Universal Pictures had a pretty impressive 2012 despite the high-profile bomb Battleship.  The R-rated comedy Ted has now raked in over $500 million worldwide, and with a sequel already in development, Universal is looking to tee up a couple of other franchises in the near future.  Universal Pictures chairman Adam Fogelson recently sat down for an interview in which he revealed that the studio is actively developing a sequel to this year’s comedy hit Identity Thief, they’re working on a Snow White and the Huntsman sequel without director Rupert Sanders, they hope to make more Bourne movies, and they’re looking to get the anticipated Fifty Shades of Grey adaptation in theaters by Summer 2014.  He also talked a bit about their approach to the Van Helsing reboot.

Moreover, a separate report has surfaced claiming that Universal is also eyeing a potential franchise for last month’s horror film Mama, though the pic’s director isn’t exactly keen on expanding the premise into a sequel.  Hit the jump to read on.

How do you make a Jason Bourne film without Matt Damon? There are a couple of options: you can remake the first film, or you can spin-off in a new direction.  What’s most frustrating about The Bourne Legacy is that it takes a third option, which is to pretend that Damon is actually a character in this world, but he’s just not on screen.  Perhaps Universal was stuck between a rock and a hard place. They couldn’t kill Damon off-camera, and they probably hope he’ll come back for more, so instead they brought in Jeremy Renner for a story that runs in parallel to the end of The Bourne Ultimatum, but doesn’t do anything to move the franchise forward.  It is also pretty bad. Our review of the Blu-ray of The Bourne Legacy follows after the jump.

This week on Blu-ray Bourne comes home, a Judd Apatow-produced 90s favorite gets an update, and Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane’s big-screen debut hits home video.  Briefly:

• The Bourne Legacy (Two-Disc Combo Pack: Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy + UltraViolet) – $19.99 (43% off)
• Dick Tracy (Blu-ray + Digital Copy) – $18.99 (28% off)
• Following (Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] – $20.99 (47% off)
• Futurama: Volume 7 [Blu-ray]- $19.99 (50% off)
• Girls: The Complete First Season (Blu-ray/DVD Combo + Digital Copy) – $22.99 (54% off)
• Heavyweights [Blu-ray] – $17.28 (14% off)
• Ice Age: Continental Drift (3D Combo Pack) [Blu-ray] – $24.99 (50% off)
• Ice Age: Continental Drift [Blu-ray] – $21.99 (45% off)
• Les Miserables [Blu-ray] – $14.99 (25% off)
• Ted (Two-Disc Combo Pack: Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy + UltraViolet) – $19.99 (43% off)

Hit the jump for all the details.

When it was first announced that the Bourne franchise would be undergoing a reboot without Matt Damon or the Jason Bourne character, fans wondered whether this meant the end of Damon’s Bourne films.  The actor remained optimistic that he could eventually return to the series one day with director Paul Greengrass, who helmed The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum, so everyone remained optimistic that we’d see a proper sequel to Ultimatum someday.  Screenwriter Tony Gilroy took over directing duties for the spin-off of sorts, The Bourne Legacy, setting up a story that overlapped with the events of Ultimatum but focused on a new character played by Jeremy Renner who had an obsessive fixation on chems.

Throughout the development of Legacy, Damon still maintained that he might return to the franchise at some point, and Gilroy made it clear that he hoped to team Damon and Renner up in a future installment.  Well now all of that seems unlikely, as Damon recently revealed that he probably won’t be reprising the Jason Bourne character again.  Hit the jump for more.

It looks like Universal Pictures is planning to firm up its film slate by focusing on franchises and animation over the next few years.  One of the most successful franchises to date started with The Fast and the Furious, which continues to hold strong (Fast Six is due May 24th, 2013).  Universal also plans on going ahead with sequels to this summer’s The Bourne Legacy, which starred Jeremy Renner and Rachel Weisz, as well as a follow-up to Seth MacFarlane’s Ted, with Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis. They’re also getting ambitious on the animated front by expecting to crank out two films a year, versus their current rate of two every three years.  Hit the jump for more.

We told you yesterday that this weekend was on track to become the lowest-grossing frame of the year and the lowest-grossing frame since September 2008. Unfortunately, nothing came along to change that gloomy portrait after Sunday’s estimates were released. No film, including first-place holdover The Possession, managed to break ten million and only one new film reached half that amount.

In a very crowded field of late-summer contenders, one film stood alone on Friday. The Expendables 2, sequel to 2010’s paean to 1980s action, took in $10.5 million on Friday – twice as much as The Bourne Legacy in second place. Playing in 3,316 locations, the sequel is expected to earn about $30 million by Sunday: a bit less than The Expendables saw on this same weekend two years ago. Two other new releases did well enough to make it into Friday’s top five: ParaNorman, the stop-motion animated feature from the creators of Coraline, earned an estimated $4.5 million from 3,429 runs while Sparkle, the musical drama co-starring the late Whitney Houston, realized $4.6 million from a more-modest 2,244 locations. Both films are expected to fall in the $13 million range after their first three days. Outside of the top five, The Odd Life of Timothy Green earned an estimated $3.4 million while The Dark Knight Rises crossed the $400 million mark in domestic ticket sales. We’ll have complete details tomorrow.

This week on The Collision, we’ll be talking about franchise legacies: which directors have left their stamp on a franchise, what happens when a new director takes over, if a franchise’s success is linked with the director, and more.  This discussion ties in with our review of The Bourne Legacy, which handed off the director reigns from Paul Greengrass to Tony Gilroy.  As always, we’ll finish up the show with our recommendations.

Click here to listen to the new episode of The Collision, click here for the previous episode, click here to add the podcast to your RSS, and click here to find us on iTunes. Be sure to follow The Collision on Twitter for updates, and you can follow us on Twitter at @MattGoldberg, @AdamChitwood, and @DrClawMD (Dave Trumbore). Hit the jump to check out the trailers for this week’s recommendations.

Now playing is writer/director Tony Gilroy’s The Bourne Legacy.  For those unfamiliar with the franchise reboot, this time around, a government task force led by Edward Norton‘s character is assassinating all their genetically-modified assets to prevent another Bourne situation.  However, one member of the program, Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner), manages to escape with a scientist (Rachel Weisz), and the two go on the run for their lives.  The film also stars Oscar Isaac, Joan Allen, David Strathairn, Albert Finney, Stacy Keach, Scott Glenn, Corey Stoll, and Donna Murphy.  For more on the film, here are five clips and all our previous coverage.

During the recent Los Angeles press day, I did an exclusive interview with Tony Gilroy.  During our extended conversation we talked about the making of Bourne Legacy, sequels, his writing process, creating new and exciting action scenes, IMAX, 3D, deleted scenes, what will be on the Blu-ray, whether the next sequel would still have “Bourne” in the title, if he has scripts ready to shoot, and a lot more.  Hit the jump for what he had to say.

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.

Considering the 2012 election cycle is currently in full swing, I feel compelled to lend my endorsement to a truly worthy candidate: The Campaign. As someone who unashamedly enjoys a majority of Will Ferrell‘s manchild cinematic escapades, I expected to like the pic. That said, I’m now putting The Campaign just behind Anchorman, Step Brothers, and Elf in my personal “Ferrell Top 4″: something I didn’t expect to be writing the day after seeing it. Sure, the film borrows a ton from Talladega Nights and Ferrell’s take on President Bush. It also manages to combine relevance, irreverence, and humor in a way many mainstream comedies can only promise and ultimately fail to deliver on.

Political endorsements aside, this week’s Top 5 contains a considerable share of The Bourne Legacy coverage, Joss Whedon returning to write/direct The Avengers 2, The Campaign interviews with Will Ferrell, Zach Galifianakis, and more, the first trailer and new poster for the Red Dawn remake, and the news that some of Bane’s backstory was left on The Dark Knight Rises‘ cutting room floor. A brief recap and link to each awaits after the jump.

The Bourne franchise is at a crossroads. Does the success of each movie depend on Matt Damon, or can Universal turn Bourne into Bond, an evergreen series that rotates in fresh blood every few movies? To explore that question, I tried to capture how the series has evolved over the last decade with Bourne by the Numbers. The feature provides a numbers-based snapshot of each movie and its place in the filmography by looking at the box office, critical reception, and miscellaneous facts.

Hit the jump for a comprehensive review of the Bourne movies, featuring The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum, and The Bourne Legacy.

After three weeks on top, The Dark Knight Rises fell to third place on Friday behind a pair of new releases. First up was The Bourne Legacy, the fourth entry in the successful Universal franchise previously associated with Matt Damon. Now with Jeremy Renner in the lead, The Bourne Legacy earned an estimated $14 million from 3,745 locations on Friday. Weekend projections for the revamped Bourne are close to $45 million: well above initial expectations. Friday’s runner-up was The Campaign, the R-rated comedy starring Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis. It hasn’t been the best year for star-studded comedies (see The Watch) so expectations were scaled back to a modest $23 million opening. After earning an estimated $10.3 million on Friday, however, it looks like The Campaign will come closer to $28 million by Sunday. Finally, Hope Springs took a cue from last summer’s surprise hit The Help by opening on Wednesday. With a Friday estimate of $4.7 million from 2,361 locations, the Meryl Streep dramedy is on track for a five-day cume of $20 million.   We’ll have full details tomorrow.

Opening tomorrow is writer/director Tony Gilroy’s The Bourne Legacy.  For those unfamiliar with the franchise reboot, this time around, a government task force led by Edward Norton‘s character is assassinating all their genetically-modified assets to prevent another Bourne situation.  However, one member of the program, Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner), manages to escape with a scientist (Rachel Weisz), and the two go on the run for their lives.  The film also stars Oscar Isaac, Joan Allen, David Strathairn, Albert Finney, Stacy Keach, Scott Glenn, Corey Stoll, and Donna Murphy.  For more on the film, here are five clips.

During the recent Los Angeles press day, I did an exclusive interview with producer Patrick Crowley.  If you’re a fan of the Bourne films and want to hear some great behind the scenes stories about all four movies, you’re in the right place.  During our extended conversation we talked about the making of Bourne Legacy, did they ever consider 3D, Easter Eggs, test screenings, will future Bourne movies have Bourne in the title, coming up with new and exciting action scenes, deleted scenes, reshoots,  and so much more.  Hit the jump for what he had to say.

Director Paul Greengrass created what it meant to be a “Bourne” movie with The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum.  If the James Bond movies are girls, gadgets, cars, and supervillains, then Bourne was going to be about intense action scenes, desperate chases, paranoia, and political commentary.  Sadly, Greengrass did not return to the Bourne franchise, and co-writer and director Tony Gilroy has set the series back with the flabby and forgettable The Bourne Legacy.  Gilroy attempts to write his own set of rules by playing against a traditional three-act structure, which is fine in theory, but in practice it creates a film that’s constantly losing momentum, and never sure where to focus its energy.  The movie’s saving grace is Jeremy Renner, who gets to be in the mold of Jason Bourne but find new strengths and weaknesses that set him apart from the eponymous spy.  Sadly, the rest of The Bourne Legacy never follows Renner’s lead to find a fresh direction while still retaining what worked about the past two movies.