If you are a fan of The Twilight Saga, I don’t have to tell you what a big day this is. It’s probably been circled by a red heart on your day planners since, um, last November. For box office reporters, however, this is a big day for another reason. The release of New Moon at 12:01 am this morning had the potential to overturn the midnight box office record set by The Dark Knight back in July of 2008.  New Moon already had the record for midnight presales so the only question left to ponder was how high Bella and Edward would go. No official numbers from Summit are yet available but it looks like that $18.4 million record The Dark Knight claimed has indeed fallen.

According to Variety, estimates for the 3,514 North American New Moon theatres put the film’s midnight total at $26.3 million.  This means that The Dark Knight opening day record of $67.1 million is in danger of succumbing to Twilight mania. We all knew it would be huge, but huge enough to beat The Dark Knight? That’s a horse of another color. A huge horse.  We’ll keep you updated as the weekend numbers start to come in.

Sorry, Star Wars: Episode III, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, The Dark Knight, and Twilight.  With five days remaining until it opens in over 4,000 theaters nationwide, The Twilight Saga: New Moon has become the biggest advance-seller in history for the online movie ticket seller, Fandango.com.  The tickets went on sale starting on August 31^st and while midnight showings across the country are sold out, theaters are continually adding new screens for the film which means new tickets are becoming available.

This is interesting as far as the box office is concerned because there’s the possibility it could determine whether or not Summit, the studio behind The Twlight Saga, will go ahead with Breaking Dawn, the final book in the series and the one with the most mixed reception among fans.  With a strong enough weekend opening, we may be hearing on November 23^rd that Breaking Dawn is a go.  However, with such massive advance sales, I’m curious to how much New Moon could rake in.  Openly almost a year to the day of Twlight, it should beat the first film’s opening take of $69 million but by how much?  I’m horrible at predicting box office but I think it will gross overtake Half-Blood Prince’s take of $77 million but not break the $100 million mark.  Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen has the year’s highest opening weekend with $108 million.

He spent all that time training in the mountains with Liam Neeson and what does Batman have to show for it?  Just a larynx full of gravel, apparently.  CollegeHumor released a video today showing that Batman’s ability to disappear while other people are talking still needs some work.  The sketch also features one of the best one-liners I’ve heard in a while.  I won’t spoil it here but hopefully you’ll laugh as hard as I did when you hear it.  You can check it out after the jump.

Also, the guy playing Batman in the sketch could double for Christian Bale in the movies.  The similarity in their performances is just uncanny.

I know you’re excited about Christopher Nolan’s upcoming movie, “Inception” because you saw the trailer, and now you’re hooked.  Also, that “Dark Knight” movie probably didn’t hurt.  But “Inception” is a project with its plot so under wraps that it feels weird to see set photos.  It’s far weirder to see the actual filming as some LA citizens did today and taped.  As far as I can tell from these brief clips of hand-held footage, “Inception” does not have positive commentary on commuting by car in Los Angeles as we see men shooting at cars and cars chasing each other.  Oh, and a train rolls through a city street.  And I’m talking about a tram or a monorail car.  It’s a real, cargo-hauling train.  You should just hit the jump now.  Trust me.

Who would have thought that “Batman: Arkham Asylum, the latest Batman videogame in series which has fallen notoriously short on its trips to home consoles, would come up as one of the best-reviewed and best-selling games of 2009 when it made its next-gen debut on XBOX 360 and PlayStation 3?  Well, I did.  I watched all the trailers, knew that the story was by Paul Dini, that Mark Hamill and Kevin Conroy were coming back as The Joker and Batman, respectively, and that this would be the first adaptation to actually take advantage of Batman’s abilities beyond his fighting skills and the darkness of the character’s attitude which sets him apart from all the other big-name superheroes.

“Batman: Arkham Asylum” is better than every Batman adaptation including “The Dark Knight”.  Hit the jump to find out why before your brain explodes.

Back in 2006 a film called “The Prisoner” was rumored to be the film that Christopher Nolan would tackle once “The Dark Knight” was behind him.  Based on the presence of articles with “Inception” in the title currently our site, however, I’m thinking that that didn’t work out.  But if you are anxious about the fate of “Batman 3″ and have been worrying that Nolan may move to “The Prisoner” before getting busy in Gotham, fear not.  Nolan has officially backed off of the adaptation according to producer Barry Mendel.  More after the jump.

Gary Oldman was at Comic-Con today promoting his upcoming movie “The Book of Eli” and he actually said something about “Batman 3″. According to Gary, the next “Batman” film will start shooting next year.

While this might excite fandom across cyberspace, this really isn’t anything we all didn’t know. Chris Nolan is currently filming “Inception” and once that wraps, he’ll make a decision regarding the next “Batman” movie. If he decides not to make it, you can bet WB will get another director to sign on five minutes after Chris passes. So, either way, a new “Batman” movie is getting made next year. More info as we get it.

It is a scientific fact that motorcycles make you look cooler.  Also, in the event of a catastrophic event, you will be able to navigate roadways far easier as everyone else is stuck in traffic pretty much waiting to die.  There’s almost nothing you could do to negate the coolness of riding a motorcycle.

Well…there is one thing.  You could dress up like Batman.

In anticipation of next week’s coverage of Comic Con, I wanted to bring you some early images of the highly anticipated second DX figure from Hot Toys - the all new 1/6^th scale Batman figure that stands approximately 32 cm tall. The pictures don’t do the figure justice. But they come close. Check them out after the jump:

Opening today is director Michael Mann’s “Public Enemies”. The film is set during the Depression-era’s great crime wave and it’s the story of the government’s attempt to stop legendary criminals John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd. This operation transformed the FBI into the first federal police force. By now you’ve seen the trailers and commercials, so you know the cast is filled with famous faces like Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard, Channing Tatum and David Wenham.

Anyway, to help promote the film, our partners at Omelete sent me to cover the international press day and I was able to participate in a small press conference with Christian Bale. During the interview, Christian talked about making “Public Enemies”, the research he did to prepare to play Melvin Purvis, what he’s working on now, and people tried to get him to compare all the different director’s he’s worked with to one another. If you’re a fan of this great actor, you’ll love the interview. The transcript and audio is after the jump:

If you watch movies, you’re heard the music of James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer. That’s because between the two of them, they’ve composed the music for over two hundred movies. Take a look at their IMDB pages. You’ll be blown away.

Anyway, the other night was the Saturn Awards and the two won for Best Music for “The Dark Knight”. After they won, I was able to speak with them for a few minutes backstage and after the jump is the interview. We talked about what winning meant to them, composing the music, and what they’re working on now.

Michael Bay wanted his “Transformers” sequel to be an “event picture” and that’s exactly what he got.  Following the record-breaking $60.6 million Wednesday opening, “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” went on to earn an additional $28.6 million on Thursday for a two-day total of $89.2 million - already enough to put the film $10 million ahead of the entire opening weekend of that other “event picture” that had Bay all hot and bothered - “Star Trek”.  Factor in a gigantic Friday of $36.7 million and “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” is on track to break $195 million by Sunday.  That’s enough to crush the $152.4 million five day total of “Spiderman 2″ but is still short of the $203.7 million “The Dark Knight” earned in the same period - but never underestimate the drawing power of Giant F*cking Robots.  With all early estimates for “Transformers 2″ now surpassed, a total that bucks up against Batman would not be shocking… sad and wrong, but not shocking.