One was a slam dunk, the other was a blockbuster to be that came into the weekend stinking of behind the scenes drama. Yet in the end both hit theaters this week and obliterated expectations.

Monsters University is the prequel to one of the older PIXAR classics, telling the tale of how everyone’s favorite boogie men, Mike and Sully, learned their scare trade. The film took in $82 million over the weekend giving PIXAR its second highest opening ever, and their 14th strait number one debut. Lets just ponder that for a second, even as the creative armor of the premier animation house of the west shows some chinks in their armor, they maintain a perfect record on the financial side of the movie equation. The quality of the recent PIXAR films is up to some debate, but what can’t be denied is they still know how to make a movie people want to see.

While everyone and their mother knew MU would be a hit, the big surprise of the weekend came from the Brad Pitt zombie blockbuster, World War Z. The studio had modest expectations initially, and the general geek community had no expectations. The film veered far from the source material that is much beloved, the movie was plagued by re-shoots and seeming instability from the set, and it is a PG-13 zombie film which just feels wrong. Despite all of that working against it in the buzz department, the film was well sold and generally positive reviews helped to make all those other issues all but disappear. The net result was $66 million at the box office and a lot of turned heads.

The Fast and Furious franchise is among the most curious in cinema history. Over a decade ago, when the first film came out, no one could have foreseen half a dozen films and hundreds of millions in total box office. Yet here we stand looking back at yet another weekend where the number 1 film is both speedy and a little irate.

The film brought in an estimated $34.5 Million in its second weekend, which was just good enough to take first place. The film followed suit with its predecessors and took a nasty dip in weekend number 2, but the lack of a big film releasing during the slow, post Memorial Day weekend left enough room for Vin Diesel to have another weekend with the penthouse view.

The big winner of the weekend, however, is second place finisher Now You See Me. The magician/heist film boasted a way-above-expectation $28 Million, which proves once again that putting Morgan Freeman in you trailers is a fast track to box office windfall. The film has a loaded cast, and provided enough of a change of pace to carve out a really nice audience in the middle of blockbuster season.

That’s right fans of intense, adult TV drama, NBC has apparently heard you and decided to give Hannibal a second season of 13 episodes. The announcement came today, almost two full weeks after NBC’s Upfront presentation.

The series, based on the novel Red Dragon by Thomas Harris and developed for television by Bryan Fuller, will return mid-season (after most of NBC’s new Fall shows tank). We kid, we kid.

“We’re so proud of Bryan’s vision for a show that is richly textured, psychologically complex, and very compelling,” NBC Entertainment president Jennifer Salke said. “There are many great stories still to be told.”

Could not agree more. This show is almost too good for TV and with several other entities, including Amazon, waiting in the wings should NBC not renew the series, we were confidant it would cary on in some form or another.

Fortunately, it looks like NBC decided to make a good decision here and go with the quality. We’re very glad they did.

After 20,000,000 downloads sold, Minecraft could be on pace to take down the Sims as the top selling PC game. So obviously, people are looking to get their piece of the pie but Mojang cofounder Carl Manneh says they aren’t looking to sell. In a recent interview with Reuters, Manneh explained why he and the rest of the founders of Mojang have no interest in selling.

When discussing the money, Manneh said, “We are living the dream, really… An exit would be huge, but do we really need that money? In our case, we have the cash flow. We have more money than we need.” Currently, the XBox Live version of Minecraft sells for $20 a pop, in addition to the PC, Mac and mobile versions of the game.

It’s difficult to know if this is a good thing or a bad thing but nevertheless, it’s happening. Disney is buying Lucasfilm and the rights to the Star Wars franchise for a reported $4 Bilion. That’s “Billion.”

Here’s the full press release:

Burbank, CA and San Francisco, CA, October 30, 2012 – Continuing its strategy of delivering exceptional creative content to audiences around the world, The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) has agreed to acquire Lucasfilm Ltd. in a stock and cash transaction. Lucasfilm is 100% owned by Lucasfilm Chairman and Founder, George Lucas.

Under the terms of the agreement and based on the closing price of Disney stock on October 26, 2012, the transaction value is $4.05 billion, with Disney paying approximately half of the consideration in cash and issuing approximately 40 million shares at closing. The final consideration will be subject to customary post-closing balance sheet adjustments.

Even though some may think the new iPhone 5 isn’t a revolutionary device or a “must” upgrade, others obviously feel (and think) differently. That’s right, after only a short time being available, pre-order stock of the iPhone 5 has sold out at Verizon Wireless, AT&T and Sprint.

The devices went on sale this morning at 3:01 AM Eastern, 12:01 AM Pacific and shortly thereafter the company’s initial stock of iPhone 5s was exhausted for all three carriers. Shipping time for new orders placed on Apple’s website reportedly slipped to two weeks just before 4:00 AM Eastern, where it now sits.

For those of you lucky enough to get your order in early, all three carriers are reportedly quoting launch-day delivery, at least for any orders placed as of 8:15 AM Eastern Friday morning.

So, were you one of the lucky ones to get an order in before they ran out? Or, are you gonna wait and see how things go before you jump in?

In what will most likely amount to very little when competing with the dominance of the iPad and Kindle, Microsoft and Barnes & Noble today announced the formation of a new partnership. Said partnership will combine B&N’s Nook and College business into an as yet unmamed subsidiary with Microsoft investing $300 Million to help get it up and running.

“The formation of [this new subsidiary] and our relationship with Microsoft are important parts of our strategy to capitalize on the rapid growth of the NOOK business, and to solidify our position as a leader in the exploding market for digital content in the consumer and education segments,” said William Lynch, CEO of Barnes & Noble. “Microsoft’s investment in Newco, and our exciting collaboration to bring world-class digital reading technologies and content to the Windows platform and its hundreds of millions of users, will allow us to significantly expand the business.”

That sounds good. Snarky comment at the top of this post aside, as much as we like Apple and its products around here, a little competition is good for everyone — especially consumers. So, we wish Microsoft and B&N luck with their new Nook adventure.

For me details, check out Barnes & Noble’s full press release after the break.

What do you do if you’ve managed to make your once struggling DVD rental-by-mail company into one of, if not the, biggest rental and content streaming services in the world? Well, if you’re Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, you make some poor decisions regarding pricing, apologize for them and split off your DVD rental biz into a completely different company.

That’s just what Reed has done with Netflix’s DVD rental business. He announced this week via the company’s blog that the Netflix will split its DVD and streaming video businesses and rebrand the DVD division as “Qwikster.”

“In hindsight, I slid into arrogance based upon past success,” Hastings said in the blog post. “Now I see that given the huge changes we have been recently making, I should have personally given a full justification to our members of why we are separating DVD and streaming, and charging for both,” Hastings added.

I guess Hastings felt he had to do something what with all the backlash recently over the recently rolled out price hike of 60% which helped drop the company’s stock by almost 50%. Not only that but Starz has also has not renewed its deal with the company which means fewer movies and other content for the service.

Qwikster will be a separate company and will, in addition to movies and TV programs, also offer video game rentals. Expect to see Qwikster.com to go live in the next few weeks.

So, what do we think of this? Is it a good move or the last gasp of a dying company out of touch with customers? Sound off in the comments.

I guess it doesn’t pay to be Jada Pinkett Smith these days. First, rumors surface of your alleged affair with Mark Anthony which made Will Smith cry and now TNT has decided not to renew your TV show.

That’s right, for those of you watching Smith and her co-stars each week on Hawthorne, the show will not be back for a fourth season. This news comes after TNT recently canceled another show that, at least in my opinion, was pretty good and worth watching: Men of a Certain Age.

Apparently also “on the bubble” is the Jason Lee starrer Memphis Beat, which has been on for two seasons already. According to reports, the odds of it returning are pretty much even money.

Here’s the official statement about Hawthorne from TNT:

TNT has decided not to order a fourth season of HawthoRNe. TNT truly appreciates the tremendous dedication of everyone involved in HawthoRNe. The series gave TNT the opportunity to work with many outstanding people, including Jada Pinkett Smith and the rest of the show’s talented cast, crew, producers and writers. We wish everyone involved with HawthoRNe nothing but the best.

Nothing but the best. Isn’t that nice? And they say people in Hollywood don’t care.

Even though most of the country is going through some tough economic times at the moment, the fine folks at Apple (and its shareholders) are literally laughing all the way to the bank. Why? Well, as of market close on Wednesday, Apple’s market capitalization is $337.17 Billion. Yes, you read that right.

That market cap is $6 Billion higher than Exxon Mobile, which ended the day at $330.77 Billion. This development currently makes Apple the most valuable company in the world. Although, with the nature of the market these days, both companies will likely trade the number one spot in the days to come.

This news is pretty impressive considering Apple was on the verge of bankruptcy less than 20 years ago. The company, thanks in large part to the return of Stave Jobs and some truly innovative and amazing products, has surely rebounded and come out on top in spite of the naysayers who predicted its demise back then.

Apple is expected to launch new iPhone and iPad models this fall which will undoubtedly only help the company continue to dominiate. I, for one, can’t to see what happens over the next 20 years.

In a world where branding is extremely important, one company has risen to the top — at least according to a recent study. What is this top company? Why, it’s Apple of course.

According to a study conducted by advertising firm WPP and published in their “BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands,” Apple’s brand value has increased 859% since 2006, and jumped 84% to $153.3 billion this year. Yes, that’s a lot.

Apple isn’t alone, however, as tech companies are predominate on the list with AT&T, China Mobile, IBM, and Microsoft all having spots in the top-10 most valuable brands list. McDonald’s is the only non-tech brand in the top-5. Google had reigned supreme for the past four years before being displaced by Apple, and Amazon surpassed Walmart to become the No. 1 retailer.

Not bad for a company that was thought to be dead not that long ago. Click through to read the full press release from WPP.

In what may not be completely surprising news but, at least to some, may be disappointing, your choices of wireless carrier in the U.S. look to be dropping by one. Why? AT&T, the nation’s second largest wireless provider, announced late yesterday that they will acquire T-Mobile USA from parent company Deutsche Telekom in a cash and stock deal worth approximately $39 Billion.

What does that mean for you and me? Well, for me at least, it means nothing. I’m a Verizon Wireless customer. For those of you who are not or who enjoy having as many wireless choices as possible, it means you will now have to pick between AT&T, Verizon or Sprint if you want to go with a national wireless company.

Choice and, more to the point, competition, is one of the best things about pretty much any kind of business. Competition forces companies to constantly innovate and hopefully strive to be better and treat customers well so they will stay. Having fewer choices and thus less competition can allow companies to become complacent and not try their best.

With the lackluster reputation AT&T already has with many customers, I can’t see that the company having fewer competitors is a good thing. What’s their motivation to change and be better if the customer has nowhere else to go? The answer is they won’t have any. And that, friends, is not good.

Click through to check out the full press release from AT&T about this announcement.