After a lengthy hiatus, Steven Spielberg is going to have quite a busy holiday in 2011. DreamWorks is pushing back his World War I epic about a boy and his horse to December 2011, to take advantage of the holiday box-office. That just happens to be the same month that Paramount will bow Spielberg’s animated family flick The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn. (Though Tintin, which is based on the comic strip series by Belgium artist Herge and is subsequently much more popular overseas, will first bow internationally and is likely to have a much more robust overseas gross.)

The date change alters the rest of DreamWorks’ 2011 slate too. Now all you fans of The Help will get access to Emma Stone as Skeeter Phelan on Aug. 12, 2011, the same weekend that Julia Roberts opened Eat Pray Love this year and Meryl Streep and Amy Adams starred in Julie & Julia back in 2009.

The other two date changes belong to Real Steel and Fright Night. DreamWorks will bow the Hugh Jackman-actioner from director Shawn Levy on October 7, while Fright Night, starring Colin Farrell, will move up from the fall, with an August 19 date.

Image Credit: Merrick MortonWith all three new releases under-performing, and Social Network holding strong for a second weekend in row, the David Fincher-directed Academy bait landed in first place for a second weekend in a row with a $15.5 million opening. Social Network dropped only 31 percent its second weekend for a total gross of $46 million after only 10 days in release.

Life As We Know It landed in second place with $14.6 million. The Katherine Heigl, Josh Duhamel-starrer was expected to gross closer to $18 million but according to exit pollster Cinemascore, those that did see the romantic comedy loved it, giving it an A-. The predominantly female, over 25 audience was heavily courted this weekend, also being lured by the Diane Lane horse movie Secretariat. That film, from Disney Studios, earned an estimated $12.6 million, over performing in smaller markets such as Salt Lake City, Denver and Dallas. It also scored very well with those female, over 25 moviegoers, who gave it an A, according to the exit pollster.

Slot four belonged to family holdover Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole. The Zack Snyder-directed animated flick earned $7 million its third weekend in release. The film has earned $39 million. Spot five marked the poorest received release of the new crop of films.  Wes Craven’s first endeavor into 3-D My Soul to Take earned $6.9 million in over 2,500 theaters with 86 percent of the gross coming from the 3-D screens. The Relativity release was hated by audiences, who gave it a D, according to Cinemascore, and those audiences polled who were over 25, liked it even less, grading it with a failing F grade.

The rest of the weekend was dominated by holdovers, with Ben Affleck’s The Town landing in sixth place. The R-rated Boston based heist flick earned $6.3 million its fourth weekend in theaters and has now earned close to $74 million. Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps nabbed spot seven with another $4.6 million. Money Never Sleeps has now earned close to $44 million, a figure that suggests the Oliver Stone-sequel will not be anything close to the culture reference point that the first Wall Street was back in the 1980s.

Emma Stone’s Easy A earned $4.2 million over the weekend for the eighth slot. The inexpensive teen comedy has grossed close to $50 million since opening a month ago. Last weekend’s new release Case 39 earned $2.6 its sophomore session. The long-shelved horror flick starring Renee Zellweger and Bradley Cooper has earned $9.5 million in two weeks. The final spot in the top ten belonged to Disney’s You Again starring Kristen Bell. Earning another $2.5 million in its third weekend of release, the comedy has grossed a paltry $20.7 million.

The last month has belonged to a slew of interesting adult dramas that have scored well with both audiences and critics but have had trouble generating much beyond $20 million openings. Next weekend should change the $20 million trend with Jackass 3-D opening wide opposite the old fogey actioner Red. Come back next week for more updates.

Image Credit: Peter IovinoNo film will cross $20 million again this weekend but it’s sure that the one that gets closest will win first place. Whether it will be last weekend’s first place winner The Social Network or this frame’s new romantic comedy Life As We Know It is still undetermined. Social Network earned an estimated $4.9 million yesterday while the Katherine Heigl- Josh Duhamel starrer grossed a bit over $5 million on Friday.

In third place is another of this weekend’s new releases, Secretariat. The Diane Lane-starrer earned an estimated $4 million for its opening day. Spots four and five are likely to belong to kid flick Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole which grossed under $2 million on Friday and Wes Craven’s new flick, the 3-D horror film My Soul to Take, which grossed an estimated $2.7 million for the day. The order of these two films has yet to be determined. In fact, the top five are all very much in flux.  Saturday will be crucial in determining the winner.

Check back tomorrow for complete results.

Image Credit: Peter IovinoThe romantic comedy genre needs some intensive care after a bleak summer where the likes of Jennifer Aniston and Drew Barrymore could do little to attract audiences. Is Katherine Heigl the answer? The former Grey’s Anatomy star didn’t score opposite Ashton Kutcher in Killers this past July, but perhaps Josh Duhamel is a more appealing co-star. We’ll find out this weekend when the duo’s film, Life as We Know It, opens wide, opposite Disney’s Triple-Crown horserace flick, Secretariat, which is battling its own issues.

Disney’s feel-good horse flick is an important movie for the studio. They consider the Diane Lane-starrer a role model for the type of movies the studio wants to make. They might want to ease up on that strategy — while the marketers are trying to reach family audiences, especially the church-going crowd, it’s still unclear if either will show up.

The two newcomers are also competing against the defending champ, The Social Network. The David Fincher-directed drama opened to $22.4 million, and this weekend will be crucial in determining the film’s long-term health. Critics and audiences both seem to love it, and the buzz should lure those who couldn’t make it to the theater last week.

My Soul to Take, Universal’s latest from director Wes Craven, is also steeling itself for an uphill battle. The director’s first 3-D film bows one week after two other horror films were practically D.O.A. Neither Let Me In nor Case 39 grossed more than $5 million in their opening frames. It will be a surprise if this genre film, with little marketing might behind it, will do much either. Read on for my predictions.

1. Life as We Know It: $16 million

I’m not sure why the ad campaign for this romantic-comedy is built around an action shot of the stars chasing the baby, but maybe it will work. Tracking suggests it will have trouble surpassing $20 million. With Heigl’s lackluster track record at the box-office, it will be interesting to see if this high-concept idea brings in the moviegoers. READ FULL STORY »