It didn’t claim the record for highest debut or the greatest attendance, but this year’s Super Bowl weekend still caught most box office watchers by surprise with two bigger-than-expected openings. Fox’s Chronicle was first with $22 million from 2,907 locations, but CBS Films’ The Woman in Black was right on its heels with $21 million from 2,855. That’s the first time that two titles have opened to over $20 million on a Super Bowl frame since… ever.

As the 84th Academy Awards move closer, we’re starting to get a better sense of how things will pan out. We recently shared the 39 songs that will contend for the Best Original Song category, and now the Academy has announced the 97 original scores eligible for the Best Original Score award. AMPAS is notoriously picky when it comes to eligibility in this category, and as we feared the scores for both Drive and Attack the Block have been deemed ineligible. Also disappointing is the ineligibility of Alexandre Desplat’s mesmerizing score for The Tree of Life.

While it’s upsetting to see some of the year’s best work side-lined, there’s plenty to be happy about. I was a huge fan of Howard Shore’s work in Hugo and Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s score for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, as well as The Chemical Brothers’ brilliant work in the criminally underseen Hanna. Hit the jump for the full list, as well as who I think will make the cut.

And the bad news for new releases just keeps coming. Despite placing first on Friday, the Universal comedy Tower Heist could not pull off a weekend win. The all-star ensemble took in just $25.1 million from 3,367 locations or ten million less than it was expected to command. The culprit? Looks like audiences who kept Puss In Boots at the low end of its own projections last weekend came out in force for round two: giving the Dreamworks Animation release an impressive 97% hold and a second week at number one.

Footloose opened at the top of the charts this Friday with $5.6 million, but the remake will have to keep dancing its heart out to fend off last week’s champion Real Steel.  Both movies should land in the $15-18 million range for the weekend.  The revival of fellow beloved 80s property The Thing debuted in third place with a weaker $3.2 million.  Still better than this week’s other wide release, The Big Year, which earned just $1.15 million this Friday despite a trio of high profile leads in Steve Martin, Owen Wilson, and Jack Black.  Check back tomorrow for the weekend totals.

It may not be the overwhelming win that its pricey PR push promised, but America’s new number one movie Real Steel did score the highest debut of any truly ‘new’ release since Rise of the Planet of the Apes two months ago.  With $27.3 million from its 3,440 locations, the family-friendly robot boxing movie also earned almost three times what its nearest competitor, George Clooney’s The Ides of March, saw on its first weekend.

With three new releases plus three strong holdovers, this weekend turned out to be one of the most difficult to predict in terms of box office numbers.  In the end, it was the week-old Dolphin Tale that emerged victorious: leaping over Friday’s champ Moneyball, the still-ferocious Lion King 3D and the critically-acclaimed newcomer 50/50.

Moneyball won the pot on its second Friday with an estimated $3.9 million, though there is a good chance that either of September’s family hits, Dolphin Tale or The Lion King 3D will end up the weekend winner.  With Friday numbers, I usually like to give some indication of what Sunday’s top ten will look like but, today, I’m not sure that will be possible.  On top of the very close estimates between the holdover titles, there are four new releases in the mix: three of which are running well below their pre-release projections.  So far, What’s Your Number? is lagging 85% behind Anna Farris’ last comedy hit The House Bunny.  50/50 is doing half the business of 2009’s cancer comedy Funny People and the Universal thriller Dream House looks like a winner by sticking to its projected three-day opening of $8 million!  That leaves Courageous.  Haven’t heard of it?  The Christian drama has come out strong, with a debut of $3.1 million and a projected weekend that should nearly double its studio’s expectations of $5 million.  Details tomorrow.

Once again, it looks like I was foolish to bet on Moneyball.  Blinded by the strong opening day of this long-time underdog, I completely forgot that last weekend’s champ would have a home field advantage on Saturday.  The final score put The Lion King 3D back on top and added another $22.1 million to the re-release’s lifetime stats.  Moneyball had to settle for second, though the estimates between it and the week’s newest family film, Dolphin Tale, are close enough that the baseball flick could conceivably fall to third by Monday.

Now that is a title I never thought I would write.  Two years ago it looked like Sony’s tale of baseball underdogs was dead in the water, but look at Moneyball now!  Number one on Friday with an estimated $6.8 million and almost guaranteed to win the weekend with a projected $20 million.  That is a bit higher than original studio estimates and, if achieved, would give Moneyball the biggest opening ever for a baseball-themed feature.  At number two after its big re-release last weekend is Disney’s The Lion King 3D, which means that the new family heart-warmer, Dolphin Tale, had to settle for third and an estimated $5.1 million.  The weekend’s third and fourth new releases round out the top five: Lionsgate’s Abduction, with Taylor Lautner, scored an estimated $3.8 million while Killer Elite, with Jason Statham and Clive Owen, was not far behind with $3.4 million.  Both films are currently looking at an opening of $11 million or so.  Details and analysis tomorrow.

Dolphin Tale is inspired by the remarkable and amazing true story of a dolphin named Winter and the people who banded together to save her life. As a young dolphin, she was caught in a crab trap, severely damaging her tail enough that she ended up losing it. With the expertise of a dedicated marine biologist (Harry Connick, Jr.), a brilliant prosthetics doctor (Morgan Freeman) who wasn’t willing to give up, and the devotion of the young boy (Nathan Gamble) who discovered her, the story becomes a heartwarming adventure about the healing bonds between human and animal, and it illustrates how hope and courage can get you through almost anything.

During this exclusive phone interview with Collider, director Charles Martin Smith (also known for his acting work in such films as American Graffiti, The Untouchables and Starman) talked about the affect that meeting Winter had on him, the importance of not overdoing the sentimentality inherent in the story, that he wanted to capture Winter’s true personality for the film, how his acting background helped him in working with his young leads, his reasons for shooting the movie in 3D, and his hope that the film leads people to realize that, by helping others, we truly help ourselves. Check out what he had to say after the jump.

Happy Saturday, everyone. The fall movie season is upon us and, in honor of its arrival, Adam and myself are working on a “most anticipated” feature which you should be able to check out later this weekend. As a result of working on that little diddy, I’m cutting my typically awe-inspiring opening “Top 5″ paragraph a little short. I know, I know…you’re heartbroken.

In this week’s installment you’ll find all of our coverage from the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival; a plethora of set visit materials from Real Steel, End of Watch and Dolphin Tale; and a look at Nike’s Back to the Future MAGs. Hit the jump for a brief recap and link to each.

Morgan Freeman is a prickly pear of an interview. A veteran of the industry for over thirty years, he – like Tommy Lee Jones – does not suffer foolish questions gladly, and proved it in our talk. We got a chance to speak with him on the set of Dolphin Tale, and when engaged he was fun to talk to, but if you hit him with questions that he thought were beneath him, he showed it.

Dolphin Tale is Freeman’s third film co-starring with Ashley Judd, and a rare return to children’s entertainment after his early run as “Easy Reader” on The Electric Company. Freeman is one of the most respected actors in the industry, an academy award winner, and – at this point – a living legend. Check out our talk after the jump.

Ashley Judd’s acting career started in Florida with Ruby in Paradise, so it was nice to see her return to the gulf for her latest film Dolphin Tale. Judd went from indie darling to hot starlet to A-lister with a penchant for thrillers, and then back to a working actress. But throughout her career, Judd has been excellent, and sadly her skills on screen are often overlooked because of her attractiveness.

Judd has a reputation of being press shy, and initially she walked in and then was dragged out shortly thereafter. There was concern she was gone for good, but Judd came back and gave a thoughtful interview. We also talked briefly about her relationship with George Lucas. Check out the interview after the jump.

Dolphin Tale is a movie based around a true story of a dolphin named Winter whose tail was caught in a net, and needed a prosthetic tail to survive. And to play that dolphin, the filmmakers did a bit of stunt casting by putting Winter in the movie. And as we arrived for our set visit, the first star we met was the disfigured dolphin.

While on the set we toured the aquarium set for the film, and met with director Charles Martin Smith, stars Austin Stowell Ashley Judd, Morgan Freeman and child actor Nathan Gamble. Check out our conversations with the stars and our look at the set after the jump.

As part of their Fall/Holiday Preview, Warner Bros. has released the first official images from Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion and the rom-com anthology New Year’s Eve.  They’ve also released new images from the family film Dolphin Tale.  The images don’t hold any grand surprises. The Contagion images show that a virus is probably going down. The New Year’s Eve image shows Lea Michele and Jon Bon Jovi making sweet, sweet music together. The Dolphin Tale images show dolphins.

You can check out the images after the jump.  Contagion opens September 9th.  Dolphin Tale opens in 3D on September 23rd.  New Year’s Eve opens December 9th.  Click here for the first image from A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas and click here for the first image from Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.