It’s HAPPENING at the Box Office

Can you believe it? Night destroys Hulk during the weekend.

The Happening has smashed all so-called movie reviewers and emerged with a solid $62 Million box office gross worldwide. Since the movie budget is small at around $60 Million, the movie has an awesome 103% Gross to Budget ratio, a surefire way to ensure the movie is profitable.

In contrast, the “not so incredible” Hulk struggled to a mere 57% Gross to Budget ratio since even an $85.5 Million worldwide haul means the movie will struggle to be profitable because of its mammoth $150 Million budget.

Manoj Night Shyamalan has done it again at the box office. The fact that the movie has an “R” rating, makes the Happening’s box office gross all the more amazing. And considering how terrible “Lady in the Water” was, it shows the director’s mettle in bouncing back. Maybe he should change his name to Manoj “Phoenix” Shyamalan.

In fact the world’s only Pulitzer Prize winning critic, Roger Ebert has given the movie a superb review and makes it a must see movie for the different way in which the director has handled the genre. While The Happening got 3 stars from Roger Ebert, The Hulk got just 2.5 stars.

Filed under: Media & Entertainment , Box office, box office gross, boxoffice, boxoffice gross, critics, Happening, happening box office, happening boxoffice, Hulk, incredible hulk, Lady in the water, Manoj Night Shyamalan, Night, reviews, roger ebert, Shyamalan, Sixth Sense, The Happening, The Happening box office, The happening boxoffice, The Signs, The village, Unbreakable

Never mind the French Open…

ROGER FEDERER is most definitely the GREATEST tennis player in the history of the game.

He lost one match…big deal. 3 French Open Finals in a row and 4 French Open Semi-Finals in a row is enough testament to his Clay Court ability. Nadal is the greatest Clay Court Specialist… so its only fitting that Rafa won the French 4 in a row. Think about this: it takes a NADAL to beat Federer on clay..Federer is that good (regardless of the 3 set drubbing).

But FEDERER has won the AUSTRALIAN, WIMBLEDON and U.S.OPEN title in the SAME calender year..THREE TIMES!!! Not Laver, Not Borg, not Sampras, not McEnroe, Not Becker, Not Edberg, Not Emerson, Not Lendl, Not Wilander Nor Agassi…no one has ever come close to this feat. One is good, Two is superb, but Three is just GREAT.

NOW add the 3 French Open Finals in a row to the 4 US Open titles in a row and 5 Wimblesons in a row, and you can understand why Roger Federer is simply, the Greatest tennis player in the history of the game.

 

 

Filed under: Heroes, Sport , Australian Open, clay, court, Federer, French Open, grass, hard, Nadal, Rafa, Rafa Nadal, Roger, Roger Federer, Tennis, U.S. Open, Wimbledon

Great Game V – Microsoft vs Google vs Yahoo vs AOL

Great Game I – PC Wars.

IBM won this round easily. APPLE’s “1984″ ad nothwithstanding, the Mac just got annihilated by the PC. Commodore 64 did flatter to deceive.
Great Game II – Desktop O/S Wars.

Microsoft destroyed all competition including IBM, Lotus, Sun, Apple …everyone. Windows and Office still dominate the Desktop today.

Great Game III – Browser Wars.

Microsoft won this so easily, leveraging its Windows dominance. Internet Explorer decimated Netscape.

Great Game IV – Search Wars.

Google came from nowhere to ruin Yahoo, Altavista, Overture and change the online ad market forever. Even Microsoft was forced to almost give up the search game after being bruised heavily by Google.

Great Game V – ?

Who will dominate the Internet?

Yahoo is the leader in email, Google in search, AOL/advertising.com in adnetworks, Admob in mobile, Microsoft in Live gaming, Facebook in social networking.

At stake is almost 50% of the $ 75 billion online ad market (by 2010) which is controlled by Display advertising.

Add to this the fact that search+ display+ mobile+ gaming+social ad convergence is inevitable as far as reaching a target audience by an advertiser is concerned and the power plays will have bigger repercussions than the Search Wars.

Who can seamlessly integrate the above for one-touch ad delivery across the digital spectrum?

Desktop and Mobile seem to be in for a mini-battle of their own. (Microsoft -Vodafone vs Google-Apple anyone?)

Companies like AT&T, Apple, NTT Docomo, Comcast, IBM and even Nintendo can all play their parts.

Filed under: News, Business & Current Affairs , Add new tag, advertising, AOL, Apple, display, facebook, google, IBM, marketing, Microsoft, Microsoft vs Google, PS3, search, Windows vs Mac, XBOX, Yahoo