This may be the biggest year for the Academy Awards, as some major Hollywood players are going up against some fresh newcomers. Eyeballs everywhere will be glued to ABC on Sunday, February 27th at 8PM E/5PM P when the awards show goes live. But before that, we decided to do some picking of our own with the staff’s predictions for each award.

For a full list of the nominees, check out our previous article on the subject. Now, on to the predictions.

Best Picture

Shannon Hood-The Social Network. It had early and consistent momentum all year, and the Academy appears to be trying to shake up their stodgy image. This would be the perfect film to put their money where their mouth is.

Matt Raub – True Grit. Not only are the Coens a regular in the “I Have an Oscar” club, but this testament to classic western films is definitely one for record books, between its all-star cast and gritty (no pun intended) visual style, this one definitely deserves the golden statue.

Chris Ullrich – True Grit. Even though this was a pretty great year for movies and there are many excellent choices in this category, True Grit stands on its own as my pick. As an example of pure movie storytelling, this Coen Brothers masterpiece excels on every level and delivers a pure entertainment experience you will want to revisit many more times in the future.

Cortney Zamm – The Social Network. There’s a lot of great films in this category, some of them from my favorite directors and starring my favorite people. But the one that combined all of the essential elements of filmmaking into a truly gorgeous, compelling, and memorable film was The Social Network.

There have been some pretty big hits in the box office this year, and some expected whales, but overall this has been a great year for the worldwide box office, and here’s the proof you need. From THR.

10. Clash of the Titans, $493.2 million worldwide
9. How to Train Your Dragon, $494.9 worldwide
8. Despicable Me, $539.9 million
7. Iron Man 2, $582.2 million
6. Twilight Saga: Eclipse, $693.5 million
5. Shrek Forever After: $739.8 million
4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1. $824.1
3. Inception, $825.4
2. Alice in Wonderland, $1 billion
1. Toy Story 3, $1.1 billion

There are a few genuine good films on the list, like Iron Man 2 and Inception. Some big surprises, considering how bad the reviews were for films like Shrek Forever After, Clash of the Titans, and Alice in Wonderland. And even a few expectations like Twilight, Harry Potter, and How to Train Your Dragon.

Some might say that this summer’s biggest and best animated film was Toy Story 3, but I beg to differ. Dreamwork’s How To Train Your Dragon brought so much to the table and surprised me in so many ways.

It pulled at my heartstrings, made me smile so wide it almost hurt, and just left me satisfied. Plus, it’s about dragons. Dragons are awesome.

While Pixar reigns supreme with their countless Oscars and widespread critical acclaim, I really feel that Dreamworks, with films released this summer like How to Train Your Dragon and Despicable Me, are slowly sneaking up on them. Which is why I was very excited to hear that How To Train Your Dragon will be soaring from the big screen to your television.

According to Ain’t It Cool News, Cartoon Network has decided to turn How to Train Your Dragon into a television show. No word yet on whether or not any of the cast members of the film, which include Jay Baruschel, Gerard Butler, and Jonah Hill, will reprise their roles for the television show, or when the show will even be released.

This is certainly exciting news that the universe of How To Train Your Dragon will continue on, both on television and in a film sequel slated for 2013.

Everyone knew that Iron Man 2 would handily win the box office this weekend, but estimates for the final take were all over the place.  Now the dust is settling, and Iron Man 2 looks to have made around $133 Million, which places it as the fifth best opening ever. Brisk early ticket sales were causing some to predict that Iron Man 2 might challenge the all time record for an opening held by The Dark Knight ($158 Million), but it fell quite a bit short of that.

According to Entertainment Weekly,  Iron Man 2 received an “A” Cinemascore from exiting audience members, and that will translate into great word of mouth and box office stamina.   The film didn’t face any competition from new releases, save for some smaller indie releases.  Iron Man 2 is also a bona fide international success, after two weeks in release, its international box office haul is around $194 Million.

Nightmare on Elm Street fell with a resounding thud, losing 72% of its opening weekend numbers.  Seems everyone who intended to see it saw it the first week, which is fairly typical of horror movies.  Nightmare made about $9 Million and has made $48 Million in its first two weeks.  How to Train Your Dragon was in the number three spot, and just slid past $200 Million in total ticket sales in its seventh week in release.

Well, it didn’t make a killing, per se, but the Nightmare on Elm Street remake took in a healthy $32 Million over the weekend to win the box office. The film only cost about $35 Million, so it will easily make back its budget. Entertainment Weekly is reporting that there was a drop in box office from Friday to Saturday, which is never a good indicator of box office stamina.

That other 80’s horror franchise, Friday the 13th, opened to about $40 Million in February of 2009. It also had a drop off from Friday to Saturday, and  went on to gross about $65 Million domestically during its run. Looks like Nightmare will follow a similar trajectory.

How to Train Your Dragon took the number two spot, after occupying the top spot last week.  It only dropped 29%, and it has been out for six weeks now. HTTYD made $10.8 Million over the weekend. Date Night continues to enjoy brisk business after one month in release. The film only dropped 27%, and earned an additional $7.6 Million, and was followed very closely by The Back Up Plan with $7.2 Million.

Limping across the fifth place finishing line was the Brendan Fraser film Furry Vengeance.  It had a reported budget of around $35 Million, and has an embarrassing Tomatometer reading of 2% on Rotten Tomatoes.  I think that is lowest I have ever seen. Ouch.

The real money making went on overseas. It’s rather unusual to see a big tent-pole movie released overseas before it is released in the States, but Iron Man 2 opened up to over $100 Million.  According to the Los Angeles Times, the film is trying to open ahead of the World Cup in June, and the opening is 26% greater than the foreign opening of Iron Man.

It’s pretty much a given that Iron Man 2 will win the box office next weekend, but the question is, how much money will it rake in? If you’ve got an answer, let us know in the comments.

As if it was ever in question, Dreamworks was so pleased with the results that How To Train Your Dragon has brought in over the past month, pulling in nearly $400 million worldwide, that they are already gearing up for a sequel.

As if the films monetary success wasn’t enough, in an unprecedented turn of events, the film had a resurgence in popularity 4 weeks after it’s initial release, picking up the #1 spot over Warner’s The Losers and Lionsgate’s Kick-Ass. In a recent press release from Dreamworks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg, they seem to be pleased with the results of the film, and believe that it was all thanks to the 3D medium.

2010 is off to a strong start, thanks in large part to the performance of ‘How to Train Your Dragon,’ which – having grossed nearly $375 million to date in worldwide box office – has become DreamWorks Animation’s next franchise. We plan to release the sequel theatrically in 2013.

3D continues to have a tremendous impact on the industry at large and we are now looking forward with great anticipation to bringing ‘Shrek Forever After,’ the final chapter in our beloved ‘Shrek’ series and the first in 3D, to audiences across the globe next month.

So there you have it. Dreamworks seems quite pleased with themselves, and rather than wait to see how the film fares against this summer’s blockbusters like Iron Man 2 or Robin Hood, they are cutting their losses and planning on the next film already.

You can also expect to see just about every upcoming Dreamworks animated (and probably live action) film to embrace 3D technology over the next 5 years.

This week on The Flickcast, Chris and Matt discuss new and recurring topics. Some of these include The Avengers, The Losers, Avatar, Cabin in the Woods, How to Train Your Dragon, cool technology, upcoming releases of A Nightmare on Elm Street and Iron Man 2 and the nature of journalism.

They also make some great picks this week including Matt’s pick of the awesome keyboard dock for the iPad and Chris’ pick of the Blu-ray release of Avatar.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques, offers of sponsorship or whatever, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter, at Facebook and MySpace or via email.

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Things were awful quiet at the box office this weekend, you could hear a pin drop at your nearest multiplex.  The combined gross of the top four films this weekend did not even hit the $50 million mark.  Also, audiences did not have a lot of love for new movies this weekend, as How to Train Your Dragon won the weekend over The Back-Up Plan, starring Jennifer Lopez, and The Losers.  Ultimately, Dragon dropped about 23% from last weekend and made $15 Million on its fifth week in release.

The Back-Up Plan was no doubt a disappointment for fledgling film company CBS films, and for Lopez.  The company’s first and only other release was Extraordinary Measures, the Harrison Ford/Brendan Fraser medical drama that was released in late January.

That film only managed $11.8 Million in its first three weeks in release, so The Back-Up Plan is faring a bit better, with $12.2 Million for the weekend.  Still, it is a very underwhelming gross for an opening weekend, and CBS films and Lopez could definitely have used a hit.

In fourth place came an action movie that a lot of people thought would win the weekend.  The Losers is based on a comic book, and features a sexy ensemble cast, and plenty of explosions. Audiences barely gave the $25 Million film a second glance, and it limped into fourth place never breaking $10 Million in ticket sales.  It stands at $9.6 Million.

It was a shocking and unusual weekend at the box office. Fanboys (and girls) are all scratching their heads trying to figure out how Kick-Ass got its butt kicked by a four week old dragon. That’s right, How to Train Your Dragon claimed the number one spot by a narrow margin of about $250,000, which means we may have a repeat of last week. If you recall, when I wrote the box office piece last week, Date Night was the winner, but by the time the final numbers came in on Monday, it turned out that Clash of the Titans had edged out Date Night by a cool million.

How to Train Your Dragon fell only 20% (remarkable for four weeks in release), and now has made $158 Million. Early numbers are showing about $20 Million for the weekend. Other films that actually seemed to gain momentum during their theatrical run were A Christmas Carol, and Avatar. Dragon was well received by critics and audiences alike, and is truly family friendly, but to win the box office your fourth week out is rather rare. Dreamworks has got to be thrilled.

Kick-Ass got some pretty solid critic reviews (78% on Rotten Tomatoes as of Sunday evening), but it seems like audiences just didn’t connect with the movie, and much as it pains me to say so, it appears movie and comic nerds are not a strong enough force to prop a movie up.

At  the time of this writing, the Tina Fey/Steve Carell comedy Date Night is reported to have narrowly won the box office.  However, The Clash of the Titans was so close behind that it is possible adjusted totals may flip the positions of the two movies. Box Office Mojo is reporting that  Date Night made around $27.1 Million, while Clash made $26.7 Million, a tight margin of victory, to be sure.

This was the biggest opening weekend of Tina Fey’s career thus far, although Carell has had larger openings before.  The $27 Million take is quite good for a comedy.

Clash of the Titans dropped about 56% from opening weekend, which is higher than usual. Most films see about a 30% drop. The larger drop signals that interest for the movie may be waning quickly.

Good thing the flick had a big opening weekend. Clash has now made a total of $110 Million after two weekends, and looks like it will recoup its $125 Million budget. Incidentally, it looks like about 40% of that total was from 3D screens, meaning more than half came from 2D screenings.