I swear I heard my keyboard purr when I typed that headline. Those of us who cover weekly box office totals have been in a rut for seven weeks, and like it or loathe it, Dear John gives us something new to talk about.

Despite tepid reviews, Dear John shocked prognosticators by soundly beating Avatar this weekend. Dear John hauled in $32 Million to win the weekend over Avatar, which made an additional $23.6 Million.

I didn’t see Dear John, but I do find it interesting that everyone continues to underestimate the female ticket draw. The book by Nicholas Sparks was very popular, and currently boasts a 4.5 reader’s rating on Barnes and Noble’s web site. Didn’t Hollywood learn anything from New Moon? Rabid female book fans = box office gold.

Side note, I was shocked to receive an email from my very own parents, who have not seen a movie in the theater in over 5 years, sharing that they saw a matinee of Avatar in 3D and loved it. I quote, “We both wanted to live in that forest.”  Um, what?

This coming from a couple who still enjoys dial-up internet. They voluntarily donned 3D glasses because they felt that this movie just had to be seen. I only mention this because this is precisely why the movie has made so much money.  There are people going to see it that don’t ever go to movies, and that is quite a feat.

Continue Reading →

Much like the shark was in Jaws, I tend to think cool monsters should be left in the shadows and revealed at the last possible moment. I think that definitely should apply to a creature like the Kraken. Apparently, the studio in charge of the upcoming Clash of the Titans movie, Warner Bros. to be exact, doesn’t agree.

In fact, they’ve let the cat, er Kraken, out of the bag way early, in the form of a new poster released exclusively by the folks at UGO. In this latest poster, the Kraken looms large and Perseus is, well, looking rather small. In fact, it looks like he’s about to become a nice late afternoon snack for the Kraken, complete with Pegasus chaser. Not a great way to spend your day.

Click through for a larger look at the new poster. In case you forgot, Clash of the Titans, directed by Louis Leterrier, stars Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Danny Huston and Gemma Arterton. It hits theaters on March 26.

Continue Reading →

Previously on The Flickcast, we brought you lots of info about director Louis Leterrier’s upcoming film Clash of the Titans including the first images of star Sam Worthington as well as the first two trailers. This time around we’ve got the new international trailer to share with you.

In this new video, we’re treated to more of Persius and his adventures riding Pegasus, fighting the Kraken and trying not to get turned to stone by Medusa. We also get more with Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes because this is, after all, the international version of the trailer so the movie has to appeal to people other than those of us in the U.S.

Also, they seem to have moved past the whole “Titans will clash” slogan and adopted “Damn the Gods” instead. A slight improvement in my opinion.

Check out the latest trailer after the break. Clash of the Titans hits theaters on March 26.

Continue Reading →

Building on the success of Avatar, the seemingly everywhere Sam Worthington has apparently already picked his next role: Dracula. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Worthington is currently in negotiations to star in director Alex Proyas’ vampire epic Dracula Year Zero for Universal and producer Michael De Luca.

The film, written by Matt Sazama and Buck Sharpless, will explore the origins of Dracula and his ties to Vlad the Impaler. It will reportedly portray the titular vampire as both demonic evil and tragic, flawed hero. The film currently has no start date and is still in development.

As a fan of Proyas’ previous work with The Crow and Dark City, I’m hopeful his take on Dracula will be equally as visually compelling and also feature interesting characters and situations. That said, the movie does sound a lot like Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 version of Dracula, which featured Gary Oldman and Winona Ryder.

As for Worthington, I’m still not convinced that he’s the “next big thing” even as studios shove him in our faces more and more. I just don’t find him that interesting. No matter what, I guess we’ll find out how he handles Dracula when this film eventually hits theaters.

Box Office Mojo has reported that Avatar added another $16 million to it’s box office on Monday. Considering the soft opening that the movie had over the weekend ($77 Million), due to sold out shows and a snow storm that hit most of the east coast, this might just be the beginning of some staying power for James Cameron’s latest project. Titanic, the previous Cameron film released 12 years ago, managed to stay in theaters for almost 11 months, which helped to make it one of the top box office earners in history.

Compared with one of this year’s other financial heavy-hitters, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, which opened to around $102 Million in June but only made $14 Million on the Monday following it’s opening weekend. They’re slightly comparable in that both were released during a time when families and younger fans have more free-time, with Independence Day being the following weekend for Transformers 2, and Christmas coming this weekend, which is Avatar’s second weekend .

It’ll be interesting to see how well Avatar is able to hold on, between the varied opinions on the film, the positive word of mouth, and the opening of another potential box office smash with Robert Downey Jr. and Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes. Whether or not Avatar proves itself to be the next financial Titanic or not, it’s sure to be an epic clash at the box office this weekend.

Well, it certainly didn’t suck. That’s me, eating a little crow.  For months I have snickered about the colossal disaster I was sure Avatar was going to become. Admit it, you thought so too. How on earth could you not be pessimistic after seeing the early trailers?

Alien creatures a hue of blue so intense it would make papa smurf puke, and waxy humans that would beat any of Robert Zemeckis’s early efforts for “most soulless rendition of a human being” did not exactly instill confidence in me. Then came the daunting news that the movie weighed in at almost 3 hours. Add the driving time in and the Avatar screening took up almost half a day. I disliked the movie before I even slipped on the  exquisite 3-D nerd-spectacles that I so love.

A funny thing happened when the movie began. I was captivated. I rarely looked at my watch, and the three hours kept me glued to my seat. I became completely immersed in the alternate reality that James Cameron (Titanic) created, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Now, I am not jumping aboard the fanboy express like 90% of the critics I know. This  is not the end-all, be-all of epic movies.  I don’t think that it will “change the way we watch movies forever”, and I hope it doesn’t quite frankly.

As a stand alone experience, I absolutely recommend Avatar, but I won’t be going to the theater for repeated viewings. Avatar is innovative and visually spectacular, but its story and woeful dialogue keep it from being a truly great movie.  However, I will give James Cameron props for once again delivering a truly ground-breaking experience.

Continue Reading →

Louis Letterier’s new movie, Clash of the Titans, or as it’s come to be known on the Internet from the previously released trailer the movie where “Titans. Will. Clash” has a new trailer that finally gives me a reason to look forward to the film. No, it’s not Gemma Arterton, who will also be gracing us with her presence in Prince of Persia, or the giant CGI Kraken — though it does look cool.

No, it’s the appearance of Mads Mikkelsen, the cuddly villain that wept blood in 2006’s James Bond reboot Casino Royale. Clash of the Titans, written by the team of Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi (Aeon Flux and The Tuxedo), stars Sam Worthington, Gemma Arterton, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Pete Postlethwaite (Romeo + Juliet) , and Danny Huston (X-Men Origins: Wolverine).

Check out the brand new trailer after the jump, and catch Clash of the Titans in theaters (and possibly IMAX) on March 26, 2010.

Continue Reading →

While many of us were less than impressed with the first trailer for Clash of the Titans when it hit the web. It looked pretty, but mostly the line “TITANS WILL CLASH” left many people a little worried about how the studio would handle the Desmond Davis classic.

Recently, the Internets got their collective hands on the first posters from the film, showing off Sam Worthington taking down Medusa, riding Pegasus, and a cool new tri-fold poster. Warner Bros. immediately got wind and forced those on the web featuring the posters to take them down. Now it looks like the studio has “officially” released the images in high quality for our enjoyment, and they do look pretty cool.

Alongside Worthington as Perseus, the film stars Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Danny Huston (X-Men Origins: Wolverine), and Gemma Arterton (Quantum of Solace). Check out the full-sized posters after the jump for Clash of the Titans, hitting theaters everywhere on March 26th.

Continue Reading →

With critics and other people around the Internets finally having a chance to see James Cameron’s upcoming Avatar this week, more footage is pooping up online as well. Case in point is these six clips from the film that are now online, as discovered by our pals at Coming Soon.

The six clips give you a pretty good idea about how the film begins and what happens during the first 30 or so minutes. In them you see how Sam Worthington’s character, Jake, comes to planet Pandora, meets the human military and scientific personnel stationed there, gets his Avatar body and his mission and then heads out into the wilderness to accomplish that mission.

If you like to go into a movie like this without having much knowledge of it, these clips won’t help you accomplish that. If you do like to know something about a film before seeing it, go ahead and click on the links after the jump to watch these six clips and it will be “mission accomplished.” Sadly, we can’t embed them for you here so you will have to click through to watch them at YouTube.

Oh, one more thing. If you do want to watch these, I suggest you hurry before they are all gone — as sometimes happens with “leaks” like this. Avatar opens December 18.

Continue Reading →

With Black Friday sales behind us but with Christmas right around the corner, there’s still time to get some great movies on DVD and Blu-ray this holiday season. To help, here’s a list of some of the new movie and TV shows coming to DVD and Blu-ray this week that we’re looking forward to seeing. Also, there’s some classic, and not-so-classic, movies hitting Blu-ray for the first time.

Of all the new releases, we’re particularly interested in the Blu-ray versions of movies and TV shows such as The Wizard of Oz, Gremlins, Snatch, Ben 10: Alien Swarm and the Blu-ray debut of McG’s Terminator: Salvation (shown above with Christian Bale and Sam Worthington).

Check them out:

A Christmas Tale (The Criterion Collection) (Blu-ray)

Ben 10 Alien Swarm ~ Ryan Kelley, Nathan Keyes, Alyssa Diaz, and Galadriel Stineman (DVD and Blu-ray)

Better Off Ted: Season One ~ Jay Harrington, Portia de Rossi (DVD and Blu-ray)

Gremlins ~ Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates (Blu-ray)

Continue Reading →