As the G.I. Joe Convention winds to a close in Indianapolis, G.I. Joe: Retaliation continues to gain momentum world wide.  With a first weekend box office of a very healthy $132M, Paramount had already greenlit development 0n a third film.  Now, just over a week later, Box Office Mojo reports that the latest G.I. Joe motion picture has topped over $230M worldwide.

Hitting about $87M domestically and a whopping $141.2M internationally, G.I. Joe: Retaliation continues to provide a backdrop for the G.I. Joe mythology going forward.  Big props to Jon M Chu, Paramount, and everyone involved in the production, who gambled on a nine month delay, but evidently the gamble has paid off.

Check out the full report at Box Office Mojo.

Good afternoon from Indianapolis, and welcome to the 2013 G.I. Joe Convention Hasbro Seminar coverage!

I’m sure the news is out there by now that Hasbro did not bring any new product or new concepts to reveal at this year’s convention. While this has caused some concern among the fandom, rest assured, things are not DOA and the line is not in dire straits.

The early positive buzz from the G.I. Joe: Retaliation film has already encouraged Paramount to green light a third film, and Hasbro is reacting to that as we speak. The results have driven Hasbro to greatly increase production for Wave 3 and 4 product, and placed those orders to their factories. As a result of the increased production requests, unfortunately the release of Wave 3 will be pushed back slightly from May, 2013 to late July or August, 2013. The pessimist would say that this is a bad thing, but personally I’d rather wait an extra 4 – 6 weeks to ensure that enough product is made and distributed to ensure allocation to everyone who wants it.

For the rest of the report on the 2013 G.I. Joe Convention Hasbro seminar, click the Read the Rest of the Story link below.

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This artwork looks to be focusing mostly on characters and character costumes, but is just as awesome as previous artwork shown.  We see the origins of Cobra Commander, Flint, Snake Eyes, and many others through a series of great images from Constantine Sekeris.

Another big thanks to Twitziller for keying me into these.  Really gorgeous looking stuff, and some stuff that might have looked pretty darn awesome in live action form.

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Now that the movie has been released, some of the previously concealed concept art is starting to emerge, and holy cow is this most recent batch eye-opening and a little heart breaking.  First, we check out Joshua Min and Aaron Sim’s art for some scenery and set pieces, and HOLY CRAP COBRA ISLAND.

In all fairness, I don’t know for sure if that’s Cobra Island, but it certainly looks like it could be, and I’m loving the landing platform raising from the trees.  Some very cool shots here (and thanks to MSGIJoe Collectors Club for the link):

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Also, i09.com linked us to some equally cool concept art, mostly for characters.  I’m glad this wasn’t used in the film, just because it’s a bit “out there” but they are still exceptionally cool to look at.  Check out those images, also from Aaron Sims, with some additional artwork not scene above:

[View with PicLens]

Warning, these do contain some spoilers, but they also contain a heaping helping of awesomesauce as well.

Kudos to Twitziller for locating these.  FXGuide.com has posted a series of special effects videos for particular scenes in the G.I. Joe: Retaliation film, and they look really cool.  I love seeing some of this behind the scenes action and see how these various shots develop.

The videos do not allow embedding, but there’s a ton of them anyway, so check them all out at FXGuide.com.

When we sat down Friday night to talk about our feelings on G.I. Joe: Retaliation, I’m not sure any of us figured that by the end of the recording, we’d be sharing our thoughts and concerns with Jon Chu himself!  But timing is everything, and that’s how it worked out.

We spend the first hour or so dissecting the film, and trying not to go total fanboy.  Rest assured, most of us loved the film, we were just trying to do some objective analysis.  But when Mr. Chu joined the call, I think we all went a little fanboy.  Check out the latest special edition on our Podbean page, or through the embedded players below.  Show notes, as usual, after the jump.

WARNING!  SPOILERS AHEAD!

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SHOW NOTES

Once again, first off, there are many many spoilers discussed in this episode. If you have not seen the movie and do not want to be spoiled, we recommend you DO NOT listen to this until you have seen the movie first!!

So we’ve all seen the movie. There is some parts WE LOVE. There are some parts that still need some work. Aaaand, yes, there is a part or two that made us cringe. With that said, we all enjoyed our time at the theater to watch the movie we waited so long for. What were our favorite parts? What parts did we not like? What would we do if we were in charge? We answer all of those. Plus…we get an unannounced but very welcome visit by Retalition’s Director – yes, Mr. Jon M. Chu himself joins us from his kitchen. He spends nearly an HOUR with us candidly answering every question we asked him. What an opportunity – thanks to Justin for setting that up and thanks for Jon joining us while going over opening night return numbers. We had a blast doing this one and we hope you enjoy this once-in-a-lifetime recording of WOJM!

Once again, spoilers are abound – you have been warned!

Jon M Chu

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In this episode we go back in time with a great interview with former Hasbro marketing exec Kirk Bozigian, but we jump forward in time, too, looking towards G.I. Joe: Retaliation and JoeCon 2013!  This episode was recorded on the eve of G.I. Joe: Retaliation’s big Tuesday sneak preview, so there is obviously some excitement and energy throughout.

Also, we announce some big plans for WOJM andJoeCon 2013!  Check out the latest full episode on our Podbean page, or via the embedded players below.  Show notes are after the jump.

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Take this at face value, because there have been no official confirmations yet, but all indications (according to Andrew Stewart fromVariety) are that Paramount as greenlit a third G.I. Joe film after an exceptionally strong Easter weekend offering from G.I. Joe: Retaliation.

Topping most recent expectations of $100M worldwide, G.I. Joe: Retaliation actually clocked in at an impressive #132M, coming close to $52M domestically and over $80M Internationally.  An early look at domestic numbers would indicate that the film wasn’t as big as The Rise of Cobra, but adding in both domestic and international, G.I. Joe: Retaliation trumped its predecessor by over $40M worldwide!  According to Box Office Mojo, Rise of Cobra brought in about $91M in all markets, while Retaliation topped $130M.

Considering the first film was a highly marketed summer blockbuster, that’s nothing to frown at!

Time will tell whether G.I. Joe: Retaliation has the legs to continue pressing on over the next few weeks, but early indications are good, and it sounds like Paramount is happy as well.  Like other folks out there, I found some faults with G.I. Joe: Retaliation, but if nothing else, I think it provided a great stepping stone towards a true G.I. Joe vs. Cobra conflict in a third film.  I’m excited that indications are this good.

Signals have been a little bit crossed throughout the past few days with nobody entirely clear what to expect from G.I. Joe: Retaliation’s box office numbers this opening weekend.

Variety’s most recent claim is that the film will break the $100M mark worldwide over the weekend.  Domestically it has already pulled in around $26M between Thursday and Friday, with most industry speculators assuming it will come close to or break $50M domestically.  While that is slightly behind Rise of Cobra’s $54M take its opening weekend, adding in the worldwide numbers, Retaliation actually comes out about $10M ahead.  Not bad, considering Rise of Cobra was a summer film and Retaliation is a March one.

With a budget of only $130M, you’d think breaking $100M its first weekend would bode well for the franchise, but with all of the marketing dollars, it is far too early to make any determinations.

Possibly the best news from all of this, though, is that Cinemascores from audiences seeing the movie are scoring in at an A-.  That’s not bad at all.

We’ll be watching.

Over the past 40 days we’ve all been thoroughly enjoying Twitziller’s “40 Reasons why G.I. Joe: Retaliation will be great”… well, G.I. Joe: Retaliation has finally opened in theaters across the world, and now Twitziller is offering GeneralsJoes readers a full sized “40 Reasons” Poster!

This massive compilation is being hosted on GeneralsJoes for free download.  You can “right-click” and “save as” right here, or the smaller image below.  It’s an awesome image to see all collected together.

Hit it up!