- A weak slate of new movies and a stale group of returning
films led to stagnation at the weekend box office. That was good news for the
reigning earnings champion, “Gravity,” which held first place for the third
straight weekend. With $31.1 million, the outer-space epic has banked $170.6
million in domestic earnings thus far. Once again, “Captain Phillips” ranked
second, adding $17.3 million to its overall haul for a two-week tally of $54
million. “Carrie” was one of only two new movies to crack the top 10, placing
third after banking $17 million in its debut. That was more than enough to beat
out “Cloudy
with a Chance of Meatballs 2,” which dropped one spot to fourth and cranked out
$10.1 million for a four-week total of $94 million and counting. Geezer prison
drama “Escape Plan,” a.k.a. “Expendables Goes to Jail,” opened in fifth place
and managed a scant $9.8 million. Fittingly, it beat out “Prisoners” (not set
in jail) and kept the latter in sixth place for the second consecutive weekend
with a mere $2 million. In five weeks of release, “Prisoners” has made a modest
$57.2 million. “Enough Said” rose four spots to seventh despite remaining in
limited release and garnered $1.8 million while showing in a mere 757 theaters
to up its cumulative domestic earnings to $10.8 million. “The Fifth Estate”
became the third and final new movie in the top 10 with an über-weak $1.7
million against its $28 million budget. “Runner Runner” raced into ninth place,
down four spots as its earnings plummeted 57 percent to $1.6 million. Through
three weeks, the Ben Affleck-fronted drama has conjured up $17.5 million in
domestic money. The last spot in the top 10 went to “Insidious Chapter 2,” just
out of ninth place with $1.5 million and in possession of $80.9 million in
domestic earnings through six weeks. “Rush” (No. 11), “Machete Kills” (No. 12),
“Don Jon” (No. 13) and the über-awful “Baggage Claim” (No. 14) dropped out from
last weekend’s top 10………
- Score one for the street thugs. Street gangs and Utah end
up in the same sentence all of the time and this week is no different after the Utah Supreme
Court overturned a controversial injunction that had barred members of an Ogden
street gang from hanging out together. Gang members will be allowed to freely
gather in public once more thanks to the reversal of a decision that prohibited
more than 300 members of the Trece gang from associating with each other within
an area of Ogden designated as the "Safety Zone" for more than three
years. The state's high court voided the injunction, determining that leaders
or the "managing or general agent" of the gang were not properly
served, concluding that the district court “therefore lacked jurisdiction to
enter the injunction." Weber County Deputy Attorney Branden Miles didn’t
sound too hyped about the decision, saying, "Nobody and their dog could
have argued that they didn't know the gang was being sued. But the legal
requirements for suing someone requires us to provide a certain kind of
notice." The Trece gang, also known as Centro City Locos, remains Ogden’s
largest band of upstanding criminals and has been operating for more than 30
years. In response, Weber County labeled the gang a "public nuisance"
and moved to file the injunction against it in August 2010. That 331-page
filing contained more than 100 pages of photographs of gang symbols, tattoos,
graffiti, clothing and hand signs. It audaciously accused the gang of criminal
acts ranging from graffiti to selling drugs and murder. However, the county
claimed it was "difficult if not impossible to give the gang 'notice' ...
and serve [it] under traditional methods” because officials had a difficult
time determining and locating the gang's "known management structure,
officers, directors." Yes, gangs tend to have a tough time following
normal hierarchical procedures other organizations adhere to. That doesn’t mean
the city can establish a 25-square-mile area encompassing most of the city of
Ogden in which gang members were banned from "[d]riving, standing,
sitting, walking, gathering, or appearing together" in public view. Just
because they (allegedly) confronted, intimidated, annoyed, harassed and/or
threatened the good folks of Ogden is no reason to single them out……..
- Who says government can't act quickly? As long as it’s not
the U.S. government, there is a chance that a governing entity can take action
when the situation demands it and Luxembourg is proof of this fact. For the
geographically ignorant, Luxembourg is a small nation nestled between Belgium,
France and Germany in northern Europe. Its voters went to the polls this
weekend in a snap election sparked by a secret service and
corruption scandal. The country has been in a state of crisis since July, when Jean-Claude
Juncker's coalition cabinet collapsed amid claims he had failed to stop illegal
security agency activities, including phone-tapping. If that sounds vaguely
like the NSA surveillance scandal in the United States, there are vague
parallels, with the small exception of Luxembourg actually doing something
about the situation. Juncker had been the longest-tenured elected leader in
Europe, serving as prime minister since 1995. With a new regime being selected,
Luxembourg’s center-left, Liberals and Greens are now hoping to win enough
seats to form a coalition government. Juncker’s reputation is badly damaged,
but there is still a possibility that his Christian Social People's Party could
remain in power. If that happens, it will prove that a damning report alleging
the allegations against the SREL security agency that Juncker oversees wasn’t
as damning as originally thought. That would be a sad development, even if the
alleged indiscretions included the illegal bugging of politicians, along with
the purchase of cars for private use and payments in exchange for access to
local officials. Much of it is typical government corruption that would
surprise no one, but Juncker has denied any wrongdoing. Then again, what
politician ever does……..
- The tech world rarely sees two of its industry titans team
up in any way, which makes the new arrangement between Google and Facebook so
unusual. The two companies may not be TBFF’s (tech best friends forever), but
they have reached a deal under which Google will sell Facebook ad inventory. The
ads will be sold via Google's DoubleClick Bid Manager, its real-time bidding
system, and in a matter of months, marketers will be able to buy ads for
Facebook's Ad Exchange on the platform. "Partnership has been key to
Google’s success as a rising tide lifts all boats. So we’re excited to announce
a new way to help our clients succeed by working with Facebook to participate
in FBX, their real-time bidding exchange," Payam Shodjai, Senior Product
Manager at Google, wrote in a company blog post. Terrible nautical cliché aside,
Google’s point is simple: We want to make as much money as possible and
continue our quest for global domination, so if we have to work with Facebook
to make that happen, so be it. Facebook debuted FBX last year as part of its
efforts to capitalize on its social media empire. FBX is a program that allows
advertisers to drop cookies in users’ browsers and then retarget those users
when they re-enter Facebook. It’s a conniving, underhanded plan and given the
lack of tech savvy and privacy awareness among many Facebook users, it is also
working swimmingly. Facebook and Google are still competitors on most levels,
but they have coordinated efforts before. In June 2012, Google bought Wildfire,
a social media marketing agencies that develops ad campaigns for Facebook, and
earlier this year Facebook purchased Atlas, an ad server that sells ads on
Google's display network………
- The Major League Baseball offseason hasn’t even begun
yet and the Los
Angeles Dodgers are already throwing Godfather offers at star players. In what
is fast becoming their tradition under new ownership fronted by NBA legend
Magic Johnson, the Dodgers are embracing a role as the new New York Yankees,
outspending everyone else in pursuit of a championship. Their first target of
the offseason-to-be is left-hander Clayton Kershaw, the presumptive Cy Young
award winner in the National League for this season. The Dodgers have
reportedly offered Kershaw a lifetime contract in the range of $300 million, an
offer that has been on the table for some time now but has not yet been
accepted because Kershaw was initially uncertain about committing to a deal so
encompassing, and about having contract talks during the season. The final
offer may not be the lifetime deal the team has in mind, but progress has been
made and most experts expect the contract to be completed this winter, with a
significant portion of money being devoted to a charity of Kershaw's choosing.
Whether or not Kershaw’s new deal dwarfs Alex Rodriguez's current contract with
the New York Yankees – a 10-year, $275 million deal that could reach $305
million – is still to be determined. Even if it doesn’t hit that mark,
Kershaw's potential contract is expected to be the largest ever for a pitcher.
After a 16-9 season with a 1.83 ERA, such a payday should still be a wise
investment, even if Kershaw had his worst outing of the season in a Game 6 loss
to the St. Louis Cardinals in the NL Championship Series on Friday night that
ended the Dodgers’ season…….
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