You may have been thinking to yourself “Oh boy, The Smurfs 2 only made $18 million in its first weekend and cost $105 million to make! Considering The Smurfs cost $110 million to make but made almost $564 million worldwide (seriously, people, how did THAT f’n happen?!) the sequel must be considered a massive failure already, and never again will we have to accept someone making one of these atrocious money-grabs, right? Right?!”

Unfortunately, this is not the case. Not at all. You see, Sony Animation, the studio behind The Smurfs franchise, has a little something something up their sleeve. And that little something something is called corporate advertising. Sony has deals with over 100 partners—including McDonald’s, WalMart, Toys ‘R’ Us, and Macy’s—all of which will deliver over $150 million to the studio.

Amazon has eight titles available in their Digital Rental Deals for this weekend, which include several new movies, like The Smurfs, Colombiana, Kung Fu Panda 2, and Final Destination 5, for only $1.99 each.

*- Mr. Popper’s Penguins | 48-Hour Rental
– The Smurfs | 24-Hour Rental
– Kung Fu Panda 2 | 24-Hour Rental
– Final Destination 5 | 48-Hour Rental
– Columbiana | 24-Hour Rental
– 30 Minutes Or Less | 24-Hour Rental
– Straw Dogs | 24-Hour Rental
*- Glee: The Concert Movie | 48-Hour Rental

Once you activate the rental through Amazon’s Instant Demand service, you’ll have access to the movie for 24-48 hours (as noted above). If you’re interested in purchasing the digital versions, the cost is $14.99 each.

For Black Friday, all this week Amazon is offering up Lightning Deals, limited quantities of various products for a discounted price for a 4-hour window of time.. You have to be on the lookout for these deals and once the item runs out, the sale is over. Meaning, if you see something on sale that you want, buy it immediately before it’s gone.

Amazon has released the Lightning Deal schedule and prices for Movies & TV on DVD and Blu-ray for Sunday, November 27, starting at 8:30AM PST (that’s 11:30AM EST) and running through 11:30pm PST. See list of Sunday’s deals here below, along with more information on how these special deals work.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2011

8:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. PST

Remember Me
DVD – $5.99

Talladega Nights – The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (Unrated Full Screen Edition)
DVD – $3.49

Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist
DVD – $3.99

Check out Episode 29 of the Flix of Doom podcast, the official movie podcast of Geeks of Doom, with hosts Justin Vactor, Michael Merlob, and Will Melton.

Full Episode Guide is here below, along with player.

Listen now!

E-mail us at flixofdoom [at] gmail.com
Follow us on Twitter – @FlixOfDoom
Subscribe to the Podcast: RSS | iTunes | Zune

It’s time to get out your favorite shorts and tropical shirts, the summer movie season is upon us once again.

As always, we at Geeks of Doom present our guide to some of the more anticipated titles on the way so that you can figure out the ones you want to mark off on your calender and the ones you want to skip altogether.

This year we’ll also be jumping back to an older format of ours as well, where we discuss the anticipation element and potential suckage factor of the movies that are coming out.

You can check out the entire list of summer movies by clicking on over to the other side now, and please share what you’re most looking forward to in the comments below!