Back to the Future turned 25 today. A look at the trilogy's finest moment.

"Did you say seventy years?"

Has there ever been a cooler cliffhanger in modern film history? The idea of splitting a long film into two pieces and releasing them relative closely to each other was a new idea back in 1989. But of all the split-in-two franchise pictures, Back to the Future II has by-far the most satisfying finale of them all. To this day, I still get chills when the Western Union guy drives in from the torrential rainstorm. The wonderful logic of it, the way it bridges the way from part II to part III while completely closing the book on the narrative of the first two films; it's just perfect. The modern 'split in two' franchises (Pirates of the Caribbean, The Matrix, Harry Potter and Twilight) are basically one film split into two parts. The Matrix Revolutions and the Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End may be different in tone and structure from their respective predecessors, but both are primarily concerned with wrapping up unfinished business from the first sequels. Back to the Future II and Back to the Future III, like the earlier Richard Lester accidents (Superman, The Three Musketeers, and their respective sequels) completely stand on their own as complete adventures. And, really, has their ever been a cooler cliffhanger?

Scott Mendelson

How to introduce your kid to Star Wars and The Muppets at the same time.

While this is not her first exposure to the world of Star Wars (she likes the Star Wars Jedi Academy show at Disney Land) or The Muppets (she's seen the Muppet Vision 3-D show, also at Disney Land), this was a perfect way to combine both universes. Allison chuckled, she wanted more, there may be hope for her yet.

Scott Mendelson

Twilight Saga: Eclipse, Last Airbender hold steady in Friday box office (07/02/10).

The Twilight sequel, Eclipse pulled in $28.6 million, which is a 18% uptick from the $24.2 million that the film pulled in on Thursday. Said Friday gross is the twenty-ninth biggest Friday ever, and the sixth-biggest non-opening Friday ever. While we can all bemoan the fact that the film is still pulling in less than half of its opening day total of $68.5 million, the romantic drama has still grossed $121.3 million in three days, which is the ninth-biggest three-day total ever. As it is, the Thursday and Friday numbers ($52.8 million) are within a few million of the first two days ofIndiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull ($55.6 million). Said Indy sequel pulled in $150 million in its first five days (Thurs-Mon). So if Eclipse performs accordingly for the rest of the holiday, we're looking at around $142 million for the Thursday-Monday portion (or whatNew Moon pulled in on its opening Fri-Sun opening weekend), with that extra $68 million opening-day tagged on just for fun for the six day haul. In other words, $200 million for six days should be a cake walk at this point unless the film completely collapses over the holiday.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows gets a one-sheet.

"A lot of bad stuff happened here. It's as good a place as any for it to end."

Thursday box office (07/01/10) - The Last Airbender: $16.35 million. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse: $24 million, Toy Story 3: $7.4 million

The Last Airbender parlayed its devout fanbase, the marquee value of M. Night Shyamalan, and a pretty solid marketing campaign into a $16.35 million-grossing opening day, which includes $3 million in midnight showings. That's the fifth-biggest opening Thursday of all time, and the fifteenth-biggest Thursday on record. Yes, the 3-D ticket prices helped a bit, but if the product doesn't entice audiences, it won't matter how much the tickets cost. Of course, it's no secret that the film is abysmal, so it's a little disheartening to see M. Night Shyamalan rewarded with such a massive opening day (only Signs and The Village opened better, with $20 million on their respective opening days). Where it goes from here is anybody's guess.

The amazingly funny and astonishingly interactive Twilight Saga: Eclipse 8-bit role-playing video game.

Believe it or not, this thing goes on for a long time, depending on which decision you make. Fashioned like an 8-bit Nintendo role-playing game, this is arguably the first interactive game I've seen on YouTube. Check it out because it's funny, stay because it's brilliant.

Scott Mendelson

Press Release - Sony casts Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker/Spider-Man

ANDREW GARFIELD CAST AS PETER PARKER IN COLUMBIA PICTURES’ NEXT INSTALLMENT OF “SPIDER-MAN”

CULVER CITY, Calif., July 1, 2010 – After a comprehensive worldwide casting search, Andrew Garfield has been chosen to portray Peter Parker when Spider-Man swings back onto the screen in 3D on July 3, 2012. The new film will begin production in early December directed by Marc Webb from a screenplay by James Vanderbilt. Laura Ziskin and Avi Arad will produce the film from Columbia Pictures and Marvel Studios.

The Last Airbender bends $3 million worth of midnight ticket sales.

I've of two minds about The Last Airbinder's box office run. On one hand, it's a ghastly film. M. Night Shyamalan will learn few lessons if the film becomes a hit anyway, and he desperately needs some tough love right now. On the other hand, I don't want to see him tank at the box office, as that by itself will do major damage to his career, to the point where his allegedly-excellent new script might not end up as a feature (me-thinks he leaked the info about the new script when he realized what a disaster Last Airbender had turned into). I strongly disliked Alice in Wonderland, but I did get small amounts of pleasure at watching Tim Burton rule the box office in a manner not seen since Batman twenty-one years ago. That's the nature of fandom - we don't want the artists we respect and admire to fail, even when they probably deserve to. So it is with mixed feelings that I report that The Last Airbender scored $3 million in midnight showings. That may seem like small potatoes compared to the $30 million scored by The Twilight Saga: Eclipse or the $18 million snared by The Dark Knight two years ago, but it's still the biggest midnight haul for a non-sequel this summer, if not this year (did Alice in Wonderland even have notable midnight screenings back in March?). Heck, it's almost half of what Iron Man 2 grossed in its midnight run ($7.5 million), which means that we could be in for a much higher opening-day ($20 million?) than we were expecting. Of course, I don't expect the fans of the original television show to be anymore forgiving than the nation's critics, so the front-loading on this one may rival the Twilight series. The numbers should be out by early tomorrow morning, so we'll see soon enough.

Scott Mendelson

Let Me In (the US-remake of Let the Right One In) gets a teaser.

For better or worse, this looks like an almost shot-for-shot remake of the original film, with most of the visual highlights on display in this teaser. On the plus side, the cast is top-notch (Chloe Mortz from Kick-Ass, Kodi Smit-McPhee from The Road, plus Richard Jenkins and Elias Koteas) and the original material is so strong that simply connecting the dots will result in a pretty solid film. Of course, that just leaves the question as to what the point of the remake was in the first place. After all, the same film, with subtitles or dubbed into English, is available right here. The Matt Reeves-helmed redo opens on October 1st, 2010.

Scott Mendelson

Twilight Saga: Eclipse grosses $68.5 million in its first full day.

The numbers are in, and it's $68.5 million for The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, with $30 million of that coming just from midnight showings. That's the second-best day of all time, behind the $72.7 million scored on the opening day of The Twilight Saga: New Moon last November ($26 million in midnight showings). It's just ahead of the $67.1 million single-day take of The Dark Knight just under two years ago ($18 million in midnight screenings). It's the biggest Wednesday opening, ahead of the $62 million opening-day numbers of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen ($16 million in midnight screenings). It is telling that the film ended up just a bit ahead of those last two opening day marks, despite nearly doubling their midnight tallies (and having the added boost of higher-priced IMAX tickets this time around). It would appear for the moment that this third chapter will be even more frontloaded than the prior entries, but the long holiday puts even that into question. Point being, while the films have by-far the worst opening weekend multipliers of any ongoing franchise (the first two films merely doubled their opening-day take over the first three-days), the long weekend could allow the film to regain momentum as the hardcore fans see the film for a second time after their respective Fourth of July activities.