1. A Good Day to Die Hard – $47 million

Five years after Live Free or Die Hard scored $134.5 million, Bruce Willis is back as John McClane in a fifth installment in the enduring action franchise — this time with random Cold War overtones! After a slew of weak performances from movies like Parker and The Last Stand(it’s been a tough winter for Expendables stars), A Good Day to Die Hard is poised to become the first outright action hit of the year. Fox is releasing the film, which was made on a $92 million budget, into 3,553 theaters, and between Valentine’s Day, President’s Day, and Fox’s…

Almost a year after its originally scheduled March 2012 release, Paramount’s $50 million Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters topped the chart on its first Friday with $6.0 million from 3,372 theaters. The poorly reviewed film (a phrase that applies to all this weekend’s new releases) stars Gemma Arteron and Jeremy Renner, but the Avengers star has demonstrated little drawing power as a leading man so far. Hansel and Gretel may take in about $16 million worth of [gingerbread] dough over the full weekend frame.

While it’s still not likely to be a huge blockbuster, Box Office Mojo reports it…

The film opened promisingly enough to a $15m opening weekend, but has only managed to hit $70m in the domestic market, a total that doesn’t look sufficient to persuade Paramount to fund round two.

The film’s global gross stands at a more healthy $153m, although according to The Hollywood Reporter the studio is thought to want that figure to reach $250m before it will countenance giving a sequel the green light.

Well that’s too bad. I would not have been sad to see more. I liked it more than I disliked it.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey returned to the top of the box office on Friday, crossing the $200 million mark in the process. The $250 million Warner Bros. release grossed an estimated $10.7 million on Friday, putting it on pace for a $31 million weekend, which would bring its total to about $221 million and lift its worldwide cume past $600 million.

In second place, Django Unchained continued its terrific opening week, bringing in another $9.7 million. By weekend’s end, the R-rated Western will have earned about $27 million more, giving it a six-day total of $60 million. Based on…

“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” has only been in theaters for a few hours now, but forecasts are already predicting that the latest epic from Peter Jackson will set a new box office record for a December release.

Thanks to the $13 million “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” made in its midnight release last evening, Box Office Mojo is reporting that the film is well on its way to breaking the mark currently held by “I Am Legend.” By comparison, “I Am Legend” brought in $77.2 million in its opening weekend back in 2007, only $1.7 million of which came from its midnight…

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In the box-office lull before the arrival The Hobbit next weekend, Skyfall returned to the number-one spot at the box office, becoming the first film since How to Train Your Dragon to lead the chart in its fifth week. It also became the highest grossing Sony release of all time. Not too shabby, Mr. Bond.

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Even accounting for inflation, Skyfall is the fourth most successful Bond film domestically of all time, behind only the most beloved Sean Connery vehicles from the 1960s. Adjusting for inflation, Thunderball earned the equivalent of $593.9 million in 1965, Goldfinger garnered a…

The velocity of events picks up considerably, however, in an endless and mindless combat sequence in which the Wolverines prove to be fierce combat troops and the North Koreans are reassuringly incompetent. The kids, even the girlfriends, are adept at handling heavy-duty automatic weapons, even machineguns mounted on top of captured vehicles (or pointing out the sun roofs of their cars). 

They’re also gifted strategists, instinctively occupying the high ground and spraying bullets down upon the hapless enemy forces who are often conveniently lined up in the street below. They achieve…

There were no turkeys at this year’s Thanksgiving box office, as movie goers stuffed the box office like never before, leading to the highest five-day gross in the history of cinema with an estimated $288 million taken in.

Of course, there were also no real surprises either, with holdovers hanging on to the top three spots. “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2″ led the charge with an estimated $64 million over the five-day extended weekend, followed once again by “Skyfall” in second place ($51 million) and “Lincoln” in third ($34.1 million).

I went to the theater this past…

Say what you will about the Twilight series, but you can’t fault it for being inconsistent.

The popular vampire franchise’s final installment, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2, scored the eighth biggest opening weekend of all time with a $141.3 million debut. If Summit’s estimates hold up, that’s just a touch ahead of Breaking Dawn – Part 1, which started with $138.1 million last year, and just a touch behind New Moon, which opened with $142.8 million in 2009.

Impressively, Breaking Dawn – Part 2 also earned $199.6 million in its international debut this weekend, giving it an…