too long will
struggle to bring in fans. It managed just $3.7 million in its third weekend
and has managed a measly $37.1 million overall. The shameless cash grab that is
“The Wizard of Oz” in 3D and IMAX wrangled in a scant $3 million in its first
weekend in theaters to secure ninth place and “Planes” rounded out the top 10
with $2.9 million to bump its seven-week take to $86.6 million. “Percy Jackson:
Sea of Monsters” (No. 11) and “Elysium” (No. 12) dropped out from last
weekend’s top 10………
- Duuuuuuude, this is totally bogus, man. How is a place
called The
Cheba Hut, like, not being allowed to build an epic new location in a place
like Pacific Beach? It’s freaking southern California and they’re an awesome
marijuana-themed sandwich shop, bro. It makes total sense and yet, the
franchise owners of this chron-tastic business were turned away when trying to
buy a location on Mission Boulevard. Why anyone would want to harsh the
mellow of a ganja-loving business is astounding, especially when everything on
the Cheba Hut menu contains some sort of marijuana reference. “It’s a counter
culture theme,” owner Jordan Robinson said. “It’s controversial.
We’re not saying bring your kids here, but we are saying we have a great
product.” He may not be saying to bring your children to the Cheba Hut, but
someone should. They may not be able to smoke pot (yet), but that doesn’t mean
they can't develop a great appreciation of the stoner culture for later in
life. The Cheba Hut started in Arizona and has 16 locations, one near San Diego
State, known as one of America’s best party schools on an annual basis. It’s
also important to note that the food on the menu is not made with marijuana
despite the names of various items and the décor. Tossing “blunt” and “chronic”
in on the menu livens it up and for those who doubt that the establishment is
child-friendly, Robinson makes an excellent counterpoint. “We even have
Kool-Aid on tap,” he added. Yet when he and business partner Ryan Snyder made
an offer to buy a space in Pacific Beach and were approved to buy, realtor
Covey Commercial refused to sell them the property once they found out the
nature of the business. Robinson courageously noted that the Cheba Hut will
continue to seek space in Pacific Beach no matter how this turns out……..
- Clowns are freaky, freaky freaks. The good people of
Northampton, England are very literally being haunted by this reality at
present because a bizarre, silent and leering clown continues to torment them.
This mystert clown, who began to
appear in recent weeks around Northampton, has grown to a creepy level of
quasi-fame thanks to haunting photos later posted online. No one knows who he
is or what he wants, but there are a scant few clues on a Facebook page created
on Friday Sept. 13. "See you around," the clown ominously tags his
posts. A newspaper story about the clown first brought the tale to the public’s
attention and now, thousands of people track Spot Northampton's Clown on
Facebook. Twitter users debate his motives and identity, but the clown isn’t
giving them much to work with. So far, his primary tactics seem to be standing
and staring while wearing a white mask and red wig, looking very much like the
perverted twin brother of Pennywise from Stephen King's horror classic "It."
In some photos, the clown totes balloons, in others he holds a creepy teddy
bear. According to local legend, he once knocked on at least one family's door,
offering to paint their windowsills even though he carried no painting
equipment. That story seemed to irk the creepy clown, who disputed the
allegation on Facebook and insisted the public has nothing to worry about from
him. "Too much hate not enough love," he wrote. "No, i don't
have a knife on me!, thats just stupid rumors spread by stupid people."
Among the clown’s fans is the local police chief, who doesn’t seem at all
alarmed by the freak in his town’s midst. "If I met the clown, I would
shake his hands to thank him for what he's doing," Northamptonshire Chief
Constable Adrian Lee said. "I think it's something to be enjoyed by us
all." Wonder if the constable will feel the same way once he sees the “big
surprise” the clown has promised for this week………
- The season needs to end for the Chicago Cubs, like now.
The longer the season goes on, the more of a train wreck the loveable losers
from the North Side become. Their 65-91 record and last-place status in the
National League Central are to be expected for a team that spent the year
jettisoning unsightly contracts and trying to set up a massive rebuilding
process for the future. However, the year has taken a turn for the ugly of
late, with two fans arrested for sneaking into Wrigley Field and attempting to
steal some of the ballpark’s famed outfield wall ivy, and now with the ongoing
implosion of closer Kevin Gregg.
Gregg, who has saved 32 games for the beleaguered Cubs this season, had a
meeting last week with manager Dale Sveum in which Sveum told Gregg he would
use reliever Pedro Strop at times in the closer's role the last week of the
season. Gregg came out of that meeting and proceeded to blast the Cubs for
being insensitive to him and disrespectful in reference to the 32-save season
he had posted. He was called back to Sveum's office and admonished by Epstein
and told he would be disciplined. He was also told he had not lost the closer’s
job and apologized, then met with media members to further address his
comments. Epstein gave him some grace after he found out Gregg, through the
prompting of media relations director Peter Chase, made his way to the press
box to say he was at fault. The general manager also told Gregg that his status
would remain the same and he would not be released despite the reliever's
outspoken public criticism of the team. "I think the situation is
over," Gregg said. "We can't change the past, we can go forward and
forget about it." Forgetting about the year would be a wise choice for the
Cubs, even if Sveum attempted to smooth the situation over by accepting some
blame for what happened. "I will take some credit for that " Sveum
said. "The thing somewhere along the line got miscommunicated. I told you
[media] that we may give Strop an opportunity, the same thing I told him. It
got miscommunicated and turned into a mess. It is all fixed now and apologies
are all accepted." Gregg can become a free agent in November and at this
point, it would probably be better for both he and the team to just go their
separate ways and pretend nothing about this disaster of a season actually
happened……….
- The FiOS Mobile app from Verizon is the latest
chapter in the quest to bring everything you can access on your television and
computer to your smartphone. What
the app offers is more than 45,000 titles of live linear television content as
well as on-demand content. That content includes thousands of free and
subscription-on-demand content from brands like HBO, Cinemax, Starz, Encore,
Food Network, HGTV, and Travel Channel and to increase mobile video
watching possibilities and be more competitive with its rivals, Verizon is
rolling out an improved FiOS Mobile App. The app upgrade adds live linear
content to its existing supply of on-demand offerings as part of what Verizon has deemed the
"Borderless Lifestyle.” What the new-look app lacks is the ability to
watch content from BlackBerry 10 and Windows Phone 8 devices. "The FiOS
Mobile app has a wide variety of content choice for all ages and interests,
from the do-it-yourselfer to the moviegoer, and this is just the
beginning," said Maitreyi Krishnaswamy, director of FiOS TV's consumer
video services. "Close collaboration with content and software partners, allows us to deliver a
seamless customer experience, which will become even better as the content
choices grow over time." At present, the live TV offerings are limited to
nine channels or less, depending on a user’s TV package, via the iPad, certain Android tablets and phones and the iPhone and
Kindle Fire tablets. FiOS TV customers have had access to 76 live linear
channels at home for a while, but their phones will now be able to stream
content from BBC America, BBC World News, EPIX, NFL Network, including Thursday
Night Football, Tennis Channel and networks from Scripps Networks Interactive
including Food Network and Travel Channel. Some markets will also serve up local
affiliates of ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox and Spanish-language channels and parental controls
are also part of the app……….
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