“Star Trek: Into Darkness” opened in the U.S. this weekend, earning an estimated $84.1 million (£55.2 million) for its extended, four-day opening run. While still good enough for first place at the domestic box office, the pull landed short of expectations, and even fell short of its predecessor when comparing just three-day weekend hauls.
We mentioned how “Iron Man 3” made a close run at a number of opening-weekend records earlier in the month. But now, if not Tony Stark or Capt. Kirk, it may be up to no less than Superman himself if anyone wants to topple the Avengers’ year-old records this summer.
Yahoo announced over the weekend that it plans on purchasing social media blogging platform Tumblr for $1.1 billion (£723 million), already sparking a backlash lamenting such a “cool” site getting swallowed up in the more mainstream fold of Yahoo.
The acquisition certainly seems like something Yahoo is trying to do to get back some of the caché it held earlier in the Internet age. At various points throughout the early 2000s, the company held records for being the largest e-mail service provider, most popular online gaming portal, and highest ad revenue generated by a website.
A Florida man is poised to come into a nice chunk of change after a winning Powerball ticket was identified in the large jackpot we told you about last week. When the mystery millionaire comes forward – and, come on, who wouldn’t? – he or she will lay claim to the l argest first-prize single payout in a lottery.
Nice way to spend that money? Traveling the world, of course. But you don’t need hundreds of millions to travel exotically with no financial concerns. You can just enter a prestigious online contest. National Geographic is looking to crown a champion in its 25th annual Traveler Photo Contest. The organization recently released some initial entries, and the competition for a 10-day Galapagos Islands expedition looks stiff. Once there, the winner might be able to create an online photo album to challenge the largest online photo album of animals, which requires at least 100,000 snaps.
And, for our UK readers, did any of you go CD shopping over the weekend? If you bought ABBA’s “Gold: Greatest Hits,” you helped push the singing Swedes past The Beatles for second among best selling albums of all-time in the UK. Atop the list is record-holder Queen’s “Greatest Hits.” Until then, ABBA fans can console themselves with a trip to a place where everybody has a chance to be a Dancing Queen.
