Yesterday it looked like Universal’s The Bourne Legacy might get as high as $45 million by the end of its first weekend. That was not to be; although the re-born Bourne did open to a very respectable $40.2 million from 3,745 locations. Also falling in the ‘respectable’ range with $27.4 million was The Campaign, starring Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis. The comedy did well enough from 3,204 locations to keep The Dark Knight Rises in third.

After collaborating on the highly successful Bourne sequels, director Paul Greengrass and star Matt Damon’s third film together had everyone excited. Add in that Greengrass’ most recent non-Bourne movie was the great United 93 and fans were eagerly awaiting Green Zone. After an unorthodox shoot (Damon had to take a break in the middle to film The Informant) the film finally got stuck with an unfortunate March release date. Add in the fact that moviegoers were in the midst of a love affair with another Iraq War movie, The Hurt Locker, which won the Oscar for Best Picture just five days before Green Zone’s release and it would seem that the film was doomed to disappoint. The final film is a solid, yet imperfect thriller, despite Greengrass and Damon’s best efforts. Keep reading for more on the film and its DVD.

Lots of new movies hit the multiplex this weekend, but none of them were in 3D so who cares? Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland continued to dominate, even with a 46% decline over its record-breaking first weekend. Domestically, the film passed the $200 million mark on its tenth day in release while also cleaning up overseas with an additional $221 million.

Audiences ventured down the rabbit hole once again on Friday, giving Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland an additional $17 million to add to its coffers. The Friday estimate represents a 57% drop over its record breaking debut eight days ago. The domestic total for the Disney release now stands at $163.6 million with 70% of that coming from 3D-equipped venues. New releases fill out the rest of our top five: The Paul Greengrass military-thriller Green Zone opened in second with $5 million from 3,003 locations while Robert Pattinson’s chin helped Universal’s Remember Me take in an estimated $3.5 million from its 2,212 dates. The Paramount comedy She’s Out of My League and Fox Searchlight’s Our Family Wedding took the fourth and fifth spot. Full details on all of the above when you check back tomorrow.

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Sometimes a director’s worth isn’t measured by how turns a strong script into a brilliant picture, but by how he makes an entertaining movie out of nothing.  By that measure, Green Zone director Paul Greengrass is one of the best filmmakers working today.  His latest film is like the next chapter in the Bourne franchise but without interesting characters or a thoughtful narrative.  Matt Damon plays a rogue soldier looking for the truth about WMD in Iraq.  The film doesn’t embrace the absurdity of how the Iraq War began or the disgusting cost in blood and treasure that resulted.  What it does embrace is so much energy that you’ll be too electrified to notice how much you’re missing.

Opening tomorrow is the new film from director Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum, United 93) Green Zone.  Starring Matt Damon as a weapons inspector looking for WMD’s in the early days of the U.S. led Iraqi War, Greengrass has taken his trademark style and applied it to a real story.  Trust me, if you enjoyed the last two Bourne movies, I’m extremely confident you’ll like Green Zone.

To help promote the film, I recently got to participate in a small roundtable interview with Greengrass in New York City.  During our extended interview he talked to us about almost every aspect of the filmmaking process – from editing to being on set.  He literally covered everything.  If you’re curious how Green Zone was made, it’s an awesome interview.  Hit the jump to check it out:

Opening tomorrow is the new film from director Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum, United 93) Green Zone.  Starring Matt Damon as a weapons inspector looking for WMD’s in the early days of the U.S. led Iraqi War, Greengrass has taken his trademark style and applied it to a real story.  Trust me when I say, if you enjoyed the last two Bourne movies, I’m extremely confident you’ll like Green Zone.

To help promote the film, I recently got to participate in a small roundtable interview with Matt Damon in New York City.  While getting even 15 minutes with Damon would be great as he’s an A list actor, our roundtable interview lasted over 30 minutes and we literally discussed everything.  From making Green Zone to every project he has coming up, no stone was left unturned.  Trust me, if you’re a fan of this great actor, this is a must read interview.  As always, I’ve also provided the audio.  Hit the jump to check it out and definitely catch Green Zone this weekend:

After a long time paying her dues, Amy Ryan had a great decade.  After all, anytime you’re nominated for an Academy Award (Gone Baby Gone) and have a great part on one of the best shows in the history of television (The Wire), you’ve had a good run.  But she’s not sitting back and resting on past glory, as she plays a reporter in Paul Greengrass’ new film Green Zone, and she’s also in Philip Seymour Hoffman’s directorial debut Jack Goes Boating – which premiered at Sundance a few months ago.

With Green Zone opening this weekend, I was able to participate in a roundtable interview with this great actress last week in New York City.  We talked about making Green Zone, will she come back to The Office, her next project with Tom McCarthy called Win Win, and reveals David Simon asked her to be a part of his new HBO show Treme, but she was pregnant at the time.

It’s a great in depth interview, so hit the jump and take a look:

While a lot of you only know Jason Isaacs from his work as Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter movies, he’s been in plenty of other films over the past two decades like Black Hawk Down, The Patriot, and Event Horizon.  And this weekend, he plays a tough as nails member of the military in director Paul Greengrass’ (The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum, United 93) Green Zone.  The movie is set in the early days of the U.S. led Iraq War and Matt Damon plays a weapons inspector looking for WMD’s.  If you enjoyed the last two Bourne movies, I’m extremely confident you’ll like Green Zone.

To help promote the film, I recently got to participate in a roundtable interview with Jason Isaacs in New York City.  He talked about how he got the part, what it was like to film Green Zone, what’s coming up in the next two Harry Potter films, and what else he’s working on.  Read or listen to the interview after the jump:

Yesterday I was able to participate in a small roundtable interview with Matt Damon for his new movie Green Zone.  While I’ll have the full interview posted closer to release, we were able to get updates on a ton of his upcoming projects like the Coen Brothers True Grit, Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion, the Gary Ross’s Robert Kennedy project (Damon would play Kennedy), Clint Eastwood’s Hereafter, playing a New York Yankees pitcher with Ben Affleck, and Liberace.  And on top of updates on his future projects, he talked about being nominated for an Oscar on Invictus, and how he’s incredibly excited to direct his first feature.

If you’d like to hear more…hit the jump:

At today’s press junket for Green Zone, I was able to speak with Jason Isaacs as part of  a roundtable interview.  While I’ll post the full conversation in the coming weeks, since we got an update on another small project he’s involved with called Harry Potter, I figured you’d like to read that tonight.

As most of you know, the last book (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) has been made into two movies and they wrapped filming not too long ago.   With a release date later this year for part 1 (November 19) and part 2 next year (July 15, 2011), the production is hard at work finishing up the films.

Anyway, Isaacs – who plays Lucius Malfoy – talked to us about his experiences making the last two films, is his character involved in the new Universal Studios ride, and talked about the big ending battle sequence in the final film.  Hit the jump to read his comments:

Since the last Jason Bourne movie was released, everyone has wondered when another sequel would be made.  With the huge worldwide box office grosses and critical success, you’d think it would be easy to get another sequel off the ground.  But time and again, Matt Damon has said they’d only do another sequel if the script was good.  Add to that, director Paul Greengrass recently said he wasn’t going to do another Bourne sequel.

So when I sat down at today’s press junket for Green Zone and was able to participate in small roundtable interviews with the star and director, the one thing I really wanted to know was what exactly was up with another Bourne sequel.  Thankfully, I was able to ask both of them that question.  Unfortunately for fans of the Bourne franchise, it’s very bad news.

First off, Greengrass told me he’s definitely not making another Jason Bourne movie.  And on top of that, Damon told me he would never make another Bourne movie without Greengrass.  So…that’s it. The nail is in the coffin.  I hope you enjoyed the three Bourne movies cause it’s over.

Or is it?  Hit the jump for more:

Opening on March 12 is Green Zone from director Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum, United 93).  The movie stars Matt Damon, Greg Kinnear, Brendan Gleeson, Amy Ryan, Khalid Abdalla and Jason Isaacs.

While I saw a screening and would love to tell you what I thought, Universal has me under a strict embargo.  Saying that, I think the weekend of March 12th has a great movie getting released.  Take a guess what I’m talking about.

To help promote the film, we’ve been given 6 clips and some behind the scenes footage from when they were filming Green Zone.  Hit the jump to take a look.  I’ve also provided the official synopsis:

Matt Damon has been cast to play Robert F. Kennedy in a biopic about the late politician.  Deadline reports that the film will be based on the Evan Thomas biography His Life. Gary Ross (Seabiscuit) will direct from a screenplay by Steven Knight (Eastern Promises).  The biopic will span Kennedy’s ascent from his brother’s shadow to a powerful nation figure before being assassinated during his 1968 campaign for President.

This may finally be Damon’s shot at a long-deserved Oscar.  Obviously, I haven’t read the script and a million things can happen between now and the finished film, but on paper, you have a respected, talented, and bankable actor playing a larger-than-life American icon.  The Academy becomes filled with tiny orgasms over that kind of project.  While Damon was nominated this year for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of South African rugby star Francois Pienaar in Clint Eastwood’s Invictus, that doesn’t even begin to compare to playing Robert F. Kennedy.  Damon is the goods and RFK’s story is worth telling so it falls to Ross and Knight to live up to the potential of this project.

Damon is currently set to star in Contagion for Steven Soderbergh, True Grit for the Coen Brothers, Hereafter for Clint Eastwood, and will next be seen in Paul Greengrass’ Green Zone, which hits theaters on March 12th.

For many people, a new year means a time for new habits, resolutions, and fresh starts.  For myself though, it’s always been about one thing and one thing only:  365 days of brand-new films!

And of course, Hollywood being Hollywood, there’s the usual litany of sequels, super-hero spectacle, remakes, and state-of-the-art Hollywood summer craziness filled with all manner of digital monsters and explosions.  But there’s also new films from Scorsese, Christopher Nolan, and – most intriguing of all – a ballet thriller from Darren Aronofsky.  Come on, admit it – you know you got excited when you heard the words “ballet thriller!”  All that, and we also see the return of Michael Douglas in his seminal role as Gordon Gecko.

Read on after the jump for my list of the ten films that – for reasons both good and bad – I’m most looking forward to seeing in the new year.