The box office results for the weekend of October 21st – 23rd brings in a lot of rewrite Activity to the record books. Meanwhile, a couple of foreign treasures fail to make bank in America. Here are the weekend actuals: 1. Paranormal Activity 3 ($52.56 million) 2. Real Steel ($10.82 million) 3. Footloose 2011 ($10.35 million) 4. The Three Musketeers 2011 ($8.67 million) 5. The Ides of March ($4.85 million) 6. Dolphin Tale ($4.21 million) 7. Moneyball ($3.98 million) 8. Johnny English Reborn ($3.83 million) 9. The Thing 2011 ($3.06 million) 10. 50/50 ($2.83 million) Analysis Rarely will a sequel out-do the original in content and/or box office performance. But…

“The Thing” is a prequel to John Carpenter’s “The Thing” from 1982, which is itself based on 1952′s classic B-movie “The Thing From Another World”. Both Carpenter’s “Thing” and the vintage “Thing” are beloved by classic movie fans and sci-fi/horror fans alike. Will the new “Thing” compare to any of those? Not in the slightest, if we’re going by Rotten Tomatoes. The critics were brutal with this film, giving it a 33% rotten rating. The audience gave it a much higher score–59%–but still thought it was too rotten to recommend. Let’s see what the critics had to say about this film. “‘The Thing’, while technically a prequel to ‘The Thing’–it…

Sure, there are four wide releases arriving this weekend, but, in lieu of the upcoming holiday and the franchise’s immense success, all eyes will be on Paranormal Activity 3. When the first film made its wide debut, it only took in $19.6 million. But, not only did that money come in after Paranormal Activity had a 12-theater limited release, but it went into the bank of a film that cost a mere $15,000 to make. Round two had a more traditional release of 3,216 theaters at once and took in $40.7 million with a stellar $12,649 per theater average. So, what’s the fate of the third? With the Saw franchise…

Looking for a little bit of everything? This week’s Movie News Cheat Sheet‘s got it. We’ve got the latest from New York Comic Con 2011 as well as the full list of Scream Awards winners. Then there’s the news of the famed Black List getting its own website with a new live feature offering a real-time list. Switching gears yet again, apparently a man was inspired to toss a hot dog at Tiger Woods while in the midst of a match by the movie Drive and, far more unfortunately, a group of extras took a tough tumble on the set of Resident Evil: Retribution. Then, of course, we’ve got some…

The box office results for the weekend of October 14th-16th sees a remake trade blows with big-budgeted original for the top spot. And in other remake & original news…two newbies flop hardcore. Here are the studio estimates: 1. Real Steel ($16.3 million) 2. Footloose 2011 ($16.1 million) 3. The Thing 2011 ($8.7 million) 4. The Ides of March ($7.5 million) 5. Dolphin Tale ($6.3 million) 6. Moneyball ($5.5 million) 7. 50/50 ($4.3 million) 8. Courageous ($3.4 million) 9. The Big Year ($3.3 million) 10. The Lion King 3D ($2.7 million) Analysis Even though none of the three major releases lit up the charts on their respective opening weekends, Footloose –…

Title: The Thing Directed By: Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. Starring: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Joel Edgerton, Ulrich Thomsen, Eric Christian Olsen, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Paul Braunstein, Trond Espen Seim, Kim Bubbs, Kristofer Hivju, Stig Henrik Hoff When you’re trying to live up to the standards, or perhaps exceed those set by John Carpenter’s The Thing, you’ve got your work cut out for you. While Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.’s version offers a nice thrill, it doesn’t come close to, well, replicating the elements that made Carpenter’s piece iconic. It’s 1982 in Antarctica. A team of Norwegian scientists travel across the snowy tundra trying to track a mysterious signal. Upon pinpointing the position of…

Opening weekend of the Matthijs van Heijningen Jr-directed prequel “The Thing” is upon us. Fans of the 1982 John Carpenter film have eagerly been awaiting, or dreading, the impending Universal prequel for some time. But before some of you flock out to the theaters to see it, maybe you should read on to find out more about the whole process of bringing this prequel to life on the big screen, along with the creature’s variously disturbing forms. At an Antarctica research site, the discovery of an alien craft leads to a confrontation between graduate student Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and scientist Dr. Sander Halvorson (Ulrich Thomsen). While Dr. Halvorson…

Whenever it comes to a red carpet at a premiere you never know who you’re going to run into. Then again you figure that you would run into Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Nights creative director John Murdy since his maze “The Thing: Assimilation” is based off the brand new prequel. ShockYa: You’ve been very familiar with “The Thing” remake for awhile now because you took the effects from the film and implemented it into “The Thing: Assimilation” at this year’s Halloween Horror Nights. John Murdy: We actually worked with ADI which is the makeup company with award-winning makeup artists Tom (Woodruff) and Alec (Gillis). They let me take every big…

Title: The Thing Director: Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. Starring: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Joel Edgerton, Ulrich Thomsen, Eric Christian Olsen, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Kim Bubbs, Jorgen Langhelle, Jan Gunnar Rosie Well the first 30 minutes-and-change of this remake of a remake (1982 – original was 1951) is basically a wash for the most part. If you can plow through that portion then The Thing actually proves to have something to it; even though this is essentially the same screenplay from the 1982 version that starred Kurt Russell. The gist of the story is that a discovery is made just outside of a remote base on Antarctica in 1982. A group of scientists…

“The Thing” starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Joel Edgerton and Ulrich Thomsen is taking over movie theaters and Universal is allowing fans of the film to win some “Thing” apparel through ShockYa! The swag you could win: a cool “The Thing” trucker hat and a red “The Thing” shirt. You can take a look at the apparel at the bottom of the page. We have four trucker hats and shirts, so there will be four winners, each one getting a hat and shirt. Now, to win the apparel, we’ll use our trusted Tweet contest. For those new to Twitter contests, here’s what you need to do. First, follow us @Shockya. Then…