“The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out Of Water” opened to much larger than expected $56 million dollar haul this weekend, far beyond the expected $30 million folks predicted.

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But the bigger headline belongs to “Jupiter Ascending.” With a price tag in the neighborhood of $175 million, the first whiff of trouble arrived last year whenWarner Bros. abruptly pushed the film from a scheduled summer slot, just weeks before it was due to be released. The line trotted out was that more time was needed on post-production, but it would seem the studio had good reason to be worried for the movie.…

Feltheimer says the studio is “actively looking at some development and thinking about prequel and sequel possibilities” because, obviously. Granted, the world of Panem is potentially interesting to explore, but before they rush on anything to make a fast buck, let’s hope they really consider the possibilities and don’t just rush out “The Hunger Games: The Chronicles Of Gale.” How about the story of Haymitch before he became lovingly jaded? I’d watch a whole movie of Beetee and Wiress being super dorks, but maybe it’s a good think I’m not in charge of a studio, because that would make zero…

Out doing press for his latest movie of the week, “Outcast,” Cage singled out his co-star Christensen’s work in the “Star Wars” prequels while sporting the greatest hair ever. “And so, I watched George’s movies, and the work Hayden did with George, and I was very impressed with Hayden’s sort of edgy, dangerous, dark and still soulful performance,” Cage explained to IGN. “I thought it was superb. And so I really connected with him.”

I don’t even…

But what…

I can’t…

What is happening?!?

“I could see where things were headed. The toy business began to drive the [Lucasfilm] empire. It’s a shame. They make three times as much on toys as they do on films. It’s natural to make decisions that protect the toy business, but that’s not the best thing for making quality films,” former Lucasfilm insider and producer of the first two “Star Wars” films Gary Kurtz told Hero Complex in 2010. He also said “the first film and ‘Empire’ were about story and character, but I could see that  George [Lucas]  George’s priorities were changing.”

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Visiting the Sundance Film Festival this…

Steve recently spoke with producer Randall Emmett, whose independent production company Emmett/Furla Films acquired the rights to Monopoly from Hasbro, and during the course of their conversation he provided a status update on the film.  He revealed that shooting begins this summer, a big cast and director announcement is coming soon, and the Goonies-esque story involves a treasure map and revolves around a bunch of kids being chased by an adult.

What is even happening here? Who thought this was a good idea? No, no, no, no, no…

Borat director Larry Charles is back in action with Army of One, a satirical comedy from Endgame Entertainment and Conde Nast Entertainment starring Nicolas Cage as a regular guy who goes on a hunt for Osama Bin Laden.

In a coup for the producers, Harvey and Bob Weinstein have struck a preemptive deal for North American rights to the project via their new TWC-Dimension label, designed to be a home for more commercially minded fare that both brothers believe in.

Army of One is loosely based on Chris Heath‘s GQ magazine article recounting the real-life misadventures of Gary Faulkner, a…

Now that Peter Jackson is done with his overlong trilogy adaptation of The Hobbit, that means it’s time for him to complain about how franchise driven Hollywood has become. That’s right, the man who gave us not just one, but two trilogies based on the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien recently had an interview withMoviefone where he was asked about his desire to return to smaller films, and he said, “I’m absolutely happy to make smaller films. It’s what I want to do…So we want to go back and make some New Zealand stories.” But it’s what he said next that is going leave you raising an eyebrow or…

In response to Sony yanking “The Interview,” a small handful of theaters—Capitol Theater in Cleveland, Plaza Atlanta in Atlanta, and the Alamo Drafthouse in Dallas—revealed they would instead screen Trey Parker and Matt Stone‘s hilariously wrong puppet comedy “Team America: World Police.” It’s a fitting replacement, with the plot centering on a maniacal Kim Jong-il, who, among other things, sings a song called “I’m So Ronery,” gets impaled, and is revealed to be an alien from another planet. Ten years ago, this was deemed acceptable for wide release in cinemas around the world. Today? Not so…

The first trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens will be debuting in a small number of theaters across the US on Friday. Regal Cinemas announced that the trailer will play before all movies showing at nine of its locations starting this Friday and continuing through the weekend:

CA Irvine — Edwards Irvine Spectrum 22 & IMAX

CA San Diego — Edwards Mira Mesa Stadium 18 IMAX & RPX

GA Atlanta — Regal Atlantic Station Stadium 18 IMAX & RPX

IL Chicago — Regal City North Stadium 14 IMAX & RPX

NY New York — Regal Union Square Stadium 14

PA Warrington — Regal Warrington Crossing Stadium 22 &…