Dear John, You’ve Just Knocked “Avatar” Out of the Top Position

Commanded U.S. box office chart for the consecutive seven weeks, “Avatar” now has knocked out of the top position by the new release romantic drama “Dear John”, which ironically was a poorly reviewed one that actually has no reason being the historic finisher of James Cameron's reign. The chick flick based on a Nicholas Sparks novel (The Notebook, A Walk to Remember) managed to scored a much stronger than expected $30.4 million weekend opening in North America, outdoing the eighth weekend of "Avatar" which came in second with $22.8 million. The two films however livening up typically slow times at theaters over Super Bowl weekend. "It is very cool to know that it was our movie that audiences just totally embraced and made No. 1 for the weekend," said Rory Bruer, head of distribution at Sony. As for runaway blockbuster "Avatar," he quipped, "I think they're going to be fine in the long run."

Meanwhile, the total $629,3 million made by "Avatar" as of this weekend, had noticeably surpassed Cameron’s own "Titanic," which had held the domestic revenue record at $600.8 million. And with a record $2.2 billion worldwide, "Avatar" also has soared past the $1.8 billion "Titanic" took in globally. Despite bumped down by “Dear John”, it had been No. 1 domestically longer than any movie since 1997's "Titanic," which held on at first place for 15 weekends. The studio was unconcerned that "Avatar" finally fell out of the top spot. "Avatar" still is going strong after eight weeks, with the added luster of a monthlong buildup to the Academy Awards on March 7. Following the example of Oscar champ "Titanic," "Avatar" tied for the lead at the Academy Awards with nine nominations and is a front-runner to win best picture.

The weekend's other wide opener was John Travolta's "From Paris with Love," which had a disappointing launch in no. 3 with $8.1 million, falling short of modest industry expectations. It was the John Travolta's worst start in almost a decade, his previous worst opening was the $4.5 million start for "Lucky Numbers" in October 2000. Travolta was in theaters last November with "Old Dogs," which opened at ticket sales of $17 million. The action thriller from “Taken” director Pierre Morel even had a disappointing debut that just didn’t match the last year’s Liam Neeson starrer.

Below is the full list of the top ten Weekend Box Office for 2/5/10-2/7/10:

Rank – Film Title – Weekend Gross – Running Total
1 – Dear John – $30,468,614 – $30,468,614
2 – Avatar – $22,850,881 – $629,344,204
3 – From Paris With Love – $8,158,860 – $8,158,860
4 – Edge of Darkness – $6,855,371 – $28,947,851
5 – The Tooth Fairy – $6,629,595 – $34,462,568
6 – When in Rome – $5,549,129 – $20,944,734
7 – The Book of Eli – $4,717,335 – $82,045,140
8 – Crazy Heart – $3,567,671 – $11,105,401
9 – Legion – $3,453,651 – $34,731,934
10 – Sherlock Holmes – $2,535,174 – $201,484,470

Biel is Kind of the Chief Nemesis in "The A-Team"

Director Joe Carnahan recently sat down with MTV to talk about Jessica Biel's character in his upcoming "The A-Team" film. Playing Lt. Sosa, Biel is the only woman cast among the lead actors in action film. While she has only small portion in the first trailer for the film, her character indeed will bring a threat to the four United States soldiers.

"Jessie, she's a captain with DCIS, which is the Defense Criminal Investigative Service," Carnahan began to explain about Biel's character, who has an uncomfortable dating history with Bradley Cooper's Faceman. "They're basically the department of the defense, and she supersedes [military officials] - if she goes on a base, it doesn't matter if you're a general, she can supplant you."

As for whether Biel is on The A-Team's side or not, the filmmaker said, "She's not really [on their side]; she's kind of their chief pursuer." He then went on adding, "And some things happen, and then some plot twists and character revelations, and things go a different way. But, she is their nemesis."

Carnahan also related Biel's character to Cooper's, stating "She's kind of the chief nemesis, because of her relationship with Bradley's character. [The A-Team] are invariably always up to no good; they're renegades, and she believes people like this need to be policed and shut down."

Finally, Carnahan affirmed that Biel's job in the film is not only to show up and look hot, saying "She's not wallpaper. In the same way as Bradley, Jessie got really good with the weapon training. She and I had conversation after conversation: 'You can't just be this female testosterone component.' "

"The A-Team" follows a group of Iraq veterans who is sentenced to prison for a crime they did not commit. Managing to escape from a maximum security facility, they are still wanted by the U.S. military after a year passed. The film will feature their adventures which combine helping the innocent while running from the law. The action adventure based on the popular TV series also starred by Liam Neeson as Col. John 'Hannibal' Smith, Sharlto Copley as Capt. 'Howling Mad' Murdock and Quinton Jackson as Sgt. Bosco 'B.A.' Baracus. It will be released in the U.S. on June 11.

The Nemesis for "Captain America" is Red Skull

During the junket for his upcoming horror remake "The Wolfman", director Joe Johnston has been out talking to press about his next anticipated project "The First Avenger: Captain America". Johnston spoke with Collider and gave them a lot of details about the direction he and team are heading with the Marvel Comics adaptation film. Additionally, ComingSoon also confirmed (as did AICN) that the main villain in "Captain America" will be Cap's arch-nemesis Red Skull, the Nazi badass whose head is just a red (flaming) skull. The Red Skull, Johann Schmidt (sometimes spelled Shmidt), was a former Nazi general officer and confidant of Adolf Hitler. He has been closely affiliated with HYDRA and is an enemy of S.H.I.E.L.D., The Avengers, and the interests of the United States and the free world in general. He was physically augmented by having his mind placed into the body of a clone of Captain America, the pinnacle of human perfection. The villain character was ranked number 21 on Wizard Magazine's Top 100 Greatest Villains Ever list and was also ranked as IGN's 14th Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time.

Ryan Rotten of ComingSoon talked with him bit about why they're setting it in WWII and going for the origin story on the film.
"Virtually the entire story except the bookends are in World War II because we all recognize we have one chance to tell the origin story of how he became Captain America, you can't tell a modern story and then go back and tell the origin story. If you're going to do it, let's do it. Let's do it first. Everyone wanted to tell an origin story. There was a version where it was a modern story and it didn't work."

Johnston tells Hero Complex about the kind of actors they're looking at. "Well, we're testing five or six guys," Johnston said. "The youngest is 23 the oldest is 32. Most of the guys in the war [are] just kids, 18 or 19, but we want to go a little bit older. We have to have somebody locked in before I leave March 1 for London." So he's got to have locked in soon. Johnston also tells Collider that he's definitely casting an American in the role as well. "I don’t think we could make without an American playing the part." So it sounds like this won't be Sam Worthington playing Cap at least. But who will it be? We've got a month to go and we'll know then?

Johnston also goes on to talk about how they're shooting this and a little bit about the style in the film.
"We're definitely going to shoot it in a different way than any of the other Marvel pictures have been shot. What I'm trying to do is look at the comics - most of the new ones like the Brubaker series - and to interpret that sort of visual style into a film in a way that I think has been tried before… It always looks a little too on the nose it looks like oh they're shooting a comic book movie. I want to try something a little bit different."

Great Five New Banners for “Clash of the Titans”

Five latest great, badass banners have appeared for the 3-D upgrade “Clash of the Titans”. Debuted by UGO, these looks just plain amazing and I just can’t wait to have them all on my walls. They’re also featuring lot of good selling material in the film such as Worthington’s Perseus, Arterton’s Io, Wood- Faced Sheik Suleiman, Bronzed Pegasus, the three slobbering Stygian Witches, Fiennes’ Hades, Neezon’s Zeus, The Scorpioch and of course the furious little Kraken. I just can’t ask for more but, are they forgotten to include Medusa or the character is just not that important as she’s in “Percy Jackson” film. Anyway, check and enjoy the whole set of banner right after you click read more button below.

Directed by French filmmaker Louis Leterrier, of “Unleashed”, “Transporter 2”, and “The Incredible Hulk” previously, the ultimate struggle for power pits men against kings and kings against gods begin. But the war between the gods themselves could destroy the world. Born of a god but raised as a man, Perseus (Sam Worthington) is helpless to save his family from Hades (Ralph Fiennes), vengeful god of the underworld. With nothing left to lose, Perseus volunteers to lead a dangerous mission to defeat Hades before he can seize power from Zeus (Liam Neeson) and unleash hell on earth. Check the epic fantasy film that hitting theaters (in 3D) in a little less than two months.

Underwood Crossing Over For "Soul Surfer"

The winner of the fourth season and also the highest-selling American Idol artist in the United States, Carrie Underwood, is now crossing over for her big screen debut. She's signing up for "Soul Surfer", the biopic of 19-year-old surfer Bethany Hamilton, who lost her arm in a shark attack but persevered to resume hanging 10 less than a month later. Since the attack, Hamilton has appeared on 20/20, Good Morning America, Inside Edition, The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and The Tonight Show, as well as in magazines People and Time. Hamilton also won $25,000 on the August 7, 2009 edition of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?. She was stumped on a Grade 3 grammar question involving articles.

Words in Hollywood said Underwood will play the church youth leader in the movie, joining AnnaSophia Robb who will portray Hamilton, Helen Hunt, Dennis Quaid and, in a nice convergence of nepotism, Lorraine Nicholson and Sean Brosnan, the daughter and son of Jack and Pierce, respectively. The film is scheduled begin filming in Hawaii the week of February 7.