The latest data from analytics firm Flurry research shows that mobile apps are now used by more than 50 million people in America during the most hectic period of the day. And that moment is at 8:00 p.m. — smack in the middle of TV’s prime time. On weekdays, 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. is the stretch when mobile apps reach more than 50 million U.S. consumers. This happens to coincide with the time most big broadcast television shows air. It probably is no coincidence that while mobile app usage exploded between 2011 and 2013, the most important prime time shows started imploding. “American…

Iron Man 3 opens this weekend and we’re all looking forward to it a lot. So let’s open up the week with this clip of Tony Stark having a heart to heart conversation with Pepper Potts.

It’s this sort of thing that makes me think this film is possibly going to be the best Iron Man film yet. This clip does not feature Stark flying around fighting baddies or other crazy action at all. It’s just dialog, and it’s good stuff. This is to me what makes a film good.

Take a look.

I am pleased to announce that next week, Joe and I will be joined by the esteemed Dan Benjamin of 5by5 on The MovieByte Podcast, and we will be broadcasting that episode live. But it will not be at the normal time. Dan’s availability is such that we will be doing the show live on Thursday at 3:30 PM Central Time.

Dan is a great inspiration to me and does great work over at 5by5, in fact he is the reason why I am in podcasting. I have been a consumer of his broadcasts for some time, but eventually I felt compelled to contribute to this great medium of podcasting — the way of the future as…

TJ takes a look back at the weekend box office report with ‘Oblivion’ topping the list, and deservedly so. Next up a video highlighting M83’s ‘Oblivion’ title track. Then there was a review on RogerEbert.com sucking the life out of ‘Oblivion’, and Joe has an article taking it down a notch. A ‘Fantastic Four’ reboot is in the works, which annoys and irritates TJ. ‘Thor 2’ has a teaser out and about. There is a rumor of an ‘Avengers 2’ teaser attached to screenings of ‘Iron Man 3’, which doesn’t make a lot of sense to TJ. TJ wrote an ‘Oblivion’ review this week. Netflix is now bigger than HBO, John Harrison has some video messages for us in Paramount’s viral marketing campaign. Regal and Cinemark are having a disagreement with Disney. Joss Whedon is talking about ‘S.H.I.E.L.D.’ and ‘Avengers 2’. Gwyneth Paltrow thinks this is the end of the line for ‘Iron Man’. And finally, what you might like to see in theaters this weekend.

Not a lot new going on this week, but trust me the dam is about to break and we are going to be flooded with summer movie fun let me tell you. Regardless, here’s your guide to what you might want to see this weekend.

Opening This Weekend

Pain & Gain - R
Michael Bay has consistently (with one exception) turned out films that are anywhere from mediocre, to complete and utter trash. This film looks like it’s closer to the trash side of the gage to me. I admit to having bias against the guy because I hate the Transformers franchise so much, but seriously, I am not the least interested in…

Funny or Die has this pretty awesome video depicting what it must or might be like for Michael Arndt to try to write something good for Star Wars. I certainly don’t envy him, he’s got a tough act to follow — the original three are hailed as great, the three prequels are hailed as absolute garbage, and his job is to make something that will please and appease everyone.

Yeah… good luck with that.

UPDATE 12:37 PM: AMC just released this pro forma statement. (Don’t you love how everybody is friends again?): “Iron Man 3 tickets are now on sale and we’re excited to welcome guests to the 9 PM debut and Marvel’s Iron Man Marathon at AMC, both on May 2. We thank our partners at Disney for working with us to achieve economical terms so we can present our guests with one of the biggest blockbusters of 2013 and solidly kick off the summer movie season.”

2ND UPDATE 2:30 PM: The largest domestic movie theater chain Regal Entertainment says this post is going up on its Facebook page: “Regal…

So since Pixar’s thing lately seems to be sequels, we might as well get comfy and enjoy them. Some of their best work has been in their sequels (Toy Story 3, anyone?).

While I do wish they would turn out some good original content, I’ll make myself happy with the likes of Monsters University. It’s looking pretty fun and funny if nothing else.

I’m looking forward to seeing it on June 21!

Well, shoot. That’s no good if true.

In an interview with Geek Nation, Gwyneth Paltrow made us all cry tears of grief and rage when she said, “I don’t think there’s going to be [an ‘Iron Man 4’]. I think we’re done with ‘Iron Man.” We await word to see if the studio, producers, and other filmmakers involved agree with that.

But all around that sad little bit of news is a great, fun, and geeky video that you should take the time to watch!