Defying normal international trends, Iron Man had a worse drop-off on the international charts than it did domestically. However, despite falling 60%, it still remained in first place with $39.31 million on 7,208 screens in 57 markets for a total of $165.79 million. It is now the third biggest hit of the year on the international chart, behind just Welcome to the Sticks and 10,000 B.C., while its worldwide total of $343.62 million at the end of the weekend is the best of the year to far.

Not only did Iron Man remain on top of the weekend box office chart, it also topped the per theater chart with an average of $12,452. The only other film to top $10,000 was Surfwise, which did it with $10,304 in one theater.

This week another number of upcoming movies, new stars and directors have been added to our archive!

The winners of our Speeding Toward a Green Future contest were determined and they are...

It was a good news / bad news weekend, but let's focus on the good first. Iron Man beat expectations and that helped the overall box office top $125 million over the weekend. This was 21% lower than last weekend, but, more importantly, it was 18% more than the same weekend last year. Year-to-date, 2008 is still behind, but it is cutting into 2007's lead and is now down just $2.93 billion to $3.01 billion.

The summer blockbuster season is upon us, so it's not a very good time to release a top-notch movie on DVD. There are a high number of releases, little in the way of top-notch releases. In fact, arguably the best release of the week is a Blu-ray catalogue release, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - Blu-ray Edition - Buy from Amazon. And if you don't have a Blu-ray player, grab The Great Debaters 2-Disc Special Collector's Edition instead.

It was a close race on top of the DVD sales chart this week as 27 Dresses topped His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass, 1.29 million units to 1.05 million units. However, His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass came out on top in terms of dollars, $21.97 million to $20.92 million.

There were five new releases to reach the top 30 on the rental chart this week, including the overall leader, 27 Dresses. That film started its home market run with in $7.35 million in rentals, which was as expected, given its domestic box office.

After a huge opening for Iron Man last weekend, the market fell to earth with a bump this time around thanks to a very disappointing debut for Speed Racer. The much-hyped cartoon action movie from the Wachowski brothers only managed to pull in $20.2 million at the box office, according to Warner Bros.' Sunday estimate, and there's a good chance that What Happens in Vegas, with an estimated $20 million so far, will end up in second place for the weekend. Iron Man, meanwhile, put in a very respectable second weekend with an estimated $50.5 million.

This week's round of new movie release information contains release dates for The Spirit, Iron Man 2, The Avengers and more!

The release of Iron Man hit The Forbidden Kingdom knocking it into second place with $9.63 million on 2062 screens in 11 markets for a total of $40.51 million. The film had no major openings, but it did make $1.10 million on 398 screens over the weekend in South Korea for a total of $5.63 million.

Big week for movie releases, which means a big week for websites. However, what this week's list has in quantity, we lose in quality. None have what it takes to become the Weekly Website Winner, and while Speed Racer - Official Site comes the closest, it fails on medical grounds.

Last week Iron Man scared away nearly all competition. This week is entirely different with more than a dozen films, including a few opening up here in Canada. However, while there's a wide selection, none seem destined to expand wide. In fact, there are more that feel like they should have gone direct-to-DVD than there are that feel like they have a 50% shot at significant expansion.

This week's round of new casting information contains updates for The Avengers, Iron Man 2, Push, and more!

The weekend before Memorial Day long weekend is one of the best weekends to open a movie. That's the weekend The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian is opening and that film is this week's target movie. Whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going over, will win Exes and Ohs - The Complete First Season, Revolver on DVD, and Teeth on DVD. Meanwhile, whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going under, will win Exes and Ohs - The Complete First Season and Revolver on DVD Additionally, one additional entrant will be chosen at random to win Exes and Ohs - The Complete First Season. Entries must be received by 10 a.m., Pacific Time on Friday to be eligible, so don't delay!

Speed Racer tries to maintain 2008's momentum; however, there's little chance it will match Iron Man's opening, or even its sophomore stint. In fact, many pundits don't think it will be able to match Iron Man's opening during its entire run. That said, the combined weight of the new releases and the holds could lift this weekend over last year's total, which is the real goal at this point.

Iron Man became the first worldwide smash hit of the year, opening with $98.59 million on 7,588 screens in 56 markets internationally, for a total of $200.71 million worldwide. Even if it only makes $200 million more during the rest of its box office run, it will still make enough to show a profit during its initial push into the home market. Its challenge is that it was truly a worldwide opening, which leaves it with very few additional markets. With a high level of competition coming up, it is unlikely to stay on top for very long.

The winners of our Turning Iron into Gold contest were determined and they are...

This week another number of upcoming movies, new stars and directors have been added to our archive!

The first blockbuster release of the summer, Iron Man, placed first on the Per Theater Chart with an impressive average of $24,877. Second place was a bit of a surprise as cult director Harmony Korine's latest film, Mister Lonely, did better than expected with $16,769 in one theater. Roman de Gare was the only holdover in the $10,000 club as it doubled its theater count, to two, and earned an average of $11,267. Two other new releases, Son of Rambow and Redbelt opened with nearly identical averages of $10,758 and $10,560 respectively. Both have at least a shot at serious expansion over the coming weeks.

A slow week for top-of-the-line releases and there are no first-run, wide releases that look even remotely interesting enough to buy. There are a few limited releases and older releases to fill the gap. It was also a slow week for spotlight reviews, but that gave me a chance to completely catch up to all the screeners that arrived late. ... That is until the next batch of late arrivals show up. As for the best of the best, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead - Buy from Amazon is high on that list, except technically it was released a couple of weeks ago. Teeth - Buy from Amazon also impressed, but the extras are a little too light. For the DVD Pick of the Week, I'm going with The Passion of Greg the Bunny: Best of the Film Parodies - Volume 2.

Summer started with a bang, and a whimper... it depends on what you compare it to. Over the weekend, the box office totaled $159 million in ticket sales, which is 75% more than last weekend. However, it is also 16% less than the same weekend last year when Spider-man 3 smashed the record for biggest opening weekend. Compared to expectations, this was a great start; compared to last year, 2008 continues to struggle.

There were only a handful of new releases to chart this week, but we did have a new number one seller. Cloverfield started its home market run with $16.64 million in revenue from 1.04 million units sold.

Cloverfield landed on top of the rental charts leading a group of five new releases with $7.52 million in rentals.

This week's round of new movie release information contains release dates for Bottle Shock, Milk, The Lovely Bones and more!

This week's round of new casting information contains updates for Angels and Demons, Red, Transformers 2, and more!

Iron Man is heading towards $100 million, the 2nd-biggest opening by a non-sequel and the 10th-biggest opening weekend of all time, according to Paramount's estimates, released on Sunday. The current estimate stands at $100.75 million, which leaves some uncertainty over whether Iron Man will top the magical $100 million level, but either way the performance is incredibly impressive for a movie with less of a built-in audience than the likes of Harry Potter or Spider-Man.

Fool's Gold opened in a trio of major markets and that helped the film climb into sixth place with $4.93 million on 1809 screens in 39 markets for a total of $26.30 million. The film did relatively well in Spain with $1.03 million on 272 screens and in Germany with $934,000 on 254 screens while earning second place in both markets. On the other hand, it bombed in Italy with just $516,000 on 232 screens landing in sixth place. Overall, it was better than the film's average so far, but not nearly enough to recover from its previous troubles. It should hit $100 million worldwide this weekend, but that's not much compared to its domestic run, nor compared to its production budget.

Iron Man kicks off the summer blockbuster season this weekend, and since it scared award most of the competition at the box office, there's little competition when it comes to movie websites. Its Official Site was the only one really in contention for the Weekly Website Award and it was the easy winner.

After attracting an estimated $5.1 million from previews on Thursday, Iron Man opened in all theaters on Friday and earned a giant $34.5 million, according to our estimates. That's going to make it about the 25th-biggest day of all time (see complete list) and either the second- or third-best performance by a non-sequel. Spider-Man holds the record in that category with a $39.4 million opening day back in 2002, and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone made $33.5 million when it opened in 2001.

The opening of Iron Man marks the unofficial start of the summer blockbuster season. It also helped to scare away limited releases and there are only a handful of these films on this week's list. But this includes one or two that have the real potential to expand wide.

It's too soon to tell if the summer season got off to a good start or not -- we will have until Saturday, when Friday's box office numbers come out. So it feels premature to talk about Speed Racer. Still, it is the target film for this week's box office prediction contest. Whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going over, will win a prize pack from Big Ideas for a Small Planet (T-shirt, journal, and more), as well as Conspiracy on DVD. Meanwhile, whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going under, will also win a prize pack from Big Ideas for a Small Planet (T-shirt, journal, and more), as well as Conspiracy on DVD. Entries must be received by 10 a.m., Pacific Time on Friday to be eligible, so don't delay!

Summer unofficially starts this weekend with the release of Iron Man, which actually opened on Thursday night. There is little doubt that it will finish on top of the box office chart this weekend. The real question is how far up the all-time chart it will go.

2008 has stumbled pretty badly recently, but, with the past two weekends beating their 2007 counterparts, it looks like it is getting back on track. Hopefully this can continue in May. On the one hand, the start of the Summer should reinvigorate the box office numbers with a few potential $300 million hits opening over the five weekends and two more films that should reach $100 million. Here's the problem: Last year, there were three monster hits that opened in May and they earned a combined box office close to $1 billion. If any of the big three this month (The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and Iron Man) stumble, then there will be almost no way 2008 can keep pace with 2007.