IMAX and HBO’s grand experiment in bringing television to the big screen looks to be tracking towards success with estimates ranging from between $1.5 to a $2million domestic haul this weekend.

Game of Thrones already created a record on Thursday night and Friday as the first television show to debut on the big (or the very big) screen. Numbers for opening day are confirmed at $686,000 from 205 screens, higher than IMAX originally thought. That number only gets more impressive when you consider that this is basically a rerun of two episodes fans had seen already, and was not modified or worked up in any way to make it accessible to the casual movie fans who might not be already familiar with the series.

More after the jump…

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HBO finally released the official HD version of the Game of Thrones Season 5 trailer, on Friday. And many of the questions that arose from the plethora of leaked potato phone trailers coming out of the Game of Thrones IMAX Experience, late Thursday evening, were answered. That being said, I’ve broken down the entire Season 5 trailer, in GIFs, so that we can further expound on each scene.

Join me after the jump, for the GIF breakdown.

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Along with the official trailer, HBO has released eighteen high-quality photos of characters in Season 5. These aren’t just scenes from the trailer–we’ve got several other moments that aren’t shown in the trailer. There are also characters, like Brienne and Pod, above, who weren’t seen in the trailer. But they’re certainly not forgotten.

More after the jump, starting with the other characters from The Vale and onto King’s Landing….

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No more cameraphone uploads–HBO has officially released the Season 5 trailer for Game of Thrones via their Facebook page. Check it out after the jump…

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Brandon Nowalk is a freelance television and film critic whose work has appeared at The A.V. Club, Indiewire, Salon, and more. He’s just begun two new series at the blog he never updates, But What She Said. He thinks it’s time to resurrect King Renly already. He’s also written for us before about Thrones and Outlander, and will be providing Unsullied analysis for us going forward. 

When Tyrion and Varys decided to take a trip across the pond in the Season 4 finale, I naturally hoped that might eventually lead them to a particular bed-and-breakfast in Slaver’s Bay, which I hear is lovely this time of year. But given the pace of things in Essos, I never expected they’d be considering the journey so soon. Then along comes the Season 5 trailer, priming us for just such an event. It’s a low-def bootleg cam on YouTube, so I’m not positive what I’m looking at part of the time, but it gets its point across: “Who said anything about ‘him’?”

Game of Thrones has been trending away from its macho patriarchs and toward its more cunning women since day one, and look how far it’s come….

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Maisie Williams – Arya (Season 4 Game of Thrones)

Maisie Williams, who portrays Arys Stark on Game of Thrones, held court in her very first Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything), this morning. As AMA’s go, Maisie’s was one of the better ones I’ve seen in a while. The actress answered all sorts of questions, from her Game of Thrones filming, to her upcoming role in The Last of Us, and for a first timer to the world of AMA’s, she did rather well.

See what she had to say about Game of Thrones, after the jump

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The Winds of Winter book cover

UPDATE: The language  that Jane Johnson used is very careful and easily misinterpreted. All she’s said is that The Winds of Winter is not currently on the schedule, but since she stresses the importance of the novel, it’s fairly clear that it would be published as soon as possible. For comparison’s sake, A Dance with Dragons was announced in March of 2011, and published in July–that can still happen with Winds in 2015.

Original story below.

The release date for George R R Martin’s 6th book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series has been rumored, speculated and unconfirmed, but now it’s official. According to Time who scooped-up the story from The Guardian, Martin’s publisher finally has confirmed that The Winds of Winter will not be published in 2015.

See what will be published in 2015, after the jump

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We’ve had our first good look at the Season 5 trailer of Game of Thrones, and we’re getting more and more hyped for the season. But this season is going to be much more of a loose adaptation, thanks to the size and difficulty of A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons.

So for readers, here are five of our biggest questions about the new season….

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UPDATE 2: Commenter john has pointed us to a new, slightly higher-quality version from YouTube user David Dutton. Some of the faces in this one are much easier to see.

UPDATE: User adelaido Rahl has the full version, which is now below.

YouTube user ShempyFiddles has uploaded the first Season 5 trailer, which was shown at IMAX. It’s good enough to watch, though not top quality–hopefully we’ll get that soon. Check it out after the jump…

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Arya Stark water dancing in Season 4

Maisie Williams had some interesting things to say on Arya’s journey in the upcoming Season 5 of Game of Thrones, when Access Hollywood talked to the actress during the a pre-SAG awards party.

“I say this every year, it’s like, ‘Arya’s changed,’ but this year, as an actor, it was quite difficult for me because ‘Game of Thrones’ is sort of my safety net, my comfort blanket, because I come back every single year and it’s the same crew and stuff. This year was the first year that I was kind of like, ‘This is not the Arya that I am used to.’ And yeah, it was a big jump and I’m really nervous actually, for everyone to see it.”

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WesterosCraft (King’s Landing)

The world-wide popularity of George R R Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, and HBO’s Game of Thrones, has spawned a dedicated and ravenous fan-based community. From websites such as WiC, to fan-made YouTube videos, the ASOIAF/GoT community continues to grow every day. As part of that wonderful fan-base, a group of Minecraft players, have been meticulously constructing the continent of Westeros, and in the process, have grown their own community, as well.

See the video, narrated by Issac Hempstead-Wright (Bran Stark),

after the jump.

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Yesterday, as part of the marketing hype for Game of Thrones in IMAX, we got a video of Benioff and Weiss having just watched “The Watchers on the Wall/The Children” on the big screen. I was focused on what they were saying in the video, and their emotional reaction to seeing their work writ large, and completely missed something.

That something (which is spoilery!)–below….

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