According to a joint press release, Paramount Pictures and J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions have agreed to an extension of their exclusive, first-look agreement through December 2015. The deal looks to be incredibly lucrative for both sides.

“J.J. is a unique talent and a captivating storyteller,” said Brad Grey, Chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures. “J.J., Bryan Burk and the whole Bad Robot team are an integral part of Paramount and we’re proud to continue our collaboration. Their pictures have extraordinary resonance around the world and we’re so pleased Paramount will be their home for years to come.”

Bad Robot Productions’ original first look deal with Paramount began in 2006. Since then we have had releases of a variety of successful films and franchise continuations. Considering that grosses on Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol are now $670M globally, while those for the Star Trek reboot hit $385M worldwide, it is no surprise that Paramount is excited about the continuation of this deal. Under the previous Paramount deal, Abrams also had made Cloverfield and Super 8, both of which did well at the global box office.

The fourth installment of the Underworld franchise tried to bring the series back to it’s bread and butter, Kate Beckinsale in skin-tight leather. That was seemingly all you need as the film bounced back from the disappointing third installment and stands tall with a similar start to that of the first two movies.

The estimated twenty-five and a half million dollar haul puts Awakening on pace to top the over all totals of the first and third movies, whether or not it can catch the series peak, set by Evolution, will depend on it’s hold next weekend. The per theater average and total screen numbers are comparable to the second film which performed the best up to this point in the series.

Coming in at an impressive nineteen million is Red Tails, the Lucasfilm tale of the famed Tuskegee Airman. The movie surpassed many expectations and out paced other fighter pilot films by a solid margin. Much like Underworld: Awakening, the critical reception of Red Tails has not been kind, so it will need strong word of mouth to maintain momentum into next weekend.

As is the usual practice almost anywhere were column inches or post counts matter, writers such as myself take to their keyboards and make lists. I am no exception and, with a great deal of difficulty and toil, have managed to cobble together a list of what I think are some of the best things of 2011.

I don’t really want to bore you with a lot of explanations as to why I picked what I did. Suffice it to say these picks are mine and mine alone. Also, they are not in any particular order, mostly because I find it hard to rank them that closely. Or, I was just too lazy.

Either way, here you go.

Movies

Drive
The Artist
Attack the Block
X-Men: First Class
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
The Descendants
Thunder Soul
13 Assassins
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2
Hugo

Those of you who follow our weekly Box Office Report may have noticed that we skipped our report last week. It wasn’t for any other reason than it was the saddest and weakest week that the US box office brought in all year. It was pretty depressing.

We figured, given the fact that two blockbusters (one with a soft opening of 425 theaters) and a kids’ threequal was hitting theaters, there was bound to be a boom in ticket sales. Or so we thought.

This weekend, the big hit (and that’s speaking wildly) was Warner Bros’ Sherlock Holmes 2, which netted only $40 Million. That’s about $20 Million less than the first film brought in on its first weekend.

The margin after that first film was also pretty massive, as Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked pulled in a whole third of their production budget with a total of $23 Million for the weekend. This was the lowest of the three films’ opening weekends, which was about half of both films’ respective opening totals.

For those who can’t stop talking, reading, or imagining what Chris Nolan’s ultimate film in the Batman franchise will be like, you’ll be in luck on December 16th, as a specific 16 theaters, all 70mm IMAX capable, will be screening a 6-minute Dark Knight Rises prologue attached to the front of Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol. Deadline‘s got the report.

The prologue for The Dark Knight Rises will not screen with digital Imax or regular digital or 35mm film presentations of Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. Regular, non-Imax versions of Ghost Protocol open December 21. The list of theaters follows. Moviegoers should confirm theaters will be playing the prologue for The Dark Knight Rises before purchasing tickets.

That last note is especially important, because not many theaters may be supporting this, even if they say they will. Be sure to check out the full list after the jump, and find out which theater works for you, and which to skip when seeing Tom Cruise scale a skyscraper.

Dark Knight Rises hits theaters on July 12, 2012.