Everything is awesome for the team behind The Lego Movie (Cinema Score: A). The 3D animated extravaganza is estimated to have earned a spectacular $69.11 million this weekend — the biggest opening of the still young year, and the second largest February opening ever (the top spot belongs to 2004′s Passion of the Christ). The Phil Lord and Christopher Miller movie blew past studio and analyst predictions, which had the pic in the $40 to $55 million range. Playing in 3,775 theaters, most of which were in 3D, Lego scored an incredible $18,307 per location average, and, including overseas…

Sources touched on the fact that Hoffman still had one major scene left to film in Mockingjay, Part 2, and that certain filmmaking tricks would have to be employed to complete the movie. Today, yet another version of that story is circulating, with The NY Post becoming the first outlet to confirm that the filmmakers will “digitally recreate” Hoffman in this pivotal scene. As was reported earlier, none of this will affect the release date of either Mockingjay film. Part one is due in theaters on Nov. 21.

At the risk of sounding insensitive, of course Hoffman is going to have to be recreated…

Yes, no, maybe: those are the three answers Will Smith has given to 20th Century Fox about returning for “Independence Day 2” aka “ID Forever” over the past few years. But now it seems he’s made up his mind. Almost.

Deadline reports that Smith won’t be starring in the sequel that is set for a 2016 release, but they add that they were “told not to set this in stone, because Smith has been back and forth before on whether to make the movie.” That said, they do believe he’ll be letting director Roland Emmerich know shortly that he won’t be coming back. But this is why you always plan ahead.…

The saddest of news this week: Philip Seymour Hoffman passed away from an apparent drug overdose this past week. We have lost one of the great story-tellers. Though he had one scene left to film in ‘The Hunger Games: Mocking Jay Part 2’, it will not affect the film’s release date. In lighter news, J.K. Rowling has seemingly lost her mind and decided it was not after all a good idea to put Ron and Hermione together and thinks that she should have instead put Harry and Hermione together. What a load of rubbish! There’s a lot to look forward to in the upcoming episodes of ‘Agents of SHIELD’. TJ has been nothing but thrilled with this show and doesn’t understand what the problem is for some people. This week, Chad, Fizz, and TJ gathered on ‘The MovieByte Podcast’ to discuss ‘American Hustle’. It may not quite be the film that it’s Oscar Nomination would suggest, but it’s worth watching. Netflix has renewed ‘House of Cards’ for a third season and this is great news! And continuing the “off topic” business with Nintendo, TJ talks about how Nintendo has a plan to keep it’s next generation of consoles from being a flop. Then we find out that in ‘Taken 3’ no one is going to be “take” which begs the question, what’s with the name? And of course, TJ walks you through what’s available in theaters for your viewing enjoyment.

If you’re like me, you’re not really into comic books that much. I mean I had a few when I was a kid but I never got into them. And I’m not into them now. But I’m really into comic book movies. Weird, right?

Well in any event, just because I’ve never been into the comic books doesn’t mean I’m not interested in a little history lesson. In this video form from Scott Collura of IGN, the information is fun and easily digestible. I enjoyed it a lot and I thought you all might as well.

X-Men: Days of Future Past will be premiering on May 23 so go ahead and watch and get up to speed on what’s…

Actor Gary Oldman has confirmed that he was approached for a role in the J.J. Abrams-directed adventure, though he hasn’t gone as far as saying he’s actually been cast. Read his exact words after the jump.

Sky News tossed the Star Wars question at Oldman during a Robocopevent. “They’ve called,” Oldman stated. “I’m more cynical about it now,” he continued. “I’ll believe it when I’m on the plane home. The deal isn’t done. But yeah, they’ve inquired.”

As Oldman emphasized, that doesn’t mean he’s booked the part. The word is that the filmmakers have looked at just about everyone, which…

Some headlines write themselves don’t they? This one sure did. I looked at the movies being released this weekend, then I looked over at my title field and it had already filled itself in.

Seriously though, I think we have one (probably) really good film here, one maybe kind of okay film here, and one that just looks terrible. I’ll list these three newcomers to the box office in that order.

New This Weekend

The Lego Movie — PG

I’ve got to tell you, I was skeptical at first, but this film looks quite excellent. That last piece I posted with the featurette and nine clips from the film…

Tom Hanks’ name was brought up internally at Warner Bros as a possibility for Lex Luthor in Batman vs Superman. They went instead with Jesse Eisenberg. What does this tell us about what’s going on behind the scenes?

Well, the Hollywood Reporter story about the casting of Eisenberg (sort of misleadingly titled “Why Warner Bros.’ Superman-Batman Movie Cast a Young Lex Luthor”) doesn’t say who brought up Hanks’ name internally - was it a bunch of studio suits or was it Snyder’s team? If it was Snyder’s team we see a casting process that reveals a movie finding its way; casting Tom Hanks makes…

“Captain America: The Winter Soldier” will “set critical events in motion” that will lead directly into next year’s “The Avengers: Age of Ultron,” The Walt Disney Company CEO and Chairman Robert Iger told investors and analysts Wednesday.

In addition, the Disney chief said that the parts of the “Captain America” sequel’s plot will be reflected in ABC’s “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”

It continues Disney’s transmedia strategy, an approach that weaves a narrative across multiple media platforms, spanning movies, television shows, comics and social media outlets.

And this is quite a good…