The Jackie Robinson biopic 42 made history this weekend, scoring the all-time highest domestic opening for a baseball movie. From 3,003 locations, the film earned an estimated $27.2 million, or $7.5 million more than 2006’s Benchwarmers, the former genre title-holder. In second place, Scary Movie 5 earned $15.1 million from 3,402 runs, or just 37% of what Scary Movie 4 took in on this same weekend seven years ago.

42 was the undisputed box office champ on Friday, earning an estimated $9.1 million from 3,003 locations. That puts the Jackie Robinson biopic on track for as much as $28 million through Sunday – a record opening for a baseball movie. From a box office perspective, America’s pastime has never been a huge draw. Benchwarmers set the genre record in 2006 with its $19.7 million debut and, in 2011, Moneyball was a close second with $19.5 million. 42 – the story of the man who broke baseball’s color barrier in 1947 – was not originally expected to top $20 million. But then positive reviews met a flood of nostalgic news-coverage and the rest, as they say, is history.

The debut of Scary Movie 5 was not-nearly as historic. From its debut in 3,402 locations, Scary Movie 5 earned an estimated $5.5 million. On this same weekend in 2006 Scary Movie 4 took in over $40 million; but after yesterday’s start, the fifth installment in the horror-spoof series won’t scare up half that amount.  We’ll have full details tomorrow.

Fifth time’s the charm?  Well, maybe not.  The new trailer and poster for Scary Movie 5 have just been released, and it definitely begs the question as to why this franchise is even continuing.  It does try to remain current with this new trailer, now lampooning Mama and Evil Dead in addition to the first trailer’s parodies of Black Swan, Inception, and Paranormal Activity.  The new poster is in a similar vein to previous ones, but is definitely relying heavily on the recent success of Mama and the good word-of-mouth for Evil Dead to draw in an audience.  I honestly don’t think there was ever a point in continuing this series, especially without Anna Faris or Regina Hall, who made it through the first four movies and were always at least moderately funny.  The new cast includes Simon Rex (returning but as a new character), Ashley Tisdale, Heather Locklear, Katt Williams, Sarah Hyland, and cameos from Charlie Sheen and Lindsay Lohan.

Hit the jump for the new trailer and poster.  Scary Movie 5 opens on April 12.

Unfortunately, the first trailer for Dimension Films’ horror comedy spoof Scary Movie 5 has been released.  Everything about this is terrible, as the trailer highlights the film’s awful, unfunny acting, annoying overuse of clichés, and abundance of physical “comedy.”  The trailer also uses Danny Elfman’s swell score from Beetlejuice, which is offensive to Elfman, Beetlejuice, and good movies in general.  The only familiar face here from the previous films is Simon Rex, and the series actually feels pretty outdated.  Scary Movie 5 spoofs films like Black Swan and Inception, which just seems old at this point.  The pic also takes on the Paranormal Activity franchise, but Scary Movie creator Marlon Wayans has his own PA spoof called A Haunted House set for release in January.  Having now seen trailers for both films, I feel confident in saying that A Haunted House will look like Citizen Kane compared to Scary Movie 5.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The film also stars Lindsay Lohan, Ashley Tisdale, Heather Locklear, and Katt Williams.  Scary Movie 5 opens on April 12th.

Scary Movie 5 is a thing that’s happening, and in an effort to make the film as widely unappealing as possible, its “big celebrity cameo” is a sex scene between Charlie Sheen and Lindsay Lohan.  Dimension Films describes their opening scene as “outrageous, sexy and hilarious,” to which I say “No thanks.”  Malcom D. Lee (Undercover Brother) takes over directing duties for this fifth installment of the franchise with Ashley Tisdale onboard as the film’s lead.

Hit the jump to check out the image of Sheen and Lohan trying to be relevant.  Scary Movie 5 opens on April 19th, 2013.

Here are today’s casting notes at a glance:

• Christina Ricci (Black Snake Moan) is set to join the cast of drama, Mother’s Day (not the awesome horror movie with Rebecca De Mornay).
• Johnny Galecki (Big Bang Theory) and Taylor Hawkins of Foo Fighters are set to join CBGB’s cast.
• Ashley Tisdale (The Suite Life of Zack and Cody) will star in the fifth installment of the Scary Movie franchise, ingeniously titled Scary Movie 5.

Hit the jump for more details.

Dimension Films had the fifth installment in the Scary Movie franchise slated to open this month until someone realized that the film didn’t exist yet, so they pushed it back to January 2013.  Now it appears Scary Movie 5 has a director and a production start-date.  EW reports that Malcolm Lee (Roll Bounce, Undercover Brother) will handle directing duties on Scary Movie 5.  David Zucker, who took over from the Wayans brothers and wrote and directed Scary Movie 3 and 4, will return to co-write and produce the fifth installment alongside Lee.  Production is set to begin this summer and casting is already underway.

We previously reported that The Comebacks writers John Aboud and Michael Colton as well as Stephen Leff would be penning the screenplay, but it’s possible that Dimension has decided to start over entirely.  The studio had been keen on bringing back some of the series’ original cast members, but there’s no word on where that plan stands now.  The entire franchise has really been rendered moot by the brilliant The Cabin in the Woods, so it’ll be interesting to see if they stick with their exhausted regular formula or if they shake things up (they won’t).  Scary Movie 5 is now slated to open on January 11th, 2013.

This morning, we’ve got some quick release date news regarding The Weinstein Company’s upcoming films.  First up, the crime drama Cogan’s Trade is set for September 21st.  This would put the film slightly after the Toronto International Film Festival, and so the flick could make a showing at TIFF to build some buzz and maybe start an awards run.  The film stars Brad Pitt as a mob enforcer who’s tasked with investigating the robbery of a high-stakes poker game.  The film also stars Ray Liotta, James Gandolfini, Richard Jenkins, Richard Jenkins, Ben Mendelsohn, Scoot McNairy, Bella Heathcote, and Sam Shepard.  The September 21st date will set the movie against the Judge Dredd reboot, Dredd, the animated family comedy Hotel Transylvania, and the thriller The House at the End of the Street.

Hit the jump for news on the release date changes for Scary Movie 5 and Butter.

As part of its plan to rejuvenate old franchises, Dimension Films has apparently hired screenwriters to work on Scary Movie 5, the wholly necessary fifth entry in the Scary Movie franchise. Bloody Disgusting reports that the studio has set The Comebacks writers John Aboud and Michael Colton, as well as screenwriter Stephen Leff to pen the screenplay. The report also states that the studio is keen on bringing back some of the series’ original cast members. BD says offers have been sent out to Anthony Anderson (Scary Movie 3 and 4), Regina Hall (Scary Movie 1-4) and Kevin Hart (Scary Movie 3 and 4), but the actors are yet to be officially involved.

There’s currently no director attached, but the lack of any vestige of an actual movie hasn’t kept the nonexistent film from being set for an April 20, 2012 release date.

The Weinstein Company has announced release dates for seven upcoming films including Halloween 3D (you know you want another entry in that franchise…right?), Scary Movie 5 (insert previous parenthetical here), Coriolanus, The Iron Lady, The Artist, The Bully Project, and Michelle Williams and Emma Watson’s Marilyn Monroe biopic, My Week with Marilyn. Here is a bulleted breakdown of the dates in chronological order:

• My Week with Marilyn – 11/4/11 – Stars Michelle Williams and Emma Watson
• The Bully Project – 11/11/11 – A documentary from director Lee Hirsch
• The Artist - 11/23/11 – Stars Malcolm McDowell and John Goodman
• Coriolanus – 12/2/11 – Stars Ralph Fiennes (who is also directing) and Gerard Butler
• The Iron Lady – 12/16/11 – Stars Meryl Streep
• Scary Movie 5 - 4/20/12
• Halloween 3D - 10/26/12

In addition to these dates, Relativity has also pushed back its horror pic House at the End of the Street, starring Jennifer Lawrence and Elisabeth Shue, from February 3rd, 2012 to April 20th of the same year. Hit the jump to see which films these projects may be going up against assuming they keep their most recent release times (which is certainly no guarantee).