Weekend Box Office: July 22-24

Courtesy of Box Office Mojo:

1.  Captain America: The First Avenger - $65.8 million

2.  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 - $48 million

3.  Friends With Benefits - $18.5 million

4.  Transformers: Dark of the Moon - $12 million

5.  Horrible Bosses - $11.7 million

6.  Zookeeper - $8.7 million

7.  Cars 2 - $5.7 million

8.  Winnie the Pooh - $5.1 million

9.  Bad Teacher - $2.6 million

10.  Midnight in Paris - $1.8 million

Way to go, Cap!

Captain America: The First Avenger put the naysayers to rest this weekend, opening with an estimated $65.8 million.  That's better than the disappointing opening for X-Men: First Class (although X-Men didn't have the benefit of 3D, which probably wouldn't have helped much anyway) and the tepid response for last month's Green Lantern, instead putting it on the level with Thor's $65 million opening back in May.  This bodes well for when the whole Marvel gang gets the band back together for The Avengers, which will kick off next year's summer movie season in May.

Judging from the audience response at the sight of Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America in the post-credits Avengers teaser at the showing of Captain America I saw this morning (the guy behind me was literally hyperventilating), I think The Avengers is likely to make a crapload of money next summer.

However, the 3D craze continues to fade at the box office:  only 40% of the sales for Captain America were for 3D showings this weekend.

In second place was Harry Potter and the Measly $834 Million Worldwide Gross.  Traditionally, the Harry Potter films drop like a rock in their second weekend, since the majority of their fanbase gets it out of their system during the opening weekend.  Deathly Hallows 2 continued that tradition, dropping 72% to finish out the weekend with $48 million.  That's a huge drop - the biggest of any of the Harry Potter films - but let's be real:  it's already grossed $274 million domestically, $560 million overseas, pushed the franchise past the $7 billion mark this week, and just knocked the Star Wars movies out of the way to become the highest-grossing movie franchise of all time.  It's all good.

This weekend's other new release, Friends With Benefits, opened with an OK $18.5 million.  That's just below the $19.7 million that No Strings Attached, which is basically the same movie, opened with earlier this year.  It's also worth pointing out that two of the film's in this week's top ten star Justin Timberlake, as Bad Teacher inched closer to the $100 million mark with $2.6 million this weekend.

Tranformers continues to play well, earning another $12 million to bring its domestic total up to $325 million.  Overseas, the movie has earned $556 million.  That makes it the highest-grossing movie of the year so far, although that's likely to be overtaken by Harry Potter within the next few weeks.  Horrible Bosses also continues its strong box office run, dropping only 34% to earn $11.7 million.

Next weekend sees the release of Cowboys & Aliens.  Should be interesting to see how this holds up against Captain America next week.  I think it looks pretty cool, but the jury is still out as to whether or not audiences have warmed up to the concept yet.  Stay tuned... 

"The Avengers" Posters Thor & SHIELD Agents

More solid artwork is coming out of Comic-Con displaying "The Avengers", this time the posters feature Thor & the agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. I honestly was not interested in this flick all that much, but seeing these posters and the teaser at the end of Captain...I'm in. It's going to be fun to follow how this movie does at the box office compared "Dark Knight Rises" and "The Amazing Spider-Man" in 2012.

"Knights Of Badassdom" Trailer

[Steve] Zahn and Dinklage play Eric and Hung, two friends obsessed with Live-Action Role Play (a.k.a. LARPing) who decide their depressed roommate, Joe (Kwanten) needs to join in their fake-armor and foam-sword reindeer games…. So Joe dives deep into the world of geek, only to have Eric inadvertently perform a real spell from a creepy old book he bought off eBay. Turns out the book was penned by demons, and a succubus is now roaming the campsite where hundreds of people dressed as knights, elves, and warlocks are playing make-believe.

Video Courtesy of ShockTillYouDrop

Synopsis Via Slashfilm

Comic-Con: Silver Samurai Is the Villain in Wolverine 2

Not Earth shattering news because we all came to this conclusion. But since it hasn't been verified yet, it is worth a mention unlike, say recent batches of "exclusive confirmations" of information we've known since last October towards the Lizard being the baddie in The Amazing Spider-Man. I'm looking directly at you, Entertainment Weekly.

Hugh Jackman has confirmed he'll face off against the Silver Samurai in The Wolverine.

Given that the sequel/prequel is based on the popular Frank Miller limited-run comic series from the early 80s and the character was the antagonist in that, we all put one and one together. It's good to have official confirmation from Logan himself though.

Comic-Con: Yes, There Will Be a Jurassic Park 4, Eventually

A fourth Jurassic Park is inevitable. Just a matter of when and who will be directing, presumably not Steven Spielberg or Joe Johnston.

During the Tintin panel along with Peter Jackson, Spielberg confirms they've committed to a story and a writer with the intention/hope/guess of it being released in "the next two or three years."

While the story is anyone's guess, we can only assume the phantom screenwriter is Mark Protosevich, who as of last month was reported to have taken several meetings with Spielberg over Jurassic Park 4.

Comic-Con: Guillermo del Toro Talks Up Pacific Rim

Not too much to go off of since it doesn't come out until July 2013, filming hasn't begun (Hence no footage for everyone to drool over) and the cast hasn't been 100% locked down, but nonetheless Guillermo del Toro was front and center yesterday to talk up Pacific Rim. He was joined by screenwriter Travis Beachham and actors Charlie Day, Idris Elba and Charlie Hunnam.

Outside of this logo courtesy of Legendary Pictures (via Coming Soon), the highlight was essentially helmer del Toro confirming the meat of the story: "Giant fucking monsters against giant fucking robots."

Bring it on. I'm just happy after the hardships of The Hobbit fiasco and At the Mountains of Madness (and then there's the 800 lb. gorilla of whether Hellboy 3 will ever see the light of day – my guess is it won’t), it's encouraging to see del Toro getting a movie made he is clearly passionate about.

Is Hollywood Finally Getting It?

Let me start with a disclaimer regarding this story: it's pure opinion.

For all I know, tomorrow some news story will come out that completely rebuffs what I'm trying to say here.

But anyway...

I've noticed a certain trend lately in Hollywood concerning how much time they're putting into making a quality, blockbuster film.  Films are being pre-produced and completey shot more than a year before their release date, giving the filmmakers plenty of time to make sure the film comes out right.  Take for example...

The Amazing Spider-Man.  Yes, I know everyone is iffy and undecided about what exactly to think concerning this reboot (I for one like the direction it's going.  I couldn't stand the goofiness and amount of humor in Sam Rami's films), but you have to admit, it's comforting knowing the film has already been filmed and isn't set for release until next July 3rd.  That's gives Marc Webb and the rest of his crew plenty of time to edit this thing, get the special effects right, and make sure the film comes out the best it can.

Another example yet with more detail...

Man of Steel.  The Zack Snyder directed, Christopher Nolan produced reboot of Superman.  It made headlines this past week when it was announced the flick would be released June 14th, 2013, almost 6 months later than it's expected December 2012 opening.  Now if you look at the timeline of this film, it started being written back in February 2010.  Yes, February 2010.  That's when it was first announced that Christopher Nolan was producing the thing along with his brother, Jonah, and David Goyer writing the script.  Then, last October, Zack Snyder came aboard to direct with Henry Cavill being announced as the star later on in February.  With filming finally set to begin next month, it's been 6 months since Cavill was cast, 10 months since Snyder was announced as director, and 18 months since Chris Nolan and crew hopped on board.  Now with the film not coming out until until June 2013, and filming expected to probably last anywhere from 6-8 months, that will give Snyder over a year to put this film together once it's shot.  Imagine that, more than a year of post-production.

Now I know you're probably gonna say, "Well X-Men: First Class did all that in a year and came out good," or "Green Lantern had 9 months of post-production and still came out like shit."  Well, look at the facts for a second.  For X-Men, Bryan Singer had been working on that film 7 months before director Matthew Vaughn came aboard.  So to say the film was made completely in a year is a bit exaggerated.  Then there's Green Lantern.  Yes, that film had plenty of time to get it right, but had three scripts to begin with, so Warner Bros. never knew where the heck they were going with the film in the first place.

I'll be the first to admit, I can be completely wrong about all of this.  The Amazing Spider-Man can come out next July and be a load of crap and Man of Steel can arrive June 2013 and suck worse than Green Lantern.  However, if both films do arrive and hit the ball right out of the park, maybe you'll remember this article, and how Hollywood might finally know how to make a film, not a release date.

"Immortals" Comic Con Poster

Hitting 3D and 2D theaters on November 11, the brutal and bloodthirsty King Hyperion (Rourke) and his murderous Heraklion army are rampaging across Greece in search of the long lost Bow of Epirus. With the invincible Bow, the king will be able to overthrow the Gods of Olympus and become the undisputed master of his world. With ruthless efficiency, Hyperion and his legions destroy everything in their wake, and it seems nothing will stop the evil king’s mission.

As village after village is obliterated, a stonemason named Theseus (Cavill) vows to avenge the death of his mother in one of Hyperion's raids. When Theseus meets the Sybelline Oracle, Phaedra (Freida Pinto), her disturbing visions of the young man's future convince her that he is the key to stopping the destruction. With her help, Theseus assembles a small band of followers and embraces his destiny in a final desperate battle for the future of humanity.

"Haywire" Trailer

Mallory Kane is a highly trained operative who works for a government security contractor in the dirtiest, most dangerous corners of the world. After successfully freeing a Chinese journalist held hostage, she is double crossed and left for dead by someone close to her in her own agency. Suddenly the target of skilled assassins who know her every move, Mallory must find the truth in order to stay alive. Using her black-ops military training, she devises an ingenious—and dangerous—trap. But when things go haywire, Mallory realizes she’ll be killed in the blink of an eye unless she finds a way to turn the tables on her ruthless adversary.

Hawkeye And Black Widow Posters

The other day Avengers solo art posters for Captain America and Iron Man came online, and today we have Hawkeye and Black Widow.

These really are great little teasers for fans, and if I am not mistaken that is the SHIELD Helicarrier in the background of Hawkeye's poster.

Keep an eye out over the weekend as we should officially be getting that Avengers teaser trailer that is currently showing after Captain America, but for now check out these cool posters.