Well, I have officially run out of clever ways to say that Avatar won the weekend box office, and I think I still have weeks, if not months, to go. For the fourth week in a row, Avatar ruled the domestic box office and it has now made a mind-blowing $429 Million in one month. The movie dropped almost 30% from last weekend, yet still managed a hefty $48 Million, which places it in the seven spot for highest grossing movie (domestically) ever. It has earned $1.2 Billion globally.

Trailing the top earner were Sherlock Holmes, and Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, which each made around $16 Million. Holmes has now made $165 Million in three weeks, and Squeakquel has made $178 Million in as many weeks. Both look poised to surpass $200 Million during their theatrical runs.

New releases were almost shut out of the top five this weekend, but the vampire horror flick Daybreakers, starring Ethan Hawke, managed to squeeze into fourth place with a respectable gross of $15 Million. It’s Complicated took the number five spot, and made $11 Million, for a cumulative total of $76 Million. The critically maligned  romantic comedy Leap Year stirred enough interest to make about $9 Million for sixth place.

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Well, it is the first box office recap of 2010, and it looks like I’ll be dropping  the “B” word, as in “Billion.”  Avatar sailed over the billion dollar mark in only its third week in release. Thanks to this worldwide total, it now sits comfortably at the  number four position of highest grossing movies of all time, right behind Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.

It has already exceeded the total that took The Dark Knight its entire theatrical run to achieve, and Avatar has shown no signs of  slowing down. The movie dropped less than 10% from last weekend and made $68.3 Million, bringing its domestic total to over $352 Million.

There was plenty of box office love to go around this weekend, and several movies did exceptionally well. Sherlock Holmes added another $38.3 Million to its two week total, which now stands at over $140.7 Million. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel made $36.6 Million, for an impressive two week cumulative of $157.3 Million.

The adult comedy It’s Complicated only dropped  15% from its Christmas weekend opening, and racked up $18.7 Million for a strong fourth place. Fifth place went to The Blind Side, which has been in the top ten for over seven weeks now. It actually increased its total 10% over last weekend, and has made over $209 Million now.

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Seems that film studios received plenty of holiday cheer this past holiday weekend. Audiences flocked to a myriad of movies, which resulted in the highest grossing domestic box office on record. When the dust had cleared, a massive $278 Million had been earned at the box office, which bested the previous record ($260.8 Million) set by The Dark Knight opening weekend in July 2008. The top three films alone grossed over $190 Million, an astonishing number.

Avatar has many prognosticators eating crow, as it dropped only a few percentage points from its opening total and made about $75 Million, earning a solid first place finish. Its 10 day total now stands at $212 Million, and worldwide, the film has made over $617 Million! At this point, there is little question it will earn its purported $300-$500 Million budget back.  After months of speculation, Fox studio heads can finally exhale a sigh of relief.

Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes also fared well, and made over $65 Million its opening weekend. Robert Downey Jr. continues to prove he is a major box office draw. Fox also saw Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel place in the top three with $50 Million. The adult comedy Its Complicated earned a respectable $22 Million on just under 2,900 screens.

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As expected, James Cameron’s epic 3-D adventure Avatar easily won the weekend with over $73 Million. That’s nothing to sneeze at, but it is hardly the type of money that studio dreams are made of. Take into account that the number is slightly inflated because IMAX tickets cost more than regular tickets, and you come out with a good, but not great, weekend.  The movie didn’t break any records, and came in under many projections.

There is some conjecture that a winter storm that blanketed the East coast might have had a deleterious affect on ticket sales.  Worldwide, the film fared better, and hauled in over $232 Million. The film is enjoying great word of mouth, and received a solid “A” cinemascore  .

Other than that, the weekend before Christmas was silent.  Disney’s holdover The Princess and the Frog dropped 50%, and managed an okay $12 Million, and yep, there was the ever reliable The Blind Side in the number three spot.

Audiences did not want to hear about the Morgans, so the Hugh Grant/Sarah Jessica vehicle Did You Hear About The Morgans? limped in at $7 Million.  The Twilight Saga: New Moon rounded out the top five.

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The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HAFTA) announced its 2009 nominees for the Golden Globes this morning. The Golden Globes are considered a harbinger of the Oscar season, even though they  generally throw a few wacky choices into their slate.

For those keeping track, Up in the Air nabbed six nominations, followed by Avatar with four.  Sandra Bullock continues to enjoy a stellar year, as she was nominated for The Blind Side as well as The Proposal. Other double nominees include Meryl Streep (Julie and Julia, It’s Complicated), and Matt Damon (Invictus, The Informant!).  Directors Quentin Tarantino and Jason Reitman each got a nod for directing and screenplay as well.

The Golden Globes ceremony will take place on January 17th, 2010, and will air on NBC.

Here is a list of the nominees in major film categories:

Best Picture, Drama

Avatar

The Hurt Locker

Inglourious Basterds

Precious

Up in the Air

Best Picture, Musical/Comedy

500 Days of Summer

The Hangover

It’s Complicated

Julie and Julia

Nine

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This week on The Flickcast Chris and Matt are joined by John Carle and they launch into a whole new batch of topics including “Black Friday” sales success, recently released and upcoming video games like Assassins Creed 2, Left for Dead 2, Dragon Age and the massive success of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

The guys also discuss the infamous “French Airport” level in COD: MW2, video game movie tie-ins, the Rocky and Rambo franchises, Christmas action movies, comics related movies like Batman Forever, the greatness of Rob Marshall’s Nine, Deadpool movie possibilities and more.

The guys also made some great picks this week including John’s pick of the comic book series Y: The Last Man, Matt’s pick of Rocky on Blu-ray and Chris’ pick of 1971’s martial arts action film with a conscience Billy Jack, co-written, directed by and starring Tom Laughlin.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques or offers of sponsorship, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter and at Facebook, MySpace or via email.

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We’ve shown you some great stuff from Rob Marshall’s upcoming musical NINE already, from some stills to a featurette to a trailer. Now, as the film gets closer to the release date, as usually happens, a brand new trailer has just dropped.

This time around, as with previous versions, the trailer further highlights the musical spectacle and acting power put together for the film. It also gives a bit more information about the story of the main character, director Guido Contini (Daniel Day-Lewis), and his effect on the woman in his life. We also catch more glimpses of some of the musical numbers and more of the other terrific cast members, including Kate Hudson, Nicole Kidman, Penelope Cruz and Judi Dench

Expect a full review of NINE here at The Flickcast soon. Until then, enjoy this latest trailer (after the jump of course) of what will surely be yet another Rob Marshall musical masterpiece. NINE opens in NY and LA on December 18 and everywhere else on Christmas Day.

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We’ve been covering this movie quite a bit here at The Flickcast, mostly because it looks really good. Previously, we brought you some nice pictures from the film, an outstanding preview video and an exclusive clip.

Now, here’s your first look at the full trailer for Rob Marshall’s upcoming musical extravaganza NINE, which first appeared over at Apple’s trailer site. In this trailer, we’re given much more of the story from the film, which concerns disillusioned director Guido Contini (Daniel Day-Lewis) as he reaches a creative and personal crisis of epic proportion, while balancing the numerous women in his life.

We also get a peek at some of the acting performances, which even though this is obviously a musical, will still feature prominently in the film — especially when you’ve assembled the acting talent of stars such as Day-Lewis, Nicole Kidman, Penelope Cruz and Judi Dench.

Check out the new trailer after the jump. NINE opens in NY and LA on December 18 and everywhere else on Christmas Day.

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Previously, we brought you some very cool pics and a beautiful behind the scenes video from Rob Marshall’s upcoming musical extravaganza NINE. Now, we’ve got another video to share with you from the film. This time around, it features the beautiful and talented Kate Hudson in a show stopping, all singing, all dancing sequence sure to knock your socks off. Its called “Cinema Italiano” and after watching it, I really want to go back to Italy again — or at least spend some time with Kate Hudson.

I case you don’t happen to be familiar with hugely successful musicals that are now turned into terrific films, NINE follows the life of world famous film director Guido Contini (Daniel Day-Lewis) as he reaches a creative and personal crisis of epic proportion, while balancing the numerous women in his life including his wife (Marion Cotillard), his mistress (Penelope Cruz), his film star muse (Nicole Kidman), his confidant and costume designer (Judi Dench), a young American fashion journalist (Kate Hudson), the whore from his youth (Stacy “Fergie” Ferguson) and his mother (Sophia Loren).

Sounds like a handful to me. Although, there are probably worse problems to have then trying to decide between Kate Hudson, Penelope Cruz, Nicole Kidman and Fergie. Anyway, check out this new video from the film after the jump. NINE opens in New York and December 18, followed by a nationwide release on Christmas Day.

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As you may know, this Rob Marshall directed film is loosely based on Fellini’s 8 1/2. It tells the musical story of film director Guido Contini (Daniel Day-Lewis) who’s facing a mid-life crisis. As he struggles to complete his latest film he examines his career, his life and the relationships with the various women in it.

If the quality of a film can be judged by the quality of its behind the scenes featurette, then I can safely say that Rob Marshall’s NINE is going to be one heck of a film.  I’ve also included some new pics from the film as well which further illustrate just how great this movie is going to look.

Put all that together with the stellar cast and Marshall’s unquestioned ability to execute terrific musicals and NINE looks to have all the making of a hit. Be sure to check out the behind the scenes video and pics after the jump.

NINE, featuring Daniel Day-Lewis, Judi Dench, Marion Cotillard, Nicole Kidman, Penelope Cruz, Sophia Loren, Kate Hudson and Stacy “Fergie” Ferguson, hits theaters on Christmas day.

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