Going “Up” With Pixar’s Box Office Balloons

This weekend, family movie once again rules the box office. Disney/Pixar's "Up," a 3D animated tale of a grouchy widower and a young boy who fly away in a house lifted by balloons earned $68.2 million of tickets on its opening weekend, scored the third biggest opening for Pixar after "The Incredibles" and "Finding Nemo", which brought in $70.5 million and $70.3 million respectively in 2004 and 2003. Meanwhile, box office pundits had expected "Up," which became the first animated feature to open the Cannes Film Festival this month and was highly praised by critics, to open in the $50 to $60 million range, but it manage to opened higher than last year's “WALL-E” ($63.1 million opening), and “Cars” ($60.1 million opening). The animation film also maintaining a perfect box-office track record for Pixar Animation, whose 10 films all have been commercial and critical hits. It was 98% fresh at RottenTomatoes, with only three negative reviews out of a possible 144. Pixar has again set the bar on film quality for the rest of the year. "Up" drew both family crowds and adults without children, and the film's 3-D release accounted for 51 percent of the total gross, according to Disney.

"Up" pushed "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian" into second place with $25.5 million. The "Museum" sequel raised its 10-day total to $105.3 million.

The weekend's other new wide release, Universal Pictures' horror tale "Drag Me to Hell," opened in the third spot with $16.6 million. It somewhat a relatively modest return for director Sam Raimi, whose three "Spider-Man" movies had blockbuster opening weekends. The big difference with this film compared to its other horror compatriots was those wonderful reviews – 94% fresh at RottenTomatoes – so why couldn't it convert those fantastic notices into a bigger box office weekend? Though, the movie should benefit in coming weeks from its positive reviews.
The fourth film in “Terminator” franchise, “Terminator Salvation,” has now officially become the disaster at domestic summer box office. This week, it got dropped badly into the fourth spot and only earned $16.1 million that was off 62%, which will pretty much end the story, as this one now looks to finish with as low as $125 million against its $ 200 million budget. Meanwhile, Paramount Pictures' "Star Trek" steered a strong course, coming in at No. 5 with $12.8 million and passing the computer-animated "Monsters vs. Aliens" as the year's top-grossing movie so far. Its domestic total now is $209.5 million, becoming the first 2009 release to cross the $200 million mark. Like “Salvation,” “Angels & Demons” is another modest summer hits, this week it earned a slim $11.2 million, and drops a better – but still not great – 48%. It looks like the prequel film will finish similar to “Terminator Salvation,” but it will at least do better overseas. It has already earned over $160 million from foreign box office, and has a running domestic total of $104.8 million.
Below are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday (5/29/09-5/31/09) at U.S. and Canadian theaters.

Rank – Film Title – Estimated Gross – Running Total
1 – Up – $68,200,000 – $68,200,000
2 – Battle of the Smithsonian – $25,500,000 – $105,296,400
3 – Drag Me to Hell – $16,628,040 – $16,628,040
4 – Terminator Salvation – $16,140,000 – $90,657,000
5 – Star Trek – $12,800,000 – $209,500,000
6 – Angels & Demons – $11,200,000 – $104,760,000
7 – Dance Flick – $4,900,000 – $19,241,000
8 – Wolverine – $3,900,000 – $170,870,335
9 – Ghosts of Girlfriends Past – $1,905,000 – $50,015,000
10 – Obsessed – $665,000 – $67,508,000

(Sources: Yahoo Movie News, Box Office Prophets)

LaBeouf and Fox in New Clip of "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen"

During the MTV Movie Awards recently, a new clip from Michael Bay's sequel "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" also has been premiered. The clip features a scene where Sam Witwicky (Shia Lebeouf) and Mikaela (Megan Fox) hide out from the evil Decepticons. With a group of Decepticons searching on their whereabouts, terrified Sam and Mikaela take a hide in a building in the dessert. As the baddies continue their search, a mechanical bug goes through a hole in their shelter. Spotting the bug, Sam quickly captures and disables it. But, soon after, Starscream destroys the roof of their building, forcing the two to run for their life.. Just check out the clip after the break below.

In the highly-anticipated “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," which will opens in Theaters everywhere and IMAX since June 24th 2009, the battle for Earth has ended but the battle for the universe has just begun. After returning to Cybertron, Starscream assumes command of the Decepticons, and has decided to return to Earth with force. The Autobots believing that peace was possible finds out that Megatron's dead body has been stolen from the US Military by Skorpinox and revives him using his own spark. Now Megatron is back seeking revenge and with Starscream and more Decepticon reinforcements on the way, the Autobots with reinforcements of their own, may have more to deal with then meets the eye.

The writers claim that Starscream in this sequel, while remaining his usual treacherous self, has his own agenda: "His motivations are more for the species. He's definitely at odds with what Prime and Megatron have been doing. He thinks that they've both been consumed with greed, for their own selfish reasons, but as he finds out, his plans start to fall through as he's kind of becoming overwhelmed with the same greed that they had."

For Fans: "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" First Trailer

For fans everywhere, here's the first trailer for "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" which made its debut on MySpace currently. This really needs no introduction for the "Twilight" fans out there, the trailer involves a lot of Edward (Robert Pattinson) and Bella (Kristen Stewart) but you finally get to see Jacob (Taylor Lautner) as a werewolf at the end though it in a somewhat a rather unimpressive looking CGI, especially when you compare it to the "Underworld" werewolf. Hopefully there will be a new, longer trailer before "New Moon" hits theaters on November 20th. Also starring in the Christ Weitz-directed film are Ashley Greene, Peter Facinelli, Dakota Fanning, Elizabeth Reaser, Kellan Lutz, Nikki Reed, Jackson Rathbone, Edi Gathegi, Rachelle Lafevre, Billy Burke, Charlie Bewley, Jamie Campbell Bower, Daniel Cudmore, Cameron Bright, Noot Seer and Michael Sheen.

Meanwhile, the first film "Twilight" recently also delivered a huge sucker punch at the MTV Movie Awards, picking up five honours including the Best Film prize in Los Angeles. The vampire love story's stars Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart picked up prizes for Breakthrough Performance (Male) and Best Female Performance respectively, and they shared the night's Best Kiss honour at the ceremony on Sunday.
Pattinson even shared the Best Fight award with another Twilight co-star, Cam Gigandet.

Follow-up to Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight." 'New Moon' follows Bella who recovers from the vampire attack that almost claimed her life. She looks to celebrate her birthday with Edward and his family. However, a minor accident during the festivities results in Bella’s blood being shed, a sight that proves too intense for the Cullens, who decide to leave the town of Forks, Washington for Bella and Edward’s sake. Initially heartbroken, Bella finds a form of comfort in reckless living, as well as an even-closer friendship with Jacob Black. Danger in different forms awaits.