Yet another "next Twilight", The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, gets a surprisingly solid trailer.

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Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Jamie Campbell Bower, Movie Trailers, Movies Blog

At the very least, this looks a lot better than The Host.  Yes we're seeing what amounts to Underworld or Blade told from the point of view of the Scott Speedman/N'Bushe Wright character, but it still *looks* good.  The production values seem solid, with some genuinely creepy imagery and promises of more than one action scene.  Having Jared Harris narrate your trailer never hurts, nor is advertising his supporting role.  There are some decent character actors hidden behind the (presumably) star-crossed lovers (Lily Collins and Jamie Campbell Bower), including CCH Pounder and Jonathan Rhys Meyers.  Of course, the best-cast of the various attempted Harry Potter cash-ins (Percy Jackson Etc Etc) turned out to be the worst, so that may mean little.  Of the three "next great young-adult literary film franchise" sneak peaks we've seen thus far, I'm partial to this one.  For what it's worth, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones opens August 23, 2013.  As always, we'll see.

Scott Mendelson  

Weekend Box Office (04/22/12): Think Like a Man earns a whopping $33m, The Lucky One earns $22m, The Hunger Games stays strong and tops $350m.

It was an 'everybody wins' weekend at the box office as all three openers outperformed even the most optimistic expectations.  The number one film of the weekend was not The Hunger Games but rather Think Like A Man.  The all-star romantic comedy based off of Steve Harvey's best-selling relationship self-help book grossed a somewhat surprising $33 million on just over 2000 screens.  The Screen Gems film was notable in that the small studio made a real effort to market the African-American-centric rom-com both to black males and white audiences (Vulture has a detailed article about the marketing campaign).  Racial demographics aren't available yet, but the film played 63% female and 62% over 30.  For what it's worth, it earned an A from Cinemascore, including an A+ from audiences under 25. Even more impressive is that the film achieved a near-3x, including a token increase on Saturday (from $12 million to $13 million).  The film has a ton of 'would probably be a bigger star in a color-blind society' actors, including Gabrielle Union, Meagan Good, Michael Ealy, Steve Harvey, and Taraji P. Henson.  But the secret weapon may have been comedian Kevin Hart, who powered his stand-up concert film, Laugh At My Pain to $7 million last September despite playing on less than 300 screens.  Pay no attention to this large opening folks, nothing to see about an under-served audience demographic delivering near-blockbuster numbers on a $13 million budget.  Just move along and keep putting Anthony Mackie in fourth-billed supporting roles.