On Saturday morning, it looked like Megamind was going head to head with Due Date.  Both films made around $12M on Friday evening, but Megamind built on its momentum and added another $20 M to its total on Saturday, bringing its full weekend total to $47.7M.  This came from a mixture of 2D and 3D venues.

That is still a bit lower than Despicable Me ($56.4M)  made on its opening weekend, though. Incidentally, Paramount has had a number one movie three of the last  four weekends (Paranormal Activity 2, Jackass 3D and now Megamind.)

That is  not to say that Due Date didn’t have a great weekend.  It’s total of $33.5 M was good enough to break the November record for best opening for an R-rated comedy. The Robert Downey Jr./Zach Galifianakis comedy didn’t so fare so well when it came to critics, but audiences seemed to enjoy the movie.

Tyler Perry continues to be box office gold for Lionsgate.  His latest movie For Colored Girls was not widely screened for critics, but it managed an impressive $20.1 M anyway.  This is the first time Perry has released a R-rated film.  The weekend total is a bit lower than what his films typically earn, but it is a good, solid number.

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Saw 3D won the  weekend box office, to no one’s surprise.  The perennial Halloween franchise made its 7th (and presumably final) bow at the box office with a healthy $22.5M.  It is reported that almost 90% of that total is from 3D screens. If you factor in Thursday midnight showings, the total is $24.2M.

Although the film did much better than its predecessor, Saw VI ($14.1M) it still was only the fifth best Saw debut.

Last week’s champ Paranormal Activity 2 tumbled about 59% from last week for $16.5.  That’s a pretty steep drop, but fairly typical for a horror movie. With a measly $3M budget, the film is hugely profitable, looking at almost $65M in its first two weeks. Guess we know what our next Halloween franchise will be.

Red continues to defy expectations, and only dropped 28% in its third week, for $10.8M.  The film has quietly made $58.9M over three weeks.  Take that, naysayers.

Jackass 3D crossed the $100M mark this weekend, despite dropping 61% from last weekend. Clint Eastwood’s Hereafter came in at the number five spot, but continues to struggle.  The film has made about $22M after three weeks, which is less than half of its budget.

Next week, Due Date, For Colored Girls, and Megamind vie for the top spot.

After some truly disappointing weekends at the box office for horror movies (Hatchet 2, Pirahna 3D, Let Me In, My Soul to Take) fans can finally breathe easy that the genre is alive and well.  Paranormal Activity 2 catapulted to the top of the pack this weekend, and easily exceeded expectations to earn around $41M.

That was good enough to shatter a few records.  The movie broke the opening weekend record previously held by the 2009 Friday the 13th reboot in 2009.  It also made a cool $6.3M on Thursday midnight showings.

In comparison, Paranormal Activity made about $21M over its opening weekend.

Jackass 3D managed to claim the number two slot. The film tumbled over 57% from last weekend, but still made an impressive $21.6M.  Its two week total is now over $87M.

Comedy/Drama/Thriller Red only dropped 31%, and added $15M to its two week cumulative of $43M.

Clint Eastwood’s ethereal after-life drama made about $12M.  That might sound paltry, but it only played on about 2,100 screens, and had an okay per/screen average of  $5,500, which puts it in the top three per/screen averages for the weekend.  The film came in number four for the overall box office.

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Well, the Jackass gang was at it again, this time offering their usual gags, gross-outs and stunts in 3D.  The 3D format payed off as Jackass 3D broke the opening weekend record for Fall (considered the months of September and October) that was previously held by Scary Movie 3.

Jackass 3D managed to make a very impressive $50 M over the weekend.  It is estimated that 90 percent of its business were on 3D screens, so in this case, the 3D surcharge definitely helped pad the total for the movie.  Friday’s total of $21 M may be an opening day record as well, if the totals hold true.

The talented ensemble cast of Red helped propel the movie to second place over the weekend, earning a respectable $22.5 M over the weekend.  It also received a coveted A+ score from audiences, according to pollster cinemascore. Those don’t come along very often, and they often indicate that the film will benefit from good word of mouth.

David Fincher’s The Social Network continues to perform strongly.  It only dropped 28% from last week’s totals, and placed a strong third at the box office with $11 M. After three weeks, the movie has made $63 M, besting its budget of $50 M.

Secretariat appears to be running a slow and steady box office race. The film only dropped off 25% from last weekend for third place, making another $9.5 M.  It is very rare for a film to drop less than 30% after opening weekend, so Secretariat may surprise us by making its money over time, not just the opening weekend.  After two weekends, the film has made around $27 M, but its budget was only $35 M, so it looks like it will be in good shape financially.

Holdover Life As We Know It was able to retain much of its momentum as well, earning an additional $9M for fifth place. Outside of the top ten, upcoming documentary Inside Job boasted a high $9,000/per screen, playing on just 1o screens.  The documentary about the Wall Street collapse is garnering some serious buzz.

Also enjoying great per/screen averages was Hilary Swank’s inspiring legal drama, Conviction.  Though it only played on 11 screens, it had a $10,000 per/screen average.

Red certainly isn’t an important or groundbreaking film, but it is a lot of fun, and that counts for something in my book.  Sometimes that is exactly what we are seeking out, and this film delivers.  It’s a blast.

Bruce Willis plays Frank Moses, a man who appears to be living a  ho-hum existence  in the suburbs.  He spends his free time convincing a government employee in Kansas City (Sarah, played by a sassy Mary-Louise Parker) that he has not received his government checks.  He is really ripping them up, just so he can call her every few days and talk.  The two have adopted a flirty rapport during their chats.

In a thrilling opening sequence, Frank finds out (rather unexpectedly) that he is being targeted by assassins, and he quickly and efficiently employs a variety of weapons and booby traps to thwart their efforts.  It is clear that this is no ordinary citizen, you see Frank is classified by the CIA as RED (Retired Extremely Dangerous.)

After he has time to get his wits about him, Frank rushes to Kansas City to rescue/kidnap Sarah, because she will be targeted l if the unknown assailants check his phone records.

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The name of this year’s movie game seems to be massive casting. If Expendables was for the slightly older action star, then Summit Entertainment’s RED is definitely skewing much older in terms of casting.

The film stars Bruce Willis as the leader of the greatest CIA agents ever to go through the agency. The only problem? They’re all over the hill and retired. Willis leads a team of Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, and Helen Mirren, with folks like Ernest Borgnine and Richard Dreyfuss joining along as well. In order no to alienate the viewers under the age of 50, Mary Louise Parker, Julian McMahon, and Karl Urban fill out the cast.

If the action and casting isn’t enough to warrant your $10, then how about the fact that the film is based on a comic of the same name? Originally written by Warren Ellis, the script comes from the Hoeber brothers, who also brought Whiteout to the silver screen.

We’ve got 5 brand new clips for you to check out after the jump, so be sure to enjoy the action, and catch RED in theaters on October 15th.

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This month will be a good one for fans of cool and unusual genre films as fantastic Fest kicks off on September 23 in Austin, TX. To enhance their already great lineup the Fest announced more films that will be screening. Here’s all the scoop from the Fest’s official press release:

FANTASTIC FEST 2010 ADDS NEW FILMS TO ITS IMPRESSIVE LINEUP

Fantastic Fest, the largest genre festival in the U.S., is excited to announce additional films to its mind-blowing roster of features & shorts. Highlights of this announcement are the US premiere of the hyper-stylized action film Bunraku, a sneak preview of Darren Bousman’s terrifying new horror-thriller film, Mother’s Day (featuring a bravura performance by Rebecca DeMornay), and the world premiere of Agnosia, the latest film from Fantastic Fest 2005 Alumnus Eugenio Mira.

Additionally, Fantastic Fest will play host to a sneak preview of the highly anticipated action-comedy RED, starring pretty much the best cast assembled for a comic book adaptation…ever. And if you’re not excited to see Helen Mirren at the helm of a .50 caliber machine gun, we don’t want to know you.

Bill Pullman, one of our all-time favorite Fantastic Fest guests is returning to the festival this year. Pullman will join the hecklers of Master Pancake Theater for a special screening of Independence Day and will make an appearance as Lone Star for the Spaceballs Quote-Along.

In celebration of the upcoming book “DESTROY ALL MOVIES!!! The Complete Guide to Punks on Film”, written by Alamo Drafthouse’s own , Zack Carlson, Fantastic Fest will hold a screening of cult classic Class of 1984. Carlson will introduce the film and will sign copies of the book, a massive A-to-Z guide of punks and new wavers on the big screen, featuring 1100 reviews, hundreds of color stills and countless exclusive interviews with filmmakers and musicians!

Lastly, we are announcing a special encore performance of Jason Neulander’s critically-acclaimed Intergalactic Nemesis.

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A brand new trailer for Red, featuring Helen Mirren, John Malkovich, Morgan Freeman, Bruce Willis, and Mary Louise Parker made its debut at San Diego’s Comic-Con. The film is based on the cult D.C. graphic novels by Warren Ellis and Cully Hammer.

It has been branded as  “an explosive action-comedy.” Mirren, Willis, Freeman and Malkovich play a foursome of retired CIA operatives who are now being framed for assassination, because they know too much.  They must band together and use their combined wit and skills to survive.  They also uncover a massive conspiracy.

Red is directed by Robert Schwentke (The Time Traveler’s Wife.) I think it looks like a blast.  Who doesn’t love seeing Helen Mirren toting weapons? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Red is being released by Summit entertainment on October 15. Check out the new trailer after the break.

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So, it begins. The powers that be in control of San Diego Comic-Con have announced the Thursday schedule. We were going to wait and put all of these schedules together but Thursday is such a full day you might need more time to digest it.

Some of the highlights we are looking forward to include the Tron Legacy panel, a City of Heroes panel, Summit Entertainment’s RED panel, several USA show panels including Burn Notice and White Collar, Caprica, Battlestar and Beyond, the Mondo Marvel panel, the EW Visionaries panel with J.J. Abrams and Joss Whedon and a panel about The Expendables. There’s also a ton of other stuff with conflicting times that’s sure to drive any fans of movies, tv, comics, games and geek crazy trying to work it all out.

Be sure to check back at The Flickcast for all of our coming Comic-Con coverage. We will be there in force to bring you all the sights, sounds, events, news and smells from Sand Diego. Now to go get in line at Hall H for the J.J. Abrams/Joss Whedon panel.

See you in San Diego! Click through for the complete Thursday schedule as of today.

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If you’re not familiar with Warren Ellis’ three -issue comic miniseries Red don’t worry. Unless you’re a fan of Ellis (which I am) you may not have seen it before. Regardless of that, Hollywood — and Summit Entertainment in particular — has seen fit to adapt Red for the big screen and we have the first trailer for that adaptation to show you today.

To be honest, this trailer doesn’t really remind me much of the comic. In fact, it almost seems like an entirely different story. Sure, the original miniseries was only three issues so some enhancement had to take place. But this trailer and the movie it represents seems more like a comedy than the balls out action comic about a retired assassin who should have been left alone I remember reading.

Although it does seem quite a bit different, at least to me, I still kinda like it. That’s the problem with adaptations of novels, comics, games or whatever, they don’t usually stay the same way you remember them. But that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

If changes are made that are simply arbitrary, that’s where I start to have a problem with them.

Having read Red very recently, I’m probably just sensitive to perceived changes. After all, its just a trailer with a whole movie still to come. Guess I should just wait and see.

Does this trailer work for you or is it yet another sub-standard adaptation of a comic to come out this year? Judge for yourself after the jump. Red, which features Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren, John Malkovich, Mary-Louse Parker and Morgan Freeman, opens October 15th.

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Summit Entertainment (The Twilight franchise) has announced the release date for the upcoming film Red. In case you’re not familiar, the film features Bruce Willis as Paul Moses, a former CIA assassin, who after years of retirement ends up hunted by the government for the things he knows. Red has been set for release on October 22, 2010.

The film, based off the mini-series by Warren Ellis (Transmetropolitan) and illustrator Cully Hamner, has an A-list ensemble cast lined up including Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren, John C. Reilly, Mary-Louise Parker, Brian Cox, Richard Dreyfuss and just announced the other day, James Remar (Dexter).

The film is being directed by Robert Schwentke (The Time Traveler’s Wife), from a script by Jon and Erich Hoeber, who gave us another recent comic-book adaptation, Whiteout.

According to THR’s Heat Vision Blog, John C. Reilly and Mary-Louise Parker are now in negotiations to join the cast of Red, Summit Entertainment’s adaptation of the Wildstorm/DC Comics miniseries written by Jon and Erich Hoeber and being directed by Robert Schwentke. If they do end up signing up for the film, they will join a cast that already includes Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman and Helen Mirren.

Originally published in 2003 and 2004, Red was co-created by writer Warren Ellis and artist Cully Hammer. It centers on a former black-ops agent Paul Moses (Bruce Willis), now in retirement, who has to contend with younger, more high-tech assassins who want to kill him and keep his former exploits from going public. Naturally, the first hit squad fails and alerts Moses that he’s being targeted. So, he goes on the offensive in order to stay alive.

If cast, Reilly would play a retired CIA agent who is paranoid that everyone is out to kill him. Parker would play Willis’ character’ love interest, a federal pension worker who becomes embroiled in the Willis character’s struggle to stay alive. Red is expected to begin filming in January in Toronto with an projected release later in 2010.