Monday Morning Mixer: Chilly opening for 'Ice Age'

Posted Monday, July 16, 2012 at 11:56 AM Central
Last updated Monday, July 16, 2012 at 3:27 PM Central

by John Couture

They always say that it's darkest before the dawn. Or is it that it's the quietest before the storm?

Whatever mangled cliché or metaphor you choose, the sentiment is the same. This weekend was rather calm ahead of Friday's massive launch of The Dark Knight Rises.

Everywhere was quiet that is except for San Diego where its annual geek/nerd pilgrimage that is known as Comic Con took place. Over the course of the last decade or so, Comic Con has transformed from the comic book centered convention that it was founded as to all-encompassing pop culture mecca.

And where the geeks go, the studios will follow.

Films, and TV shows, have become more and more prominent over the years and this installment was no different. So, sit back and stay classy while we give you all the movie news that is fit to print from Comic Con.

Box Office 411

As we do every week, we launch our Monday Morning Mixer (MMM) with a quick look at this past weekend's box office. Ice Age: Continental Drift was the only newcomer willing to take a risk at an all or none opening before The Dark Knight Rises and it seems that the gamble paid off.

Continental Drift opened in the top slot for an estimated $46 million. It was the third best opening in the four film franchise, but with next week's behemoth, I think the legs will die really quick for this film and it will struggle to come close to the $150 million average box office of the franchise.

Elsewhere, The Amazing Spider-Man had a good second week bringing its total over $200 million. I'm sure Sony is glad to have all that green in the bank because the clash of superheroes this weekend won't be pretty for the Marvel side of things. I thoroughly expect that The Dark Knight Rises will surpass The Amazing Spider-Man in total box office receipts by Thursday of next week.

Ted continued to benefit from its decision to move up its release when G.I. Joe: Retaliation bugged out at the last minute. The year's highest grossing R rated comedy continued to attract the mature comedy crowd and with its gross near $160 million, I wouldn't be surprised to see it top $200 million before it's all said and done.

Looking ahead to this upcoming weekend, there's only one word that needs to be said: Batman. The Dark Knight opened with just under $160 million on its way to a box office haul of $533 million. I think it's reasonable to expect The Dark Knight Rises to challenge The Avengers' $207 million opening, but I think its long running time will hinder it a bit.

Don't Be Connnnned!

As I hinted at above, it would be a disservice if I didn't at least hit the highlights of this past weekend's Comic Con in San Diego (SDCC). Sadly, we weren't there to experience it ourselves, but SDCC remains a bucket list item that I hope to cross off in the near future.

If you're looking for a more complete rundown of all the events and sundries from this past weekend, allow me to recommend checking out some first hand accounts from the likes of /Film, G4 and IGN. For those that don't like to click on links allow me to hit the high points.

The first real movie news to seep out of SDCC was the Twilight panel and I won't really mention much other than to rejoice in the fact that The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2 is indeed the last film in the series and, despite Internet rumors to the contrary, there are no plans to reboot the franchise. Thank God!

Marvel is still riding high after The Avengers' success and showed no signs of slowing down despite next weekend's big DC release. They announced/confirmed several of their upcoming projects and showed the first footage from Iron Man 3.

One of the highlights of the Marvel panel was director Edgar Wright bringing test footage of his new film Ant-Man. He was quoted as saying "Ant-Man will kick your ass, one inch at a time."

Marvel also announced the complete names of a couple of their big sequels, Thor: The Dark World and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Finally, they announced a new project Guardians of the Galaxy which means that we're definitely going to get a healthy dose of comic book films for the next half decade, if not longer.

There were plenty of first looks at posters and footage over the weekend and you can probably find leaked footage online if you were so inclined. Films that showed footage included Pacific Rim, Man of Steel, The Lone Ranger, Elysium and The Hobbit.

Below you can see a new poster from Man of Steel and the first official look at Matt Damon as a desperate, bald fighter in Neill Blomkamp's follow-up to District 9, Elysium.

I saved my favorite bit SDCC news for last because it just makes me giddy and I hope that it will also put a smile on your face. Edgar Wright's film The World's End got its official green light.

For those of you scratching your head, The World's End is the third film in the Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright series. It follows Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, now I've got you.

Besides getting the go ahead, they also released the official synopsis and teaser one-sheet (below). Excited doesn't even begin to describe how I feel about this film.

Twenty years after attempting an epic pub crawl, five childhood friends reunite when one of them becomes hellbent on trying the drinking marathon again. They are convinced to stage an encore by mate Gary King, a 40-year old man trapped at the cigarette end of his teens, who drags his reluctant pals to their hometown and once again attempts to reach the fabled pub – The World’s End. As they attempt to reconcile the past and present, they realize the real struggle is for the future, not just theirs but humankind’s. Reaching The World’s End is the least of their worries.

Hmm, a pub crawl, eh? Who else is hoping they resurrect this line in the film? "Don't mess with my pint."

Back to Oz

As you would imagine, there were a slew of trailers released ahead of or during SDCC, but this one really caught my eye. Sam Raimi directs a return to Oz story in Oz: The Great and Powerful. Well, it's actually a prequel of sorts to The Wizard of Oz and James Franco takes up the role Oscar Diggs and tells of his transformation into the titular character.

Michelle Williams, Mila Kunis and Rachel Weisz play a bevy of witches names Glinda, Theodora and Evanora respectively. You will notice that Elphaba, who is revealed to be the "The Wicked Witch of the West" in the books that were turned into the musical that is Wicked, is curiously missing from that list. Glinda is the "The Good Witch of the South" so, it's entirely possible that Theodora and Evanora are the witches of the North and East.

I like that they keep the black and white from the original film during the Kansas scenes and transform to color when they cross into Oz. Not only is it a great homage, but it really contrasts the vibrant look and feel of this new Oz. Speaking of homages, did you catch the name of the circus that Franco's character performs for?

Oz: The Great and Powerful hits theaters on March 8, 2013.

Supersize My Hobbit Please

We all know that Peter Jackson has a fondness for stretching out the ending to his movies. It was no surprise when we learned that The Hobbit would be told over two movies, but Jackson is hinting that even that might not be enough.

At SDCC, Peter Jackson mentioned that he's lobbying Warner Bros. for more re-shoots next year and that the grand scale this new footage could make its way into a third Hobbit film.

"It's very premature. I mean we have an incredible source material with the appendices because The Hobbit is obviously a novel but we also have the rights to use this 125 pages of additional notes where Tolkien expanded the world of The Hobbit published at the end of Return of the King and we've used some of it so far and just in the last few weeks as we've been wrapping up the shooting and thinking about the shape of the story, Fran and I have been talking to the studio about other things we haven't been able to shoot and seeing if we persuade them to do a few more weeks of shooting, probably more than a few weeks actually, next year."

Jackson did concede that it's way too early to think about a third movie, but he didn't rule that possibility out either. Clocking in at 557 minutes (683 minutes extended cut) the original Lord of the Rings trilogy stands as the longest Hollywood trilogy. I guess Peter is looking to break his own record.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is due in theaters on December 14, 2012 while The Hobbit: There and Back Again is set for a December 13, 2013 debut. Allow me to be the first to declare that "The Hobbit: A Long, Strange Trip" will hit theaters on December 12, 2014, which just so happens to be my birthday.

Unlike Mr. Jackson, I know when to quit when I'm ahead. So, on that note, I will bid you all a fond farewell. And remember, mix well my friends.