Definitely looks like we underestimated the power of the ten-year-old girls in the country, because since our earlier predictions, many of the screenings of Hannah Montana and Miley Cirus' concert movie have sold out through advance sales on Fandango, who reported two days ago that ticket sales for the movie have made up 91% of their sales over the last week. Another thing that wasn't taken into consideration is the $15 - 20 being charged by some theaters for tickets to the movie which apparently isn't much longer than an hour, which means they'll be able to get a lot more screenings in. Both of these things would point to a much bigger opening than we previously predicted, showing a similar fanaticism for the movie as for the Hannah Montana concert tour last year. What that in mind, we can expect Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: The Best of Both Worlds to take the top spot and potentially try to set a new per-theatre average record although the business might be very much frontloaded to the Friday screenings.

This puts Lionsgate's The Eye at #2 with roughly the amount we predicted originally and everything else much along the same line as before, although the spoof comedy Meet the Spartans will probably tank this weekend after a dismal week where it was down from #1 to #5 by Wednesday.

This Week's Predictions -

1. Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: The Best of Both Worlds… (Disney) - $20.6 million N/A (up $7 million!)

2. The Eye (Lionsgate) - $14.4 million N/A (Up .2 million)

3. Rambo (Lionsgate) - $8.5 million - 53%

4. 27 Dresses (20th Century Fox) - $8.2 million -39%

5. Juno (Fox Searchlight) - $7.4 million -27%

6. Meet the Spartans (20th Century Fox) - $7.0 million -63% (down .9 million)

7. Over Her Dead Body (New Line) - $6.8 million N/A (up .2 million)

8. The Bucket List (Warner Bros) - $6.5 million -38%

9. Cloverfield (Paramount) - $6.1 million -53%

10. Untraceable (Sony/Screen Gems) - $6.0 million -47%

11. There WIll Be Blood (Paramount Vantage) - $4.6 million -6%

12. Strange Wilderness (Paramount) - $3.5 million N/A

Welcome back to the Weekend Warrior where after a January only eventful for a single record-breaking movie, we kick off the month of February with Super Bowl weekend, which means however a movie does on Friday, it's going to have trouble maintaining that business over the entire weekend, especially movies geared towards guys.

No one will probably be very surprised if that's the case with the horror remake The Eye (Lionsgate), starring Jessica Alba, continuing the string of J-horror remakes--despite being based on a Hong Kong production by Thai filmmakers The Pang Brothers (The Messengers)--as well as the tradition of horror movies being opened over Super Bowl weekend, knowing that they'll do very well on Friday and then quickly crash and burn. With Alba on board, this one has more star power than the normal Super Bowl horror movie, but the recent Alba thriller Awake didn't fare well even with less competition.

It's going to have some heavy competition for the top spot with the concert movie Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour (Disney), which opens in just 680 theatres nationwide, but should be able to capitalize on the enormous fanaticism for the young singer/starlet from tween and younger girls that have sold out her concerts nationwide. The chance to see the concert in Disney 3D might be the next best thing to being there and one can expect Cyrus' young fans to flock to see this in theatres for its limited week-long run in IMAX theatres with higher ticket prices allowing for a bigger opening than last week's U2 3D.

The ComingSoon.net Box Office Report has been updated with studio estimates for the weekend. Be sure to check back on Monday for final figures based on actual box office.

After setting a new MLK Jr. weekend record, the J.J. Abrams-produced monster movie Cloverfield (Paramount) was clobbered by two new entries, and while the spoof comedy Meet the Spartans (20th Century Fox) and Sylvester Stallone's return as Rambo (Lionsgate) were running pretty close on Friday, the Spartans remained ahead over the weekend, grossing an estimated $18.7 million in 2,605 theaters compared to Rambo's $18.1 million. Ironically, neither movie was screened for critics until opening day proving the studio theory that reviews rarely help movies like these.

The Diane Lane serial killer thriller Untraceable (Sony/Screen Gems) also did relatively well, bringing in $11.2 million in 2,368 theaters as it opened in fifth place.

A few more reviews, all seen at press screenings at the Yarrow Hotel, one of them being the most anticipated films of the fest which was picked up for distribution right after it premiered, another one that had some interest due to its star and has been almost universally loathed (this year's Hound Dog?), a couple British genre films, both much better than we expected, and a low budget indie from the Duplass Brothers that also wasn't bad.

It might not be too surprising that out of the eight primary award winners at the Sundance Film Festival, we've seen exactly ONE of them, which is about par for the course compared to last year. The one movie we saw was Jonathan Levine's The Wackness, which you've probably seen mentioned a number of times on this blog, and the buzz we were talking about in Park City translated into it winning the Audience Award in the Dramatic Feature, although the Jury gave their prize to Frozen River. (Both movies will be distributed by Sony Classics as mentioned below.) Our pal Devin at CHUD was raving about the documentary Man on Wire our last night in Park City and was stoked to see the film's subject in the bar at the Yarrow Hotel, and it won both the Jury and Audience Award for World Cinema Documentary Competition.

You can read the full list of winners in a press release from the Sundance Film Festival below.

Our good friend and fellow Craver Neil Miller of Film School Rejects has drawn our attention to this buzz piece on Indiewire about Sony Pictures Classics picking up the rights to three buzzworthy movies at this year's Sundance Film Festival.

The biggest deal in negotiations is for their purchase of Jonathan Levine's The Wackness of which you can read more about in our review and interviews with Ben Kingsley and Josh Peck. It's a fun movie and could find a big audience, though it's not the kind of movie Sony Classics usually releases, though it would be a huge turnaround for the company if they're able to learn something from the Fox Searchlight marketing model for Sundance movies like Napoleon Dynamite and Garden State, both bought for less than The Wackness probably cost Sony Classics. (The Hollywood Reporter confirms that the deal went through in the low seven figures, although I completely disagree with their statement about "marketing challenges" after hearing many people raving about the movie.)

According to Indie Wire, Sony Classics also grabbed the Duplas Brothers' Baghead, a very low budget and very funny mix of indie character drama and B-horror movie, that we caught on our last day at Park City and hope to review soon, and Courtney Hunt's Frozen River, one of the movies we completely missed, though that's become par for the course at Sundance.

At least it's nice to see some last-minute purchases after a relatively slow festival, which had a spurt of purchases earlier this week and then nothing. There's still a lot of movies that have real commercial potential that I'll talk about in my Sundance Wrap-Up early next week.

One of the most buzzed about movies at this year's Sundance Film Festival is Jonathan Levine's The Wackness, a coming of age story set in '90s New York City starring Josh Peck as Luke Shapiro, who spends the summer after high school selling pot and trying to get laid with the help of his client and shrink Dr. Jeffrey Squires, as played by Sir Ben Kingsley.

Josh Peck is one of those names and faces that looks familiar, possibly from his time on Nickelodeon, first as a regular on Amanda Bynes' "The Amanda Show" and then with his own show "Drake and Josh" (which is rumored to have its own movie very soon), but indie film fans should also remember Josh from his role in "Mean Creek" a few years back. There's little question that Peck has grown up and The Wackness will certainly get him a lot more attention, both from older girls and producers looking for the next hot thing.

ComingSoon.net had a chance to talk to Josh during the Sundance Film Festival, as well as sitting down with his co-star Ben Kingsley, an interview you can read here.

Master thespian Sir Ben Kingsley has played a lot of varied roles and ethnicities in the last few years and at this year's Sundance Film Festival, he appears in two independent films as two very different characters.

In Jonathan Levine's second movie The Wackness, he plays Dr. Jeffrey Squires, a new age psychiatrist who befriends his young patient (and pot dealer) Luke, played by Joshua Peck, and tries to help him do better with the ladies, only for Luke to hook up with the doctor's step-daughter Stephanie (Olivia Thirlby). In his other movie, Brad Anderson's Transsiberian, Kingsley plays a corrupt Russian police officer who plagues an American couple on a train speeding across Russia.

ComingSoon.net had a chance to sit down with Sir Ben at the Sundance Film Festival--our fourth or fifth time talking to the venerable actor--and as always, he was an absolute joy to talk to as we discussed both movies with side trips into Shakespeare... and bongs.

(Also, check out our interview with Joshua Peck here.)

Okay, it's only been one day since this week's predictions were posted so there aren't too many changes now that we have actual theatre counts, although it certainly looks like J.J. Abrams' Cloverfield isn't holding up as well as originally thought. It still should remain ahead of Sylvester Stallone's return as Rambo, which should be a "Friday Night Special" holding very little traction over the weekend. The spoof comedy Meet the Spartans will take away some of its potential business, and it should also keep Diane Lane's serial killer thriller Untraceable under the $10 million mark for the weekend.

The big unknown is still Paramount Vantage's dance movie How She Move but it should be interesting to see it jockeying for position in the lower half of the Top 10 against the studio's Oscar nominated There Will Be Blood from P. T. Anderson.

Reexpanding into over 1,000 theaters after its multiple Oscar nominations, Tony Gilroy's Michael Clayton starring George Clooney should bring in an additional $3.5 to 4 million over the weekend, just ahead of its Oscar competition, Joel and Ethan Coen's No Country for Old Men, which will be in roughly the same number of theaters.

Updated Predictions -

1. Cloverfield (Paramount) - $18.6 million -54% (down -.9 mill.)

2. Rambo (Lionsgate) - $16.6 million N/A (down .1)

3. 27 Dresses (20th Century Fox) - $14.3 million -38% (same)

4. Meet the Spartans (20th Century Fox) - $12.4 million N/A (up .6)

5. Untraceable (Sony/Screen Gems) - $9.3 million N/A (same)

6. The Bucket List (Warner Bros) - $8.6 million -39% (same)

7. Juno (Fox Searchlight) - $7.5 million -25% (same)

8. How She Move (Paramount Vantage) - $4.8 million N/A (up .2 mil)

9. There Will Be Blood (Paramount Vantage) - $4.7 million +62% (up .3 mil and one place)

10. Mad Money (Overture) - $4.3 million -42% (down .2 mil and one place)

It was a packed house at the hip Egyptian Theatre on Main Street for the Sundance premiere of Michael Haneke's English language remake of his own 1977 movie Funny Games and there was a lot of buzz in the air as most people were expecting something completely sick and twisted. Those in the audience who hadn't seen the original movie probably didn't realize exactly HOW warped a mind was at work here with its plot of a home invasion by a pair of polite misanthropes who spend an evening humiliating and terrorizing a family of three. Unfortunately, Haneke couldn't be at the premiere since he was finishing up his next movie, and Naomi Watts had to leave due to the tragic death of her good friend, but the film's two home invaders, Michael Pitt and Brady Corbet were there along with a couple of producers to introduce the film.

Two very different comedies played at the Library Theatre over the last two days, both of them showcasing veteran comedy actors playing flamboyant over-the-top characters that played up to the receptive audience at the theatre where we caught the premiere of David Wain’s "The Ten" last year, and they at them up. While both John Malkovich and Steve Coogan have played odd characters in the past, these are clearly defining roles for the both of them, since they’re characters so original that one can’t help but love them. The other strange difference between the movie is that one of them is by a Hollywood director, shifting gears to more alternative comedy, while the other is by an indie director making far more accessible work due to the involvement of a big-time Hollywood producer.

Paramount Vantage has acquired worldwide distribution rights, excluding the United Kingdom, to Nanette Burstein’s documentary, American Teen. Nick Meyer, President of Paramount Vantage, announced today.

Andrew Herwitz, president of the The Film Sales Company, announced today that the company has acquired worldwide (less UK) sales and US distribution rights to the documentary Derek. Directed by famed artist and filmmaker Issac Julien (Looking for Langston, Young Soul Rebels), the film was written and is narrated by 2007 Academy Award Nominee Tilda Swinton. Funded by Film London, Channel 4, MoMA and the Sundance Documentary Fund, the film was produced by Eliza Mellor and Colin MacCabe and executive produced by Swinton and James Mackay.

Welcome back to the Weekend Warrior where we have one of those handy-dandy stripped-down columns this week to allow your faithful box office analyst to focus on the movies playing at the Sundance Film Festival. This minimal column is dedicated to the memory and family of Heath Ledger, a great actor and a tragic loss to film with his sudden and very unexpected death.

This weekend wraps up the month of January with four new movies in wide release, undaunted by the fact that business tends to nosedive as the month comes to a close. After the success of his last sequel Rocky Balboa, Sylvester Stallone is back writing, directing and starring as Rambo (Lionsgate) in the return of the violent military man, but in this case, it seems like Stallone might be going back to the well one time too many with this character, and it might not have enough of a fanbase remaining to bring them back. It also will be facing the second weekend of last week’s record-breaking Cloverfield, which should remain on top with a significant drop from the holiday weekend, so Rambo should wind up somewhere in the high-teens and second place.

Assassination of a High School President (Yari Film Group - August)
Directed by Brett Simon; Written by Timothy Calpin and Kevin Jakubowski
Starring Reece Thompson, Mischa Barton, Bruce Willis, Melonie Diaz, Josh Pais, Michael Rapaport

Anyone who thinks they've seen the death of the high school comedy because there's nowhere left to go with the overused genre might appreciate that Brett Simon's clever high school noir debut is more "Heathers" than John Hughes, as it takes a funnier and more biting look at high school than any we've seen in some time without ever going so far as to offend its subjects.

Focus Features has acquired worldwide rights to Andrew Fleming's comedy Hamlet 2, a world premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Focus Features CEO James Schamus and president Andrew Karpen made the announcement today.

After five relatively quiet days of no non-doc purchases Variety's Anne Thompson reports that the first two dramatic features of the 2008 Sundance Film Festival have been picked up with Sundance power player Fox Searchlight shelling out $5 million for Clark Gregg's highly-anticipated adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk's novel Choke, starring Sam Rockwell and Anjelica Huston. (Hopefully, we'll be catching the press screening tonight.)

Fledgling distributor Overture Films (whose first theatrical release Mad Money opened this past weekend) paid $3.5 million for Mark (Arlington Road) Pellington's drama Henry Poole is Here starring Luke Wilson.

Stanley Tucci has become one of the most sought after and recognizable actors when it comes to both comedy and drama, although every few years, he puts back on his directors' hat, the last time being eight years ago with Joe Gould's Secret. His new movie Blind Date just had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, and like Steve Buscemi's Interview from Sundance '07, it's adapted from a Dutch film by the late Theo van Gogh.

Tucci stars alongside Patricia Clarkson as a married couple whose marriage has fallen apart with the only way for them to reconnect and fix things is by setting up a series of fantasy blind dates where they meet as if for the first time and work out their problems. While it's clearly not the most accessible film in the world, being very dialogue-driven, it's a fascinating look at a troubled relationship trying to repair itself that sticks with you.

ComingSoon.net had a chance to sit down with Mr. Tucci during a crazy day of interviews down on Main Street in Park City.

Smart People (Miramax – April 11)
Directed by Noam Murro; Written by Mark Jude Poirier
Starring Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker, Thomas Haden Church, Ellen Page, Ashton Holmes, David Denman, Camille Mana

Miramax probably knew that they had very little to lose by premiering commercial director Noam Murro's feature film debut "Smart People" at the Sundance Film Festival this year. After all, a star-studded indie drama like this one fits right in with Sundance, and a world premiere is sure to fill the Eccles Theatre. Sure enough, there wasn't an empty seat in the house as the stargazers were there with cameras ready to take pictures of the film's cast in attendance. Gauging by the audience reaction to the movie, this screening should help the company's spring release more than last year's Sundance premiere of "Eagle vs. Shark" did.

Got home late after a public screening at the Library of The Great Buck Howard, my favorite movie of the festival so far, and I'm quite exhausted, but I have a feeling that tomorrow will be the real test of endurance as I try to squeeze in between five or maybe even six movies. It'll start early with Craig Lucas' Birds of America starring Matthew Perry, followed quickly by my most anticipated movie of the festival Sunshine Cleaning starring Amy Adams and Emily Blunt, and right after that, I'll be seeing the revenge thriller Red starring Brian Cox. After a quick break to eat, I'll be heading back to the library for the world premiere of Hamlet II starring Steve Coogan, which entered the festival so late that it wasn't included in the program or guide. I was hoping to catch Rawson Marshall Thurber's adaptation of Michael Chabon's The Mysteries of PIttsburgh, but it might be cutting it too close, but either way, my day will end with the 9:30 screening of Downloading Nancy with Maria Bello, who I'll be talking to on Tuesday.

Although the Sundance Film Festival tends to get a bad rap for its gloomy and depressing dramatic fare, we spent most of Day 2 at the festival watching comedies of various degrees of humor from well-established directors like Barry Levinson and from talented newcomers like Jonathan Levine, while actor-writer-director Stanley Tucci follows his pal Steve Buscemi by remaking a movie by the late Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh.

Anne Thompson, Variety's queen of Sundance acquisition scoops, has reported about the first film sold at this year's festival as HBO Documentaries has picked up the American rights for Marina Zenovich's fascinating documentary Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, which looks at the 1977 case of Polanski having sex with a 13-year-old girl that ultimately sent him into exile in France. It's undetermined whether the movie might get a U.S. theatrical release--one day earlier, the Weinstein Company picked up the worldwide theatrical rights--but you can read Anne's full report here, and check back soon for our review of the movie.

I seem to have become turned around with what day it is, because some people consider the festival's Opening Night to be "Day 1" but me, I consider Opening Night to be Opening Night and the first day to be Friday the 18th. With that in mind, we're onto our third day at the festival with a lighter schedule that will hopefully allow us to get a bunch of reviews done and posted so you can see what's been good at the festival so far. This afternoon we'll be talking to Jonathan Levine and the cast of his New York retro-comedy The Wackness, and then later, we'll try to catch the Sundance premiere of Miramax's Smart People and we have a couple of choices later like Alex Gibney's Hunter S. Thompson doc Gonzo or one of two thrillers that are likely to be covered over on ShockTillYouDrop. We ended up missing Chris Waitt's autobiographical doc A Complete History of My Sexual Failures so that's also a possibility, as is the comedy The Great Buck Howard. So yeah, tonight is a mess with way too many choices, so we'll be playing it a bit more by ear than the last couple days. Either way, look for more reviews of what we've seen so far to be posted today.

Transsiberian
Directed by Brad Anderson; Written by Brad Anderson and Will Conroy
Starring Woody Harrelson, Emily Mortimer, Kate Mara, Eduardo Noriega, Ben Kingsley, Thomas Kretchsmann

Only a few months after Wes Anderson released "The Darjeeling Limited", his indie namesake Brad Anderson has also used a train for the setting of his latest venture, a crime-thriller inspired by Anderson's own trip to Eastern Asia. While Anderson is best known for his psychological horror film "Session 9" and the even odder mind-f*ck thriller "The Machinist," his new movie is somewhat of a departure in that it's more of a real world crime-thriller that's far more accessible and mainstream film than some of his past work, and it's a movie that can probably be enjoyed more by a mass audience due to its visceral use of fear while traveling.

In the middle of a long day of screenings, having just seen the documentary Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired (Really good...review coming soon) and gearing up for Stanley Tucci's Blind Date and then Jonathan Levine's The Wackness, which I've heard from one trusted source is also great! Already starting to fall behind on posting reviews but hope to have some up today, including one of Brad Anderson's crime-thriller Transsiberian, which I was last night at its Eccles premiere. (Long and short of it, Emily Mortimer is great, but the premise is somewhat obvious with excessive twists.)

After that, I went down to Main Street for an exclusive screening of the rock doc Counting in Fives about the British punk/noise band The Horrors, which was struck by a power outtage that hit all of Main Street, creating all sorts of chaos. (I noticed that yesterday, the first day of the festival, was more chaotic than normal with shuttle buses malfunctioning and getting lost. (No kidding, I actually was on a shuttle that took a wrong turn and couldn't figure out how to get back on its proper route.) Traffic yesterday was also particularly nasty, really screwing up a lot of people's plans. Hopefully, the kinks will be worked out and things will get easier, especially since my schedule is getting much busier in the next few days.

As far as later today, I'm hoping to get to the premiere of Barry Levinson's What Just Happened? also at the Eccles this evening, which should be similarly mobbed, and hopefully I'll have some time to write reviews in between. (I'm also interviewing Tucci and his co-star Patricia Clarkson for their movie in between everything else, which means at least one trip down to Main Street.)

Maybe today was considered Day 1, but not really because there was only one movie playing, but tomorrow the festival begins in earnest, and frankly, it's going to be fairly light. I'm going to see this Spanish documentary called Stranded in the morning about a plane crash where people survived by eating those who died--most airlines don't serve food anymore anyway--and then much later in the day, I have a ticket for the premiere of Brad (Session 9) Anderson's new thriller Transsiberian about an encounter on a train. (I would have loved to check out Sean Ellis' The Broken but I could only get one public ticket and that one was sold out.) After that, I plan to head down to Main Street to see a new documentary about the British rock group The Horrors and apparently, there's a party afterwards, so that's my day. Like I said, fairly light compared to Day 1 last year where I had six movies ranging from 9 AM until a midnight screening. I'm sure I'll have a few four or five movie days to come, not to mention interviews, which start Saturday, so we'll see how I hold up on the posting this year. Please feel free to let me know if there's anything in particular you're interested in hearing about.

In Bruges (Focus – Feb. 8)
Written and directed by Martin McDonagh
Starring Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Ralph Fiennes, Clémence Poésy, Elizabeth Berrington, Jordan Prentice, Eric Godon

Focus Features decided to do something different with their first movie of 2008, holding it until the opening night of the Sundance Film Festival before screening it for critics—ANY critics. Now usually, that would be a warning sign that a movie isn't very good and they're worried about word getting out, but in fact, it was a strategy, and a very clever one to make sure everyone saw it in the best possible environment, and you really couldn't do any better than Opening Night at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival before all the critics are tired and burt-out. While we didn't catch one of the film's two world premieres at the Eccles, it allowed us our first of many screenings for the festival at the Yarrow Hotel, reminding us why it's such a great place to see a movie for the first time.

Not too much of a change from earlier in the week as it still looks like the J.J. Abrams produced Cloverfield and the romantic comedy 27 Dresses should dominate the box office.

It also looks like the Coens' No Country for Old Men won't go as wide as originally planned due to not taking the cake at the Golden Globes--it probably will expand wider next weekend after Oscar nominations-- while Atonement should see a nice bump with an expansion into 341 more theaters after its own Globe win on Sunday.

Updated Predictions (all 4-day predictions) -

1. Cloverfield (Paramount) - $42.2 million N/A (up 1 million)

2. 27 Dresses (20th Century Fox) - $22.8 million N/A (same)

3. The Bucket List (Warner Bros) - $14.7 million -24% (same)

4. Juno (Fox Searchlight) - $11.5 million -16% (same)

5. First Sunday (Sony/Screen Gems) - $11.0 million -33% (down 1 million and 1 spot)

6. National Treasure: Book of Secrets (Disney) - $8.0 million -29% (up .2 million)

7. Mad Money (Overture Films) - $7.6 million N/A (up .1 million)

8. Alvin and the Chipmunks (20th Century Fox) - $7.3 million -22% (same)

9. Atonement (Focus Features) - $5.4 million +28%

10. I Am Legend (Warner Bros.) - $5.0 million -37% (down .3 million and 1 spot)

The Sundance Film Festival starts in earnest tonight with the world premiere of Martin McDonagh's In Bruges, but ComingSoon.net had a chance to catch a few early screenings of a diverse batch of movies that range from documentary, period drama and strange foreign thrillers, two of them written by the same screenwriter. It's a mixed bag for sure, but a good cross-section of what to expect from this year's festival.

Although we skipped out on this year's Sundance Opening Day press conference, a press release was quickly released with quotes from Sundance found Robert Redford, the festival's director Geoffrey Gilmore and Martin McDonagh, who directed the festival's Opening Night film, In Bruges, which we'll have a review of later tonight. (We'll also have an our own exclusive interview with McDonagh shortly.)

This will be ComingSoon.net's second year covering the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, and we expect to see just as many if not more movies than last year now that we know the lay of the land. As most people in the movie biz already know, Sundance is very much a market festival, the first chance every year for studios to look at independently-produced movies to buy for their line-up, and this year, that's very important because the writers strike has kept studios from buying scripts for the past three months, while scripts in development are languishing without writers to work on them. Because of this, available movies that play at the festival this year will probably be a lot more expensive, which is daunting when you think about the box office potential of the movies that play at Sundance. (You can read more about this in our Sundance 2007 Scorecard)

Below are some of the movies that may be of interest and will more than likely be written about in some way or form over the next eight days. (You can also check out some thoughts on the genre movies that will be covered by Ryan Rotten over on his site ShockTillYouDrop.com.)

A big deal is made every year about the Sundance Film Festival and while those who've never been might not understand why it's so important, actually being at the festival and feeling the buzz in the air certainly creates an environment where filmmaking is allowed to thrive. Having attended last year, we certainly can see why Sundance is considered one of the three main film festivals every year, and being the first of the year, it's the first chance for moviegoers, studio buyers, critics and film writers to see the mostly independent movies that will be making waves over the course of the year. This year the festival is especially important because the ongoing writers strike has made it hard for the bigger studios to get productions going on some of their movies, and they'll be looking at this year's festival offerings as potentially cheap purchases that might make them some money over the course of the year.

But how much money could these movies possibly make? If you look at our coverage from last year, you'll see news of some of the purchases made by indie distributors like Weinstein Company and the studio subsidiaries like Fox Searchlight and Paramount Vantage. Many of these movies haven't even been released yet, but others have been released to very little fanfare. You might be surprised to learn that only ONE movie has made more than $10 million after playing at the Sundance Film Festival last year, and this includes movies that premiered there already having distribution.

Maybe that's why Anne Thompson has written a "Buyer Beware" article about this year's festival that you can read on her blog. Last year, Anne was still at the Hollywood Reporter and she broke a lot of the stories about studio purchases, so it'll be interesting to see if this year's festival turns into a feeding frenzy with studios overpaying just to have movies to release later in the year, or if a lot of good movies leave the festival without distribution because studios are worried about not making their money back by picking up films with indie sensibilities.

LOS ANGELES — ShoWest has named Abigail Breslin ShoWest “Female Star of Tomorrow,” it was announced today by Mitch Neuhauser, co-managing director of the event that will be held March 10-13, 2008, in Las Vegas. Breslin will be presented with the ShoWest Female Star of Tomorrow award at ShoWest’s closing night ceremony on Thursday, March 13, at Bally's and Paris Las Vegas.

Welcome back to the Weekend Warrior where the extended Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend is all about two movies with only one of them having a chance at setting a new January opening record. That would be the enigmatic new film produced by "Alias" and "Lost" creator J.J. Abrams known as Cloverfield (Paramount), a fairly low-budget monster movie about an attack on New York City all captured on the hand-held digital cameras of those who experienced it first-hand. With a huge amount of curiosity and buzz going into the long weekend, one shouldn't be too surprised if it makes more than $40 million over the four-day weekend with a good chance at topping the January opening record of Star Wars: Special Edition. Then again, there's also a danger of it being this year's Snakes on a Plane if the expectations have been built too high due to the internet hype, although that will have more effect next weekend if that's the case.

On the other hand, Katherine Heigl's new romantic comedy 27 Dresses (20th Century Fox), being released as counter-programming, has far more solid buzz from a number of well-attended early sneak previews, and its wedding themes should be of more interest to older girls and women who have only had Hilary Swank's P.S. I Love You as an option.

The ComingSoon.net Box Office Report has been updated with studio estimates for the weekend. Be sure to check back on Monday for final figures based on actual box office.

The box office continues to remain healthy as two star-packed movies vied for the top spot with over $19 million each, but after playing in 16 theaters for two weeks, Rob Reiner's The Bucket List (Warner Bros.), starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, exploded into over 2,900 theaters nationwide where it amassed an estimated $19.5 million for the weekend. Ice Cube's latest comedy First Sunday (Sony/Screen Gems) opened in 700 fewer theaters but averaged over $8,500 to come in a close second with an estimated $19 million.

Although the indie comedy Juno (Fox Searchlight) had been #1 at the box office for most of the past week, it had to settle for third place with the entry of two new comedies opening in most regions. Still, it dropped only 12% from last weekend to make another $14 million over the weekend, and with $71.2 million in box office receipts, Juno is only a day or two away from becoming Fox Searchlight's highest grossing movie to date, guaranteed to surpass the $71.5 million made by the 2005 Oscar-nominee Sideways.

This is turning out to be harder than I thought, and I got sidelined a bit while trying to finish off my Oscar predictions, so I'm going to cover a few stories from earlier in the week and then play catch-up over the weekend. Hopefully, there'll be one more update (probably Monday) before I take a week off to focus on the Sundance Film Festival, but we have a few juicy tidbits to talk about today...

The Launch of TheBadandUgly.com!

Bond Gets His Girls--Pretty Faces, Hot Bods, No Names

Kidman's Pregnancy To Help Poor Kate Winslet's Oscar Chances

"The Funniest Thing You'll Read All Year!"

Greengrass Adds Cast to the Next Big Iraq Movie!

Scarlett's Mary Queen of Scots Gets Noyce-y

Cloverfield! Cloverfield! Cloverfield!

And away we go...

In the last two days, we've had a bit of a shake-up in the Top 10 mostly from Fox Searchlight expanding their hit comedy Juno into far more theaters after it won a couple Critics' Choice Awards last week and in close to 2,500 theaters, it shouldn't have a problem moving up another notch to top the box office in its 6th weekend.

Also, Rob Reiner's The Bucket List starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman has been getting a ton of advertising and closer to 3,000 theaters, so it should do better in wide release, particularly in suburban areas, than its holiday platform release heralded. Look for it to be a neck-and-neck race for the weekend with Juno squeezing out a win.

With two strong comedies, Sony/Screen Gem's First Sunday only has a chance at appealing to black audiences and the teens who haven't seen Juno but ultimately, it will get trampled with so many stronger comedies in theaters. (Morgan Freeman might pull some of that older African-American audience to see Bucket List.)

Uwe Boll's In the Name of the King has ended up in almost a thousand less theaters than originally estimated despite a ton of TV ads, so now it's unlikely to get into the Top 10, probably winding up just outside.

Other expanding movies include Atonement into just under a thousand, which should allow it remain in the top 10 and both the Spanish horror film The Orphanage and the Afghanistan-based drama The Kite Runner both are expanding into close to 700 theaters but probably will end up in the $1.5 to 2.5 million range.

Updated Predictions -

1. Juno (Fox Searchlight) - $13.9 million - 13% (up $1.7 mil.)

2. The Bucket List (Warner Bros) - $12.5 million +3000% (up $2.3 mil.)

3. First Sunday (Sony/Screen Gems) - $11.7 million N/A (down $1.6 mil)

4. National Treasure: Book of Secrets (Disney) - $11.4 million -40% (down .1 million)

5. Alvin and the Chipmunks (20th Century Fox) - $9.0 million -45% (down .2 million)

6. I Am Legend (Warner Bros.) - $8.9 million -45% (same)

7. The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything (Universal) - $6.4 million N/A (down .8 million)

8. Atonement (Focus) - $5.2 million -38%

9. One Missed Call (Warner Bros.) - $5.1 million -59% (down .6 million)

10. P.S. I Love You (Warner Bros.) - $5.1 million -35% (down .2 million)

- In the Name of the King (Freestyle) - $3.9 million N/A

- The Kite Runner (Paramount Vantage) - $2.1 million +21%

- The Orphanage (Picturehouse) - $1.6 million 320%

Welcome back to the second part of the Oscar Warrior's 2008 Oscar Picks. For those of us who haven't been paying attention, Part 1 was posted earlier this week with our picks in the acting categories, but now we're getting down to the nitty gritty, a few of the tougher categories to predict and the Big Kahuna itself, Best Picture.

Welcome back to the Weekend Warrior where we're back in full-on box office analysis mode after taking a much-needed week off. This week, we have three new movies in wide release plus two limited releases expanding nationwide after playing in select cities over the holidays.

The easy winner of the weekend should be the urban comedy First Sunday (Sony/Screen Gems) starring Ice Cube and Tracy Morgan, directed by famed urban playwright David E. Talpert, a combination that should help bring in a strong African-American demographic that might not have much interest in the other movies playing in theatres.

After two weeks in limited release, Rob Reiner's dramedy The Bucket List (Warner Bros.), starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, opens nationwide into over 2,700 theatres, which should be enough theatres to help it place in the Top 5 even if it hasn't exactly been making waves in limited release. Expect it to end up somewhere around $10 million thanks to Nicholson and Freeman's older demographic, but it probably won't do much better than that.

Six years after their previous feature film, the talking animated vegetables are back for The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything - A VeggieTales Movie (Universal), which might be able to jump in and take advantage of the amount of time Fox's Alvin and the Chipmunks has been in theatres to offer a solid follow-up, despite opening in less than 1,500 theatres. Expect a moderate opening with a possible expansion to help it do more business over the four-day weekend next week.

Welcome back to the News of the Day, our second installment of this new experiment that's going to remain somewhat quiet and secret until we get it rolling for real. Hope a few of you found some interesting stuff to read and that others will sign up for TypeKey (it's free!) in order to comment. Note: You might want to remember to sign in or register before typing in the "Comments" box, so you don't accidentally lose your thoughts when it tells you to sign in/register.

The DVD Format Wars Gets Ugly!

2008 Box Office Off to a Grand Start

The Foreign Hack Awards Will NOT Be Televised

Jennifer's Body Gets Even More Grrrl Power

Wayans and Gordon-Levitt Say "Go Joe!"

And away we go...

Okay, okay, we've really been dragging this awards season with getting up our final predictions for the year, although we've had a few previews over the course of the past few months, which you can read elsewhere on the Oscar Blog. 2007 ended with things being a lot clearer due to the nominations announced by the Hollywood Foreign Press (Golden Globes), Broadcast Film Critics (Critics' Choice Awards) and Screen Actors Guild, all of which are strong precursors for Oscar nominations. Most of these organizations will be announcing their winners in the week or two, while the other guilds (DGA, WGA and PGA) will be announcing their selections leading up to the announcement of the Oscar nominations on the morning of January 22.

To help get things moving, we'll start as usual with the acting categories and then post the writing, directing and Best Picture choices later this week. (And this time we mean it!)

Reminder: "My Personal Pick" is the person or movie which I think is deserving of a nomination but has been sorely overlooked, although there's little pointing to them having any chance of getting into the Oscar race at this point in the game.

The ComingSoon.net Box Office Report has been updated with studio estimates for the weekend. Be sure to check back on Monday for final figures based on actual box office.

The normally slow first month of the year once again became the perfect time to open a low-key horror movie and bring in some business, as previously seen with Universal's White Noise and Eli Roth's Hostel. This time, it was the remake of J-horror movie One Missed Call that saw an opportunity and grabbed it with an estimated opening weekend of $13.5 million in 2,240 theaters--an average of over $6k per theaters--surpassing early expectations and studio tracking after an opening day of over $5 million.

Even so, it would have to settle for fifth place for the weekend behind a number of stronger returning movies including Jerry Bruckheimer's National Treasure: Book of Secrets (Disney) starring Nicolas Cage, which remained on top for a third weekend in a row with $20.2 million, down 43% from last week. So far, it has grossed $171 million and it's just a few million short of matching the total gross of the original National Treasure.

"What is this?" you might be asking yourself or rather, the dozen or so people who come to this blog regularly might be asking themselves. Well, this is a very soft launch of an idea we had that will hopefully allow those who like reading news on ComingSoon.net to chime in with their own thoughts on what's going on in the world of entertainment. We tend to not be very opinionated about the news we post from various sources, but the whole point of having a blog is to have a place for our writers to share their opinion, so it made sense that there should be a place where we could spout off on the news and then you can tell us what you think using the comments section. At least that's the general idea, which will evolve as necessary.

My name is Edward Douglas--some might know me as the Weekend Warrior--and this was my crazy idea, crazy because it will involve me spending a lot more time writing than I'm already doing while also responding to your comments every day. The general idea is that I'd like to have something new here three or four times a week, but I know my schedule and when festivals start happening (like the upcoming Sundance Film Festival), I probably will have to concentrate on that. Maybe we'll get a few others to fill in, but in the meantime, here's my thoughts on recent news:

I am STILL Legend?

Spielberg Takes on the Chicago 7

More DC Comic Movie Rumors than You Can Shake a Stick At

Not To Be Out-Rumored by the Distinguished Competition
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Guillermo del Toro Building a