Geek News You Should Know: 6/30/14

1) Transformers: Age of Extinction dominated the box office this weekend breaking $100 million.  No other new movies were released wide this weekend making Transformers dominance even easier.  Age of Extincition brought in $41.6 million opening day which was the best for any movie in 2014. This was the 2nd biggest opening for a Transformers movie yet behind Revenge of the Fallen and a very good way to get this summer, which has been lagging at the box office, a boost.  22 Jump Street finished second at $15.8 million.  Here is the top ten grosses this weekend courtesy of BoxOfficeMojo.com.

TW	LW	Title (click to view)	Studio	Weekend Gross	% Change	Theater Count / Change		Average	Total Gross	Budget*	Week #
1	N	Transformers: Age of Extinction	Par.	$100,038,390	-	4,233	-	$23,633	$100,038,390	$210	1
2	2	22 Jump Street	Sony	$15,842,375	-42.3%	3,426	+120	$4,624	$140,279,267	$50	3
3	3	How to Train Your Dragon 2	Fox	$13,237,697	-46.4%	3,750	-518	$3,530	$121,952,229	$145	3
4	1	Think Like a Man Too	SGem	$10,316,397	-64.7%	2,225	-	$4,637	$48,084,757	$24	2
5	5	Maleficent	BV	$8,376,674	-35.1%	3,073	-377	$2,726	$202,010,064	$180	5
6	4	Jersey Boys	WB	$7,712,264	-42.1%	2,905	-	$2,655	$27,444,750	$40	2
7	6	Edge of Tomorrow	WB	$5,404,290	-45.0%	2,535	-677	$2,132	$84,348,922	$178	4
8	7	The Fault in our Stars	Fox	$5,130,777	-40.1%	2,845	-495	$1,803	$109,875,795	$12	4
9	8	X-Men: Days of Future Past	Fox	$3,321,427	-46.0%	2,014	-667	$1,649	$223,414,899	$200	6
10	10	Chef	ORF	$1,657,391	-3.0%	801	-160	$2,069	$19,413,442	-	8

2) Doctor Who Season 8 will be coming sooner than most people expected as it was announced that it will debut on BBC and BBC America on August 23.  They released a trailer teasing some of the upcoming episodes on the BBC site, which is available to be watched in the US, but we did get this very brief look.



3) Community will be coming back for a sixth season (no word yet on the movie).  The shocking thing is instead of going to a television network or a huge already online video provider, it will be going to Yahoo Screen.  While I've heard of Yahoo, I had no idea of the Screen in which they spoke of, so this is a great way to get their online video service out there.  Hopefully sometime before Community airs, they will roll out a app for the PS3 or other devices so we can watch it on our TVs and not strictly online.  The 13-episode 6th season will air at some point in 2015 and Dan Harmon will come back as the showrunner with the entire cast coming back (not including Donald Glover who left part-way through Season 5).

4) Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig are teaming up together again, but this time it's not what you'd expect.  They are starring in the movie The Skeleton Twins, where they play estranged siblings forced to reconnect and work through past issues.  Instead of this being the comedy you'd expect from them, this is much more dramatic.  Check out the trailer below.



5) Andy Serkis is one of those rare actors in Hollywood, where you've seen him on the big screen but probably wouldn't recognize him walking down the street.  He's been terrific in the past as Gollum from the Lord of the Rings movies, Caesar in the new Planet of the Apes movies, and will also be playing an undisclosed part in Star Wars: Episode VII.  His company, The Imaginarium is working on Avengers: Age of Ultron and helping with the motion capture on Mark Ruffalo and some of the other characters in the movie.  Serkis has announced in an interview that he will be playing a part in the new Avengers movie, while he couldn't say whether or not we will be seeing him or just be motion capture for the movie, this is exciting news.