Geek News You Should Know: 6/16/14

1) 22 Jump Street not only took the number one spot on the box office charts this week, but did so well that it was the second highest R-rated comedy opening ever behind The Hangover II.  I thought How To Train Your Dragon 2 would do real well considering how great the first one was but didn't even manage to crack the $50 million mark this weekend, which has to be disappointing for Dreamworks. Here's a list of the top ten movies courtesy of BoxOfficeMojo.com.

TW	LW	Title (click to view)	Studio	Weekend Gross	% Change	Theater Count / Change		Average	Total Gross	Budget*	Week #
1	N	22 Jump Street	Sony	$57,071,445	-	3,306	-	$17,263	$57,071,445	-	1
2	N	How to Train Your Dragon 2	Fox	$49,451,322	-	4,253	-	$11,627	$49,451,322	-	1
3	2	Maleficent	BV	$18,504,997	-46.1%	3,623	-325	$5,108	$163,021,529	$180	3
4	3	Edge of Tomorrow	WB	$16,527,215	-42.5%	3,505	+15	$4,715	$57,001,698	$178	2
5	1	The Fault in our Stars	Fox	$14,791,933	-69.2%	3,273	+100	$4,519	$80,767,200	$12	2
6	4	X-Men: Days of Future Past	Fox	$9,816,449	-35.2%	3,042	-597	$3,227	$206,256,610	$200	4
7	6	Godzilla (2014)	WB	$3,311,185	-45.9%	2,088	-1,022	$1,586	$191,457,194	$160	5
8	5	A Million Ways to Die in the West	Uni.	$3,246,400	-55.8%	2,413	-747	$1,345	$37,107,020	-	3
9	7	Neighbors	Uni.	$2,369,250	-55.5%	1,896	-778	$1,250	$143,022,215	$18	6
10	9	Chef	ORF	$2,187,526	-16.6%	1,102	-196	$1,985	$13,987,981	-	6

 
2) In a kind of a shocking turn of events, it's rumored that The Rise of Tomb Raider and Little Big Planet 3 may be released on PS3 and X-Box 360 (in Tomb Raider's case) in addition to PS4 and X-Box One.  Both of these games really could be perceived as system sellers and while they both surely would look better on the newest game systems, for some it may not be worth the $400 upgrade price to experience these games.  It's nice to see them still catering to older game systems but you wonder if that will end up hurting console sales or will it be better for game sales if they are available for systems that most people already own.

3) While it certainly seems like Angry Birds has taken a dip in it's extreme popularity from a few years ago, it still has a fanbase and will be launching it's newest tie-in Angry Birds: Transformers.  The game will feature the Autobirds vs. the Deceptihogs.  No release date is known at this time but there was a preview image and it looks like a unique venture for the series.



4) Heroes Reborn is the Heroes reboot scheduled to hit NBC in 2015.  While the cast is scheduled to consist largely of new cast members, it was announced today that Jack Coleman, who played Noah Bennet (the father to Claire Bennet, the indestructible cheerleader played by Hayden Panettiere) will be joining the new show.  Bennet worked for a shadowy organization (deceptively called The Primatech Paper Company) that dealt with superpowered individuals.



5) Since I'm an accountant I love graphs and charts and what-not and really thought this one was interesting on how returning shows compared ratings-wise to how they did last season.  It's kind of a depressing chart as both some of mine and Anthony's favorite shows bottomed out on the charts as Raising Hope was the lowest and Glee was the second lowest.  However, Raising Hope did get doomed to airing mid-season on Friday nights, which basically signified it's death.  Scandal was by far the biggest grower on the chart with Supernatural of all shows finishing second.