Before I recount the gory details of Battleship‘s disastrous opening weekend, it behooves me to let you know yet again that The Avengers won the weekend. I adore The Avengers, but it has made so much money so fast that we are just about out of things to say about it in the Box Office report.

It settled a measly 46.6% for another $55+ million at the domestic box office. The Avengers scored a few more speed records, such as fastest film to $450 Million domestic, in 10 less days than the next best film. Next weekend will be interesting though, its first (potentially) non-first place hold will give a decent indication of how big of a final total we can expect.

The good news for Battleship is that it isn’t a complete and utter disaster worldwide. With its international release weeks in the film has already made over $200 Million. Of course it made a paltry $25 Million here in the states and will be viewed as a the new John Carter (and THAT film’s reign as biggest cinematic black eye might end up short-lived).

Continue Reading →

Last night during the season premiere of America’s Got Talent, all five of the NBC viewers were treated to an extended ‘super’ preview of The Amazing Spider-Man. Basically it super-sized the most recent trailer with an extended scene, some dubstep-ish cues and a couple of choice new shots.

The movie is in an odd place for the general public. We are not that far removed from the Raimi series, and despite the vocal internet backlash to the third film, it was a success. So Sony has to win over a skeptical public on top of the already difficult task of competing with this summer’s other two comic book goliaths.

To Sony’s credit this extended trailer marks the most interesting and inciting glimpse at their reboot. It showcases one of the most important aspects of Peter Parker that was almost missed completely in the Raimi films, the personality of Spider-Man.

Spider-Man is a wise-cracking, naive, and most importantly noble hero. There is a duality to Peter that is much more subtle than in a character like Batman, but is no less important. If the Marc Webb reboot can tap into that, we can all be in for a very pleasant surprise this summer.

Check out the full trailer after the jump.

Continue Reading →

Say what you will about Disney, but sometimes they do extremely cool things, such as the Star Wars Weekends summer events planned out at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Orlando. Launching this weekend is the incredibly cool Carbon-Freeze Me experience:

Using state-of-the-art imaging technology, this experience casts your likeness as a three-dimensional, eight-inch figurine. At the Carbon-Freezing Chamber, several cameras will capture multiple angles of your face. The images are then reconstructed in a computer for processing, and in approximately four weeks, the completed figurine is shipped directly to your house. I had my image captured during early tests for this experience, and it was surreal to see a digital version of my head.

What Star Wars fan wouldn’t want an 8″ figurine of yourself frozen in Carbonite?

The best part about this whole thing is that you can get these custom figures for a relatively low price. For only $99.95 you forever frozen can be yours, and duplicates can be ordered for only $74.95 using the original digital reconstruction of your face.

Of course you will need to be at Disney’s Hollywood Studios to partake in this deal, but if you find yourself at the happiest place on earth this is one of the better souvenirs you could possibly pick up. Details on how to make an appointment (a necessity) can be found at Disney’s Park Blog.

We know NBC has made some not-so-friendly decisions in the past with our favorite shows, such as their decision to jerk around the millions (thousands?) of Community fans out there until we got what we wanted. Now they’re trying to get us interested in a brand new slate of comedies, dramas, and alternative series this Fall.

Starting off with the brand new batch of comedies, here’s what the official press release had to show us.

The season’s new fall comedies are “Go On,” “The New Normal,” “Animal Practice” and “Guys with Kids.” Other mid-season comedies include “Save Me,” “1600 Penn” and “Next Caller.”

The new fall dramas are “Revolution” and “Chicago Fire,” while “Do No Harm,” “Infamous” and “Hannibal” also will join the lineup in mid-season.

In addition, new alternative series include “Stars Earn Stripes,” “Howie Mandel’s White Elephant,” “Ready for Love,” and “Surprise with Jenny McCarthy.”

“Go On” — Misery loves company. Unless you’re sportscaster Ryan King (Matthew Perry, “Friends,” “Mr. Sunshine”) who thinks misery should just be left alone. After taking some time off, Ryan – who recently lost his wife in a car accident – is now ready to get back to work. And while he seems like his same old charming, cocky self, his boss won’t set him back on the air until he seeks counseling. So, Ryan reluctantly joins a support group with one goal in mind: get in, get out and get back on the radio as quickly as possible.

Continue Reading →

In its second weekend in release The Avengers brought in over $100 Million bucks. I will write that again for effect. In its second weekend in release The Avengers brought in over $100 Million bucks!

That absurd second weekend haul obliterates the second weekend record just as the debut frame obliterated records last week. For reference the previous best second weekend was Avatar with a bit over $75 million. The movie has already cleared a billion in total Box Office and it has only been in US cinemas for 10 days.

So yes, The Avengers continues to draw in the masses and shatter records left and right. At this point in time it seems plausible that the movie will end up as the third most successful film of all time. Why not the top slot if it is doing better than everything else right now? The start of the Summer season is just to hard of a spot for the movie to have the kind of legs required to break that pesky 2 billion dollar plateau.

Continue Reading →

Skimming close to a billion dollars worldwide after a mere 14 days, Marvel, Disney and Paramount are proving that you can indeed make a movie mashup with other characters and pull it off. With that in mind, and that massive payroll coming into the Marvel Studios bank account, you had better believe there are already plans for a sequel to The Avengers.

Deadline has the official quote:

Disney CEO Bob Iger just announced that the company is developing a sequel. The film’s success “is a great illustration of why we like Marvel so much.” Demand for Avengers merchandise has been strong, he added.

While there is no official word, you can expect that Disney is courting Joss Whedon to return to the pen and/or direct for the second film, but we all know it’s going to be a bit far out. The next batch of sequels you can expect to take off will be Shane Black’s Iron Man 3, Thor 2, and the sequel to Captain America: The First Avenger.

While Marvel may be raking it in and giving every other alien invasion movie a run for their money, Fox is definitely turning the genre on his head by way of Jonah Hill, Ben Stiller, & Vince Vaughn in the upcoming comedy The Watch.

Originally titled Neighborhood Watch, now shortened to The Watch, the film accentuates the one thing that most other alien invasion films are missing: dick jokes. Here’s the premise, for those who need that sort of thing.

A group of friends (Stiller, Vaughn, Hill, and Ayoade) form a neighborhood watch group for their suburb to allow them time to bond and escape from their families. However, when the group discovers a plot that threatens the entire world, they are forced to confront it head on.

Take a look at the trailer after the jump, and catch The Watch in theaters on July 27th.

Continue Reading →

No, we’re not talking about a posthumous sequel to Nietzsche’s philosophy book. For those of you who don’t remember, Beyond Good and Evil was a third-person action/adventure title released by Ubisoft way back when in 2003. While it didn’t sell especially well, it has remained a fan favorite even into the new generation of gaming; combining traditional action and platforming with puzzle solving, combat, and even some photography elements.

Ubisoft official Michel Ancel (creator of the Rayman series) announced recently that long-anticipated sequel was not shelved, but “In an active creation stage [and] at this moment we are only focusing on the game and making it the best game that we can.” While no platform info or release date has been announced, it would seem that the game is being created with next-gen consoles in mind. Ancel added, “We focus on the game. We create it first, then we’ll see what can run it. We don’t say 2013 because we don’t know when it will come. We’re working to create a great game and it needs more tech.”

Check out the first (alleged) screenshot of Beyond Good & Evil 2 after the jump, as well as the official teaser that debuted early last year.

Continue Reading →

For all of you who have been buying into the ‘drama’ surrounding Prometheus’ ultimate rating, we have some good news for you. Fox has confirmed that the moody, dark and probably terrifying sci-fi film will indeed be rated R for sci-fi violence including intense images, and brief language.

Many people never believed that a PG-13 rating was possible for the subject matter, so when it took this long to get a confirmed rating people were getting nervous. It also didn’t help that Ridley Scott has been telling people conflicted things about the movie, the process and the rating for months now.

Speaking of which, Prometheus must be setting a new record for the most outright and open deception from a filmmaker to his audience. Scott has gone on record with several quotes that don’t seem to right based on the footage we are seeing. He already famously said the film would not be a prequel to Alien and only have a core DNA similarity with that franchise. Watching the trailer for 2 seconds pretty much disproves that concept.

Continue Reading →

There are few stories that have a more interesting life span than Little Shop of Horrors. Beginning it’s life as a low-level B horror film in the 60′s it has managed to gain increasing popularity by bouncing back and forth between screen adaptations and broadway musicals ever since.

Considering the last popular version of the tale was a Broadway revival, it seems like it is time to bring it back to the big screen, and according to the LA Times, some people agree:

Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Warner Bros. are in talks for a movie remake of “Little Shop of Horrors”  — with the help of some Broadway heavyweights behind the scenes. In addition to developing the film, Gordon-Levitt could star as Seymour, the lonely, lovable florist’s assistant who raises a giant alien plant motivated by sarcasm, song and human blood.

Now most of you probably hold the 80′s film starting Rick Moranis and Steve Martin in high regard, and think that this is just another in a long line of needless re-makes. For this particular tale I have to disagree, a new telling with an actor as talented as Joseph Gorodn-Levitt is exactly the next logical step for this story.

Of course that said, we all should pray we get a mostly practical Audrey 2.

Albeit a Sci-Fi classic, The War of the Worlds (1953) is a multi genre film. Based on H.G. Well’s classic novel about a Martian invasion of Earth, the film represents America’s fear of Bolshevik communism in the 1950s. The film opens with a narration sequence which tells the audience why the Martians began looking across the vast sea of space looking for a new world in order to colonize. Of all the planets that were examined by the Martians, Earth was the only suitable planet for their needs.

Screenwriter Barre Lyndon substitutes Well’s England for southern California where the opening stages of the invasion begin. Dr. Clayton Forrester (Gene Barry) is a scientist who is called in to examine a meteorite that has made an unusual landing in the hills outside a small town. At the crash site, he meets a young woman who is familiar with his work. Sylvia Van Buren (Ann Robinson) and her pastor uncle invite Dr. Forester to stay with them for the time being while the meteorite cools off and can be examined.

Keeping an eye on the meteorite and insuring that it doesn’t start any more fires, three men discover that the meteorite is in fact a Martian ship that emerges from the crash site. The three men are quickly vaporized from the heat ray of the Martian war machine.

Continue Reading →

With the advent of the internet buying tickets to movies becomes more and more like buying tickets to concerts, and I don’t mean the inflated prices. When an event film comes out and you know you want to experience it with the midnight or opening day crowds you can by your tickets way ahead of time.

Lots of people are doing just that for the first ever major ‘Cross-over Event’ Film. According to MovieTickets.com the presale ticket numbers for The Avengers are larger than all the other Marvel Studio films… COMBINED:

MARVEL’S THE AVENGERS is pre-selling more tickets for the upcoming release than the online ticketing company sold for CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER, THOR, IRON MAN 2, and IRON MAN combined at the same point in the sales cycle for each film.  In fact, pre-sales of MARVEL’S THE AVENGERS is over one and a half times that of these past Marvel films combined sales at the same point in the sales cycle.

You can check out the bigger break down of how far ahead The Avengers is after the jump.

Continue Reading →