It's a good year to be an animated film.  If studio estimates prove accurate, then 20th Century Fox's Rio will have claimed the top spot for the second week in a row, pulling in a projected $26.8 million over the holiday weekend.  Tyler Perry's Madea's Family Reunion, meanwhile, nipped at Rio's animated heels with $25.7 million in estimated receipts.  This weekend was the second in a row that has exceeded the grosses from the same weekend last year, with another new release, Water for Elephants, adding $17.5 million to the overall box office.

The reign of family-oriented films continues, with Rio making what is estimated to be the biggest opening of the year so far with a projected $40 million haul over the weekend.  Not only that, but the animated musical led the pack in what was the first weekend of 2011 to see an increase over the corresponding weekend last year.  Rio accounted for the lion's share of the roughly 11% increase over the same three-day window in 2010, with the attempted horror franchise restarter Scream 4 earning an estimated $19.3 million, well below expectations.

Last week, Warner Bros debuted a full length trailer for The Hangover Part II online, and had it attached to prints of Source Code in theaters from sea to shining sea.  This week, the studio and the MPAA are ordering theaters to remove the trailer.  Not only that, but according to a Warner Bros notice posted at Slashfilm, digital copies of the trailer, "need to be deleted from your server."  What's the deal?

Fifteen years after horror got all self-aware and postmodern with the first Scream, director Wes Craven and writer Kevin Williamson are hoping to rejuvenate the franchise, which has laid dormant since Scream 3 in 2000.  In that film, you knew the Scream train had gone off the rails when Jay and Silent Bob inexplicably showed up for a cameo.  Franchise restarter Scream 4 goes back to basics, returning to Woodsboro and introducing regulars Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, and David Arquette to a new generation of potential victims, including Emma Roberts, Hayden Panettiere, Anna Paquin, Kristen Bell, Rory Culkin, Erik Knudsen, and Alison Brie.  Check out three new clips from Scream 4, all of which focus on bringing together franchise newbies and alums.

I hope everybody had a festive St. Patrick's Day, and because we are a beneficent, merciful organization, we've got the perfect hangover cure: a big old sack full of movie trailers.  It was a busy week, and our weekly summation of noteworthy trailers is accordingly jam-packed with fourteen trailers and a TV spot.  Variety is the secret word this week, as you'll find Justin Timberlake getting cozy with Mila Kunis, Werner Herzog spelunking, Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph going bridal, mutant superheroes speaking Russian, Bill Hicks waxing vitriolic, Morgan Spurlock placing products, Jason Statham kicking ass for a change, and, of course, ventriloquists gathering at a convention.  Push through that pounding in your alcohol-soaked brain with these trailers, regretful revelers.

Every day, Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson's would-be franchise restart for the self-aware slasher series Scream gets a little closer to its April 14th release date, and Moviefone knows that you're jonesing for a fix of promotional material, so they've debuted the latest poster for Scream 4.  The image combines two simple objects in such a way that, if you consider the practical implications, would result in the best defeat of a Ghostface killer in franchise history.  Give the poster a gander.

You like that headline, folks?  See what I did there?  I can guarantee you’ll be seeing a lot more exquisite wordplay like that between now and the April 14^th release of Scream 4, the franchise restart from director Wes Craven and writer Kevin Williamson.  Today, Yahoo Movies (via Coming Soon) debuted the one sheet poster for the film.  Give it a gander, if you dare.

One of the big questions about Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson’s attempted restart of their Scream franchise is how – and to what extent – the new, youthful cast members will take over returning stars Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, and David Arquette.  The latest trailer makes it a point to announce that when it comes to who will survive to the end, all bets are off. Eric Walkuski at Joblo’s Arrow in the Head has a theory about Alison Brie’s potential role in the franchise, particularly regarding Courteney Cox.

With the release of this Scream 4 full length Canadian trailer, we can now say for sure that director Wes Craven and writer Kevin Williamson’s restart of the Scream horror franchise will sport ample self-awareness.  This trailer really sells the whole “horror-movie-commenting-on-horror-movie-conventions” shtick that made the first Scream so refreshing all of fifteen years ago.  While we know it’ll be plenty tongue-in-cheek, the best question is whether it will be scary.

This plot synopsis for Wes Craven’s upcoming Scream 4 comes our way from the considerate folks over at bloody-disgusting.com, who received the synopsis in an invite to a test screen, which happens to be beginning today!

Check out the focal idea behind the fourth installment of Wes Craven’s insanely popular Scream series.: