Here’s a look at this week’s new Blu-ray releases:

• Side Effects (Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy + UltraViolet) – $22.99 (34% off)
• Beautiful Creatures (2013) [Blu-ray] – $22.99 (36% off)
• The ABC’s of Death [Blu-ray] – $16.99 (43% off)
• The Last Stand [Blu-ray] – $14.99 (63% off)
• National Lampoon’s Vacation: 30th Anniversary [Blu-ray] – $14.86 (25% off)
• Medium Cool (Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] – $27.86 (30% off)
• Parker [Blu-ray] – $19.99 (44% off)
• Stand Up Guys [Blu-ray] – $14.99 (63% off)
• Struck By Lightning [Blu-ray] – $19.99 (33% off)
• True Blood: The Complete Fifth Season (Blu-ray/DVD Combo + Digital Copy) – $34.99 (56% off)

For a second week in a row, Oz the Great and Powerful reigned at the domestic box office. The Disney hit earned an estimated $42.2 million, down 47% off from last weekend’s debut. But the big news this week is the film that took second place. With an estimated $17.1 million from 2,507 locations, The Call wound up stealing the spotlight from the comedy debut of The Incredible Burt Wonderstone.

The fact that we all saw it coming doesn’t make it less sweet. Disney’s Oz the Great and Powerful opened big this weekend, earning an estimated $80.2 million from 3,912 locations. Not only does that more than double 2013’s highest debut, it also stands as the third-best March opening of all time, behind Alice in Wonderland and The Hunger Games.

2013’s box office downturn stretched to its sixth frame this weekend, as Warner Brothers’ Jack the Giant Slayer failed to justify its giant pricetag. From 3,525 locations, the fairytale adaptation took in an estimated $28 million – more than its Friday estimate promised, but less than half of what The Lorax delivered at this time last year. The weekend’s other offerings fared little better though, in the case of The Last Exorcism Part II, a small opening was mitigated by an even smaller budget.

2013 has not been a banner year at the box office by any stretch of the imagination, but this weekend will set a new low. For the first time in months, no film took in $15 million. That includes the first-place Identity Thief, which was back on top in its third frame. With an estimated $14.1 million, Identity Thief barely edged out the $13 million debut of Snitch but, when we’re talking numbers this small, gloating over rank seems a little pointless.

A Good Day to Die Hard turned in a good weekend at the box office with $25 million, netting $33 million since its Valentine’s Day opening.  It looked like the Nicholas Sparks adaptation Safe Haven was going to secure the second spot with $21 million, but Identity Thief stole the silver with $23 million.  The comedy, starring Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy, now has $70 million in just 10 days.  Check out the full rundown of the weekend’s Top 10 below:

Before I dive headfirst into what could be considered overselling to the “nth degree”, I have a disclaimer: I’m a total sucker for nostalgia-inducing, high school-centric, coming of age films. With that out of the way, I cannot recommend enough that you watch author/writer/director Stephen Chboksy‘s adaptation of his own novel, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, as soon as possible. The pic hit Blu-ray/DVD this past week and over the course of 24 hours I rented it, watched it, loved it, returned it (yes, somehow late fees are still a thing…), and purchased it for my own collection. I could go on and on about the emotional note the movie hit for me at every turn but I’ll spare you the fanboy torment. Suffice to say that I’ll be looking back fondly on this one for quite a while.

My “Blu-ray/DVD pick of the week” aside, this week’s installment features a week of Die Hard that includes Matt revisiting the entire franchise and A Good Day to Die Hard interviews with Bruce Willis and more, coverage from Steve’s visit to the set of The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, a slew of video interviews from this year’s VES Awards including talks with Ang Lee and Wally Pfister just to name a few, Beautiful Creatures interviews with Emmy Rossum and more, and a healthy amount of images from the floor of Toy Fair 2013. Yep, you guessed it, a brief recap and link to each of the above can be found on the other side.

The holiday weekend is off and running at the box office, and it’s a battle of brawn over sap as A Good Day to Die Hard and Safe Haven are neck-and-neck for the top spot.  The fifth entry in the Die Hard franchise netted near-universal negative reviews, and now the pic is performing slightly under expectations at the box office as the actioner took in an estimated $7.2 million on Friday to add to its $8.2 million take on Valentine’s Day Thursday.  Nipping at Die Hard’s heels is the Nicholas Sparks adaptation Safe Haven, which scored an estimated $7.1 million on Friday to combine with its $8.8 million gross on Thursday.  Warner Bros.’ YA adaptation Beautiful Creatures, however, fell flat with a paltry $2.3 million on Friday that puts it in the number 6 slot overall and on track for a very low $11.5 million weekend.  All of this despite the fact that Beautiful Creatures garnered considerably more positive reviews than both Die Hard and Safe Haven.  We’ll have full details tomorrow.

The romantic drama Beautiful Creatures tells the story of 17-year-old Ethan Wate (Alden Ehrenreich), whose world is shaken up with the arrival of Lena Duchannes (Alice Englert), the niece of Macon Ravenwood (Jeremy Irons), the reclusive owner of gothic Ravenwood Manor.  Immediately drawn to each other, it becomes apparent that Lena is a Caster with powers beyond her control, and the two are faced with a curse that will claim her for either the Light or the Dark on her 16^th birthday.

At the film’s press day, writer/director Richard LaGravenese spoke to Collider for this exclusive interview about how this project came his way, his process for deciding which aspects of the book to keep and which to change or cut, the adjustments he made once the actors were in place, how challenging the visual effects process was in post-production, that he’ll included a behind the scenes feature for the scoring process on the DVD, and the deleted scenes.  He also talked about what it was like to see Michael Douglas and Matt Damon bring his script for Behind the Candelabra to life for director Steven Soderbergh and how proud he is of the finished product, along with his desire to do a film version of the off-Broadway musical The Last Five Years, which Anna Kendrick has signed on for.  Check out what he had to say after the jump. 

The romantic drama Beautiful Creatures tells the story of 17-year-old Ethan Wate (Alden Ehrenreich), whose world is shaken up with the arrival of Lena Duchannes (Alice Englert), the niece of Macon Ravenwood (Jeremy Irons), the reclusive owner of gothic Ravenwood Manor.  Immediately drawn to each other, it becomes apparent that Lena is a Caster with powers beyond her control, and the two are faced with a curse that will claim her for either the Light or the Dark on her 16^th birthday.

At the film’s press day, actor Alden Ehrenreich spoke to Collider for this exclusive interview about why it was important to make sure these characters were not stereotypical and that the relationship between Ethan and Lena was real, that he doesn’t want to read any more of the books until he reads any possible sequel scripts first, shooting the crazy family dinner scene, which effects scenes he had the most fun doing, and working with Viola Davis.  He also talked about what he looks for when trying to find his next project, and the experience of working on the Woody Allen movie Blue Jasmine with Cate Blanchett.  Check out what he had to say after the jump.

The romantic drama Beautiful Creatures tells the story of 17-year-old Ethan Wate (Alden Ehrenreich), whose world is shaken up with the arrival of Lena Duchannes (Alice Englert), the niece of Macon Ravenwood (Jeremy Irons), the reclusive owner of gothic Ravenwood Manor.  Immediately drawn to each other, it becomes apparent that Lena is a Caster with powers beyond her control, and the two are faced with a curse that will claim her for either the Light or the Dark on her 16^th birthday.

At the film’s press day, actress Alice Englert, daughter of acclaimed filmmaker Jane Campion, talked about what ultimately convinced her to take the role, working with such a talented cast, how important the Southern setting was to this story, getting the accent right, not being worried about the Twilight comparisons, growing up on her mom’s film sets, and why she was compelled to be an actor.  Check out what she had to say after the jump.

The romantic drama Beautiful Creatures tells the story of 17-year-old Ethan Wate (Alden Ehrenreich), whose world is shaken up with the arrival of Lena Duchannes (Alice Englert), the niece of Macon Ravenwood (Jeremy Irons), the reclusive owner of gothic Ravenwood Manor.  Immediately drawn to each other, it becomes apparent that Lena is a Caster with powers beyond her control, and the two are faced with a curse that will claim her for either the Light or the Dark on her 16th birthday.

At the film’s press day, Collider spoke to actress Emmy Rossum (who plays Dark Caster Ridley, a Siren who can get others to do anything she chooses), in both a 1-on-1 and a roundtable interview, about why she wanted to play this character, why she enjoys playing bad girls, the fantastic wardrobe, shooting the family dinner scene, getting to know her co-star Thomas Mann on a rather crazy faux date in New Orleans, how much fun it was to work with Emma Thompson, and that she hopes to get to do more films adapted from this book series because she loves where her character goes.  She also talked about her new album of standards, how excited she is to go into production on Season 4 of Shameless in September, and that she just finished the drama You’re Not You with Hilary Swank.  Check out what she had to say after the jump.

The romantic drama Beautiful Creatures tells the story of 17-year-old Ethan Wate (Alden Ehrenreich), whose world is shaken up with the arrival of Lena Duchannes (Alice Englert), the niece of Macon Ravenwood (Jeremy Irons), the reclusive owner of gothic Ravenwood Manor.  Immediately drawn to each other, it becomes apparent that Lena is a Caster with powers beyond her control, and the two are faced with a curse that will claim her for either the Light or the Dark on her 16^th birthday.

At the film’s press day, Collider spoke to co-stars Thomas Mann (who plays Ethan’s best friend and wingman, Link) and Zoey Deutch (who plays Emily, Ethan’s former girlfriend and head of the popular clique at school), in both a 2-on-1 and a roundtable interview, about auditioning without getting to read a script first, their reaction once they finally did get to read it, understanding where their characters were coming from, working with Emma Thompson, the bits about their characters that didn’t make it from the book to the film, and what’s next for them, as actors.  Check out what they had to say after the jump.

The romantic drama Beautiful Creatures tells the story of 17-year-old Ethan Wate (Alden Ehrenreich), whose world is shaken up with the arrival of Lena Duchannes (Alice Englert), the niece of Macon Ravenwood (Jeremy Irons), the reclusive owner of gothic Ravenwood Manor.  Immediately drawn to each other, it becomes apparent that Lena is a Caster with powers beyond her control, and the two are faced with a curse that will claim her for either the Light or the Dark on her 16^th birthday.

At the film’s press day, actress Viola Davis – who plays Amma, a Seer with her own reservations about a union between Ethan and Lena – talked about why she wanted to be in this film, how she personally feels about past lives, how being from the South herself helped inform her character, what she discovered about her own family from the research she did for the role, working with her young co-stars, and filming scenes with Jeremy Irons.  She also talked about her roles in Prisoners, which she’s filming now with Hugh Jackman and Maria Bello, and Ender’s Game, which she recently did with Harrison Ford.  Check out what she had to say after the jump.

One of the more interesting films opening later this month is director Richard LaGravenese’s adaptation of the novel Beautiful Creatures.  The film is a supernatural love story that centers on Lena Duchannes (Alice Englert) a “caster” (a.k.a. a witch), her relationship with Ethan Wate (Alden Ehrenreich), and her dread at being chosen for good or evil.  We’ve been provided with some nifty swag from the film to give away to a few lucky readers including a track jacket, t-shirts, a messenger bag, a copy of the soundtrack, a makeup collection from Pür Minerals, and more.

Hit the jump to find out how you can win and to take a look at what we’re giving away.  Beautiful Creatures opens on February 14th.