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Warner Bros has been named the top-earning movie studio of 2010 with $1.89 billion in North American ticket sales.

The box office success of Christopher Nolan’s Inception ($292.5 million) and Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 1 ($283 million) helped Warner Bros retain the studio market share for the third consecutive year, says The Hollywood Reporter.

Warners took 18.3% of 2010’s gross revenue, which came in at just under $10.57 billion. The total is a dip of less than 1% from the studio’s 2009’s figures.

Paramount, which released big-earners Iron Man 2 ($312 million) and Shrek Forever After ($238 million), is in second place with a 16.1% market share and $1.67 billion in earnings.

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Forbidden Planet actress Anne Francis has died at the age of 80.

The film and TV star passed away on Sunday at a Santa Barbara nursing home, a funeral director confirmed to The AP.

Her daughter said that Francis died of complications of pancreatic cancer, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Francis was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2007.

Forbidden Planet was hailed by critics as one of the best sci-fi films of its time. Francis played Altaira ‘Alta’ Morbius in the 1956 classic, also starring Walter Pidgeon and Leslie Nielsen.

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Little Fockers has managed to pull back from a disappointing New Year’s Eve showing to remain at the top of the US box office.

The film, which starts Robert de Niro and Ben Stiller, took $26 million, beating off competition from Joel and Ethan Coen’s True Grit, which took slightly less with $24.5 million.

Falling to third place is the Disney sequel Tron: Legacy which took $18 million, followed by family film Yogi Bear at $13 million.

Rounding out the top five films of the weekend is the third film in the Chronicles Of Narnia franchise, which took $10.5 million.

The rest of the box office top ten is filled up with a number of smaller independent films, including The Fighter and Black Swan.

The US box office top ten in full:
1. Little Fockers – $26,300,000
2. True Grit – $24,500,000
3. Tron: Legacy – $18,300,000
4. Yogi Bear – $13,000,000
5. The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader – $10,500,000
6. Tangled – $10,008,000
7. The Fighter – $10,000,000
8. Gulliver’s Travels – $9,100,000
9. Black Swan – $8,500,000
10. The King’s Speech – $7,600,000

David Fincher has confirmed that his upcoming adaptation of literary classic 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea will be his first movie to be filmed in 3D.

The director of The Social Network also admitted that it was likely that 20,000 Leagues would be his next project after finishing filming on his adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s thriller The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

“Yes it will be in 3D,” Fincher admitted in an interview with Collider.

While the helmer wouldn’t specify whether the film would definitely be his next project due to the amount of movies that he is currently involved in, he did point it out as being one of his top priorities.

Fincher’s next film, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, is scheduled to be released on December 21, 2011.

Lost has topped a list of the top 10 most pirated US television series for 2010.

Episodes of the ABC drama, which ended its run in May, were illegally downloaded almost 6 million times this year, according to TorrentFreak. The figure is a slight dip from 2009 figures, which also saw Lost top the list.

Axed NBC series Heroes came in second with around 5.48m downloads, up on the show’s estimated television viewership of 5.3m. Showtime drama Dexter was third in the list, with 3.88m downloads again topping the show’s estimated viewing figures of 2.54m.

Other shows that made the top ten include Fox’s House and 24, which placed fifth and seventh respectively. Fox was the worst hit network overall, with Glee and Family Guy also charting.

The full top ten list of 2010’s most pirated television series is as follows:
1. Lost – 5,940,000
2. Heroes – 5,480,000
3. Dexter – 3,880,000
4. The Big Bang Theory – 3,270,000
5. House – 2,610,000
6. How I Met Your Mother – 2,490,000
7. 24 – 2,240,000
8. True Blood – 1,920,000
9. Glee – 1,700,000
10. Family Guy – 1,620,000

Toy Story 3 has been named as the world’s highest-grossing movie of the year after raking in $1.05bn (£682m).

The Guardian reports that the final part of Pixar’s animated adventure series is just ahead of Disney’s Alice in Wonderland, which grossed $1.02bn (£661m).

In third place is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, which made $831m (£538m) despite only being in cinemas for six weeks, while director Christopher Nolan’s critically-acclaimed Inception is at four with $825m (£534m).

The rest of the top ten are Shrek Forever After ($737m / £477m), Twilight: Eclipse ($693m / £449m), Iron Man 2 ($622m / £403m), Despicable Me ($539m / £349m), Clash of the Titans ($493m / £319m) and How to Train Your Dragon ($493m / £319m).

The writers behind Tron Legacy have announced plans to air a new animated series which will serve as the next instalment of the Tron franchise.

The show will cover the events which took place between the original Tron film and Tron Legacy and will be considered as part of the continuity of the series.

Screenwriter Eddy Kistis told Box Office Magazine: “We’re treating it very seriously. This animated show will take place from when Flynn is in a safe house. It’s from when Clu takes over the grid to before when Sam comes in. So if you were wondering what was the grid like before that, then watch the show.”

“We hesitate to tell too much just yet, but it will fill in the blanks of some things, and also explore some new areas as well. Bruce Boxleitner is in it, Elijah Wood, Linda Moore, Paul Reubens, Lance Henriksen. I mean, we’ve got a really cool group of actors.”

The 10-part series – written by Kistis and Tron Legacy co-writer Adam Horowitz – will air in summer 2011.

Star Wars sequel The Empire Strikes Back is to be preserved by the US Library of Congress as part of its National Film Registry.

BBC News reports that the George Lucas film will be joined by the American director’s student film Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB, made in 1967.

Other ‘culturally significant’ films making the yearly list are Spike Lee’s Malcolm X, about the black political revolutionary, and Saturday Night Fever.

Each year, 25 films are added to the registry, which began archiving pictures in 1989.

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David Lynch has predicted that more movies will premiere on the internet in the near future.

Bang Showbiz quotes the Mulholland Drive director as saying that he is concerned over the much-speculated notion that movie theatres will eventually become extinct.

“That’s where everything is heading very soon. It will just be downloads,” he said. “It doesn’t matter how people get hold of a film; as long as they can see it in the right way it will still be beautiful.”

Lynch continued: “If people can see a film on a big screen with the lights low and good sound, then they still have the chance to enter another world.

“Some films do better on a small screen than others but if you saw 2001: A Space Odyssey on a phone it would just be the most pathetic joke.”

The Total Recall remake will begin shooting in March of next year.

Total Recall was a 1990 film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as a freedom fighter from Mars who is relocated to Earth.

According to Cinema Blend, the remake will be directed by Len Wiseman, who directed Underworld and Underworld: Evolution. No-one has been cast in the Schwarzenegger role, though it has reportedly been offered to Colin Farrell.

The film will shoot in Toronto on a $200 million (£129.8m) budget. The original Total Recall grossed about $119 million (£77.3m) on a $50 million (£32.5m) budget.

Total Recall is expected to open in theatres in 2012.