Hasta La Gadget!

This past weekend saw the opening of the third installment in the Iron Man series, and to no one’s real surprise, the movie took off in the US box office, grossing $175.3 million in just a few days, which makes Iron Man 3 the second-highest weekend opening ever, behind The Avengers, which is also a movie produced by Marvel.

The movie eclipses other box office films such as The Dark Knight series, The Hunger Games, and Spider-Man 3. Iron Man 3 beat out its predecessor by almost $50 million during opening weekend, when Iron Man 2 grossed $128.1 million during its opening weekend two years ago, where it ended up grossing $312.4 million altogether in the US.

However, Iron Man 3 is expected to gross a lot more than that. Analysts expect Iron Man 3 to gross a lot more than Iron Man 2, but The Avengers are still expected to keep the lead, where it ranks number three in all-time revenue at $623 million in the US, and comes in at number one in all-time opening weekend revenue at $207 million in the US.

Many would say that Iron Man 2 was quite underwhelming compared to the first film in the series, but with The Avengers being released last year, which featured Robert Downey Jr. playing Tony Stark in the film, The Avengers essentially set up Stark for a threequel that got comic book fans and geeks alike really excited for the next movie in the series.

Iron Man 3 sees second-highest weekend opening is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Ever wished you could go back to the past or travel through time into the future? I have, and I’m not ashamed to admit it. A lot of people would give the pageant-perfect answer and say no, explaining that they wouldn’t be who they were today had they changed their past experiences.

I agree with that sentiment most of the time, but there’s also the case of committing mistakes consciously, just because you were in the heat of the moment or just weren’t thinking at all, period. Of course, time travel is impossible in this world, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t pay to experience a literal blast from the past.

There’s currently a rental service that’s lending off a street-legal DeLorean time machine that looks like it came off the set of Back to the Future. It’s not one of the actuals car they used in the movie, though it’s a pretty good replica of the iconic car-slash-time machine.

The rental service is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota during the warm season and in Las Vegas, Nevada during the cold season. However, they can travel to “practically any location in the continental United States and Canada,” should you have a need for a time-traveling DeLorean.

Hourly rates are discussed on a case-to-case basis, so you might want to get in touch with Time Machine Rental if you’re interested.

Oh, and where you’re going, you’re probably going to need roads.

[via This is Why I’m Broke via Laughing Squid]

Have you ever wondered what an atom looks like magnified 100 million times and collected together with some other magnified atoms in the shape of a boy, animated, and set to music? If the answer is yes, we’ve got a short movie after the jump that will make your day. IBM Research, setting out to do something unique and hands-on, has created the world’s smallest movie using atoms.

IBM says this project challenged the limits of movie making, and involved positioning the magnified atoms individually for each frame, resulting in the short film you can watch in the video below titled, “A Boy and His Atom.” Set against a gray backdrop, the story tells of a boy named Atom and his friend, an atom (such a small medium puts limitations on story options, it seems).

How does one make a movie using atoms? With a very large microscope, says IBM. Specifically, with its scanning tunneling microscope, which was the first means by which scientists got to peer at atoms. It is a huge hulking beast of a machine weighing two tons and running at a temp said to be approximately -268 Celsius. The combination of features allowed the researchers to move the atoms around with high levels of precision. You can get a more detailed look at how it was made in the next video.

The project’s principle investigator Andreas Heinrich said: “Capturing, positioning and shaping atoms to create an original motion picture on the atomic-level is a precise science and entirely novel. At IBM, researchers don’t just read about science, we do it. This movie is a fun way to share the atomic-scale world while opening up a dialogue with students and others on the new frontiers of math and science.”

[via IBM]

IBM uses atoms to create world’s smallest movie is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

You may have expected the first ever portable motion picture camera to be housed in some form of stuffy box—but in fact it was shaped like a rifle, which lends a new accuracy to the idea of shooting some film. More »

When Disney acquired Lucasfilm back in October and announced Star Wars Episode VII, we knew right away that the long-time franchise was about to be heavily kickstarted, and we were certainly right. Today, Disney announced at CinemaCon that a new Star Wars movie will be released every summer starting in 2015 with Episode VII.

We’ve known for some time that there are going to be multiple Star Wars film in the future, including standalone films, but today’s news is certainly a new development. We’ve even been teased with Star Wars Episode VIII, which isn’t announced yet, but there will surely be a move to come after Episode VII.

The Disney films of the movies and the standalone films are said to alternative summers, meaning that Episode VIII would come out in 2017, with Episode IX releasing in 2019. The years in between would be the standalone films that will focus on individual characters in the Star Wars universe, such as Yoda, Han Solo, and Boba Fett.

Star Trek director JJ Abrams is on board to direct Star Wars Episode VII, with the script being written by Michael Arndt, who penned movies like Little Miss Sunshine, Toy Story 3, and Brave. He also wrote the screenplay for The Hunger Games sequel Catching Fire. Several actors from the original Star Wars trilogy are also reported to be returning for this latest movie.

[via Coming Soon]

Disney planning new Star Wars films every summer starting in 2015 is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.