Episode 1: The Phantom Menace is the first Star Wars title to gain over $1 billion in total box office revenue as the 3D version of the film was released in cinemas worldwide less two weeks ago earning $73.4 million.

The Phantom Menace will likely match or surpass the The Dark Knight which grossed $1,001.9 million and the film will become the 10th highest grossing film of all time. It currently stands as the 11th film to earn $1 billion or more globally, as it earned $35.8 million in the USA and $37.6 million internationally.

Fox also is celebrating an Alvin and the Chipmunks milestone: The third entry in the series, Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked, has grossed $200 million in Latin America, a franchise best. The threequel has grossed $326.4 million worldwide.

Pattinson has shocked fans as it seems he will not be appearing in another Twilight as he feels he will be too old by the time author Stephanie Meyer decides to write another novel.

“I’d be curious what Stephenie would write,” Pattinson said, promoting his new film, Bel Ami.

“But I just think I’d probably be too old. I’m already too old. But yeah, it’d be kind of interesting.”

In the Twilight series adapted from Meyer’s books Robert Pattinson played Edward Cullen, and the first film hit the screens back in 2008.

Signalling he is keen to move on from his blood-sucking days, Pattinson recently stunned fans with his newly shaved skull, a far cry from his full head of Edward-esque locks.

He stars in Bel Ami – based on the 1885 French novel by Guy de Maupassant – alongside Christina Ricci and Uma Thurman.

The epic finale of the Twilight Saga Breaking Dawn – Part 2 hits cinemas this November.

The Vow, the romantic drama, however was in close competition and sold $23.6 million at the box office whilst another major action thriller, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, came in at third, grossing just $22 million in revenue.

Universal Studio’s Safe House opened just a week ago with an opening weekend revenue of $40 million, and has grossed in total $78 million over its first 10 days released in cinemas. However, the success of Safe House seemed to capitalize largely on the poor opening weekend of Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, even with expensive 3D ticket sells.

Over the same weekend Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, starring Vin Diesel, grossed $20.1 million and This Means War, starring Reese Witherspoon, came in at 5th grossing just $17.1 million.

Safe House stole the show, outselling the competition, in just its second weekend running. The film follows Ryan Reynolds, a CIA rookie who is manning a safe house in Cape Town, South Africa, when Tobin Frost, Denzel Washington, the CIA’s most wanted rogue agent is captured and taken to the safe house. During Frost’s interrogation, the safe house is overtaken by mercenaries who want Frost. Weston and Frost escape and must stay out of the gunmen’s sight until they can get to another safe house.

Bay had previously claimed there would be no fourth installment of Transformers but he has announced that there will be a follow-up to the trilogy in 2014.

Michael Bay wrote on his website:
“Steven Spielberg and I are working on a whole new re-imagining of Transformers, the fourth installment”,

“We have been working on the idea for a few months. I’m excited about where it’s headed”.

The Transformers trilogy has given Michael Bay an estimated net worth of $200 million so it’s hardly surprising that the Pearl Harbor director has agreed to make another sequel.

Rumour has it that the fourth Transformers is to be a direct sequel to the last in the trilogy, but thematically, will diverge from the trilogy. The fourth will apparently be the darkest, grittiest and more adult, and with Shia LaBeouf not in the picture, we can presume that the lead character will be a whole new one.

“I don’t think anybody’s doing it,” Josh Duhamel — who played soldier William Lennox in all three films — told E! Online.

“I know Shia’s not doing it. I don’t think Tyrese [Gibson] or Rosie [Huntington-Whiteley] or anybody else is doing it”.

Insiders claim that Bay aims to recapture the ‘end-of-days’ mood of Dark of the Moon, in which Earth is crippled by a massive Decepticon invasion. The toilet humour will also be trimmed out. No official announcement has been made, but fans suspect that Unicron — a vast planet-eating destroyer-god — will appear as an antagonist. Whatever the details, Bay has promised us something new — but as we’ve seen twice before, he has no obligation to keep those promises.

The Twilight Saga managed to stay on top despite other recent releases flying back up the charts due to Valentine’s promotions but was helped by Target’s $9 DVD sale.

Walt Disney’s The Help, released in December, climbed to No.2 from No.11 in the Sales Chart, whilst Cars 2 went to No.6 from No.31 after being in store for over 4 months. The Rise of the Planet of the Apes from Twentienth Century Fox has been out for 10 weeks and soare to No. 5 from No. 30.

Other beneficiaries of Target’s big sale were Sony Pictures’ The Smurfs movie (No. 7 from No. 40), DreamWorks/Paramount’s Kung Fu Panda 2 (No. 9 from No. 37) and Universal Studios’ Cowboys & Aliens (No. 10 from No. 33).

Still holding its own among the discounted tentpoles was Disney’s Blu-ray Disc edition of Lady and the Tramp, which slipped just one notch, from No. 2 to No. 3, in its second week of release.

On Nielsen’s dedicated Blu-ray Disc sales chart, it was Breaking Dawn at No. 1 and Lady and the Tramp at No. 2. The two releases switched places their second week in stores from week one, when the “Twilight” installment had only two days during Nielsen’s week-long tracking period.

Breaking Dawn also topped Home Media Magazine’s video rental chart in its first full week of release. Sony Pictures’ The Rum Diary, a theatrical underperformer based on gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson’s famous early novel, debuted at No. 2, bumping the previous week’s top seller, Drive, also from Sony, to No. 3.

Zulu, set in post-Apartheid South Africa, will star Bloom and Hounsou who play a pair of policeman investigating a murder of an 18-year-old girl.

The movie is an adaptation of Caryl Ferey’s novel, which isn’t to be confused with Sir Michael’s Caine’s Zulu, and will start filming in Cape Town in July this year.

Bloom, the British actor, is currently shooting The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and last starred in Three Musketeers in 2011, directed by Paul W.S Anderson. In Three MusketeersBloom played The Duke of Buckingham, a character he said he based on David Bowie, the music icon.

Orlando Bloom said:”I didn’t like the idea of wearing a wig, but I wanted to have a hairstyle that would lend itself to the period. I love Teddy Boys, so that’s where the quiff came from. My hair was brushed up and sprayed.

“Paul [W.S. Anderson, director] wanted us to play the characters as rock stars of our generation, and mine was Bowie. Buckingham has the swagger of Ziggy Stardust and wears outrageous costumes. In my opinion, you have to own those costumes, otherwise they wear you – and then you run the risk of looking like a big tomato.”

Millar is the man who penned the Kick-Ass comic books, and so is well placed to give an update on the film. “We shoot Kick-Ass 2 and American Jesus this summer,” he told the newspaper, before going on to elaborate on the latter project.

“It’s the reverse of The Omen,” he explains, “which is about a kid who finds out he is the anti-Christ. This is a kid who finds out he is Jesus Christ.”

We’re still waiting for confirmation as to whether Matthew Vaughn will return to the director’s chair for Kick-Ass 2, although the director himself has admitted it’s unlikely. However, that doesn’t preclude his involvement on script or production duties, so we’ll keep our fingers crossed.

No word on cast or crew for American Jesus either at this point, but if filming is set to begin in a few months time, presumably some announcements will be on their way sooner rather than later…

He replaces Robert Schwentke, who opted not to return for a second round of Bruce Willis, John Malkovich and Helen Mirren kicking young actors’ arses and taking names.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Willis, Malkovich and Mirren may all return, though no deals are locked in yet. It also mentions Morgan Freeman, though given that he – spoiler alert! Spoiler alert! – carked it thanks to a sniper’s bullet in the first film, we’d wonder if he’ll only crop up in flashbacks. Or if it’ll be revealed he had an identical twin brother all along. Either that, or he’ll step out of the shower at the start of this movie, revealing the original to be part of a dream…

However it shakes out, it’ll have to wait until Willis is done with Die Hard 5, and Summit wants Red 2 shooting before the end of year. It’ll mark Parisot’s return to the megaphone for the first time in more than six years, as he last made 2005’s mis-firing Jim Carrey comedy Fun With Dick And Jane.