Nintendo’s Mario the plumber is officially a movie star, becoming the top-opening video game adaptation worldwide this past weekend. “Super Mario Bros.” original game designer Shigeru Miyamoto says he plans to keep his celebrity duo — Mario and brother Luigi — away from the small screen, meaning mobile. The legendary video game creator can afford to be picky about his A-lister’s venues. “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” animated feature easily topped the long Easter weekend box office charts by earning $204.6 million domestic and $377 million worldwide. Continue reading Animated ‘Super Mario’ Is the Top Game-Based Film Opener

Just three months after Facebook cut off the messaging capabilities from its mobile app, the company’s standalone messaging app, Facebook Messenger, now has 500 million monthly active users. That’s a 150 percent increase over last year. Much of the success is thanks to David Marcus, the former CEO of PayPal that took over the Messenger operation. In the future, Marcus and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg plan to integrate payments and possibly advertising into the Messenger app. Continue reading Facebook Messenger Growing Rapidly with 500 Million Users