14 Jul 2014

Box Office: 'Dawn of the Planet of the Apes' Rules With $73 Million

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes swung into theaters and snagged an estimated $73 million domestic debut this weekend from audiences looking for a blockbuster with brains.

The 20th Century Fox release unspooled across 3,967 U.S. theaters and was fueled by a glowing reviews, with many critics calling it the summer’s best popcorn film.

"Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" is a smash hit, no surprise considering how popular the four-decade series of man vs. ape movies has been and how much better "Dawn" is than most of the other big summer tentpoles. "Dawn" did about $73 million domestic, a better weekend number than 2011's "Rise of the Planet of the Apes," the series reboot and a movie worth checking out again if you enjoyed "Dawn."

But the big news in movies isn't another long battle for control of the Golden Gate Bridge between intelligent apes and overprivileged tech workers ... I mean, humans who've survived "simian flu." It's much, much better than that.

If the person in front reclines their seat, this could get interesting
Airbus has promised that its next plane, the A330 Neo, will bring 3D movies into the sky.

Announced today, the A330 Neo is an upgrade for the twin-aisle, 250-300 seat A330. Airbus says the new model will come in two sizes and add about ten seats to current configurations, while reducing fuel consumption by 14 per cent per seat. Thank the Rolls-Royce Trent 7000 for that reduction, along with new aerodynamics and technologies borrowed from 777 competitor the A350neo.

American movie box office takings may be plummeting but New Zealanders are still flocking to the flicks, with top 20 takings remaining steady over the last two years.

The pivotal American summer season is down 20 per cent on last year, but figures from the New Zealand Motion Picture Distributors' Association show accumulated top 20 box office takings for 2014 are currently tracking at $95 million, on a par with last year.

It's hard not to love the nostalgia trip that is Video Games: The Movie.

Sometimes you want to watch something that's deep and thought-provoking... and sometimes you want to watch something that's lighthearted and fun. Video Games: The Movie is a documentary about games and gamers that falls firmly into that second category. The flick covers the history of gaming and the rise of gamer culture with an upbeat attitude that skims past the seedy side of gaming to celebrate what we all love about playing video games.

Fifty Shades of Grey was almost adapted as a TV show rather than a movie.

The CEO of US network Starz Chris Albrecht told reporters at the Television Critics Association press tour that he had asked Universal for the rights to the E L James' novels.

Although it may feel like there already are plenty of places to get entertainment news on television, Ron Bloom doesn't see it that way.

The founder and CEO of BiteSize TV is determined to "break through the clutter and reinvigorate the industry." And he hopes to do it with Hollywood Today Live, an online offering that launched in November and is getting a test run starting Monday as a syndicated one-hour TV show.

Fred Thompson's political career dates back to Watergate. Since, he has been a U.S. Senator and presidential candidate. He now does triple duty in talk radio, as a columnist and as a respected character actor; a profession he's enjoyed success in since 1987.

In a Hollywood Reporter interview about his upcoming film "Persecuted," which opens in 600 theatres this Friday, Thompson admits things are tough for Republicans in Hollywood -- even for a veteran like himself:

The new Kim Kardashian Hollywood has gotten millions of downloads as well as scores of good reviews and a fairly large amount of in-app purchases.

In the app game, players create their own celebrity and try to rise to the top of the A-list.

Playing includes engaging in a range of activities–including work, partying, and dating–while players connect with others, including their real-life friends.

HOLLYWOOD, LOS ANGELES (KABC) --

A commercial building caught fire Sunday in Hollywood.

Flames tore through the Highland Plating Company in the 1000 block of North Orange around 9 a.m. It took L.A. City Fire crews about two hours to put out the flames.

Part of the building's roof caved in. The fire became so intense at one point that crews had to take a defensive stance.

Firefighters have knocked down a "stubborn" fire at an industrial business in Hollywood after battling the blaze for roughly two hours, a department spokeswoman said.

Nearly 150 firefighters responded to a chrome plating facility at 1001 N. Orange Dr., where intense fire caused a partial roof collapse, fire department spokeswoman Katherine Main. No injuries were reported.

Skybet have slashed the odds on a possible bid from Liverpool FC for Borussia Dortmund star Marco Reus.

The betting giant reacted after a flurry of Twitter rumours concerning a £45m move to Anfield for the 25-year-old German star.

Netherlands winger Arjen Robben fully believes Germany will lift the World Cup tonight. The 30-year-old helped his country to third place, after beating hosts Brazil 3-0 in the third/fourth place play-off on Saturday night. Tonight's final kicks off at 8pm and is live on BBC One and ITV.

New Manchester United manager Loius van Gaal believes striker Robin Van Persie, 30, can captain the club. The striker has been at Old Trafford for two seasons, having left Arsenal to join United for £24m in 2012. Van Persie handed his World Cup medal to a dutch supporter just moments after being presented with it by Fifa president Sepp Blatter last night.

After the World Cup came to an end with a Germany win over Argentina in Rio de Janeiro, thoughts are turning to the domestic scene.

Transfer speculation is gathering pace ahead of the new European seasons with Arturo Vidal, Angel Di Maria and Sami Khedira all being linked with moves this summer.

But who else is making the headlines on Monday?

Actress Teuila Blakely's son Jared has spoken of how hurt he felt at seeing his mum upset by the reaction to the sex video of her and Warriors player Konrad Hurrell.

Teuila, 39, shares a west Auckland home with 22-year-old Jared, whom she raised as a solo parent after being ostracised by her mother for becoming pregnant at 16, New Idea reported.

NOTTINGHAM Forest’s new links with clubs in Spain could be about to pay off for the first time.

According to reports in Spain the Reds are close to signing Barcelona B defender Roger Riera.

The 19-year-old, if signed, could be the first of several new arrivals from Europe, with Forest having begun work to build closer relations with several Spanish clubs last season.

Everton FC are interested in former Chelsea man Salomon Kalou, reports the Daily Mirror .

The Ivorian star has enjoyed a successful season in France with Lille and was said to be on the verge of move to Italian outfit Roma. The Mirror claims that he is stalling on a final decision as he fancies a move back to England in the midst of possible interest from Everton and City rivals Liverpool.

Madawaska Maliseet First Nation will operate the new Grey Rock Entertainment Centre

The Madawaska Maliseet First Nation is getting prepared to open a new entertainment centre in Edmundston.

The Grey Rock Entertainment Centre, part of the Madawaska Maliseet First Nation’s $13-million Grey Rock Power Centre, was scheduled to open this month but construction delayed the grand opening until December.

For some reason, there's this need among fans — especially college football fans — to make them more than that, to attach some personal value to the games on TV, to pretend that the outcomes of games and results from a season in some way have a tangible impact on our lives.

They do not.

A college football season is no different than a season of "Game of Thrones."

They're both meant to entertain you, to distract you from real life. And that's why this is a different kind of SEC coaches ranking, one that places appropriate value on coaches doing their real jobs — entertaining us.

A recent publication from developers discusses the highlights of the high-energy puzzle game.

via PRWEB - A new document from the makers of the enormously popular Bubble Blaze application espoused the latest features of the app now that it is optimized for Intel® Atom™ tablets for Android*. The publication describes the successful partnership between Intel and Outplay Entertainment and how it will broaden access to an even larger gaming community.

From radio-controlled airplanes to sunset sounds - and a demolition derby - Tim Mitchell's entertainment recommendations for the week ahead.

LOS ANGELES • Ratings and red noses were the topics of the day when NBC met with TV critics Sunday in Los Angeles.

Ratings because NBC had "a pretty great season," up 10 percent and No. 1 with viewers 18-49, NBC Entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt said. Among total audiences, NBC's ratings are up 27 percent over last year.

SINGER/SONGWRITER Gabriella Reno and guitarist Samuele Vivian have taken their blend of folk, soul and reggae to Europe where they plan to launch their album, Hurricane Coming.

Reno is from Knollis in Bog Walk, St Catherine while Vivian is from Venice, Italy.

Hurricane Coming is scheduled to be launched in Italy next month, followed by a Jamaican release in September.

British pop-star Cheryl Cole has revealed she's married a restaurant owner.

The 31-year-old made the announcement on her Instagram page with a picture of her wedding ring.

Ever since her controversial stint on "Grey's Anatomy," Katherine Heigl has been labeled by Hollywood as "difficult" to work with. But the actress doesn't see it that way.

"I certainly don't see myself as being difficult," she told reporters Sunday at the Television Critics Association panel for her upcoming new NBC drama "State of Affairs," which she stars in and produces.

Tracy Collins, or Tracy Dot Com to her many fans, spotlights her entertainment picks for the upcoming week and weekend.

Sharks vs. VooDoo, 8 p.m. Monday, Veterans Memorial Arena. Tickets: $12-$133.

If you hate Mondays like I do, get rid of the Monday blues by seeing red and putting on your white with the Jacksonville Sharks. The Sharks are taking on the New Orleans VooDoo and tonight’s theme is Sharkstock: Peace, Love & Arena Football. The Sharks are asking all fans to wear white.

He was the king of improv comedy. Now he's playing second fiddle to a dancing dog. What happened? John Sessions talks about stage fright, voting Ukip and life after the 'twinkly years'

John Sessions is drinking coffee and making a call on a prehistoric mobile phone when I arrive at the Soho hotel where we are having lunch. Sessions holds it up proudly. "I don't have an iPhone, I don't do apps," he exclaims. At 61, he has embraced bufferdom. Grey-haired and wearing large spectacles, he looks like Ronnie Barker, or a retired colonel you might run into at a golf club in Surrey.

This summer marks the first time The CW has had a full night of comedy since 2008, a year before the channel canceled all of its sitcoms and became a broadcast network airing only dramatic and reality programming. While the network’s low ratings have been the most common argument for questioning its status as the fifth broadcast network, its complete abandonment of scripted comedy has been the most compelling.

John C Reilly and Michael Cera have joined the cast of the upcoming comedy Entertainment.

According to Deadline, the actors join Gregg Turkington in director Rick Alverson's film which centres on an ageing comic.

SHREVEPORT (KTAL) - Michael Vick's comedy tour came to Shreveport's Strand Theatre but there was also a show outside, two groups staging two different protests.

Emily Daye started the animal rights facebook protest against Vick and said, "I couldn't believe my ears when i heard that Michael Vick was coming to The Strand. When I verified that it was true i felt like i had to do something so i started the page and the response has been overwhelming."

Mario Correa’s political comedy “Tail! Spin!” is to open Off Broadway at the Lynn Redgrave Theater just as this fall’s midterm elections are heating up, the show’s producers announced on Sunday.

Gutthiwho’s high jinks and monkey tricks became the talk of the nation, is geared up for a comeback on the show, Comedy Nights With Kapil. Buzz is that stand- up comedian Sunil Grover aka Gutthi is all set to return to Kapil Sharma’s comedy show. Not only were his performances a complete laugh riot, but also his dressing sense and his way of talking made the entire country go gaga over him. Even now, months after his exit from the show, people have still been missing Gutthi.

Sunil was supposed to start with the shoot last month but due to some contractual issues, he left the set on the day of the shoot. However, the actor recently signed the contract and shot his first episode on July 10. It has been said that Sunil has returned to the show as Sumona Chakroborty‘s father.

Heard the one about a group of academics who did stand-up comedy based on their research?

It is no joke – it happened at the Organ Grinder pub, in Loughborough, on Thursday.

Five academics performed as part of the university's Bright Club, a comedy concept that originated at University College London in 2009 and has swept the country. Academics use their research as the basis for an eight-minute gig.

Chelsea Handler’s London debut on Saturday night was less stand-up, more a cocktail of crude anecdotes and vulgar abuse, with a shallowness at its heart

Earlier this year comedian and talk-show host Chelsea Handler scored brownie points by calling Piers Morgan a “terrible interviewer”. The opinionated American can clearly be outspoken but that outspokenness onstage lost her numerous brownie points on Saturday night.

Opening against the dark backdrop of an ocean storm that separates twins Viola and Sebastian — leaving Viola to assume the worst about her brother's whereabouts and to make her way alone in an unfamiliar town — it would be easy to assume the rest of Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" would unfold in a similarly melancholy fashion.

And while there is certainly a depth to some of the characters as a result of their varying reasons for mourning — all of which adds texture and context to the story — ultimately it is the comedy in the Utah Shakespeare Festival's production of "Twelfth Night" that takes the audience by storm, inciting deep-belly laughs and leaving the crowd longing for more.

Joachim Low's men secured their fourth crown courtesy of Mario Gotze's extra-time winner. Here's how the celebrity world reacted to events in Brazil

Germany are world champions for a fourth time after beating Argentina 1-0 at the Maracana.

MINNEAPOLIS -- The last time Zach Parise took a chop at a softball, someone dressed up in a stuffed bear costume bested him in a home run derby. Fellow Twin Cities sports luminary Adrian Peterson played a total of two organized baseball games during his Texas upbringing. Before Sunday night's All-Star Legends and Celebrity Softball Game, Maya Moore hadn't stepped on a diamond since her middle school days in Jefferson City, Mo.

The pressures of their day jobs are a little more strenuous. "My expectation," Parise told reporters during batting practice at MLB All-Star Game FanFest inside the Minneapolis Convention Center, "is to make some contact, not make any errors."

Taco Bell Legends & Celebrity game blends baseball and Hollywood together

MINNEAPOLIS -- Ozzie Smith singles and Nelly drives him in with a home run over the left-field wall. Mike Piazza homers, and just like that, the National League is absolutely crushing a possibly overmatched Jack Morris.

What is this, some warped version of bizarro fantasy baseball?

BIll Cosby is ready to get his gleek on!
NBC bosses Robert Greenblatt, Jennifer Selke and Paul Telegdy took the stage at the 2014 Summer TCA Press Tour to drop a whole bunch of news on their line-up, including the renewal of three of their popular reality series. But has NBC quietly canceled Donald Trump's Celebrity Apprentice?

Plus, they revealed that a Glee star is teaming up with Bill Cosby, who is set to star in a new sitcom, and that they are in talks to bring back Maya Rudolph's variety show...

The adven

t of social media was meant to provide celebrities with a golden opportunity: to tightly control their own image by editing (censoring) the information disseminated to the world by offering up their most private moments for public consumption via their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram feeds.

It was meant to be the perfect formula for celebrity manipulation of the masses, with the added advantage that those pesky obstacles of journalists, paparazzi and mainstream media, including yours truly, would finally be on the receiving end.

FROM Rihanna showing her colours in Brazil to Jessica Alba flaunting her abs in Mexico - here's more amazing photos from the land of showbiz!

RIHANNA has turned into quite a football fan during this World Cup it seems - and she’s clearly not one for throwing all her eggs in one basket.

01 The marriage season has just begun in Hollywood with Kim Kardashian and Kanye West being the first ones to walk down the aisle together this summer. Second in line is George Clooney who is all set to read the wedding vows with his girlfriend Amal Alamuddin in a private wedding, probably in Venice. However, there are many celebrity couples who are so busy taking care of their kids that they are not thinking over the idea of marriage. From Angelina Jolie-Brad Pitt to Shakira- Gerard Pique, these celebrity parents have put their wedding plans on the back burner. Keeping our fingers crossed, we recount the celebrity parents of Hollywood who are yet to marry.

FW Weekly recently went deep on celebrity chef Tim Love. The story used accounts of Love's lackluster performance as a caterer at the Crowne Plaza Invitational and TCU as the hook to tell a story about a man who is hard-working but over-extended and, according to the paper, a tad egotistical.

Through interviews with fellow chefs, catering partners and customers the Weekly describes Love as hot-headed, controlling and self-centered, and maybe even on the verge of boiling over. And while the paper was careful to make notes of Love's many accomplishments, just to keep things civil, the profile was just scathing enough to draw blood and attract even more sharks.

A look at who's celebrating a birthday July 14

Actor Harry Dean Stanton is 88.

Canadian soprano Doreen Hume is 88.

Actress Nancy Olson is 86.

Actress-singer Polly Bergen is 84.

Former football player and actor Rosey Grier is 82.

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