We like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, you like it and so, it seems, do a whole bunch of other people. How can we be sure?

Well, Activision on Tuesday announced that week-one sales of Modern Warfare 3 were 12.3 Million units, making it the biggest launch of all time. That number of units sold also brought in about $738 Million in revenue. Not bad for the first week.

The Xbox 360 version of the game was in the lead with sales of more than 7 million units, a record for game sales on a single console that was previously held by Call of Duty: Black Ops and its 5.8 Million units sold. 4.8 Million copies were sold for the PlayStation 3.

But what of the Wii? It had about 500K copies sold for it along with the PC version of the game, which also had about the same. In addition, in case you hadn’t heard, Activision announced late last week that COD:MW3 sold 6.5 Million copies and made $400 Million during its launch weekend alone. That’s also a record, by the way.

I’m sure Hollywood must be salivating pretty hard right now wishing they could get these kinds of sales figures for some of their movies. Of course, that would mean they would have to make good movies first. And let’s face it, most of them aren’t.

Look for our review of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 very soon. We know John is working on it and it’s going to be great.

Sometimes news comes through that will just ruin your day. For fans of the NBC comedy Community, that day may just be today. On Tuesday, NBC announced their midseason schedule, and while a few shows got an extension, one fan favorite may be facing the chopping block at the end of the season.

In order to make room for shows they believe in such as Up All Night and 30 Rock, the network has decided to not order any new episodes of Dan Harmon’s Community for the midseason, leaving them on hiatus until further notice. Whether or not this means the show is getting cancelled has yet to be decided, but it does mean that we may not get any more Community until as early as the Summer.

Also going through some changes at the network: Whitney will be moved to Wednesday nights into a block with Chelsea Handler’s new sitcom. Prime Suspect has also been put on the bench until further notice, and the legal drama Murphey’s Law got a full season order.

With the network rocking last place in the ratings, it only makes sense that they would make some drastic changes to stir up the status quo. Fans are already crying out to make sure their favorite show doesn’t get the axe, but it may take a lot in order to convince NBC otherwise.

Take a look at the new midseason schedule after the jump.

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David Yates has been spending the better part of the last seven years directing the final half of one of the most lucrative franchises in the history of cinema. Now that the plucky “boy who lived” is all done with his misadventures at Hogwarts, Yates is looking to bring his new found clout to another of Britian’s fictional Goliaths, Dr. Who.

Variety is reporting that Yates has teamed up with BBC Worldwide Productions to bring the Doctor to the movies.

“We’re looking at writers now. We’re going to spend two to three years to get it right,” [Yates] said. “It needs quite a radical transformation to take it into the bigger arena.”

Dr. Who is the longest running sci-fi television show of all time. Spanning nearly fifty years, this classic show has gone under several major overhauls and is know for it’s ability to re-shuffle itself on the fly. The most incredible thing about the Dr. Who franchise is that flexibility has been worked into the cannon of the show. The Doctor is always the same guy, he just “regenerates” into a new body, personality and all. Neat huh?

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As we draw closer to the 2012 award season, you can expect so see more and more films that folks like to refer to as “Oscar bait” which are considered films that actors use purely for the sake of an Academy Award Nomination.

One big one this year will surely be Meryll Streep’s performance of Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady. The second film? Clearly Robert De Niro’s role in the upcoming Paul Weitz film Being Flynn. Here’s the premise.

Based on a true story, BEING FLYNN follows Nick Flynn (Paul Dano) who is shocked to have his eccentric and long-absent father, Jonathan (De Niro) reach out to him unexpectedly. Still feeling the loss of his mother (Julianne Moore) in the midst of starting a new relationship with Denise (JUNO’s Olivia Thirlby), the last person Nick wants to see is his father. But you can’t outrun fate and slowly Nick comes to realize he has been given the chance to make a real future not only for himself, but for his struggling father too.

Prepare to have your heartstrings sufficiently tugged in the trailer after the jump, and catch Being Flynn in theaters next Spring.

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This past weekend Cartoon Network aired a one-hour special showcasing their next DC animated series, Green Lantern. Cartoon Network has a long history of eclectic and generally fantastic shows based on DC characters, and 2012 looks to be a banner year for Warner’s Super Hero stable.

Green Lantern: The Animated Series begins with this new special, setting up a  plot that sees Hal and Kilowog in deep “frontier space” fighting against the Red Lanterns. The show itself will air regularly in 2012 as a marquee show in Carton Network’s new DC Nation programming. It joins Young Justice and a slew of shorts, news and other fun DC tidbits next year.

The most interesting thing about this series is that for the first time ever a Bruce Timm produced show is animated in full CG. Timm’s artistic style is clearly the inspiration for the designs and despite the full CG animation there is clearly an effort to make this show fit alongside the others in the pantheon of Timm-verse shows.

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This week’s Monday Pick is the classic “animals run amok” monster movie Alligator (1980). The film stars Academy Award nominee Robert Forster, Robin Riker, Michael Gazzo, and Henry Silva.

Alligator is a well written, tongue in cheek horror film centered on the old urban legend of alligators that are flushed down the drain and thrive in the subterranean jungle of the city sewer. The film was penned by writer/director John Sayles who helped write the 1978 Joe Dante Jaws homage Piranha and would also help to write the upcoming release of The Howling. Sayles crafts another horror classic that pits man against a marauding beast with an insatiable appetite.

Robert Forster stars as policeman David Madison who has been investigating some grizzly murders committed in the sewers of a Missouri city. Madison begins investigating further after a pet store owner’s remains ended up in the city’s sewage treatment facility. One other baffling discovery is a women’s small dog that appears to have grown in size substantially after it was reported missing.

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Mario has a brand new game just around the corner. To celebrate the release of Super Mario 3D Land, Nintendo took over Time Square in New York City, brining a little bit of the mushroom kingdom to throngs of fans. Set up on the streets of New York was a life size Mario dream land, complete with pipes, bouncy coin jumps and a classic flag pole at the end.

The brand new 3DS game is the first original adventure for Mario on Nintendo’s newest handheld, and anticipation could not be higher. The glasses-less 3D technology has always been impressive, but the 3DS has been lacking a lynch pin game to make people need the device. Nintendo has high hopes Super Mario 3d Land is that game. Word on the street in Mushroom Land, New York is that Nintendo might have gotten their wish.

We are most excited about the triumphant return of the Tanooki Suit, Mario’s full body raccoon outfit. This awesome costume debuted in Super Mario Bros. 3 on the original NES and has been woefully underused since. Mario has donned several full body costumes, but there was always something extra amazing about seeing our favorite plummer get his furry on.

You can catch a video of the awesome Super Mario 3D Land event after the jump.

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Lionsgate has released its first trailer for The Hunger Games, the Gary Ross-directed adaptation of the first of a trilogy of Suzanne Collins novels. In case you’re not familiar with the books and/or the upcoming film, here’s a bit of info directly from Lionsgate:

Every year in the ruins of what was once North America, the evil Capitol of the nation of Panem forces each of its twelve districts to send a teenage boy and girl to compete in the Hunger Games. A twisted punishment for a past uprising and an ongoing government intimidation tactic, The Hunger Games are a nationally televised event in which “Tributes” must fight with one another until one survivor remains.

Pitted against highly-trained Tributes who have prepared for these Games their entire lives, Katniss is forced to rely upon her sharp instincts as well as the mentorship of drunken former victor Haymitch Abernathy. If she’s ever to return home to District 12, Katniss must make impossible choices in the arena that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

Will this be good? Who knows. At least they don’t seem to be taking the Twilight approach and making it incredibly cheesy, so at least that’s something.

Check out the trailer after the break. Look for The Hunger Game, which stars Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth, to arrive in theaters on March 23rd.

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Hard to believe it, but with Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs nearly 20 years old, it only makes sense that up-and-coming writer/director combos are going to start making their homages to Quentin Tarantino for what’ he’s done to the cinematic community. That’s the first thing that comes to mind with the trailer for Catch .44.

The film has an interesting vibe, most of which can be attributed to several periods of Tarantino’s work, from neo-noir to grindhouse. Here’s the film’s synopsis to shed a bit more light.

Oscar winner Forest Whitaker, Bruce Willis and Malin Akerman lead an all-star cast in this suspense thriller where everyone has an agenda… and a Magnum to back it up! For Tes (Akerman) and her two cohorts Kara (Nikki Reed, the “TWILIGHT” franchise) and Tara (Deborah Ann Woll, “True Blood”), the job sounded simple enough: intercept a double-cross drug shipment for their crime boss Mel (Willis) at an isolated diner.

But when an unstoppable chain of events unfolds, everyone soon realizes no one is who they seem and the job may be something other than eliminating the competition. What started as simple instructions has now turned into a deadly cat-and-mouse game – with large guns pointed at everyone.

You won’t get to catch this film in theaters, as its going straight to DVD and Blu-Ray on December 20th. Take a look at the first trailer after the jump.

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This is one of those weekends that proves the merit of the American moviegoer. Will people fill theaters to go see Adam Sandler get in a fistfight with himself dressed in drag? Or will they go see a biopic of one of the most important men in US history?

Looks like it was neither, as people would rather see the next Superman take out Mickey Rourke while a bunch of Greek gods watch from above (not to knock the movie, it was entertaining). Opening in just over 3,000 screens, Immortals made it to the #1 spot this weekend with a reach of $32 million in the domestic box office, and over $60 million worldwide.

Sadly, coming in at a (too) close second, Sandler’s Jack and Jill managed to pull in $26 million this weekend, averaging roughly $7,500 per screen. In second and third are last weekend’s top hits, Puss in Boots and Tower Heist, which are still making strong money.

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Christopher Young is most known for his Gothic, bombastic scores for horror films like Drag Me To Hell and Hellraiser. His wheel house has always been big, bold and scary, which is why his music for The Rum Diary is so very interesting.  This music isn’t scary, it isn’t going to give you nightmares, in fact I think I want to have a Mai Ti with a funny little umbrella in it while I listen to it.

The Rum Diary is a return to the world of Hunter S. Thompson and the music is fits in very well with what you expect from that statement. It has a jazzy, free spirited nature that devolves into some serious kookiness from time to time. The most interesting quirks of this score are the Tom Waits-ian vocals that appear from time to time and a guitar duet with Johnny Depp and JJ Holiday.

Christopher Young, who was originally a jazz drummer, was influenced on big jazz band sounds of the ’50s and ’60s, and you can hear how much fun he is having with this music.

One of the trade mark elements that I love so much about Young’s horror scores is that despite the imagery and pure evil his music represents, you all ways have a since that he is having fun with the music. This trademark is thankfully front and center in this score, I have to smile while I listen.

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Join WallE and me, JC, once again for another episode of The Bitcast. This week has been loaded with news with the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Assassin’s Creed‘s Ezio making his way into the Soul Caliber ranks and the gigantic spike in the population of DC Universe Online going free to play.

In the Topic of the Week, WallE and JC debate whether the video game industry will ever be as big as the movie industry. They discuss the merits and weaknesses of both with JC saying games will surpass movies while WallE leans more on the side of cinema and end up coming to a surprising conclusion.

In their Now Playing section, WallE leads off with the PlayStation 3 release, the Simpsons Game from 2007. JC talks about his latest review title for The Flickcast with Goldeneye 007: Reloaded, much to WallE’s disapproval of the lack of Sean Bean in the game.

Check out the full show below and make sure to subscribe to The Flickcast feed in the iTunes podcast section to get The Bitcast automatically downloaded each week.