"Paranormal Activity 4" Clip Maybe Borrows a Bit From "The Ring"?

Remember in 2002's The Ring, how, in the week in between watching the freaky videotape and being killed by a little ghost girl who climbs through their TV screen, that one of the things that happened to the victims was that all of their pictures turned out creepy, like their faces had been (and most likely were) squashed by someone using Photoshop?

This new clip from Paranormal Activity 4 seems to borrow a page from that, although I hope that's not a big thing in the new film, since that's obviously been done before.  But it does look like we're seeing a bit more of little Hunter, who went missing at the end of Paranormal Activity 2:

Babysitting that kid must be no fun at all.  Paranormal Activity 4 opens in theaters this October.

Weekend Box Office: August 17-19

Courtesy of Box Office Mojo:

1.  The Expendables 2 - $28.7 million

2.  The Bourne Legacy - $17 million

3.  ParaNorman - $14 million

4.  The Campaign - $13.3 million

5.  Sparkle - $12 million

6.  The Dark Knight Rises - $11.1 million

7.  The Odd Life of Timothy Green - $10.9 million

8.  Hope Springs - $9.1 million

9.  Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days - $3.8 million

10.  Total Recall - $3.5 million

I'll refrain from an Ah-nuld style "I'm back!" here, since, although The Expendables 2 opened in first place with an estimated $28.7 million, that a not-so-good 21% drop from the $34.8 million the first film opened with in 2010.  There are a few factors figuring into this lower-than-expected opening:  a movie theater chain was hit by a couple of bomb scares this weekend, and while those turned out be false alarms, it was not encouraging news for audiences who are reportedly still leery about returning to the multiplex after the tragedy in Aurora. 

Or it could just be that they weren't as interested in seeing another Expendables movie, with is the most likely culprit here.  Time will tell if we'll get to see an Expendables 3.

The Bourne Legacy has finally caught up to the opening weekend of the last Bourne film, with its $17 million weekend bringing its domestic total up to $69 million, a 55% drop from last weekend. 

The animated ParaNorman opened with an ok $14 million, as the creepy kid's film likely scared off the youngest audience - when I saw Brave earlier this summer, the ParaNorman trailer seemed to terrify half of the little ones in the theater. 

Another release, a remake of Sparkle, starring American Idol's Jordin Sparks, and of course, the late Whitney Houston didn't bring too many fans, earning just $12 million.

The biggest disappointment of the weekend was The Odd Life of Timothy Green, which has only earned $15.1 million since opening last Wednesday.

Finally, the milestone of the weekend goes to The Dark Knight Rises, which passed the $400 million mark domestically this weekend, pushing it past The Hunger Games to become the second-highest grossing film of the year.  Worldwide, the movie has earned $897 million.

Next weekend sees Joseph Gordon-Levitt as an embattled bike messenger in Premium Rush, as well as the road-trip comedy Hit & Run, and one of those dumped-at-the-end of the summer horror films, The Apparition.

New "Paranormal Activity 4" Clip

The marketing machine for the next Paranormal Activity movie is in full gear, and their official Facebook page has just dropped one of their usual WTF clips from the upcoming fourth film.  Titled "It Has Begun", the clip is a quick one, but from what we can see, it appears little Hunter has clearly been up to no good since leaving town with his possessed Aunt Katie at the end of Parnormal Activity 2:

As folks who remember the trailer for Paranormal Activity 3 all too well, there's no telling if anything we're seeing here will actually show up in the final film.  Regardless, it's looking good so far.

Paranormal Activity 4 opens in theaters in October.

"Raiders" in IMAX? Yes, Please!

Well, doesn't that liven up the IMAX offerings for September?  The New York Times is reporting that Raiders of the Lost Ark, will be receiving a one-week release at IMAX theaters nationwide, starting on September 7. 

This special IMAX release of 1981's original (and arguably the best) Indiana Jones adventure is, of course, to promote Indiana Jones: The Complete Aventures, the blu-ray box set of all four Indy moves that arrives in stores on September 18.  Honestly, Raiders is still such a great movie that it hardly needs an excuse to come back to theaters any time it wants to.  And that truck chase scene in IMAX?  That's gonna be great.

Fans worried about any changes being made to the original film can rest easy.  Raiders director Steven Spielberg, who oversaw the IMAX conversion along with sound designer Ben Burtt, promises that no 'Greedo-shoots-first'-type changes have been made to the original film, although certain sound effects have been fine tuned so things like that giant boulder nearly rolling over Indy will sound much more awesome with surround sound.  That I can deal with.

Now, there are no plans to bring any of the other Indiana Jones movies to the IMAX, which is fine, especially with a fancy new blu-ray set just around the corner.  But with E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial prepping for its own blu-ray release in October, wouldn't it be great to get an IMAX version of that too?  Just sayin'.

UPDATE!  We now have a trailer:

Weekend Box Office: August 10-12

Courtesy of Box Office Mojo:

1.  The Bourne Legacy - $40.2 million

2.  The Campaign - $27.4 million

3.  The Dark Knight Rises - $19.5 million

4.  Hope Springs - $15.6 million

5.  Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days - $8.2 million

6.  Total Recall - $8.1 million

7.  Ice Age: Continental Drift - $6.7 million 

8.  Ted - $3.2 million

9.  Step Up Revolution - $2.8 million

10.  The Watch/The Amazing Spider-man - $2.2 million

The ads insisted that "there was never just one", and audiences mostly seemed to take their word for it as The Bourne Legacy earned an estimated $40.2 million, a respectable start for the first Bourne film minus the franchise's star, Matt Damon.  They may have been swayed to show up just from being fans of the Bourne franchise itself, but it certainly helped that star Jeremy Renner has been building up a solid action resume over the past year with roles in The Avengers and Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.  And that Universal made the wise decision to push the release back to give The Dark Knight Rises another week to wind down.  So that was a plus, although it did fall short of The Bourne Ultimatum, the last entry starring Damon, which opened with $69 million in 2007. 

In second place was The Campaign, starring Will Ferrell and Zack Galifinakis, which earned $27.4 million.  That's surprising, considering that the ads for this were awful (maybe that's just me), but still on the low end of the Ferrell opening weekend scale - his highest being the $47 million Talladega Nights opened with in 2006.

Falling to third place is The Dark Knight Rises, which earned $19.5 million to bring its domestic total to $390 million.  It should cross the $400 million mark this week.  Worldwide, the Batman finale has earned $835 million.

The other new release this weekend, Hope Springs, earned a soft $15.6 million.  However, the movie had a two-day head start, since it opened last Wednesday, so it's actually earned $20 million.  It should continue to have a healthy run in theaters as the counter-programming alternative to Bourne and Batman.

Next weekend is looking to be busy with the openings of The Expendables 2, Paranorman, The Odd Life of Timothy Green, and Sparkle.  So...something for everyone.

Weekend Box Office: August 3-5

Courtesy of Box Office Mojo:

1.  The Dark Knight Rises - $36.4 million

2.  Total Recall - $26 millon

3.  Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days - $14.7 million

4.  Ice Age: Continental Drift - $8.4 million

5.  The Watch - $6.3 million

6.  Ted - $5.4 million

7.  Step Up Revolution - $5.3 million

8.  The Amazing Spider-Man - $4.3 million

9.  Brave - $2.8 million

10.  Magic Mike - $1.3 million

The race for first between Total Recall and The Dark Knight Rises turned out to be not much of a contest.  In its third weekend, the Batman finale remained in first place with an estimated $36.4 million, while Sony's Total Recall remake lagged behind with $26 million.  That's not good news for the outlook of Total Recall, especially since Sony is believed to have spent a ridiculous amount of money making it, and it's not likely to make that money back.

With a domestic total of $354 million, The Dark Knight Rises is in great shape, even if there's little to no chance of it catching up to The Dark Knight's $533 million domestic total.  The film is doing even better overseas, where it has earned $378 million. 

The Diary of a Wimpy Kid saga continued this weekend - for the first time, opening during the summer instead of during the school year - and earned an estimated $14.7 million.  That's lower than either of the two previous Wimpy Kid movies (they earned $22.1 million and $23.8 million on their opening weekends, respectively), with plenty of kids still enjoying summer vacation, the movie should have some steady attendence during the weekday matinees.

Next weekend sees the continuation of the Bourne franchise with The Bourne Legacy, starring Jeremy Renner, as well as the Will Ferrell/Zack Galifianakis comedy, The Campaign.  For the rest of the grownups, there's also the dramedy Hope Springs, starring Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones.

Welcome Back, Wolverine!

After far too many delays to count, The Wolverine finally begins filming this week.  Australia's 7News has some footage of the set, which appears to be a World War II-era prison camp.  No reported sightings of a clawed-and sideburned Hugh Jackman yet (although he did post a picture of his first-day-of-shooting breakfast on Twitter this morning), but we can see some extras running around and reaction from the locals about the movie being filmed on their beach. 

I love how someone just figured they were shooting The Hobbit.  In addition to the Australia shoot, the movie will be filming scenes in Japan as well. 

The Wolverine will open in theaters on July 26, 2013. 

Parnormal Activity 4 Teaser Trailer

I enjoy the Parnormal Activity movies.  They're not necessarily great movies in terms of storytelling, but when you're in a crowded movie theater on opening night trying not to laugh at burly, six-foot tall guy sitting next to you who's hiding behind his jacket and screaming like a girl for the last 15 minutes of the movie, you definitely remember why you keep coming back for all the sequels.  And I have to admit, I haven't been able to look at an oscillating fan quite the same way since the last movie.

So Paranormal Activity 4 is getting ready for release in October, and courtesy of their official Facebook page, we have the first teaser trailer...which is basically a teaser for the full trailer, which will arrive on Wednesday.  No, I don't get the teaser-for-a-trailer nonsense either.  But if you look closely, there seems to be some witchcraft-type symbol over the "4" at the beginning, and somewhere amidst the 13 seconds of clips from the previous films, there's a shot of...someone.  No idea who that is.

Anyway, here's the teaser.  Speculate away!

Weekend Box Office: July 27 - 29

Courtesy of Box Office Mojo:

1.  The Dark Knight Rises - $64 million

2.  Ice Age 4: Continental Drift - $13.3 million

3.  The Watch - $13 million

4.  Step Up Revolution - $11.8 million

5.  Ted - $7.3 million

6.  The Amazing Spider-Man - $6.8 million

7.  Brave - $4.2 million

8.  Magic Mike - $2.5 million

9.  Savages - $1.7 million

10.  Moonrise Kingdom - $1.3 million

We're back with the box office report.  After the events of last weekend, and studios deciding to withhold the weekend's box office totals, it seemed wildly inappropriate at the time to report on whether or not anything was breaking records and making gazillions.  But we have some updated totals to report to catch everyone up to now.

The Dark Knight Rises easily held the first-place spot in its second weekend, earning an estimated $64 million to bring its domestic total to $289 million.  Friday's numbers looked a little light ($17.9 million) due to having to compete with the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, but it picked up nicely over the rest of the weekend, earning $25 million on Saturday and $21 million on Sunday.  Overseas, the film has earned $248 million, bringing it up to a worldwide total of $537 million.

Now, has the shooting in Aurora affected the box office?  Yes, it has.  By how much?  Who cares.  In the grand scheme of things, it truly doesn't matter.  But despite that awfulness, The Dark Knight Rises is still doing very, very well.  So that's a good thing. 

However, the lackluster performances of this weekend's new releases The Watch ($13 million) and Step Up Revolution ($11.8 million) can really be attributed to both movies having the same problem:  they looked awful and nobody wanted to see them anyway.  Neither film was able to beat the latest Ice Age film, which earned $13.3 million in its third weekend in theaters.  That could switch places with The Watch once the actuals come in tomorrow, but seriously...that's not going to make The Watch look any better.

Belive it or not, as it's currently standing at $193 million domestically, we are just a few days away from Ted being a $200 million-grossing movie.  Really.

Next weekend sees the releases of the endlessly over-promoted remake of Total Recall, as well as Diary of a Wimpy Kid 3.  So...The Dark Knight Rises has a decent shot at first place again.  And that's still a good thing. 

Hans Zimmer Releases "Aurora" to Help Colorado Victims

The Dark Knight Rises composer Hans Zimmer has composed his own tribute to the victims of last week's tragedy at a movie theater in Colorado.  Simply entitled "Aurora", the 8-minute choral piece is available for download at any amount you wish to donate here, with 100% of the proceeds going to the Aurora Victim Relief organization. 

For anyone looking for a way to help out, this would be a great way to do so.