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Iron Man 3 has topped the US weekend box office charts once again.

Robert Downey Jr’s Marvel superhero movie holds off Baz Luhrmann’s take on The Great Gatsby, grossing an additional $72.47 million in the process.

Iron Man 3 debuted last week to the second-highest opening weekend takings in US history – bettered only by The Avengers in 2012.

The Great Gatsby opens in second place with first-weekend receipts of over $50 million, pushing Mark Wahlberg’s Pain & Gain down to third place.

Tyler Perry Presents Peeples is a new entry at four with takings of over $4.8 million, while 42, a biopic of baseball player Jackie Robinson, moves down to fifth in the standings.

The US weekend box office top ten in full:
1. (1) Iron Man 3 – $72,472,000
2 (-) The Great Gatsby – $51,115,000
3. (2) Pain & Gain – $5,000,000
4. (-) Tyler Perry Presents Peeples – $4,850,000
5. (3) 42 – $4,650,000
6. (4) Oblivion – $3,864,000
7. (5) The Croods – $3,600,000
8. (6) The Big Wedding – $2,500,000
9. (7) Mud – $2,343,000
10. (8) Oz the Great and Powerful – $802,000

Ray Harryhausen has died, aged 92.

The visual effects pioneer was known for creating some of the most iconic animated scenes in cinema history, including the famous skeleton sword fight in 1963’s Jason and the Argonauts.

His family confirmed the news of his passing on his Foundation’s Facebook page, stating that he died in London today (May 7).

Known for his stop-motion animation work, he was a multi-award winner, including Oscars and BAFTAs.

In a career spanning five decades, Harryhausen worked on many classic films including Mighty Joe Young, It Came From the Sea, 20 Million Miles to Earth, Mysterious Island, One Million Years BC, The Valley of Gwangi and Clash of the Titans.

Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Peter Jackson, Terry Gilliam, George Lucas, John Landis and Nick Park are among several top filmmakers who have praised Harryhausen’s legacy in recent years.

Lucas said: “Ray has been a great inspiration to us all in special visual industry. The art of his earlier films, which most of us grew up on, inspired us so much. Without Ray Harryhausen, there would likely have been no Star Wars.”

Jackson stated: “The Lord of the Rings is my ‘Ray Harryhausen movie’. Without his life-long love of his wondrous images and storytelling it would never have been made – not by me at least”

Iron Man 3 has stormed the US weekend box office charts.

Marvel’s latest super-hero epic earns a massive $175.3 million in its first weekend of release, giving the Robert Downey Jr-starring movie the second highest opening in US history.

Iron Man 3‘s box office taking was bested only by fellow Marvel film The Avengers‘ $207.4 million in 2012.

Michael Bay’s Pain and Gain falls to second place after topping last weekend’s box office standings, taking nearly $8 million this weekend.

42‘s dramatization of pioneering African-American baseball star Jackie Robinson holds third place, nearly a month after its initial release.

Oblivion – starring Tom Cruise – drops to fourth place in its third week on release, with its earnings falling by 67%.

The top five is rounded out by animated comedy The Croods, which features the voices of Emma Stone and Nicolas Cage.

The US weekend box office top ten in full:
1. (-) Iron Man 3 – $175,300,000
2. (1) Pain & Gain – $7,600,000
3. (3) 42 – $6,210,000
4. (2) Oblivion – $5,800,000
5. (5) The Croods – $945,000
6. (4) The Big Wedding – $4,225,000
7. (11) Mud – $2,150,000
8. (13) Oz the Great and Powerful – $1,822,000
9. (7) Scary Movie 5 – $1,435,000
10. (9) The Place Beyond the Pines – $1,298,000

Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne Johnson’s Pain & Gain has topped this week’s US box office.

The Michael Bay-directed film opens with receipts of $20 million, which is one of the lowest opening weekend totals of Bay’s career to date. It knocks Tom Cruise’s science fiction blockbuster Oblivion from the top spot.

Last week, Oblivion gave Cruise his biggest opening weekend box office figures since 2006’s Mission Impossible III. Pain & Gain narrowly beats it this week despite takings of $17.4 million.

42 slips one place down to third in this week’s top ten, with The Big Wedding debuting at number four.

The star-studded romantic comedy – featuring Robert De Niro, Katherine Heigl and Diane Keaton – opens with lower than expected numbers of $7.5 million.

Meanwhile, Dreamworks animation The Croods holds strong and keeps its place in the top five. Scary Movie 5 slips from four to seven in this week’s countdown.

Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper’s critically acclaimed The Place Beyond The Pines falls from six to nine, with Jurassic Park‘s 3D outing dropping to tenth place.

The US weekend box office top ten in full:
1. (-) Pain & Gain – $20,000,000
2. (1) Oblivion – $17,400,000
3. (2) 42 – $10,700,000
4. (-) The Big Wedding – $7,500,000
5. (3) The Croods – $6,600,000
6. (5) G.I. Joe: Retaliation – $3,600,000
7. (4) Scary Movie 5 – $3,500,000
8. (7) Olympus Has Fallen – $2,800,000
9. (6) The Place Beyond the Pines – $2,700,000
10. (9) Jurassic Park 3D – $2,300,000

Tom Cruise’s Oblivion has topped the US box office on its first weekend on release.

The science fiction blockbuster debuted to $38 million to top the chart ahead of baseball drama 42. Oblivion‘s opening haul is Cruise’s biggest opening since 2006’s Mission: Impossible III.

The Croods, DreamWorks’s latest animated movie, holds its place at number two, while horror spoof Scary Movie 5 slips down two places to four. GI Joe: Retaliation rounds out the top five.

Elsewhere, The Place Beyond the Pines is the biggest chart climber as it leaps up four places to number six. The Ryan Gosling drama expanded its theatre count and added $4.75 million to its box office takings on week four on release.

The US box office top ten in full (studio estimates):

1. (-) Oblivion – $38,152,000
2. (1) 42 – $18,025,000
3. (3) The Croods – $9,500,000
4. (2) Scary Movie 5 – $6,296,000
5. (4) GI Joe: Retaliation – $5,775,000
6. (10) The Place Beyond the Pines – $4,745,900
7. (7) Olympus Has Fallen – $4,500,000
8. (5) Evil Dead – $4,100,000
9. (6) Jurassic Park 3D – $4,000,000
10. (8) Oz the Great and Powerful – $3,048,000

After Earth will be released a week earlier than originally planned in the US.

The M Night Shyamalan film was originally slated for a June 7 US release date, but it will now open on May 31 Stateside, and in the UK on June 7.

Sony announced the news on Thursday (April 18), reports The Wrap.

Starring Will Smith and Jaden Smith, After Earth follows the father and son duo after they have crashed on Earth, a planet which humans were forced to escape 1,000 years ago.

The film also stars Zoe Kravitz and Isabelle Fuhrman.

Will and Jaden, who is also an aspiring rapper, previously starred together in the 2006 drama The Pursuit of Happyness.

Disney is planning to release a new Star Wars film every summer from 2015 to 2019.

The company, which acquired Lucasfilm last year in a multi-billion dollar deal, announced today at CinemaCon that JJ Abrams’ 2015 release Episode VII will be followed by Episodes VIII and IX in 2017 and 2019.

Standalone spinoffs are expected to be released in the years in between. Previous reports have suggested that these pictures could focus on Boba Fett and a young Han Solo.

Disney is said to be hoping that each of the spinoffs will form their own franchises and follow the success of X-Men and The Avengers.

There has been no announcement on who will work on the spinoffs so far, with the number of Star Wars live action movies now set to nearly double by 2019.

Star Wars Episode VII is being written by Toy Story 3‘s Michael Arndt, with Abrams, Kennedy and Bryan Burk producing.

Lawrence Kasdan (The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi), Simon Kinberg and Lucas are on board as creative consultants.

Audiences for 3D films will decline in 2013, it has been predicted.

A report compiled by Fitch Ratings concluded that overall cinema attendance will drop this year due to both a lack of franchise films (compared to 2012) and audiences tiring of paying extra for 3D.

The projected decline would mark the first year 3D box office sales have dropped since the technology rose to prominence in 2009 off the back of Avatar‘s success, according to The Wrap.

“Attendance likely benefited from the initial proliferation of 3D films. However, the initial excitement has dwindled,” the report states.

“Consumers are focused again on the overall quality of the film and are weighing the cost of a premium ticket versus a base 2D ticket.

“Going to the movies remains one of the lower-cost forms of entertainment. However, increased pricing, particularly on 3D films, may erode this perception over time.

“Fitch views the expected film slate [for 2013] as favorable, but believes it will result in slightly weaker attendance compared to the 2012 film slate.”

3D box office takings in the US and Canada have previously remained steady, bringing in around $1.8 billion (£1.2 billion) for the past two years.

This year’s 3D releases include Star Trek Into Darkness, Iron Man 3 and Man of Steel.

Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained has been pulled from Chinese cinemas.

Screenings of the blood-soaked Spaghetti Western were cancelled minutes in on Thursday (April 11) due to “technical reasons”, reports Reuters.

Reports quickly surfaced online claiming that cinemagoers witnessed Django stop before being asked to leave the theatre.

“We got the notice from our headquarters around 10am this morning but it was too late to cancel two viewings,” said an official at a Shanghai cinema.

“We were only told that it was due to some technology problems and were told to cancel it. They didn’t tell us when the film would be shown again.”

Industry insiders have been quoted in the Chinese press as saying the film was pulled due to its nude scenes.

Tarantino had made adjustments to his original theatrical cut of Django, including muting the colour of on-screen blood, so that it could pass Chinese government censors.

Movie censorship body SARFT (State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television) is yet to comment.

Evil Dead has debuted on top at the US box office, taking in $26m over the weekend.

Directed by Fede Alvarez, Evil Dead is a reboot of the 1981 film The Evil Dead, starring Bruce Campbell and directed by Sam Raimi.

Campbell and Raimi serve as producers for the new instalment, which stars Jane Levy, Shiloh Fernandez and Jessica Lucas.

Another Raimi film also remains on the top ten list. Oz The Great and Powerful slipped two spots down to number seven with $8.1m. Its total earnings are now $212.7m.

Last weekend’s number one and two films – GI Joe: Retaliation and The Croods – tied in second place, each earning $21.1m.

The Croods debuted at number one last month. Its total earnings are now $125.8m.

The new 3D version of Jurassic Park debuted in fourth place with $18.2m, while Olympus Has Fallen and Tyler Perry’s new film Temptations: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor took fifth and sixth place respectively. Olympus Has Fallen earned $10.04m, while Temptations took in $10m.

The Host, The Call and Admission complete the top ten list.

The top ten in full (studio estimates):
1. (-) Evil Dead – $26 million
2. (1) GI Joe: Retaliation – $21.1 million
2. (2) The Croods – $21.1 million
4. (-) Jurassic Park 3D – $18.2 million
5. (4) Olympus Has Fallen – $10.04 million
6. (3) Tyler Perry’s Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor – $10 million
7. (5) Oz The Great and Powerful – $8.1 million
8. (6) The Host – $5.2 million
9. (7) The Call – $3.5 million
10. (8) Admission – $2 million