
It’s another one for the record books. Along with the prize for highest first weekend in domestic history, The Avengers has now earned the highest second weekend with an estimated $103.1 million from 4,349 locations. That crushes Avatar’s former sophomore record of $75.6 million and represents a decline of just 50% – a better hold than The Dark Knight managed in its second frame. Even more exciting for Disney and Marvel, the worldwide estimate for The Avengers has now topped One Billion. Unfortunately, good news for The Avengers means not-so-good news for Dark Shadows. The latest collaboration of Tim Burton and Johnny Depp earned an estimated $28.8 million from 3,755 locations, or a bit less than The Avengers made on Friday alone.
| Title | Weekend | Total | |
| 1 | The Avengers | $103,160,000 | $373.1 |
| 2 | Dark Shadows | $28,800,000 | $28.8 |
| 3 | Think Like A Man | $6,300,000 | $81.9 |
| 4 | The Hunger Games | $4,300,000 | $387 |
| 5 | The Lucky One | $4,055,000 | $53.7 |
| 6 | Pirates! Band of Misfits | $3,200,000 | $21.1 |
| 7 | The Five-Year Engagement | $3,095,000 | $24.4 |
| 8 | Best Exotic Marigold Hotel | $2,650,000 | $3.7 |
| 9 | Chimpanzee | $1,624,000 | $25.5 |
| 10 | Girl in Progress | $1,350,000 | $1.35 |

Surprising no one, The Hunger Games stayed in first place for a second week in a row with an estimated $61.1 million, or a decline of 60%. Meanwhile this weekend’s new releases – Wrath of the Titans and Mirror, Mirror – had to settle for second and third, respectively. And, again, we’re back to being really, really not surprised.
| Title | Weekend | Total | |
| 1 | The Hunger Games | $61,100,000 | $251 |
| 2 | Wrath of the Titans | $34,200,000 | $34.2 |
| 3 | Mirror, Mirror | $19,000,000 | $19 |
| 4 | 21 Jump Street | $15,000,000 | $93 |
| 5 | The Lorax | $9,010,000 | $189.5 |
| 6 | John Carter | $2,005,000 | $66.2 |
| 7 | Salmon Fishing in the Yemen | $1,274,000 | $3.1 |
| 8 | Act of Valor | $1,006,000 | $67.7 |
| 9 | A Thousand Words | $915,000 | $16.5 |
| 10 | Journey 2 | $835,000 | $98.4 |
We all knew The Lorax was going to be number one, and a big number one at that. But most box office watchers were expecting the animated film to land somewhere between $49 and $59 million on its first weekend – making it easily the biggest debut of 2012. Instead, the adaptation of Dr. Seuss’ classic has earned an estimated $70.7 million from 3,927 locations. Not only is that the third-highest March debut ever, it also stands as the biggest animated feature debut since Toy Story 3. In other words, this is huge.
| Title | Weekend | Total | |
| 1 | The Lorax | $70,720,000 | $70.7 |
| 2 | Project X | $20,775,000 | $20.7 |
| 3 | Act of Valor | $13.700,000 | $45.2 |
| 4 | Safe House | $7,210,000 | $108.1 |
| 5 | Good Deeds | $7,000,000 | $25.7 |
| 6 | Journey 2 | $6,925,000 | $85.6 |
| 7 | The Vow | $6,100,000 | $111.7 |
| 8 | This Means War | $5,625,000 | $41.4 |
| 9 | Ghost Rider 2 | $4,700,000 | $44.8 |
| 10 | The Artist | $3,900,000 | $37 |

The 37th Annual Saturn Awards were held last night. The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films honored the best in film, television, special effects and more. Inception was the big winner of the night, taking home five awards including Best Science Fiction Film. Other winners in the top categories include Fringe for Best Network Series, Breaking Bad for best Cable Series, Let Me In for Best Horror Film, Alice in Wonderland for Best Fantasy Film and Salt for Best Action/Adventure Film.
Hit the jump to see the full list of winners, and don’t forget to check out Collider’s interviews from the red carpet at the event. We spoke with Brandon Routh, Fringe’s Lance Reddick, and producer Dean Devlin.
Ouch. Though it seemed likely after Friday’s figures were announced, the fact that Fox’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules so easily topped the flashier Sucker Punch has still got to hurt the folks at Warners this morning.
| Title | Weekend | Total | |
| 1 | Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2 | $24,400,000 | $24.4 |
| 2 | Sucker Punch | $19,000,000 | $19 |
| 3 | Limitless | $15,225,000 | $41.2 |
| 4 | The Lincoln Lawyer | $11,000,000 | $28.9 |
| 5 | Rango | $9,800,000 | $106.3 |
| 6 | Battle: Los Angeles | $7,600,000 | $72.5 |
| 7 | Paul | $7,500,000 | $24.6 |
| 8 | Red Riding Hood | $4,340,000 | $32.4 |
| 9 | The Adjustment Bureau | $4,240,000 | $54.8 |
| 10 | Mars Needs Moms | $2,186,000 | $19.1 |
After pulling ahead of the pack on the traffic jam that was this Friday’s box office, Relativity’s Limitless stayed on top with an estimated $19 million from its 2,756 locations. Fellow newcomers Paul and The Lincoln Lawyer had more modest starts, making this one more in 2011’s long line of down weekends.
| Title | Weekend | Total | |
| 1 | Limitless | $19,000,000 | $19 |
| 2 | Rango | $15,300,000 | $92.6 |
| 3 | Battle: Los Angeles | $14,600,000 | $60.6 |
| 4 | The Lincoln Lawyer | $13,400,000 | $13.4 |
| 5 | Paul | $13,200,000 | $13.2 |
| 6 | Red Riding Hood | $7,255,000 | $25.9 |
| 7 | The Adjustment Bureau | $5,930,000 | $48.7 |
| 8 | Mars Needs Moms | $5,310,000 | $15.4 |
| 9 | Beastly | $3,260,000 | $22.2 |
| 10 | Hall Pass | $3,600,000 | $39.6 |
Paramount did not quite reach the $50 million they were hoping for with their PG toon Rango. With an estimated $38 million from its 3,917 locations, however, the 2D animated feature did manage to top The Green Hornet to become the biggest debut of 2011 so far.
| Title | Weekend | Total | |
| 1 | Rango | $38,000,000 | $38 |
| 2 | The Adjustment Bureau | $20,900,000 | $20.9 |
| 3 | Beastly | $10,100,000 | $10.1 |
| 4 | Hall Pass | $9,000,000 | $27 |
| 5 | Gnomeo & Juliet | $6,900,000 | $83.7 |
| 6 | Unknown | $6,620,000 | $53.1 |
| 7 | The King’s Speech | $6,501,000 | $123.8 |
| 8 | Just Go With It | $6,500,000 | $88.2 |
| 9 | I Am Number Four | $5,702,000 | $46.4 |
| 10 | Justin Bieber: Never Say Never | $4,325,000 | $68.8 |
See that? All the box office needed to shake off the stagnant was Johnny Depp! Debuting on the same weekend the actor owned with Alice in Wonderland in 2010, the animated western Rango is on track to have the biggest debut of the year. The PG flick from director Gore Verbinski brought in an estimated $9.5 million on Friday from 3,917 locations and appears headed for a three day total above $40 million – and that’s without a 3D price boost. If Paramount is pleased with their Rango debut, Universal is probably just as pleased with the debut of The Adjustment Bureau. The Matt Damon-led sci-fi thriller opened to $6.7 million from 2,840 locations. Expect a three-day total above $20 million, or a few million more than the studio was hoping for just a two days ago. Alex Pettyfer is back this week in CBS Films’ Beastly. The modern fairytale took in $3.5 million on Friday and should finish the weekend just below $10 million – right about where the studio was expecting. Full details and box office analysis tomorrow.
| Title | Friday | Total | |
| 1 | Rango | $9,500,000 | $9.5 |
| 2 | Adjustment Bureau | $6,700,000 | $6.7 |
| 3 | Beastly | $3,500,000 | $3.5 |
| 4 | Hall Pass | $2,700,000 | $20.6 |
| 5 | Just Go With | $1,900,000 | $83.6 |

In what easily had to be one of the most painful, unfunny Oscar ceremonies in recent memory, The King’s Speech finally reached the end of its inevitable march to Best Picture. It was the first Best Picture winner to win less than five Oscars (it won four, including Best Actor, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay). [Correction: Crash, which won Best Picture in 2006, only won 3 Oscars] Does that make it more or less unworthy of the Best Picture crown? I don’t know. I don’t care. I’m drained after live-blogging the awful show and 50 minutes of terrible pre-show.
Hit the jump for the full list of winners.

Like any good Oscar ceremony, the 83rd Academy Awards will most likely drag on unto infinity. Categories will blend together and you’ll find yourself waiting to see who wins “Best Costume Design for a Live-Action Short Starring Winter’s Bone“. I’m trying to stop myself from being on auto-snark and hoping that the show is genuinely entertaining. I find hosts Anne Hathaway and James Franco to be charming so hopefully they’ll have some good material. Last year, I didn’t expect much from Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin and I thought they did a terrific job. While the Oscars are a show for rich people to congratulate themselves on a job well done, the host doesn’t have to tear the room down to make us poor slobs at home feel better. There’s a balancing act and hopefully Hathaway and Franco can pull it off.
So get your Oscar ballots ready and hit the jump as I live-blog the 83rd Academy Awards. Also, you can click here for my predictions.

If you’re among the folk who believe the Academy Awards are too stodgy, too reluctant to embrace sci-fi, fantasy, and horror — the Saturn Awards are for you. Sure, Best Picture nominee Inception led the field with nominations, but Let Me In and Tron: Legacy (just one Oscar nomination between them) fall close behind with 7 Saturn nominations apiece. Hereafter, Alice in Wonderland, Black Swan, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1, Never Let Me Go, and Shutter Island all landed 5 or more nominations.
The Walking Dead racked up the most television nominations with 6, followed by Breaking Bad, Fringe, and Lost with 5 each. Hit the jump for the full list of nominees and a breakdown of the number of nominations by film/series.

Two subsets of Hollywood’s production crews chimed in last night on the best film and television of 2010. The American Cinema Editors handed out their adorably named Eddie Awards with a respectable degree of specialization. The Social Network was named the best edited feature-length drama — Alice in Wonderland, Toy Story 3, and Exit Through the Gift Shop won in the comedy/musical, animated, and documentary categories respectively. Modern Family, The Walking Dead, Treme, and Temple Grandin were deemed the best edited programs on television last year.
The Cinema Audio Society gave their top film award to True Grit, and became the first voting body to recognize the straight-to-DVD greatness of 30 Days of Night: Dark Days. TV nods went to Boardwalk Empire, Temple Grandin, and Deadliest Catch. Hit the jump for the full list of winners.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has narrowed down the contenders for the Visual Effects category to seven: Alice in Wonderland, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1, Hereafter, Inception, Iron Man 2, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and Tron: Legacy. Given the face replace magic and impending Oscar dominance of The Social Network, I’m a bit surprised David Fincher’s movie didn’t get a nod. But I’m glad Scott Pilgrim has the chance represent the relatively smaller-scale films in a big-budget category. (Basically Scott must battle six evil FXes to win the heart of Oscar.)
The voting members will be invited to view 15-minute segments from each film on January 20th, then vote to nominate five films for final Oscar consideration. Hit the jump for the press release.
Though it’s a brand new year, we’ll be left cleaning up after 2010 for weeks to come. After falling to second place on New Year’s Eve, Little Fockers managed to edge past True Grit to retain the box office crown for a second weekend in a row. All hail the king. Overall, 2010 will end up only slightly behind 2009’s record with over $10 billion in profits – due largely to early successes like Avatar and Alice and Wonderland, of course. Nothing in the ass-end of the past year is even coming close to those titles in terms of dollars or attendance.
| Title | Weekend | Total | |
| 1 | Little Fockers | $26,300,000 | $103.2 |
| 2 | True Grit | $24,500,000 | $86.8 |
| 3 | Tron Legacy | $18,300,000 | $130.8 |
| 4 | Yogi Bear | $13,000,000 | $66.1 |
| 5 | Narnia 3 | $10,500,000 | $87.1 |
| 6 | Tangled | $10,008,000 | $168 |
| 7 | The Fighter | $10,000,000 | $46.3 |
| 8 | Gulliver’s Travels | $9,100,000 | $27.2 |
| 9 | Black Swan | $8,500,000 | $47.4 |
| 10 | The King’s Speech | $7,600,000 | $22.8 |

Top 10 lists are a dime a dozen in the Hollywood circle, but while most writers are busy compiling their “Best of” in terms of films, directors and performances I’m always more curious to explore the less-appreciated categories – particularly Best Motion Picture Score. And so without further ado, here are my picks for the Best Scores of 2010. Hit the jump to see the list.
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