Jacob Hall

Another Halloween, another 'Paranormal Activity.' Another 'Paranormal Activity,' another large opening weekend. But all is not well in the state of Denmark (and by Denmark, we mean "the 'Paranormal Activity' franchise"): the fourth film in the series opened to significantly less than the previous entries.

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‘Taken’ was the surprise hit of 2009, a January dump that inexplicably made nearly $150 million in the United States and transformed Liam Neeson into an instant action star. Three years later, ‘Taken 2‘ has arrived in theaters on a primo release date and with an advertising campaign that probably cost more than the entire first movie. Well, it looks like the hype was worth it. The first film may have been a sleeper, but the second adventure of Liam Neeson’s kidnap-prone family has opened like a true blockbuster.

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This was a rough week at the box office, guys, If we had an decency whatsoever, we'd call it a day and simply not report just how poorly every movie did these past three days, but alas: the world must keep spinning. Summer is over, the Fall is upon us and we've entered the weakest part of the year for both new releases and box office grosses. Let's just get this over with, shall we?

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About a week ago, we finally got the rundown on how many ‘Avatar‘ sequels we were going to get. Today, James Cameron has spilled the beans on his longterm plans for the franchise: he’s revealed that part four will be a prequel to the first film.

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How do you know that the summer movie season is officially done? Check the box office and if it looks like this weekend, it’s over. The months of massive openings and long legs are over. Welcome to the doldrums that are late August and September.

Sorry, ‘Premium Rush.’ You never had a chance.

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Although they differ in style and tone in every way imaginable, ‘The Expendables 2‘ and ‘The Bourne Legacy‘ are both action movies and they share the same audience (people who like watching people beat up other people). The slick, modern ‘The Bourne Legacy’ was last week’s box office champion, so everyone was wondering if its success would cut into the opening of the brawny, ’80s throwback that is ‘The Expendables 2.’ Or vice versa. Well, the numbers are in…

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After nearly a month at the top of the box office, Batman has fallen. In his place stand two new Hollywood champions: ‘The Bourne Legacy‘ and ‘The Campaign,’ both of which opened to strong numbers. Still, these solid openings won’t blow anyone’s socks off, mainly because we’ve seen the likes of these do so much better in the past.

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Hey there, ‘Total Recall.’ You know how you were supposed to be pretty big movie? Well, hopefully you’re sitting down because, well…you’re not. You see, there’s this little thing called ‘The Dark Knight Rises‘ that isn’t a remake of a much-beloved film and it doesn’t star Colin Farrell and people actually seem to generally kinda’ like it. Yeah, sorry buddy. You didn’t stand a chance.

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Consider this weekend a study of three animation companies. Temporarily forget about ‘The Amazing Spider-Man‘ and ‘Ted‘ and ‘Moonrise Kingdom.’ What do the box office numbers of ‘Ice Age: Continental Drift,’ ‘Brave‘ and ‘Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted‘ tell us about their respective studios? ‘Ice Age’ won the weekend, but is it actually a winner?

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When ‘Prometheus‘ opened big last month, there was the usual “Ah, so R-rated movies can perform well at the box office!” discussion that tends to happen every year or so. Well, that has nothing on this weekend, which found two R-rated movies topping the box office. And it’s not like ‘Ted‘ and ‘Magic Mike‘ just did okay either…both films opened big, blowing away expectations and leading the charge in one of the most interesting box office weekends of the summer so far.

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