With the recent news that Michael Bay is returning to the Transformers franchise to direct the fourth installment in the series, it’s a good time to take a look back at Transformers: Dark of the Moon. The film is up for two Oscars later this month – Best Visual Effects and Best Sound Mixing – and the folks at Twitch have unearthed a couple solid behind-the-scenes videos detailing just how much work went into creating those stunning visual effects.

These are pretty amazing to watch, if for no other reason than to give you an increased appreciation for the unsung artists that toil away at computer stations to make what we finally see up on the big screen. Check out the videos after the jump, and let us know what you think in the comments section.

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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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Paramount has announced that Transformers: Dark of the Moon will be hitting DVD and Blu-ray later this month on September 30th, however it will only be a bare-bones version. The Blu-ray will contain no bonus features, however it will include the DVD version and a digital copy.

A second release is expected in November which will contain the 2D and 3D Blu-ray along with the DVD versions. These will include all the special features such as deleted scenes and behind the scenes extras.

Here’s what director Michael Bay had to say about the staggered release:

“For fans who can’t wait, the Blu-ray release in September will deliver an awesome ride with the movie in stunning 1080p high definition and a 7.1 Dolby TrueHD soundtrack that was personally overseen by our phenomenal supervising sound mixer just for the Blu-ray,” said director Michael Bay. “As you know, we put a lot of effort into the 3D experience for the theatrical release and I want to make sure we get it right for home viewing—and that process takes time. So stay tuned for an even more incredible release that will include the film on Blu-ray 3D and loads of bonus features.”

Transformers: Dark of the Moon has made $1.1 billion worldwide, and while it may be Michael Bay’s last movie, the Transformers franchise is by no means over.

Amazon now has the movie available to pre-order on : 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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It took three movies but the toys turned animated series turned live-action blockbuster finally broke the billion dollar mark worldwide. Transformers: Dark of the Moon (with the help of 3D, obviously) managed what Transformers in 2007 and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen in 2009 could only dream of.

With $1,003,920,148 in just 35 days, Transformers: Dark of the Moon became the 10th movie to reach the billion dollar mark and is now 9th worldwide after just passing The Dark Knight. Thanks to this the worldwide top 10 becomes a billionaire club:

1. Avatar $2.782 billion
2. Titanic $1.843 billion
3. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King $1.119 billion
4. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest $1.066 billion
5. Toy Story 3 $1.063 billion
6. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides $1.033 billion
7. Alice in Wonderland $1.024 billion
8. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 $1,015 billion
9. Transformers: Dark of the Moon $1.003 billion
10. The Dark Knight $1.001 billion

As you can see, there are no less then three movies that opened this year above, all with over a billion, not bad for a year that started so lousy. Oh, and if you were wondering, yes, this is the first time such a thing has happened and yes, I blame it on the increased popularity of 3D around the world.

To conclude, Transformers made $709.7 million worldwide while Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen grossed $836.3 million, with over a billion so far, Transformers: Dark of the Moon is a big leap forward (at least money wise) that should ultimately become the 5th highest grossing movie of all time with about $1.1 billion, if not more (Return of the King ain’t safe).

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The last superhero of the year, Captain America: The First Avenger, triumphed at the box office showing once again, if you make it good, people will come (also advertise the heck out of it). This first avenger was the last flick leading into next year’s The Avengers (stay for the Captain end credits) and I must say it got me really pumped for that movie. While Captain was first, Potter found himself in second place after a rather steep drop, but more of this after the break.

With $65 million, Captain America: The First Avenger had the 2nd best superhero opening of the year (Thor grossed $65.7 million, he is also in The Avengers) and among other avengers, he ranked under both Iron Man 1 and 2 but above The Incredible Hulk‘s $55.4 million opening. So with all these big budget commercials behind, next May we’ll finally find out if Marvel’s experiment will work the way they planned. But seriously, how could it not, The Avengers is going to be huge, maybe not like 1 billion worldwide huge, but still big enough to hopefully spawn more sequels, keeping busy the fantastic cast they got together, Robert Downey Jr. , Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson and Samuel L. Jackson.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 was 2nd with a 72% drop from last weekend, grossing $47.4 million. Now you might think 72% is terrible, but considering the ridiculously high opening weekend and the notoriously frontloaded nature of the Harry Potter movies, Deathly Hallows Part 2 is actually performing on par with past summer entries in the series. So fear not, with $273.5 million in 10 days this is still the 2nd fastest grosser of all time (The Dark Knight had $313.7 million after 10 days) and well on track to finish north of $360 million in North America, a new Potter high. It’s going to be an epic battle between Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and Transformers: Dark of the Moon. The prize? With nothing else big enough coming in the next months (and yes, I know Twilight will be huge, but trust me, it won’t be $350+ million huge), one of these two will become the number one movie of the year in North America.

In 3rd place Friends with Benefits opened with $18.6 million. For Justin Timberlake this is lower then his other R-rated comedy released this year, Bad Teacher ($31.6 million opening), while for Mila Kunis Friends played similarly to her 2008 R-rated comedy, Forgetting Sarah Marshall ($17.7 million opening). With good word of mouth Friends with Benefits might finish around $60 million, considering the $35 million budget, that would label it as a success. But, looking at Bad Teacher or Horrible Bosses, both on track to pass the 100 million mark, you can’t shake the feeling that this could have made a lot more.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon dropped 43.5% to $12 million and now the $195 million movie is at $325.8 million in North America after 26 days. On a daily basis this is now under Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen but in line with Transformers. Based on that it should bring in at least $30 million more over the coming weeks, for a total north of $355 million.

Last but not least, Horrible Bosses was 5th with $11.8 million for $82.5 million after 17 days. This is now pulling ahead of Bad Teacher by the day and should stop around $115-120 million.

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After setting a new opening weekend record in North America, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 did the impossible and destroyed the international opening record with an astronomical $314 million. The previous record was set just 2 months ago by Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides with $260 million, so you can kind of see why destroyed is the correct term here.

If we take a look at the all time international openings top 10, we can see that Harry Potter has definitely a strong foot in there with 4 movies now.

1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (3D) $314M
2. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (3D) $260.4M
3. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince $236M
4. Spider-Man 3 $230.5M
5. Transformers: Dark of the Moon (3D) $219.8M
6. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End $216M
7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 $205M
8. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix $193M
9. 2012 $165.2M
10. Avatar (3D) $164.5M

As you can see, Potter has gone up quite a bit since Deathly Hallows Part 1 and based on the international performance of that ($660 million), Part 2 should be headed to $900 million, something I find very hard to believe. I think frontloaded would be the correct term here. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 was crazy frontloaded so I’m inclined to think that it should finish with around $800 million internationally. Considering it already passed $390 million, that should not be a hard goal. If we take into account the money it will gross in North America, then the 8th Harry Potter is looking at about $1,150-1,200 million worldwide, enough to become the 3rd highest grossing movie of all time. I mean it is at $604.8 million worldwide already, halfway there. Finally, I don’t think I have to write to much about the fact this is now the fastest grossing movie ever, I mean it just opened a week ago and already flew past $600 million.

In 2nd place we find Transformers: Dark of the Moon with $39.5 million and $474 million so far internationally. Now it was to be expected that Potter would steal a big chunk of business from the autobots, but fear not Transformers fans, with both China and Japan set to open in the next few days, this flick has not reached its final hour yet. The billion mark worldwide is still very much a possibility.

Cars 2 was 3rd, grossing $12.4 million with still a lot more territories left to open in the next weeks. $146.6 million internationally and $314.6 million worldwide are the current tallies for this one.

Kung Fu Panda 2 is more impressive in 4th place with $10.2 million for $426.6 million internationally and that is now more then the $416.3 million made by the original. Worldwide the figure is $586.9 million, a bit less then the $631.7 million grossed by Kung Fu Panda in 2008, mostly because of the disappointing North American box office performance of the flick.

Bad Teacher was 5th with $6.9 million ($58.6M) and $148.8 million worldwide while Mr. Popper’s Penguins was 6th with a similar figure and $39.2 million so far internationally ($101.2M worldwide).

7th was Zookeeper with $5.8 million while Bridesmaids was 8th with $5.4 million and a very impressive $220.8 million worldwide. Japanese flick Kokuriko-Zaka Kara was 9th with $4.7 million (all made in Japan) and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides was 10th with $3.1 million, probably the last time we’ll see it in the top 10. With $1,028.9 million worldwide, this is now the 6th highest grosser of all time.

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