J.j. Abrams, Paramount Pictures | featured news

J.J. Abrams’ Super 8 opened to a better-than-expected $37 million at the domestic box office after an aggressive 11th hour marketing blitz by Paramount. Including paid previews on Thursday, the period sci-fi pic has earned $38 million in its first four days.

The trailer for “Super 8” launched on Twitter. And now the movie will as well. Paramount announced today that J.J. Abrams’s Spielbergian monster movie will open Thursday, a day earlier than its scheduled midnight Friday release date, on about 300 screens around the country. In partnership with Twitter, the studio is directing people to #Super8Secret, a sponsored hashtag that takes Twitter users to a direct link to buy tickets for the Thursday screenings.

Paramount Pictures announced Tuesday that Cruise will be back in front of the camera for "Mission: Impossible IV," due in theaters over Memorial Day weekend in 2011. Cruise and "Mission: Impossible III" director J.J. Abrams previously agreed to produce a fourth movie in the action franchise. But it had not been known if Cruise would star again.