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It is Saturday, and Casino Royale has been in theaters now for a little over a day. The amount of buzz that the film has managed to generate has been unprecedented in the history of MovieSay (we started calculating film buzz early last summer). In fact, Casino Royale’s current buzz rating has broken all records, topping movies like Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, Snakes on a Plane, The Departed and Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.

This is especially impressive considering that the movie has only been in the cinemas for such a short while. The pre-release buzz, of course, was more than for any other film so far measured, but even then the film has been able to generate increasingly more and more buzz in the past two days. It will be interesting to see how far it will go come Tuesday, which is when the buzz rating usually peaks for new films. (This is due to the fact that buzz rankings for new movies are based on the previous three days.)

To see the current buzz standings, see buzz rankings for movies now in theaters.

Disney currently tops both the modern classics and classic movies buzz lists, probably thanks to the related discussion the new The Little Mermaid DVD edition has generated. Many forums currently run threads asking about the posters’ favourite Disney films, which shows here in MovieSay’s rankings.

While the top 10s are largely unchanged from what it was about a week ago, Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, which has been climbing up in the charts for the past months in anticipation with next year’s “Final Cut” re-release, now finds itself 11th on the classic movies list. Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, on the other hand, has started to fall, and is now 17th.

The enormously successful opening of Martin Scorsese’s The Departed last weekend is, based on buzz calculations, by and large all that movie goers are talking about before this weekend. Not only has the film broken the 100 decibel line (see buzz ratings for movies now in theaters), but it has also left all the other movies far behind in the rankings: the second placed Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, which led The Departed in pre-release buzz, is currently at only 51dB.

It is more than probable that this weekend’s major openers, The Grudge 2 and the Robin Williams starring Man of the Year will not be able to threaten the top spot. Indeed, it may well be until the opening of Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette on October 20th that The Departed will remain the most talked about current movie.

In order to see the buzz rankings for movies now in theaters, see here. For more about Martin Scorsese’s The Departed, see IMDb.

Martin Scorsese’s The Departed has rather expectedly taken the number one spot in the buzz rankings for movies now in theaters, but the release has also ignated quite some discussion of the director’s earlier masterpiece, Goodfellas. The film now finds itself second in the buzz rankings for classic films, only second to Disney’s The Little Mermaid.

The reason why The Little Mermaid has so suddenly taken over the number one ranking in the classics list is Disney’s new Platinum Edition double DVD release, which has sold over four million copies in North America in its first week on release.

The Little Mermaid has also boosted the discussion of other Disney classics, with the modern classics top ten now including three Disney movies: The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin.

The weekend box-office results are in, and it is again time to look at how they correspond with how much the movies are currently talked about on the Internet.

After the weekend buzz has now been counted in, Jackass: Number Two continues as the most talked about movie currently in theaters, which should not come as a surprise to anyone, as this weekend saw no real contenders for the top spot. The situation is expected to change, however, with next weekend’s release of the Martin Scorses movie The Departed, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and a host of other big-name Hollywood stars.

The controversial documentary Jesus Camp has, meanwhile, climbed up in the rankings, and currently finds itself third in the listings. With overall movie buzz currently being at its lowest for weeks, none of the top ten movies seems to have much going on for it.

Of the new movies, this weekend’s box office winnner, Sony’s animated Open Season, places 12th, while the currently highest ranking new film is School for Scoundrels, finding itself 11th and neck to neck with Open Season.

Top ten movies ranking by the weekend box-office, with current buzz data

1. Open Season - $24 million - Buzz: 27dB (#12)
2. The Guardian - $18 million - Buzz: 24dB (#15)
3. Jackass: Number Two - $15 million - Buzz: 39dB (#1)
4. School for Scoundrels - $9 million - Buzz: 27dB (#11)
5. Jet Li’s Fearless - $5 million - Buzz: 25dB (#14)
6. Gridiron Gang - $5 million - Buzz: 21dB (#18)
7. The Illusionist - $3 million - Buzz: 14dB (#24)
8. Flyboys - $2 million - Buzz: 32dB (#7)
9. The Black Dahlia - $2 million - Buzz: 3dB (#2)
10. Little Miss Sunshine - $2 million - Buzz: 33dB (#4)

Of the three movies opening wide this weekend, none seem to be stirring the imaginations of the movie-going public enough to create any real amount of pre-release buzz. In Movie Say’s buzz rankings, School of Scoundrels currently finds itself 28th, Open Season 40th, and Guardian 41st. The film can be found in the “now in theaters” list, which also includes the movies opening this week.

In fact, even two films on limited release this weekend fare better than the three wide releases: the controversial Jesus Camp (opened last week and adding more theaters now) is currently 8th in the buzz rankings, while the British film The Last King of Scotland (opening this week) that stars Forest Whitaker as the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, finds itself 25th in the rankings.

It is, in the end, highly unlikely that come Monday any film can threaten Jackass: Number Two’s hold of the top position as the most talked about movie currently in theaters.

[Update: Two days later, The Departed shot to the top of the list, while Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning dropped considerably.]

Somewhat surprisingly, Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginnings is currently more discussed online than is the upcoming Leonardo DiCaprio movie The Departed. Both films are set to open in the US on October the 6th, and can hence be found in Movie Say’s buzz rankings for upcoming movies.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginnings is a prequel to the 2004 horror thriller Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which in itself was a remake of the controversial 1974 film of the same name. The new film is set four years before the events in the remake took place. The prequel is currently traded at H$55.41 at the Hollywood Stock Exchange, suggesting that the movie is expected to take in more than 55 million dollars in its first four weeks of release. And at least the fans of the original should be flocking to see it: a user at IMDb has described the film as “Full-On Chainsaw. Lots of gore. Very little cheese.”

Meanwhile, the crime drama The Departed, set in South Boston where the Massachusetts State Police is battling the Irish Mob, is a world away from Texas Chainsaw. Directed by Martin Scorsese, The Departed is a remake of a 2002 Hong Kong crime thriller and clocks in at two hours and thirty minutes, plus comes with a star-filled cast including Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, Ray Winstone, Vera Farmiga, and Alec Baldwin. The film also marks Scorsese’s third subsequent feature film starring DiCaprio in its leading role.

In the end, the difference in buzz between Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning and The Departed is small — only two Movie Say decibels at the time of writing.

Jackass: Number Two, MTV’s reality comedy featuring dangerous physical stunts, emerged winner in last weekend’s box-office results. And now, as the last additions to the weekend buzz are calculated in (Monday usually represents much of the weekend buzz, as many only blog about their weekends when at work or school), the movie has also taken over the top spot at Movie Say’s buzz rankings for the most discussed movies now in theaters.

By doing so, Jackass has pushed Black Dahlia to the second place, ending the Brian De Palma directed film’s uninterrupted two-week long hold of the top spot. The rest of the top movies remain unchaged, with The Last Kiss and Little Miss Sunshine continuing to generate more talk than most new releases or the summer’s big blockbuster movies Superman and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. Indeed, last week’s indication that Little Miss Sunshine would be starting to drop in rankings, seems to have been unwarranted.

Of the other major new films released for last weekend, Flyboys (last weekend’s fourth biggest box office taker) is sixth in the buzz, while All the King’s Men is 9th. Also Jet Li’s Fearless, which debuted at number two in the box office, makes an appearance in top 10 buzz, holding the 10th place.

Here is a comparison of last weekend’s box-office rankings and the current buzz rankings, which can be taken as indicative of the weekend audience’s reaction. Box-office results are taken from Box Office Mojo’s weekend charts.

Top ten movies according to weekend box-office, with buzz data

1. Jackass: Number Two - $29 million - Buzz: 72dB (#1)
2. Jet Li’s Fearless - $11 million - Buzz: 34dB (#10)
3. Gridiron Gang - $9 million - Buzz: 34dB (#11)
4. Flyboys - $6 million - Buzz: 39dB (#6)
5. Everyone’s Hero - $5 million - Buzz: 4dB (#70)
6. The Black Dahlia - $4 million - Buzz: 61dB (#2)
7. All the King’s Men - $4 million - Buzz: 35dB (#9)
8. The Illusionist - $3 million - Buzz: 19dB (#24)
9. The Covenant - $3 million - Buzz: 22dB (#22)
10. Little Miss Sunshine - $3 million - Buzz: 41dB (#4)

Disney is clearly still able to make people talk. In Movie Say’s film buzz rankings, the company has top 10 movies in both the Classic Movies and Modern Classic Movies in Movie Say’s film buzz rankings.

It is, however, perhaps somewhat surprising that the most talked about classic Disney film (i.e. Disney film made before 1991) is not one of the company’s celebrated old animated films, but instead that unforgettably sweet Mary Poppins from 1964. The film is currently the 8th most talked about classic movie overall.

In the Modern Classics section, meanwhile, Disney holds number two spot with The Lion King, while yet another one of the company’s celebrated early 1990’s animated features, Aladdin, makes an appearance as the 13th most talked about movie on the Internet at the moment. Curiously, both of these hand-animated films beat any computer animated movie, with Pixar’s Finding Nemo (also released through Disney) finding itself just below Aladding at number 14.

Ever since its release in late July, the critically acclaimed comedy-drama Little Miss Sunshine has slowly been climbing towards the top of the buzz rankings. Now, however, it finally seems that the discussion created by the relatively low-budget feature is slowly dying down.

The film, which won the Best Picture award at Sydney Film Festival and received a standing ovation at Sundance, never actually managed to reach the top spot, thanks to Snakes on a Plane which was released in mid-August just when Little Miss Sunshine reached its peak in buzz.

Little Miss Sunshine currently lies in fourth position in the buzz rankings, at 42 dB. It will be interesting to see how much longer the movie will continue featuring in the Top 10. Snakes On a Plane, for example, is currently heading for a crash-landing, dropping in the charts day after day.