‘amazing Spider-man’ Shatters Tuesday Opening Box Office Record With $35m

Hollywood blockbusters appeared poised last year to take over China’s box office, but something unexpected happened on the way to the bank: demand tapered off sharply.

The weekend was very kind to last week’s one and only new release, Oblivion. Otherwise, the charts have remained more or less static since last weekend. Oblivion did quite well in the box office, making over $38.1 million; while this is at the bottom end of its predicted range for its opening weekend gross, it’s still a respectable sum, and the film can probably expect similarly impressive numbers in later weeks. read more

He's a brilliant visual stylist, but the knock on Zack Snyder as a director is that he too often neglects real storytelling in favor of pretty pictures. The latest Man of Steel trailer, however, suggests he may have made a quantum leap as a filmmaker. read more

Both of last week’s new releases did very well in the box office this weekend—even despite the arguably vast disparity in quality between the two releases. Making the top of the charts is 42, which outdid its modest expectations (even for a heartwarming based-on-a-true-story yarn), earning revenues in the ballpark (ha) of $27.2 million on its opening weekend. read more

The next chapter in Rocksteady's Batman series is coming. Batman: Arkham Origins is the subject of next month's Game Informer Cover, and it's on its way to the PS3, Xbox360 and Wii U on October 25th, along with a companion title on the PS Vita and 3Ds. Next-gen consoles remain a question mark.