'How to Train Your Dragon' to lord over the weekend
3/26/2010 01:31:00 PM
kenmouse
, Posted in
Jeffrey Katzenberg should be thrilled with Paramount’s distribution team right about now. Why? The group was able to secure 2,178 3-D locations for its release of the animated pic How to Train Your Dragon. (And that includes IMAX.) That’s quite impressive work considering Alice in Wonderland has been holding steady in theaters for three weeks, and Clash of the Titans is barreling into those same theaters next weekend. Paramount also requires two-week guarantees so Warner Bros. may have a real fight on its hands next weekend as they scramble for 3-D screens. Regardless, this weekend Dragon is destined to win the number one slot. How well it does has a lot to do with the 3-D upcharge, which is going up between $3-$5 million at most theaters around the country. If consumers don’t balk at the increased fees, the weekend gross could be a lot higher than tracking suggests. It will take a lot of 3-D tickets, though, to get to numbers as great as Monsters vs. Aliens, Dreamworks Animation’s hit last spring that bowed to close to $60 million.Also jockeying for some box office coin is MGM’s R-rated comedy with the best name since Snakes on a Plane. The John Cusack-starrer Hot Tub Time Machine will open in 2750 theaters and while the studio is trying to tamp down expectations for the film with the $35 million budget, prognosticators think its could get up to $20 million for the weekend.
There’s no denying that Windows Phone 7 (or Windows Phone 7 Series, or whatever awful branding was chosen) looks to be a huge improvement from the previous iterations of Windows Mobile. And there’s even some talk that it may be able to compete with the current golden boy of the smartphone industry, Apple’s iPhone. If an early look at the new Foursquare app for Windows Phone 7 is any indication, it just may.
I heard some grumbling about Firefox this morning. In the space of a few minutes via Twitter, I saw tweets from two people who had begun experiencing a sudden uptick in Firefox crashes. Falling back on my old J-school training (”Two is a coincidence, three is a story”) I asked if anyone else was having problems. In response came a small number of additional problem reports mixed in with a lot of all-clears. One tweet that stood out from the rest came from @FirefoxCares and read:
A Chinese government ministry ordered Chinese media companies to toe the government line this week in their reporting on Google's decision to move its search operations to Hong Kong.
When it released Bing last year, Microsoft hoped that users would be willing to click on a host of additional options presented in a column along the left side of Bing search results. 
Tavia’s performance in [Beyond the Realm of conscience] was a total change from her usual image, and based on this drama, she won the [My Favourite Female Character],[Best actress] and [Best Performance] awards. Her career has reached new heights and she appears to be more confident. She has no problems handling clothes of different styles and is more feminine when she wears miniskirts. Her success and beauty is due to her confidence and hard work. Her popularity today is not due to chance.
Let's hope Lady Gaga had time for a rest ahead of her Melbourne concert last night.
You know when might have been a good time to have bought Samsung stock? Oh, a few hours ago; that way you could’ve reaped the rewards of what will probably be a healthy uptick as the market reacts to news that Apple have ordered a further 3m iPad displays from the company. According to an unnamed industry executive speaking to The Korea Times, Samsung is now Apple’s second supplier for 9.7-inch LCD panels – after LG Display Co. in a deal inked last year – with the agreement worth $240m.
Hong Kong action movie ‘Fire of Conscience’ held its premiere at Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition centre where Director Dante Lam brought his casts Leon Lai, Richie Ren, Michelle Ye, Liu Kaichi, Wang Baoqiang, etc stars to attend the ceremony. Female lead Michelle Ye became the highlight of the premiere among the male dominated casts. She laughs claiming that her ‘police officer’ role of hers in ‘Fire of Conscience’ also happens to be the most ‘humane’ one. “She is the only one who cries and laughs expressing her emotions in the movie, Leon Lai is too depressed while Richie Ren is too cool, whereas Wang Baoqiang does not speak of his emotions.” However, Michelle also expressed that her role this time is the ‘most handsome’ and ‘most unfeminine’ one as compared to the past, where she not only need to have relationship scenes, but also stays by the side of her superior Leon Lai in facing life and death, in the scenes where they were battling with the bandits, she too has to accomplish the very challenging stunts that male actors did, the few explosion scenes nearly blew her eardrums.