This week sees more new film and TV releases on Blu-ray and DVD. Among the ones we’re more interested in this week are Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, Dead Snow, The Box, Season One of Nurse Jackie and Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant (pictured above with John C. Reilly and Chris Massoglia).

Check out all the new releases below.

Movies

Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant ~ John C. Reilly, Salma Hayek (Blu-ray and DVD)

Dead Snow ~ Vegar Hoel (Blu-ray and DVD)

Dirty Harry/Magnum Force ~ Clint Eastwood (Blu-ray)

Everybody’s Fine ~ Robert De Niro, Drew Darrymore (Blu-ray and DVD)

Grumpy Old Men/Grumpier Old Men ~ Walter Matthau, Jack Lemon (Blu-ray)

Howards End (Criterion Collection) ~ Anthony Hopkins, Helena Bonham Carter (Blu-ray and DVD)

Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths ~ Mark Harmon, Alyssa Milano, William Baldwin (Blu-ray and DVD)

Roland Emmerich’s epic disaster flick 2012 easily destroyed the competition this weekend. Since there were no other wide new releases, 2012 handily made over $65 Million, which isn’t really all that impressive, but factor in the international box office take ($160 Million) and you get an opening weekend gross of $225 Million. Looks like the film will make back its budget (upwards of $200 Million) and then some. Playing on over 3,400 screens, the per-screen was just over $19,000.

Crowds are beginning to warm up to Disney’s A Christmas Carol, which took in $22.3 Million, and only dropped off  25% from opening weekend. This is a very good sign for the movie, indicating it will stick around a bit, particularly with Christmas coming up.

The Men Who Stared At Goats dropped an even 50%, for $6.2 Million and third place. Precious continues to be a big story. A small expansion put it in 174 theaters, for $6 Million. What’s astonishing is that the per-screen average was $35,000. Compare that to The Men Who Stare at Goats, which only had a per-screen average of $2,500. Precious will roll out a wider opening next weekend.

Sure, technically Jim Carrey and company won the weekend with the 3D animated adventure A Christmas Carol, but the real reason everyone’s talking about this weekend’s box office is because of another movie’s totals.

Remember a few weeks ago when I was talking about how unbelievable it was that Paranormal Activity had a per screen average of $44,000? Well a little indie called Precious came in and mopped the floor with those totals. Precious played in just 18 theaters and grossed $1.8 million. Folks, that’s a $100,000 per screen average. To put that in perspective, if A Christmas Carol had the same per screen average, it would have grossed over $360 million (instead of $31 million).

This indicates a high degree of interest in the movie, and this weekend’s total will only add to that. Additionally, some people have been throwing around the “O” word, as in Oscar.  It received a standing ovation at Cannes, and an audience award at Sundance. It will slowly be rolling out over the next few weeks, and is definitely one to keep an eye on.

About a week ago a colleague of mine asked why in the world I wanted to go see The Box. I explained that I found the premise fascinating. What if you were told that if you pushed a certain button, you would get a million dollars, but there is a catch. When you push the button, somebody you do not know will die. What would you do?

Therein lies the premise of The Box. This is the third film by Richard Kelly, who garnered cult-like status with Donnie Darko (2001), then wide ridicule for his follow up Southland Tales (2006). Lots of movie types were looking toward this movie to determine whether Kelly is a gifted director, or a one hit wonder. I’m sorry to tell you after viewing this convoluted mess, it seems like a case of the director having no clothes. It’s one thing to be a little avant-garde  with your vision, another entirely to just throw weird crap in your movie and hope that it sticks.

Writer/Director Richard Kelly’s Donnie Darko is one of our favorite movies here at The Flickcast. Its mix of humor, sci-fi, horror, a six foot time travelling rabbit named Frank and Patrick Swayze make it a great movie to watch and ponder. Now, Kelly is back with a new film called The Box, based on the Richard Matheson short story Button, Button.

In case you’re not familier, The Box concerns a couple (Cameron Diaz and James Marsden) visited by a stranger (Frank Langela) with a question for them. Will they take a million dollars to press a button? What’s the catch? If they press the button, they get the money but someone they don’t know will die.

The question and what follows causes the couple to come to terms with their own lives, morals and the very fabric of society. Its a great concept that should be, at the very least, interesting when filtered through the prism of Kelly’s vision.

Check out the first trailer for the film after the jump. The Box opens October 30.