'The Hangover Part II' biggest comedy of all time at $118.1 million

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Shattering numerous records, Warner Bros.’ The Hangover Part II grossed $118.1 million in its first four days to help fuel the best Memorial Day weekend in history at the domestic box office. The sequel is expected to gross another $20 million on Monday for a staggering five-day bow of $138.1 million, setting a new benchmark for comedies.

DreamWorks Animation and Paramount’s Kung Fu Panda 2 also contributed to the boom, grossing $62.4 million in its first four days (like Hangover, Panda opened on Thursday). The 3D toon should end Monday with a five-day total of $68.2 million.

Kung Fu Panda impressed overseas, where it grossed a mighty $57 million from 8,023 markets in only 11 territories. In seven territories, it scored the best opening ever for an animated title and in China, scored the biggest opening of all time for a foreign film in grossing $18.5 million.

Hangover’s foreign numbers weren’t immediately available.

In the U.S., the specialty business also soared, thanks to Woody Allen ’s holdover Midnight in Paris and new entry The Tree of Life, from Terrence Malick .

Tree of Life, grossing $352,320 for the weekend proper as it opened in four theaters in New York and Los Angeles, posted a per location average of $88,080—an all-time high for a Fox Searchlight title.

Midnight—which debuted last weekend to a per location average of $99,834—grossed $1.9 million as it expanded into a total of 58 theaters for a 10-day cume of $2.8 million, according to Rentrak.

The overall uptick in theater traffic at the domestic box office was a welcome respite for the film business, which has suffered one of the worst box slumps in history. Grosses for Memorial Day weekend are projected to reach $270 million, easily surpassing the $254 million earned in 2007.

From Todd Phillips, Hangover grabbed the best opening ever for a comedy, besting the $85.7 million earned by Bruce Almighty over Memorial Day weekend in 2003, as well as the biggest Saturday ever for a comedy ($29.7 million).

Hangover and Universal’s Bridesmaids set new benchmarks for the playing power of R-rated comedies. Even with competition from Hangover, Bridesmaids held well over the weekend, declining only 27% to an estimated $16.4 million to place No. 4. On Monday, Bridesmaids is expected to earn another $4.4 million for a domestic cume of $89.4 million.

Hangover should grab the largest five-day opening ever for any R-rated pic, comedy or otherwise. Previous best was The Matrix Reloaded ($134.3 million) and The Passion of the Christ ($125.2 million).

Hangover is a sizeable victory for Warners and co-financing partner Legendary Pictures, and delivered the studio its best Memorial Weekend ever (Terminator Salvation was the previous crown holder at $65.3 million).

“This blows everything out of the water. It’s pretty amazing stuff,” Warner Bros. president of domestic distribution Dan Fellman said. “Moviegoers love all the characters, and they love the story.”

Hangover is the first title in months to appeal heavily to younger moviegoers, who represented 54% of the audience.

Moviegoers delivered rave reviews for both Hangover and Kung Fu Panda, which drew an A- CinemaScore and A CinemaScore, respectively.

Families turned out in force for Kung Fu Panda, which return Jack Black , Angelina Jolie , Jackie Chan , Dustin Hoffman , Seth Rogen and Lucy Liu return to lead the voice cast. About 45% of the total gross came 3D screens. If the toon had played in Imax, 3D grosses would have likely repped 55% of the total.

“We’re thrilled to have Kung Fu Panda be part of this record-breaking weekend. We came in at high end of expectations. We played very strong to families and kids, who made up 60% of our audience,” DreamWorks Animation president of marketing Anne Globe said.

The original Kung Fu Panda debuted to $60.2 million in early June 2008 at the domestic box office on its way to cuming $215.4 million.

Coming in third at the domestic box office was Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, which grossed $39.3 for the three-day weekend and is projected to earn $50 million through Monday. That will bring the film’s domestic cume to $163.7 million.

Overseas, Pirates continued to thrive, grossing an estimated $122.9 million for the three-day weekend. By Monday, the tentpole’s global cume will be $646.5 million, by far the best showing of the year.

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NYPD: Irving Sanchez Caught On Tape Abusing Pit Bull Puppy

The NYPD says Irving Sanchez, 46, is the man seen in this image taken on May 22, 2011 striking pit bull puppy Max. (credit: NYPD)

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – Most people have puppy love. A man caught on tape in an East Harlem elevator seems to have the opposite.

The New York Police Department says Irving Sanchez, 46, was arrested after allegedly being caught on an elevator’s surveillance camera brutalizing a pit bull puppy.

The video was captured Sunday in the Wagner Houses in East Harlem. It shows a shocking attack.

Video: Animal Cruelty Caught On Tape

in the video, a man police say is Sanchez is seen walking into the elevator with a small pit bull puppy named Max. Once inside the elevator, the man is seen dragging the dog from side to side of the elevator by its leash, hurling it into the elevator walls.

Then the man leans in and hits the dog repeatedly with the handle of the leash, wielding the strap like a club.

Finally the man starts stepping on the dog and appears to kick him.

Sanchez was arrested the next day. He is charged with aggravated cruelty to animals.

Max was taken to an animal shelter. If guilty, what’s the appropriate punishment in this case? Sound off in our comments section.

see more on newyork.cbslocal.com

GoDaddy.com CEO Under Fire for Killing African Elephant

Godaddy.com CEO Bob Parsons has convinced himself that he's a humanitarian. I think he's got a long way to go before he lives up to that self-billing. He's in the news today because he traveled to Zimbabwe recently to shoot an elephant for a trophy and then released a video in which he is happily grinning over his conquest. Now the man known for racy Super Bowl ads is spinning his version of the event and trying to morph this selfish act of slaughter into some selfless act of charity.

He shot the elephant at night, and claims it was a "problem elephant." It happened to be a bull elephant with sizeable tusks, just the type that trophy hunters like to kill. He seems to be a rather obsessive trophy hunter; one other self-produced video on the web shows him wounding and later killing a leopard, and the current edition of Safari Club International's magazine shows an array of animal heads mounted on his wall as trophies.

If he wants to help the people of Africa, I suggest he spend a day with Oprah Winfrey or Bill Gates and learn how real charitable work on the continent is done. They've invested of their time and considerable wealth to promote education, housing, nutrition, and public health. And last time I checked, they didn't leave a trail of animal victims they've personally slain at the end of their visit. If he wants to help people keep elephants out of crop fields, he should fund the building of solar-powered fences like those successfully used for this purpose in neighboring South Africa. My guess is Mr. Parsons went to Africa to shoot an elephant, and perhaps some other creatures, and then tried to find some high-sounding rationale for his gambit.

I've heard this kind of excuse-making from trophy hunters before. In fact, in my book, The Bond, to be released on April 5, I recount the rhetorical gymnastics and whitewashing of a killing spree also in southern Africa by trophy hunter Ken Behring, who shot several endangered elephants in one of his safaris. Like Parsons, he claimed he did the killing for the good of the community, identifying the animals as "problem elephants." It turns out that wildlife authorities in Mozambique had a different take on the matter, and they wanted Ken Behring to leave their country without delay.

HSUS has about 650 domain names with GoDaddy.com. I've instructed our staff to find another host for them. We don't like doing business with a company with a leader like Parsons. I hope you'll think about following suit. No one needs to kill elephants either to show his manhood or to do humanitarian work.

This post originally appeared on Pacelle's blog, A Humane Nation.

see more : huffingtonpost.com/wayne-pacelle/godaddycom-ceo-under-fire_b_843661.html

GoDaddy.com founder defends elephant-hunting video

(CNN) -- The CEO of GoDaddy.com on Friday defended an online video that shows him shooting and killing an elephant in Zimbabwe.

"It takes a guy like me" to protect villagers' crops from rogue elephants, he said.

Bob Parsons, founder of the Scottsdale, Arizona-based web-hosting service, posted the graphic video on his Twitter account on March 14. The footage, shot March 8, shows him hunting an elephant on a farm and posing with a shotgun beside its corpse.

Then, it shows locals crowding around the dead animal and cutting off pieces of its meat.

Parsons said he killed the animal for the good of local farmers whose crops are often destroyed by elephants.

"They would say 'please come back,' " he said, arguing the measure is an effective way to protect crops and feed hungry local residents.

The video shows him walking through a field of flattened sorghum plants, which he said had been crushed by roaming elephants.

The reason he posted the video, Parsons said, is because he wants "people to know what goes on over there."

"There were people who walked 25 miles to get to that elephant," he said, referencing a food crisis that has often plagued developing countries.

But critics call his methods extreme.

The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals initiated an online boycott of GoDaddy.com and its services until Parsons "stops shooting animals," according to the organization's website.

Parsons' own website has also been inundated by negative comments about the video.

"A lot of the people who are upset about this are animal lovers," Parsons said. "Their heart is in the right place but they just don't understand the situation."

He called the fact that the elephant meat provided food for the people "a bonus."

"They literally have nothing and they're on the brink of starvation," he said.

Parsons has traveled to Zimbabwe for several years, but only last year began hunting elephants at the request of local farmers, he said.

Elephant experts say it is not illegal to kill rogue elephants in Zimbabwe.

Parsons said he has killed five elephants.

PETA rejected Parsons' explanation, with the organization's president, Ingrid Newkirk, releasing a statement saying, "If Bob Parsons really wanted to help African villagers, he would use his money to promote one of the many effective, nonlethal methods available to protect crops -- not act like a little boy with a gun."

In a press release, PETA said it is pulling its business from GoDaddy.com, and the group labeled Parsons "Scummiest CEO of the Year."

Meanwhile, asked if the PETA boycott had affected GoDaddy.com's business, company spokeswoman Elizabeth Driscoll said, "There has been no significant change in business."

see more on CNN.com

GoDaddy.com CEO Fights to Explain Elephant Shooting

In this screenshot of Parsons' hunting video posted on the Video.me website, the GoDaddy.com CEO shoots an elephant bull in Zimbabwe.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – GoDaddy.com CEO Bob Parsons scrambled to explain his motives Friday after a video he put on Twitter of himself killing an elephant in Zimbabwe went viral -- leading to calls for a boycott from animal-rights groups.

In the video, Parsons and a team of others shoot an elephant they claim was destroying farmers' crops in the area.

"They've been here three nights in a row, we're hoping they come back for a fourth. And if they do, well, we're gonna be here to greet 'em," Parsons says with evident relish. The team then waits up at night for the elephants to come. When they do Parsons shoots one of them as an accompanying screen graphic says "Bob Parsons fires again. Both shots hit home."

The CEO can then be seen smiling as he stands over the elephant with his gun before another scene shows local villagers hacking the animal to bits, all while wearing orange GoDaddy.com hats. The scene is accompanied by AC/DC's "Hell's Bells" music.

"When you see me smiling in that picture, I'm smiling because I'm relieved no one was hurt, that the crop was saved, and that these people were going to be fed -- the type of smile when you get a good report card or achieve a goal," Parsons told Mashable Thursday.

"I've been going to Africa for six years," he said, "and I progressively became aware of the elephant situation and what a problem it is for the locals."

Parsons explained to the tech website that far from being an endangered species, elephant herds in Zimbabwe are abundant and a nuisance to local farmers who face the threat of starvation on a constant basis due to elephants destroying their crops.

Non-violent solutions such as fences, fires and loud noises are not enough to ward them off, he explained.

"This farmer was desperate," Parsons said. "He couldn't get the herd out of his field. He asked us to come and deal with it."

However, animal-rights groups were not buying it, claiming that Parsons was using a "flimsy" excuse to disguise his passion for hunting big game.

"Parsons is hiding behind the lame claim that killing elephants helps farmers in Africa whose crops are damaged by the animals," People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said on its website.

"In fact, there are ample effective and nonlethal methods to deter elephants from crops, including using chili-infused string and beehives on poles to create low-cost 'fences.' Instead of coming up with flimsy excuses for killing these highly intelligent and social animals, Parsons should use his wealth to fund humane solutions to human/elephant conflicts."

The group said that it had closed its account with GoDaddy as a result of its CEO's actions and encouraged supporters to do the same.

Rival companies also saw an opening to bash a competitor. Los Angeles-based NameCheap.com was offering special time-limited deals to customers who switched over to their service in protest, saying that it would donate 20 percent of the revenue from new accounts to the Save The Elephants charity.

"All of us at Namecheap were very disturbed by this video," the company said. "Elephants are an endangered species and hunting these for any reason is something we feel strongly against."

Parsons, an ex-Marine who served in Vietnam, told Mashable that while he understood the concern of critics, the situation was more complicated than it appeared.

"These people look at this from the context of being Americans," he said. "We're well-fed and isolated from the process of growing and butchering meat. We see this, and we're horrified. Their hearts are in the right place, but they just don't understand what's going on over there."

GoDaddy.com, a private company founded by Parsons in 1997, operates more than 46 million domain names.

Read more:

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/04/01/godaddycom-ceo-tries-explain-elephant-shooting/#ixzz1NjL8KHsM

Barcelona wins Champions League title

associated Press

Barcelona Wins Champions League Title

Shaka Hislop breaks down Barcelona's third Champions League title in six yearsTags: Shaka Hislop, Champions League, Lionel Messi, Messi, Patrice Evra, Barcelona, analysis, Manchester United, Wayne Rooney

WEMBLEY, England -- The debate is over now. Barcelona is on the list of soccer's all-time greatest teams.

Led by another dominant performance from Lionel Messi, the Catalan club beat Manchester United 3-1 on Saturday to earn its third Champions League title in six seasons and No. 4 overall.

"I feel privileged," Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola said. "You always want to win, but the way we have won is what I am most proud of. This is the way we want to play football.

"Lionel is the best player I have seen and probably the best I will ever see."

Messi was typically subdued in his celebration.

"I'm very happy about the match," Messi said. "We were the better team. We deserved to win."

Messi put Barcelona ahead to stay with his 53rd goal and helped create another score to give the Spanish league champion some breathing room.

Barcelona dominated play at Wembley Stadium with its trademark one-touch passing, but it needed the Argentine striker to conjure a 54th-minute solo strike from the edge of the penalty area to take the lead for the second time.

There seemed to be no space as Messi was tracked by fullback Patrice Evra. But the two-time world player of the year spotted a gap between the central defenders and hit a shot down the middle, beating goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar.

Messi added a fake and run that led to David Villa taking possession on the edge of the area. From there, the Spain striker curled a shot into the top corner of the net.

"They do mesmerize you with their passing and we never really did control Messi," United manager Alex Ferguson said. "But many people have said that.

"In my time as manager, it's the best team I've faced."

Soccer commentators had said before the game that Barcelona, which already had won a third straight Spanish league title, would be ranked among the sport's truly great teams with a victory over United. Now, with four European titles, only Liverpool, AC Milan and Barcelona's fierce rival Real Madrid have won more.

With Pedro Rodriguez scoring the opening goal midway through the first half on an imaginative through ball from Xavi Hernandez, the win was as comprehensive as Barcelona's 2-0 victory over United in the 2009 final in Rome.

[+] Enlarge

LLUIS GENE/AFP/Getty ImagesLionel Messi was the star of the show as Barcelona dominated Manchester United to win its third Champions League title in six years.

"When Rome finished, I thought we had played a good game, but when I looked at it again I wasn't that impressed," Guardiola said. "But it has served its purpose.

"I think we played much better than the game two years ago."

Guardiola now has won 10 titles -- including two European Cups -- in three years.

Wayne Rooney's goal in the 34th minute left it tied at 1 at halftime. Rooney carried the ball to the edge of the area, slipping it to Ryan Giggs. Giggs knocked it back, giving Rooney the perfect opportunity to curl a shot past goalkeeper Victor Valdes at the far post.

Barcelona's performance was so comfortable that Guardiola was able to bring on regular captain Carles Puyol for the last few moments, giving the oft-injured defender the chance to play a part in a memorable triumph.

But in a gesture symbolizing Barcelona's team ethic, Puyol handed the armband over to Eric Abidal. His place on the team had been in doubt after he had surgery this season to remove a liver tumor -- and the France defender lifted the famous trophy.

"Players are human beings," Guardiola said. "Carles has made a great gesture and it has made us stronger."

After a shaky opening, Barcelona simply outclassed the English champions. Xavi, standing in as captain for Puyol, orchestrated play from in front of Sergio Busquets, while Andres Iniesta and Messi hurt United with pinpoint passing.

"This is the reason I came to Barcelona," Villa said. "I'm very happy, very satisfied. We have a team with ambition, a team with the will to win."

United could do little to disrupt Barcelona, the prevailing force of European soccer.

"They were the better team so we can't really argue," United's Rio Ferdinand said. "They're a great side with great players."

Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press

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