Week 3 into this year’s epic summer blockbuster season and it looks like established franchises seem to still be more of a draw than original comedies or futuristic thrillers. In its second week of release, Thor has maintained the coveted #1 spot over new releases Bridesmaids and Priest.

Last weekend, Thor opened to 3,955 theaters in the US and had a solid pull of $65.7 million. This weekend, the film opened up in a few more theaters but lost a little bit of steam and about 50% of the original weekend’s domestic take, in making an estimated $34.5 million domestic, and over $300 million worldwide.

In the new releases, Bridesmaids, starring Kristen Wiig and marketed as the “female Hangover” came in at the #2 spot with $24.4 million. Not a terrible opening weekend, as the film only cost $32 million to make. It will be a nice companion film to Hangover 2, which hits in 2 weeks.

The only other big release this weekend was Priest, starring Paul Bettany and Karl Urban. In remaining consistent with less than positive reviews, the film opened at #4 with a measly $14.5 million. This is definitely one film that was hurt by the 3D conversion, as it pushed the release back from over a year ago, when it had a chance to stand strong in a dead weekend.

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This year’s summer blockbuster season is over, which means only one thing…it’s time to start getting excited for next year’s Summer Blockbuster season! We’ve already seen the first trailer for Thor and some cool set pics from Captain America: The First Avenger, and now we’re getting the very first full theatrical trailer for the sci-fi explosion Priest, starring Paul Bettany and Karl Urban.

The film may look a bit like other movies in the genre such as Constantine or I Am Legend, but with the amount of star power and visual effects that have been poured into this film, you can expect to see something completely different.

With that comes the newest trailer for the flick, which gives us plenty of new action shots of both protagonist Paul Bettany, antagonist Karl Urban, love interest Maggie Q and even True Blood’s Stephen Moyer in his first major film role since becoming the character of Bill Compton.

Check out the full trailer after the jump, and be sure to catch Priest in theaters on May 13, 2011.

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We’ve been following the upcoming film Pandorum a bit here at The Flickcast and were able to bring you an early look at the trailer and a cool pic of some of the cast. Now, we’ve got the final poster for the film to share with you today. Before we go on, in case you’re not familiar with the film, it concerns some astronauts who wake up on their spacecraft and have no memory of where or who they are.

Once awake, they discover something horrible has happened, most of the rest of the crew is dead and they are not alone. After that, there’s lots of running, shooting, yelling, death, explosions and various mayhem which fans of horror/sci-fi/action films will probably eat up with a giant spoon. After watching the trailer and reading a bit about the film, I think I understand some things about it. Looking at the poster, however, I’m not exactly sure what I’m seeing — which could be good or bad.

To some extent, I like the fact that I need to know more about the film after looking at the poster. On the other hand, it would be nice to get a bit more info about the movie from it other than the ominous tag line “Fear what happens next.” However, it is good to see a poster that tries to be different instead of just featuring the heads of the film’s main stars standing there looking earnest. In my book, that alone puts Pandorum ahead of many other films coming out this year.

Pandorum, which stars Dennis Quaid, Ben Foster, Cam Gigandet and Cung Le, hits theaters September 18th. Check out the new, big poster after the jump.

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Sony’s Screen Gems has launched an official website for the Scott Stewart-directed Priest adaptation, giving fans a first look at Paul Bettany in the lead role. Based on the popular manga TokyoPop comic book, Priest is set in a world ravaged by the on-going war between humans and vampires.

Bettany’s warrior priest turns against the Church to track down a murderous band of vampires who have kidnapped his niece. Cam Gigandet co-stars.

Initial comparisons may be visually drawn to the character of Silas, the devoted albino monk Bettany played in The Da Vinci Code, but the creepy, unflinching intensity in the poster clearly makes him perfect for the part. You don’t exactly ask vampires for hostages nicely.

Priest is scheduled to open on August 13, 2010.

Coming off of the huge Twilight Saga success during last week’s MTV Movie Awards, Cam Gigandet, who plays James, the vampire baddie in the first film, has just been cast as yet another vampire.

This time, it will be in a Screen Gems film adaptation of the comic book Priest. From The Hollywood Reporter:

Gigandet will star opposite Paul Bettany in “Priest,” a horror Western that Scott Stewart is directing for Screen Gems.  Adapted by Cory Goodman from a TokyoPop comic book, “Priest” is set in a world ravaged by centuries of war between man and vampires and follows a warrior priest (Bettany) who turns against the church to track down a murderous band of vampires who have kidnapped his niece.  Gigandet plays a young wasteland sheriff who is part vampire. He partners with Bettany to save the girl he loves, the niece. That latter part has yet to be cast.

Gigandet won an MTV Movie Award for his fight sequence with Robert Pattinson’s Edward in Twilight, and also won the previous year for his fight in the film Never Back Down, making him the first actor to win the award two years in a row.

The young actor can next be seen starring opposite Jenna Malone in the drama Five Star Day and opposite Ben Foster and Dennis Quaid in the Sci-Fi Horror Pandorum.

UPDATE - Apparently, according to a new interview at MTV Splashpage, Cam won’t exactly be playing a vampire in the new film. However, he is in the movie and it does contain “vampire-like” creatures. Draw your own conclusions from the interview posted after the jump.

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