The real story from the box office this weekend is the non-story of This Is It. Sure, it won the weekend with $21.3 million, but there were some crazy estimates thrown around last week. I know I wasn’t the only person entertaining the notion that this movie would open above $70 million, especially after seeing all the hysterics from frenzied fans on opening day and sold out venues.

So, I have been scratching my head trying to figure out why the movie was a relative dud here in the U.S. Worldwide, it was a smashing success and made over $100 million. Although, I heard more than one estimate say that it could open in the $200-250 million range, and it made less than half that.

Do you think that because Michael Jackson lived here in the States, and we were exposed to more of the controversial aspects of his life? Perhaps fans in Japan, Germany and Australia had a more pristine memory of the King of Pop. At any rate, I was pretty blown away by the movie’s fairly low numbers. This was supposed to be one of the biggest events of the year.

Paranormal Activity enjoyed Halloween weekend, and took in another $16.5 million. It only dropped 22% from last weekend. It stands at a cumulative total of $84.8 million and is all but guaranteed to pass $100 million during its domestic run.

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When it comes to horror,  for the last several years October has been monopolized by the persistent and prolific offerings of a one Saw series. Jigsaw might be smarting a bit this Monday, because he was decidedly trounced by “the little demon that could,” otherwise known as Paranormal Activity.

Based on early estimates from Box Office Mojo,  Paranormal Activity finally claimed the top spot at the box office in its fifth week of release.  This makes it only the second movie this decade to do so after that many weeks in release, the other being Gran Torrino (2008).   Scaring up another $22M, the film played on 1,956 screens and brought its cumulative total up to $62.4M.

Despite playing on over 1,000 more screens than Paranormal, Saw VI brought in only $14.8M for second place.  This is the worst opening weekend for the franchise since the original Saw.

Where the Wild Things Are had a fairly steep dropoff of 55.9% from its opening week, which indicates few repeat attendees, and less than stellar word of mouth.  Still, it made $14.4 bringing its cumulative total to $53.9M for its first two weeks.

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As predicted, Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are seemingly dominated the Box Office with $32.4M.  It played on a whopping 3,700+ screens, including IMAX screens, for a per-screen average of $8,693.  Sounds decent, but figure in the reported budget of $100M, and it looks like it may be a bit of a climb for the movie to be profitable, at least while in theaters.

The ultra-violent thriller Law Abiding Citizen boasted a very respectable $21.25M, and a $7,353 per screen average, which actually shows it performing very close to WTWTA.  It played in substantially fewer screens (2,890), and if  WTWTA had not had the benefit of IMAX prices, this would have been a much closer race.

The unstoppable juggernaut that is Paranormal Activity continued its trajectory scooping up another $20.1M on only 760 screens!  That puts its per screen average at more than $26,000, nearly three times what WTWTA averaged.  Pretty impressive.  It will expand further next weekend.

Couples Retreat dropped off 47.7%, but still made $17.9M, bringing its total to $63.3M over two weeks.

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I’ve got to give it to Spike Jonze. He took on the Herculean task of adapting one of the most beloved children’s books of all time, and mostly got it right. I remember the book vividly, and seeing the creatures in the movie brought to life is a spectacle to behold. It is absolutely breathtaking. They are exactly as you remember them, but real.

When Jonze decided to forgo the usual CGI, film followers exhaled a sigh of relief. Instead, a combination of puppetry, live action and CGI (for the facial expressions) was employed. Jonze said that he felt a physical presence was necessary for the actor (Max Richards) to interact with. I agree. However, at times I felt the creatures tread a little too close to H.R. Pufnstuf territory, and I would be jarred out of the movie.

The film begins with the hero Max displaying the typical antics of a boy his age. He’s hyper as hell as he dashes about the house, partakes in a snowball fight in his yard, and terrorizes the family dog. He tries to get the attention of his harried mom (Catherine Keener) and is upset when his sister leaves with her friends.

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We’re very excited here at The Flickcast for Spike Jonze’s adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are. While the film is still a month away, we’ve brought you featurettes, trailers, and more coverage for the film than you could shake a stick at. Now, four new character banners and a new poster just debuted on Myspace’s blog for the film!

The new banners showcase three “Wild Things” Judith, Carol, KW, and Max, the main character as played by Max Records. In addition to Records as “Max”,  the film features James Gandolfini, Catherine O’Hara, Lauren Ambrose, Mark Ruffalo, and Forrest Whitaker. Where The Wild Things Are hits theaters and IMAX October 16th.

You can view the four character banners and poster after the jump.

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Now that the Summer blockbuster season has settled down and most of the tent pole films for the year have been put to bed, it’s time for the sleeper hits of 2009 to shine. The Fall is a pretty big time for films like District 9, Gamer, and of course Where the Wild Things Are to take over the box office in a substantial way.

The first trailer for Where the Wild Things Are hit a few months back, and didn’t show us very much. Still, we knew that director Spike Jonze, who was the mastermind behind this stroke of genius, would do the children’s book classic. We now get a new trailer filled with plenty of footage of the titular “wild things” and surprisingly lots of James Gandolfini.

Also starring Forest Whitaker, Catherine Ohara, Lauren Ambrose, Mark Ruffalo, Catherine Keener, and Max Records, Warner’s Where the WIld Things Are hits screens October 16th nationwide.

Check it out the brand new trailer after the jump.

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Here at The Flickcast, we’re really excited about Spike Jonze’s new film, Where The Wild Things Are. Warner Bros. just showed an exclusive featurette on the making of the movie at their panel at Comic-Con, but if you weren’t there to see it we’ve got you covered.

Coming Soon reported that  WB has just posted the clip on the Apple trailer website. Starring Catherine Keener, Max Records, Mark Ruffalo, Lauren Ambrose, James Gandolfini, Catherine O’Hara and Forest Whitaker, Where the Wild Things Are hits theaters and IMAX October 16th.

You can watch the featurette here.

With next week’s release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince hitting theaters on Wednesday, there seems to be more and more focus on what trailers Warner Bros. will attach to the film, seeing as how this is the biggest release for the studio this year. One film that seems to be attracting most of the excitement is the adaptation of the children’s book Where the Wild Things Are.

The original trailer hit a few months back, which looked pretty cool. From there, it seemed to have developed it’s own growing fan base, so you can imagine how excited the rest of the world will be in moments leading up to the Harry Potter film.

With that trailer we are also expected to get a first look at Robert Rodriguez’s Shorts. Starring James Spader, William H. Macy, and Leslie Mann, the film is about a magical rock that grants wishes to a small town called Black Falls. This will more than likely fall on the side of Rodriguez’s Sharkboy and Lava Girl, rather than his work with Tarantino and Grindhouse.

Finally, there will be a new trailer for the Guy Ritchie, Robert Downey Jr. project Sherlock Holmes. The film looks to be a blockbuster, which is different for Ritchie, but should only add to the pile of Downey’s Iron Man popularity. See all the footage with Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Wednesday, July 15.