Critically speaking, 2011 may have been Adam Sandler‘s worst year ever.  His two main vehicles, Just Go With It and Jack & Jill, were panned.  As a producer, his name is also on Zookeeper and (most damningly) Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star.  The Razzies recognized his efforts with a record 11 nominations.  For those keeping track, this shatters the record set by Eddie Murphy and his 5 nominations for Norbit in 2007.  New Year’s Eve, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, and Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 join Jack & Jill and Bucky Larson as the 5 contenders for Worst Picture.  Hit the jump for the full list.

You’ve got to hand it to Nicolas Cage: while age peers Brad Pitt and Sean Penn refuse to work on anything but highbrow, Malick-ian fare and Tom Cruise rejects any role that doesn’t reflect his Level VII OT superhuman awesomeness, Cage willingly rolls around in the muck of any and all genres, with even the most dubious of filmmaking talent. In the past year alone, he’s starred in the action/horror hybrid Drive Angry, the family friendly The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, the meta-comic book movie Kick-Ass and the gritty drama The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans. Seriously, you’ve got to love this guy for working so much. He’s like a hungry immigrant but with the net worth of his fatherland. (well, before back taxes).  Continued after the jump.

Oh, the irony.  On the very day that Hollywood will fete its highest achievements of the past year, we are here to consider releases that reside in its creative basement.  After a Friday win, newcomer Hall Pass could not hold off holdover Gnomeo and Juliet. After two weeks at number three, the all-ages animated film won the weekend with an estimated $14.2 million. Sad for Hall Pass but it could have been worse: Drive Angry 3D now holds the record for the lowest opening ever for a 3D wide-release.

Traditionally the last week in February is no barn burner in terms of ticket sales.  Sure, last year saw Shutter Island open to over $14 million on its first Friday but in 2011 it looks like that figure will be hard for any release to top after three days let alone one.  The new Farrelly Brother’s comedy Hall Pass led on Friday with a weak $4.6 million from its 2,950 locations.  Last weekend’s number one film Unknown was not far behind with $3.9 million.  Without a strong Friday showing, and with its R rating taken into account, we should see Hall Pass slide down to number three by Sunday.  That’s good news for Gnomeo and Juliet which has a real shot at topping the box office for the first time in its three week run. Finally, what can I say about Summit’s Drive Angry?  Nic Cage’s latest action flick brought in just $1.6 million on Friday from its 2,290 locations (97% of which screened the film in 3D).  That is $2 million less than Cage saw for Season of the Witch just six weeks ago. Details and analysis tomorrow.

Weekend box office reports rely on estimated numbers and, as of Sunday morning, the estimates are just too close to call a definitive winner.  The way it looks at the moment, Adam Sandler’s Just Go With It is slightly ahead of the Justin Bieber: Never Say Never: $31 million to $30.3 million.  The crowning of the number one film, therefore, may have to wait until official totals are released on Monday morning.

January suffered another down weekend, with estimated grosses for the top ten films down almost 56% over this weekend in 2010.  Paramount had reason to celebrate, as True Grit outdrew Little Fockers in the weekend race for the first time.  Season of the Witch, 2011’s first new title, struggled while Sony/SG’s Country Strong did modest business in its first expanded nationwide run.

It’s box office déjà vu.  For the second Friday in a row the Coen Brother’s True Grit is number one with $4.5 million – just beating the $4.2 million of Little Fockers.  The two films have been taking turns in the top spot for the past week; though the more kid-friendly Fockers has managed to claim the weekend crown for the last two sessions.  The diminishing returns for the comedy, however, combined with a total lack of interest in the week’s new titles, means that True Grit may be destined for its first weekend win since its pre-Christmas release.  Relativity’s Season of the Witch placed third with $3.7 million – evidence of just how low a bar is being set for the first non-holiday weekend of 2011.  The Nic Cage period piece is expected to come in below $10 million through Sunday and has the distinction of scoring the lowest Rotten Tomato score I can remember with just 1% Fresh.  Sony/Screen Gems’ Country Strong isn’t much, er, stronger at number 5 and an 18% Fresh rating: but with a budget of just $15 million the Gwyneth Paltrow drama has much less riding on a strong first weekend showing.  Overall, the weekend looks like it will be down by at least 50% over 2010 levels, again.  Details tomorrow.

Season of the Witch stumbles out of the gates and continues down that path to a mediocre finale that spoils a decent twist with underwhelming special effects and clichés. The acting alone should have floated this period farce by director Dominic Sena, but it feels like Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman are rowing against each other; Cage plods while Perlman charms and conjures laughter. The real shame is that this was filmed on beautiful foreign lands and briefly utilizes wonderfully gothic sets, yet is rather boring save for a thrilling albeit cheesy bridge-crossing scene. The fact that crossing a bridge is a high point in a sword and sorcery film should set off warning signs, but if you are still under Season of the Witch’s spell, hit the jump for the full review.

Season of the Witch is a supernatural action adventure that follows Behman (Nicolas Cage), a man who returns home after years of brutal warfare, only to find his world destroyed by the Black Plague. When the church elders, convinced that a girl accused of being a witch (Claire Foy) is responsible for the devastation, command Behman and his closest friend Felson (Ron Perlman) to transport the strange girl to a remote monastery where monks will perform an ancient ritual to rid the land of her curse, the men embark on a harrowing, action-filled journey that will test their strength and courage. As the mission is made even more challenging by increasingly disturbing events, the men discover the girl’s dark secret and find themselves battling a powerful force that will determine the fate of the world.

In a recent exclusive phone interview with Collider, Academy Award winner Nicolas Cage talked about why he was attracted to this project, getting to use a sword and ride a horse for the role, working with Christopher Lee, who he is a true admirer of, re-teaming with director Dominic Sena (they did Gone in Sixty Seconds together), and how much he enjoyed filming in Austria.  Check out what he had to say after the jump:

With director Dominic Sena’s Season of the Witch opening on January 7, we’ve been given 9 movie clips and an exclusive TV spot.  Here’s the synopsis:

Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman star in this supernatural action adventure about a heroic Crusader and his closest friend who return home after decades of fierce fighting, only to find their world destroyed by the Plague. The church elders, convinced that a girl accused of being a witch is responsible for the devastation, command the two to transport the strange girl to a remote monastery where monks will perform an ancient ritual to rid the land of her curse. They embark on a harrowing, action-filled journey that will test their strength and courage as they discover the girl’s dark secret and find themselves battling a terrifyingly powerful force that will determine the fate of the world.

Hit the jump to check out the movie clips and the TV spot:

Earlier today, Collider got an exclusive interview with Academy Award winner Nicolas Cage, who’s promoting his upcoming supernatural drama Season of the Witch, opening on January 7, 2011. The film is about a 14^th century Crusader, named Behman (Cage), and his closest friend, Felson (Ron Perlman), who return home after decades of fierce fighting, only to find their world destroyed by the Black Plague. Soon after their unexpected return, the local Cardinal (Christopher Lee) sends the men on a dangerous mission to accompany a young woman (Claire Foy) accused of being a witch to where she will stand trial, and Behman becomes convinced that she is merely a convenient scapegoat, destined to be condemned.

While we will be posting the portion of the interview where he talks about what it was like to live out his childhood fantasy of being a knight and working with the iconic Christopher Lee closer to the film’s release, we did want to post what he had to say about how the filming of Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance is going, how much it means to him to reprise the role of Johnny Blaze and what it’s been like to work with directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor on the project. He also talked about Kick-Ass.  Check out what he had to say after the jump.

New images have been released from the upcoming action-thriller Season of the Witch.  The film was originally slated to be released this past March, but was yanked at the last minute and is now scheduled to come out on January 7, 2011.  The story centers on 14th-century knights (played by Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman) who must transport a suspected witch (Claire Foy) to a monastery.

Hit the jump to check out the images.  We’ll also have interview with members of the cast so be on the look out for those in the near future.  Click here to see the trailer.

A new trailer for the oft-delayed Nicolas Cage/Ron Perlman starring Season of the Witch has just been released. Previously covered here, the action-horror hybrid (from the trailer at least) seems to be a remake/”reimagining” of the classic Driving Miss Daisy – just replace Morgan Freeman with a bunch of 14^th century knights and switch out Jessica Tandy with a manipulative flying witch. So not much of a change on that last part. In all seriousness, the trailer does pretty much everything right to pique my interests: A fantastic Nic Cage hairpiece, the Black Plague, CGI wolves, The aforementioned flying witch. Plus Ron Perlman (Hellboy) receives an above title credit. Thus all is right with the world.

Season of the Witch, which was supposed to hit theaters last March, will finally grace our cinemas on January 7, 2011. To check out the trailer, which features the sure-to-be-immortalized line “We’re gonna need more holy water”, hit the jump.

Box Office Mojo has some release date changes/announcements and we wanted to let you know about so you can be upset at a delay or pleased at the haste.  First up, The Eagle of the Ninth, the sword-and-sandals flick starring Channing Tatum, has landed a specific release date of September 24th.  It had previously been scheduled for “September 2009″.

Meanwhile, Fox is moving the family film Diary of a Wimpy Kid out of the April 2nd battlefield (when Clash of the Titans, Repo Men, and Why Did I get Married Too are scheduled to debut) and moving it to March 19th where it will square off against the rom-com The Bounty Hunter (starring Gerard Butler and Jennifer Aniston), the rock biopic The Runaways (starring Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning; click here to read Steve’s Sundance review of the film), and the medieval action flick Season of the Witch (starring Nicolas Cage, Nicolas Cage’s hairpiece, and Ron Perlman).

Finally, The Duplass Brothers’ Cyrus, starring John C. Reilly, Marisa Tomei, and Jonah Hill, will hit theaters on July 9th where it will face Nimrod Antal’s Predators and the animated comedy Despicable Me.

In their sneak preview of 2010 movies, the LA Times has new images from Christopher Nolan’s Inception starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Ellen Page, Season of the Witch starring Nicolas Cage and Nicolas Cage’s ridiculous hair extensions, male soul-destroyer Eat, Pray, Love starring Julia Roberts, Oliver Stone’s continued quest for relevance, Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps starring Shia LaBeouf and Michael Douglas; and plenty of other films including Killers, Warrior and a good helping of images we’ve already seen from other films.  We’ve included the new ones along with a brief synopsis for each after the jump.