Lana and The Arrow

In the 6-degrees of Smallville News the CW network announced that it was adding Green Arrow in a show called Arrow to the fall line-up, and Kristin Kreuk is returning to television with the Beauty and the Beast reboot.  Arrow, which is produced by Greg Berlanti and Marc Guggenheim, stars Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen, Katie Cassidy (Dinah Lance/Black Canary), and Willa Holland (Thea Queen).  Now that the series has made the schedule its next hurdle will be scoring high enough ratings to survive the first cut of new series.  The CW network is hoping Arrow can come close to the success of Smallville, the long-running DC Comics-based series, which featured Kristin Kreuk as Lana Lang.  There's not much on what the reboot of Beauty and the Beast will be like.  The original series starred Linda Hamilton and Ron Pearlman and as it was it would be perfect for the type of programing CW does these days.  However it would be interesting if they went Battlestar Galactica on it, though judging from shows like Secret Circle and Vampire Dairies let's not hold our breaths.

Avengers Smashes $1 Billion Dollars

1 Billion Dollars - that's the official worldwide gross for Marvel's The Avengers.  Friday, May 11th 2012, U.S. estimates are in at $29 million beating out Tim Burton's Dark Shadows.  It also beat Dark Knights second week gross, which earned $26 million US in it's 2nd week.  The Avengers set a new record with its $299.1 million total through eight days in theaters.  Over all Avengers took in $103.2 million to lead for a second-straight weekend and raised its domestic total to $373.2 million while raking in $95.4 million overseas lifting its international receipts to $628.9 million.  Together the reported take for the super hero team-up battle fest comes to a whopping $1,002,082,000.  Not only is this excellent news for Marvel/Disney and geeks around the world, and crazy thing is it's just the 2nd weekend and the numbers look like they are going to kick ass and take many names before this is all done.

MuthaF@#kin' World Record Update

Back in October, the Guinness Book of World Records named Jackson the highest-grossing actor in the history of movies, the result of Jackson's insane four-films-per-year work ethic, his willingness to take supporting roles in mega-productions, and and the fact the Samuel L. has grossed a combine 10 billion dollars over all - which beat out Tom Cruise who has a combined gross of 7 Billion.  Everyone is speculating that Avengers is pretty much set to make a billion dollars before it's run is over, and Samuel L. hae a nine-film deal for "Iron Man 3" and "Cap 2."  and  "Thor 2,", not to mention the coming Avengers 2 movie.   EW.com asks if anyone can beat Samuel L. Jackson.  The answer is obviously NO.

Blockbuster Assemble

On Sunday, May 6th 2012, Disney estimate a total ticket sales of $50.1 million domestic for The Avengers, which was far off from the film’s actual total of $57.1 million. This is a mistake we bet Disney and Marvel Studios can live with.  The Avengers’ Sunday performance pretty much beat the previous box office record of $43.6 million, which was set by Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight.  The higher number also raised The Avengers 3-Day weekend debut record to $207,438,708. The Avengers did not set the record for Fridays, the Harry Potter finale did that, but it did set records on both Saturday and Sunday.  The Avengers has also earned $447.4 million through Sunday overseas, which gives it a worldwide total of $654.5 million that already is well clear of the $617.7 million earned by The Hunger Games.  This makes The Avengers 2012’s number one film to date worldwide. The Hunger Games has earned a accumulate $380 million domestically, so it is still well ahead in the North American market.  In addition to establishing a new superhero sub-genre, The Avengers also reaffirmed the comic book movie's top status among  summer blockbuster movie genres.  This is a clear message for those who say Super Hero movies are about to be over - which is an opinion voice fitfully since 2005, and to movie studios confused about whether Super Hero movies can make money - which is asked a lot even though Super Hero movies keep making money.  (Consider this,  Hancock - a movie made for $150 million dollar, earned $654 million dollar at the box office - and this wasn't based on any comic character.)

Valiant Digital

Valiant Entertainment has reached an exclusive digital comics distribution agreement with comiXology.  Starting today with the release of the new X-O Manowar #1 by Robert Venditti and Cary Nord, comiXology will offer same day as print digital releases for all of Valiant’s upcoming titles.  Valiant is returning with four new series X-O Manowar, which debuts in May, Harbinger in June, Bloodshot in July, and Archer and Armstrong in August.  In addition to those four series, every title of which will be available day and date in digital form from comiXology, the Valiant backlist is going to be made available via comiXology starting with some of the most popular story arcs from Valiant vaults including the first seven issues of X-O Manowar by Jim Shooter, Bob Layton, Barry Windsor-Smith, and Joe Quesada, the first seven issues of Harbinger by Jim Shooter and David Lapham, and the first five issues of Bloodshot by Kevin VanHook and Don Perlin.

Director Catching Fire

The Hollywood trades are reporting that Francis Lawrence, who directed Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon in Water for Elephants, will helm Catching Fire, the sequel to this year’s most successful film, The Hunger Games.  Gary Ross who directed the first Hunger Games film bowed out of the second largely because of the extremely tight schedule necessary to meet Lionsgate’s announced debut date for Catching Fire, which is November 22nd, 2013.  Lionsgate announced that all the principal cast members including Jennifer Lawrence will return for the sequel with shooting expected to commence late this summer.  The initial Hunger Games film has now earned over $600 million worldwide.  Michael Arndt, who earned an Oscar for his screenplay for Little Miss Sunshine and wrote the story for Toy Story 3, is in talks to adapt Catching Fire.