After coasting on holdovers for weeks, Hollywood studios have unleashed a feast of new features: just in time for Christmas. Even with all the competition, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey had no trouble staying in first place with an estimated $36.7 million. Jack Reacher placed second, but with less than half The Hobbit’s total. And with Les Miserables and Django Unchained on deck for Christmas Day, it looks like more than one new title will have a hard time distinguishing itself from the holiday crowd.

Tom Cruise is a movie star, but after his public embarrassments in 2005, whether audiences could accept him in any role was questioned. And at this point, he probably can’t create a character who isn’t a variation on Tom Cruise, movie star, which may be why the Mission: Impossible franchise is perfect for him. After four films, what can you say about Ethan Hunt other than he’s an effective problem-solver? Ultimately, when you have a director engaged with the material, you get a good film, otherwise it’s just wheel spinning by craftsmen. Brad Bird had a lot to prove with Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, and it shows, he delivered a home run. Cruise is supported by Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner, and Paula Patton in his battle to stop a terrorist (Michael Nyqvist). And our review of the Best-Buy exclusive Blu-ray follows after the jump.

Though we weren’t exactly lacking in popcorn movies last year, one of the most fun times I had in a movie theater in 2011 was most certainly Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.  Brad Bird, director of The Incredibles and The Iron Giant, made his live-action debut in a big way with the crowd pleasing fourth entry in the Mission: Impossible franchise.  What’s not to love about Tom Cruise playing out a death defying action sequence thousands of feet in the sky on a giant IMAX screen?  Given that a different director has helmed each film in the franchise, most weren’t exactly expecting Bird to return for the next installment.  The director has now, unsurprisingly, confirmed that he’s unlikely to helm Mission: Impossible 5, but he also revealed that they changed the film’s ending during the middle of production.

Hit the jump to see what he had to say, but beware of obvious spoilers for the ending of Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.

Now that the Oscars are finally over, the Saturn Awards have come along and graced with nominations that are actually fun/infuriating-in-their-own-way.  There’s some cross-over between Oscars and Saturn Awards this year with Hugo racking up 10 nominations.  But since the Academy doesn’t want to recognize genre movies, they ignored Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.  The Saturns are giving Mr. Potter his due, and the final chapter of the saga also nabbed 10 nominations.  Also doing well on the film side were Super 8 (8 nominations), Captain America: The First Avenger (7 nominations), The Adventures of Tintin and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (6 nominations each).  As for TV, Breaking Bad led with six nominations.  I can live with all of these (although eight nominations for Super 8 is pushing it).

Wait.  I just saw that there were no nominations for Drive.  Never mind.  The Saturn Awards are sham.  Hit the jump for the full list of nominees.  Winners will be announced on June 20th (a long ways off, but meant to hit in the heart of the summer movie season).

Even with Saturday’s family trade and higher ticket prices, Disney’s 3D re-issue of Beauty and the Beast could not catch Contraband this weekend. From its 2,863 locations Universal’s R-rated drama took in an estimated $24.1 million – a figure well above early expectations for the Mark Wahlberg vehicle.  The other BIG news is the changing fortunes of last weekend’s number one film, The Devil Inside.  Estimates have taken the film from number six – down to number eleven – and back up to number seven all within an hour.  We’re hoping to get it right this with this one but, keep in mind, it’s all estimates until Monday morning…

If 2011 closed as a bit of a downer, 2012 continues to surprise with its robust (early) box office performances.  Last week Paramount’s The Devil Inside caught most of us off-guard with its big number one finish; this weekend it was Universal’s turn with Contraband.  The R-rated thriller earned an estimated $8.7 million from 2,863 locations on Friday – a first place debut that puts it on track for a weekend 25% higher than expected.  In second place, Disney’s 3D reissue of Beauty and the Beast took in $5.6 million from 2,625 venues and should reach $23 million by the end of the four-day MLK Holiday weekend.  Warner Brothers’ Joyful Noise was the final new title of the weekend, not counting TWC’s The Iron Lady which expanded into 802 theatres and finished Friday in eighth-place.  Noise earned $3.3 million from its 2,863 locations for a third-place tie with Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.  Rounding out the top five, The Devil Inside was down a giant 87% from its debut.  With the film’s awful reviews, expect it to relinquish its current slot to Sherlock Holmes 2 by Sunday. Details and analysis tomorrow.

We’ve got a very interesting case at the box office this weekend. Paramount’s horror pic The Devil Inside definitively won the weekend with a big $34.5 million take, but reaction to the film from both critics and audiences has been extremely negative. Not only does it sit at 7% on Rotten Tomatoes, but the film earned an “F” CinemaScore, which gauges how the film plays with general audiences. It’s already becoming infamous for a horrendous ending, but audiences turned up in droves making the little $1 million horror movie a bona fide hit. Hit the jump for more.

The Devil Inside is a critical punching bag, but Paramount knew what they were doing with the marketing with this cheap $1 million acquisition.  The horror movie grossed $16.9 million opening day on its way to a potential $30 million weekend.  The Devil Inside has already become infamous for a terrible ending, so it’s unlikely this will hold up over the coming weeks, but a great start might be enough for the low-budget effort.  The top 5 is rounded out by the big holiday movies, with Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows leading the charge.  The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo continues to find an audience three weeks into its run—it may yet hit the $100 million mark.  War Horse came in at #5 while passing $50 million.

We’re just a little less than two months away from the 84th Annual Academy Awards, and today the choices in yet another category have been pared down. AMPAS announced today that 10 films remain in contention for the Best Visual Effects award, with films like Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, Hugo, and The Tree of Life making the cut. The pretty clear frontrunner in this race is Rise of the Planet of the Apes (and rightfully so), but there’s much to admire in the 10 films that have been shortlisted.

Though Terrence Malick’s existential drama The Tree of Life is heavy on the naturalistic visuals, the extended “history of the universe” sequence is gloriously enchanting and features some breathtaking visual effects work (dinosaurs!), so I’m happy to see that it hasn’t been overlooked. All members of the Academy’s visual effects branch will view 10-minute excerpts from each of the 10 shortlisted films, after which they’ll vote to nominate five pics for the Academy Award. Hit the jump to read the full press release, which includes all 10 singled-out films. The Oscars will be presented on February 26th.

With three days before Hollywood’s jam-packed holiday season comes to a close, and with no major new studio releases, last week’s holdovers got a chance to stretch their legs on Friday.  After dominating the charts since it went wide ten days ago, Paramount’s Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol was yesterday’s winner with an estimated $10.7 million. This season’s all-purpose hit passed the $100 million mark on Thursday and is projected to take in another $35 million by the end of the four-day weekend.  Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows also hit $100 million (on Wednesday). Although the WB sequel was pushed into third by Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked on Wednesday and Thursday, Sherlock 2 should finish the holiday frame back in second place with $30 million to Alvin 3’s $25. As expected, each of the top five films saw a significant spike in earnings over last Friday; with the most impressive gain made by Fox’s We Bought a Zoo which rose 40% above its December 23^rd debut.  Just missing the top five, War Horse lost some momentum after its strong showing on Christmas Day.  The Disney/Dreamworks pic is projected to post $18 million through Monday – just ahead of director Steven Spielberg’s second holiday release: The Adventures of Tintin.  Check back for details and analysis.

Because of the unique release pattern of this year’s holiday offerings, we are posting the weekend box office numbers one day later than usual.  Yesterday’s estimates for the three-day period did not include War Horse, which needed only one day in theatres to earn almost as much as We Bought a Zoo did in three.  Please note that the chart below includes separate estimates for Friday-Monday that are NOT in the same order.  I just couldn’t come up with a better way to present what has turned out to be a very confusing Christmas at the box office.

I’m writing to you this afternoon in the late stages of a full-on nostalgia buzz. The reason? Last night, I had the pleasure of taking in a performance of the Beauty and the Beast musical at St. Louis’ beautiful The Fabulous Fox theatre. Thanks to Belle’s “Little Town”, “Something There”, and the Academy Award-winning title track, I’m still giddy and in complete tune with my five-year old self nearly 24 hours after the fact. Now, if I could just get my hands on that old Proton Pack I used to lug around at all times, my return trip to the ’90s would be complete…

…In this week’s “Top 5″ you’ll find a collection of items from The Dark Knight Rises, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo interviews with David Fincher, Rooney Mara, and Daniel Craig, tidbits of news from J.J. Abrams‘ Star Trek sequel, director Brad Bird talking about Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, The Incredibles sequel and more, and a recap of what has been yet another crazy week in trailers (Hint: there’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Prometheus, and Wrath of the Titans). Hit the jump for a brief recap and link to each.

Welcome to one of the most crowded (and confusing) holiday box office races you are likely to encounter.  Along with last weekend’s big name holdovers, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows and Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked, six films will have opened wide or expanded within a five day span… or six days if you count films like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo which opened in some locations on Tuesday night.  Adding to the box office clusterf&c%, only one of the six titles opened on Friday while two will open on Sunday: throwing off the whole ‘three-day weekend’ model that keeps people like me employed.  Fox’s We Bought a Zoo was Friday’s lone new release, opening to an estimated $3 million from 3,117 locations – not quite enough to push it into the daily top five.  At number one since Wednesday, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol is on track to win the weekend with around $35 million – higher than was originally expected.  We’ll try to make sense of all of the Christmas-chaos after the dust settles but, until then, why not take in a movie?  I don’t think the excuse “there’s nothing to see” is going to hold up this year.

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.

‘Twas the Wednesday before Christmas, but before I get going, I’ll end this rhyme so it doesn’t start blowing.  That’s right, we have arrived at that fabled time of year when Hollywood finally unwraps some of its most-anticipated titles.  After its IMAX triumph last weekend, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol went wide on Wednesday and quickly vaulted over both Sherlock Holmes 2 and Alvin and the Chipmunks 3 to claim first place with $8.6 million.  M:I 4 also topped David Fincher’s much-hyped version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which snuck into theatres a day ahead of its official December 21^st release date.  From 2,914 locations, Dragon Tattoo has earned an estimated $5.1 million so far – just slightly behind what True Grit saw on its pre-Christmas debut one year ago.  Rounding out yesterday’s top five was Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin.  One of Spielberg’s two end-of-year offerings (War Horse arrives on December 25^th), Tintin earned a relatively-soft $2.3 million from 3,087 domestic theatres, but a giant $240 million internationally.  With Christmas falling on a Sunday, this weekend’s totals are not expected to equal 2010 (when Little Fockers reigned), but we’ll keep you updated either way.