Last year didn’t have many major hits, but one film that managed to sneak past critics and turned out to be one of the highest grossing films of the year was the animated film Despicable Me. Bringing in both kids and adults alike, the film was able to prove that Pixar isn’t the only studio to produce quality CG-animated films.

Now, from the same studio, and the man who brought us The Cat in the Hat, comes The Lorax. For those who aren’t aware of this lesser known Seussian tale, here’s a breakdown.

From the creators of Despicable Me and the imagination of Dr. Seuss comes the 3D-CG feature Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, an adaptation of the classic tale of a forest creature who shares the enduring power of hope. The animated adventure follows the journey of a 12-year-old as he searches for the one thing that will enable him to win the affection of the girl of his dreams. To find it he must discover the story of the Lorax, the grumpy yet charming creature who fights to protect his world.

The film has a pretty awesome cast, featuring Danny DeVito, Zac Eforn, Betty White, Taylor Swift, and Ed Helms. We’ve got a bit before the film hits theaters on March 2nd, but you can check out the trailer after the jump.

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There have been some pretty big hits in the box office this year, and some expected whales, but overall this has been a great year for the worldwide box office, and here’s the proof you need. From THR.

10. Clash of the Titans, $493.2 million worldwide
9. How to Train Your Dragon, $494.9 worldwide
8. Despicable Me, $539.9 million
7. Iron Man 2, $582.2 million
6. Twilight Saga: Eclipse, $693.5 million
5. Shrek Forever After: $739.8 million
4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1. $824.1
3. Inception, $825.4
2. Alice in Wonderland, $1 billion
1. Toy Story 3, $1.1 billion

There are a few genuine good films on the list, like Iron Man 2 and Inception. Some big surprises, considering how bad the reviews were for films like Shrek Forever After, Clash of the Titans, and Alice in Wonderland. And even a few expectations like Twilight, Harry Potter, and How to Train Your Dragon.

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As much as people still refuse to admit it, Despicable Me was one of the highest grossing films (prior to Potter) of 2010. Since it’s July release date, the film has grossed over $500 million worldwide. That’s not much to scoff at, and now the studio is having at it again with a brand new film called Hop.

The movie is an interesting spin on growing up, told with the help of a cocky Easter bunny, played by Russell Brand. Here’s the official synopsis.

Blending state-of-the-art animation with live action, Hop tells the comic tale of Fred (James Marsden), an out-of-work slacker who accidentally injures the Easter Bunny (voiced by Russell Brand) and must take him in as he recovers.  As Fred struggles with the world’s worst houseguest, both will learn what it takes to finally grow up.

Though the blending of CGI and live action has left a bad taste in our mouthes in the past, (looking at you, Garfield 2: Tale of Two Kitties), this could prove to be a change in pace, as Illumination Entertainment, the studio behind Despicible Me is taking the reins from here.

Check out the very first trailer after the jump and catch Hop in theaters on April 1st.

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Inception performed remarkably well for its third week in release, and won the weekend with over $27.5 Million. For those keeping track at home, that makes it three weeks in a row at the top spot.

That box office take is a big number for any movie, but it’s especially rewarding for everyone who feared intelligent adult fare wouldn’t stand a chance in summertime, which is usually more typical of “popcorn” action movies.  Now standing at about $193 Million, the film is sure to surpass the coveted $200 Million mark this week.

This bodes well for everyone who enjoys adult drama.  Studios should be somewhat energized from the box office results of Inception.  Hopefully they will be  inclined to   green-light more original (non-franchise, non sequel) projects.  Note: the key word here is should.  Who knows if that will really happen, but one can always hope.

New release Dinner For Schmucks took the number two spot with $23.3 Million.  This is slightly better than two of Paul Rudd’s recent movies.  Both Role Models and I Love You Man made just under $20 Million on their opening weekend.  This is probably in line with studio expectations, but I thought it would make a little closer to $30M over the weekend.

Angelina Jolie’s spy-driven action flick Salt came in at number three with $19.7 Million, but it dropped off 46% from last weekend, not a good sign of things to come for the movie. Still,  it has made about $70 Million in its first ten days in release.

Despicable Me came in fourth.  It is now boasting a cumulative total of $190 Million, and will become the first bona fide hit for Universal in 2010. The studio has had a string of box office stinkers thus far, including The Wolfman, Repo Men, Robin Hood, MacGruber, and more.

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Audiences continued to embrace Inception this past weekend, as the Christopher Nolan movie dropped only 30% from its opening weekend, and earned an additional $45 Million at the box office. This bodes very well for the film, which now looks poised to enjoy some staying power at the box office.  The cerebral caper has a ten day total of over $143 Million.

Salt proved to be a solid number two film, earning $36.5 Million, with a per screen average of around $10,000. Despicable Me continues to delight audiences, as the film only dropped 26% in its third week, making over $24 Million.  The movie has now made over $161 Million in its three week run.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice added almost another $10 Million to its two week total, and came in at number four for the weekend. Holdover Toy Story 3 came in at number five with $9 Million.

Newcomer Ramona and Beezus failed to crack the top five, coming in at number six.  The g-rated flick only made about $8 Million, but it should be noted that it only opened on about 2,700 screens. The film reportedly only cost around $15 Million to make, so it should have no problem making a profit.

Indie film The Kids Are All Right continues to have a strong per screen average.  This week it averaged over $13,000 on just over 200 screens.

Cerebral movie lovers can rejoice.  Christopher Nolan’s Inception handily won at the box office over the weekend, raking in over $60 Million. The film made over $3 Million on midnight showings Thursday night, and netted $20 Million on Friday, a true testament of the loyalty of Nolan’s fans.  Marketing a cryptic plot is no easy task, so Warner Brothers has to be happy about the opening weekend.

On the other hand, it might be a long climb to recoup the $160 Million budget.  The film will have to rely on repeat business from fans to maintain box office legs.  Everyone I know who really liked the movie has said they want to see it again, but it remains to be seen whether people actually follow through with those intentions. At any rate, it is nice to see an original film have a good opening weekend.

Despicable Me came in at number two, dropping about 42% from its opening weekend, which was a little higher than I would have anticipated.  It still earned a healthy $32 Million, and has grossed $118 Million in ten days. Disney’s wide release The Sorcerer’s Apprentice earned a paltry $17 Million, far below most industry expectations. The film opened last Wednesday, so its cumulative stands at $24 Million.  The film had a budget of $150 Million, so unless it performs well overseas, it stands little chance of recouping its budget.

Twilight: Eclipse dropped off 57% from last weekend, which is a fairly significant drop.  It managed $13 Million, and has made almost $265 Million in three weeks. Toy Story 3 is still doing well after five weeks, earning $11 Million over the weekend.  Its cumulative now stands at $362 Million.

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Animated films are having a pretty stellar summer. This weekend, Toy Story 3 just became the highest grossing Pixar film of all time (surpassing Finding Nemo.)   Illumination Entertainment just released their first film, Despicable Me, and cleaned up at the box office.  Despicable made over $60 Million during its opening weekend, earning the distinction of being the highest opening weekend for an animated film not made by Pixar or Dreamworks.  Just like that, we have some serious competition for the animation studios.   Not too bad for a movie with no built in audience.

Illumination spent about $69 Million for the animation in Despicable Me, which is well beneath the average for a Dreamworks or Pixar film.  The film enjoyed a healthy “A” cinemascore rating by exiting audience members, which typically indicates long legs and good word of mouth.  Despite the fact that the movie played in 3D, it was limited in its amount of theaters, because Toy Story and The Last Airbender are both still playing in quite a few 3D venues.  There is no doubt that Despicable take would have been higher had it been able to capitalize on more 3D screens.

Twilight: Eclipse was bumped down to the number two spot this week.  It had about a 48% drop from opening weekend, typical of the franchise that is historically heavily front-loaded.   It still managed to make about $33 Million, hardly a number to scoff at.  This brings the 12 day total to $237 Million, which is pretty astounding, and topped the total for New Moon in the same time period ($235 Million.)

Predators scared up a decent $25 Million over the weekend.  With a modest budget of $40 Million, this bodes well for the film. Toy Story 3 nabbed the fourth spot with $22 Million.  Its four week total is $340 Million.

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Who would have thought that two of the best movies of the summer would be animated family fare?  First we had Pixar’s wonderful Toy Story 3, and now we are treated to Despicable Me, the debut film by production company Illumination Entertainment.

By the looks of this fledgling feature, we have a lot to look forward to with this company. Despicable Me is simply adorable, that truly is the best word to describe it. Gru (voiced by Steve Carell), is a villian who has fallen to the lower ranks of  the bad-guy pecking order in recent years.  He longs to rise to the top once again.

An enthusiastic new schemer named Vector (Jason Segel) has stolen the villain spotlight because he successfully swiped a Pyramid landmark in Egypt.  While media outlets frantically report that there is  a new villain in their midst, Gru seethes, and hatches a plan.  He will obtain a top secret machine that can shrink objects, travel to the moon, shrink it to a manageable size, and steal it.  Surely this will be the most dastardly deed ever!

Gru assembles his army of minions (those adorable yellow creatures you’ve seen in the trailers) to help him erect a spaceship and steal the device. Vector thwarts Gru once again by stealing the shrinking device from him after he successfully acquires it.

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We’re all pretty big fans places and things where technology and Hollywood meet, so we felt it was pretty necessary to bring attention to this brand new mobile app from Best Buy. It’s called Movie Mode, and it’s a new way to enjoy films in the theaters, starting with this Friday’s release of Despicable Me.

The app syncs directly with the audio of the film, and will enhance the experience by giving you a little something to do during the end credits, aside from waiting for the expected post-credits sequence. From a Best Buy:

Available as a free download, Best Buy Movie Mode comes to life via “The Minionator,” created as part of an exclusive collaboration with Universal Pictures and tied to the July 9 release of its must-see RealD 3-D CGI feature “Despicable Me” produced by Chris Meledandri.

“The Minionator” is Movie Mode’s first film enhancing experience and offers fans a deeper connection to “Despicable Me” by translating for audiences what the film’s mischievous little yellow characters, the Minions, are saying. The app acts as a translator during the 3-D theatrical end credits for the special language of the Minions. The app will also translate the Minion language throughout the entire movie on Best Buy’s exclusive “Despicable Me” DVD released later this year.

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Every year, it’s fun to see the new and original concepts cranked out by major studios. Some of them are sleeper ideas that turn out to be huge, such as District 9 or Hot Tub Time Machine, but then there is an idea that two separate studios end up tackling at the same time. Back in 2006, The Illusionist and The Prestige, two different films about classic magicians and prestidigitator, came out within months of one another and it looks like we’ll be seeing the same thing happen this year.

Hitting theaters in July, Universal is releasing their next major animated film about two super villains duking it out for world supremacy in Despicable Me, starring Jason Segel and Steve Carell. Now, animation giant Dreamworks is throwing their hat into the same ring with their super villain flick, Megamind.

The latter stars Will Ferrell, Brad Pitt, Tina Fey, and Jonah Hill, with Madagascar director Tom McGrath behind the wheel. The first trailer just got it’s release, and we’ve got it to show you. Who will be the victor between Universal’s Despicable Me and Dreamworks’ Megamind? We’ll have to wait to find out.

Check out the first trailer for Megamind, hitting theaters on November 5th, after the jump.

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While more than half of the people gearing up for this weekend’s Super Bowl XLIV will be more excited for the commercials, we unfortunately won’t be getting as many movie trailers as we are hoping to see. It’s been reported that Paramount, Disney, and Universal are the only studios buying time to promote their upcoming films during Sunday’s broadcast.

During the last two Super Bowl games, studios amped up their marketing and promoted 9 films over the course of the game, while we’ll only be seeing ads for 7 films this Sunday. Paramount will be buying ads to promote Shutter Island, and The Last Airbender, leaving Iron Man 2 out in the cold.

Disney, who promoted films like Up and Race to Witch Mountain last year will be focusing more on Toy Story 3, Alice In Wonderland, and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Meanwhile, Universal will be setting up promotion for The Wolfman, Robin Hood, and their 3D animated pic Despicable Me.

While it’s still mostly speculation that these films will get Super Bowl spots, it’s been confirmed that Overture bought time to promote The Crazies and Sony bought time for Bounty Hunter. Warner Bros and Fox will sit this one out, as they have since 2008.

Though we may be getting less movie trailers than previous games, this will be a big year for commercials. There are more than 60 spots that have been slotted for this year’s game, where last year’s telecast fell just short. This Sunday will be an entertaining show, for sports fans and entertainment fans alike.

A few months ago we were treated to a mysterious teaser for a new film titled Despicable Me, which had a cornucopia of comedic names attached to it like Steve Carell, Jason Segel, Will Arnett, Kristin Wiig, Russel Brand, and Danny McBride. We’re finally getting a bit more of the puzzle solved as the second trailer for the film has hit the web.

The film focuses on Gru (Carell), the world’s #2 super villain, who is constantly at the throat of #1, his competition and enemy, Vector (Segel). The film takes a few interesting turns, which force Gru to rethink his evil ways.

The film comes from the studio and animation department that brought us Ice Age, Robots, and Horton Hears a Who! and the writing team who brough us Bubble Boy and The Santa Clause 2. Check out the second teaser after the jump, which focuses on the rivalry between Gru and Vector.

Despicable Me hits theaters on July 9th, 2010.

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