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.

Yikes! For anyone hoping that this weekend’s slate of new movies would pull the domestic box office out of its deadly tailspin, get used to disappointment. Three new titles opened wide on Friday (four, if you count the independent thriller Phantom), but each is looking like more of a dud than the last. With an estimated $7.7 million from 3,525 locations, the best that can be said of Warner Brothers’ pricey Jack the Giant Slayer is that it didn’t have to vie for first place with the month-old Identity Thief. Director Bryan Singer’s fantasy film is expected to stay on top this weekend with around $25 million, though that falls far short of the film’s reported $200 million pricetag. 21 & Over was in second place on Friday with an estimated $3.3 million from its 2,771 locations. At this point, $10 million is the most that the teen-party flick can hope to see through Sunday so… not quite the Project X redux that was promised. Finally, back in August 2010, The Last Exorcism became a surprise hit when it earned over $20 million on its debut frame. This weekend, The Last Exorcism Part II is expected to make just $8.5 million – less than its predecessor realized on its first day.  We’ll have complete details and the top ten tomorrow.

Project X was a surprise of the year, a raunchy teen comedy that took advantage of a budget-trimming found-footage gimmick and was successful enough at the box office to warrant a sequel.  Fans of Superbad, American Pie and The Hangover will find common ground with Project X, but the film goes even farther than any of them dared.  So how can you enjoy the world’s most insane party without risking jail time and millions of dollars in property damage? Pick up Project X on Blu-ray so you can watch the madness from the comfort of your couch.  Hit the jump for my review of director Nima Nourizadeh’s Project X on Blu-ray.

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.

Yes, found footage really is all the rage. The found footage party comedy Project X only opened last weekend, but Warner Bros. is already putting a sequel in the works. The film debuted to a respectable $21 million, and now THR reports that WB has set Michael Bacall to begin work on a treatment for a follow-up. The scribe co-wrote Project X with Matt Drake and is also responsible for co-writing Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, 21 Jump Street, and the Tropic Thunder spinoff movie featuring Tom Cruise’s Les Grossman character.

Bacall’s treatment isn’t guaranteed to carry over to the script stage, but if Warner Bros. and producer Todd Phillips like what they see, you can expect a Project Y sometime in the future. The sequalization of a successful found footage movie isn’t anything new, as the genre’s low budgets make for big profits (we’re probably in for yearly Paranormal Activity films). It’s unknown if the Project X follow-up will feature the same actors, director or plot from the first film, but I assume we’ll know more once Bacall hands in his treatment. If you missed it, be sure to check out Steve’s interview with Bacall where he talked about Project X, 21 Jump Street and more.

We all knew The Lorax was going to be number one, and a big number one at that.  But most box office watchers were expecting the animated film to land somewhere between $49 and $59 million on its first weekend – making it easily the biggest debut of 2012.  Instead, the adaptation of Dr. Seuss’ classic has earned an estimated $70.7 million from 3,927 locations.  Not only is that the third-highest March debut ever, it also stands as the biggest animated feature debut since Toy Story 3.  In other words, this is huge.

He is the Lorax! He speaks for the trees… and for dozens of other corporate sponsors if the marketing for the new animated feature is to be believed.  All of that advertising helped the adaptation of Dr. Seuss’ classic The Lorax achieve the highest single-day debut of 2012 with an estimated $17.4 million from 3,729 locations.  That puts the family film on track for a weekend in the $60 million range.  Not only would that be significantly higher than initial tracking indicated, it would also help The Lorax beat the $56.4 million that Despicable Me, the first animated feature from Illumination Entertainment, earned for its own debut in July of 2010. Predictably, The Lorax sucked up most of the available resources at Friday’s box office, though there was enough green left over for Project X to claim a solid launch.  The R-rated Warner Brothers’ comedy earned an estimated $8.2 million on Friday, including $1.15 million from midnight screenings, and is projected to come close to $20 million through Sunday. We’ll have full details and analysis tomorrow.

With producer Todd Phillips and director Nima Nourizadeh‘s R-rated teen comedy Project X opening today, last weekend I got to talk with the filmmakers and cast about making the film.  Starring Thomas Mann, Miles Teller, Oliver Cooper, Jonathan Daniel Brown, Kirby Bliss Blanton, Dax Flame, Nichole O’Connor and Alexis Knapp, Project X is about a group of outsiders that decide to throw a party where things get absolutely out of control.  Trust me, there is no way you see this movie and leave the theater disappointed.   For more on the film, here’s a ton of images and four clips.

During my interview with Phillips and Nourizadeh we talked about whether or not they had to cut out anything to get an R rating, the soundtrack and how they picked the music, the editing (including how they used extras to shoot some of the movie), and a lot more.  Hit the jump to watch.

Imagine the ultimate high school senior year house party from the male perspective and push it over the edge. That’s a rough description of the absurdity and chaos that breaks out in the latest handheld camera film called Project X. Following three seniors trying to throw a party that will get them noticed once and for all, they end up losing control and everything turns into absolute chaos as it expands. However, that’s after they have a whole hell of a lot of fun getting there. Unfortunately, like waking up with a hangover, the ending of this film almost ruins what happened before. Almost. Hit the jump for my full review.

Over the past two decades, Michael Bacall has acted in a number of projects that we all grew up with like Free Willy, Doogie Howser, M.D., The Wonder Years, Punky Brewster, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and so many more.  While he continues to act, he’s slowly gaining a reputation as something else: a very talented screenwriter.   As some of you might know, he co-wrote Edgar Wright‘s Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and more recently he co-wrote Project X and 21 Jump Street.   Trust me, after you see both of these upcoming films, you’re going to want Bacall writing more comedies as they’re both extremely funny and well worth your time.

At the recent Los Angeles press day for Project X, I landed an exclusive interview with Bacall.   We talked about how he got involved in screenwriting, his first screenplay Manic, the great experience of working on Scott Pilgrim and the two different endings, how much of Project X was scripted versus improvised, how Todd Phillips always wants to push the envelope, and 21 Jump Street.  In addition, we also talked about his future projects like the Les Grossman movie.  Hit the jump to watch.

With producer Todd Phillips and director Nima Nourizadeh‘s R-rated teen comedy Project X opening tomorrow, last weekend I got to talk with the filmmakers and cast about making the film.  Starring Thomas Mann, Miles Teller, Oliver Cooper, Jonathan Daniel Brown, Kirby Bliss Blanton, Dax Flame, Nichole O’Connor and Alexis Knapp, Project X is about a group of outsiders that decide to throw a party where things get absolutely out of control.  Trust me, there is no way you see this movie and leave the theater disappointed.   For more on the film, here’s a ton of images and four clips.

During my interview with Thomas Mann, Oliver Cooper, and Jonathan Daniel Brown we talked about what it was like to be on set, whether or not there were any pranks, deleted scenes, their favorite movie, actor and director, and more.  Hit the jump to watch.

With producer Todd Phillips and director Nima Nourizadeh‘s R-rated teen comedy Project X opening in a few days, last weekend I got to talk with the filmmakers and cast about making the film.  Starring Thomas Mann, Miles Teller, Oliver Cooper, Jonathan Daniel Brown, Kirby Bliss Blanton, Dax Flame, Nichole O’Connor and Alexis Knapp, Project X is about a group of outsiders that decide to throw a party where things get absolutely out of control.  Trust me, there is no way you see this movie and leave the theater disappointed.   For more on the film, here’s a ton of images and four clips.

During my interview with Kirby Bliss Blanton and Alexis Knapp we talked about how they filmed a lot of the movie in chronological order, what it was like to work with Todd Phillips, karaoke, how much fun they had shooting the movie, and their favorite movie, actor and director.  Hit the jump to watch.

A new red band spot for the Todd Phillips-produced party comedy Project X has gone online. The previous trailers have been entertaining enough, but this red band spot really brings out the “Rated R” aspect of the film. The movie looks to be sufficiently filthy, and this trailer highlights the first jokes from the film that I’ve found more than marginally funny. If the rest of the movie is like this trailer (which I assume it is), then I can definitely understand how most of the films jokes aren’t exactly age-appropriate. I’m still not on board with the whole “dwarf punching people in the balls” bit, but I think Project X takes an interesting approach to the comedy genre and Steve said he laughed his ass off, so I’m looking forward to checking it out.

Hit the jump to watch the red band spot. If you haven’t already, enter our contest to win some movie-related swag. The film stars Thomas Mann, Miles Teller, Oliver Cooper, Jonathan Daniel Brown, Kirby Bliss Blanton, Dax Flame, Nichole O’Connor and Alexis Knapp. Project X opens on March 2nd.

With producer Todd Phillips and director Nima Nourizadeh‘s Project X opening next weekend, we’ve been provided with some movie related swag to giveaway to a number of our readers.  The film stars  Thomas Mann, Miles Teller, Oliver Cooper, Jonathan Daniel Brown, Kirby Bliss Blanton, Dax Flame, Nichole O’Connor and Alexis Knapp.

As you’ve seen in the trailers, images and clips, Project X is an R-rated feature that follows a group of high school seniors who throw a party that gets way, way out of hand.   I caught an early screening and am happy to report Project X is hysterically funny and absolutely worth checking out next weekend.  There is no way you leave the theater disappointed.  Hit the jump to see what you can win.

It’s been compared to Superbad and is touted as being produced by Todd Phillips, the director of The Hangover, but the time has come for Project X to grow up and stand on its own. We’ve seen a pretty encouraging trailer and now we have 4 clips from the R-rated teen comedy to let you decide amongst yourselves whether it’s the biggest party movie ever created.  I spoke to Steve after he caught an early screening and he said it’s extremely funny and absolutely rated R.  He also said it’s going to be a big hit for Warner Bros.

Directed by Nima Nourizadeh, the film stars Thomas Mann, Miles Teller, Oliver Cooper, Jonathan Daniel Brown, Kirby Bliss Blanton, Dax Flame, Nichole O’Connor and Alexis Knapp. Project X opens March 2th, 2012. Hit the jump to check out the clips.