The news of a wider release for the movie comes after a second weekend of sold-out midnight screenings that earned the movie an average of $16,000 per screen. The all-day screenings at 40 locations is much smaller than the rumored 100 location number, but consider the buzz that the movie's currently getting from being relatively difficult to see, and be patient.

'Paranormal Activity' Set For Oct. 9 Normal Release After It Gets Freakishly Good Gross Playing Only After Midnight [Deadline Hollywood]

Paramount released The Invasion of Cobra Island as viral ad for film. It features the high-tech battles fans have always reenacted with their own toys, with added special effects, and lightly mocks some of the cartoon's conventions, such Snake Eyes' awkward silence and Cobra Commander's costume changes:

[via Screen Rant]

To expand a little on that box office estimate, Hollywood Reporter is estimating "somewhere between $65 million to $75 million," while the always-editing Nikki Finke is currently pinning it down somewhere closer to $72 million. This is less than last weekend's X-Men Origins: Wolverine (which raked in $85.1 million), but way above the original tracking numbers for the revamped space opera, which had suggested an opening weekend of around $50 million (For math fans, Trek also played in 3,849 theaters versus Wolverine's 4,099, not that that 250 theater difference probably affected the outcome noticably).

Add to that, Abrams' reboot is the most successful opening for the director (Unsurprisingly, considering that it's only his second movie after Mission: Impossible III) and the most successful for the Trek franchise. Most importantly, perhaps, it's also the most successful franchise reboot movie of recent years, significantly besting Casino Royale and Batman Begins in terms of opening day takes. Not bad for a series that was, many thought, best left for dead after the cancellation of Star Trek: Enterprise in 2005.

(International box office estimates aren't officially in yet, but rumors are that Trek is close to Wolverine's $72 million, which would be unprecedented for the franchise, and a sign that this Trek is a bona fide hit for Paramount.)

With critical response for the movie so positive - currently at 96% on Rotten Tomatoes - this movie may end up being this year's Iron Man; a nerd movie that surprises critics and mainstream audiences alike, and ends up showing more staying power than anyone expected.

Toy: Smorkin’ Labbit
Pitch: V meets The Insider meets Crank. In an effort to kick his cigarette habit, the Labbit visits a hypnotherapist. A particularly probing session taps deep into his subconscious: Turns out he’s an alien leproid planted on Earth to be a remote assassin—his “fuse” a nic fit!—waiting to destroy all mankind. Only he’s inadvertently become attached to his human targets…and resolves to save their puny race.

Toy: Munny
Pitch: Seven Samurai meets Shane. He is a warrior who traverses the bleak frontier by his lonesome. Along the way, Munny valiently rescues some villagers from local bandits and captures the (innocent and totally platonic, and yet latently homoerotic) heart of a lad, who faithfully studies his idol’s skill set. The kid learns how to be a man; our hero learns how to be a sensei.

Toy: Dunny
Pitch: Die Hard meets itself. Dunny is a nice-guy window washer at a downtown Manhattan skyscraper. While faithfully doing his job, he looks through a window and notices the employees inside gagged, tied up, and held at gunpoint. Clearly, they are communists! Not one to waste time, he opens a can of Yippie-Kai-Yay on their asses.

Images courtesy of KidRobot.com

[via Daily Variety]

Seriously, people: Abrams had even complained about the fact that Paramount wouldn't let him show anything two weeks ago. Did you really think he was joking? Still, Entertainment Weekly suggests that the lack of the hoped-for-despite-everything footage ) might have had something to do with the people behind Fringe:

For days, there had been lots of buzz that executive producers J.J. Abrams (pictured), Roberto Orci, and Alex Kurtzman were going to use the panel to debut a few minutes from Trek (which was directed by Abrams and written by Orci and Kurtzman, and is set for release next May). Zachary Quinto, who plays a young Spock in the new movie was even in attendance. But almost 40 minutes into the session, it seemed certain that Abrams had no intention of unveiling the much-anticipated footage, despite comments from insiders around him who said he actually had three minutes from Trek ready to debut... So what happened? One key source says Fox, the network that will air Fringe, may have nixed Abrams' plan at the very last minute (a Fox spokesman could not be reached late Saturday).

Now, I've got no problem with people blaming Fox for things that are, you know, actually their fault, but this is kind of ridiculous. We'd been told, more than once, that Paramount was going to have no presence here at Comic-Con and not show any footage from their upcoming movies. We've had JJ himself complain about that decision. It's not like we've been given any inclination that Paramount was joking around, and that they were ready to let something slip, and that it's a completely other studio that ruined everything... Sometimes a phaser is just a phaser, media people.

Did Fox nix a 'Star Trek' preview at the 'Fringe' panel? [Entertainment Weekly]

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• Star Trek: The Motion Picture - Okay, it's not false advertising to call it a motion picture, is it? There were indeed pictures in motion in this movie. But, this was part of the trend of calling things "The Movie" or "The Motion Picture." Did marketing people think they needed a title like this so as not to confuse people? Just ask the folks behind Superman: The Movie.The problem with this poster, other than featuring a triumvirate of Kirk, Spock, and the bald chick from the movie is the tagling "The Human Adventure Is Just Beginning." How is that true? Did we think it had come to an end?
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• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan - No problems with the title, Khan did have a lot of wrath. No, our problem is with the whole "At the end of the universe lies the beginning of vengeance" line. How were they at the end of the universe? Plus, the poster shows the Enterprise firing on the Regula I space station, what the hell is up with that? "To hell with science, Spock! Blow that research station to pieces!"
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• Star Trek III: The Search For Spock - The tagline for this poster is "Join The Search." Uh, how do we do that? By buying a movie ticket? Actually, our main problem with this movie is the title. When did they go searching for Spock? They put the guy's dead body into a torpedo tube and shot it onto the newly formed Genesis planet, for the love of god. They kind of knew where he was. Granted, they later find the tube empty, but it's not like there was a massive galaxy-wide search for him.
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• Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home - Just look at this artwork... is that supposed to be Captain Kirk or Chekov right next to Spock? Plus, did Spock decide to go extra-heavy on the eyeliner that day? Plus, check out the text on the seldom seen Australian version of the poster: "They traveled back where 23rd century man had never gone before, to a more crazy, outrageous time: 1986." Yeah, you know, the Dark Ages had nothing on 1986.
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• Star Trek V: The Final Frontier - Check this out "On June 9, Adventure And Imagination Will Meet At The Final Frontier." Really? How did that end up happening? Unless by "imagination" they meant horrible directing, acting, and writing. Ouch. Now, just when you thought things couldn't get worse for this movie... have you seen the teaser poster? It says "Why Are They Putting Seatbelts In Theaters This Summer?" Yes, because of Star Trek V. It's almost been 20 years, but we still want our money back. Maybe even more so, now.
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• Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country - "The Battle For Peace Has Begun," was it really a battle for peace? You could probably argue that it was. However, we only remember the Bird of Prey firing shots at the Enterprise, not the Battlecruiser. Maybe they needed something to spice it up a bit. We think General Chang's ominous eyepatch was probably enough. Why overdo it?
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• Star Trek Generations - Granted, it's hard to find a problem with this poster. "Boldly Go" ain't a bad tagline, so what are we supposed to say? "Um... the Enterprise never flew through a giant Starfleet symbol!" Although on the alternate poster the "Two Captains. One Destiny" line is a bit odd. What was that shared destiny, exactly?
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• Star Trek: First Contact - It's hard to figure out why the artists on these posters always make it seem like the faces are beaming in. Ever since Star Trek: The Motion Picture, it's like they have to be depicted as teleporting onto the poster itself. Bizarre. Anyhow, this poster features the Enterprise racing away from an army of Borg... and into the teleporting faces. Plus, is the Borg Queen winking at us? We're just not sure what's going on here, although resistance was definitely not futile.
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• Star Trek: Insurrection - The problem with the tagline on this poster ("The Battle For Paradise Has Begun") is that it's a direct ripoff of the one for The Undiscovered Country ("The Battle For Peace Has Begun"), which was only two movies prior. Did they just phone it in that day? Other than that, we actually kind of like Adhar's craggy face staring down at the Enterprise. It's just too bad the movie was a bit of a letdown.
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• Star Trek: Nemesis - Someone please explain to us how "A Generation's Final Journey Begins" works out here. Do they mean the Remans? The crew of the Enterprise who is beginning to go their separate ways? Picard, since he never had a son? Maybe all of the above... or maybe they meant people who would pay to go see more of these, yikes. The marketing people sure loved to have these posters signifying the beginning of something.
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• Star Trek - J.J. Abrams' film has had several teaser posters put out so far, with some of them even claiming "Stardate 12.25.08" at the bottom. However, now that it's been bumped to the Summer of 2009, those have all become a paper trail of false advertisements. It's gotten to the point that we've stopped trusting the posters altogether. What's next? Trailers that lie to us as well? Oh... wait.
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Did he go albino somewhere along the way, or the did movie just feature his botoxed and tanned Hollywood cousin? Somehow, rendered in plastic, the thing just doesn't terrify like it did in the film. Maybe if it had a little Hud action figure (complete with camera) that it could terrorize, that might amp up the believability. But after seeing these images, we're going to hit the reset button. Maybe next time, Cloverfield... although we still want the Statue of Liberty head accessory. [Thanks David!]

Reeves says:

When we started the project there was going to be an announcement in the trades. In this case, they wanted to keep everything under wraps. So the movie was going to be made under this outside corporation that was basically a property of Paramount. That corporation had a name that I don't know the name of. I think Clover was the first part of it. Maybe it was Cloverdale. When Drew [Goddard, LOST writer] was putting a name to the project, there was supposed to be a name for the project like there was for The Manhattan Project. So he said, "I am going to use that weird mysterious thing," and he misheard it. He didn't even understand that it wasn't Cloverfield, it was Cloverdale. Maybe that was because of the street by J.J.'s old office, but the truth is he just misunderstood it.

Director Matt Reeves told Variety yesterday, "The fun thing is you do see everything over the course of the movie in several different ways, but it's filmed heavily from one point-of-view. You move quickly. By the end you have intimate contact." So that means we'll at least find out what the monster is. Until then, give us some fake tissue samples, "leaked" government documents, a Photoshopped aerial photo of the destruction, or some more weepy hand-held camera wailings. Just no more photos like this, please.

New Look at Vogel and Stahl-David in 'Cloverfield' [Bloody Disgusting]

and that the monster definitely isn't Godzilla. We also know there will be a lot of hand held shakycam footage in an effort to seem real and gritty. But you've gotta show a little more skin on that creature in the shadows if you want movie-goers to take notice.

Now if only Abrams could maintain the same veil of secrecy around Star Trek. We really don't need to know every time an additional background character is cast.

Cloverfield image gallery

12 New Cloverfield Photos [/Film]