Last month The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced 15 films had been selected for consideration for Achievement in Visual Effects for the 84th Academy Awards. Today those 15 movies were narrowed down to 10.

Here are the movies still in the race:

“Captain America: The First Avenger”
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2″
“Hugo”
“Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol”
“Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides”
“Real Steel”
“Rise of the Planet of the Apes”
“Transformers: Dark of the Moon”
“The Tree of Life”
“X-Men: First Class”

For those wondering, the 5 movies no longer in the race are Thor, Sucker Punch, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, Cowboys & Aliens, and Super 8.

On January 19th the 5 official nominations will be selected after members of the Academy’s Visual Effects Branch Executive Committee view 10-minute excerpts from each film. The 84th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Tuesday, January 24, 2012. Billy Crystal will host the actual ceremony on Sunday, February 26, 2012.

Which movies do you think should get a VFX nod?

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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced the 15 films that have been selected for consideration for Achievement in Visual Effects for the 84th Academy Awards.

In early January members of the Academy’s Visual Effects Branch Executive Committee will narrow the list down to 10, and then on January 19th the 5 official nominations will be selected after members view 10-minute excerpts from each film.

Here’s the list of films in alphabetical order:

“Captain America: The First Avenger”
“Cowboys & Aliens”
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2″
“Hugo”
“Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol”
“Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides”
“Real Steel”
“Rise of the Planet of the Apes”
“Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows”
“Sucker Punch”
“Super 8″
“Thor”
“Transformers: Dark of the Moon”
“The Tree of Life”
“X-Men: First Class”

The 84th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Tuesday, January 24, 2012. Billy Crystal will host the actual ceremony on Sunday, February 26, 2012.

Which movies do you think should get a VFX nod?

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Back in April Captain America: The First Avenger screenwriters Stephen McFeely and Christopher Markus said the setting of the sequel was still undecided, and they potentially have “two entire timelines to play with.”

With Steve Rogers ending up in the modern world towards the end of the film, and his appearance in The Avengers next year, a sequel set in the present seemed the likely scenario, and in a new interview the writers confirmed Captain America 2 will be “primarily set in the modern day”.

From The HD Room:

SM - I think it’s safe for us to say that it’s primarily set in the modern day. That seems to have been the biggest question people have been wondering about regarding the sequel. Most people know the story of Captain America as the story of this man out of time, and because The Avengers is such a big movie, and because [Avengers director] Joss Whedon has so many moving pieces, we’ve been left with room to explore Cap entering the modern day wondering, “What is all this? What’s happened to the world” and so on.

CM - We made a movie where the world was in context for Steve Rogers. It was a movie where it was a more pure time, where there were clearly black-and-white, right-and-wrong, good-and-evil scenarios. And Cap is a guy who symbolizes that. Now he’s in the now, and there is nothing black-and-white. So what do you do with that guy? How does he react to a much more uncertain time? So you’re given this huge new palate to work with, but you can keep him the same.

And that’s the fun of getting to do a sequel. Captain America, Steve Rogers, he’s pretty firmly established. Now we can take him through some different places.

Chris Evans recently said we are unlikely to see the next film until at least 2014, given that Marvel has Iron Man 3 and Thor 2 set for 2013. Fans will still see Captain America next summer though, and it’ll give us a chance to see the character interact with the modern world, which he’ll probably remain in for the foreseeable future.

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SHH got their hands on a new batch of high-resolution images from The Avengers which feature Thor (with longer hair), Captain America (in his new costume), Tony Stark, Black Widow (with shorter hair), Nick Fury and Loki.

You can check the rest out by clicking here. Hopefully we get to see these images in motion in the form of a trailer soon.

The Avengers, directed by Joss Whedon, will star Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man), Mark Ruffalo (The Hulk), Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow), Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury), Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Chris Evans (Captain America), Clark Gregg (Agent Coulson), Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye) and will be released May 4th, 2012.

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A new trailer for the Captain America: The First Avenger Blu-ray has been uploaded by Marvel, and it contains a few shots from The Avengers. There’s nothing to get too excited about but we do see a behind the scenes look at director Joss Whedon, and the actors setting up shots in costume.

Watch below:

Paramount will be releasing Captain America: The First Avenger on DVD and Blu-ray on October 25, 2011 and you can check out the special features here.

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76 superhero movies have been mentioned one way or another over the course of our ‘Superheroes at the box office’ feature. The conclusion is here, with the last 8 superhero flicks that have been released on the big screen in the last 33 years. To get an idea just how much this sub-genre has grown over the years, just in 2011 we’ve had no less then six entries. Masked (or not) crusaders, vigilantes fighting for a cause, be it good or bad, for one last time, after the break.

We start with Iron Man 2, the sequel to the 2008 hit with the same name (minus the 2) and part of The Avengers. People expected something at least as good as the original so disappointment was high on its toes, lurking right around the corner. Unfortunately, while a fun movie, Iron Man 2 failed to match the sheer awesomeness of the first one. Despite less favorable critical and fan reception, Iron Man 2 manage to gross a mighty $312.4 million in North America, just shy of the $318.4 million made by Iron Man. Worldwide things were looking better with $623.9 million for the sequel versus $585.1 million for the original. Right now Iron Man 3 is expected to open in May 2013, but with Shane Black directing instead of Jon Favreau.

Continuing 2010, Megamind follows in November. You know how there are always trends in Hollywood, like one year we might get a bunch of penguin movies or maybe animated fish movies, you know what I mean. Well 2010 was the year of villains with a kind heart, misunderstood if you will. First it was Despicable Me, a story where one villain fights to regain the title of best super-villain in the world. The reason I’ve not included Despicable Me here is simple, there are no superheroes in that movie and Gru isn’t fighting to save the world or a city, he just wants the respect of his mother. Now Megamind, the titular character in the movie with the same name, is much more then just a villain or super-villain. Now I’m not going to spoil anything for you guys but let me just say that this movie has at least one superhero in it. Megamind grossed $148.4 million in North America and $321.8 million worldwide. Having cost $130 million to make, DreamWorks more then likely didn’t lose money on it but don’t expect a sequel out of this one.

And we are finally in 2011 and The Green Hornet is our starting point. This 75 year old hero sure took his time trying to get to the big screen. Starring Seth Rogen, Cameron Diaz and Jay Chou (playing Kato, a role Bruce Lee had in the original 1966 TV series). The Green Hornet almost made $100 million in North America and $227.8 million worldwide. Unfortunately for this fun yet flawed movie, that gross probably won’t be enough for Sony to green light a sequel since it cost $120 million to make..

A movie probably not many heard about is Super and yes, it came out this year, specifically on April 1st, a fitting release date some could say. Now this is a hard R, very independent superhero movie that I would only recommend to the most hardcore, probably those that liked Kick-Ass but also thought that it didn’t go as far as it could have. Let me just say this, Super is insane, if you don’t believe me just watch it and you’ll agree with me afterwards. Again, be warned, it makes Kick-Ass look like a PG-13 movie (so keep the kiddies away). Obviously, this is as far away from commercial as you can get and it only got a limited release in theaters. With that in mind, the $0.3 million it made in North America is not as surprising.

Next up is another movie leading up to The Avengers, Thor, directed by Kenneth Branagh. This was probably the hardest avenger to bring to the big screen so a lot of people expected it to fail, well Thor didn’t, quite the contrary. First of all, it was actually a good movie and while it had its flaws, Thor managed to deliver the goods in the end. It is right now the highest grossing superhero movie of the year with $181 million in North America and $448.5 million worldwide. The adventures of the God of Thunder will continue in The Avengers next year and in July 2013 in Thor 2.

X-Men: First Class opened a month later and it is the second X-Men spin-off, following the success of X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Unlike that movie, First Class was very well received by both fans and critics alike, a return to the quality standard set by the first two X-Men movies. If only box office results would have been as impressive as the reviews. With a production cost of $160 million, X-Men: First Class only made $146.3 million in North America and $352.5 million worldwide. A sequel could happen but it will come down to DVD and Blu-Ray sales. So if you guys want a First Class 2, go out and buy as many copies of X-Men: First Class as you can, I know I will.

Two weeks later Warner gave us Green Lantern, the long anticipated Ryan Reynolds (starring) and Martin Campbell (directed) DC Comics superhero. They had the money ($200 million no less), they had time, talent, you name it, yet something happened along the line, something big enough to turn Green Lantern into a bust. When I say bust, I don’t mean only in regard to box office success, it just wasn’t a particularly good movie, ok, maybe not as bad as people give it credit. Having grossed $116.4 million in North America and $219.7 million worldwide (barely matching the production budget, let alone doubling it), one would think this series was gone yet Warner are actually still talking about a sequel, strange times we live in.

And now we are up to the last superhero movie, Captain America: The First Avenger. Like the title suggests, this is another avenger movie, the last avenger movie, a fitting spot since he was also the first avenger in the comics. Anyway, Captain was a very long time coming and now that it’s finally here I must say, me like it, me like it very much. They made it a period piece and we got a great take on the origin story of Captain America. It wasn’t campy and at the same time not too serious since it is after all, a superhero movie. With a gross of $173.4 milion in North America and $348.4 million worldwide (and still counting) Captain America, just like Thor and Iron Man, will return next year in The Avengers. The only thing that bothers me about this movie is the way it ends, there’s not a lot of place to make a sequel similar to it and I’d really like a second Captain America set in World War II.

After celebrating superhero movies of the past, it’s time to take a brief look into the future and let me tell you this, there’s never been a better time for fans of this sub-genre. Next year Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance is coming to haunt us. A few months later, the ultimate superhero mash-up, The Avengers, will be set to generate plenty of nerdgasms. Then there’s The Amazing Spider-Man and The Dark Knight Rises, both in July. Tony Stark is back in Iron Man 3 in 2013 and Man of Steel should mark the return of Superman that same year. As mentioned above, 2013 also has Thor 2 and probably The Wolverine. Now these are just some of the bigger titles, there’s a lot more coming and who knows, maybe in a year or two you might read an 11th part of Superheroes at the box office, until then, keep superheroes alive and, just for kicks, list your favorite hero of all time in the comments. I was a Batman dude for a long time but once I discovered Spider-Man, I never went back.

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Update: Amazon has now made Captain America available to pre-order: DVD | Blu-ray

Paramount has announced that it will be releasing Captain America: The First Avenger on DVD and Blu-ray on October 25, 2011.

The movie continued Marvel’s winning streak by gaining both positive reviews and box office success, leaving a clear path to The Avengers next year. As it’s progressing Captain America will make roughly the same as X-Men: First Class ($350 million worldwide), which will be $100m less than Thor, but it’s still a success worthy of a sequel.

The special features for the Blu-ray (via BBFC) contains over 71 minutes of material, and they include:

- Audio Commentary with director Joe Johnston, cinematographer Shelly Johnson and editor Jeffrey Ford
- Outfitting a Hero
- The Assembly Begins
- Howling Commandos
- Heightened Technology
- The Transformation
- Behind the Skull
- Captain America’s Origins
- Deleted Scenes
- Marvel One Shot: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor’s Hammer
- The Avengers animated series trailer

Here’s a run-down of the deleted scene and timings:

00:00:38:06 (DELETED SCENES: NORWAY TANK ATTACK)
00:01:29:22 (DELETED SCENES: BUCKY’S BATTLE)
00:00:57:23 (DELETED SCENES: YOU DESERVE A MEDAL)
00:02:02:22 (DELETED SCENES: THERE’S A PLACE FOR YOU HERE)
00:00:39:08 (DELETED SCENES: NORWAY TANK ATTACK W/COMMENTARY)
00:01:29:24 (DELETED SCENES: BUCKY’S BATTLE W/COMMENTARY)
00:00:57:23 (DELETED SCENES: YOU DESERVE A MEDAL W/COMMENTARY)

Captain America: The First Avenger focused on the early days of the Marvel Universe when Steve Rogers (Evans) volunteers to participate in an experimental program that turns him into the Super Soldier known as Captain America. As Captain America, Rogers joins forces with Bucky Barnes (Stan) and Peggy Carter (Atwell) to wage war on the evil HYDRA organization, led by the villainous Red Skull (Weaving).

Update: Amazon has now made Captain America available to pre-order: DVD | Blu-ray

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There was a bit of deja vu last weekend at the international box office with The Smurfs and Rise of the Planet of the Apes leading the pack. What took me by surprise was UK’s The Inbetweeners Movie ranking 3rd with an enormous opening weekend that I’ll disclose further down, after the break.

The Smurfs made $35.2 million for an impressive $211.4 million, soon to become the all time highest grossing live-action-mixed-with-CGI-characters kids movie. Right now Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel still ranks first internationally with $223.5 million but at the rate those blue devils make money, it should become 2nd very soon. With $330.9 million worldwide (International plus North America), The Smurfs is not about to catch up to The Squeakquel’s 443.1 million anytime soon.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes took in $29.6 million for a 2nd place finish and $122.7 million so far. Thanks to the $259.7 million worldwide collection and the fact that this is still going strong with plenty markets left to go, Caesar’s Apes are definitely coming back for another round of human butt kicking, hopefully soonish.

In 3rd place we got The Inbetweeners Movie, a UK flick based on a very popular TV show it seems, otherwise there’s no way it could have managed $21.5 million. Without Harry Potter or James Bond in it, that’s about as big as you can hope to get a movie to open in the UK. From what I’ve seen in a trailer, it looks sort of like a British American Pie. Looking forward to seeing the numbers for it this weekend.

Speaking of the devil, 4th is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 with $14.9 million for a tiny and awfully disappointing $901 million internationally. That’s like what, the highest ever if we were to live in James Cameronless world. Worldwide things are even worse, I mean only $1.26 billion?

Leaving sarcasm to the side (since Potter is obviously a box office Godzilla), we find Green Lantern in 5th place with $11.9 million for a lackluster $78.6 million and $194.2 million worldwide. Wow, this movie has almost matched its budget. Great job Warner on failing again at finding the next big property that could have fueled your upcoming Potterless years.

Captain America: The First Avenger is 6th place with $11.4 million for $150.1 million internationally. For such a US centric hero, Captain is having an impressive run with $315.8 million worldwide and still going strong.

Cars 2 past the $500 million mark worldwide while Transformers: Dark of the Moon‘s $749.6 million international gross passed Lord of the Rings: Return of the King‘s $742 million, thus taking 5th place on that all time ranking. Can’t help but be extremely impressed by how much the international box office exploded this summer with Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides ($798.5M), Transformers: Dark of the Moon ($749.6M) and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 ($901M), all three in the all time international top 5 and like I mentioned above, in a James Cameronless world, they would be on top.

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It wasn’t The Help that needed any sort of assistance last weekend, but the likes of Conan the Barbarian, Spy Kids: All the Time in the World and Fright Night could have used some. The Help looks like The Blind Side all over again, but maybe not on the same scale since I don’t expect it to finish with $250 million in North America like the Sandra Bullock flick did.

So The Help took 1st place with $20 million and what makes the number all the more impressive is last week this movie made $26 million for 2nd place. In the year 2011 you don’t see movies opening wide and then falling just 23.1% the following weekend. Actually, this year only Bridesmaids, The Lincoln Lawyer and Limitless fell less in their 2nd weekend. So far The Help has made $73.9 million in 13 days and considering the weak upcoming releases, I wouldn’t be surprised if it comes up number 1 next weekend also. Based on how well it has done so far, I’m estimating that it will finish around $150 million in North America.

To my surprise, Rise of the Planet of the Apes was 2nd with $16.1 million. I say surprise because, while the numbers are ok, I wasn’t expecting them to be enough for 2nd place. Suffice to say, everything new underperformed so first come, first serve. Rise of the Planet of the Apes is at $135.2 million after 18 days, on track for $170-175 million.

In 3rd place we find Spy Kids: All the Time in the World with $11.6 million. Way back in 2001, Spy Kids opened with $26.5 million while the last one from 2003 made three times as much as this new one. Having cost only $27 million, it won’t lose money but I seriously doubt the people involved are happy with this numbers.

Conan the Barbarian is 4th with an abysmal $10 million. Unlike Spy Kids, this is a $90 million movie that should have made a lot more. I mean come on, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Conan the Barbarian opened with $9.6 million more than 29 years ago. This is bad beyond anything Lionsgate could have imagined.

The Smurfs is 5th with $7.8 million for a smurfing total of $118.4 million in 25 days and still going strong. Fright Night was 6th with $7.7 million and while not as bad as Conan (only because it cost $30 million), this remake is just as humiliated by the 1985 original that opened with $6.1 million. Keep in mind, back in the 80′s, an opening weekend wasn’t as important to the success of a film as it is now.

The last new release, One Day starring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess, came in 9th with $5 million.

For those curious, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 is now at $366.6 million, Captain America: The First Avenger is at $165.2 million while Transformers: Dark of the Moon is making one last push to $350 million.

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One could say that international box office finally got smurfed thanks to the The Smurfs. Yes, the blue bastards are popular, what can I say, money doesn’t always equal quality. Aside from those little blue monsters, Rise of the Planet of the Apes seems to be doing quite well while Harry Potter keeps going strong.

The Smurfs smurfed their way to $61.5 million last weekend for a total of $141.1 million internationally and $245.1 million worldwide. For comparison sake, Alvin and the Chipmunks grossed $361.3 million worldwide in 2007 so there’s a good chance this flick could make more.

In 2nd place Rise of the Planet of the Apes earned $40.1 million for $74.4 million internationally and $183.1 million worldwide. In 2001 Planet of the Apes, the Tim Burton remake, made $362.2 million worldwide so Rise of the Planet of the Apes should, in theory, based on how well it has done so far, finish ahead of that (unadjusted for inflation).

3rd place belongs to former four time consecutive leader, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 with $29.3 million for an epic $857.8 million internationally. With this being the final installment and also presented in 3D, everyone expected over $1 billion worldwide but so far Mr. Potter has made over $1.2 billion and for lack of better words, that’s really really impressive. So, with Harry Potter at the finish line and only Batman left, how long do you guys think it will take Warner Bros. to start working on a remake, aye?

Transformers: Dark of the Moon was 4th with $14.6 million and $731.2 million internationally. This is now $300 million above Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen so even without the help of 3D, this would have still been a big leap forward for the series. Thanks to $1,078 million worldwide, Transformers: Dark of the Moon is now 5th on the all time highest grossing list, more then any fan could have hoped for.

Green Lantern was 5th with an unimpressive $14.1 million in 29 markets for $61.6 million internationally and $176.6 million worldwide. How the hell are they doing a sequel for this when it cost $200 million to make and it hasn’t even matched that, let alone double it (what Warner would need in order to make a few bucks on this flick).

Cars 2 is 6th with $13.1 million and $290 million internationally (476.3 million worldwide, passing the original Cars) while Captain America: The First Avenger made $12.2 million for $128.3 million internationally and $286.2 million worldwide. With some still a few big markets left to go, the Captain is performing better then expected around the world for a movie titled Captain America.

Finally Super 8 was 8th with $9.8 million and $94.5 million internationally for $220 million worldwide, a very impressive take for a movie that cost only $50 million to make.

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