This week on Blu-ray, the caped crusader’s animated iteration comes to a close, Sam Rockwell and Co. get their crazy on, and a classic action series that has been copied to no end gets a 25th anniversary collection.  Briefly:

• Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part 2 (plus bonus features) (Animated Feature) – $14.99 (40% off)
• Cold Light of Day [Blu-ray] – $17.99 (28% off)
• Die Hard: 25th Anniversary Collection (Die Hard / Die Hard 2: Die Harder / Die Hard with a Vengeance / Live Free or Die Hard / Decoding Die Hard) [Blu-ray]- $40.86 (32% off)
• Hotel Transylvania (Blu-ray / DVD + UltraViolet Digital Copy) – $22.99 (44% off)
• Masterpiece Classic: Downton Abbey Season 3 [Blu-ray] (Original U.K. Version) – $29.99 (45% off)
• Paranormal Activity 4: Unrated Edition/Rated Version (Blu-ray/DVD Combo + Digital Copy + UltraViolet) – $19.99 (50% off)
• Seven Psychopaths (+UltraViolet Digital Copy) [Blu-ray] – $19.99 (44% off)

Hit the jump for the special features details.

The Visual Effects Society has announced the nominees for the upcoming 11th Annual VES Awards.  This year’s major players include Life of Pi, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Prometheus, The Avengers, and Battleship, all of which landed nominations for Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects-Driven Feature Motion Picture.  The VES Awards also recognize visual effects work in more dramatic fare, singling out the impressive effects of films like Flight and The Impossible.  Duking it out for Outstanding Animated Character in a Live Action Feature will be the ridiculously impressive Richard Parker in Life of Pi, Hulk in The Avengers, and Gollum and Goblin King in The Hobbit.

Hit the jump to check out the full list of nominees.  The 11th Annual VES Awards will take place on February 5th.

It’s January 1, 2013, which means that 2012 is now officially in the rear-view mirror.  Quality-wise, it was a stellar year in film, and with over a month to go before the Oscars there’s still an exciting air of unpredictability surrounding the awards contenders.  2012 wasn’t so shabby box office-wise either, and we thought today would be a nice time to take a look back at the year’s highest grossing films, lowest grossing films, and everything in between.  This year saw a few comedy surprises, the highest grossing Steven Spielberg drama in a long time, a couple of superhero megahits, and the glorious disaster that was Oogieloves.  Hit the jump to take a look at 2012’s Box Office in Review.

A staple of every awards season is the multitude of roundtable interviews and discussions that pop up featuring said season’s top contenders.  We’ve already shared an hourlong interview with some of the Best Director contenders like Quentin Tarantino, Ang Lee, and Tom Hooper, but today a roundtable of a different sort popped online.  The LA Times put together their first ever animation roundtable as they gathered the following directors for a 60-minute discussion: Mark Andrews (Brave), Peter Ramsey (Rise of the Guardians), Chris Butler (ParaNorman), Rich Moore (Wreck-It Ralph), and Genndy Tartakovsky (Hotel Transylvania).

The resulting video is an absolutely fascinating and candid discussion between the filmmakers about the evolution of animated films, a possible renaissance of 2D animation and who’s to blame for 3D animation dominating the marketplace, breaking down social barriers and the stigma of animated movies being exclusively for kids, and more.  It’s a wonderful discussion and is well worth your time.  Hit the jump to watch.

The Annie Awards, which honor achievement in animation, have announced their best picture nominees for 2012.  According to THR, most wide-release animated films made the cut including Brave, Frankenweenie, Hotel Transylvania, ParaNorman, Rise of the Guardians, The Pirates! Band of Misfits, and Wreck-It-Ralph.  The only independent animated movie to pick up a nomination was The Rabbi’s Cat.  With this many nominees, to lose out on a nomination is a basically slap in the face, so tough luck to The Lorax (which deserves a face-slap), Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted, and Ice Age: Continental Drift.

Keep in mind that for the best picture category, a film has to be feature length.  Otherwise, Paperman would smoke all these flicks.

We have plenty of new release dates to pass along:

• Sony Animation scheduled two Genndy Tartakovsky’s projects.  The 3D cartoon Popeye that Tartakovsky will direct hits theaters September 26, 2014.  The sequel to Tartakovsky’s Hotel Transylvania opens the following year on September 25, 2015.
• Relativity scheduled fellow cartoon Turkeys—featuring the voices of Owen Wilson, Woody Harrelson and Dan Fogler—for a Thanksgiving release on November 14, 2014.
• The Last Exorcism II: The Beginning of the End is dated for March 1, 2013.
• The Aubrey Plaza comedy The To-Do List will move from Valentines Day next year to August 16, 2013.  Relativity took advantage of the open slot and moved the Nicholas Sparks adaptation Safe Haven from February 8 back to February 14, 2013.

Hit the jump for details on each project.

Though much of the East Coast is still a ruin, Hurricane Sandy did not dampen enthusiasm at the weekend box office. Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph was the easy winner with $49.1 million from 3,752 locations. In half as many venues, Paramount’s Flight beat all pre-release projections with its $25 million launch. And while Argo continued to exhibit amazing staying power in third, Universal’s The Man with the Iron Fists was less impressive. The martial arts debut earned an estimated $8.2 million from 1,868 runs for fourth place.

With the number of Academy screenings picking up and the holiday season fast approaching, we’re starting to get into the thick of awards season.  A full list of the animated films submitted for the Best Animated Feature Oscar consideration has now been unveiled, and it looks like we’ll see 21 films vie for the coveted trophy.  The films include the big studio releases like Brave, Frankenweenie, and Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted, as well as Studio Ghibli’s From Up on Poppy Hill and the adult-oriented A Liar’s Autobiography: The Untrue Story of Monty Python’s Graham Chapman.

It’s been a strong year for animated features, and Pixar is in no way a lock to take home the trophy for Brave given the film’s fairly lukewarm reception. It’s probably safe to assume that Brave will be still be nominated, and I’d venture to say ParaNorman and the upcoming Wreck-It Ralph and Rise of the Guardians are also pretty good bets as well.  Hit the jump to check out the full list of animated films under Academy consideration, and be sure to leave your thoughts on the Best Animated Feature race in the comments.  Nominations for the 85th Academy Awards will be announced on January 10th.

Earlier today, the Evil Dead and Carrie reboots got into the holiday spirit with some well-timed Halloween releases.  They weren’t the only ones.  Here’s what other goodies we have:

• Dwayne Johnson in costume (ie green paint) as the Incredible Hulk
• Patton Oswalt as Doc Ock, with a DIY costume video from Adam Savage
• A motion poster for Texas Chainsaw 3D
• A short fan-made Halloween video featuring LEGO Lord of the Rings characters
• A Halloween clip from Axe Cop, featuring the voice of Nick Offerman (Parks and Recreation)
• A zombie make-up and costume featurette from Warm Bodies
• Images from Wreck-It Ralph, Les Miserables, Hotel Transylvania and more!

Hit the jump to check out our grab bag of Halloween tricks n’ treats!

With Hurricane Sandy bearing down on the East Coast, a perfect storm of indifference hit the domestic box office. Blame it on the weather or on a weak crop of new studio releases, the outcome is the same: a slow weekend that fell behind 2011 by more than 10%. Only Argo found a silver lining in the storm, pulling into first place after two weeks in theatres. As for Cloud Atlas – the most closely watched newcomer of the frame – the forecast is a little, um, cloudy.

If you haven’t seen director Genndy Tartakovsky’s Hotel Transylvania (or were considering seeing it again), then perhaps a new animated short will give you the incentive to do so.  Airing in front of the 3D animated feature will be Goodnight, Mr. Foot, a 2D short directed and animated by Tartakovsky himself.  The short will screen exclusively in Regal Entertainment Group cinemas starting tonight, just in time for Halloween.

Hotel Transylvania features the voices of Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Kevin James, Steve Buscemi, David Spade and Fran Drescher.  Hit the jump to see the full press release and new images from the 2D animated short, Goodnight, Mr. Foot.

It’s a weekend box office worth celebrating, with grosses up more than 50% from 2011. That success was almost entirely due to Taken 2, which delivered an estimated $50 million from 3,661 runs for one of the highest October debuts of all time. On the other end of the spectrum, Disney’s Frankenweenie failed to impress; opening in fifth place with an estimated $11.5 million from 3,005 runs despite weeks of heavy promotion.

After five consecutive weeks of sub-par grosses, the domestic box office rose from the dead this weekend: posting the biggest September debut of all time with Hotel Transylvania and one of the most lucrative frames since July. Looper and Pitch Perfect also had impressive starts. In fact, the only wrong note was struck by the drama Won’t Back Down, which saw one of the worst debuts of all time in more than 2,500 locations.

For the first time, I’m writing from the comfort of my newly remodeled “mancave” or, as my wife likes to lovingly refer to it, the “nerdcave”. For a space that used to be an attached garage/dungeon, I have to say that the end result is pretty cozy. I guess there really are no living quarters that a substantial amount of time, money, and framed movie prints can’t fix. Now, if only I could find a way to fit and/or afford a mini-fridge, classic stand-up arcade games (i.e. The Simpsons, and X-Men), theater-style seating, and a projection screen that comes down from the ceiling via hand-clap command, I may finally be able to fulfill my dream of never leaving home again.

All praises of my new space aside, this week’s incarnation of the Top 5 brings a look back at our Fantastic Fest 2012 coverage, Looper interviews with writer/director Rian Johnson, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Emily Blunt, The Avengers Blu-ray interviews with members of the pic’s visual effects team, The Perks of Being a Wallflower interviews with Emma Watson, writer/director Stephen Chbosky and more, and Hotel Transylvania interviews with Andy Samberg and Selena Gomez just to name a few. As you might expect, a brief recap and link to each is holding down the fort after the jump.

It’s a good weekend to be Sony Pictures. The studio claimed the two top spots on Friday with Hotel Transylvania and Looper, and saw both new releases perform well above expectations. In first place, Hotel Transylvania earned an estimated $11 million from 3,349 runs. The animated film will easily win the weekend with almost $40 million: a record for a Sony Animation release and at least $10 million more than initially projected. Looper is also off to a strong start. Released under Sony’s TriStar label, the sci-fi feature took in an estimated $6.9 million on Friday from 2,992 locations. With strong word of mouth behind it, Looper could realize over $20 million through Sunday: well above the openings of recent R-rated releases. The weekend’s third wide opening, the Fox drama Won’t Back Down, fell below the top five with an estimated $921,000 from 2,515 locations. That was about the number Universal might have expected from its early release of Pitch Perfect. Debuting in just 335 locations ahead of its nationwide opening next week, the comedy took in an estimated $1.75 million on Friday. We’ll have full details and analysis tomorrow.