Industry

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles put its vintage charms to good use this weekend as the classic Saturday morning cartoon series reboot took first place at the domestic box office. The Paramount feature produced by hit maker Michael Bay and starring bombshell Megan Fox in her first leading role since Jennifer’s Body, surprised many observers with its $65 million North American debut.

In 2012, George Lucas shocked the world by accepting to sell his empire to the Walt Disney Company for $4. 05 billion.

No corner of the universe is safe from entertainment after Guardians of the Galaxy rocketed into theaters with an astonishing $94 million domestic debut. The wild success of Disney and Marvel’s big budget action-comedy was little accident.

Since its release 4 weeks ago, Transformers: Age of Extinction, has racked up over $850 million in the global box office, breaking the record in China where it grossed over $280 million - 65 million more than in the US, where it drew $215 million. This is not the first time that the Chinese box office has beaten the North American one.

Scarlett Johansson was firing on all cylinders as her late summer ride Lucy finished in first place with a $44 million domestic debut. This latest effort from French action maestro Luc Besson focuses on the heartpounding adventures of a woman who gains the ability to use 100% of her brain (and body) to do things like blow open concrete walls and split atoms.

Little known fact: The HFPA has members representing all 11 countries in which The Huffington Post currently has an edition (as well as India, the next territory in which the internet journalism portal will launch). With 95 million daily visitors, Arianna Huffington’s web empire, ranks as one of the internet’s blockbuster successes.

The Purge 2: Anarchy fell short of sowing chaos on the Planet of the Apes as it finished a distant second to last weekend’s domestic chart topper. Its $28.

We mourn the passing of James Garner, the actor who embodied debonair leading men with inimitable style in a Hollywood film and TV career that earned him universal accolades, as well as four Golden Globe Awards from no less than 12 nominations. Born in Oklahoma, Garner was a merchant seaman, gas station attendant and carpet layer, in addition to purple-heart Korean war veteran before getting into show business as an understudy for actor Lloyd Nolan during rehearsals of the Broadway-bound The Caine Mutiny Court Martial.

Ireland’s leading film festival is held every year in July in the picturesque tiny town of Galway. In its 26th iteration, the Galway Film Fleadh (is it pronounced Flea? Fleed? No, it’s actually Fla, go figure) brings together film buffs, filmmakers, film students, producers, wannabes, actors, Oscar winners, producers and film students in a six day festival, film market and of course pub crawl.

By the time it had seen just 3 sunsets, this weekend’s number one film Dawn of the Planet of the Apes had earned over $73 million. Leading actor and by this point primate behavior expert Andy Serkis returned in his starring role as Caesar the digitally augmented ape, while Jason Clarke, Keri Russell, and the incomparable Gary Oldman appeared in simple flesh and blood to round out the cast.