To the surprise of approximately no one on Earth, “Iron Man 3” enjoyed a massive opening weekend in the United States, following up its gargantuan international debut to ring up some truly superheroic box office numbers: a reported $175.3 million in its U.S. bow, adding to the more than $500 million (£321.7 million) already earned in overseas markets.
The Tony Stark-centered sequel came within striking range of its immediate Marvel predecessor, The Avengers, which just last year set no less than 10 box office-related world records, including the highest opening weekend ($207.4 million) en route to earning the fastest $1 billion gross in cinema history (10 days).
While he’s never displayed any superhuman powers that we know of, it seems Justin Bieber could sneeze and it would make headlines. Today is no different, as Beliebers around the world are in shock someone made it onstage to tackle the performer during a show today in Dubai. If the stage rusher is looking for a way to exert such pent-up energy, perhaps he or she should have a go at the most rugby tackles in one minute, set at 21 by Andrea Astarita in Rome on 27 March 2010. Here’s the scene of the chaos at Sevens Stadium:
Also over the weekend, the “Run for Roses” brought us its annual collection of fast horses and decadent hats, as odds-on favorite Orb won the 139 th Kentucky Derby in a time of 2 min 2.89 sec. Dubbed “The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports,” only two winners at Churchill Downs have ever actually broken the 2-minute mark: Monarchos in 2001 (1 min 59.97 sec) and record-holder Secretariat for the fastest Kentucky Derby time at 1 min 59.4 sec in 1973.
In the world of two-legged animals, a recent survey in Britain found that 25% of adults walk for an hour or less each week, despite government suggestions that people perform some moderate physical activity for at least 2.5 hours per week. Perhaps some of those surveyed have been taking it easy knowing that the international average is balanced out by people like Yiannis Kouros of Greece, who holds the record for the greatest distance run in one week with an astounding 645.51 miles (1,038.85 km).
Lastly, sometimes a dollar does go a long way. At least it did for California mother Thuan Le, who accidentally spent $6 instead of her usual $5 on lottery tickets, then winning $14 million (£9 million) on the lucky extra ticket. But while she may be luckier than most, Le still can’t quite hold a candle to arguably the luckiest family in the world: the Oksnes family of Norway.
They hold the record for the most members of a single family to win a national lottery, as Tord Oksnes, his sister Hege, and their father Leif won a combined 28.8 million kroner (£3.08 million/$4.78 million) on three different occasions of the Norwegian National Lottery between 2006-2012.
