'New Moon' Sweeps MTV Movie Awards

It was a sweep for The Twilight Saga: New Moon at the MTV Movie Awards, because it's only the awesomest movie in the history of awesome movies. You didn't know that?

We've got the complete rundown for you, but the film's dominance was so overwhelming that Anna Kendrick won an award for another movie. There were other winners, of course, like Zach Galifianakis and Ken Jeong from The Hangover and somehow Tom Felton from Harry Potter winning Best Villain over Christoph Waltz. Shouldn't a portrayal of Nazi always win in that category? Rain also won for Biggest Bad-Ass Star for his work in Ninja Assassin, which is probably the least predictable award of the night. It also signals that nobody in the category was in Twilight.

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Taylor Lautner In Line for 'Vision Quest' Remake

You can knock Taylor Lautner all you want (and feel free, by the way; I've seen better acting from suspects on Cops), but you can't deny that he's going to be in the public eye for a while thanks to Twilight and New Moon and whatever's upcoming up for the 17-year-old shirtless werewolf.

That next thing in the pipeline could be a remake of Vision Quest, and 80s flick with Matthew Modine and Linda Fiorentino that is probably at its best as a reason to have a soundtrack. Remember Madonna's "Crazy for You"? That was the big hit. Actually, I think I'd rather have Taylor Lautner remake that song than the movie.

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Box Office - A Bad Start for 'Invictus'

Before we discuss the weekend's box office winner, let's talk about its biggest loser: Invictus. The Clint Eastwood-directed inspirational sports biopic did come in third, which you might look at and think that's OK. But that per-screen average - around $4,300 - is less than The Blind Side, an inspirational sports biopic that's in its fourth week of release.

Per-screen numbers are crucial, especially for new movies. And that's not a very good average to have. So I think Invictus, while it may not show a big drop next weekend, is probably not going to do much more than $50 million, even if it's nominated for and wins a bunch of Oscars. As for the movie that took the prize, Disney's The Princess and the Frog earned $25 million, which is a fine start, but it's nothing special. What remains to be seen is how well the film holds over the holidays, and whether or not that gives a restructured Disney hope to remain committed to hand-drawn animation. It's cheaper than the Pixar movies (by about half), so does that mean it only has to do half as well?

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Box Office - 'Princess and Frog' Leads Weak Friday

The Friday performance for The Princess and the Frog is pretty much right on target for our weekend prediction in the low- to mid-$20 millions. It led the charge on Friday with $7 million, although that's a pretty low number for December. I wonder if distributors not named Disney are second-guessing their releases and expansions on films like The Lovely Bones, Avatar, Sherlock Holmes, and Up in the Air after seeing that this weekend would have been up for grabs.

For Disney, Princess and the Frog will probably play the way most of the studio's animated product does, with a healthier than average life expectancy that should reach into January. But $7 million - the number Variety reports this morning - is not a huge figure by any stretch of the imagination for a family film in over 3,400 theaters. The Blind Side continues to be the non-Twilight storyline of the fall, holding strong in second place, and on page for another $12 or $13 million. Being Heisman weekend in college football probably helps the movie, which has earned $140 million now.

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Box Office - 'Blind Side' Finally Wins Weekend

The terrific run for The Blind Side continued at the box office as it staked its first claim to number one in its third weekend of release. The film is another surprise hit for Warner Bros. (see The Hangover), and has already grossed $129 million, a tremendous number given that its opening weekend was under $35 million. It earned another $20 million this weekend to easily win the frame.

New Moon dropped to second place, earning $15.7 million, and its fortunes are about to stall in the US. However, with global ticket sales of over $570 million, more than ten times the production budget. As we discussed yesterday, only one movie that earned more than $100 million in its first weekend failed to hit $300 million. New Moon is now about $45 million away from that milestone, and it could get there, but it won't be by much. New releases were pretty uninspiring in their performances, with Brothers leading the way with only $9.7 million. Armored finished in sixth place, with a little over $6.5 million. Up in the Air, in very, very limited release, still earned $1.8 million, good enough for 13th place.

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