To those of you spending this holiday vacation week lounging on a beach somewhere, without a care in the world, you may have missed the news that this past weekend was a record-breaking one at movie theaters across the US. Although its apparent from this weekend's box office results that most of you were not at the beach or not even at the mall returning unwanted Christmas presents, you and everyone you know went to the movies this weekend. At least it sure seems like that. The weekend box office numbers were off the charts. The three-day US total was $278 million, shattering the previous record of $260.8 million from the three day weekend when The Dark Knight opened in July 2008. How did this happen, why did this happen? Well, it would be easy to answer these questions in one magical word composed of three consonants and the letter "A", i.e. "AVATAR". But that would not do justice to the other films that performed like kings of the box office world over the weekend. (more...)

Esquire is teasing its upcoming December issue as a new "living, breathing, moving, talking magazine," using 3-D technology and augmented reality to integrate real images and graphics with both its articles and advertisements. With Robert Downey Jr. as its cover star, the issue (to be released November 9th) features six interactive "boxes" and at least one Lexus ad in which readers can use their computers to see bonus three-dimensional features. (more...)