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Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Box Office Guru Wrapup: Underworld Awakens in #1 Spot
Three new action films attacked the North American box office but the futuristic vampire thriller Underworld: Awakening and the World War II-set fighter pilot pic Red Tails led the way with each generating a solid debut. The modern-day assassin flick Haywire was met with more modest results as was the nationwide expansion of the Tom Hanks-Sandra Bullock drama Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close which both settled into the top five. Overall business was affected somewhat by snowstorms in the midwest and east and Sunday grosses are expected to take a hit from the NFL conference championship games, especially male-skewing action flicks. But the marketplace showed remarkable growth over last year when the box office was in a downturn with weak films.
Kate Beckinsale enjoyed her second number one debut in as many weeks by returning to her signature franchise with Underworld: Awakening which opened on top with an estimated $25.4M. After co-starring with Mark Wahlberg in last week's top choice Contraband, the English actress generated a strong $8,252 average from 3,078 theaters and joined all three previous films in the popular series with an opening weekend in the $20-27M range. The R-rated film was not screened for critics and eventual reviews that came out were mostly negative.
Awakening, the fourth film in Sony's franchise and third starring Beckinsale, was the first in 3D and benefitted from higher priced tickets from that format as well as IMAX. The first Underworld bowed to $21.8M in September 2003 and was followed by a $26.9M debut this very weekend in 2006 for Underworld: Evolution. The next film, Rise of the Lycans, did not feature Beckinsale and opened to $20.8M this weekend in 2009. Given the higher prices and surcharges, Awakening attracted an audience this weekend that was about the same size as the one for Lycans. 3D accounted for a high 59% of the gross while another 15% came from IMAX.
Studio research showed that males made up 55% of the crowd while 60% was 25 and older. Fans liked what they got as the CinemaScore grade was an encouraging A-. Saturday sales went up by 9% which is impressive for the fourth installment of a sci-fi/horror franchise, however bad weather in many parts of the country on Friday could have pushed some business to the following day. The last two sequels both fell by more than 55% on the second weekend and the same should ring true for Awakening. All three pics starring Beckinsale debuted at number one.
Overseas, Underworld: Awakening debuted to an estimated $13.4M from 36 markets including a dozen top spot bows for a global bow of $38.8M.
Soaring past expectations, the period action film Red Tails opened impressively in second place with an estimated $19.1M from a more narrow 2,512 theaters for a stellar $7,604 average per location. The PG-13 film about the Tuskegee Airmen starred Cuba Gooding Jr. and Terence Howard and was financed by George Lucas who stated that no studio wanted to bankroll a $58M production with an all-black cast. Reviews were not very good, however paying members of the public thought highly of the 1940s-set film which earned a solid A grade from CinemaScore.
Red Tails played evenly across genders with males making up 51% of the crowd. As expected, older patrons took more interest with 66% being 25 and older. Saturday enjoyed a stellar 44% jump indicating the road ahead could be promising. Last week's Martin Luther King holiday provided a great time to promote this week's launch of the Fox release and with the start of Black History Month just a week away, the film is well-positioned to remain a timely movie choice for many. Red Tails actually attracted a larger audience per theater than Underworld did when 3D and IMAX ticket price differences are factored out.
After topping the weekend last week with a stronger-than-expected debut, Wahlberg's action hit Contraband fell an understandable 50% thanks in part to all the new action competition to an estimated $12.2M. The $25M production has now banked $46.1M in ten days and looks headed for a finish in the neighborhood of $70M.
The 9/11 drama Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close starring Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock expanded into national release after a month of limited play and landed in fourth with a so-so performance. Warner Bros. saw a weekend estimate of $10.5M from 2,630 locations for a decent $4,010 average. Close is hoping for a Best Picture nod from the Academy this Tuesday in order to keep it relevant at the box office, but so far it has not been a consistent part of the awards conversation. The Oscar-winning stars could give it some extra love from Academy members, though. Cume to date is $11.2M.
Steven Soderbergh's newest film Haywire also opened to moderate results bowing to an estimated $9M from 2,439 sites for a $3,690 average. The R-rated espionage thriller marked the debut of Gina Carano, a female Mixed Martial Arts champion, who anchored the film alongside male co-stars like Ewan McGregor, Channing Tatum, Michael Fassbender, Michael Douglas, and Antonio Banderas. Budgeted at $23M, the well-reviewed film earned good marks from critics but was panned by audiences polled by CinemaScore earning a dismal D+ grade. Studio research showed that the audience was 55% male, 64% under 35, and 54% non-white. With so many action options for moviegoers and an untested star in the lead, Haywire carved out a slice of the pie that was mostly in line with industry expectations.
Sunday's big football playoff games are expected to cut into box office sales for action titles and distributors incorporated that into weekend estimates in their own ways. Projected Saturday-to-Sunday declines include 44% for Underworld: Awakening, 49% for Red Tails, 53% for Contraband, and 40% for Haywire.
Disney's 3D re-release of Beauty and the Beast tumbled 52% in its second weekend to an estimated $8.6M giving the studio $33.4M to date. It was a large decline given that no new kids movies opened. The studio's last 3D upgrade on The Lion King fell only 27% in its sophomore session despite facing new competition for families. Warner Bros. saw a moderate 46% decline for its musical dramedy Joyful Noise which grossed an estimated $6.1M lifting the cume to $21.9M after ten days.
December franchise holdovers rounded out the top ten. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol took in an estimated $5.5M, off 53%, for a $197.3M total. Paramount's overseas tally rose to a muscular $336.7M with the global tally reaching a towering $534M for the Tom Cruise sequel. The Robert Downey Jr. sequel Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows dropped 44% to an estimated $4.8M putting Warner Bros. at $178.6M. Sliding 44% was Sony's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo to an estimated $3.8M for a $94.8M sum to date. International business climbed to $70.8M after a $15.7M frame putting the global gross at $165.5M.
Oscar front-runner The Artist tripled its theater count and saw sales double as it established itself in wider release to reach a broader audience. The Weinstein Co. title grossed an estimated $2.4M from 662 locations (up from 216) averaging a mediocre $3,579. With $12.1M to date, the acclaimed silent film has won the Golden Globe for Best Comedy/Musical and on Saturday took home the coveted PGA award which is a very accurate indicator of the favorite at the Academy Awards. The last four PGA winners went on to win Best Picture at the Oscars.
The top ten films grossed an estimated $105M which was up a sharp 26% from last year when No Strings Attached opened in the top spot with $19.7M; but down 13% from 2010 when Avatar remained at number one with $34.9M in its sixth frame.
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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1924351/news/1924351/
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New Genetic Clues to Breast Cancer? (HealthDay)
SUNDAY, Jan. 22 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers have identified three new genomic regions they believe are linked with breast cancer that may help explain why some women develop the disease.
All three newly identified areas "contain interesting genes that open up new avenues for biological and clinical research," said researcher Douglas Easton, a professor of genetic epidemiology at the University of Cambridge in England.
Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women, with about 1 million new cases annually worldwide and more than 400,000 deaths a year.
Scientists conducting genome-wide association studies -- research that looks at the association between genetic factors and disease to pinpoint possible causes -- had already identified 22 breast cancer susceptibility loci. Locus is the physical location of a gene or DNA sequence on a chromosome.
"The three [newly identified] loci take the number of common susceptibility loci from 22 to 25," said Easton.
However, the three new susceptibility loci might explain only about 0.7 percent of the familial risks of breast cancer, bringing the total contribution to about 9 percent, the researchers said.
Michael Melner, scientific program director for the American Cancer Society, said this current research adds some important new clues to existing evidence, but he agreed that the number of cases likely associated with these three variants is probably low.
"So the total impact in terms of patients would be fairly small," Melner said.
The study is published online Jan. 22 in Nature Genetics.
To find the new clues, Easton's team worked with genetic information on about 57,000 breast cancer patients and 58,000 healthy women obtained from two genome-wide association studies.
The investigators zeroed in on 72 different single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). A SNP -- pronounced "snip" -- is a change in which a single base in the DNA differs from the usual base. The human genome has millions of SNPs, some linked with disease, while others are normal variations.
The researchers focused on three SNPs -- on chromosomes 12p11, 12q24 and 21q21.
Easton's team found that the variant on the 12p11 chromosome is linked with both estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer (which needs estrogen to grow) and estrogen receptor-negative breast cancer. The other two variants are only linked with ER-positive cancers, they said.
One of the newly identified variants is in an area with a gene that has a role in the development of mammary glands and bones. Easton said it was already known that mammary gland development in puberty is an important period in terms of determining later cancer risk. "But these are the first susceptibility genes to be shown to be involved in this process," he said.
One of the other SNPs is in an area that can affect estrogen receptor signaling, the researchers found.
Melner, noting some of the research is "fine tuning" of other work, said in his view the new understanding of the signaling pathways and their genetic links is the most important finding.
"When you delineate a pathway, you bring up new potential targets for therapy," he said. "The more targets you have, you open up the potential for having multiple drugs and attacking a cancer more easily, without it becoming more resistant."
Overall, Melner added, the results underscore the complexity of the different mechanisms involved in breast cancer development.
More information
For more about the genetics of breast cancer, visit the American Cancer Society.
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Monday, January 16, 2012
Canada: Marriages of foreign gays are invalid
OTTAWA?? The Canadian government is abruptly arguing that the same-sex marriages of many foreigners who wed in Canada are not valid, a move that stunned the gay community and could affect thousands of couples.
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In 2005, Canada became one of the first nations in the world to formally legalize gay marriage.
Same-sex couples have been marrying in their thousands in Canada, and lenient rules on residency requirements for those seeking a marriage license mean many of them are from abroad.
Ottawa now says many, if not all, the unions involving foreign residents are invalid.
It made the argument in a case where two women, one from England and the other from Florida, sought a divorce after their 2005 Canadian marriage.
'Oh, yes, sorry'
The government's position has prompted sharp questions about why Ottawa allowed so many foreign same-sex couples to get married for so long before deciding the unions were not valid.
"(This) is about to, if it hasn't already, make us look like fools on the international stage," said Martha McCarthy, a lawyer for the couple at the center of the furor.
"We're the leaders of gay marriage ... and the federal government is saying 'Oh, yes, sorry, we forgot to mention that for the last nine years we've been marrying people that we didn't think those were valid'," she told Reuters on Thursday.
Story: Canada legalizes gay marriage nationwideCritics blamed the right-of-center Conservative government, which they say wants to roll back social rights such as gay marriage and abortion.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he was unaware of the case.
"We have no intention of further re-opening or opening this issue," Harper reportedly said when asked about a article in the Globe and Mail newspaper, which first reported the story Thursday.
"In terms of the specifics of the story ... I will admit to you that I am not aware of the details," Harper said, according to the Globe and Mail. "This I gather is a case before the courts where Canadian lawyers have taken a particular position based on the law and I will be asking officials to provide me more details."
Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said in a statement he would be "looking at options to clarify the law so that marriages performed in Canada can be undone in Canada."
He gave no further details and did not make clear whether Ottawa would continue to argue that marriages that had already taken place could not be ended in Canada.
2,500 affected?
Activists estimate that around 7,500 same-sex couples have married in Canada since 2003, when some provinces first allowed gay marriages. About 2,500 involved were foreigners, many from countries and U.S. states that do not recognize gay unions.
Ottawa says the 2005 marriage in the latest case "was not legally valid under Canadian law" because the women could not have lawfully wed in England or Florida.
It also cited the Canada Divorce Act, which says any couple seeking to end a marriage in Canada must have lived there for a year.
Video: Romney, Santorum discuss gay rights (on this page)McCarthy said her clients' message was: "We can't get divorced in our own jurisdictions because they don't recognize the validity of our marriage. You guys here in Canada married us so please give us a divorce because no one else will."
A Toronto judge will hear the case on Feb. 27 and 28 and decide whether the government's argument is valid, although the loser is bound to appeal any ruling.
The gay marriage surge was a boon for the tourist industry, which quickly offered wedding packages to U.S. couples.
Evan Wolfson, president of New-York-based gay rights group Freedom to Marry, said it would be "extreme, absurd and cruel" to now declare the Canadian marriages invalid.
Video: Meghan McCain on gay marriage, other issues (on this page)"This will come as giant shock not only to the couples but to the businesses, employers, banks and others who deal with them so hopefully they're going to walk back this preposterous undermining of families," he told Reuters.
The issue could become a political problem for Harper, who said he had no intention of reopening the gay marriage file.
Nick Bala, a professor and family law expert at Queen's University, said the case underlined existing problems with the way gay marriage works in Canada.
"There are good reasons why Canadian family courts are only going to take jurisdiction over relationships that have a significant (link) to Canada," he told Reuters.
Foreign gays who only came to Canada to marry and then returned to seek a divorce could have major problems if child custody were an issue, and there was little logic in asking Canadian courts to make decisions about children living elsewhere, he said.
"There are good reasons for Canada to be a marriage haven for same-sex couples. It's not clear that it should be a divorce haven for same-sex couples," Bala said.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45983012/ns/world_news-americas/
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CES 2012 sets all-time records for attendance, exhibitors and claimed floor space
Furthermore, a record amount of exhibition space was claimed, with 1.86 million net square feet used this year; the prior record was set in 2008 when 1.857 million net square feet were claimed. Finally, a new record was set when looking at the total number of exhibitors, with over 3,100 outfits checking in this go 'round. The prior record? 3,072, which was set in 2008. There's no question that CES felt busier than ever for us this year, and now we've got the numbers to prove our suspicions -- naturally, we're already mentally gearing up for CES 2013. We'll be here, and hopefully so will you.
P.S. - You can relive our CES 2012 coverage right here in our hub!
CES 2012 sets all-time records for attendance, exhibitors and claimed floor space originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 13 Jan 2012 17:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sunday, January 15, 2012
What Ad Spending Says About Each GOP Candidate -- and Their Success (Time.com)
Restore Our Future, the super PAC backing Mitt Romney, has spent $8.9 million on the 2012 Republican presidential primary, more money than any other group. Throughout the fall it held its fire, even as Ron Paul pumped money into ads in Iowa and New Hampshire, and Rick Perry's super PAC launched hefty buys in the Hawkeye State and South Carolina. But when Newt Gingrich rocketed to the top of the polls in early December, just as voters began tuning into the race, the pro-Romney group pounced. Beginning the week of Dec. 5, Restore Our Future began buying ads in Iowa to snuff out the Gingrich threat. Under the weight of attacks that questioned everything from Gingrich's temperament to his consulting arrangement with Freddie Mac, the former Speaker limped to a fourth-place finish in Iowa.
Once it started buying ads, Restore Our Future never stopped. The $153,017 it spent that first week increased to $1.04 million the next, where it stayed relatively level until the week of Jan. 2, when the race shifted to New Hampshire. Romney's support in the Granite State required less reinforcement, so Restore Our Future's spending plummeted to $583,299 the week before the New Hampshire primary, before ratcheting back up to $2.1 million the following week. Even more ads -- at least $2.58 million worth -- will run next week, the last before the Jan. 21 South Carolina primary, where Romney hopes to all but sew up the nomination. (MORE: Super PACs Play a Leading Role in Republican Air War)
The trajectory of Restore Our Future's spending is instructive. Examining where and when candidates and allied groups have allocated their advertising resources -- and where they've opted to pass -- offers a revealing peek into how campaigns and their outside backers perceive their respective paths to the nomination. New data acquired by TIME shows how Perry and Paul pinned their presidential hopes on strong starts, as well as how Rick Santorum's lack of fundraising muscle hampered his late charge in the caucuses. It also reveals how Romney won the New Hampshire primary relatively uncontested, and why he's likely to coast again in Florida.
With $4.3 million in ad buys, plus another $1.6 million from his allied super PAC, Perry was the single biggest spender in Iowa. Paul's campaign checked in second at $2.8 million (though Romney spent more if you tally both his campaign and PAC). Both began buying ads early; Paul's first, tiny buys came back in August, while Perry was running spots widely by late October. But Perry's spending has petered off as the candidate's fortunes have faded, plummeting from a weekly combined high of $1.4 million the week before the caucuses to just $366,000 this week. Paul, by contrast, has slowly gained strength in the polls, giving him the ability to spend heavily in the weeks before the caucuses, where he finished a strong third, and continue funneling cash to New Hampshire, where he was the only candidate apart from Romney and Jon Huntsman to amplify his message by going up on the air. (MORE: Anti-Romney Ads: Why the Deafening Silence?)
Santorum's spending tells a different story. The narrative his campaign has spun is that somehow, after holding 300-odd events across Iowa, caucus-goers finally got wise to the brand of conservatism the candidate was selling. There's no question his dogged schedule helped, but that's not what turned things around. Santorum was mired in single digits in mid-December when the Red, White and Blue Fund -- a super PAC that backs him -- launched a six-figure television ad buy on his behalf. A week later, he was in double digits, lending his campaign a positive narrative that sparked further interest. By caucus night, the group had poured $529,550 dollars in ads touting Santorum's conservative record to Hawkeye State voters. Foster Friess, the Wyoming investment manager instrumental in stocking the group's coffers, bounded into Santorum's caucus night party in Johnston, Iowa, with a broad smile, having spent the past two days traveling with Santorum amid the excitement of the surge Friess helped spark. Now, after holding their fire in New Hampshire -- a decision that raises questions about the campaign's decision to spend so much time on the ground in the Granite State rather than skip ahead -- Santorum's money men are back, announcing a $600,000 ad buy in South Carolina ahead of the pivotal Palmetto State primary, where Santorum hopes to become the conservative movement's Romney alternative.
Like Santorum, Huntsman posted up in a single primary state and tried to ride a late surge to an upset victory. When his polls climbed in the final week before New Hampshire, Huntsman pointed to a heavy retail schedule that mirrored Santorum's Hawkeye State barnstorm. But Huntsman's campaign narrative, like Santorum's, largely ignored the role ads played in his rise. Our Destiny, the Huntsman-allied super PAC, spent a shade over $2 million in the Granite State, more than any campaign or group supporting them.
The big losers in New Hampshire this year were the media outlets; the state saw just $5.3 million in broadcast, cable and radio ad buys. By contrast, candidates dumped $16.5 million into Iowa and have already spent at least $9 million in South Carolina, a figure that's poised to swell as the air assault begins raining down in earnest. Between his campaign and Restore Our Future, Romney alone has sank more money so far into Florida's Jan. 31 primary -- $6.1 million -- than the total tab for all the campaigns and their various backers in New Hampshire. The perception that Romney's lead in New Hampshire was insurmountable appeared to sway competitors into allocating their capital elsewhere. (MORE: Gingrich's Super PAC Attack on Romney: Good Lord, Is This Ad Negative)
For Newt Gingrich, that cash will be spent in South Carolina, where he promises to launch the kind of blistering blitzkrieg he endured in Iowa. All across the state, Gingrich lamented Romney's barrage of negative ads, promising to eschew such tactics because, he said, the American people were tired of the cyncial, consultant-driven campaign model. Gingrich's promise not to go negative lasted until he had the money to change course. His super PAC, Winning Our Future, has already bought $1.6 million in South Carolina spots and, after reportedly receiving a $5 million infusion from billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, signaled its intention to pump in $3.4 million more. If the group's new, 28-minute documentary-style assault on Romney is any indication, its characterization of the former Bain Capital boss won't be gentle.
If Romney gets dinged by the air wars in South Carolina, he's likely to quickly recover in Florida. The state's size and large number of major media markets make it prohibitively expensive for minor-league outfits to play there. The result? Romney is the only Republican who's been up on air in the Sunshine State. His competitors can't hope to beat him if they're not even playing the game.
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Saturday, January 14, 2012
Slacker Radio inks new deal with ESPN, will stream live sporting events
Slacker Radio announced this morning that they have signed a deal with ESPN that will allow them to stream live sporting events in addition to the ESPN Radio shows already offered.
Back in September, Slacker launched personalized ESPN Radio stations based on your favorite sports and teams. Now, you'll be able to catch the big games right from Slacker with this new deal.
The first game to be featured on Slacker will be the BCS Championship tonight, but it will only be available via the web on Slacker.com. An update that will bring the experience to Android devices will be released soon.
The ESPN Radio station is free, but you can upgrade to Slacker Radio Plus ($3.99/month) or Slacker Premium Radio ($9.99/month) for the 'full' ESPN experience.
Slacker Radio will be prevalent at CES, so be sure to check them out if you're in Las Vegas.
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/WMlB7Kppw7k/story01.htm
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