Those of you who follow our weekly Box Office Report may have noticed that we skipped our report last week. It wasn’t for any other reason than it was the saddest and weakest week that the US box office brought in all year. It was pretty depressing.

We figured, given the fact that two blockbusters (one with a soft opening of 425 theaters) and a kids’ threequal was hitting theaters, there was bound to be a boom in ticket sales. Or so we thought.

This weekend, the big hit (and that’s speaking wildly) was Warner Bros’ Sherlock Holmes 2, which netted only $40 Million. That’s about $20 Million less than the first film brought in on its first weekend.

The margin after that first film was also pretty massive, as Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked pulled in a whole third of their production budget with a total of $23 Million for the weekend. This was the lowest of the three films’ opening weekends, which was about half of both films’ respective opening totals.

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Nothing like awards season to let you focus in on some fantastic film music! The Golden Globe nominations went out this week and in honor of that Film Score Friday is going to cover the nominated scores each of the next four weeks. I say four weeks because we already covered the excellent War Horse by John Williams. So let’s start off big with Hugo by Howard Shore.

Howard Shore is one of today’s leading composers, everyone and their mother knows his stuff from The Lord of the Rings, but Shore has had an impressive career beyond Middle-Earth. So it was an immediate pleasure to realize he was writing the music to Scorsese’s cinematic love letter to film.

Shore brings a fantastic French sound to the table. Much like Michael Giacchino’s Ratatouille score, Shore takes a the French style and makes it work beautifully within his own bag of tricks. The French influences are in almost every aspect of the score, yet at no time does it sound like wall to wall French music.

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• Michel Gondry got tired of the studios taking too long for the expected remake, so he decided to make his own low-budget remake of Taxi Driver. Here’s the trailer.

• Fans may have hated Nic Cage’s original Ghost Rider film, but with Crank’s Neveldine and Taylor on the sequel, and this trailer looking amazing, we can’t help but get excited.

• Dario Argento has earned the respect of horror and crime fans everywhere, but even he can’t expect us to ignore the putridness of this trailer for Dracula 3D. What was he thinking?

• A brand new fan trailer with giant robots has hit the web, and this time it only cost $150. The difference? It looks better than some multi-million dollar pictures.

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If you’ve been paying attention, you probably know today is Friday. Among other things that means previews for some of our favorite shows are ready and we’re going to bring them to you right here.

First up is Chuck which features special guest Rebecca Romijn. Sadly, she probably won’t be naked and sporting blue body paint but heck, she’s still nice to look at. She’s the bad guy in this week’s episode and we’ve got previews to prove it.

Next up is Grimm, a show that started slow but has gotten better over the weeks. In this week’s episode, an unsolved case returns after Nick encounters a mysterious homicide. I’m guessing that can’t be a good thing.

Finally, we’ve got a preview of NBC’s TV version of John Grisham’s novel The Firm. You may remember the movie version from several years ago which starred Tom Cruise but this one is, of course, different.

It features Josh Lucas taking over the role originated by Tom Cruise in the movie as well as Juliette Lewis and, finally getting a starrting role in a series, Callum Keith Rennie of BSG and, more recently, The Killing. Good for him. He deserves it.

Check out all the previews after the break.

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It’s a funny thing the video game business (and most technology businesses for that matter). When a game first comes out it’s often the cutting edge of gaming design and graphics and, if popular, almost impossible to find. And then time passes and a new game rises to take its place with the old one left in a pile, all but forgotten.

That’s not the case these days, however, at least with some games. Some games, if they’re popular enough, go on to be ported to the iPad, iPhone and Android-powered devices. That’s exactly what happened with the PS2 hit game Grand Theft Auto 3, which is now available for Android and iOS devices.

Just like in the version we all new and loved ten years ago, in the game you take it to the streets of Liberty City to complete a variety of missions with a large cast of seedy characters. Rockstar Games says players can count on hours of gameplay, updated graphics, HD quality and gameplay that has been optimized for touchscreen devices.

We’ll be the judge of that. Right now. Grand Theft Auto 3 is available in the Android Market and in the iTunes App Store now for $4.99.

Bryan Singer is finally sticking to what fans love by continuing to direct films in the fantasy genre. Sure, he may have burned a few bridges with his love letter to Richard Donner and Christopher Reeve in Superman Returns, but now he’s coming back with an all new twist on Jack the Giant Killer.

Along the same vein of Hunger Games and some of the new sexy “classics” done to a cool score, this flick will make you forget any of the stories done before it. Here’s the synopsis.

“Jack the Giant Killer” tells the story of an ancient war that is reignited when a young farmhand unwittingly opens a gateway between our world and a fearsome race of giants. Unleashed on the Earth for the first time in centuries, the giants strive to reclaim the land they once lost, forcing the young man, Jack, into the battle of his life to stop them.

Fighting for a kingdom, its people, and the love of a brave princess, he comes face to face with the unstoppable warriors he thought only existed in legend–and gets the chance to become a legend himself.

You can check out the trailer for the film after the jump. Catch Jack the Giant Killer in theaters on June 15th.

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America’s Got Talent is one of the top rated summer shows every year. It follows the same basic structure of all reality base competitions that promise not just a big cash prize but a career in entertainment. In all it is all a solid show anchored by three rather likable judges and a fun host.

This upcoming season will see a major shake-up in those judges as series grump-pus Piers Morgan is leaving the judges table and is begin replaced by shock jock Howard Stern. Stern’s youthful demographic and his reputation for honesty make him a great choice for the show, even if his antics are usually far more mature than expected for the family-friendly show.

Stern will be well compensated for his judging duties, and the entire show’s production is making the move to New York to accommodate Stern’s radio commitments. The show now boasts the most interesting judging panel in the realty show universe. It will be exciting to see how the relationship between Stern and his co-judges develops, and the first time Stern has to judge a stupid kid talent might be truly must see tv.

The show begins filming its audition phase this February with regular episodes starting in the Summer.

Two of the best filmmakers working today have giant blockbusters planned for 2012. Christopher Nolan and Ridley Scott are both bringing continuations of their star making franchises to the big screen. While Nolan is ending his run in the Batman universe with The Dark Knight Rises, Ridley Scott is breathing new life into the dormant Alien franchise with a prequel that may or may not have all that much to do with the previous films.

The Dark Knight Rises poster focuses on Bane walking away from a shattered Batman cowl. This really sells the concept of finality that this film brings. It is also nice to see the filmmakers not shying away from the fact that the character of Bane was created for one purpose, to break the bat.

Prometheus on the other hand is a far more intriguing one-sheet. The large head that dominates the poster raises more questions then can be answered. There are also a lot of small little design choices that echo the fact that this movie is set in the Alien universe. That posters sits rater nicely next to previous Alien films.

Check out both new posters in their full glory after the jump.

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Stop-Motion animation is a craft, it takes time and true artistry to create convincing motion with tangible puppets. The end result is a rich, textured world that is more immersive than traditional animation. Next year promises to be a good year for the medium with two new stop-motion movies on the way.

The most intriguing of the two is called ParaNorman, which got an incredibly stylish and moody teaser a while back. Now we have are first taste of the story and some of the characters in a new teaser that was just released. In case you were unaware of what ParaNorman is all about here is a synopsis:

“In ParaNorman, a small town comes under siege by zombies. Who can it call? Only misunderstood local boy Norman (voiced by Kodi Smit-McPhee), who is able to speak with the dead. In addition to the zombies, he’ll have to take on ghosts, witches and, worst of all, moronic grown-ups, to save his town from a centuries-old curse. But this young ghoul whisperer may find his paranormal activities pushed to their otherworldly limits.”

The film looks tremendous and is high on our must see list for 2012. ParaNorman is set for a September 14th, 2012 release date.

You can check out the gorgeous new teaser after the jump.

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The Amazing Spider-Man is one of the biggest upcoming movies of 2012. As anticipation continues to grow, Sony has unveiled the official website for the new web-slining blockbuster. Most noteworthy on the site are a series of new stills and a synopsis that promises more Spider-Man films in this new universe.

“Like most teenagers his age, Peter is trying to figure our who he is and how he got to be the person he is today. In his journey to put the pieces of his past togetherhe uncovers a secret that his father held… a secret that will ultimately shape his destiny as Spider-Man. This is the first in a series of movies that tells a different side of the Peter Parker story. On July 3rd, 2012, the untold story begins.”

The movie is going to be a very important step in the evolution of the comic-book movie. Up to this point comic book movies have generally held to the Hollywood rules of modern franchises, but one of the aspects of the comic book medium that keeps these characters relevant for so long is their ability to adapt and evolve on the fly. Even if that means rebooting a character that is still incredibly popular.

If The Amazing Spider-Man is a hit than we can see studios more willing to allow new filmmakers a chance at established characters with out waiting for the character to grow stale in it’s current style. The movie is set to hit theaters July 3rd, 2012.

It is award season and one of the biggest award shows has just chimed in with it’s annual nomination list. The Golden Globes is often considered the biggest indicator for the Oscars, and even though that is not true, the show is usually fun. Especially when they get a host as fearless as Ricky Gervais.

One of the most interesting aspects of the show is that the Hollywood Foreign Press also salutes Television in their annual show, so it ends up being more of a celebration of entertainment and less about being a stodgy film industry banquet. Along with the TV nominees, the HFPA gives us the Best Comedy or Musical category, allowing for a larger variety of films to be showcased.

The nominations themselves are not overly surprising, but it is always good to see shows like Game of Thrones and movies like Hugo getting some love. We also see Moneyball getting a lot of attention, including Jonah Hill for supporting actor, he already picked up a SAG nomination yesterday, could the comedic actor be up for an Academy Award soon?

Check out the full list of nominations after the jump.

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Next year is shaping up to be a pretty gigantic year for movies. Between Nolan’s ultimate film in the Dark Knight saga, Peter Jackson returning to the Shire with The Hobbit, and the Marvel superfilm The Avengers. One film not on that list, but sure to please the fans is the sequel to Sylvester Stallone’s action movie love letter, The Expendables.

The new film, set to have almost twice as many famous faces in the action genre, is gearing up to have a pretty big marketing campaign behind it, as the last film grossed over $274 million worldwide. This time, we can expect to see names like Chuck Norris, Jean Claude Van Damme, and chinese actress Yu Nan join the cast. Here’s the synopsis.

The Expendables are back and this time it’s personal…The team is reunited when Mr. Church (Bruce Willis) enlists the Expendables to take on a seemingly simple job. The task looks like an easy paycheck for Barney and his band of old-school mercenaries. But when things go wrong and one of their own is viciously killed, the Expendables are compelled to seek revenge in hostile territory where the odds are stacked against them.

Hell-bent on payback, the crew cuts a swath of destruction through opposing forces, wreaking havoc and shutting down an unexpected threat in the nick of time — six pounds of weapons-grade plutonium; enough to change the balance of power in the world. But that’s nothing compared to the justice they serve against the villainous adversary who savagely murdered their brother. That is done the Expendables way…

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