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.

The kids are back in school, the leftovers are congealing in the fridge and you’ve already run through all the releases at your local multiplex. Such is life on the weekend after the Thanksgiving Holiday.  The upshot is that there isn’t much to talk about in terms of box office.  We’ve got holdovers as far as the eye can see – and they’re not holding very well at that.  In fact, overall box office is down 13% this weekend from 2009 levels when The Blind Side claimed first place.

For the second weekend in a row Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 heads the weekend box office, taking in an estimated $76.3 million over five days and bringing its ten day domestic total to $220.4 million.  Potter was not the only family film that enchanted over the Thanksgiving holiday: Disney’s Tangled pulled in an estimated $69 million in its five day start, besting many predictions.  Meanwhile, debuts aimed at the adult audience gave new meaning to the term ‘turkey trot.’ Burlesque, Love & Other Drugs and Faster all failed to pass $20 million after five days. Nevertheless, this was the second-highest grossing Thanksgiving on record after Twilight Saga: New Moon and The Blind Side took 2009.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the fifteen animated feature films that have been accepted for consideration in the Animated Feature Film category at the 83^rd Academy Awards.  The list includes the obvious blockbusters such as Toy Story 3, How to Train Your Dragon, and Shrek Forever After, as well as less traditional but no less critically praised fair such as My Dog Tulip, Summer Wars, and the French film The Illusionist.

Under Academy rules, any year in which 8 to 15 animated features are released, a maximum of 3 motion pictures may be nominated. If 16 or more animated features are submitted and accepted in the category, a maximum of 5 motion pictures may be nominated. Since the Academy only deemed 15 animated feature films from this year worthy of being considered, there will only be 3 nominations in the Best Animated Feature Film category at the Oscars in February.  However, films submitted in the Animated Film category are also eligible for Academy Awards in other categories, such as Best Picture, so fear not Toy Story 3 fans, it’s still got a shot at the top prize. Hit the jump to check out the full list of films under consideration, as well as speculation as to which three films are most likely to be nominated.

After narrowly beating Megamind for first place on Friday, Unstoppable lost some momentum as it rolled through the weekend. The thriller placed second with an estimated $23.5 million while Dreamworks’ 3D animated Megamind enjoyed a second week at number one and a new estimated domestic gross of nearly $90 million.

Unstoppable opened to $8.1 million on Friday which was good enough for first place – barely. The PG-13 thriller is the fifth film pairing of Denzel Washington and director Tony Scott, and the second in a row to feature a runaway train as its dramatic centerpiece. Though projections indicate that Unstoppable will be anything but a runaway hit, the film should at least match the $23.4 million opening weekend of Denzel and Scott’s last train thriller, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3. Too bad that won’t be enough to outsmart Megamind. The 3D comedy came in second on Friday with $7.9 million and is poised for its second weekend at number one thanks to higher ticket prices and a general lack of interest in this weekend’s other new titles. That includes Universal’s Skyline which debuted in fourth on Friday with $4.7 million on its way to a weekend in the $14 million range – a far cry from this week last year when 2012 earned $23.4 million on its first day alone. Finally, Morning Glory opened early to get out of the way of all that testosterone. It didn’t help. The romantic comedy’s Wednesday-Thursday gross stands at just $2.6 million and its Friday take of $3.1 million was only good enough for fifth place.

Hollywood finally got some box office results worth celebrating as all three of this weekend’s major new releases performed at or above industry projections. The combined grosses of Megamind, Due Date and For Colored Girls made this the most lucrative early November frame since 2003 and promises studios glad tidings for the 2010 holiday season to come.

Despite big debuts like Jackass 3D and Paranormal Activity 2, this year’s crop of recent box-office releases have fallen well-below 2009 numbers week after week.  But if Friday’s numbers are any indication, this week’s three high-profile newcomers could finally break that cycle (only a bit less impressive when you know that, on this weekend in 2009, the top film was Disney’s creepy redux of A Christmas Carol). First this Friday was Megamind. The comedy pulled in an estimated $12.5 million from its 3,944 locations – but with a record 2,634 3D sites, the weekend grosses should top the $43.7 million of How To Train Your Dragon. Only a bit behind Megamind in second place was Todd Phillips’ Due Date with an estimate of $12 million. Weekend projections give the comedy $35 million despite its R-rating and stiff family-friendly competition. Finally, Tyler Perry brought in an estimated $7.4 million on Friday with his drama For Colored Girls. Despite the fact that film does not feature the director in drag, weekend projections put his latest release in the neighborhood of $20 million – the very same neighborhood that Perry has grown accustomed to over the past few years. We’ll have full weekend details when you check back tomorrow.

Opening this weekend is DreamWorks Animation’s next 3D movie Megamind. Featuring the voices of  Will Ferrell, Brad Pitt, Tina Fey, Jonah Hill and David Cross, Megamind is the story of the villain that actually wins.  Imagine if Lex Luthor killed Superman.  What would his life be like without a worthy adversary to fight?  What would make him happy?  These are the questions Megamind must face.

Anyway, last weekend DreamWorks held a press junket here in Los Angeles and I got to sit down with David Cross (he plays Megamind’s assistant Minion).  During my exclusive interview, we talked about TIFF 2010, all the different animated projects he’s been working on, making Megamind, working for DreamWorks, what’s the status of Kung Fu Panda 2: The Kaboom of Doom, will The Increasingly Poor Decision of Todd Margret get a second season and what was making that show like, and a lot more.  Hit the jump to read or listen to what David Cross had to say.

Finally, I’m not sure if I’ll be transcribing the press conference with Tina Fey, Will Ferrell, David Cross and director Tom McGrath.  So in case I don’t, you can click here to listen to the audio.

Opening on November 5th is DreamWorks Animation’s next 3D movie Megamind.  Featuring the voices of  Will Ferrell, Brad Pitt, Tina Fey, Jonah Hill and David Cross, Megamind is the story of a villain that actually wins.  Imagine if Lex Luthor killed Superman.  What would his life be like without a worthy adversary to fight?  What would make him happy?  These are the questions Megamind must face.

With the movie getting released in a few weeks, DreamWorks has provided us with 6 clips.  Hit the jump for a more detailed synopsis and the videos:

The first five minutes of DreamWorks’ Megamind are now available for your viewing pleasure.  The film’s plot finds the genius villain known as Megamind (voiced by Will Ferrell) encountering a severe case of boredom following the recent defeat of his sworn enemy Metro Man (Brad Pitt).  To spice things up, the nemesis-less super villain creates a new foe for himself in the form of Titan (Jonah Hill).  As the story goes, Titan ends up trying to destroy the world forcing Megamind to use his supreme intellect for good rather than evil.

I’ll admit to finding the premise interesting, although I’ve been somewhat underwhelmed by what I’ve seen from the film thus far.  That said, I’m kind of enjoying the first five minutes on display here.  To check it out for yourself, hit the jump.  In addition to Will Ferrell, Brad Pitt, and Jonah Hill,  Megamind also features the voice talents of Tina Fey and David Cross.  The film opens November 5th.

A couple weeks ago at the Toronto International Film Festival, Steve interviewed Guillermo del Toro and learned that the writer-director-producer was developing projects at DreamWorks Animation.  Today, THR reports that del Toro will write and direct Trollhunters for the studio.  The film is based on a young adult novel that del Toro submitted to publisher Hyperion about two weeks ago.  Said del Toro:

“I wanted very much to develop a story that could be written for kids but dealt with a genre that was scary,” he said. “It essentially combines fairy tales with modern times and is about how difficult it is to be kid. Normally, kids are idealized in animated films. But the growing pains, married with the notion that there is a world right next to us that is completely plagued by creatures of ancient lore, it’s thematically fitting with the rest of my stuff.”

Hit the jump for more on del Toro’s relationship with DreamWorks Animation.

We have three new posters for you this afternoon.  First up is the bland final poster for DreamWorks Animation’s Megamind starring the voices of Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, David Cross, Jonah Hill, and Brad Pitt.  Then we have the giant floaty-head poster for Clint Eastwood’s Hereafter starring Matt Damon.  Finally, there’s the UK poster for Tony Scott’s Unstoppable starring Denzel Washington and Chris Pine.  It’s a slight improvement over the US poster since it almost lets you know that the movie involves a train.

Hit the jump to check out all three posters along with a synopsis for each film.  Megamind opens November 5th.  Hereafter opens October 22nd.  Unstoppable opens November 12th.

We have three new posters for you today.  They include:

• Another slick poster for Tron: Legacy
• A somewhat clever new poster for DreamWorks Animation’s Megamind, which stars the voices of Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, Jonah Hill, and Brad Pitt.
• A new one sheet for Doug Liman’s Fair Game, which stars Naomi Watts and Sean Penn

Hit the jump to check out all the posters along with a plot synopsis for each film.

A new trailer for DreamWorks Animation’s Megamind has gone online.  If you don’t want to be spoiled, then avoid watching this thing.  It sends you all the way to the third act of the movie.  This new trailer even manages to spoil a plot point that was shown to audiences in the trailer they showed at Comic-Con.  What’s funny is that at Comic-Con they made a point not to spoil a certain character’s arc and now they’ve ruined it completely.  I guess it was important not to spoil the plot in July, but now in September it’s totally okay.  I’m not mad, but I find it amusing how something that was supposed to be kept under wraps is now being used as the selling-point.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  Megamind stars the voices of Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, David Cross, Jonah Hill, and Brad Pitt.  It opens in 3D on November 5th.