Given the incredible effect Toy Story 3 has had on the market since release (both in terms of box office and merchandise), it isn’t exactly surprising that Variety are reporting that Disney have announced soaring profits for the third quarter of the year.

Incredibly, the studio posted profit figures of $123 million compared with a $12 million loss in the same period last year. Overall, revenue rose 16% to $10 billion, while profits increased 37% to $2.5 billion.

The uplift has been pinpointed as being down to the healthy box office returns of Iron Man 2 and the aforementioned Pixar offering, as well as healthy DVD and Blu-Ray sales for Alice in Wonderland (despite the, I think, unfair critical reaction). The big man on campus at the Mouse House, Robert Iger declared in a call to investors (who could probably be heard audibly unclenching in relief after usually more gloomy news) that their strategic focus on branded fare is paying off well for the studio.

The profits have even been healthy enough to take the hit of disappointing domestic purses for Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and The Sorceror’s Apprentice (though the relatively impressive foreign performance of PoP will probably have helped soften that blow).

The figures look to be vindication for the studio’s decision to experiment with an early release of Alice (a month quicker than usual), as the swift release allowed the studio to cement already strong figures with the almost $67 million that the release’s three versions have brought in since June 1st.

Despite those impressive home release figures for Alice, Iger confirmed that Disney wouldn’t be resting on its laurels, having identified the DVD market as a difficult prospect:

The DVD market is challenged and will continue to be challenged… You’re dealing with a title-to-title environment. It’s very title driven. Collectability doesn’t seem to be as important as it once was other than for certain brands like Pixar.

In response, Iger confirmed that the studio would be actively seeking new approaches to attempt to continue their rude financial health. He said that Disney “will become aggressive in experimenting with new windows, including digital” to try and encourage more of a return out of the home entertainment market going forward.

According to Variety, Iger remained tip-lipped on the subject of the sale of Miramax, other than saying that the $660 million sale to the Ron Tutor headed consortium “reflects a focus on maximising our assets and devoting resources to branded entertainment with franchise potential” and adding that the sale will only have a minimal impact of future Disney profits.

Also within the Disney stable, ESPN and ABC both posted profits with the sports network’s performance buoyed by an increase of 31% in ad sales from their World Cup coverage, and ABC by overseas sales of Lost, Ghost Whisperer and Castle.

Further business reflected a relative uplift in attendance at the company’s theme parks, though it is still incomparable to periods before the economic downturn of last year, and overall the picture was relatively conservative:

Although profits decreased 8% to $477 million, revenue for Disney’s parks and resorts division increased 3% during the quarter to $2.8 billion. While attendance at Disney’s overseas parks, including Disneyland Paris and Hong Kong Disneyland, was stronger than expected, ticket sales in Orlando and Anaheim was still down 3% and 4% respectively, while the additional of a new ship to Disney’s cruise business also ate into profits.

However, the pricey addition of new attractions like the World of Color light and water show is “bringing record crowds” to Disney’s California Adventure park in Anaheim, Iger said. This month, Disney also raised ticket prices at Walt Disney World and Disneyland to move away from the practice of discounting to attract parkgoers.

Aside from the movie arms of the Mouse House, it looks like the company is enjoying the greatest return from its games wing. Following the recent acquisition of Playdom for $563 million and mobile gamemaker Tapulous, plus this week’s launch of  “World of Cars Online,” revenue from interactive media soared 74% to $197 million. Losses in the division were also cut by $10 million to $65 million against the same quarter a year ago.

Going forward, while remaining in the console game market- creating Disney-branded games across all formats, like the recently successful Toy Story 3 tie-in, Disney will devote more money to the burgeoning online gaming business, which Iger claimed will grow more than 30% a year:

We’re all aware of the rapid growth of social networks and the huge popularity of games on them… We feel it’s essential for us to have a presence. We now have a diversified games business to meet consumer interests.

So times are looking good at the minute for the company, and with the intelligent approach to new markets that Iger has outlined, they can only go from strength to strength.

Today sees the release of the latest collaboration between Jerry Bruckheimer and Walt Disney Pictures in the form of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. The movie stars Nicolas Cage, Jay Baruchel, Alfred Molina, Teresa Palmer, Monica Bellucci, Toby Kebbell and is directed by Jon Turteltaub.

Our friends from Upbeat got to meet and interview the cast from the movie for us along with the director and Producing legend, Jerry Bruckheimer!

Our review went live yesterday and you can see it here. For all our coverage of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, visit this very handy link!

Thanks to Simon Thompson for conducting the interviews for us.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is released in the UK tomorrow and promises to make your summer more magical than ever before. Read on to find out if the it will fulfill the magical quota…..

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is the latest movie between long-standing collaborators, Walt Disney Pictures and Jerry Bruckheimer films. This is the 2nd movie to be released by the two power-houses in 2010 with the first being Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Where as Prince of Persia was based on a computer game, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice got its inspiration from a sequence in Disney’s Fantasia which was created back in 1940 – but does a short sequence lend itself to becoming a full length feature film?

Fantasia is possibly one of Walt Disney’s most famous movies as it showed off just how creative his team of artists really could be. I wonder if Walt ever thought that a live action movie could be spawned from one sequence in Fantasia? I guess we’ll never know but obviously someone at Disney thought it could be done. So, as if by magic, here is The Sorcerer’s Apprentice starring Nicolas Cage, Jay Baruchel, Alfred Molina, Teresa Palmer, Monica Bellucci, Toby Kebbell. It’s directed by Jon Turteltaub who worked with Cage, Bruckheimer and Disney previously on the National Treasure movies.

So what exactly is the movie about? Brooms washing floors for 90 minutes? Have a read of the synopsis and it’ll tell you a little more:

Walt Disney Studios, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Jon Turteltaub, the creators of the “National Treasure” franchise, present “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” — an innovative and epic comedy adventure about a sorcerer and his hapless apprentice who are swept into the center of an ancient conflict between good and evil.

Balthazar Blake (Nicolas Cage) is a master sorcerer in modern-day Manhattan trying to defend the city from his arch-nemesis, Maxim Horvath (Alfred Molina).  Balthazar can’t do it alone, so he recruits Dave Stutler (Jay Baruchel), a seemingly average guy who demonstrates hidden potential, as his reluctant protégé.  The sorcerer gives his unwilling accomplice a crash course in the art and science of magic, and together, these unlikely partners work to stop the forces of darkness.  It’ll take all the courage Dave can muster to survive his training, save the city and get the girl as he becomes “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.” The screenplay is by Matt Lopez and Doug Miro & Carlo Bernard from a screen story by Matt Lopez and Larry Konner & Mark Rosenthal.

The movie opens with a voice over to end all voice-overs. It goes on forever. I guess they had to do this though so that we knew what was going on, as the entire opening sequence is a montage of information (overload) so that we could then work out what was going on for the rest of the movie. Unfortunately the voice-over is so badly put together, from the get-go, you start to think that maybe paying £10 for this at the cinema could have been a mistake.

The opening sequence to the movie is actually very good and features Jake Cherry (as young Dave) trying to work out if the prettiest girl at school is interested in going out with him. Through various circumstances, Dave finds himself in an old antique shop where we get to see Sorcerer, Nicolas Cage for the first time. Then cue Alfred Molina and the fight is on using magic galore. This is where the CGI guys got to shine and thinking back on it, was probably my favourite part of the movie. The banter between Molina and Cage is great and watching them come up with different magical tricks to out-do one another was excellent. The issue here is, do you really want the best bit of the movie to be in the first 5 minutes?

So why was that the best bit? Well, it’s mainly because after that scene, 10 years pass and older Dave (now Jay Baruchel) turns up and just doesn’t suit the part whatsoever. He’s supposed to be a geeky kid who’s trying to find his place in the world but with silly dialogue, a bad screenplay and some silly actions like knuckle-bumps, it just seems all a bit poor.

I don’t know if it’s Baruchel’s fault. He was cast in the movie by some people who obviously thought he was perfect for the role. But they’re trying to make a movie funny when it doesn’t need to be. This leads me onto another point. Who is this movie aimed at? I’ve seen it and I still don’t know. Kids may love it for the silliness side of it but i think even kids may find some of the ‘comedy’ as unfunny as adults would.

There are however a few redeeming features. Both Alfred Molina and Toby Kebbell are excellent in every scene in which they appeared. The more I see of Kebbell, the more I realise how versatile an actor he is. I first saw him in Shane Meadows’ Dead Man’s Shoes which was one of the best films I’ve ever seen. Every time he appears in a movie, I know his performance will be excellent and he’s obviously caught the eye of Disney / Bruckheimer as he also appeared in Prince of Persia earlier this year.

The two leading ladies in the movie are Teresa Palmer and Monca Bellucci. Palmer plays Dave’s love interest and although she puts in an OK performance, she too has little to work with and the chemistry between her and Baruchel is completely unbelievable from the start. Bellucci is hardly in the movie which is a real shame as she’s such a great actress. For the one scene that she does appear in, she’s the excellent, beautiful, veteran actress that we’ve all come to know and love.

So, as you may have gathered, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice isn’t the greatest movie I’ve ever seen. The target audience is a little muddled and if I’d spent £10 on a ticket to see this at the cinema, I’d be a little disappointed. Some of the CGI scenes were excellent, mainly the car chases where you see a classic old fashioned car turn into a top of the range Mercedes, then go through a mirror to flip over into a clever ‘backward world’ (you’ll understand what I mean when you see it). The various nods to other films like Raiders of the Lost Ark (with Alfred Molina) were brilliant but must be in there for the adults as I don’t think a child would ever spot it. Also so make sure you stay to the end of the credits for a little nod to Fantasia and a possible sequel.

In a nutshell though, wait for the DVD!

Christopher Nolan’s Inception has topped the US box office for the third week in a row, taking an estimated $27.5M, for a domestic total of $193.3M, whilst fending off competition from Salt, Dinner For Schmucks and Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore.

Dinner For Schmucks, the buddy comedy starring Paul Rudd and Steve Carell, opened at second place with a respectable $23.3M, while Angelina Jolie’s Bourne-esque Salt slipped to third, with $19.2M, bringing the domestic total to $70M.

Despicable Me continued to entertain audiences, bringing in an estimated $15.5M, dropping one place to fourth, while new release Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore failed to capture a decent audience, making a disappointing (for Warner Bros. at least) $12.5M.

Rounding off the top ten were Charlie St. Cloud ($12M), Toy Story 3 ($5M), Grown Ups ($4.5M), The Sorcerer’s Apprentice ($4.3M) and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse ($3.9M).

Figures were provided by http://boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/.

This news comes as no surprise but Warner Bros. must be extremely pleased to see that their new movie , Inception has done so well on it’s opening weekend. According to Box Office Mojo, Inception brought in a whopping $60.4m in North America with this becoming Leonardo DiCaprio’s best opening weekend beating his previous movie, Shutter Island which came out earlier in the year.

Despicable Me came in 2nd place taking a further $32m which is great to hear as I wasn’t expecting amazing things from Universal Pictures’ latest animation. Disney / Jerry Bruckheimer may be a little disappointed with their new movie, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice coming in third taking in $17.3m.

UK figures for the weekend haven’t been released as yet but I’ll update this post when they are – Inception will no doubt be top. It’ll be interesting to see how Toy Story 3 does this time next week as it’s released today with the school holidays starting either today or next Monday.

Disney / JB Films had the world premiere of their new movie, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice on Tuesday night since the movie opens in the US July 14th. We don’t get the it until August 9th (probably again due to the world cup) but from the clips we’ve seen, it looks like it’s going to be worth waiting for.

The movie stars Nicolas Cage, Jay Baruchel, Teresa Palmer, Alfred Molina, Monica Bellucci and is directed by Jon Turteltaub who has worked with Bruckheimer previously on the National Treasure movies.

This nice new poster comes from Comingsoon.net.

I hope you’re keeping up with the lovely new posters we’re posting for Disney’s next big thing, the Nicolas Cage fronted Sorcerer’s Apprentice, and now there’s a lovely trailer to complement them.

If you’re a fan of CG heavy movies about magic then you’ll probably love this one, and it comes to you from the hands of Dave’s fave – Jerry Bruckheimer – which tells you all you need to know.

There’s some new footage on offer here, and it looks slick enough, with magic abounding all over the place and Mr. Cage has on his spooky hat so you can’t argue.

Here’s a synopsis for you.

Walt Disney Studios, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Jon Turteltaub, the creators of the “National Treasure” franchise, present THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE,  an innovative and epic comedy adventure about a sorcerer and his hapless apprentice who are swept into the center of an ancient conflict between good and evil. Balthazar Blake (NICOLAS CAGE) is a master sorcerer in modern-day Manhattan trying to defend the city from his arch-nemesis, Maxim Horvath (ALFRED MOLINA). Balthazar can’t do it alone, so he recruits Dave Stutler (JAY BARUCHEL), a seemingly average guy who demonstrates hidden potential, as his reluctant protégé.

Every day this week, Disney will be releasing a new poster from their latest movie collaboration with Jerry Bruckheimer, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice which stars Nicolas Cage, Alfred Molina, Monica Bellucci, Teresa Palmer, Jay Baruchel and is helmed by National Treasure director,  Jon Turteltaub. We’ve already seen a trailer and some clips from the movie but this gives us the chance to see some of the other characters up close.

The first poster is of ‘The Wizard’ played by Gregory Woo and here’s the character description:

SUN LOK (Gregory Woo) is an ancient, but perpetually young, Chinese sorcerer and Morganian.  When he’s unlocked from his Grimhold by Horvath, Sun Lok wreaks havoc in Chinatown during a lively festival by materializing a fearsome fire-breathing dragon.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is released in the UK 11th August.

Disney / Bruckheimer have released a brand new behind the scenes look at their latest movie, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice which is directed by Jon Turteltaub (National Treasure) and stars Nicolas Cage, Jay Baruchel, Alfred Molina, Teresa Palmer, Monica Bellucci and Toby Kebbell.

The movie has a US release date of July 16th but we don’t get it until 13th August.

Synopsis: Synopsis: Balthazar Blake (Nicolas Cage) is a master sorcerer in modern-day Manhattan trying to defend the city from his arch-nemesis, Maxim Horvath (Alfred Molina). Balthazar can’t do it alone, so he recruits Dave Stutler (Jay Baruchel), a seemingly average guy who demonstrates hidden potential, as his reluctant protégé. The sorcerer gives his unwilling accomplice a crash course in the art and science of magic, and together, these unlikely partners work to stop the forces of darkness. It’ll take all the courage Dave can muster to survive his training, save the city and get the girl as he becomes THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE.

Source: Yahoo

The first official poster for Disney / Bruckheimer’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice has been released over on ComingSoon.net and it’s a cracker! It shows Nicolas Cage (The Sorcerer) looking rather cool with a huge dragon ring on his finger.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is inspired by Disney classic, Fantasia, is directed by Jon Turteltaub and as well as Cage, stars Jay Baruchel, Alfred Molina, Teresa Palmer, Monica Bellucci and Toby Kebbell.

I wasn’t too up for this movie before I went to Wondercon and saw a couple of clips and it really does look excellent. You can see the footage from Wondercon that I recorded here.

Today, the cast and crew of Disney’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice were in San Francisco for Wondercon. HeyUGuys were there armed with video cameras and attend the panels and the press conference. There would loads of great questions asked in probably two of the best press conferences I’ve been to as most the questions were actually film related rather than asking what Nicolas Cage’s favourite colour is!

Sorry about the audio in the press conference – I’m going to try and get the audio from a separate source but the footage from the panel and the photos are pretty good. Enjoy!

A brand new trailer have been released for The Sorcerer’s Apprentice – Disney’s answer to the live action version of Fantasia which was released way back in 1940. The 2010 version is produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, directed by Jon Turteltaub who brought us National Treasure. Turteltaub reunites with Nicolas Cage who plays Balthazar Blake along with Jay Baruchel, Monica Bellucci and Alfred Molina.

The movie is released 13th August.

Synopsis: Balthazar Blake (Nicolas Cage) is a master sorcerer in modern-day Manhattan trying to defend the city from his arch-nemesis, Maxim Horvath (Alfred Molina). Balthazar can’t do it alone, so he recruits Dave Stutler (Jay Baruchel), a seemingly average guy who demonstrates hidden potential, as his reluctant protégé. The sorcerer gives his unwilling accomplice a crash course in the art and science of magic, and together, these unlikely partners work to stop the forces of darkness. It’ll take all the courage Dave can muster to survive his training, save the city and get the girl as he becomes THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE.

Hot on the heals of the trailer we posted earlier, Disney has now released a few high resolution photos from the new Nicolas Cage film, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (via /Film).  The photos show Nic Cage with Alfred Molina, one with Jay Baruchel and one with his trench coat.

I actually just watched the trailer for this and it looks like it could be some cheesy fun.  If you haven’t watched the trailer yet, you can check it out here.  This film reunites Cage with the director Jon Turteltaub and producer Jerry Bruckhiemer all of who worked on National Treasure.  These guys are no strangers to action so let’s keep our fingers crossed that they deliver.

Here’s the rundown on the film: Walt Disney Studios, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Jon Turteltaub, the creators of the “National Treasure” franchise, present THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE “” an innovative and epic comedy adventure about a sorcerer and his hapless apprentice who are swept into the center of an ancient conflict between good and evil. Balthazar Blake (NICOLAS CAGE) is a master sorcerer in modern-day Manhattan trying to defend the city from his arch-nemesis, Maxim Horvath (ALFRED MOLINA). Balthazar can’t do it alone, so he recruits Dave Stutler (JAY BARUCHEL), a seemingly average guy who demonstrates hidden potential, as his reluctant protégé.
Take a look at the photos and let us know what you think.

Disney have literally just released the brand new (and first) trailer for the Sorcerer’s Apprentice which stars Nicolas Cage, Monica Bellucci, Alfred Molina, Teresa Palmer and Toby Kebbell.

The live action version is directed by Jon Turteltaub (National Treasure) and is produced by my all time favourite, Jerry Bruckheimer. This trailer looks fantastic with state of the art CGI and I LOVE the bit where the old car turns into the brand new Mercedes! Could this be a return to form for our dear Mr. Cage?

We’ve still got a while to wait until it’s release on the 13th August 2010 but along with Disney’s other release, Prince of Persia, it should be an action packed summer!Check out the trailer below or head over to Apple to view in HD.

Synopsis: Walt Disney Studios, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Jon Turteltaub, the creators of the “National Treasure” franchise, present THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE “” an innovative and epic comedy adventure about a sorcerer and his hapless apprentice who are swept into the center of an ancient conflict between good and evil. Balthazar Blake (NICOLAS CAGE) is a master sorcerer in modern-day Manhattan trying to defend the city from his arch-nemesis, Maxim Horvath (ALFRED MOLINA). Balthazar can’t do it alone, so he recruits Dave Stutler (JAY BARUCHEL), a seemingly average guy who demonstrates hidden potential, as his reluctant protégé.

We’ve already seen him filming The Sorcerer’s Apprentice on the streets of New York and now Fanboyz.net (via MovieWeb) have the first production shots of Nicolas Cage in full costume, complete with long straggly hair and his patented look of earnest vim.

Teaming up with the National Treasure posse Cage plays Balthazar Blake, the eponymous Sorcerer who recruits an apprentice played by Jay Baruchel to fight off the dark power of Alfred Molina’s Maxim Hovarth.

So far, so typical magical/fantasy fare, only the presence of Molina (who was so good in An Education) raises any interest for me and Disney really do need to up their live action game in a big way.

Will The Sorcerer’s Apprentice achieve this? Time will tell – take a look at the pictures below.