The mighty, mighty Thor brought his blondeness to a theatre near you this weekend: earning an estimated $66 million from 3,955 locations.  That might seem kind of low for a superhero movie destined to lead off the summer season but, actually, it was right about where the God of Thunder was expected to land… being a “lesser superhero” and all.

OK, so we all know that “summer” started early this year with the $86.2 million launch of Fast Five.  The only question was how last weekend’s massive debut would impact Thor – the superhero flick that, according to the calendar, should have been this year’s first blockbuster.  Thor earned an estimated $25.7 million from its 3,995 locations on Friday including the $3.25 million he took in from midnight screenings.  That puts the Marvel hero on track for a $60 million first weekend or, right about where the big guy was expected to land after Vin Diesel’s crew drove off with his start-of-summer thunder seven days ago.  That same crew came in second on Friday, falling off by 70% for an estimated $10.5 million.  With its new domestic total of $117.8 million, Fast Five should be passing Rango to become the highest-grossing release of 2011 right about… now!  This week’s two romantic-comedy counter-programmers – Something Borrowed and Jumping the Broom – brought in $4.8 and $4.1 million respectively.  Full details and analysis tomorrow.

After driving off with $33.2 million on Friday, a record debut for April, Universal’s Fast Five went on to an incredible weekend estimate of $83.6 million from 3,644 locations.  And, as on Friday, that was also good enough to break all kinds of records.

Now we’re talking.  Though April showed signs of life with Hop and Rio, it looks like 2011 has its first real blockbuster on its hands with Fast Five.  And not a moment too soon!  If I had to write one more box office report which parsed out the relative merits of a $15 million opening weekend I was going to have to slap myself.  After earning a reported $3.8 million in its midnight debut, Fast Five went on to take in a Friday total estimated at $33.2 million.  Most projections now have the action sequel earning over $70 million for the weekend.  Not only would that make Fast Five, easily, the highest debut of 2011, it would also pace the $71 million debut of the franchise’s last installment, Fast and Furious, which has held the record for the highest April debut of all-time since 2009.  So for once the trailers were right: summer really did start early this year!  For the rest of the top ten, it appears to be perpetual January, with both Disney’s Prom and TWC’s Hoodwinked Too! underwhelming in their debuts.  Full details tomorrow.

In celebration of the release of Fast Five today in theaters, we’ve been given a pretty cool prize pack to give away to one of you faithful readers. The prize pack includes a Fast and the Furious Blu-ray set including all four films in the franchise: The Fast and the Furious, 2 Fast 2 Furious, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift and Fast and Furious. The pack also includes one official Fast Five t-shirt. Overall, it’s a pretty great deal if you’re a fan of the franchise. Hit the jump to find out how you can win.

You know what a Fast and Furious movie is by this point.  They’re loud, obnoxious, somewhat-heartless, sometimes unintentionally hilarious, rarely intentionally hilarious, incredibly aggressive action movies.  You know that’s what you’re getting when you buy your ticket and the only thing that’s changed about the series is that it’s become less about racing and more about squeezing in familiar faces to pull off some high-octane crime.  Fast Five ditches the racing almost entirely and replaces it with a heist film that recalls Ocean’s Eleven but with brawn instead of brains.

If it seems like the script for Fast Five was written by someone who didn’t have an education level higher than kindergarten, there’s a reason for that.  As the Onion News Network shows on their morning news show, Today Now!, the screenwriter behind the series is 5-year-old Chris Morgan.  After the jump watch the adorable Chris talk about his process in crafting the rich and detailed story behind a Fast and Furious movie.  And the youngster is already at work on a sixth film which may ditch the racing and focus more on heists.  Adorable!

Fast Five stars Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson, and cars going boom.  It opens this Friday.

The Fast and the Furious series is one of the major gaps in my male cinematic knowledge.  I am too effeminate, too pretentious.  However, I have much respect for the continued success of the franchise after the 2009 surge to a series-best $353 million worldwide box office with Fast & Furious.  Fast Five opens this Friday, and the smart money is on “Major Hit.”  The producers wisely tapped into the core appeal of the films and secured virtually every major player in the series — including Vin Diesel, Paul Walker,  Jordana Brewster, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Tyrese Gibson, Sung Kang — and upped the ante by casting potential action god Dwayne Johnson.

Pretend you’re a studio executive for a second.  At this point, you wouldn’t reinvent the market’s premier car movie brand to cater to someone like this silly writer, right?  And yet, Universal chairman Adam Fogelson is discussing just such a shift.

Chris Morgan — screenwriter on Tokyo Drift, Fast & Furious, and Fast Five — was previously hired to start work on a sixth film.  Deadline reports the sequel is set up to revolve around a robbery: “Universal’s intent is to transform this street racing franchise into a series of heist films.”  More after the jump.

Unless you’ve been living in the land of horse and buggies for the last ten years, you know that The Fast and the Furious franchise has dominated theaters with big muscles and bigger engines. With the fifth installment, Fast Five, ready to open in less than two weeks, a new interactive trailer has popped up that is chock full of extra gearhead information. Like, did you know that the car Vin Diesel and Paul Walker drive off the cliff is a 1966 Chevy Corvette Grand Sport? Or that Jordana Brewster looks smokin’ hot in a 1966 Ford GT40?

The film stars Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson, Jordana Brewster, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges and Tyrese Gibson, produced by Neal Moritz and directed by Justin Lin. Fast Five is set to be released on April 29^th. Hit the jump to check out the new interactive trailer.

Universal has sent over 10 clips from director Justin Lin’s Fast Five which stars Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson, Jordana Brewster, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Tyrese Gibson, Sung Kang, Gal Gadot, Matt Schulze, Tego Calderon and Don Omar.  The latest chapter in the franchise is set in Rio de Janeiro and features a federal agent (Johnson) hot on the trail of a jail-skipping Dom Toretto (Diesel).

Even though I know exactly how this film is going to play out, I’ll admit the trailers and clips have definitely sold me.  What can I say, I like my popcorn movies.  Also, with an April 29 release date, the film is one of the first big summer movies and it’s going to make a ton of money.  After all, who doesn’t want to see Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson fight?  As producer Neal Moritz told me:

“They beat the shit out of each other, we shot for probably four days of them literally beating the shit out of each other. The audience is gonna be like ‘wow’.”

I can’t wait.  Hit the jump to watch the clips.

With Justin Lin’s Fast Five opening April 29, Universal has released the full press kit and included are a ton of new images from the fifth installment starring Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson, Jordana Brewster, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Tyrese Gibson, Sung Kang, Gal Gadot, Matt Schulze, Tego Calderon and Don Omar.  The latest chapter in the franchise is set in Rio de Janeiro and features a federal agent (Johnson) hot on the trail of a jail-skipping Dom Toretto (Diesel). Hit the jump for all the images and the official synopsis.

Universal has just released a new poster for Fast Five that doesn’t emphasize the cars or even the actors.  No, this new poster puts the emphasis on a clear blue, tranquil sky, because when I think of the Fast and the Furious franchise, I think tranquility.  Also, I’m definitely not a fan of the “Summer begins April 29th” tagline.  The summer movie season begins the first Friday in May.  If Universal thought the movie could compete in the summer, then they would have kept it at June 10th.  They didn’t because April, while not the summer movie season, has been good for the franchise’s box office.  You’re a late-spring movie, Fast Five.  Deal with it.

There’s also a new poster for Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris.  I’m not sure what Vincent Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” has to do with the plot (also, Van Gogh was Dutch so again, I’m missing the French connection), but it’s on the poster along with star Owen Wilson.  Hit the jump to check out the posters.

With Justin Lin’s Fast Five opening next month (April 29), Universal has released a new trailer and the fifth installment looks to be the biggest yet in terms of action and cast.  When I spoke to producer Neal Moritz about the film, he told me the big bank heist (which you can see in the trailer) is around 14 minutes of non-stop action.  He said:

“That sequence of them pulling this vault through the city of Rio De Janeiro being chased by 50 police cars throughout the city is one of the most incredible sequences I’ve ever seen on film. The action in that is like nothing you’ve ever seen, it’s all real.”

While none of the Fast and the Furious films will ever win any awards, what I like about them is they don’t pretend to be anything more than what they are.  And with an April release date, the film should make a lot of coin before the rest of the big summer movies even come out.  Check out the new trailer after the jump:

New posters have been released for Duncan Jones’ Source Code, Jake Kasdan’s Bad Teacher, Justin Lin’s Fast Five, Raja Gosnell’s The Smurfs and Rob Marshall’s Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.  Some are international posters and some are domestic.  Hit the jump to check them out:

Universal has released the first poster for Fast Five.  Judging from the poster, the movie has Vin Diesel and Paul Walker firing up some Flux Capacitors as their cars hit 88 miles per hour.  I was a little surprised they didn’t put Dwayne Johnson’s mug on the poster, but then I remembered that these movies are car porn and no one really cares who’s driving.

Hit the jump to check out the poster.  Fast Five also stars Jordana Brewster, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Tyrese Gibson, Sung Kang, Gal Gadot, Matt Schulze, Tego Calderon, Don Omar, Elsa Pataky, and Joaquim De Almeida.  The film opens April 29th.