2013’s box office downturn stretched to its sixth frame this weekend, as Warner Brothers’ Jack the Giant Slayer failed to justify its giant pricetag. From 3,525 locations, the fairytale adaptation took in an estimated $28 million – more than its Friday estimate promised, but less than half of what The Lorax delivered at this time last year. The weekend’s other offerings fared little better though, in the case of The Last Exorcism Part II, a small opening was mitigated by an even smaller budget.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has unveiled its shortlist of 10 films that will contend for the Best Visual Effects Oscar.  The films that have made the cut include The Dark Knight Rises, Cloud Atlas, Skyfall, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, and Disney’s John Carter.  The list is full of impressive blockbuster fare from 2012, but as we were reminded last year (Hugo over Rise of the Planet of the Apes) the winner of the category tends to favor a Best Picture nominee.  As Ang Lee’s adaptation of Life of Pi includes stunning visual effects and is an early favorite to land a Best Picture nomination, prognosticators would do well to keep their eye on that film as the race moves forward.  That said, there’s not exactly a lack of great work to thumb through, so this should be an interesting category.

Hit the jump to check out the full list of contenders, and leave your thoughts on the shortlist in the comments.  The nominations for the 85th Academy Awards will be announced on January 10th, followed by the ceremony on February 24th.

Cloud Atlas is one of my favorite films this year, but I’m not ready to declare the best film I’ve seen this year.  Even though 2012 isn’t over, there have been other films that I enjoyed more and worked slightly better for me.  But Cloud Atlas is definitely the most important film I’ve seen this year in terms of what it represents from an industry perspective.  It is an independent film with a major budget.   The film had the technical resources to meet its grand ambition.  The Wachowski Siblings and Tom Tykwer have been able to successfully craft their vision and do so outside the Hollywood system, which is good because Hollywood never would have made a movie Cloud Atlas.  And if Cloud Atlas tanks, they never will.

You have the power to change that.

For better or worse, John Carter will go down as one of the most talked-about films of 2012.  The sci-fi epic was an ambitious undertaking in its conceit—a feature film adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ 1912 novel has eluded a multitude of filmmakers over the years—but the $250 million film served as the live-action directorial debut of Pixar’s Andrew Stanton.  The co-writer/director had plenty of clout in the animation world with smashing box office and critical successes like Finding Nemo and Wall-E under his belt, but John Carter was an absolutely massive live-action undertaking to cut his teeth on.

As we well know, the film was not the franchise-starter that Disney was hoping for.  Reviews were mixed, but the pic opened to a dismal $30 million and went on to nab a domestic total of just $73 million through its entire U.S. run. With some distance from the pic’s opening and reception, Stanton recently sat down to candidly reflect on the experience and talk about returning to Pixar for a Finding Nemo sequel.  Hit the jump to see what he had to say.

The new NBC drama series Revolution, premiering on September 17^th, tells the story of a family that struggles to reunite in an American landscape where every single piece of technology — computers, planes, cars, phones and even lights — has mysteriously blacked out forever. The show is centered around one strong-willed young woman, Charlie Matheson (Tracy Spiridakos), whose brother (Graham Rogers) is kidnapped by militia leaders, forcing her to reconnect with her estranged uncle (Billy Burke), in order to rescue Danny, overthrow the militia, and ultimately re-establish the United States of America, all while they explore the enduring mystery of why the power failed and if it will ever return.

While at the NBC portion of the TCAPress Tour, co-executive producer/pilot director Jon Favreau talked about the appeal of the series, why they’re doing serialized television through a network, the desire to be transformed and transported by a TV show, the influence of Planet of the Apes and Logan’s Run, and the biggest restrictions in storytelling in film versus on television. He also talked about what his version of John Carter might have looked like. Check out what he had to say after the jump.

If you had told me that the dad on Malcolm in the Middle would become one of my favorite actors, I’d never have believed you.  But after years of amazing work on AMC’s brilliant drama Breaking Bad, Bryan Cranston has shown that he can transform himself into any character and make it believable.  It’s probably why during the last few hiatuses he’s landed small but important roles in films like Drive, John Carter, The Lincoln Lawyer, Red Tails, Larry Crowne, and this summer’s remake of Total Recall.  In director Len Wiseman’s film, Cranston plays Vilos Cohaagen, who was originally played by the great Ronny Cox.  And like the original, Cohaagen is a close friend and ally of Quaid/Hauser (Colin Farrell) who wants to see his friend return home.

Last summer I got to visit the set of Total Recall when the production was filming in Toronto and participated in a group interview with Cranston.  He talked about why he wanted to play the role, what’s different about his version of Cohaagen, what are his characters motivations, filming the action, his process as an actor, his thoughts on the end of Breaking Bad, and a lot more.  In addition, Cranston reveals that he was offered Kevin Bacon‘s role in X-Men: First Class but turned it down to be in director Nicolas Winding Refn‘s Drive.  Hit the jump to either read or listen to what Cranston had to say.

It’s hard to say when the troubles started for John Carter.  Though others have speculated that people had it out for director Andrew Stanton, there’s no denying that the film never cracked how to sell itself to the public, and the advertising – from the original trailers to the film’s name change from John Carter of Mars to John Carter, to selling the film on the white apes who only appear in the third act of the movie – did the film no favors.  It was known to be a very expensive film, which went through a couple rounds of reshoots and when it emerged in March it flopped domestically. A nd though the film is flawed, there’s a lot to like about it – as much for what it is as what it aspires to be.  Watching it at home, there’s a fun film in there, and it’s mostly good.  Taylor Kitsch stars as the titular Carter, and our review of the Blu-ray follows after the jump.

John Carter is coming to Blu-ray and DVD on June 5, and I hope it finds a second life in home release.  I don’t know what it would take to justify a sequel, but for the sake of ambitious, lush science fiction like this, it would be unfortunate if the lasting legacy was that of a flop.  The expansive universe, as designed by Edgar Rice Borroughs, is really built for serialization.  We have seen this potential realized on screen in the many properties that were inspired by John Carter of Mars.  Jon Favreau points to Star Wars and Superman as two indelible franchises that benefit from the Mars mythos in the featurette, “Influence of John Carter,” which will appear on the Blu-ray.  We were provided a one-minute clip from the featurette, with supporting remarks by Willem Dafoe (the voice of Tars Tarkas in the movie), and we’d like to share it with you after the jump.

For the third week in a row, The Avengers dominated the box office. Marvel’s superheroes added another $55 million to their domestic total – putting the film over $450 million in a record-breaking seventeen days. Meanwhile, the three new releases that lined up to challenge The Avengers all struggled in the blockbuster’s wake.

For the first time this month audiences had more than one new release to tempt them into theatres. Trouble is, no one seemed particularly tempted by the three titles that lined up to take down The Avengers. With an estimated $15.3 million on Friday, the Marvel superheroes are now assured their third weekend title with a projected $55 million. That won’t be a record, but who cares? At $1.048 billion worldwide, the film is already Disney’s highest-grossing release of all time. In second place, Universal’s Battleship took in an estimated $9 million from its 3,690 locations for a projected $26 million first weekend. Not only is that well below expectations for the pricey live-action boardgame, it’s also less than John Carter earned for its debut back in March. Draw your own conclusions. After opening to $4.1 million on Wednesday, Sacha Baron Cohen’s The Dictator took in an estimated $5.7 million on Friday towards what should be a $16 million first weekend. Finally, What to Expect When You’re Expecting saw an estimated $3.9 million from 3,021 locations on Friday. Not exactly what Lionsgate was, um, expecting from their ensemble comedy.  Full details tomorrow.

May the box office be ever in your favor! The Hunger Games outlasted competition from newcomers American Reunion and not-so-new Titanic 3D to top the box office for the third weekend in a row.  Hunger Games pulled in an estimated $33.5 million, a drop of about 43% from last week’s numbers, but still managed to cross a $400 million worldwide mark.   Second-week showings of Wrath of the Titans and Mirror Mirror rounded out the top five respectively. Hit the jump for the analysis, including a big mover who almost cracked the top ten.

Surprising no one, The Hunger Games stayed in first place for a second week in a row with an estimated $61.1 million, or a decline of 60%.  Meanwhile this weekend’s new releases – Wrath of the Titans and Mirror, Mirror – had to settle for second and third, respectively. And, again, we’re back to being really, really not surprised.

The worst-kept secret in show biz is out: The Hunger Games is a hit of record-breaking proportions.  From its 10,000 prints at 4,137 locations, the film earned an estimated $155 million this weekend, blowing away the previous March record of $116.1 million.  The figure also stands as the third-highest opening of all-time and the single highest debut for a non-sequel. Score one for breathless, wall-to-wall media saturation!

After the high drama of last weekend’s John Carter opening, this morning’s box office is a bit anti-climactic: a comedy that was expected to take first place took first place.  From 3,121 locations 21 Jump Street earned an estimated $35 million.  But, as the only wide release of the frame, Jump Street could not keep 2012 in the black by itself.  For the first time this year the overall box office came in slightly below 2011 levels. But hey, it was nice while it lasted.

21 Jump Street is off to a very promising start – commercially and critically. Earning an estimated $13.1 million on Friday from 3,121 locations, the big screen adaptation of the former Fox TV series has also put up one of the most impressive Rotten Tomatoes scores of 2012 at 87% fresh.  As the only wide release of the weekend, box office watchers were pretty sure that the R-rated comedy was headed for number one, especially considering it stars two of the most popular young actors of this moment – Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill.  With John Carter continuing to disappoint (off 60% from its less-than-stellar debut last weekend), the only challenge for Jump Street was conquering family-friendly holdover The Lorax.  21 Jump Street is now projected to take in $35 million this weekend; little wonder that a sequel is already in the works.  We’ll have details and analysis tomorrow.