Another week, another bad box office weekend and this is really starting to become a trend. We had 3 movies opening wide last week, all of them ranking in the top 5 but none really performing above even the already low expectations, more after the break.

Limitless was rather limited with only $18.9 million over the weekend but considering the $27 million budget it should turn somewhat of a profit for the parties involved (Relativity Media producing and distributing, the same guys that bought Take Me Home Tonight for $10 million from Universal, a movie that only made $6.7 million so far and won’t finish above $7 million when all is said and done).

Rango was 2nd with $15 million and a 19 day total of $94.5 million. The Gore Verbinski western animated 3Dless flick isn’t breaking any records but considering the hard to sell genre I’d say they should be very proud of it. Not going to lie, I was rooting for this to turn into How to Train Your Dragon but unfortunately it didn’t happen. That being said, I believe this is just as entertaining as that one was, so if you haven’t seen it already, do yourself a favor and give Rango a chance.

Battle: Los Angeles is 3rd with $14.5 million and $62.9 million so far for what was essentially (in my opinion, so don’t take this the wrong way) one of the most boring alien invasion flicks I have ever seen (I did NOT watch Skyline and I don’t intend on doing that anytime soon, or ever for that matter). What makes it even worse is this had so much potential to be really good and instead it turned out mediocre at best.

In 4th place we have the 2nd release of last week, The Lincoln Lawyer or how I like to call it, The Shirtless Lincoln Lawyer. You know Matthew McConaughey can’t keep a shirt on him to save his life so obviously he does it again. $13.2 million debut for the $40 million flick.

Finally in 5th place (and honestly, deserved more) we got the 3rd release of last week, Paul, starring British comedy geniuses Nick Frost and Simon Pegg. Only $13 million for this but that is higher then previous Frost-Pegg movie openings in North America (Shawn of the Dead with $3.3 million and Hot Fuzz with $5.8 million). Hopefully Paul will finish with $40 million or so to at least match the budget they spent on production (but it will need at least twice that much worldwide).

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While Paul is not the third entry into the infamous Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost’s third cinematic team-up is almost as enjoyable as their previous collaborations. Let’s face it: Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz are both awesome movies, and without Edgar Wright behind the camera to complete the triumvirate, one might assume that another director stepping into the situation would be a bit intimidated to work with such a close-knit group. Not the case for Superbad and Adventureland director Greg Mottola, who, while not matching Wright’s unique dynamism, imbues Paul with his own pacing and comedy sensibilities that ultimately results in a very enjoyable moviegoing experience.

The story follows Graeme (Pegg) and Clive (Frost), two geeky British comic book creators who travel to America to go on a road trip to see their favorite alien hot spots across the country. Along the way, they discover an actual alien named Paul (voiced by Seth Rogen) and go on the run from Agent Zoil (Bateman), a “man in black” tasked with hunting the alien down. Pegg and Frost’s influence is felt all over this film and keeps with their signature style of slightly mocking a genre, paying homage to it, and adding an exciting new entry to its ranks all at the same time. This is one that movie geeks will love in the same way that gamers and pop culture nerds loved Scott Pilgrim vs. The World; there are so many references to other movies (alien, road trip, and otherwise) that I could spend an entire post listing all of them.

The CG work for Paul’s alien body was surprisingly impressive, never aiming for “realism,” per se, but always remaining fluid and true to the character. And speaking of the character, Paul was hilarious. He’s a smoking foul-mouthed version of E.T., embracing (and at times contributing to) human pop culture in a way that makes his character almost pleasant among all the cursing and drinking. Honestly, Paul himself was the character about whom I had the biggest doubts going in, but Seth Rogen – an actor yet to give a truly excellent performance in my opinion – did a fantastic job with the voice work and really gave the alien an extra spark of life that would be hard for many other actors to replicate.

The movie featured smaller roles for a lot of people we’ve seen in comedy before. Kristen Wiig is charming as the extremist Christian whose world is turned upside down with the discovery of extraterrestrial life (her character also doubles as Pegg’s love interest and provides a bit of conflict between Pegg and Frost). Sigourney Weaver has a small cameo as the determined head of the government agency looking for Paul. Bill Hader (“SNL”) and Joe Lo Truglio (Superbad) play rookie agents tagging along with Bateman, David Koechner (Anchorman) and Jesse Plemons (TV’s “Friday Night Lights”) are a couple of redneck homophobes that become bitter enemies to our heroes, and Jeffrey Tambor (“Arrested Development”) has a small role as a self-centered comic creator the guys meet at Comic-Con.

Speaking of Comic-Con, the movie has the best depiction of the convention I’ve ever seen on screen. It’s such an accurate representation of what it’s like, and though the movie wasn’t actually shot at the convention, it could have fooled me. I had a chance to attend my first Comic-Con last year with the guys and girls at GeekTyrant (check out all our coverage here), and Paul not only captured the physical accuracy of the convention center and surrounding areas but also the giddy feeling of excitement it provides – geeking out as only geeks can.

If I have any qualms with the movie, it’s that the story was a bit predictable at times. Due to personal bias, I’m more willing to forgive predictability with movies that embrace fun than ones that aim for seriousness, so this wasn’t as big of a turn off for me as it most assuredly will be for some. To me, the comedy and the heart are the most important parts of this movie, and they hit on all the right beats. A lot of people will find the anti-Christian overtones to be a bit off-putting, but aside from that one issue, I think the entire film has an infectious enthusiasm to it – all of the protagonists are extremely likeable and Pegg and Frost’s writing makes it very easy to root for them. The pacing was solid, with no scene dragging on too long and the action moving quickly across different locations to keep things visually interesting.

Paul is a great entry into the ranks of the Pegg-Frost collaborations, and a new high point in Greg Mottola’s career alongside Superbad. This movie will undoubtedly put smiles on the faces of movie lovers across the country as they take an insane road trip with these characters that ends at the absolute perfect location. Until next time…

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Boy oh boy, Black Swan is really making the rounds out there, second weekend in a row in first place while possible Best Picture winner in 3 days (Oscars), The King’s Speech, is just as impressive. More about those 2 and 8 others right after the break.

$17.6 million was enough for Black Swan to win again and it now stands at $101.6 million for a worldwide total of $203.6 million. I think soon enough I might need to revise upwards my previous $250 million prediction when it comes to Black Swan‘s final worldwide gross.

The King’s Speech was 2nd with $15.8 million, up from a week ago thanks to some new markets where it just opened. This is now at $130.7 outside North America and $236.2 million worldwide, absolutely insane. Out of that total $60.3 million was made in the UK (The Queen made $18.3 million), second highest territory after North America.

While still in 3rd, Tangled eased to $12.1 million (from $17.5 a weekend before) and now stands at $328 million internationally and $522.3 million worldwide. While it started rolling a week before, No Strings Attached made its debut in the top 10 only this past weekend at number 4 with $10.9 million for a $21.9 million total. This still has a lot more territories to open in so expect even higher numbers in the coming weeks.

Yogi Bear at number 5 was flat, $10.4 million compared to $10.3 a week before. $77.9 million is the new total for this crappy flick while top 10 regular Rien a Declarer (Nothing to Declare) made another $10.2 million for $59.5 million, $51 million coming exclusively from France.

One of my favorite movies of last year and also nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars, True Grit, was 7th with $10.1 million thanks to 20 more countries it just opened in. Unfortunately westerns have a tendency to not perform to well outside the US of A so this one has only grossed $29 million thus far. Hopefully with France and Germany this weekend, it can go up a notch.

In 8th place is a movie I very recently enjoyed very very much, Paul opened with $9 million in the UK (and only there for the time being). This opens on March 18th in North America, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, don’t need to say more then that, go and see it, you won’t be sorry.

Finally Gnomeo and Juliet in 9th place and Sanctum in 10th place, Gnomeo with $8.2 million for $15.8 million and the other made $7.6 million for $40.4 million.

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head over to Yahoo! has released a new trailer for Paul which stars Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Seth Rogen, Jason Bateman and Sigourney Weaver. The teaser trailer we got back in October was only 70 seconds long, but this latest trailer is the full 2 minute 30 seconds one.

The movie follows two British comic book geeks (Pegg and Frost) who go on a road trip through America. On the way, they discover an alien named Paul (voiced by Rogen) at Area 51 who needs their help.

In the trailer, embedded below, we get to see a lot more of Seth Rogen’s alien character who exposes himself on a number of occasions, turns invisible, and brings birds back to life.

The film is directed by Superbad director Greg Mottola so fans of that type of comedy should be looking forward to this, as will fans of Pegg and Frost’s earlier work in Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.

Paul will be released on February 18th in the UK and March 18th in the US.

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Empire have released the official one-sheet for Paul, which stars Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Seth Rogen, Jason Bateman and Sigourney Weaver, and follows two British comic book geeks (Pegg and Frost) who go on a road trip through America. On the way, they discover an alien named Paul (voiced by Rogen) at Area 51 who needs their help.

Check the full poster out below:

The film is directed by Superbad director Greg Mottola so fans of that type of comedy should be looking forward to this, as will fans of Pegg and Frost’s earlier work in Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMzsQzRFXqc

Paul will be released on February 14th in the UK and March 18th in the US.

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We finally have our first look at Paul, which was originally going to be released this year but got pushed back to February 2011. The film stars Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Seth Rogen, Jason Bateman and Sigourney Weaver, and follows two British comic book geeks (Pegg and Frost) who go on a road trip through America. On the way, they discover an alien named Paul (voiced by Rogen) at Area 51 who needs their help.

The film is directed by Superbad director Greg Mottola so fans of that type of comedy should be looking forward to this, as will fans of Pegg and Frost’s earlier work in Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.

This teaser, which you can watch below, doesn’t really show us anything wildly hilarious, but that may come with future trailers and the inevitable red band one. In this case the cast is a good enough reason to be interested.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMzsQzRFXqc

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Universal has reshuffled its schedule and has given The Adjustment Bureau and Paul new release dates. In Bureau Matt Damon plays David Norris, an ambitious politician who meets a ballet dancer named Elise Sellas (Emily Blunt), but just as he realizes he’s falling for her, mysterious men conspire to keep the two apart.

The film was originally set for release on July 30th; however it was pushed back to September 17th and has now been given a March 4th 2011 release. I bet Emily Blunt is tired of having her movies pushed back as it happened with The Wolfman too.

Paul, which stars Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Seth Rogen and Sigourney Weaver, will also be released next March. Universal hasn’t really been marketing Paul even though it finished filming 10 months ago. The film is directed by Superbad director Greg Mottola and follows two British comic book geeks (Pegg and Frost) who go on a road trip through America. On the way, they discover an alien named Paul (voiced by Seth Rogen) at Area 51.

You can check out an on-set video blog released last year during filming below:

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ComingSoon.net recently caught up with Nick Frost and he spoke about two films I can’t wait to see. Paul is his third outing with Simon Pegg after Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, and will follow the duo travelling across the U.S. after Comic Con. During their adventure they encounter an alien called Paul outside Area 51, who will sound a lot like Seth Rogen.

During the interview, Frost discussed how difficult the movie’s filming had been. “Any shot that Paul was in, we had to do him with no-one there, then with a little fella wearing a green suit, then a kid with a mask on, then a man holding a grey ball, then a lighting puppet, then ‘Mr. Eyes,’ which is a stick with eyes on it. Then nothing. Then red lights, which was our eye-line.”

Frost also commented on The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn which will see him team up with Simon Pegg once again, however this time they will be fully CG in the form of twins Thompson and Thompson.

Asked how that compared to the entirely CG animated The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, the first of two “Tintin” movies directed by Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson, respectively, Frost told us, “‘Tintin’ was weird enough. At least with ‘Tintin’ everyone’s there. Everyone’s on the set and you’re acting with real people”.

This led to an anecdote about how Spielberg came to be involved with the “Tintin” franchise. According to Frost, Spielberg had originally been made aware of “Tintin” during the publicity tour for the original “Indiana Jones” film. Various members of the press had compared Jones to Tintin, which inspired Spielberg to research the character, and eventually purchase the rights.

Paul hasn’t received an official release date yet, however it will be out sometime in 2010. Tintin on the other hand has a release date of December 2011, which is long time for us to wait!

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WhatisPaul.com, the official production blog for Paul, has been updated with a video featuring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost who give us a rundown on the story, cast and crew of Paul. The video also makes me want to be on set with them, as it looks like a barrel of laughs.

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It looks like director Greg Mattola (Adventureland, Superbad) is already having a blast on the set of Paul, his sci-fi/road-trip buddy comedy written by and starring British super-comedy duo Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz). The film’s titular alien character will be voiced by Seth Rogan, and recent news of Sigourney Weaver joining the cast makes for a motley crew of comedians.

Actually, Mottola is pretty busy. Paul has started principal photography in New Mexico (thanks to great tax breaks for filmmakers and, of course, the pic being about an alien from Area 51) and has just entered a stretch of night shoots according to the director’s Twitter.

Pegg seems to be having most of the fun on set, updating his website Peggster.net with set photos from New Mexico. Featured above, from left to right are Frost, Bill Hader and Joe Lo Truglio, who I last saw as Donnie in Starz’s excellent original series Party Down.

CLICK HERE to be taken to Peggster.net’s collection of Paul set photos, including Greg Mattola: The Dog.

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