Here we are, less than a month into one of the biggest summer blockbuster seasons we’ve had in years, and not a single big-studio film has failed to live up to the expectations set forward by those studios.

It seems that the mid $50 million range is just where every film hits in the first weekend, as Warner Bros’ Green Lantern pulled in an estimated $52 million against its $200 million production budget. Not a complete letdown, as Warner’s are still looking to move forward with this toyetic film franchise.

In second place this weekend, Super 8 had less than a 50% dropoff from last week, pulling in an estimated $21 million this weekend, and topping the film off at $72 since its debut.

Another first weekender, Mr. Popper’s Penguins rose to the occasion in third place this weekend with an estimated $18 million, which isn’t bad considering the film was one of the only non-franchise family films hitting theaters this summer.

Finally, Fox’s X-Men: First Class is still holding strong in its third week, with an $11 million pull for the weekend and over $280 million worldwide since the release. With a turnout like that, you can expect to see Fox prepping Matthew Vaughn and his cast for a second film in the very near future.

All things considered, next week looks to be quite tame. Pixar’s Cars 2 will likely take the weekend, with upwards of 4,000 theaters showing the film. On the other end of the spectrum, adults get Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel in Bad Teacher from Sony.

Green Lantern is a comic-book movie that’s ripped straight from the comic book. To some people, that will be a plus, to others a minus; more specifically, those who enjoyed the cartoonyness of The Fantastic Four movies can appreciate it; those who didn’t and want a half-hearted “message” to justify their camp will not.

The premise is ridiculous: The Green Lanterns are a gang of buff aliens sworn to protect the 3,600 sectors of the universe. One day a nasty alien called a “Parallax” shows up and starts bumping off the Lanterns, including one Abin Sur, apparently the protector of earth’s sector, who escapes to our planet, mortally wounded.

Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds) is a test pilot and “man without fear” (fearlessness being a big plus to the Lanterns) who’s chosen by Abin Sur to take up his mantle, or ring, or lantern, or whatever. Soon after Hal’s traveling through the galaxy to the planet Oa, where fish men and talking brick shit-houses explain the origins of the Lanterns.

There’s the obligatory scenes of Hal’s cross-training, which introduces us to the power of the Lanterns—basically anything goes so long as it’s green and comes from the ring all Lanterns wear; they can fly, construct objects of any size and shape, and, presumably, whip up some dynamite green eggs and ham.

Continue Reading →

Lately, everything seems to be coming up Batman. This year alone, we’ve got the sequel to the successful video game Batman:Arkham Asylum, a possible new first-person shooter follow-up, the start of the viral marketing campaign for The Dark Knight Rises, and now a LIVE Batman stage show happening overseas.

How do we know that this film will be different/better than the 3-year mess of a show Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark has been? DC guru Geoff Johns will be penning the script, there is no music, and most importantly: no rubber nipples.

Here’s what Johns had to say about the show’s premise:

We want to bring out a whole other level to Batman by looking at Robin’s journey from a circus performer to an orphan after his parents are killed, to a superhero. Batman lost his parents, but he can cope with his pain and owns it. Then he sees this boy and it reopens all those wounds. Robin’s journey very much brings up Bruce Wayne’s journey. [...] I think very much that Robin brings out a whole new level to Batman. I actually think it is more about Bruce Wayne and Batman than almost any story.

We’ve got a glimpse at the costumes and characters from the show for you after the jump, so check it out!

Continue Reading →

Just as news for the upcoming Avengers tie-ins is coming in today, Warner Bros. is making sure that they aren’t left in the wind. Rumors are now coming in from Latino Review that famously scary Daredevil star Michael Clarke Duncan will be lending his voice as the grumpy Corps drill instructor Kilowog in this year’s Green Lantern film.

This doesn’t come as much of a surprise to most fans of the character, as Duncan seems to be a pretty spot-on choice. He’ll be joining the ranks of Michael Madsen and Henry Rollins, who have both lent  their voice for the character in the past.

What we know about the film’s plot is still pretty stagnant. We’ll get Hal Jordan’s origin story, we know that both Dr. Hammond and Parallax will be this film’s main villain, with seeds being sewn for Mark Strong’s Sinestro to be the villain later in the franchise.

The one peculiar part of this story is that the normally infallible IMDb has 24‘s former President Palmer Dennis Haysbert listed as voicing the character. We’re hoping to get down to the truth of this one, seeing as how we only have 2 months until the film’s June 17th release date.

After years of waiting (and reporting) DC Universe Online has finally made its way to both the PC and PlayStation 3 console. And we are happy to see it has lived up to the hype. While DCUO isn’t a ground breaking experience that will redefine the MMORPG genre, it does provide an addictive and fun super hero world for people to play in.

Taking a few lessons learned from previous super hero titles like City of Heroes and Champions Online, DCUO allows players to experience an MMO world in an iconic universe with well known locations and super hero and villain compatriots at their side. Unlike SOE’s previous iconic MMO with Star Wars Galaxies, players are actually able to fight alongside their favorite heroes and villains instead of just receiving missions from them. The game also has a fully voiced cast, a much notable difference to players of past titles like classics like Everquest or Galaxies.

Gameplay:

DC Universe Online plays similar in many ways to most other successful MMOs. It is to be expected since those formulas have proven successful for the type of game. Players move using the traditional WASD format combined with their mouse for changing directions and looking around and aiming. Different tap and hold button combinations on the mouse (unlocking more as players increase in level) release different attacks on foes. Additional super powers are unlocked and assigned to the 1 through 8 keys that can be used during combat.

Combat itself is fast paced and fun without much down time between. Unlike many MMORPGs, combat is not item-centric where players must worry about equipping tons of healing items to use after each combat instance. As long as players don’t run through like a lunatic kamikaze, they should be able to take a breather between fights to allow their character to quickly heal up before heading into the next encounter.

Continue Reading →

As many were aware, yesterday was potentially a historic day for both comic book fans and video gamers alike, as DC Universe Online, the largest MMO role playing game for both the PS3 console and the PC with actual licensed characters, hit shelves everywhere in the US. The game is said to be a landmark in the way comic fans and gamers cross over, and could even be huge for more cross-platform marketing.

DC Entertainment has quite a big year ahead of it in the box office as well, with their first big-budget, costumed live action flick since Dark Knight hits theaters with Ryan Reynolds’ Green Lantern. You can expect to see plenty of marketing between now and the film’s June release, even in-game marketing with DCUO. From Heat Vision:

Jim Lee, co-publisher of DC Entertainment and executive creative director for DCUO, said that while the game will remain focused on 75 years of comic book lore, future expansions of the game will tie into film events like Warners’ The Green Lantern.

Continue Reading →

We’ve been following the development of DC Univserse Online for some time and at points, it looked like it may never see the light of day. Fortunately, those fears proved unfounded as Sony has announced it will debut the new MMOG worldwide on January 11, 2011.

The game has reached gold status and is ready for primetime. It will be available on the Sony PS3 and PC at launch. In truth, we’ve been playing it for a little while now and so far it’s pretty darn cool. Expect a full review soon.

In the meantime, get ready for some great gameplay in January. Check out the full release from Sony and DC after the break.

Continue Reading →

Conan has been on fire since his debut on TBS a little over a month ago. With A-list guests, top quality sketches, and the same level of energy that got us all to fall in love with him back on Late Night, Conan has absolutely taken over the late night airwaves again thanks to his funny pals at TBS.

Many know, but for those who don’t, Conan is shot on the Warner Bros. lot, which is where some of the best films and best DC Entertainment properties we’ve come to adore today.

Conan stopped by the DC animation studio to get down to a few classic (and classically bad) DC heroes and villains. Not only did he dig up some not-so-fashionable skeletons in DC’s closet, he even got animation guru Bruce Timm to draw a hero based on O’Brien himself.

Check out the full video after the jump, and catch Conan on TBS every weeknight at 11pm.

Continue Reading →

DC’s Animated Original Movie department has been on an absolute roll in the past few years. With amazing stand alone films like Justice League: New Frontier, Batman: Under The Red Hood, and Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, there are very few stories that Bruce Timm and his animators won’t tackle in a 75 minute animated film.

It looks like that trend is continuing with their next film, based on Grant Morrison’s elseworlds story about our favorite Kryptonian in All-Star Superman. Not only will the story be one of the most mature and heavy plots told in this format, but casting director Andrea Romano is sparing no expense on the cast as well. Fans get the voices of stars the voices of James Denton (Desperate Housewives) as Superman, Christina Hendricks (Mad Men) as Lois Lane and Anthony LaPaglia (Without a Trace) as Lex Luthor.

The DVD and Blu-Ray is set to hit stores on February 22nd, but you can check out a complete list of the features on both releases, as well as the beautiful box art after the jump. Stay tuned as we bring you some great coverage of the animated film soon, as well!

• Continue Reading →

It’s here! Just when we thought we’d have to wait a WHOLE 3 days to get a glimpse at the full Green Lantern trailer, it’s now made it’s way online. Of course there were a few poor bootleg copies making it’s way around the web yesterday, but this is the real deal.

If you haven’t heard of the character, or just want to know how they’re going to bring our favorite Emerald Hero to the silver screen, here’s the full synopsis.

In a universe as vast as it is mysterious, a small but powerful force has existed for centuries. Protectors of peace and justice, they are called the Green Lantern Corps. A brotherhood of warriors sworn to keep intergalactic order, each Green Lantern wears a ring that grants him superpowers. But when a new enemy called Parallax threatens to destroy the balance of power in the Universe, their fate and the fate of Earth lie in the hands of their newest recruit, the first human ever selected: Hal Jordan.

Hal is a gifted and cocky test pilot, but the Green Lanterns have little respect for humans, who have never harnessed the infinite powers of the ring before. But Hal is clearly the missing piece to the puzzle, and along with his determination and willpower, he has one thing no member of the Corps has ever had: humanity. With the encouragement of fellow pilot and childhood sweetheart Carol Ferris (Blake Lively), if Hal can quickly master his new powers and find the courage to overcome his fears, he may prove to be not only the key to defeating Parallax…he will become the greatest Green Lantern of all.

Check out the full trailer after the jump. Green Lantern is set to hit theaters June 17th, 2011.

Continue Reading →

We’ve seen photos. We’ve seen the corpse of Abin Surr. We’ve heard Ryan Reynolds utter the oath. But this past weekend, all that paled in comparison to the very first video footage of next year’s Green Lantern film hitting the web. It may be pretty short, but it’s only a taste of what we’ll be getting this Tuesday night, thanks to (the incredibly cocky) Entertainment Tonight.

The footage shows the film off as being pretty epic, with a nice blend of comedy mixed in, much like Marvel’s highly successful Iron Man franchise. It’s been speculated, and this proves, that DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. are looking to compete with that franchise with their own Robert Downey Jr. in Reynolds.

If you are hoping to skip out on any potentially spoilery images, you may want to go late to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 1 this Friday, because a full trailer for Green Lantern will be attached to that film.

In the meantime, catch the brief footage after the jump, and see the full report this Tuesday night on Entertainment Tonight.

Continue Reading →

Need proof that major comic book publishers fear that print comics are a dying commodity? News from DC’s camp may just be that. Word has recently come in that the megapublisher will be changing all current comics that are priced at $3.99 to be slashed down to $2.99 starting in January of 2011.

From a DC press release:

“As Co-Publishers, we listened to our fans and to our partners in the retail community who told us that a $3.99 price point for 32 pages was too expensive. Fans were becoming increasingly reluctant to sample new titles and long term fans were beginning to abandon titles and characters that they’d collected for years.” said Dan DiDio, DC Comics Co-Publisher.

“We needed a progressive pricing strategy that supports our existing business model and, more importantly, allows this creative industry to thrive for years to come. With the exceptions of oversized comic books, like annuals and specials, we are committed to a $2.99 price point.”

When taking into account mini-series, annuals and specials, more than 80% of DC’s comic books will be priced at $2.99.

This effects many of the major titles and ongoing stories such as American Vampire, Batman: The Dark Knight, Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors, and JSA All-Stars as well as many licensed titles like Gears of War, God of War, Kane & Lynch, and Ratchet & Clank. All of those titles will now be slashed down to $2.99.

Continue Reading →