'Dear John' bumps 'Avatar' with $32.4M debut

LOS ANGELES – A sci-fi love story has given way to an earthbound romance at the box office, livening up typically slow times at theaters over Super Bowl weekend.

Released by Sony's Screen Gems banner, "Dear John" debuted as the No. 1 movie with $32.4 million, knocking off "Avatar" after seven weekends in first place, according to studio estimates Sunday.

"It is very cool to know that it was our movie that audiences just totally embraced and made No. 1 for the weekend," said Rory Bruer, head of distribution at Sony. As for runaway blockbuster "Avatar," he quipped, "I think they're going to be fine in the long run."

"Avatar" slipped to No. 2 with $23.6 million, raising its domestic total to $630.1 million. Directed by James Cameron, 20th Century Fox's "Avatar" surpassed his own "Titanic," which had held the domestic revenue record at $600.8 million.

With a record $2.2 billion worldwide, "Avatar" also has soared past the $1.8 billion "Titanic" took in globally.

Factoring in today's higher admission prices, however, "Avatar" has sold fewer tickets than "Titanic."

"Avatar" had been No. 1 domestically longer than any movie since 1997's "Titanic," which held on at first place for 15 weekends. The studio was unconcerned that "Avatar" finally fell out of the top spot.

"It had to happen sometime," said 20th Century Fox distribution executive Bert Livingston. "There's nothing that could disappoint me with this movie."

By the eighth weekend, most Hollywood movies have long since dropped out of the top 10 rankings.

"Avatar" still is going strong after eight weeks, with the added luster of a monthlong buildup to the Academy Awards on March 7. Following the example of Oscar champ "Titanic," "Avatar" tied for the lead at the Academy Awards with nine nominations and is a front-runner to win best picture.

Fox executives would not speculate what number "Avatar" eventually might hit at the box office.

"Who knows what that is? It just keeps on going," Livingston said.

The weekend's other new wide release, Lionsgate's spy story "From Paris With Love," opened at No. 3 with $8.1 million. The movie stars John Travolta and Jonathan Rhys Meyers as CIA men trying to crack a terrorist plot.

Fox Searchlight's acclaimed country-music tale "Crazy Heart" expanded from narrow release and broke into the top 10, coming in at No. 8 with $3.7 million. Jeff Bridges and Maggie Gyllenhaal have acting Oscar nominations for the film, which follows a boozy country star trying to turn his life around.

While "Avatar" features a human-alien romance light-years away, "Dear John" centers on a long-distance love story between a soldier (Channing Tatum) and his sweetheart (Amanda Seyfried) back home.

"Dear John" had a record opening for Super Bowl weekend, topping the $31.1 million debut for "Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert" in 2008.

The movie was based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks, whose Hollywood adaptations such as "The Notebook" and "A Walk to Remember" have been steady draws for women. Female crowds made up 84 percent of the audience for "Dear John," according to Sony.

Sparks "creates these stories that really pull at your heartstrings, and certainly that may be first and foremost for women rather than men, though I think a few of us have hearts, too," Bruer said. "But his stories really resonate and are very compelling for women."

That bodes well for the movie over Valentine's Day weekend, said Geoffrey Ammer, head of marketing for Relativity Media, which produced "Dear John." Valentine's weekend draws big date crowds, with women often picking which film to see.

Business on Sunday was predictably slow as football fans watched the Super Bowl instead of going to the movies. But "Dear John" already exceeded industry expectations with $26.2 million on Friday and Saturday.

"Super Bowl weekend isn't about men. It's about women," said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com. "This counter-programming strategy just absolutely works, the female audience propelling a movie to unprecedented heights."

Hollywood could use more fresh hits like "Dear John" if it hopes to match 2009's record box office pace. The first couple of weeks this year, "Avatar" had revenue and attendance running well ahead of last year.

But revenues have now declined for four straight weekends. So far in 2010, domestic revenues are at $1.2 billion, 1.5 percent ahead of last year's, according to Hollywood.com.

Factoring in higher ticket prices this year, though, movie attendance is down 0.5 percent.

Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "Dear John," $32.4 million.
2. "Avatar," $23.6 million.
3. "From Paris With Love," $8.1 million.
4. "Edge of Darkness," $7 million.
5. "The Tooth Fairy," $6.5 million.
6. "When in Rome," $5.5 million.
7. "The Book of Eli," $4.8 million.
8. "Crazy Heart," $3.7 million.
9. "Legion," $3.4 million.
10. "Sherlock Holmes," $2.6 million.

David Scarpa is feeling his inner 'Daredevil'

Another Hollywood entity is trying the daredevil move -- literally -- of rebooting a superhero franchise that hasn't really been away that long.

The Fox-affiliated production company New Regency, which produced the initial "Daredevil" back in 2003, is making another go of a movie headlined by that character. The company is interested in restarting the Marvel franchise and has hired David Scarpa, a writer best known for the script of the 2008 sci-fi remake "The Day the Earth Stood Still," to offer a new take. Former News Corp. executive Peter Chernin will also produce the project via his new production company.

Fox/New Regency have been rumored for some time to be interested in a new "Daredevil," but to this point had taken few concrete steps in that direction.

The first "Daredevil," which came out in 2003, starred Ben Affleck as the supersensory superhero and Colin Farrell as his nemesis Bullseye, with Jennifer Garner playing love interest Elektra Natchios. Despite some mixed reviews, that film performed reasonably well (about $180 million in global box office) -- enough to prompt the spinoff "Elektra" with Garner back in 2005 (which didn't perform as well). It's not yet established who from those casts might return if the new "Daredevil" moves forward.

The original Marvel comic book series "Daredevil" told of the adventures of Matt Murdock, a young man from the working-class neighborhood of Hell's Kitchen in Manhattan who acquired particularly keen touch and hearing senses after a bio-chemical accident left him blind. Those familiar with the reboot say that the new project would give Scarpa latitude to reinterpret plot points and character nuance.

Mark Steven Johnson, who also counts "Ghost Rider" among his credits, wrote and directed the 2003 "Daredevil." (He recently moved on to a less fannish realm, directing the Kristen Bell romantic comedy "When In Rome.") In addition to "Earth," Scarpa also wrote on the military-prison thriller "The Last Castle" that starred James Gandolfini.

New Regency is following a vogue for reboots of franchises that were, well, just booted. Sony is scrapping its existing Spider-Man franchise to start over with "(500) Days of Summer" director Marc Webb and screenwriter James Vanderbilt, who will tell a high-school-set origin story. The initial "Daredevil" did feature some details of the character's beginnings, though a new script would not be burdened down with nearly as much of the mythology that saddles the "Spider-Man" franchise, which over three films intensively explored the character's origins and development.

Studios generally are eager to continue development even on less-high-profile comic book characters. Fox, in particular, wants to ensure that it doesn't miss out on the superhero bounty ("X-Men" and its spinoff characters are currently its most vibrant superhero properties). Keeping comic book licenses in active development also legally prevents the characters from reverting to Marvel, which would happen over the coming years if new development work wasn't done on the Marvel-licensed titles.

A threat to 'Avatar's' reign

"Avatar" will have to fight off "The Hurt Locker" at next month's Academy Awards, but James Cameron's sci-fi blockbuster faces a more imminent threat this weekend: losing the top spot at the box office.

For seven consecutive weeks, "Avatar" has ruled the domestic charts. The film surpassed the writer-director's "Titanic" on Tuesday for the biggest domestic gross in Hollywood history, as "Avatar's" North American receipts of more than $601.1 million improved upon "Titanic's" haul of $598.5 million. "Avatar" previously beat "Titanic's" global record gross of $1.8 billion, with worldwide ticket sales of more than $2 billion and counting.

For all the records that the Pandoran fantasy has amassed, it will not outdo one of "Titanic's" most remarkable achievements: holding the No. 1 box-office position for 15 straight weekends.

In fact, while "Avatar" might lose its perch this weekend to the military romance “Dear John,” the film will definitely fall the following week to the fast-rising romantic comedy “Valentine’s Day” -- which could gross more than $50 million in its four-day debut -- according to audience tracking surveys. Two events make "Avatar's" exact fall from first place difficult to predict: the Oscar nominations and the Super Bowl.

When "Titanic" collected a record-tying 14 Oscar nominations 12 years ago, the sinking superliner movie (then playing in its ninth weekend) improved more than 22% from the previous weekend. "Avatar" drew nine Academy Award selections on Tuesday, tying it with director Kathryn Bigelow's bomb defuser drama "The Hurt Locker" for the most Oscar selections overall.

But "Titanic's" post-nomination surge in 1998 didn't coincide with the Super Bowl, which typically deflates grosses for all movies but can be slightly more punishing for films aimed at men.

Ticket sales for movies in wide release typically drop about 45% from Saturday to Sunday. But when that Sunday happens to be the same day as pro football's championship, the decline can be more precipitous -- 70% or more. A year ago, "Taken" premiered the same weekend as the Super Bowl. The thriller grossed $9.4 million on Friday, $11.7 million on Saturday, but just $3.6 million on Sunday, when the Pittsburgh Steelers were beating the Arizona Cardinals.

"Avatar" has been remarkably consistent from week to week, and slipped just 10.5% last weekend from the previous weekend, grossing $31.3 million. If the movie drops an additional 10% to 15%, it would finish with a three-day take of about $27 million. That's close to the predicted opening of "Dear John."

The latter film, adapted from a novel by Nicholas Sparks ("The Notebook"), stars Channing Tatum ("G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra") as a soldier on leave who falls in love with an idealistic college student played by Amanda Seyfried ("Mamma Mia!"). Audience tracking surveys show that while most men would rather iron napkins than sit through the film, women -- particularly those younger than age 20 -- are eager to see it. Audience interest in the other new wide release, the John Travolta thriller “From Paris With Love” (from "Taken" director Pierre Morel) does not look especially strong. Neither film is attracting favorable early reviews.

Marty Bowen, one of the producers of "Dear John," says its appeal might be broader.

"Men are reluctant to say that they care about [romantic movies], just like they are to say they care about beauty products," Bowen says. " 'Dear John' is particularly unique to the male perspective, given that it's about the soldier. But the relationship he has with his father is compelling to any man."

"Valentine's Day" looks far more robust, thanks to a cast filled with popular performers -- "Twilight's" Taylor Lautner, singer Taylor Swift, "The Hangover's" Bradley Cooper and even Julia Roberts -- and the seemingly perfect marriage of title and release date. A trailer for the film benefited greatly from being attached to prints of "The Blind Side."

"It's a Garry Marshall romantic comedy," producer Mike Karz says of the film's director, who also made "Pretty Woman." "So you know it's going to appeal very strongly to women. But what we've really been happy about is how well it's been playing to men. And it's such a feel-good movie, the perfect film for the times that we are in. You walk out of the theater in a very good mood."

If it is indeed the movie that pushes "Avatar" out of first place, "Valentine's Day" will be the second straight New Line film to unseat a Cameron-directed smash -- 12 years ago, "Titanic" was finally dethroned by New Line's "Lost in Space."

Avatar flies over Titanic at domestic box office

Titanic's record as the biggest box office winner in U.S. history has sunk, pushed under by James Cameron's next blockbuster Avatar.

Avatar's domestic box office climbed to $601.1 million US on Tuesday, the same day it earned nine Oscar nominations including best picture. That includes Canadian and U.S. ticket sales.

That total pushes it past Cameron's earlier Oscar winner Titanic, which brought in $600.8 million US.

Avatar, a breakthrough in 3-D movie-making, has earned more than $2 billion US worldwide.

It stars Sam Worthington as a paraplegic marine who regains use of his body as an avatar on another planet, Pandora, and helps the blue-tinged residents battle developments that would destroy their environment.

After 47 days in cinemas, it continues to pack houses. Titanic had achieved only $311 million US after 47 days, but it sold at a lower ticket price.

Avatar's sales have been boosted by the fact that audiences pay a premium to watch the film in 3-D and Imax.

Kapuskasing, Ont.-born Cameron has as Academy Award nomination for a best director for the film. Avatar also won the Golden Globe for best drama.

'Avatar' wins box office, nears domestic record

NEW YORK – "Avatar" is on the cusp of toppling the domestic box-office record after leading all movies for a seventh straight week.

James Cameron's 3-D epic earned $30 million over the weekend, and its domestic total reached $594.5 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. That puts the film only about $6 million behind the domestic record set by Cameron's "Titanic" in 1998 with $600.8 million.

Earlier this week, the 20th Century Fox blockbuster passed "Titanic" for the worldwide box-office record. It has now crossed the $2 billion worldwide mark with $2.039 billion, easily beating the $1.8 billion made by "Titanic."

"You have to do a double take when you see these numbers," said Paul, Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com, marveling that "Avatar" decreased only 14 percent from the previous weekend. "James Cameron is the king of the box office hold."

So close to the domestic box-office record, "Avatar" could pass "Titanic," interestingly enough, on Tuesday — when Oscar nominations are announced. The film is expected to be nominated for best picture, as well as numerous other categories.

Those nominations could mean an Oscar bump for "Avatar," further propelling its gross.

Whereas the sustained box-office performance of "Titanic" has typically been attributed to teenage girls seeing the film repeatedly, the demographics for "Avatar" are less clear. One draw for repeat business is surely the 3-D visual effects.

"It's everybody going repeatedly," said Dergarabedian. "At first it was more of a fanboy experience, and then the word got out."

Analysts believe the lengthy run from "Avatar" is likely hurting the business of other films.

Mel Gibson's revenge-thriller "Edge of Darkness," debuted this weekend with $17.1 million for Warner Bros., a respectable if slightly low total. Dan Fellman, head of distribution at Warner Bros., called it a "solid opening."

"On a normal weekend, we probably would have had the number one film," said Fellman, shrugging at the out-of-this-world competition from "Avatar."

"Edge of Darkness" had been widely seen as a test to whether Gibson can return to headlining a film, after eight years and damage to his image. The last movie he starred in was "Signs" in 2002. Four years later, he made anti-Semitic remarks during a drunken-driving arrest.

But "Darkness" has received mostly good reviews. Fellman said the studio's data showed approximately 70 percent of those seeing the film said they came to see Gibson.

"It certainly marks an interesting return for Mel Gibson," said Fellman. "When this film plays out, I think his star will shine a little brighter."

Also in its first weekend of release was "When in Rome," the Walt Disney romantic comedy starring Kristen Bell. It took in $12.1 million.

Many films will hope for a box-office boost from the Academy Awards after nominations are announced Tuesday morning. The Oscar effect, though, may be slightly different this year, since the academy has expanded best picture nominees from five to ten.

Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "Avatar," $30 million.
2. "Edge of Darkness," $17.1 million.
3. "When in Rome," $12.1 million.
4. "The Tooth Fairy," $10 million.
5. "The Book of Eli," $8.8 million.
6. "Legion," $6.8 million.
7. "The Lovely Bones," $4.7 million.
8. "Sherlock Holmes," $4.5 million.
9. "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel," $4 million.
10. "It's Complicated," $3.7 million.

Fox Promises That Robert Rodriguez’s MACHETE Will Indeed Be a Feature Film

It may be that longest lasting impact of the double feature b-movie Grindhouse on film culture is interlude of five fake trailers between Robert Rodriguez’s Planet Terror and Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof. One of the standouts was the Rodriguez-directed Machete, starring Danny Trejo as a Latino with a vendetta who is outfitted mostly in leather and cutlery Somehow, that trailer is set to be adapted into a real, legitimate feature film (no, really) through what I imagine to be a series of wacky circumstances. To add to the mayhem, Rodriguez assembled a bizarrely amazing cast including Jessica Alba, Steven Seagal, Lindsay Lohan, Cheech Marin, Don Johnson, Jeff Fahey, and Michelle Rodriguez. Oh, and Robert De Niro(!).

Now Deadline confirms that this is not an elaborate hoax, but something that will eventually hit theaters, as 20th Century Fox outlasted five other studios to distribute the film domestically.

Rodriguez independently financed the production, primarily by selling the international rights to Sony for $20 million. But there was still the question of how it would reach audiences domestically, and six candidates felt up to the task: Sony, Lionsgate, Warner Bros., Fox, Paramount, and The Weinstein Co. Rodriguez screened 15 to 30 minutes of Machete for the interested studios, and after some back-and-forth between Fox and Paramount, the domestic distribution rights ended up in the hands of Fox.

The move makes sense, as Fox recently delved into the Rodriguez family business by funding Predators, the latest in the extraterrestrial manhunter franchise directed by Nimrod Antal and produced by Rodriguez. The film has been getting good early buzz, particularly after behind-the-scenes photos of the titular predators in costume leaked.

What is curious is that The Weinstein Co. was never in more serious consideration. The Weinstein brothers have been working with Robert Rodriguez since 1995, mostly via their genre label Dimension. In fact, the bulk of Rodriguez’s filmography, including Four Rooms, From Dusk till Dawn, The Faculty, the Spy Kids trilogy, Sin City, The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl, and most recently Grindhouse were all made under Weinstein guidance.

Reportedly, a Weinstein Co. insider confided, “we saw the footage and it’s not very good at all”. Hopefully this is just sour grapes, but the sensationalism of the Machete story ensures that there are only two creative paths for the movie: wonderfully pulpy fun or nonsensical waste of time. I pray for the former.

'Avatar' tops box office for sixth-straight week

LOS ANGELES – James Cameron's "Avatar" is on a course to sink "Titanic" at the box office.

Number 1 for the sixth-straight weekend with $36 million, the 20th Century Fox sci-fi spectacle lifted its domestic total to $552.8 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. "Avatar" raised its worldwide total to $1.841 billion. That's $2 million shy of first place behind Cameron's last movie, the 1997 shipwreck epic "Titanic," at $1.843 billion.

"It defies all superlatives," said Chris Aronson, head of distribution for Fox.

The studio said "Avatar" has hit $1.29 billion in international ticket sales, passing the $1.24 billion mark set by "Titanic." The saga set on the alien world of Pandora is also en route to overtake "Titanic" in domestic sales. After 37 days in theaters, "Avatar" soared past "The Dark Knight" on Saturday to become the second highest grossing film.

"We're witnessing box office history," said Paul Dergarabedian, box office analyst for Hollywood.com. "We're watching all of these big records fall, and there doesn't seem to be an end in sight. 'Avatar' is dominating at a time where it has no big summer blockbusters to compete with it. It's perfectly poised to keep breaking all these records."

"Avatar" is also positioned to win acclaim during awards season. While the computer-assisted performances didn't earn any honors at Saturday's Screen Actors Guild Awards, it captured the best drama and director trophies at last week's Golden Globes and is considered a likely best-picture front runner when Oscar nominations are announced Feb. 2.

Screen Gems' apocalyptic thriller "Legion," featuring Paul Bettany as an Armageddon-fighting fallen angel, debuted behind "Avatar" at No. 2 with $18.2 million. Fox's family fantasy comedy "Tooth Fairy," starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as a hockey player who spreads his wings as a magical deity, took flight in the No. 4 spot with $14.5 million.

Warner Bros. grabbed the No. 3 position with "The Book of Eli" at $17 million in its second week, despite three other films debuting in wide release this weekend. The post-apocalyptic action flick stars Denzel Washington as a traveling prophet who battles a villainous gang leader played by Gary Oldman while protecting the last known Bible.

The medical drama "Extraordinary Measures," the first film from new distributor CBS Films, opened with a disappointing $7 million in the No. 7 position. The film features Harrison Ford and Brendan Fraser as a doctor and businessman who collaborate to develop a drug that will treat a rare genetic disorder affecting children.

"It did well in middle America," said Steven Friedlander, head of distribution for CBS Films. "This is not a shoot-'em-up or fantasy film. It's the true story of people doing courageous things, and it's building good word of mouth. This is the kind of movie that plays well to a family friendly crowd who doesn't need to see the movie the weekend it opens."

Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "Avatar," $36 million.
2. "Legion," $18.2 million.
2. "The Book of Eli," $17 million.
3. "Tooth Fairy," $14.5 million.
5. "The Lovely Bones," $8.8 million.
6. "Sherlock Holmes," $7.1 million.
7. "Extraordinary Measures," $7 million.
8. "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel," $6.5 million.
9. "It's Complicated," $6.2 million.
10. "The Spy Next Door," $4.8 million.

Leaner New Line ready for a tentpole again

Two years ago, the 40-plus-year run of New Line as a largely autonomous film entity came to an abrupt end with the ouster of founder Bob Shaye and a restructuring that brought the company fully under the mantel as a unit of Warner Bros. After a run of films that had seen less-than-stellar B.O. returns ("Shoot 'Em Up," "Nativity," "Number 23," "The Golden Compass," "Tenacious D," "Domino," "Snakes on a Plane") and Shaye's attention diverted to his pet helming project, "The Last Mimzy," New Line was given a new mandate: Go through studio toppers Alan Horn and Jeff Robinov for greenlights, make about six pictures a year and focus mostly on bread-and-butter genre and comedy fare ... along with the occasional tentpole.

Now, with a leaner New Line having banked a run of solid performers (mostly romantic comedies such as "He's Just Not That Into You" and "17 Again") and a genuine blockbuster ("Sex and the City"), the division is looking to return to its glory days of "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy with a pair of "Hobbit" prequels directed by Guillermo Del Toro.

In short, it's tentpole time at New Line again -- but with calculated bottom-line prudence shaping the rest of its slate.

Despite its longstanding reputation for seat-of-the-pants decisionmaking, president Toby Emmerich says the new New Line is a more calculating enterprise these days. With only six films a year -- about half the pre-2008 slate -- Emmerich and production president Richard Brener say no to much more than they used to.

The more discerning approach seems to have paid off: Of 17 total films released since the division was subsumed into Warner Bros., "Semi-Pro" and "Inkheart" have been the only underperformers.

"We've been incredibly consistent," says Emmerich.

Horn emphasizes that it was "sad and painful" to downsize New Line, but says he's pleased with Emmerich's strategic execution and his ability to remain calm and focused amid the seismic changes that reshaped what used to be the town's leading mini-major.

"We are feeling pretty good about our relationship with these guys," Horn says. "The proof is in the pudding, and the pudding tastes pretty good."

And the Warners chiefs say they have no plans to impose any changes on how New Line operates.

"They have their own sensibilities, and it gives us a diversified slate," says Horn. "This is very much a collaborative partnership so that if Toby wants to do a film it's a long way down the road toward getting a greenlight."

New Line took in more than $950 million in grosses worldwide last year from eight films, led by "He's Just Not That Into You," "17 Again," "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past" and "Friday the 13th."

The unit will release just five films in 2010, the first year for which its projects had to go through the greenlight process via parent Warner Bros. It's got four romantic comedies -- "Valentine's Day," "Sex and the City 2," "Going the Distance" and "Hall Pass" -- and a relaunch of "Nightmare on Elm Street."

Tracking on "Valentine's Day" is already looking promising with high awareness among young women.

New Line began putting more comedies into the pipeline when it elevated longtime exec Brener to production president three years ago. Brener's probably best known for shepherding "Wedding Crashers," which grossed nearly $300 million worldwide six years ago.

For 2011, New Line will likely include more horror films in the mix, with "Friday the 13th," "Orphanage" and "The Rite." It's also got two comedies -- "Horrible Bosses" and "Valentine's Day" spinoff "New Year's Eve" -- along with a "Journey to the Center of the Earth" sequel and a musical, "Rock of Ages."

And then there's "The Hobbit." Emmerich's on familiar turf when it comes to the two-pic project thanks to his extensive involvement with the "Rings" trilogy and the presence of producer-director-screenwriter Peter Jackson on all five films.

Emmerich was promoted to head of production at the point in 2001 when the first cut of "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the King" was prepped for post-production, and he oversaw the pic's reshoots.

"It's similar, though this is more expensive and much more of a known entity," says Emmerich of the "LOTR" ramp-up vs. the advance work being done on "The Hobbit."

JRR Tolkien's novel is set 60 years before "The Lord of the Rings," with Bilbo Baggins as its unassuming hero in an adventure that centers on his acquiring from the evil Gollum the all-powerful ring that figures into "LOTR." A few "Rings" cast members, such as Andy Serkis and Ian McKellen, will make return appearances in "The Hobbit."

New Line's "LOTR" financing scheme, in which foreign presales provided much of the budget for the trilogy, is not how "Hobbit" is being bankrolled. Instead, New Line shares financing rights with MGM/UA, which bought the original rights in 1969; the complication this time around is that the Lion could conceivably sell those rights as part of MGM's restructuring.

Once the script for the second film is in -- Jackson and his longtime collaborators Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens are working on it with Del Toro -- New Line will work up a budget for both films and start casting. New Line exec Michael Disco, who was once Emmerich's assistant, will oversee for the studio.

Horn won't predict when the first of the two "Hobbit" films will be out, but says the most probable scenario would be a release in the fourth quarter of 2012.

"It's a big bet for us. But it's one we think will pay off given the success of 'Lord of the Rings,'" says Emmerich. "This is one of the few movies it feels like people are waiting for."

...Marc Webb to direct next 'Spider-Man'.

LOS ANGELES – Marc Webb has caught the job of "Spider-Man" director.

Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios announced Tuesday that the "(500) Days of Summer" director will helm the next "Spider-Man" film following the departure of Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire, the director and star who worked on the previous three Spidey films. The fourth installment is set for a 2012 release and will focus on a younger version of the superhero.

Webb said in a statement he was not taking over the series from Raimi but instead wanted the "opportunity for ideas, stories and histories that will add a new dimension, canvas and creative voice to 'Spider-Man.'" Webb previously directed music videos, including Green Day's "21 Guns" and The All-American Rejects' "Move Along."

'Paranormal Activity 2' rushing to theaters with 'Saw VI' director

A sequel to "Paranormal Activity" will be in theaters by Halloween.

Showing that Paramount intends to rake every dollar out of "Paranormal Activity" that it can, the studio has hired screenwriter Michael R. Perry and director Kevin Greutert to bring "Paranormal Activity 2" to theaters. And not only is it coming, it's coming quick. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the studio intends to have the sequel face off against the next "Saw" this Halloween weekend.

While Oren Peli won't be directing the he told the trade "These guys get it, an the fans won't be disappointed."

Peli, who is producing alongside original partner Jason Blum, is putting a lot of confidence in Greutert, who edited the first five "Saw" movies and directed the sixth. Perry, is a longtime TV writer ("The Guardian") who made waves on 2009's Black List (a competition where agents and execs select their favorite spec scripts).

No word on whether "Paranormal Activity 2" will be the film's actual title or what the storyline will be, but don't expect a massive increase in budget. Peli has kept busy with "Area 51" which Paramount will release later this year.

The last time a phenomenon like "Paranormal" rushed out a sequel was a decade ago when "Book of Shadows: The Blair Witch Project 2" was a massive disappointment without the original filmmakers involved. Peli and Blum appear to be involved to make sure that scenario doesn't repeat itself.

'Avatar' passes 'Star Wars' with $491.8M in US

LOS ANGELES – James Cameron's "Avatar" had a $41.3 million weekend to shoot past "Star Wars" as the No. 3 movie on the all-time domestic box office charts. Next stop, "The Dark Knight."

Number One for the fifth-straight weekend, Cameron's sci-fi saga raised its domestic total to $491.8 million and should top $500 million after revenues are counted on Martin Luther King Day, according to studio estimates Sunday.

Worldwide, 20th Century Fox's "Avatar" lifted its total to $1.6 billion, second only to Cameron's last movie, 1997's "Titanic," at $1.8 billion.

"One guy makes two movies in 10 years, and they're by far the biggest movies of all time. That's remarkable," said Chris Aronson, head of distribution for the studio.

"Avatar" topped the original "Star Wars," which took in $460.9 million domestically in its original run and several reissues over the years. But factoring in today's higher admission prices, "Star Wars" remains well ahead of "Avatar" on actual number of tickets sold.

"Avatar" now is closing in on "The Dark Knight," No. 2 domestically with $533.3 million. After that, only Cameron's "Titanic" at $600 million will remain ahead of "Avatar" domestically.

"We'll be proud of our No. 3 slot," said Dan Fellman, head of distribution for Warner Bros., which released "The Dark Knight" and has hopes for more in the Batman franchise from its director, Christopher Nolan. "I can just give Chris Nolan a nudge that he's got to raise the bar."

Warner, which has Nolan's sci-fi tale "Inception" with Leonardo DiCaprio opening this July, had a strong No. 2 debut of $31.6 million for its action thriller "The Book of Eli." The movie stars Denzel Washington as a post-apocalypse prophet carrying the last known Bible to safe haven across a decimated America.

Expanding nationwide after a month in limited release, Paramount's drama "The Lovely Bones" came in at No. 3 with $17.1 million. Directed by "The Lord of the Rings" creator Peter Jackson, "The Lovely Bones" features Saoirse Ronan, Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz and Stanley Tucci in the story of a murdered teen looking back on the world from the afterlife.

Lionsgate's family action tale "The Spy Next Door" debuted at No. 6 with $9.7 million. It stars Jackie Chan as a newly retired agent forced back into the spy game when bad guys come after him and his girlfriend's kids.

Like "Titanic," which dominated the Academy Awards 12 years ago, "Avatar" is expected to remain aloft in the box office charts as Oscar season progresses. "Avatar" was up for best drama at Sunday's Golden Globes and is considered a likely best-picture nominee when Oscar nominations come out Feb. 2.

"It's kind of the cherry on top of the cake for this movie to not only be a massive box office hit, but to get all this awards attention," said Paul Dergarabedian, box office analyst for Hollywood.com. "It's hard sometimes to get a 50- or 60-year-old out of their chair to go see a science-fiction movie in 3-D. But if `Avatar' gets enough recognition from the critics, they may just do it."

Fox executive Aronson would not say if the studio expects "Avatar" to pass either the $600 million domestic total for "Titanic" or its $1.8 billion worldwide total. Some box office watchers say "Avatar" could climb as high $2 billion, though.

"`Titanic' was a ship. Batman had a motorcycle. `Avatar's' a rocket ship," Aronson said. "Is there a lot of fuel left in the tank? You bet."

Even if "Avatar" sets a new revenue record, it's doubtful it would sell as many tickets as "Titanic" did because of today's higher admission prices.

"Titanic" sold about 130 million tickets domestically based on average ticket prices of about $4.60 back in 1997 and 1998. Based on today's average domestic price of about $7.50, "Avatar" would be at around half that mark.

Average admission prices for "Avatar" likely run even higher, given that much of its business comes from a 3-D version, which costs a few dollars extra to see.

Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Tuesday.

1. "Avatar," $41.3 million.
2. "The Book of Eli," $31.6 million.
3. "The Lovely Bones," $17.1 million.
4. "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel," $11.5 million.
5. "Sherlock Holmes," $9.8 million.
6. "The Spy Next Door," $9.7 million.
7. "It's Complicated," $7.7 million.
8. "Leap Year," $5.8 million.
9. "The Blind Side," $5.6 million.
10. "Up in the Air," $5.5 million.

Broderick okays 'Bueller' remake

Matthew Broderick has given Hollywood bosses the green light to remake his classic movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off, but doesn't want any involvement in it.

Rumours have swirled for months suggesting studio chiefs are nursing plans to bring the cult 1980s comedy back to the big screen in either a sequel or a remake.

Broderick has now commented on the reports, insisting he would be "happy" with plans to bring back rebellious teen Ferris, as long as the project is handed to a completely new cast.

He tells Cinematical, "(A remake) would be fine. I would be perfectly happy for somebody to do that. I probably wouldn't enjoy (having a role in the film). I would rather leave what we did as our thing."

'Polytechnique' named top Cdn. film

TORONTO - Quebec cinema was the toast of the Toronto Film Critics Association Tuesday as Denis Villeneuve's "Polytechnique" was named best Canadian feature of 2009 and phenom moviemaker Xavier Dolan got a rising artist award.

"At least nobody can accuse us of being Toronto-centric," Brian D. Johnson, TFCA president and film critic for Maclean's, said at the awards gala attended by eminent directors including David Cronenberg and Atom Egoyan.

"Polytechnique," which examines the murderous rampage at Ecole Polytechnique on Dec. 6, 1989, won the $10,000 Rogers Best Canadian Film Award. It was up against another Quebec film, "The Necessities of Life" directed by Benoit Pilon, as well as Bruce McDonald's "Pontypool."

Johnson called "Polytechnique" "a film of astonishing courage," and Villeneuve said it was emotionally taxing to make.

"It was a very long and tough process to do this movie," he said in an interview on the red carpet.

"It was a fantastic, human voyage, but still it was a tough one and it was tough from the first interview until the last day of editing."

Dolan, 20, received the $5,000 inaugural Jay Scott Prize for emerging talent for his smash directorial debut, "I Killed My Mother" ("J'ai tue ma mere"), a semi-autobiographical portrayal of a teen's explosive relationship his single mom, Chantale (Anne Dorval).

Dolan also wrote, produced and starred in the searing drama, which won three awards at the Cannes International Film Festival earlier this year.

Opening Feb. 5 in Toronto, "I Killed My Mother" is now Canada's official entry for consideration for best foreign-language film Oscar - an honour that has Dolan feeling like a bit of a charlatan.

"I somewhat feel like an impostor being a contender aside many other people I admire so much," admitted the curly-haired, bespectacled prodigy, who got his start as a child actor.

"I wonder how it is that I belong there. But if people choose me, I'll be flattered and honoured."

His success, he added, has been "very unexpected."

"All I wanted with the film originally in the first place was to go to Cannes. There was no above-the-line perspective, like, I couldn't think of anything after.

"Beyond Cannes for me, there were like, no possibilities, but then there were many other festivals and things, and it's great."

Egoyan, who presented Dolan with the award that's named after the late Globe and Mail film critic Jay Scott, called "I Killed My Mother" a "remarkable piece of work."

"Jay would've loved this movie," said Egoyan. "It's a film that's raw, it speaks of an experience in a way you feel you've seen before but you've never seen it expressed this way.

"It's just so sincere and breathtakingly assured."

Canadian box office hits record in 2009

TORONTO (Hollywood Reporter) – Harry Potter's broom and Michael Bay's robots helped the Canadian box office soar past CAN$1 billion to reach a new record in 2009, according to data issued on Tuesday.

Canadians paid out CAN$1.01 billion ($970 million) for theater tickets last year, with most of the money going toward studio releases, said the Motion Picture Theater Associations of Canada and Zoom Services.

The Canadian performance mirrors the industry stateside, where a string of studio movie hits and raised ticket prices helped Hollywood find box office gold last year, despite the economic downturn.

Bay's "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" was the top-grossing movie in Canada last year with CAN$34.4 million ($33 million) in box office, followed by "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" at CAN$31.5 million ($30.5 million) and "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" at CAN$28 million ($27.2 million).

James Cameron's "Avatar" brought in CAN$27 million ($26.2 million) over the Christmas break at the local multiplex, and continues to generate box office into 2010.

Local movie productions were virtual no-shows at the Canadian multiplex yet again in 2009, with locally-made movies accounting for just under 3% of receipts in 2009. Most of that business came in Quebec, where French-language movies enjoy some protection from Hollywood competition.

Among them, Canadian films -- including Emile Gaudreault's "De pere en flic," Mike Clattenburg's "Trailer Park Boys" and Michael McGowan's "One Week" -- earned CAN$26 million ($25.2 million).

'Avatar' remains in orbit with $48.5M weekend

LOS ANGELES – James Cameron's "Avatar" continues to race up the box office charts, remaining No. 1 domestically for the fourth straight weekend with $48.5 million and placing second among all-time top-grossing films worldwide.

The science-fiction saga from 20th Century Fox added $143 million overseas to raise its international haul to $906 million. With $429 million domestically, "Avatar" has pulled in $1.34 billion worldwide, behind only Cameron's "Titanic," which took in $1.8 billion.

In just 24 days, "Avatar" shot past the $402.1 million domestic total of "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" to become the No. 1 release of 2009. Cameron's tale of humans and aliens in conflict on a distant world now stands at No. 6 on the all-time domestic chart.

The film has just over $100 million to go to pass the No. 2 domestic hit, "The Dark Knight" at $533.3 million.

"I think we'll get there very soon," said Bert Livingston, 20th Century Fox distribution executive. "I believe anything is possible with this picture. Nothing would surprise me. There's a still a long way to go, and it's going to keep on playing and playing."

The No. 2 and No. 3 box office draws remained unchanged from the previous weekend, with the Warner Bros. hit "Sherlock Holmes" in second place at $16.6 million and 20th Century Fox's "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel" in third at $16.3 million. "Sherlock Holmes" raised its domestic take to $165.2 million, and "Alvin and the Chipmunks" lifted its total to $178.2 million.

Among new movies, Lionsgate's vampire thriller "Daybreakers" had the best premiere, coming in at No. 4 with $15 million. "Daybreakers" stars Ethan Hawke as a reluctant vampire racing to find a substitute for human blood in a world overrun by the undead in the near future.

Universal's romantic comedy "Leap Year" opened at No. 5 with $9.2 million. The movie stars Amy Adams as a woman who finds love in an unexpected place as she chases across Ireland to propose to her boyfriend.

The Weinstein Co. comedy "Youth in Revolt," debuted at No. 9 with $7 million. The film features Michael Cera as a teen going to extremes to win the heart of his dream girl.

"Avatar" had the best fourth weekend ever for a film, easily surpassing the previous high of $28.7 million for "Titanic," which dominated the box office for nearly four months.

The coming weekend likely will be another big one for "Avatar," with many people off next Monday for Martin Luther King Day.

Hollywood's box office roll has lingered in 2010. Overall domestic revenues came in at $156 million, up 6.6 percent from the same weekend last year, when "Gran Torino" led with $29.5 million, according to box office tracker Hollywood.com.

It was the eight-straight weekend of rising ticket sales.

"The winning streak just continues," said Paul Dergarabedian, box office analyst for Hollywood.com. "The momentum of 2009 is just carrying over into 2010."

Hollywood put up record revenue of $10.6 billion domestically in 2009, easily surpassing the previous high of $9.7 billion in 2007.

Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "Avatar," $48.5 million.
2. "Sherlock Holmes," $16.6 million.
3. "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel," $16.3 million.
4. "Daybreakers," $15 million.
5. "It's Complicated," $11 million.
6. "Leap Year," $9.2 million.
7. "The Blind Side," $7.8 million.
8. "Up in the Air," $7.1 million.
9. "Youth in Revolt," $7 million.
10. "The Princess and the Frog," $4.7 million.

"Avatar" ready for four-peat at box office

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – "Avatar" is poised to become the first film to log four consecutive weekends atop the North American weekend box office since "The Dark Knight" managed the feat in summer 2008.

James Cameron's sci-fi phenom also is stalking "Dark Knight" and other all-time domestic top grossers, all while racking up an even more impressive global tally.

A 40% drop from last weekend's holiday-fueled total would mean a $40 million-plus haul for "Avatar" this session. That would take its domestic total well over $400 million, placing the Fox film smack in the midst of Hollywood's top 10 all-time grossers -- a list topped by the $600.8 million haul for Cameron's "Titanic" in 1997-98.

Fox also could wind up with the weekend's No. 2 picture as its family comedy "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel" shows signs of sustained playability.

As for the weekend's wide openers, Lionsgate's futuristic vampire actioner "Daybreakers," starring Willem Dafoe and Ethan Hawke, should break into the mid- to high-teen millions through Sunday, and Dimension's teen comedy "Youth in Revolt" has good prospects of hitting double-digit millions.

But Universal's romantic comedy "Leap Year," starring Amy Adams and Matthew Goode ("A Single Man"), is tracking softly and likely will open in the single-digit millions.

Also Friday, Paramount expands its George Clooney vehicle "Up in the Air" to a total of about 2,200 engagements. Through Sunday, the total for the awards-season favorite stood at $44.4 million after five weekends of a platform campaign.

Terry Gilliam's "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus," from Sony Picture Classics, will expand after four weekends of bicoastal exclusives to 550 U.S. locations. And Fox Searchlight broadens its Jeff Bridges vehicle "Crazy Heart" by 21 theaters to a total of 33, with the music-filled drama toting a haul of $702,188 through three sessions.

Spider-Man 4 Snags May Delay Big-Screen Debut

Our Spidey sense is tingling.

Just a few months ago, Tobey Maguire told us he was ready to don the Spider-Man suit again in March for the film's fourth installment, which was looking at a May 2011 release.

Now it looks like Spider-Man 4 is facing a foe worse than Doc Ock: a rejected screenplay.

Somewhere along the line, Marvel's record-breaking franchise hit a huge snag, reports Hollywood insider Nikki Finke. Director Sam Raimi is reportedly dissatisfied with the Spider-Man 4 script thus far, and without a script, filming on the long-awaited movie has been put on the back burner.

Sources tell Finke it's unlikely the originally scheduled release date will be made, but attempts are being made to secure a summer 2011 opening—although the franchise has traditionally hit theaters in the coveted May spot.

While Sony didn't directly confirm the delay, the studio did hint that it could be a while, telling E! News: "We are completely committed to the Spider-Man franchise and know audiences will find the next film worth the wait."

We'll take that as a yes.

Penn goes back to 'Stooges'

Sean Penn has backtracked on his decision to leave the Three Stooges - the actor has rejoined the upcoming film just months after dropping out.

Penn was due to star in the movie based on 1930s comedy icons Moe Howard, Curly Howard and Larry Fine, which will be helmed by directing duo the Farrelly brothers.

The Oscar-winner had been lined up to play Larry opposite Benicio Del Toro as Moe, and Jim Carey, who was reportedly in talks to play Curly.

But Penn quit the project over the summer after reconciling with wife Robin Wright Penn, vowing to take a break from movies to help fix his marriage. The couple finally called it quits in August after Wright Penn filed divorce papers and now it seems her spouse is throwing himself back into work.

Bobby Farrelly has confirmed Penn is back on board the Three Stooges project, but they're still looking to fill the role of Curly, according to the Boston Herald.

Farrelly tells the newspaper, "We got him (Penn) back. He always said he wanted to do it after, you know, taking care of his family."

Keeping a lid on 'Iron Man 2'

SAN DIEGO — When we last saw Tony Stark, he was outing himself to the world — a superhero without secrets.

Jon Favreau isn’t buckling so easily. On this day at last summer’s Comic-Con, the actor-turned-director is jealously protecting Iron Man 2’s surprises in advance of its May 7, 2010 launch.

Even if he knows he has as much chance keeping his tightly-guarded sequel from springing leaks as he does constructing a battle suit in an Afghanistan cave.

“I got to tell you, all the secrets we thought we had the first time out — very few of them made it all the way to when the movie came out,” he admits, referring to the post-credits cameo by Samuel L. Jackson as SHIELD director Nick Fury.

“That Nick Fury thing was out there on (the website) Ain’t It Cool News less than a week after we did it. We shot with a skeleton crew on a dark day — nobody knew about it. We thought we were so clever, and then everybody knew.”

Still, there are worse things, he realizes. Such as directing a movie in which there is so little interest no one is bothering to spoil it. A few years ago, it’s a fate most observers believed would likely befall Iron Man — the umpteenth comic-book adaptation about a B-grade character, starring unconventional choice Robert Downey Jr. and bankrolled by Marvel Studios, in its first self-produced attempt at moviemaking. But reviews were excellent, and the film rocketed to a box-office haul of more than $585 million worldwide.

Now two years later, the sequel is 2010’s most-anticipated movie, with Downey Jr. back and joined by — in addition to returning Gwyneth Paltrow and Jackson — newcomers Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, Mickey Rourke and Don Cheadle, who replaces Terrence Howard.

Says Downey Jr. of the new cast members: “I feel really beholden to say to them, ‘I guarantee you and I promise you that we will work our asses off to really pay this character off.’ And I guess the problem is, or the challenge was this time I was essentially saying that to three or four new people. Jon and I were telling Mickey that he wouldn’t just play a two-dimensional nemesis. We were thrilled to get Scarlett, and we said, ‘You’re not just going to be like some kind of B Marvel spin-off.’ ”

Even if sometimes it meant accommodating the odd feathered co-star, says Favreau.

“We sculpt scenes and change them as we learn things about the characters. Or Mickey Rourke wants a pet. I’d seen a picture of him with a cockatoo that he used to own. And so he’s like, ‘How about that? That’s my favourite animal’ and he’s like, ‘Maybe it could humanize this guy.’ That wasn’t something in the script. You want the freedom that (Francis Ford) Coppola brought to The Godfather, where Marlon Brando finds the cat on the set and is playing with it in that scene. What you don’t want is Brando wearing an ice bucket on his head. That’s the balancing act.”

And so far it’s an act Downey Jr. seems pleased to be part of, exhibiting no symptoms of franchise fatigue.

“I tend to just think of (Marvel) as this kind of unspoiled area of activity in a very wonderful, treacherous industry.”

WHO’S WHO IN 'IRON MAN 2'

Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.): With various forces aligning against him, the former care-free billionaire arms manufacturer now faces betrayal and danger from all sides.

Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow): She’s the CEO of Stark Industries now, but that doesn’t mean there still aren’t feelings between her and Stark - and a lot of romantic tension now that he has a beautiful new assistant named Natasha.

Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson): Lest you think the director of the spy organization SHIELD is going anywhere, Jackson has a nine-picture deal with Marvel.

Whiplash/Vanko (Mickey Rourke): This tattooed Russian villain builds himself a battle suit in prison and embarks on a mission of cybernetically-enhanced vengeance.

Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson): She has red tresses, curves - and a black cat-suit worth of secrets. Namely that she’s also the mysterious Black Widow.

Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell): A slick, amoral weapons inventor, he conspires to take out his chief rival, Stark, who is now pre-occupied with saving the world.

James Rhodes (Don Cheadle): “Next time, baby,” Terrence Howard promised himself at the end of the first film. Well, not quite. Instead it’s Cheadle - who landed the role after Howard and Marvel had a falling out - who gets to fly into action as the bullet-grey War Machine.

'Avatar' rules with $68.3M, tops $1B worldwide

LOS ANGELES – James Cameron's science-fiction epic "Avatar" had another stellar weekend with $68.3 million domestically, shooting past $1 billion worldwide, only the fifth movie ever to hit that mark.

No. 1 for the third-straight weekend, 20th Century Fox's "Avatar" raised its domestic total to $352.1 million after just 17 days. The film added $133 million overseas to lift its international haul to $670 million, for a worldwide gross of $1.02 billion.

"Avatar" opened two weekends earlier with $77 million, a strong start but far below dozens of other blockbusters that debuted as high as $158 million. But business for other blockbusters usually tumbles in following weekends, while "Avatar" revenues barely dropped over the busy Christmas and New Year's weekends.

"It's like a runaway freight train. It just keeps doing business," said Fox distribution executive Bert Livingston. "Here's what's happening: I think everybody has to see `Avatar' once. Even people who don't normally go to the movies, they've heard about it and are saying, `I have to see it.' Then there's those people seeing it multiple times."

"Avatar" was Cameron's first film since 1997's "Titanic," the biggest modern blockbuster with $1.8 billion worldwide.

Cameron now is the only filmmaker to direct two movies that have topped $1 billion. Along with "Titanic," the others are "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" at $1.13 billion, "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" at $1.06 billion and "The Dark Knight" at a fraction over $1 billion, according to box-office tracker Hollywood.com.

With "Avatar" closing in on No. 2 film "The Return of the King," Cameron is in striking distance of having the two top-grossing movies globally.

"Avatar" has had a price advantage over those other billion-dollar movies. About 75 percent of its domestic business has come from theaters showing it in digital 3-D presentation, those tickets typically costing a few dollars more than admissions for the 2-D version.

Finishing at No. 2 for the weekend was Robert Downey Jr.'s crime caper "Sherlock Holmes" with $38.4 million. The Warner Bros. film lifted its domestic total to $140.7 million after 10 days in theaters.

In third place was 20th Century Fox's family tale "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel" with $36.6 million. It raised its 10-day total to $157.3 million.

The top-three movies, along with solid holdovers that included Universal's "It's Complicated" at No. 4 with $18.7 million, steered Hollywood to a big start to 2010 after a year of record revenue.

Hollywood finished 2009 with $10.6 billion domestically, easily surpassing the previous record of $9.7 billion in 2007, according to Hollywood.com.

Factoring in today's higher admission prices, the year was strong but not a modern record-breaker for number of tickets sold. According to Hollywood.com, domestic admissions came in at 1.42 billion in 2009, the most in the last five years, though well below the modern record of 1.6 billion in 2002.

In Hollywood's glory years of the 1930s and '40s, before television eroded the movie audience, estimated movie attendance ran as high as 4 billion some years.

Studios began 2010 with a headstart over last year. Overall revenues came in at $230 million, up 50 percent from New Year's weekend in 2009, when "Marley & Me" was No. 1 with $24.3 million.

Like "Titanic" 12 years ago, "Avatar" has fairly clear sailing now that the holidays are over. Hollywood is entering a slow season, when fewer big movies arrive and competition is lighter.

"Titanic" lingered as the No. 1 film for months leading up to the Academy Awards, where it won 11 Oscars, including best picture and director.

"Avatar" also proved a critical favorite with strong Oscar potential. Cameron broke new ground in combining live-action, digitally-enhanced performances, visual effects and 3-D presentation to immerse viewers in his futuristic tale of humans and aliens on a distant moon.

"Leave it to James Cameron to do this. To not only set the technical world on fire, the visual world on fire, but also the box-office world on fire 12 years after `Titanic,'" said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com.

Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "Avatar," $68.3 million.
2. "Sherlock Holmes," $38.4 million.
3. "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel," $36.6 million.
4. "It's Complicated," $18.7 million.
5. "The Blind Side," $12.7 million.
6. "Up in the Air," $11.4 million.
7. "The Princess and the Frog," $10 million.
8. "Did You Hear About the Morgans?", $5.2 million.
9. "Nine," $4.3 million.
10. "Invictus," $4.1 million.

Theater owners name Sandra Bullock 2009's top star

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – In the eyes of U.S. movie theater owners, Sandra Bullock shined as 2009's top Hollywood star at the box office, as the actress nicknamed "America's Sweetheart" scored with audiences after a two-year absence from screens.

Quigley Publishing Company's annual list released on Thursday of top money making stars, based on a poll of hundreds of theater executives, had Bullock beat out such stars as George Clooney and Denzel Washington, on the strength of her roles in "The Proposal" and "The Blind Side."

Romantic comedy "The Proposal" made $315 million at worldwide box offices following its June release, and football drama "The Blind Side" has made $193 million only in the U.S. and Canada since its November 20 release, with its roll-out in other countries still to come.

Bullock, who also starred in the 2009 comedy "All About Steve" with its $34 million take in the U.S. and Canada, is the eighth woman to top Quigley's list of top money making stars, which the company has put out each year since 1932.

Quigley Publishing said the list does not rank stars only on how much cash their films made, but on what theater owners say about who attracts audiences on their star power alone.

For instance, "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" was the top movie at U.S. and Canada box offices in 2009 with more than $400 million, but many in Hollywood attribute that to the appeal of the franchise itself and the toys it's based on.

The last woman to top Quigley's list was Julia Roberts in 1999. She failed to make Quigley's 2009 top 10 this year, after her turn in romantic comedy "Duplicity" bombed at the box office.

Bullock scored her first smash hit with 1994 action movie "Speed" and became one of Hollywood's biggest stars, but before "The Proposal" she had not starred in a film since 2007.

"Public Enemies" star Johnny Depp came in at No. 2 on Quigley's top 10 list, followed by Matt Damon, George Clooney, Robert Downey Jr, Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep, Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf and Denzel Washington.

Best New Year's Eve Scenes in Movies

Whether it's about fresh starts, uncertain futures or the end of an era -- or, more importantly, who's kissing who at midnight -- New Year's Eve is inherently cinematic with its showers of fireworks, confetti and balloons. No wonder so many films fade out with a countdown, a kiss and the implied "... and they lived happily ever." Of course, not all new years begin in a lip lock with the love of your life; sometimes all that merriment is just a set-up for epic-sized disaster.

So bring on the kazoos and pop that champagne: Just in time for 2010, Moviefone has rounded up 10 of the best New Year's Eve scenes in movie history.

Happy New Year!!

The top 10 sleeper movie hits of the decade

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Sleepers come seemingly out of nowhere. They are the little films that confound expectations, attracting enthusiastic audiences that happily spread the word.

Sometimes they come from the studio system, produced almost as an afterthought, but mostly they're produced well off the radar. On occasion, they upend the established order by opening at No. 1 at the box office.

But more typically they start small, building over time, hanging on in theaters as more heralded movies come and go. Often the filmmakers involved meet with initial rejection before wildly triumphing in the end. And in the process, they expose the limitations of Hollywood's conventional thinking about what makes a hit.

Sleepers, when everyone wakes up to their potential, tend to be wildly successful, resulting in box office returns that dwarf their modest budgets. And so, top sleepers of the past decade, take another bow.

10. "CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON" (SONY PICTURES CLASSICS, 2000)

Budget: $17 million

Domestic gross: $128 million

Except for a handful of martial arts fans, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" was indeed hidden from sight during its production. Most Westerners weren't familiar with stars Chow Yun-Fat and Michelle Yeoh. Taiwanese director Ang Lee, coming off the commercial failure of "Ride With the Devil," wasn't exactly known for burning up the box office, either. Even its rollout was uneventful: "Tiger" was first shown out of competition at Cannes and made its U.S. premiere at the Hawaii International Film Festival. But after an Oscar-qualifying run in December 2000, it opened wide January 12, 2001, to $8.6 million. And then, the subtitled movie became a sensation. While it never made more than $10.5 million during a single box office weekend, it clawed its way to a $128 million domestic cume. It became the highest-grossing foreign-language film in U.S. history, won the Oscar for best foreign-language film, made an international star of Zhang Ziyi and ushered in an Asian movie revival in the West.

9. "DIARY OF A MAD BLACK WOMAN" (LIONSGATE, 2005)

Budget: $5.5 million

Domestic gross: $50.4 million

"Tyler who?" most folks in Hollywood were asking each other the Monday morning after the Atlanta-based filmmaker's "Diary of a Mad Black Woman" opened in first place to the tune of $21 million. The answer was Tyler Perry, and he was already well-known by the extensive black fan base he'd cultivated during his years writing and performing plays on the so-called Chitlin' Circuit. Several Hollywood studios gave him the cold shoulder before Lionsgate struck a deal for Perry's first feature, in which he also appears as his signature big mama character, Madea. The relationship has spawned a whole series of consistently profitable films, two TV series and a potential Oscar winner in "Precious," which Perry joined as executive producer after Lionsgate acquired it at this year's Sundance.

8. "SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE" (FOX SEARCHLIGHT, 2008)

Budget: $15 million

Domestic gross: $141.3 million

This could easily be at the top of the list when taken as a whole. Not just because it was very nearly buried by Warner Bros. before anyone ever had a chance to see it. Not just because it is essentially a foreign film with unknown actors and multiple languages. Not just because it's violently R-rated and yet went out into the world to gross $362 million worldwide. That certainly would have been enough. But it did all of this and then won eight Oscars, including best picture, for good measure. Jai ho!

7. MARCH OF THE PENGUINS (WARNER INDEPENDENT/NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, 2005)

Budget: $8 million

Domestic gross: $77.4 million

Penguins sure are cute, but a whole movie about a bunch of birds who do nothing but march inland, canoodle, fish, lay eggs and huddle together for warmth among ferocious winter storms? After the French-made production played Sundance in 2005, new -- and ultimately short-lived -- Warner Independent, along with National Geographic, acquired U.S. rights for $1 million and released it in only four theaters in June. But it steadily warmed moviegoers' hearts, played all the way to November, won the documentary Oscar and became the top-grossing nature documentary ever.

6. JACKASS: THE MOVIE (PARAMOUNT, 2002)

Budget: $5 million

Domestic gross: $64.3 million

True, the TV series "Jackass" had run for two seasons on MTV before MTV Films, at the time something of a poor stepchild at Paramount Pictures, greenlighted a movie version starring Johnny Knoxville and his whacked-out crew and directed by Jeff Tremaine. Seemingly embarrassed to be stooping to a slapdash mix of skits involving urine-soaked snowballs, soiled trousers and unpixelated private parts, Paramount kept the movie away from the censorious eyes of critics. But the fans couldn't have cared less. Opening to a $22 million weekend, "Jackass" stunned Hollywood by arriving in first place, spawning a 2006 sequel and surely an even-grosser 3D version set to let it all hang out this coming October.

5. "JUNO" (FOX SEARCHLIGHT, 2007)

Budget: $7.5 million

Domestic gross: $143.5 million

Diablo Cody's quirky little gem about cinema's hippest accidentally pregnant teenager may feel like it's always been with us, but for a while it was just a buzzed-about script from an unknown writer with a titillating backstory. Director Jason Reitman, stars Ellen Page and Michael Cera and distributor Fox Searchlight then spun an early Toronto International Film Festival success into a cultural phenomenon, complete with its own striped color scheme, hit soundtrack and invented lexicon. Like its ballooning pint-sized protagonist, "Juno" eventually swelled to 19 times its original body weight in grosses (plus $83.5 million overseas).

4. "SAW" (LIONSGATE, 2004)

Budget: $1.2 million

Domestic gross: $55.2 million

Like its madman protagonist, "Saw" succeeded with an intricate, moralistic premise executed with precision and no small amount of blood. The low-budget horror film, co-written by director James Wan and actor Leigh Whannell, screened in a midnight slot at Sundance and then rode a slow burn to a surprise $20 million opening the weekend of Halloween. Thus, a franchise was born that has grossed more than $650 million worldwide in relentless yearly installments (No. 7 hits in 2010). It also birthed Jigsaw, the first new top-tier horror villain in more than a decade.

3. "MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING" (IFC, 2002)

Budget: $5 million

Domestic gross: $241.4 million

At first, Hollywood insiders referred to it simply as "the small comedy Tom Hanks produced with his wife," but it became one of the biggest independent movies of all time. An ethnic-flavored rom-com, "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" began life as a one-woman stage show performed by Nia Vardalos, which Hanks' wife, Rita Wilson, discovered and championed. Adapted for the screen by Vardalos and director Joel Zwick for only $5 million, it opened in April 2002 bolstered by a carefully targeted campaign that resulted in unprecedented word-of-mouth. It stayed in theaters for almost a year, an unheard-of length of time in an era of wide releases when movies are in and out of theaters in a matter of weeks. It never made more than $15 million on any given weekend, and never reached No. 1 during the run, but it enjoyed a take of $241 million domestically and $127 million abroad. The movie's title became part of the lexicon, spawned a host of imitators, and made Vardalos an Oscar-nominated screenwriter.

2. "NAPOLEON DYNAMITE" (FOX SEARCHLIGHT/PARAMOUNT 2004)

Budget: $400,000

Domestic gross: $44.5 million

A geek comedy, directed by Jared Hess, that seemed to divide along generational lines, "Napoleon Dynamite" was made for only $400,000 and became the poster child of Sundance 2004 when it got picked up by Fox Searchlight for $3 million. With the help of a promotional push from partners Paramount and MTV Films, the distributor orchestrated a slow rollout over the summer and watched as the movie collected more than $44 million over the course of months, even though the movie never attracted more than $4 million on any weekend during its lengthy box-office dance-off. Audiences related to the title character and took to wearing "Vote for Pedro" T-shirts, inspired by the movie, just to prove their hip quotient.

1. "PARANORMAL ACTIVITY" (PARAMOUNT, 2009)

Budget: $15,000

Domestic gross: $107.6 million

First-time director Oren Pali's homemade ghost story could have disappeared at any step along the way. Shot for only $15,000 on a camcorder over the course of seven days, it found no buyers after appearing at Screamfest in 2007 and then Slamdance in 2008. DreamWorks picked it up with plans to remake it rather than release it. Then it almost got lost amid the Paramount/DreamWorks divorce. Finally, Paramount released it at midnight screenings in only 12 theaters, supported by a stealth marketing campaign that convinced fans they were discovering the movie for themselves. It climbed the charts until, by its fifth weekend, it reigned at No. 1. What "The Blair Witch Project" was to the '90s, "Paranormal" was to '00s. The cheapie project became a gold-plated ghost(block)buster.

Merry Christmas in Hollywood: Box-office record falls

NEW YORK – It was a memorable and merry Christmas in Hollywood as moviegoers shattered box-office records, responding in droves to a diverse array of high-profile releases over the holiday weekend.

The estimated $278 million in weekend box-office revenue broke the previous record of roughly $253 million set in July 2008, the weekend "The Dark Knight" was released.

A diverse group of films drew throngs to the multiplexes: James Cameron's "Avatar" pushed strongly into its second week while "Sherlock Holmes," "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel" and "It's Complicated" all opened.

"Avatar," the 3-D epic, topped them all, earning $75 million for 20th Century Fox, according to studio estimates Sunday. Remarkably, that was only a 3 percent drop from its opening weekend total of $77.4 million. (Blockbusters typically drop 30-50 percent in the second weekend.) In its 10 days of release, "Avatar" has made $212 million domestically — and could be on its way to a worldwide gross of over $1 billion.

"This thing is going to be playing and playing, I can tell you that," said Bert Livingston, 20th Century Fox distribution executive. "There's a lot of business out there. Everybody's got good movies out."

In second was "Sherlock Holmes," Guy Ritchie's reboot of the franchise with Robert Downey Jr. starring as Arthur Conan Doyle's detective. The Warner Bros. film opened with a weekend total of $65.4 million, including a record Christmas Day debut of $24.9 million.

It was a start that seemed sure to pave the way for sequels. Dan Fellman, head of distribution for Warner Bros., called the result "sensational."

"Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel," which opened Wednesday, took in $50.2 million on the weekend and $77.1 million in its five days of release. The film, also from Fox, earned an impressive $18.8 million on Wednesday alone. The strong start suggested that "Squeakquel" was likely to surpass its 2007 original, which made $217 million.

Also opening was Nancy Meyer's "It's Complicated," the romantic comedy starring Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin. With an audience 72 percent female, the Universal film took in $22.1 million, a solid debut.

The sparkling Christmas weekend results spelled good things for all the films in release in the coming week — one of the most lucrative of the year.

"We all know what next week means to the industry. This is ... huge," said Nikki Rocco, head of distribution for Universal. "Christmas is past us. No more shopping, no more returning. College kids are home. ... I'm so optimistic about what the next weekend holds for us."

Said Livingston: "Starting this Monday, every day is a Saturday."

Two films with Oscar aspirations also released wide over the weekend: Jason Reitman's "Up in the Air" (Paramount) and Rob Marshall's "Nine" (Weinstein Co.).
"Up in the Air," which has some of the best awards momentum, grossed $11.8 million, bringing its cumulative total to $24.5 million — already nearly earning back its production budget.

"For us, this movie was always the movie that we felt was going to be a real focus during the awards season," said Rob Moore, Paramount vice chairman. "It feels like this should have a long run as awards season continues."

"Nine," the adaptation of the Broadway musical (which itself was a riff of Federico Fellini's classic film "8 1/2") earned $5.5 million in 1408 theaters.

"It's an absolutely fitting end to the biggest box office year of all time," said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com. "It's just been a total roller coaster ride. It's like audience members are on board."

2009 still has several days to go, but the year is already a record for domestic ticket sales with more than $10 billion at the box office. That surpassed the $9.7 billion mark of 2007.

While some of the credit has to go the recession (movies historically do well in hard times when a trip to the movie theater is a relatively cheap form of entertainment and escapism), there was a feeling Sunday that Hollywood had put forth a better product this Christmas.

"People say it's the recession," said Dergarabedian. "It's the movies — it's really the movies. It seems like when people aren't at home, they're at the movies."

He added: "You're going to find a smile on the face of every studio chief out there today."

Hollywood also seemed to be offering good ol' spectacle to moviegoers. "Avatar" grossed $8.8 million in IMAX theaters, actually increasing from its opening weekend. IMAX chairman and president Greg Foster said they were operating essentially at capacity.

"There is no context," said Foster. "It's so far beyond where we've ever been. It's not eking past a record, it's shattering it."

Christmas weekend was also neatly organized around various demographics. There was science-fiction, romantic comedy, family fare, action-packed thriller and serious awards-contender.

"That's what fueled this Christmas, the diversity of the films," said Dergarabedian. "It was like a cinematic buffet line. If you can't find a movie that you like in the marketplace right now, you don't like movies."

Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "Avatar," $75 million.
2. "Sherlock Holmes," $65.4 million.
3. "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel," $50.2 million.
4. "It's Complicated," $22.1 million.
5. "Up in the Air," $11.8 million.
6. "The Blind Side," $11.7 million.
7. "The Princess and the Frog," $8.7 million.
8. "Nine," $5.5 million.
9. "Did You Hear About the Morgans?" $5 million.
10. "Invictus," $4.4 million.

Hollywood eyes first $10 billion box office

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Audiences have given Hollywood a big present in advance of Christmas, as U.S. and Canadian movie ticket sales for 2009 were expected to cross the $10 billion mark on Tuesday for the first time.

Through Sunday, the total U.S. and Canadian box office stood just $36 million short of crossing the $10 billion mark, said tracking firm Hollywood.com Box Office.

With Monday generating $29 million in ticket sales, led by strong results for "Avatar," the industry was expected to cross $10 billion on Tuesday.

"We're looking at some huge numbers for the next 10 days or so that will put us well over that $10 billion mark" for the full year, said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Hollywood.com Box Office.

Dergarabedian said he expected the 2009 total to come to more than $10.4 billion.

Last year's total was $9.63 billion.

Christmas Day is among the busiest days of the year for box offices. Ticket sales on Christmas Day last year was $76 million, and Dergarabedian said he expects this year's total to surpass that, with "Sherlock Holmes," "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel" and comedy "It's Complicated" hitting theaters.

Big Sunday raises `Avatar' weekend to $77.35M

LOS ANGELES – James Cameron's "Avatar" has jumped out to a faster start than projected.

Distributor 20th Century Fox says Cameron's sci-fi saga did far more business Sunday than the studio had estimated, raising the film's domestic weekend total to $77.35 million. That's $4.35 million more than the studio first forecast.

That also should give a bump to the movie's worldwide total, which has topped $230 million.

Fox still is counting final numbers, but if the figure holds, "Avatar" will go in the record book for biggest December opening ever, a fraction ahead of the $77.2 million for Will Smith's "I Am Legend" two years ago.

But factoring in higher ticket prices today, "I Am Legend" sold more tickets than "Avatar" over opening weekend.

"Avatar" earns $73 million in box office

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – "Titanic" director James Cameron's "Avatar," a 3-D extravaganza hyped as a giant leap in cinematic prowess, earned an estimated $73 million during its first weekend at the North American box office, distributor 20th Century Fox said on Sunday.

The opening for the costly sci-fi film fell short of industry forecasts in the $85 million range. But the News Corp unit said the tally beat its internal projections, and noted that an enormous snow storm along the East Coast crippled business for all movies.

The weekend haul ranks as merely the sixth-biggest of the year in the United States and Canada. The 2009 record was set last month by "The Twilight Saga: New Moon," with $143 million. The all-time record of $158 million was set last year by "The Dark Knight."

On the other hand, ticket sales for "Avatar" were inflated by premium pricing for screenings in venues equipped with 3-D technology. Such venues accounted for 59 percent of the total cinema count and 71 percent of sales, Fox said.

The film also earned $159.2 million from 106 foreign markets. Individual-market tallies were not immediately available.

"Avatar" garnered almost as much attention for its reported budget of at least $300 million budget as for its eco-friendly tale of a soldier from Earth sent to infiltrate an alien race of 10-foot (3 meter)-tall blue people in order to save the polluted planet.

It marks Cameron's first dramatic feature since 1997's "Titanic," the biggest film of all time before accounting for inflation. He spent the intervening years waiting for moviemaking technology to catch up with his vision for the follow-up. Production took two years.

The film won breathless reviews from critics. "You've never experienced anything like it, and neither has anyone else," said the Los Angeles Times.

"Avatar" box office seen topping $75 million in debut

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Box office watchers expect widely-anticipated sci-fi movie "Avatar" to make more than $75 million at U.S. and Canadian theaters this coming weekend following its debut on Friday.

Industry analysts told Reuters that if the movie from "Titanic" director James Cameron sets cash registers ringing as much as they predict, it will be a victory for the movie and its studio 20th Century Fox, as well as for Hollywood in its latest push into 3D movies.

"For a lot of older people, it's going to be the first film that they see in 3D," said Jeff Bock, box office analyst with Exhibitor Relations Co.

"Don't be surprised if it hits that billion dollar mark (worldwide during its entire run) if it really takes off and becomes the event film of the season," he said.

But for "Avatar's" opening weekend, Bock expects the less astronomical figure of $75 million in the U.S. and Canada, although he said a $100 million opening is possible.

Paul Dergarabedian, president of Hollywood.com Box Office, said the film, which will begin playing in midnight screenings Friday, could earn between $85 million and $100 million.

That would be far short of 2009's biggest three-day weekend debut, the $142.8 million raked in by vampire romance movie "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" last month.

Cameron's "Avatar" tells of a soldier from Earth sent to infiltrate members of an alien race and the bond he forms with them, including one attractive woman in particular.

Fox said this week that "Avatar" will open in more than 3,300 theaters domestically, including 2,100 3D locations.

Online ticket seller MovieTickets.com has said 78 percent of its advance ticket buyers for "Avatar" were male, while rival outlet Fandango.com said 68 percent of its "Avatar" customers were men.

Cameron's 1997 film "Titanic" made a record $1.8 billion worldwide, in large part by appealing to women who went more than once to see the film's emotional tale of ill-fated love.

While more has been made of "Avatar's" 3D look than its romance, Los Angeles Times critic Kenneth Turan wrote that the film is "a boys' adventure with a major romantic element" and he predicted that people will see it more than once.

"Avatar" has received many positive reviews, and as of Thursday afternoon it had an 83 percent approval rating at critic aggregating website RottenTomatoes.com.

'Princess and the Frog' hops to No. 1 with $25M

LOS ANGELES – "The Princess and the Frog" earned a big wet kiss from family audiences as the animated musical leaped to No. 1 with $25 million in its first weekend of nationwide release, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The Disney musical is the studio's first hand-drawn animated tale in five years, a contrast to the computer-animated films that now dominate the cartoon world.
"I've always believed that when you start with great storytelling, then the format aside doesn't mean anything," said Chuck Viane, head of distribution for Disney.

The movie also is a return to Disney's reinvention of classic fairy tales, offering a 1920s New Orleans twist on the Brothers Grimm story "The Frog Prince," following the adventures of a young woman turned into a frog by a kiss from an amphibian.

Despite its No. 1 finish, "The Princess and the Frog" drew modest crowds compared to many big animated tales, which can open with two or three times as much business. Those films typically open during the busy summer season, though, and Disney is counting on the long shelf life that many films manage during the holidays.

"The Princess and the Frog" took over at No. 1 from the inspiring sports tale "The Blind Side," which slipped to second-place with $15.5 million. Released by Warner Bros., "The Blind Side" raised its total to $150.2 million.

A surprise box-office sensation, "The Blind Side" is on its way to a domestic total of about $230 million, said Dan Fellman, Warner Bros. head of distribution.

"The Blind Side" chronicles the real-life story of Baltimore Ravens rookie lineman Michael Oher, who had been a homeless teen taken in by a wealthy couple (Sandra Bullock and Tim McGraw).

"It's the heartland that's pulling the strings of the movie," Fellman said. "While it's performing well everywhere, the response in smaller marketplaces and Christian communities has been outstanding."

The film opened the same weekend as "The Twilight Saga: New Moon," but with only a fraction of that movie's blockbuster business. Audience word-of-mouth has kept crowds coming for "The Blind Side," while "New Moon" has waned to the No. 4 spot with an $8 million weekend, raising its domestic haul to $267.4 million.

Warner Bros. also had the No. 3 film with a $9.1 million debut for another inspirational sports drama, Clint Eastwood's Nelson Mandela saga "Invictus," featuring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon. Freeman stars as the South African leader, who uses an underdog World Cup run by the country's rugby team to help unite the racially divided nation.

Though it had a modest start, "Invictus" debuted in the range of Eastwood's sober drama's "Mystic River" and "Million Dollar Baby" in their first weekends of wide release. Eastwood's films draw older audiences and tend to have a long life at the box office, Fellman said.

"The Lord of the Rings" creator Peter Jackson had a strong opening in limited release for "The Lovely Bones," which pulled in $116,000 in three theaters.

The Paramount Pictures release features Saoirse Ronan, Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz and Stanley Tucci in an adaptation of Alice Sebold's best-seller about a murdered girl looking back on her grieving family from the afterlife.

The Weinstein Co. drama "A Single Man" also started well with $216,328 in nine theaters. The film stars Colin Firth as a gay academic in the early 1960s who's planning to end his life amid grief over his lover's death.

Hollywood is poised for a big finish to its record box-office year, with James Cameron's science-fiction epic "Avatar" opening Friday, followed Christmas week by the family comedy "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel," Robert Downey Jr.'s action tale "Sherlock Holmes" and the nationwide expansion of George Clooney's comedy "Up in the Air."

With nearly three weeks left in the year, 2009 domestic revenues already have set a new record of $9.79 billion, surpassing the previous high of $9.68 billion in 2007, according to Paul Dergarabedian, Hollywood.com box-office analyst.

Domestic grosses should top $10 billion for the first time within the next 10 days or so. Dergarabedian estimates that Hollywood will finish the year with $10.5 billion domestically.

Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "The Princess and the Frog," $25 million.
2. "The Blind Side," $15.5 million.
3. "Invictus," $9.1 million.
4. "The Twilight Saga: New Moon," $8 million.
5. "Disney's a Christmas Carol," $6.9 million.
6. "Brothers," $5 million.
7. "2012," $4.4 million.
8. "Old Dogs," $4.39 million.
9. "Armored," $3.5 million.
10. "Ninja Assassin," $2.7 million.

Natalie Portman to slay zombies

Given Natalie Portman’s elegant demeanor, a turn in a period Jane Austen adaptation was inevitable.

Portman will star in and produce “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies,” a film that is based on the bestselling book written by Seth Grahame-Smith and Austen. Lionsgate will finance and distribute. Quirk Books published the tome.

Though Austen’s name is on the book, Grahame-Smith took the liberty of adding bloodthirsty flesh-eating zombies to the mix.

Portman will produce through her handsomecharlie shingle with Annette Savitch, plus Darko Films’ Richard Kelly, Sean McKittrick and Ted Hamm.

Described as an expanded version of the Austen classic, the book tells the timeless story of a woman’s quest for love and independence amid the outbreak of a deadly virus that turns the undead into vicious killers.

Portman will play feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet, who is distracted from her quest to eradicate the zombie menace by the arrival of the arrogant Mr. Darcy. Darko just released “The Box,” “World’s Greatest Dad” and “I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell.”

Portman stars in the Jim Sheridan-directed drama “Brothers” for Relativity Media and Lionsgate. Her handsomecharlie banner recently set up “Booksmart” at Fox and is partnered with Plan B at Paramount on an adaptation of the Leanne Shapton book “Important Artifacts,” a potential screen vehicle for Portman and Brad Pitt.

Her shingle just wrapped production on “Hesher.”

“Natalie and I are longtime passionate fans of Jane Austen’s books and this a fresh, fun and thought-provoking way to approach her work,” Savitch said. “The idea of zombies running rampant in 19th Century England may sound odd, but it lends a modern sense of urgency to a well known love story.”

"Blind Side" tackles top spot at movie box offices

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Football film "The Blind Side" tackled the top spot at North American box offices with $20.4 million in ticket sales for a rare climb up the charts in its third week, according to studio estimates on Sunday.

Vampire romance "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" dropped one place from last weekend to No. 2 with $15.7 million in ticket sales, and new release "Brothers," about soldiers returning home from war, landed in third place with $9.7 million.

The rise of "The Blind Side" bucks the accepted Hollywood wisdom that a new film will claim the No. 1 spot in its first week, then drop down the charts in subsequent weeks.

But "Blind Side," starring Sandra Bullock in the feel-good movie based on a real-life story about a woman who takes a homeless boy and helps turn him into a football star, opened at No. 2 three weeks ago. Its cumulative ticket sales now stand at $129 million in the United States and Canada.

"Blind Side" was released by Time Warner studio Warner Bros. and made by privately held Alcon Entertainment.

"New Moon" pushed its North America ticket sales total to just over $255 million, and worldwide the movie has now raked in $570 million, according to tracker Hollywood.com Box Office. It was distributed by independent Summit Entertainment.

"Disney's A Christmas Carol" also rose up the charts one notch, landing at No. 4 and adding $7.5 million to its coffers. Its gross domestic ticket sales now stand at $115 million.

After five weeks in theaters "A Christmas Carol" swapped places over the weekend with another Walt Disney Co movie, comedy "Old Dogs," which fell one place to No. 5 with $6.9 million in ticket sales.

NEW RELEASES

Along with "Brothers," only two other new releases made the top 10. Action flick "Armored" tied for No. 6 spot with $6.6 million, and "Everybody's Fine," starring Robert De Niro and Drew Barrymore, was No. 10 showing $4 million in ticket sales.

Disaster movie "2012" also took in $6.6 million, and after four weeks in theaters has now collected $149 million in domestic theaters and $517 million internationally for a worldwide total of $666 million, its distributor said.

Martial arts flick "Ninja Assassin" and animated comedy "Planet 51," took in $5.0 and $4.3 million, respectively, to land in the No. 8 and No. 9 spots and round out the top 10.

Elsewhere, George Clooney movie "Up In the Air," about a man who fires people for a living, opened in 15 U.S. theaters this past weekend after being named the year's best film by the U.S.-based National Board of Review earlier this week.

It took in nearly $1.2 million for a per screen average of roughly $79,000, according to distributor Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc.. It will expand broadly around the U.S. in coming weeks.

"Brothers" was released by Lionsgate Entertainment. "Armored," "2012" and "Planet 51" were released by divisions of Sony Pictures Entertainment, a unit of Sony Corp.. "Everybody's Fine" was released by Disney's Miramax Films, and "Ninja Assassin" was distributed by Warner Bros.

'Bourne' director confirms he won't do fourth film

Paul Greengrass, who directed the second and third installments of the $945 million grossing franchise — The Bourne Supermacy and The Bourne Ultimatum — has confirmed that he will not be making the fourth film. Greengrass, who also directed the controversial 9/11 drama, United 93, issued this statement: “You won’t find a more devoted supporter of the Bourne franchise than me. I will always be grateful to have been the caretaker to Jason Bourne over the course of The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum. I’m very proud of those films and feel they express everything I most passionately believe about the possibility of making quality movies in the mainstream. My decision to not return a third time as director is simply about feeling the call for a different challenge. There’s been no disagreement with Universal Pictures. The opportunity to work with the Bourne family again is a difficult thing to pass up, but we have discussed this together and they have been incredibly understanding and supportive. I’ve been lucky enough to have made four films for Universal, and our relationship continues. Jason Bourne existed before me and will continue, and I hope to remain involved in some capacity as the series moves on.”

The story, which originally broke earlier this week on the blog The Playlist, cited script challenges and Greengrass’s schedule as mitigating factors. (Greengrass has been busy making Green Zone, a big-budget Iraq-based thriller, with Bourne star Matt Damon.) Variety’s Michael Fleming reports today that Damon is not yet attached to make the fourth Bourne film, either, and posits that Tony Gilroy, who wrote all three previous Bourne films and recently directed Michael Clayton and Duplicity, could now possibly step in to write and direct. It’s also possible that Georg Nolfi –who co-wrote Ultimatum with Gilroy and is now making his directing debut, Adjustment Bureau (based on a Philip K. Dick short story) with Damon in the lead — might also consider stepping in as director. Nolfi has already written a version of the script for the fourth Bourne, but when he left to do Adjustment, the studio brought in writer Joshua Zetumer to script a different version. It remains to be seen which script, and which director (if any), will persuade Damon to sign his name on the dotted line.

Saskatchewan town of red paper clip fame readies for movie premiere

REGINA - Actor Corbin Bernsen has learned two things: first, that Saskatchewan in February is a really cold place to make a movie, and second, that his latest film wouldn't have happened without a red paper clip and the people of a small Prairie town.

Bernsen's new movie "Rust," about a priest who undergoes a mid-life crisis of faith and returns to his hometown to heal, was shot in Kipling, Sask., a two-hour drive southeast of Regina.

"It was like shooting at the North Pole," Bernsen says with a laugh.

"It was freezing, but it created a beautiful look for the movie and exactly the feel that I wanted."

Bernsen recalls shooting one day when it was - 45 C with the windchill - his lips froze and he could barely speak.

It was "unbelievably cold" for a "southern California surfer boy," he says. But the effort will pay off Thursday when "Rust" holds its premiere in Kipling. (SCN will air the broadcast premiere of "Rust" on Dec. 5 and will re-broadcast it Boxing Day).

The story of how Bernsen ended up in Kipling not once, but twice, could itself be a movie.

Back in July 2005, blogger Kyle MacDonald used a red paper clip to set off a series of trades in his bid to get a house. The trades eventually landed MacDonald with a limited edition KISS snow globe and then Bernsen, an avid snow globe collector, offered a role in one of his movies in exchange for the snow globe.

The town took the movie role in exchange for a two-storey house given to MacDonald. Bernsen then came to town and held auditions for that role, in his movie "Donna on Demand."

But Bernsen, who is perhaps best known for his role in the hit '80s television show "L.A. Law," was also inspired to return.

"I fell in love with the town and the people there," he told The Canadian Press in a phone interview from Los Angeles. "There's a simplicity there that appealed to me and I think that's really what attracted me to the place."

The town started its own film company and raised about $250,000 after Bernsen promised to come back.

He wrote "Rust" with Kipling in mind. Bernsen's character in the film must make sense of the aftermath of a tragedy - his childhood friend has confessed to burning down a house that has taken the lives of the family within.

The film crew burned down an abandoned farmhouse. "Corner Gas" star Lorne Cardinal, who plays a police officer in "Rust," says it a cathartic moment since the farmhouse was where convicted pedophile Peter Whitmore abused two boys in the summer of 2006.

"One of the victims actually showed up for the burning of it," says Cardinal. "It was palpable energy for sure because everyone wanted to see it gone because it was a blight on Kipling. It was something that everyone knew about but didn't like to talk about."

Beyond the raw emotion, Cardinal says there was "a lot of great magic on the set happening."

Among the locals cast for the film were a mentally challenged man named Lloyd Warner in a key role. People opened up their homes as sets and local businesses donated equipment including heaters.

"I've never seen a town come alive like that before," says Cardinal. "Everybody was involved in it, everyone was doing their bit to fulfil their end and they did great. The on-camera performances were pretty great for people with no training."

Brad Kearns with Kipling Film Productions says he still can't believe it all happened, adding there's a lot of excitement in the community.

"That's a good thing, it's a good excitement," says Kearns, who also portrays the fire chief in "Rust."

"It so easy to have negative publicity on things these days ... this is a positive thing and I think people are really excited and happy. I think it's one of those 'feel good' things. It was a lot of work at the time and you pretty much have to say everybody pitched in some way or another.

"They always used to talk when I was a kid, always talked about the magic of Hollywood. Well, guess what I've seen it now and it truly is."

But Bernsen says it was the community's faith that got the job done.

"This is their movie, they did it," says Bernsen.

"I just offered the opportunity for them. Did I spearhead it? Yeah, but I offered the opportunity. Without the people it wouldn't have come together."

Bernsen would like to work in Saskatchewan again and already has a surprise in mind for Kipling. Ironically, the town where Bernsen shot his movie doesn't actually have a movie theatre and he'd like to change that.

"They used to but it burned down," he says. "That'll be one of the first things that I'm going to suggest they do for themselves and I'll help them design it."

"New Moon" shines on record holiday box office

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" rose to the top of movie box office charts for the second straight week on Sunday with a three-day haul of $42.5 million on a record-breaking holiday weekend in North America, according to studio estimates.

Over the five-day U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, the vampire romance starring Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner took in $66 million, pushing its two-week total in theaters to $230.7 million in North America, said independent studio Summit Entertainment, which backed the movie.

Internationally, the high-profile sequel to last year's monster hit "Twilight," based on the best-selling novels by Stephenie Meyer, has taken in $243 million for a worldwide total just under $475 million in two weeks.

Richard Fay, president of domestic distribution for Summit, said the movie continued to do strong repeat business from mostly teenage girls who are fans of the movies and books, and it was able to expand its audiences to include older women.

Total movie ticket sales for the five-day holiday period in North America reached a record $278 million, beating the old figure of $244 million set back in 2000 when "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and "Unbreakable" were the two top films, according to sales tracker Hollywood.com Box-Office.

Coming in at No. 2, also for the second straight week, was Sandra Bullock football film "The Blind Side" with three-day sales of $40.1 million and a two-week total of $100.5 million. Disaster film "2012" rounded out the top three with $18 million in three days, boosting its three-week total to $139 million.

SEEING "BLIND"

"Blind Side," produced by Alcon Entertainment and released by Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros,, played well to all audiences. Bullock helped draw women, sports lured men and the feel-good tale about a woman played by Bullock who helps a homeless boy become a football hero attracted families.

"This is a movie that plays equally to both genders," said Andrew Kosove, co-chief executive of Alcon Entertainment. "A great deal of moviegoing is consensus driven (among families) and we were the consensus movie for the weekend."

Natural disaster flick "2012" also continued to score well. Internationally, its ticket sales now stand at $456 million, boosting its global haul to $595 million, said distributor Columbia Pictures, a unit of Sony Corp.

Among new movies, Disney comedy "Old Dogs" with John Travolta and Robin Williams was No. 4 in North America with $16.8 million on the weekend and $24 million for five days. Warner Bros' "Ninja Assassin" with Korean superstar Rain was No. 6 with $13.1 million and $21 million for the 3-day and 5-day periods, respectively.

Other noteworthy titles include Disney's "A Christmas Carol," which claimed the No. 5 spot with $16 million, pushing its North American cumulative ticket sales to $105 million.

Twentieth Century Fox expanded the release of its animated movie "Fantastic Mr. Fox," widely around the United States and it climbed to the No. 9 spot with $7 million on the weekend.

Top 10 movie flops of the decade

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Movie flops aren't just about losing money. Yes, big budgets that go bust are one consideration. But flops are also about lofty expectations dashed and high profiles brought low. They trigger embarrassing catcalls from the peanut gallery and a general whoever-thought-that-was-a-good-idea-in-the-first-place bewilderment.

Any judgments of flopitude are necessarily subjective, but here are 10 movies from the past decade that made those few moviegoers who saw them cringe. Disagree? Talk among yourselves.

10. THE SPIRIT
* Release date: December 25, 2008
* Estimated cost: $60 million
* Domestic gross: $19.8 million
Frank Miller, the man who created the comics "300" and "Sin City," and who redefined Batman and Daredevil for the modern age, directed this adaptation of Will Eisner's comic-strip hero. Starring Samuel L. Jackson and a bevy of beauties, it may have looked good on the page. But onscreen, the heavily stylized, nearly black-and-white results were disastrous. The expensive movie was killed by comic fans, who wanted Miller to go back to comics, and critics, who trashed the movie's over-the-top tones and aesthetics. Consequently, the partners at the company behind the production, Odd Lot Entertainment, parted ways after 23 years together. It even killed plans for a Miller-directed version of "Buck Rogers."

9. GRINDHOUSE
* Release date: April 6, 2007
* Estimated cost: $67 million
* Domestic gross: $25 million
Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez managed to turn twice the filmmaking firepower into half the box office (and a third of the critical praise). With "Grindhouse," what began as an explicit exercise in joyous B-movie cinema homage -- a double bill of '70s-style schlock, one film from each director -- ended up aping its scuzzy genre ancestors a little too closely in the receipts department. After the three-hour-plus "Grindhouse" opened to a mere $11.6 million, Harvey Weinstein split the film's two parts -- "Death Proof" and "Planet Terror" -- and shuttled them to international markets individually. While that recouped a little of the Weinstein Co.'s money, it incurred the wrath of purists who were angry that the original film had been corrupted. Tarantino and Weinstein are famously loyal to each other, and while the writer-director eventually made good on the losses with the $120 million-grossing "Inglourious Basterds" this year, "Grindhouse" was one instance where loyalty nearly brought down the house.

8. ROLLERBALL
* Release date: February 8, 2002
* Estimated cost: $70 million
* Domestic gross: $19 million
Norman Jewison's 1975 comment on violence, corporatism and spectacle has its place in the paranoid '70s-era cult film pantheon. John McTiernan's remake, on the other hand, would be totally forgettable if it weren't so spectacularly misconceived in every way. The cast -- Jean Reno, Chris Klein, LL Cool J and Rebecca Romijn-Stamos -- was a C-list mishmash closer to reality TV than big-budget studio moviemaking. McTiernan had long since dented his box-office bona fides with "Last Action Hero" and "The 13th Warrior." And the studio releasing it -- MGM -- was so aware of its bomb-worthiness that it pushed the release back four times, out of the summer 2001 field and into the barren wasteland of February. In a last act of desperation, the movie was also re-edited from an R to a PG-13 rating, sabotaging any last chance it had at an audience. Ultimately, it pretty much wrecked McTiernan's career (he has directed only one film since).

7. THE INVASION
* Release date: August 17, 2007
* Estimated cost: $80 million
* Domestic gross: $15.1 million
Nicole Kidman couldn't have started the decade any hotter, scoring with "Moulin Rouge," "The Others" and "The Hours." But after 2002, her career went cold in the U.S. ("Stepford Wives," "Bewitched," "Australia" and "The Golden Compass"); it's as if the actress was abducted by some sort of soul-draining body snatcher. But wait, isn't that what she's fighting in "The Invasion," Hollywood's latest remake of the 1956 film "Invasion of the Body Snatchers"? This time around, the eerie premise, based on a novel by Jack Finney, failed to catch fire. The Wachowski brothers' second unit director, James McTeigue, was called in to shoot additional scenes written by the "Matrix" whiz kids after original director Oliver Hirschbiegel was sent packing, having filmed the bulk of the movie. In an omen of things to come, Kidman suffered an on-set fender-bender during the reshoots. When the film arrived in theaters more than a year late, Kidman's regal bearing took another dent.

6. CATWOMAN
* Release date: July 23, 2004
* Estimated cost: $100 million
* Domestic gross: $40 million
It was inevitable after Michelle Pfeiffer stole scenes as Catwoman in "Batman Returns" that her black-latexed anti-heroine would get a spinoff of her own. But when the inevitable occurred in 2004, this time with Halle Berry playing the character, audiences tried hard to cover up the kitty litter. No one involved with the movie came out unscathed. Not Berry, who just two years earlier had won an Oscar for "Monster's Ball"; not Sharon Stone, who chewed up the scenery as the movie's villainess; and not Pitof, the French filmmaker making his American directorial debut. He went back to his native land and hasn't directed a theatrical feature since. The movie is another example cited by studios in their long-held contention that female superhero movies just don't work.

5. TOWN & COUNTRY
* Release date: April 27, 2001
* Estimated cost: $90 million
* Domestic gross: $6.7 million
Twenty-five years after he seduced audiences in "Shampoo," Warren Beatty decided the time was ripe for another sex comedy, albeit one with a somewhat older circle of friends. He somehow persuaded New Line, which usually concentrated on the youth market, to foot the bill. And what a bill it was: With the script still furiously going through rewrites, Peter Chelsom began shooting in June 1998; 10 months and take after take after take later, the film was still shooting. That's when co-stars like Diane Keaton and Gary Shandling had to leave to fulfill other commitments. A full year later, the whole cast regrouped to finish the shoot, which had escalated to more than twice its original $44 million price tag. The completed film was actually something of a tepid affair. Beatty dithers as a New York architect who cheats on his wife with several women; Shandling's his best pal trying to come out as gay. And then there's Charlton Heston, playing against type, as a gun nut.

4. GIGLI
* Release date: August 1, 2003
* Estimated cost: $54 million
* Domestic gross: $6.1 million
If the course of true love rarely runs smoothly, then "Gigli" is an object lesson in how rocky it can get. As the new century dawned, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez -- tabloid code name: Bennifer -- were the couple of the moment. With an Oscar for writing "Good Will Hunting" and starring roles in "Pearl Harbor" and "The Sum of All Fears," his movie career was in high gear; she could boast a solid-gold music resume and rom-com appeal in movies like "The Wedding Planner" and "Maid in Manhattan." Onscreen romantic sparks seemed made to order. So what went wrong? Start with that title, "Gigli," that no one was sure how to pronounce. Add lots of lovey-dovey media appearances that erased a bit of their mystique. And then there was Martin Brest's film itself: a low-rent-mobster-boy-meets-enforcer-chick tale complete with a kidnapping, severed thumbs and Al Pacino in high dudgeon. Bennifer split in 2004, just before sharing the bill in another film not too far away on the flop-o-meter, "Jersey Girl."

3. LAND OF THE LOST
* Release date: June 5, 2009
* Estimated cost: $100 million
* Domestic gross: $65 million
Producer/puppeteers Sid and Marty Kroft were masters of the weird and cheesy; their old Saturday morning TV show, "Land of the Lost," is remembered fondly by kids who grew up in the '70s. But the material experienced something of a time warp when director Brad Silbering tried to give it a hipster spin this summer with the help of Will Ferrell, playing a paleontologist who journeys to a parallel universe where he meets the Sleestaks. Normally, any movie with a rampaging Tyrannosaurus (see "Journey to the Center of the Earth," "Night at the Museum") can't miss, but "Lost" was, well, lost in translation. The movie's PG-13 rating wasn't a comfort to many families when word got around of its toilet humor. Older moviegoers weren't interested, and Kroft purists weren't amused. Over the years, Disney and Sony had both held remake rights, but ultimately this hot potato landed at Universal, where it was one of the factors that resulted in the ouster of the studio's two top executives in October.

2. BATTLEFIELD EARTH
* Release date: May 12, 2000
* Estimated cost: $75 million
* Domestic gross: $21 million
Blame it on the Thetans if you want, but John Travolta's space oddity "Battlefield Earth" virtually imploded on the launching pad. Travolta's career was enjoying a resurgence in the wake of "Pulp Fiction" when he wagered a big chunk of his newfound credibility, as well as some of his own coin, on this passion project. "Battlefield Earth" was based on a 1972 sci-fi novel by Scientology guru L. Ron Hubbard, which Travolta promised would be "like 'Star Wars,' only better." Studios shied away, but Travolta found financing from Franchise Pictures, which would later be sued by investors for overstating the movie's costs as $100 million. Originally, Travolta hoped to play the young hero who leads a rebellion against the alien race that enslaves Earth, but the film took so long to assemble he ultimately opted instead to don dreadlocks and platform shoes to play the villain, barking lines like "Execute all man-animals at will, and happy hunting!" A planned sequel, which would have covered the second half of the novel, never materialized. "Some movies run off the rails," observed Roger Ebert. "This one is like the train crash in 'The Fugitive.'"

1. THE ADVENTURES OF PLUTO NASH
* Release date: August 6, 2002
* Estimated cost: $100 million
* Domestic gross: $4.4 million
Eddie Murphy is some kind of miracle. Five of his recent films lost more than $250 million, and yet he not only still gets hired but also commands his salary quote. But on the flop-o-meter, one Murphy title towers above even "Meet Dave," "Showtime" and "I Spy": Trumpets, please, for "The Adventures of Pluto Nash," whose release was delayed for 14 months. It instantly became the "Cleopatra" of our age. A sci-fi gangster comedy, complete with robot sidekick, set on the moon, "Pluto" was neither fish nor fowl -- but mostly foul. But unlike most stars who are tarnished by a mega-flop, Murphy -- who did take time off from broad comedies to redeem himself with his Oscar-nominated turn in "Dreamgirls" -- just keeps going and going and going.

Carrey's 'Christmas Carol' wraps up $31M weekend

LOS ANGELES – Jim Carrey's Scrooge collected holiday donations from movie fans with his new take on "A Christmas Carol," which took in $31 million to open as the weekend's top movie.

The Disney animated version of the Charles Dickens classic knocked the King of Pop out of the No. 1 spot as "Michael Jackson's This Is It" slipped to second place with $14 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

Sony's "This Is It," presenting rehearsal performances Jackson shot before his death last June, raised its domestic total to $57.9 million. Worldwide, "This Is It" has taken in $186.5 million.

Featuring Carrey as Ebenezer Scrooge and also as the three holiday ghosts that show Scrooge the error of his miserly ways, "A Christmas Carol" came in on the low end of Disney's expectations for opening weekend.

On the other end of the spectrum, Lionsgate's acclaimed drama "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" had a spectacular start, pulling in $1.8 million in just 18 theaters, averaging $100,000 a cinema. That compares with an $8,418 average for "A Christmas Carol" in 3,683 theaters.

"Precious" had a record average for films opening in 10 or more theaters. Others that have averaged $100,000 or more typically debut in only a few cinemas.

The weekend brought a rush of other new movies, led by George Clooney's comedy "The Men Who Stare at Goats," which finished at No. 3 with $13.3 million. The Overture Films release is a satiric look at U.S. military efforts to create "warrior monks" who can predict the future or walk through walls.

Debuting in fourth place with $12.5 million was Universal's "The Fourth Kind," starring Milla Jovovich as a psychologist studying alien abductions in Alaska.

Cameron Diaz and James Marsden's sci-fi tale "The Box" opened at No. 6 with $7.9 million. The Warner Bros. thriller centers on a couple given a mysterious box that can provide them $1 million, but at the cost of a stranger's life.

With nearly two months of playing time through the holidays, Disney is counting on steady business for "A Christmas Carol," particularly over Thanksgiving weekend and in the buildup to Christmas itself.

"You have to play these things for the long term," said Chuck Viane, Disney's head of distribution. "You've got to have the patience and you've got to pick the right weekend. For us, the days when the malls turned to Christmas stores is when we wanted to go."

Director Robert Zemeckis shot the movie using the same performance-capture technology used on his 2004 holiday offering "The Polar Express." Carrey and his co-stars acted on a bare soundstage as digital cameras caught their performances, with computer animators later adding costumes, sets, props and other effects.

"A Christmas Carol" came in ahead of "Polar Express," which had an opening weekend of $23.5 million. But it fell well short of the $55.1 million opening for Carrey's previous holiday tale, "Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas" in 2000.

Holiday-themed films tend to hold up well through the season, among them Disney's "The Santa Clause" comedies. After its modest start, "The Polar Express" went on to become a $160 million hit by the end of its run and has become a holiday perennial in rereleases in huge-screen IMAX theaters.

"A Christmas Carol" did three-fourths of its business in theaters showing 3-D versions. Huge-screen IMAX theaters, which represented only 5 percent of the theater count, accounted for $4.5 million, or 14.5 percent, of the movie's total gross, said Greg Foster, IMAX chairman and president.

"Precious," which won the top awards at last January's Sundance Film Festival, stars newcomer Gabourey Sidibe as a Harlem teen who gradually rises above an upbringing of incest, abuse and illiteracy.

After Sundance, Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry signed on as executive producers, helping to spread the word on "Precious," which has earned acclaim from critics and audiences at other film festivals. The film has Academy Awards buzz as a best-picture contender, along with Oscar prospects for Sidibe, co-star Mo'Nique and director Lee Daniels.

The movie started in only four cities — New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Chicago. Lionsgate plans to expand it this Friday to five more — Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Dallas and Houston, then take it into wide release Nov. 20.

"A lot of movie-goers are not happy with the release plan right now, because it's not in their cities yet," said David Spitz, head of distribution for Lionsgate. "That's always a good sign."

Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "A Christmas Carol," $31 million.
2. "Michael Jackson's This Is It," $14 million.
3. "The Men Who Stare at Goats," $13.3 million.
4. "The Fourth Kind," $12.5 million.
5. "Paranormal Activity," $8.6 million.
6. "The Box," $7.9 million.
7. "Couples Retreat," $6.4 million.
8. "Law Abiding Citizen," $6.2 million.
9. "Where the Wild Things Are," $4.2 million.
10. "Astro Boy," $2.6 million

Portman picky about nude scenes

Natalie Portman always thinks twice before agreeing to strip off on film - because she fears her naked image will end up on pornography websites.

The actress admits she struggled with the decision to appear nude at the start of her career, and even asked filmmakers to rewrite a scene in her 1999 movie Anywhere But Here because she felt uneasy about baring all.

She tells America's V magazine, "I was figuring out my own sexual identity, likes and dislikes and all that stuff, and it's weird to be doing stuff on film as you're figuring it out. Also being a sexual object when you're a kid is really uncomfortable. After The Professional, I was already getting creepy letters."

Portman insists she would sign up for more film roles that require her to shed her clothes - but she worries the footage will eventually hit the web.

She adds, "It's annoying because online bulls**t interferes with what I want to do artistically. I'm not opposed to sexuality or nudity in a film, but I'm very opposed to pornography sites and you're pretty much giving them material if you do any of that. It's always a big dilemma for me."

Canadian movies increase box office take: Telefilm report

Telefilm Canada's annual report contained a good news-bad news scenario, with Canadian films increasing their take at the box office but at the same time, experiencing less of a share of the total market.

The government-funded agency, which develops and promotes Canadian film and online projects, released its 2008/2009 report on Friday.

It revealed that Canadian movies raked in a total of $919.6 million at the box office compared to $857.4 million from the previous fiscal year. However, their share of the market dropped from 3.3 per cent to 2.9 per cent.

The report said the agency sought more collaborations overseas, resulting in bigger sales.

"We are placing a great deal of importance on forging alliances with foreign partners and promoting co-production activities which help to build industry capacity and ensure its long-term viability," stated Michel Roy, chair of Telefilm's board of directors.

"In terms of results for our international activities, it's worth noting that in 2008, each dollar Telefilm invested in markets generated close to $12 worth of foreign sales."

In total, the organization produced 21 films in French and 20 films in English.

Its top three earners were:

- Passchendaele ($4.4 million).
- Cruising Bar 2 ($3.5 million).
- Babine ($2.2 million).

Over in the interactive section, the news wasn't good. The report says page views slid from 5.5 million in 2007 to 4.4 million in 2008. The agency said the slide was a consequence of fewer online projects being supported this time around through its Canada New Media Fund.

Wayne Clarkson, Telefilm's executive director, pointed out that "Telefilm-supported productions received a total of 119 awards while a number of films achieved impressive commercial success."

Carrey's Scrooge rings in Hollywood holiday spirit

LOS ANGELES – Hollywood loves money. So does Ebenezer Scrooge. So what better way to launch the holiday season than putting the old money-grubber at the head of the line to separate movie-goers from their cash?

The latest version of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" features Jim Carrey as Scrooge. Coming on Ebenezer's coattails will be everything from vampire romance ("The Twilight Saga: New Moon") and end-of-the-world stories ("2012," "The Road") to epic science fiction ("Avatar") and a new incarnation of the world's greatest detective ("Sherlock Holmes").

Presented in 3-D, "Disney's A Christmas Carol" is the latest from Oscar-winning director Robert Zemeckis ("Forrest Gump"), who presents Dickens' London with the same performance-capture technology he used on "The Polar Express" and "Beowulf."

Carrey and such co-stars as Gary Oldman, Robin Wright Penn, Colin Firth and Bob Hoskins worked on a bare soundstage, their bodies covered with sensors so digital cameras could record their performances in 360 degrees. Sets, costumes and other details were filled in later by computer animation.

The process allowed actors to take on multiple roles, with Carrey playing Scrooge and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come that teach him the meaning of the season.

While Zemeckis loves Alastair Sim's 1951 "A Christmas Carol," he said previous adaptations never captured the full impact of Dickens' surreal images. As he made "Beowulf," Zemeckis realized he now had the tools to bring "A Christmas Carol" to the screen the way he imagined it on the page.

"It was the idea of being able to actually recreate London and not have any limitations whatsoever. Anything that existed at the time we could present," Zemeckis said. "Then the idea that Jim could play Scrooge in all the different ages, and the ghosts, they could be his alter-ego, and he could play those. Everything just fell into place."

With "Sherlock Holmes," Robert Downey Jr. and director Guy Ritchie also recreate old London while reinventing Arthur Conan Doyle's brainy, monkish detective as an action hero, verbal quipster — and even a bit of a lover.

Downey's Holmes fights with fists, clubs, pistols and hammers, trades odd-couple banter with best buddy and roommate Watson (Jude Law), and shares romantic moments with the one woman (Rachel McAdams) who never got the better of him.

It was a nice change of pace for Downey after he leaped to the box-office A-list with last year's comic-book blockbuster "Iron Man."

"It was such a radical departure," Downey said. "A period piece. A very, very established kind of iconic image comes to mind when you think of Sherlock Holmes. Whereas Iron Man was a relatively unknown quote-unquote second tier superhero ... until last year."

Another series that jumped to blockbuster status last year was Hollywood's take on author Stephenie Meyer's love story between a sensitive schoolgirl (Kristen Stewart) and her immortal vampire boy toy (Robert Pattinson).

The second installment, "The Twilight Saga: New Moon," is a lesson in teen heartache as Pattinson's Edward dumps Stewart's Bella, realizing the danger he represents to his human girlfriend.

The brooding Bella finds solace with a school chum (Taylor Lautner) and his werewolf gang and eventually winds up pulling Edward out of a jam.

"Edward breaks up with Bella for her own protection, but Bella believes it's because he doesn't love her any more, and she goes into a terrible depression," said "New Moon" director Chris Weitz. "In the end, there's kind of a lovely turnaround whereby Bella has to go and save Edward, having been saved by him throughout their past."

Also in the fantasy realm, James Cameron is back with his first fictional film since 1997's "Titanic" swamped Hollywood to become king of the Oscars and the biggest modern blockbuster. "Avatar" also marks Cameron's return to his science-fiction roots and a reunion with "Aliens" star Sigourney Weaver, who joins Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana among the cast of the filmmaker's 3-D epic about humans taking on the form of extraterrestrials as they explore a distant world.

"What we have on the screen right now is 150 percent of what I imagined. The other 50 percent is the part I could not have imagined without having the actors there, without working with a team of artists who come up with all these amazing, outlandish designs," Cameron said. "My job was really kind of herding the cats, getting the artists to kind of be cohesive about the aesthetic decision, so it was all one world, so it seemed like part of an evolutionary or ecological system."

Hollywood has dozens of other films, big and small, coming before year's end. Here's the lowdown on some highlights:

HUSBANDS, WIVES AND LOVERS:

"Chicago" director Rob Marshall orchestrates his latest musical with "Nine," based on the Broadway adaptation of Federico Fellini's foreign-language classic "8 1/2."

It's the story of a filmmaker (Daniel Day-Lewis) and his many, many women: His wife (Marion Cotillard), his mistress (Penelope Cruz), his mom (Sophia Loren), his film star (Nicole Kidman), his costume designer (Judi Dench), a lover from his youth (Stacy Ferguson), and a fashion journalist (Kate Hudson).

Singing in a recording studio was a new challenge for some of the cast, including Cruz.

"You feel very vulnerable, because you can't hide anything," Cruz said at this year's Cannes Film Festival. "But it was so much fun. After you are there and you start singing and everything starts to come together, if you can really be in the moment and enjoy it, it's an amazing experience."

Also in the mood for love:

"Did You Hear About the Morgans?" — A Manhattan couple (Sarah Jessica Parker and Hugh Grant) in a rocky marriage find new twists in their relationship after they see a murder and are hustled into witness protection.

"It's Complicated" — A messy love triangle develops among a bakery and restaurant owner (Meryl Streep), her ex-hubby (Alec Baldwin) and an architect (Steve Martin) in the latest from director Nancy Meyers ("Something's Gotta Give").

FOXES, FROGS AND RODENTS:

Meryl Streep also joins George Clooney and Bill Murray among the voice cast of Wes Anderson's animated comedy "Fantastic Mr. Fox," the tale of a wily fox waging war with human farmers.

Anderson gave his voice actors a taste of rustic life by taking them to a real farm to record the vocals.

"It was like going to camp," Clooney said at October's London Film Festival, where "Fantastic Mr. Fox" was the opening-night movie. "We were out in the middle of nowhere on people's farms, doing sound effects and rolling around in the fields."

Also among the menagerie:

"Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel" — The followup to the family hit about critter crooners Alvin, Simon and Theodore has the threesome finding their hearts and singing talents tested in a battle of the bands against a trio of female chipmunks.

"The Princess and the Frog" — Disney animation goes old-school as the studio releases its first hand-drawn cartoon in five years with this update of "The Frog Prince" fairy tale, set on the jazzy Louisiana bayou.

THE END OF THE WORLD:

The Mayan calendar predicted an end of days in 2012.

Director Roland Emmerich makes good on that prophecy with his latest doomsday story "2012," featuring John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Thandie Newton and Danny Glover in a tale of a world devastated by cataclysm and struggling with a terrible quandary: Who do you choose when you can save only a fraction of humanity?

"It's like a Noah's Ark story in a way," Cusack said. "It mirrors a few of the ethical dilemmas that are posed by asking the question of who gets to go and who doesn't."

Also on the apocalypse front:

"The Road" — Author Cormac McCarthy's starkly poetic vision of doom comes to the screen in this adaptation starring Viggo Mortensen as a father on a desperate road trip across the wreckage of America, seeking some hope of a future for his young son.

INSPIRATION ON THE PLAYING FIELD:

Clint Eastwood taps "Million Dollar Baby" and "Unforgiven" co-star Morgan Freeman to play Nelson Mandela in "Invictus," a post-apartheid drama about the South African president rallying black and white behind his country's rugby team during an underdog run in the 1995 World Cup.

Matt Damon, who co-stars as the captain of South Africa's rugby squad, said Freeman was the only choice to play Mandela.

"Someone would have been keelhauled if he hadn't played that role," Damon said.

Also from the wide world of sports:

"The Blind Side" — Just in time for his rookie season with the Baltimore Ravens comes this real-life drama about Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron), a black youth surviving on his own who gets a shot at a better life after he's adopted by a white couple (Sandra Bullock and Tim McGraw).

FAMILY AFFAIRS:

"Lord of the Rings" mastermind Peter Jackson turns to the homefront while keeping a foot in otherworldly realms with "The Lovely Bones," an adaptation of Alice Sebold's novel about a slain girl (Saoirse Ronan) watching over her family from heaven.

The cast includes Rachel Weisz, Mark Wahlberg, Susan Sarandon and Stanley Tucci.

Jackson said he cried when he read the novel.

"If the things that I was imagining that made me cry could be put on screen, I thought this would be really amazing," Jackson said. "Because I think the book is an incredible book, but it's very personal. And I think what you get out of that book depends a lot on what experience you've had in your life and what experience of death that you've had, and losing loved ones."

Also in a family way:

"Up in the Air" — Happily living life without connections, a corporate hatchet man (George Clooney) travels the country aiming for a 10 million-mile frequent-flyer milestone only to discover that family bonds might be the greater value, after all.

"Old Dogs" — A divorced guy (Robin Williams) enlists his womanizing best buddy and business partner (John Travolta) to help care for the twin kids he never knew he had.

"Brothers" — Jim Sheridan directs this reversal-of-roles drama about siblings (Tobey Maguire and Jake Gyllenhaal), one a Marine presumed dead in Afghanistan, the other a black sheep who becomes man of the house for his brother's wife (Natalie Portman).

"Everybody's Fine" — Robert De Niro co-stars with Drew Barrymore, Kate Beckinsale and Sam Rockwell in the story of a widower who sets off to reconnect with his grown kids in this remake of the Italian original from Giuseppe Tornatore.

"This Is It" tops charts with $101M worldwide

LOS ANGELES – "Michael Jackson's This Is It" pulled in $101 million worldwide in its first five days, and distributor Sony is extending the farewell performance film beyond its planned two-week run.

The film was the No. 1 Halloween thriller domestically with a $21.3 million opening weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The previous weekend's No. 1 movie, Paramount's low-budget horror sensation "Paranormal Activity," slipped to No. 2 with $16.5 million, lifting its total to $84.8 million.

"This Is It" raised its domestic total to $32.5 million. The movie pulled in $68.5 million overseas, including $10.4 million in Japan, $6.3 million in Germany, $5.8 million in France and $3.2 million in China.

"He's just loved everywhere on the planet," said Rory Bruer, head of distribution for Sony. "It doesn't matter if it's Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe, South America. Every continent in the world loved him and his music."

In Great Britain, where Jackson had planned a marathon series of 50 London concerts starting last July, the movie earned $7.6 million.

"This Is It" captures Jackson in behind-the-scenes performances in the weeks before his death last June, as he rehearsed his biggest hits for the London shows.

"This Is It" originally was scheduled for a theatrical run of only two weeks. The studio has extended it a few more weeks domestically, leaving it in theaters through Thanksgiving weekend, one of the year's busiest moviegoing times.

Sony plans to extend the run of "This Is It" overseas on a country-by-country basis, with most territories probably getting one to three weeks of extra playing time, Bruer said.

The studio paid $60 million for film rights to Jackson's rehearsal footage, an investment the movie recouped in days.

"They bet $60 million on this and got $101 million in just five days," said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com. "It was a gamble and a bet that paid off."

The movie fell far short of last year's $31.1 million opening weekend domestically for "Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert." But Bruer said "This Is It" has a shot at surpassing the $65.3 million domestic total during the entire run of Cyrus' movie, which tops the all-time charts for music documentaries.

Worldwide, "This Is It" already has shot past Cyrus' concert film. Cyrus mainly appeals to American teens, and her movie got only a limited release overseas, where it took in about $5 million to give the film a global total of just over $70 million.

"This Is It" played in 3,481 theaters domestically, about five times the number for Cyrus' movie. But "Best of Both Worlds" ran in 3-D, for which theaters typically charge a few dollars more.

And Cyrus' young fans are an audience segment that tends to rush out to see movies over opening weekend, the movie doing nearly half its business in the first few days.

Sony hopes for a longer shelf life for "This Is It," which drew older crowds that catch movies on their own schedule, with less regard for the opening-weekend frenzy. Fans older than 25 accounted for 62 percent of the audience, according to Sony.

While "Paranormal Activity" led Halloween's scary movies, an established horror franchise lost its fear factor as Lionsgate's "Saw VI" fell sharply in its second weekend after an anemic debut.

"Saw VI" came in at No. 5 this weekend with $5.6 million, raising its total to just $22.8 million after 10 days. Previous sequels in the serial-killer series all had topped $30 million during opening weekend alone.

Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com; final figures will be released Monday:

1. "Michael Jackson's This Is It," $21.3 million.
2. "Paranormal Activity," $16.5 million.
3. "Law Abiding Citizen," $7.3 million.
4. "Couples Retreat," $6.1 million.
5. "Saw VI," $5.6 million.
6. "Where the Wild Things Are," $5.1 million.
7. "The Stepfather," $3.4 million.
8. "Astro Boy," $3.04 million.
9. "Amelia," $3 million.
10. "Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant," $2.8 million.

Theron revs up for 'Mad Max 4'

The Mad Max franchise has a new big name star - Charlize Theron.

The Oscar-winner has signed up to appear in Mad Max: Fury Road, which will see Brit Tom Hardy taking over the role made famous by Mel Gibson.

Director George Miller will start shooting next summer in Australia, according to Daily Variety.

The film will be the first Mad Max movie in over 20 years.

It won't be Theron's only upcoming post-apocalyptic new movie - she also plays Viggo Mortensen's desperate partner in the movie adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's The Road.

Adults lead `Wild Things' $32.5M box-office rumpus

LOS ANGELES – "Where the Wild Things Are" proved a bigger hit with adult audiences than family crowds as the adaptation of Maurice Sendak's beloved children's book debuted at No. 1 with $32.5 million.

Moviegoers 18 and older accounted for 43 percent of the audience, while parents with children made up 27 percent, according to distributor Warner Bros.

Overture Films earned the No. 2 spot with Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler's vengeance thriller "Law Abiding Citizen," which debuted with $21.3 million.

Expanding into wider release, Paramount's low-budget horror sensation "Paranormal Activity" moved up to No. 3 with $20.2 million.

Shot for a reported $15,000, "Paranormal Activity" outdid the premiere of Sony's fright flick "The Stepfather," which cost $19 million and played in nearly four times as many theaters but managed just a No. 5 opening with $12.3 million.

The results for "Where the Wild Things Are" matched the intent of director Spike Jonze, who viewed his take as a story about a child, but not necessarily a children's movie.

During production, Jonze had clashed with Warner Bros., which had wanted a more kid-friendly film. The studio gave Jonze more time and money to finish the film and ultimately backed his vision with a huge marketing campaign for "Wild Things."

"I think all sides reached a very happy compromise, and certainly Spike delivered a movie that was so true to the book, yet it generated the emotion that we felt strongly about to bring in our family audience, as well," said Dan Fellman, head of distribution for Warner.

Jonze's adaptation features newcomer Max Records as Sendak's misbehaving young protagonist, a boy who journeys to a make-believe island of monsters torn between hugging him and eating him. The live-action and voice cast includes Catherine Keener, James Gandolfini and Forest Whitaker.

A cheap acquisition at the Slamdance Film Festival, "Paranormal Activity" came out of nowhere, riding online fan buzz to a domestic total of $33.7 million so far. The movie expanded to 760 theaters, up 600 from the previous weekend, and has plenty of room to grow.

Paramount plans to expand the movie to between 1,800 and 2,000 theaters next weekend, then widen its release even farther for Halloween. It will go head-to-head with an established horror franchise as Lionsgate opens "Saw VI" on Friday.

Shot in a raw documentary style, "Paranormal Activity" is a twist on the haunted house story as a couple tries to capture on camera the strange phenomena and apparitions afflicting them.

"Paranormal Activity" might have a shot to duplicate the success of "The Blair Witch Project," a 1999 Sundance Film Festival discovery that rode Internet buzz to a $140 million domestic total.

"When you have a movie playing this well and it has such a broad appeal, it certainly tells you that is a possible outcome," said Rob Moore, vice chairman of Paramount. "I certainly couldn't predict it yet, but nothing with this movie has been predictable so far."

Hollywood had its strongest weekend yet this fall, with overall business at $141 million, up 41 percent from the same weekend last year.

"All the top five movies all did really well. It's kind of exciting to see the box-office get reignited and to see consumers excited about what's available," said Kyle Davies, head of distribution for Overture.

Fans had a good range of choices among horror tales, action, family fare and romantic comedy, including the previous weekend's No. 1 movie, Universal's "Couples Retreat," which slipped to fourth-place with $17.9 million. "Couples Retreat" raised its 10-day total to $63.3 million.

"This is why the fall is such a great time to be not only a studio executive, but a moviegoer. It's really an eclectic mix out there. You don't get this in summer," said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com.

Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "Where the Wild Things Are," $32.5 million.
2. "Law Abiding Citizen," $21.3 million.
3. "Paranormal Activity," $20.2 million.
4. "Couples Retreat," $17.9 million.
5. "The Stepfather," $12.3 million.
6. "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs," $8.1 million.
7. "Zombieland," $7.8 million.
8. "Toy Story" and "Toy Story 2" in 3-D, $3 million.
9. "Surrogates," $1.92 million.
10. "The Invention of Lying," $1.9 million.

Fans feast on 'Zombieland'

LOS ANGELES - The undead were alive and well at movie theatres as Woody Harrelson's horror comedy "Zombieland" opened on top with $25 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

Yet the general box office was less lively as a flurry of new wide releases did solid to ho-hum business. Overall Hollywood revenues came in at $113.4 million, down 4 per cent from the same weekend last year.

Sony scored a one-two punch with "Zombieland" and the animated family tale "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs," which took in $16.7 million, slipping to second-place after two weekends at No. 1. The movie raised its domestic total to $82.4 million after three weekends.

Mixing gory action with laughs, "Zombieland" teams Harrelson with Jesse Eisenberg, Abigail Breslin and Emma Stone as a band of humans fighting legions of undead - and taking a road trip to a supposedly zombie-free amusement park.

"What really clicked was the humour of it," said Rory Bruer, head of distribution for Sony. "Truly, there were points in this movie that were so funny, I thought I was going to throw up. I'm serious. It really is a blast."

Taking a big bite of the family audience with $12.5 million was a double-feature reissue of Disney's "Toy Story" and "Toy Story 2" in 3-D, which came in at No. 3. Playing for a limited two-week run, the double-feature sets the stage for the release of "Toy Story 3" in 3-D next year.

The Warner Bros. comedy "The Invention of Lying," with Ricky Gervais and Jennifer Garner, had a soft opening of $7.4 million, finishing at No. 4. Taking place in an alternate reality where everyone tells the truth, the movie stars co-director and co-writer Gervais, who plays a man that discovers how to profit by fibbing.

Fox Searchlight's roller-derby tale "Whip It" - featuring Ellen Page, Juliette Lewis and Drew Barrymore, who also directed - made a weak debut at No. 6 with $4.85 million. The movie casts "Juno" star Page as a beauty-pageant queen who shifts gears to become a roller-derby star.

Female crowds accounted for 70 per cent of the audience for "Whip It," according to Fox Searchlight parent 20th Century Fox. Audiences and critics gave the movie high marks, so the studio is hoping it has a longer shelf life than its opening weekend would indicate.

"Like the story, the movie's an underdog, and we think audiences are going to continue to discover it," said Fox distribution executive Chris Aronson.

Tied for sixth-place with $4.85 million was Michael Moore's "Capitalism: A Love Story," which expanded nationwide after a week in limited release. The Overture Films documentary, Moore's exploration of the roots of the economic meltdown, raised its total to $5.3 million.

"Capitalism" played in just 962 theatres, compared to 3,036 for "Zombieland" and about 1,700 cinemas each for "Invention of Lying," "Whip It" and the "Toy Story" movies."

This was Moore's second-best nationwide debut, behind his 2004 sensation "Fahrenheit 9/11," which had a $23.9 million opening weekend.

Overture is counting on "Capitalism" to stick around for an extended box-office run, as did "Fahrenheit 9/11" and other Moore hits such as "Sicko" and "Bowling for Columbine."

"Where most movies are a two-week story, Michael's movies play for a long time," said Kyle Davies, Overture head of distribution.

In limited release, Joel and Ethan Coen's comic drama "A Serious Man" had a big opening with $251,510 in six theatres, averaging a whopping $41,918 per cinema. That compares to an $8,235 average in 3,036 theatres for "Zombieland."

Released by Focus Features, "A Serious Man" follows the domestic and professional troubles of a physics professor in a 1960s Midwest Jewish community.

Lionsgate's basketball documentary "More Than a Game" - which explores the high school years of NBA star LeBron James - opened solidly with $196,681 in 14 theatres, averaging $14,049 a cinema.

Paramount Pictures' fright flick "Paranormal Activity" continued to do strong business, taking in $535,000 from midnight-only screenings in 33 cities. The studio plans to expand the movie to all-hours show times on Friday.

Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theatres, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "Zombieland," $25 million.
2. "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs," $16.7 million.
3. "Toy Story" and "Toy Story 2" in 3-D, $12.5 million.
4. "The Invention of Lying," $7.4 million.
5. "Surrogates," $7.3 million.
6 (tie). "Capitalism: A Love Story," $4.85 million.
6 (tie). "Whip It," $4.85 million.
8. "Fame," $4.8 million.
9. "The Informant!", $3.8 million.
10. "Love Happens," $2.8 million.

'Meatballs' sticks to movie menu top with $24.6M

LOS ANGELES – Movie fans lined up for a second helping of "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs," which took in $24.6 million to remain No. 1 at the box office for a second straight weekend.

The Sony animated tale raised its domestic haul to $60 million after 10 days in theaters, according to studio estimates Sunday.

"Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" fended off Bruce Willis' action thriller "Surrogates," a Disney release that debuted at No. 2 with $15 million.

Opening in third place with $10 million was MGM's "Fame," a new take on the 1980s music and dance hit about students at a school for performing arts.

Michael Moore's documentary "Capitalism: A Love Story" opened strongly in limited release with a $240,000 weekend haul in just four theaters, raising its total to $306,586 since premiering Wednesday. The Overture Films release expands nationwide Friday.

Overall business dipped, with Hollywood's total domestic gross at $100.5 million, down 4.5 percent from the same weekend last year, when "Eagle Eye" opened at No. 1 with $29.2 million.

While it was generally quiet for new movies, "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" held up strongly, its receipts dropping just 19 percent from a $30.3 million opening weekend. Revenues for many films fall 50 percent or more in their second weekends.

"We've seen that not only families but teens seem to be embracing it, as well," said Rory Bruer, head of distribution for Sony. "To only drop 19 percent, it's just one of those movies that's playing to everybody."

Some Hollywood analysts had expected "Surrogates" to open in first place. With a production budget reported at $80 million, the movie's $15 million weekend was a blow to Disney.

"Unfortunately, I don't think this was a great moviegoing weekend, for whatever reason," said Chuck Viane, head of distribution for Disney. "I'm disappointed we're not No. 1, but very happy we beat the other films we opened against."

While "Fame" opened even lower, it cost far less to produce, with a budget of just $18 million.

"Do I wish it was better? Yeah. But are we going to lose money? No," said Erik Lomis, head of distribution for "Fame" distributor MGM.

"Capitalism" opened in four theaters in New York City and Los Angeles, its big weekend putting it on track to become the latest documentary hit from Moore ("Fahrenheit 9/11," "Bowling for Columbine").

With "Capitalism," Moore examines the roots of the economic meltdown, mixing interviews from people losing jobs and homes with his trademark stunts, such as wrapping crime-scene tape around Wall Street.

"People are frustrated, and I think Michael points some things out that are pretty thought-provoking and pretty eye-opening," said Kyle Davies, head of distribution for Overture. "It's timely. People want to see what's going on, but the movie's funny and entertaining at the same time. Michael's one of the unique people able to point to some topical issues and make it extremely interesting."

Here are the estimated ticket sales are for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs," $24.6 million.
2. "Surrogates," $15 million.
3. "Fame," $10 million.
4. "The Informant!", $6.9 million.
5. "Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All By Myself," $4.8 million.
6. "Pandorum," $4.4 million.
7. "Love Happens," $4.3 million.
8. "Jennifer's Body," $3.5 million.
9. "9," $2.8 million.
10. "Inglourious Basterds," $2.7 million.

Zellweger to wear 'Bridget' fatsuit?

Renee Zellweger won't be piling on the pounds to reprise her role as Bridget Jones - the actress is reportedly planning to don a fat suit for filming.

The petite star has signed on for a third film about the hapless diary-keeper, after the first two movies grossed more than $544 million worldwide.

But instead of embarking on a high-fat diet as she did for the 2001 and 2004 pictures, Zellweger will turn to the wardrobe department to make her appear larger.

A source tells Britain's Reveal magazine, "Renee will be wearing a fat suit in the third film as it took her a while to lose the weight last time. She's also thinking about the effect quickly putting on and then losing 30 pounds has on her body."

Colin Firth and Hugh Grant are also expected to return to the movie franchise - the upcoming film is rumoured to chart Jones' quest to have a baby in her 40s.

Sony Will Bring Machete To The Masses

When he first teased his Grindhouse spin-off movie Machete, Robert Rodriguez seemed to think it would never be anything other than a direct-to-DVD feature.

The movie has since become a reality, a much bigger reality than anyone ever really imagined. The picture’s been filming in Austin with a star-studded cast including the likes of Jessica Alba, Michelle Rodriguez, and Cheech Marin, and now it has worldwide theatrical distribution. Bottom shelf DVD this isn’t.

Variety says Sony Pictures has acquired the international distribution rights to Machete, which they’ll release through their Hyde Park Entertainment appendage. Apparently the movie is also now about a police officer. How did I miss that?

No really. For some reason I’d thought it was about a Mexican assassin but Variety says the “story centers on a former Mexican police officer who turns the tables on the masterminds who double-crossed him.” I liked this idea better when I (mistakenly) thought it was about hiring illegal immigrants as hired killers. Back your pickup to Home Depot and hire a Mexican ninja is cooler than Federale revenge. It’s also not entirely a Robert Rodriguez film. He’s co-directing again, this time with Ethan Maniquis whose only previous work was as an editor on Rodriguez’s other movies.

'Chance of Meatballs' tops weekend box-office

NEW YORK – The forecast was bright at the box-office for "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs," which earned $30.1 million to lead this weekend's films.

Sony's 3-D animated family comedy was adapted from the popular 1978 children's book by Judi and Ron Barrett. Despite schools being back in session, the film still was able to draw kids and their parents to the multiplexes.

"The meatballs have cleared, so to speak," said Rory Bruer, head of distribution for Sony. "It really is a feature where everything aligned perfectly."

That's good news for other adaptations of classic children's books on the horizon, namely the much anticipated big screen version of Maurice Sendak's "Where the Wild Things Are." The Spike Jonze directed adaptation will be released Oct. 16.

"It really does pave the way for a really strong opening for that film," said Hollywood.com box-office analyst Paul Dergarabedian. "It's such a beloved book that the anticipation is really high."

He added that the strength of "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" showed that 3-D is proving to be a significant draw for moviegoers. The film also was released on IMAX at 127 venues, which accounted for $2.5 million, or 8 percent of its box-office.

Steven Soderbergh's "The Informant!" came in second with $10.5 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. That was slightly better than expected for the Warner Bros. comedy, which stars Matt Damon as a bipolar whistle blower.

Last week's box-office topper, Tyler Perry's "I Can Do Bad All By Myself," saw a 57 percent drop for Lionsgate. It still earned $10 million, good enough for third place. That brought its cumulative total to $37.9 million.

Jennifer Aniston's "Love Happens" (Universal) came in fourth with $8.5 million, suggesting that audiences may be tiring of the actress in romantic comedies. It's her third film this year.

Coming in a distant fifth was "Jennifer's Body," the R-rated horror film written by Diablo Cody, the scribe of "Juno" fame. It earned just $6.8 million for 20th Century Fox. "Jennifer's Body" is viewed most significantly as a test of its star, Megan Fox, to headline a movie.

"You always hope for more, but it's a modestly budgeted film that will ultimately be profitable for us," said Chris Aronson, senior vice president of domestic distribution for Fox.

Dergarabedian said the number was somewhat low for what looked like "a fan boy's dream," but said the R-rating and niche potential of "Jennifer's Body" wasn't ideal for a coming-out party for the actress.

"It may be a matter of just choosing the right projects for her," said Dergarabedian. "She's trying to find a world beyond `Transformers,' and she will. She's young and has a lot of promise."

On the whole, it was an "up" weekend for Hollywood, said Dergarabedian. The weekend's total box-office gross was approximately $100 million, which compares favorably with the $88 million that was made on the corresponding weekend last year.

Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Tuesday.

1. "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs," $30.1 million.
2. "The Informant!" $10.5 million.
3. "I Can Do Bad All By Myself," $10 million.
4. "Love Happens," $8.5 million.
5. "Jennifer's Body," $6.8 million.
6. "9," $5.5 million.
7. "Inglourious Basterds," $3.6 million.
8. "All About Steve," $3.4 million.
9. "Sorority Row," $2.5 million.
10. "The Final Destination," $2.4 million.

Tyler Perry has good opening with 'Bad'

LOS ANGELES – Being bad is good for Tyler Perry, whose latest movie, "I Can Do Bad All By Myself," opened at the top of the box office this weekend with more than $24 million.

The Lionsgate comedy stars Oscar nominee Taraji P. Henson ("The Curious Case of Benjamin Button") as a hard-drinking nightclub singer forced to care for her delinquent niece and nephews. Besides directing and writing the film, based on his stage play of the same name, Perry co-stars as his brash, cross-dressing alter ego, Madea.

It's Perry's second film this year to open at No. 1. In February, "Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail" debuted at the top spot with $41 million, which stands as the biggest opening of his eight films.

"Tyler Perry has a special way of speaking to his audience, and it's unbelievable," David Spitz, Lionsgate's executive vice president and general sales manager, said Sunday. "He always knows what his audience wants, and I never underestimate him."

Spitz said the presence of the popular Madea character, plus a cast that included Henson, Mary J. Blige, Gladys Knight and Pastor Marvin Winans, helped put the movie on top. It also had the best critical reception of all of Perry's films, with 58 percent positive reviews on the Rotten Tomatoes Web site.

Perry, who's known for his productivity, has the sequel "Why Did I Get Married Too" coming out next spring. And in a rare adaptation of someone else's work, he's preparing to go into production on a film version of the Ntozake Shange stage play "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf."

Hollywood.com box-office analyst Paul Dergarabedian joked that his latest movie should have been called, "Tyler Perry's I Can Do No Wrong at the Box Office."

"Eight theatrical films, five No. 1 debuts — Lionsgate has a perpetually successful franchise in Tyler Perry," Dergarabedian said. "He is the brand. He's a very rare example of a director-writer-actor who is completely synonymous with his work and with the success of his movies."

Coming in second was the dark, animated "9" from Focus Features, which made $10.9 million this weekend, according to Sunday estimates. Since its Wednesday opening — on 9-9-09 — the movie has made about $15.3 million. The voice cast includes Elijah Wood, John C. Reilly, Christopher Plummer and Jennifer Connelly as hand-stitched dolls who represent the last vestige of humanity after a war between man and machine.

In what is traditionally a slow time at the box office between the summer blockbusters and the fall prestige films, two other new releases had so-so openings. The Summit Entertainment horror flick "Sorority Row" came in at No. 6 with about $5.3 million, while the Kate Beckinsale thriller "Whiteout" from Warner Bros. followed in seventh place with $5.1 million.

Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com.

1. "Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All By Myself," $24.03 million.
2. "9," $10.9 million.
3. "Inglourious Basterds," $6.5 million.
4. "All About Steve," $5.8 million.
5. "The Final Destination," $5.5 million.
6. "Sorority Row," $5.3 million.
7. "Whiteout," $5.1 million.
8. "District 9," $3.6 million.
9. "Julie & Julia," $3.3 million.
10. "Gamer," $3.15 million.

The Dude in True Grit Talks

In what is shaping up as a potential “Big Lebowski” reunion, Jeff Bridges is in discussions with Paramount to star for Joel and Ethan Coen in “True Grit,” playing the role that won John Wayne an Oscar in the 1969 film.

Bridges, who last worked with the Coens when he turned in a heralded performance as Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski, is in talks to play the lead role in the iconic Western that the Coens are mounting as their next project.

The picture, which also reunited the Coens with their “No Country for Old Men” producing partner Scott Rudin, has been redrafted by the Coens to be more faithful to the Charles Portis novel that the original film was based on.

In it, a 14 year old girl tags along with an aging U.S. marshal and another lawman to track the outlaw who killed her father. The trail leads them into hostile Indian territory. The original told the story from Cogburn’s vantage point, but the new version will work from the viewpoint of the young girl. Kim Darby played the young girl in the original, and Glen Campbell played the other lawman.

The Coens premiere “A Serious Man” at the Toronto Film Festival. Bridges most recently starred in “The Men Who Stare At Goats” and reprised in “Tron Legacy.”

Depp back for new 'Pirates' film coming in 2011

ANAHEIM, California – Avast! Disney says a new "Pirates of the Caribbean" film is on the horizon.

Johnny Depp sailed onstage Friday on a pirate ship at the Anaheim Convention Center to help announce the forthcoming installment of Disney's blockbuster film franchise. He was welcomed with a rousing standing ovation.

Depp will reprise his role as Capt. Jack Sparrow in "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides," slated for summer of 2011. It's the fourth in a series.

Dressed as Sparrow, Depp staggered around the stage and embraced Walt Disney Studios Chairman Dick Cook, who announced the news to about 5,000 fans on hand for the D23 Expo, Disney's answer to Comic-Con.

"Has anyone else witnessed a talking frog?" Depp's Sparrow asked the crowd, who had been treated to a performance by the Muppets moments earlier. "Where has the frog gone?"

Cook noted that it was likely time for some rum.

"Sounds good!" Sparrow predictably replied.

In his presentation of upcoming Disney films, Cook also announced that Depp would play Tonto in an upcoming big-screen adaptation of "The Lone Ranger."
The first all-things-Disney convention runs through Sunday.

Timothy Dalton Is In Toy Story 3!

Just when you thought that Toy Story 3 couldn’t get any more exciting: enter Timothy Dalton!

The former 007, Hot Fuzz star and all-round nice guy, will be lending his voice to the Disney/Pixar threequel, Disney president John Lasseter announced today at a London-based Disney Animation Showcase.

Dalton will voice Mr. Pricklepants, a hedgehog toy with thespian tendencies. How he fits into the story, we’re not sure (could he be the story’s villain?), but if Dalton is allowed to keep his accent, he will be the first Brit to grace the Toy Story franchise, unless you count Andi Peters’ cameo in Toy Story 2. But we don’t. We really, really don’t. And neither should you.

Lasseter also gave us a sneak peek at a sequence from the film and the as-yet unreleased trailer. The clip showed Andy packing from college, and emptying all his toys into a black bin bag for storage in the attic. He hesitates over Woody and Buzz, finally putting Woody in the box of things to take for college. But all the toys are panicked - especially Woody, who's worried for his friends. When Andy is distracted by his little sister and leaves the garbage bag on the landing instead of upstairs in the attic, his mother takes it out to the kerb - and a frantic Woody has to save his friends from a rapidly approaching bin lorry.

We also saw the as-yet unreleased trailer, which showed bits of the same scene, but developed the story. Clearly the toys end up being sent to a daycare centre, where they are horribly abused by the little kids - and after that it's time for a break-out attempt to find a safe haven, and hopefully a new owner, in a cruel world. It looks every bit as good as its titanic predecessors.

Rambo 5 Details Revealed By Rambo

After the unexpected success of Rambo, it’s likely that Sylvester Stallone will release Rambo movies until his dying days. Why wouldn’t he? How old is that dude now? Like 76? And he was able to successfully act in, write and direct an action movie? I would do that until I was 105 if I were him. But I’m not.

Now details for Rambo 5 are starting to come out, and they’re straight from Sly’s mouth. As reported by AICN, who got an exclusive interview with Stallone, the movie will take place in the Pacific Northwest, where experiments are being done on soldiers in an effort to tap into man’s inherent “savagery” and create “killer soldiers.” As one can expect, things don’t go entirely well with the experiments, so Rambo is brought in to clean up the government’s mess. But can Rambo take on someone even deadlier than Rambo?

Sure, it isn’t all that creative, but the thought of Rambo hunting down the perfect human killer is completely intriguing. As with all Rambo movies, I’m sure both men (or maybe it will be GASP a woman!) will end up in torn up rags, bandanas and dirty faces, but no one watches a Rambo movie for the plot, character development and direction. You watch them to see people get blown up.

'Final Destination' sustains fear factor with $12M

LOS ANGELES – Fear has trumped romance at the box office over Labor Day weekend.

The Warner Bros. fright flick "The Final Destination" remained the No. 1 movie for the second-straight weekend with $12.4 million for the first three days of the long holiday weekend. "The Final Destination" raised its 10-day total to $47.6 million.

It came in ahead of Sandra Bullock's romantic comedy "All About Steve," a 20th Century Fox release which debuted in second-place with $11.2 million from Friday to Sunday. Bullock plays a woman who sets out on the road in pursuit of her soul mate.

Among other new movies, Lionsgate's action tale "Gamer" debuted at No. 4 with $9 million. The movie stars Gerard Butler in a thriller about real humans controlled by players in lethal games.

Opening at No. 10 with $4.2 million was Miramax's comedy "Extract," starring Jason Bateman as a businessman whose personal life heats up just as he's trying to sell his flavor-extract company to General Mills.

Studios will release estimates for the four-day weekend on Monday.

Marvel Exploring Converting Iron Man 2 to 3D

Iron Man has taken flight in 3D. At least he has in a 1-minute demo reel which is said to be "hot" stuff and triggering all sorts of crazy ideas at Marvel, Paramount and now Disney.

Ain't It Cool News broke the news claiming 1 minute from Jon Favreau's Iron Man 2 was recently converted to high quality digital 3D. Everyone who has seen this clip is so enamored by it that Marvel is soliciting bids from three companies to covert not only all of Iron Man 2 into 3D, but the first Iron Man for a spring 2010 re-release as well.

The conversion process utilized would be identical to how Disney is handling Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. The big difference is that film was created with 3D not only in mind but built into the budget. Turning Iron Man 2 into 3D will pile onto what is already probably a budget well north of $100 million.

Of course Iron Man 2 will gobble up mounds of cash next summer so it will be up to the studios to decide whether the investment is worth the up-charge on a ticket to a 3D movie. Now that 2009 has delivered several 3D films that outperformed their 2D counterparts, cinema's future is looking more and more three-dimensional whether filmmakers intend so or not.

Movie sequels lift summer box office to new record

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Summer box office sales narrowly hit a new record in North America -- with a little help from an angry memo written by "Transformers" director Michael Bay.

The filmmaker in May accused Paramount Pictures executives of fumbling the marketing campaign for his June 24 release "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen."

"Right now we are not an event. We are just a sequel, which is very different," he wrote in the missive that was leaked to the media.

Fortunately for both parties -- if not for the overwhelming majority of critics who eviscerated the big-bang spectacle -- Paramount's marketing plan kicked into high gear and the movie became the top draw at the summer box office in North America.

The movie grossed $399 million in the United States and Canada, well ahead of the No. 2 choice Warner Bros.' "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" with $294 million.

When overseas sales are included, the rankings are reversed. "Harry Potter" earned $905 million worldwide, and "Transformers" $828 million.

The two franchise pictures helped the summer moviegoing season reach another record -- barely.

North American ticket sales totaled $4.18 billion for all films from May 1 through September 2, according to tracking firm Rentrak Corp. This represents a 0.01 percent rise from the year-ago haul of $4.14 billion.

"Even in a tight economy, consumers seeking a great entertainment value continued to flock to movie theaters to see blockbusters across action, comedy, drama and family-friendly genres," said Ron Giambra, Rentrak's executive vice-president of Theatrical Worldwide.

Summer is the most lucrative season for the studios, with ticket sales accounting for as much as 40 percent of annual theatrical income. With their target audience of young males in mind, they unleash costly "popcorn" pictures loaded with explosions and special effects.

The top five was rounded out by the Pixar cartoon "Up" ($290 million), the surprise Warner Bros. bawdy hit "The Hangover" ($270 million) and Paramount's "Star Trek" reboot ($257 million).

That's not to say other demographic groups were completely ignored.

Counterprogramming efforts such as "The Ugly Truth" ($86 million) and the early Oscar bait "Julie & Julia" ($71 million and counting), both from Columbia Pictures, scored with female audiences. Sandra Bullock enjoyed the biggest movie of her career (before adjusting for inflation) with Disney's "The Proposal" ($160 million), the No. 9 movie of the summer.

At the other end of the scale, notable bombs included Paramount's Eddie Murphy comedy "Imagine That" -- a $55 million project that grossed $16 million.

Universal struck out with such disappointments as the costly Johnny Depp gangster drama "Public Enemies," which grossed $97 million, Sacha Baron Cohen's "Bruno" ($60 million), and Will Ferrell's "Land of the Lost" and director Judd Apatow's "Funny People" with about $50 million each.

Universal, a General Electric Co unit, lags the six major studios in market share so far this year, according to tracking firm Box Office Mojo.

Time Warner Inc's Warner Bros, leading in No. 1 openings this year, rules the pack with 20.6 percent, followed by Viacom Inc's Paramount (18 percent), News Corp's 20th Century Fox (12.5 percent), Walt Disney Co (12.1 percent), Sony Corp's Columbia (11.9 percent) and Universal (9 percent).

Fox Re-Boots Marvel's Fantastic Four

Some have questioned whether Disney overpaid when it bought Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion. After all, its best known Marvel Comics superhero franchises are parked at other studios, and Universal's Islands of Adventure is as dominated by Marvel attractions as it is Dr. Seuss.

But one thing to remember about Marvel assets is, they don't seem to wear out. We're about to see the second example where successful Marvel movie franchises are going to be reinvented.

20th Century Fox is the latest studio to start the process of overhauling one of its big Marvel Entertainment franchises, “Fantastic Four,” which has already hatched two films. The studio has hired Akiva Goldsman to oversee the re-boot as producer.

New script will be written by Michael Green, the “Heroes” co-executive producer who co-wrote “Green Lantern,” the Martin Campbell-directed Warner Bros. film that will star Ryan Reynolds.

Fox would not comment on its plans, and neither would Columbia Pictures when BFD revealed a couple weeks its plan to potentially re-boot the studio's most valuable franchise, "Spider-Man."

With “Spider-Man 4” moving toward an early 2010 production start, the studio recently hired James Vanderbilt to write a fifth and sixth installment of the web-slinger franchise, with the understanding that one or both could give that franchise a makeover with a new director and cast (Daily Variety, Aug. 16, 2009). Whether director Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire return or not, Sony smartly has given itself the chance to shorten the gap between its superhero installments.

And with state-of-the-art visual effects on superhero franchises pushing these pictures toward the $250 million-$300 million range, reshuffling the creative cast gives the studio a chance to save money, since actors and directors usually have a pre-negotiated option or two before the studio is held over a barrell by talent and their reps.

Marvel Studios has eliminated that problem by making talent sign as many as nine options, which was the case with the supporting cast of "Iron Man 2."

The 2005 “Fantastic Four” and 2007 sequel “Rise of the Silver Surfer” were directed by Tim Story, and starred Ioan Gruffud, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans and Michael Chiklis. Since the deals are just getting made, it is unclear at present if any of them will return.

Though Marvel Entertainment owns and finances properties like “Iron Man” and “Thor,” Fox controls “Fantastic Four” in perpetuity—as long as it continues making the films. Fox has the same arrangement on Marvel Comics properties “X-Men,” “Daredevil,” and “Silver Surfer” --which, despite an appearance in the "Fantastic Four" sequel, is still a Fox priority for a solo film.

Marvel is a producer and financial participant through a licensing agreement signed before Marvel franchises had the drawing power they have now. In fact, the original deal was made back when Marvel was struggling to pull itself out of bankruptcy in 1997.

Fox has been extraordarily effective in mining its Marvel franchises. The studio made three “X-Men” films, and then a hit summer spinoff in “Wolverine.” Fox is working on a sequel to that film, and has scripts for “X-Men Origins: Magneto," and “X-Men Origins: First Class," the latter of which could bring original "X-Men" helmer Bryan Singer back to the fold. Potential spinoffs for the Gambit and Deadpool characters seen in "Wolverine" have also been discussed.

As producer, Goldsman is involved with several DC Comics transfers, including “Jonah Hex,” “The Losers” and “Teen Titans.” He was also producer on the Will Smith-Charlize Theron-superhero film “Hancock,” a film that has a sequel in development.

Rambo 5 gets the green light

The punch-drunk Rocky may have finally wobbled into the sunset, but it seems Sylvester Stallone isn't quite ready to send his second-most famous character out to pasture.

A fifth Rambo movie has officially been given the go-ahead, Variety reports. The storyline this time has John Rambo "fighting his way through human traffickers and drug lords to rescue a young girl abducted near the U.S.-Mexico border."

Though the self-titled fourth film in the series, released last year, grossed a relatively modest $42 million in the U.S. and Canada, its overseas take was considerably higher. Variety pegs it at $113 million, though BoxOffice.com says that figure represents the film's total worldwide gross, including $70 million overseas.

Stallone, who turned 63 in July, can at least be credited with keeping the movies' settings timely, if not downright prescient. Last year's entry was set in war-torn Burma. The preceding film in the series, released in 1988, took place in Afghanistan.

Regardless of the setting, Stallone will have a tough time ratcheting up the series' escalating kill count. In figures collated by the movie website FirstShowing.net, that statistic has risen from 1 in the first movie to 69, 132 and a 236 in last year's entry. That works out to 2.59 kills per minute (3.04 if you don't count the time taken up by the end credits).

The number of sex scenes in each film, meanwhile, has remained constant: 0.

Rambo No. 5 is scheduled to start shooting next spring. The Internet Movie Database reports that Mickey Rourke is rumoured as Stallone's co-star. It gives a projected release date of 2011.

Before that, Stallone will show up as star, writer and director of The Expendables, whose cast includes Rourke, Jason Statham and Jet Li, as well as a veritable who's who of '80s genre stars: Dolph Lundgren, Eric Roberts and Steve "Stone Cold" Austin. Those luminaries portray a band of mercenaries trying to overthrow a dictator in South America. It hits theatres April 23.

'Final Destination' arrives at No. 1 with $28.3M

LOS ANGELES – Movie fans have made fear their top destination at the weekend box office.

The horror tale "The Final Destination" debuted as the No. 1 movie with $28.3 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. The Warner Bros. sequel is the latest installment in the franchise about people stalked by death after a premonition saves them from their destined demise.

"Final Destination" took over the top spot from Quentin Tarantino and Brad Pitt's World War II saga "Inglourious Basterds," which slipped to second place with $20 million. The Weinstein Co. release raised its total to $73.8 million after 10 days in theaters.

Weinstein also had the No. 3 slot with the horror flick "Halloween II," which opened with $17.4 million. The movie is Rob Zombie's sequel to his update of the slasher franchise about crazed killer Michael Myers.

It's unusual for two horror movies to open over the same weekend. While "Final Destination" and "Halloween II" competed for the same audience, both managed solid receipts.

"They got their $17 million, we got our $28 million. That's a lot of business all around," said Jeff Goldstein, general sales manager for Warner Bros.

"Final Destination" continued Hollywood's streak of 3-D successes. The 3-D component accounted for 70 percent of the movie's revenues, even though only 54 percent of the 3,121 theaters where it played offered the movie in 3D.

The Weinstein Co. plans to release "Halloween 3" in 3-D next summer, said Bob Weinstein, who co-founded the company with brother Harvey. While Zombie will not be back to direct, the next sequel will pick up from his story and give a new twist on slasher Myers, Weinstein said.

"Halloween II" did far less business than Zombie's "Halloween," which opened at No. 1 with $30.6 million two years ago. But Weinstein noted that the sequel took in more than its $15 million production budget over opening weekend.

"It's like hitting a single or a double," Weinstein said. "There are going to be bigger ones like 'Inglourious Basterds,' but for the Weinstein Co., we don't mind having two or three of these a year."

The weekend's other new wide release, Focus Features' music romp "Taking Woodstock," opened a weak No. 9 with $3.7 million. Directed by Ang Lee ("Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," "Brokeback Mountain"), "Taking Woodstock" is a nostalgic look behind the scenes at the mammoth 1969 rock concert.

Though Hollywood's summer season historically does not end until Labor Day, the holiday comes late this year, adding an extra week to the movie schedule and skewing comparisons to past summers.

Hollywood.com box-office analyst Paul Dergarabedian is using this Monday to mark the end of the season, since this weekend corresponded to Labor Day weekend last year. Dergarabedian estimated that through Monday, Hollywood will have taken in $4.26 billion, 1.5 percent ahead of the revenue record the industry set in summer 2008.

While receipts ran at an all-time high, attendance was off 2.2 percent compared with last summer factoring in this year's higher ticket prices, he said.
Revenues had lagged compared to last year's because of a midsummer skid, but Hollywood finished with an unusually strong lineup in August, typically a quiet time at the box office.

"August gave us the record," Dergarabedian said. "Virtually every summer crosses the finish line with a whimper. This year, we crossed with a bang."

Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "The Final Destination," $28.3 million.
2. "Inglourious Basterds," $20 million.
3. "Halloween II," $17.4 million.
4. "District 9," $10.7 million.
5. "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra," $8 million.
6. "Julie & Julia," $7.4 million.
7. "The Time Traveler's Wife," $6.7 million.
8. "Shorts," $4.9 million.
9. "Taking Woodstock," $3.7 million.
10. "G-Force," $2.8 million.

Aykroyd hopeful about 'Ghostbusters 3'

TORONTO - Dan Aykroyd says that seeing this year's "Star Trek" reboot has convinced him that a renewed "Ghostbusters" franchise could also live long and prosper.

But Aykroyd warns that until he has a script for "Ghostbusters 3" in his hands, nothing about the sequel is certain.

"I think this last 'Star Trek' was great, they did a really fine job of revivifying those characters," Aykroyd told The Canadian Press in a telephone interview from his farm in Kingston, Ont.

"I'd like to see the torch get passed in sort of a 'Star Trek' manner so that the franchise lives on."

Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky - scribes for NBC's "The Office" - have signed on to write "Ghostbusters 3." Aykroyd has said that he and other members of the original cast - including Bill Murray, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson - are on board to reprise their roles.

But Aykroyd still sounds cautious about the prospect of another film.

"As ('Ghostbusters' director) Ivan Reitman says - and I quote him now - 'It's all just talk,"' Aykroyd said.

"That's pretty much what we can say. Until we can see a script, until we have casting, until we've got a production number," he added before trailing off. "I'm the biggest cheerleader. I think it's going to happen, but really it's just theory until the production number is stamped."

If the film does get made, Aykroyd figures it's time to crown a new generation of Ghostbusters.

"The old generation of Ghostbusters, we're getting hip replacements now, we can't lift the equipment anymore, the eyesight's fading, we can't drive the car, there's so many things that are just physically breaking down," he said.

"We need a whole new cadre of cadets to get us through to a new generation."

Given Aykroyd's unwavering passion for the franchise, he's just as anxious about a sequel as the series' ardent fans.

The idea for the first film - which was released in 1984 and went on to fetch a North American gross of almost $240 million - grew from Aykroyd's own fascination with the paranormal, which he inherited from his family.

His great grandfather was a dentist and also an "Edwardian spiritualist." Aykroyd's father is preparing to release a book called "A History of Ghosts," which tracks the development of spiritualism from the mid-19th century.

Aykroyd wrote his own treatment of a third "Ghostbusters" movie in the 1990s - it centred on a "Ghostbusters in hell" motif, where there was an alternative version of Manhattan full of demons and ghouls - and Ramis has given him credit in interviews for keeping the flame for the franchise alive.

"I'm sitting right in the farmhouse right now hoping to get that first draft and I will sit down and go through it, but it all really came from my family so I originate it, and I will continue to be the chief cheerleader on it," Aykroyd said.

Melanie Laurent: All the hoopla hardly fazes French star

NEW YORK — Most folks would get starstruck around Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.

Not Mélanie Laurent, Pitt's French co-star in the war flick Inglourious Basterds.

Being on the red carpet at the film's premiere with the couple was "completely crazy," concedes the slightly standoffish actress. "But you don't feel like, 'Oh my God.' Everybody is crazy, hysterical, but it's not real. You just have fun. They are so cool. They always say to me, 'Hi, you look great.' "

She's also doing pretty great. In Basterds, Laurent, 26, plays one of the film's pivotal roles. She's the young Jewish girl Shosanna, who witnesses the massacre of her family by Nazis and flees to Paris, where she runs a cinema and develops her own revenge plan.

"I'm very close to her," Laurent says of her character. "You need to be strong to do that job, to have an actor's life. And you need to be fragile. I'm a little bit French and rebel sometimes, a little bit like Shosanna, and I'm Jewish."

Basterds might be the first time domestic viewers see Laurent, but she's an established actress and director in her native France. She directed 2008's De moins en moins, which was an official selection at the Cannes Film Festival, and in 2006, Laurent won the most promising actress César, France's version of the Oscar, for her film Je vais bien, ne t'en fais pas (Don't Worry, I'm Fine). And she's been acting since 1999's Un pont entre deux rives (The Bridge), where she starred opposite Gérard Depardieu.

So the hoopla surrounding a starring turn in a splashy war drama, directed by Quentin Tarantino and co-starring Pitt, leaves her a little flummoxed. She says she has no intention of making Hollywood movies just to be famous, or generate quick cash.

"It's not that I do not care. I have amazing parts in France. The dream was just to make a movie with Tarantino," she says.

The experience, Laurent says, was "so beautiful. Shosanna was a great part and very important. I was stressed out for the first meeting, and Quentin told me he was more stressed out than me. He's been looking for his Shosanna for eight years. She's so typically Tarantino's heroine. She's strong and fragile at the same time. She wants to kill Hitler. She's my favorite woman in the world."

Back home in Paris, Laurent is a workaholic. "Holiday? Is like, what? I'm a hyperactive girl, so it may be boring for me to be on the beach doing nothing. I just need to find a place for three weeks and work but sleep in the morning, maybe write a little bit, have a glass of red wine," the single actress says. "That's my perfect holiday. But it's not in my plan right now."

She's recording and producing a rock music CD. Plus, she plans to complete another screenplay in September but doesn't reveal the title. In the future, "I want to direct again. The perfect life would to be have an amazing part every year and to spend all my free time to just write," she says.

Surely, she has down time for something fun? "I'm dreaming of a day off, with my friend, shopping for my apartment. I just need to have time to buy little details. Oh, and my cat is here. Do you remember me, baby? He doesn't want to talk to me again."

Pitt calls Cruise film 'ridiculous'

Brad Pitt has declared battle against Tom Cruise for the title of best World War II movie - branding the Hollywood actor's recent film Valkyrie "ridiculous".

Pitt teamed up with director Quentin Tarantino for Inglourious Basterds, which was released this month - less than a year after Cruise's 2008 drama about a plot to kill Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

However, the actor insists his portrayal of Nazi hunter Aldo Raine in Tarantino's violent film is no comparison to his rival Cruise's character.

He tells German magazine Stern, "The second World War could still deliver more stories and films, but I believe that Quentin put a cover on that pot. With Basterds, everything than can be said to this genre has been said. The film destroys every symbol. The work is done, end of story... (Valkyrie) was a ridiculous movie."

Pitt, Tarantino's 'Basterds' earns glorious $37.6M

LOS ANGELES – The war effort by Quentin Tarantino and Brad Pitt has paid off as their history lesson "Inglourious Basterds" claimed victory at the box office with a $37.6 million debut.

It was Tarantino's best opening ever, exceeding the $25.1 million haul for 2004's "Kill Bill — Vol. 2." Overseas, "Inglourious Basterds" added $27.5 million in 22 countries, giving it a worldwide total of $65.1 million.

Released domestically by the Weinstein Co. and overseas by Universal, "Inglourious Basterds" features Pitt and an international ensemble in a sprawling tale of Jewish commandos and a plot to take out Nazi leaders at a movie premiere during World War II.

The film provided a much-needed hit for Harvey and Bob Weinstein, who have managed only lackluster receipts at their new outfit since departing Disney-owned Miramax four years ago.

At Miramax, the Weinsteins balanced prestige and profit with a string of Academy Awards triumphs such as "Shakespeare in Love" and "Chicago" and hits such as Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" and the "Scary Movie" and "Scream" franchises.

"Tarantino helped build the house of Miramax. He's proving right now that he's helping to build the house of Weinstein," said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com.

So far, the Weinstein Co. has been unable to reproduce that Miramax success, its lineup burdened by box-office underachievers such as last year's "Soul Men" and 2007's "Grindhouse," Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's B-movie double-feature.

Harvey Weinstein said critics continually write off him and his brother, including a magazine piece in 2002 "saying we were the flavor of the '90s but we were kind of over in the new millennium."

Weeks later, he noted, Miramax scored 40 Oscar nominations, among them three of the five best-picture nominees, including eventual winner "Chicago."
Weinstein said his new company has a strong lineup ahead, including next weekend's horror sequel "Halloween II" along with "Chicago" director Rob Marshall's musical "Nine" and the post-apocalypse saga "The Road" late in the year.

Rodriguez, Tarantino's "Grindhouse" partner, did not fare so well with "Shorts," his Warner Bros. family comedy that debuted at No. 6 with just $6.6 million. The movie features William H. Macy, James Spader, Leslie Mann and a cast of kids in a series of loosely linked adventures centered on a magic rock that grants wishes.

Fox Atomic's comedy "Post Grad," with Alexis Bledel as a college graduate who moves back home with her eccentric family after she's unable to land her dream job, tanked with $2.8 million, coming in at No. 10.

The previous weekend's top movie, Sony's sci-fi thriller "District 9," slipped to second-place with $18.9 million. With a domestic total of $73.5 million, the movie is on its way to becoming a $100 million sleeper hit.

Hollywood's revenues were up for the third-straight weekend, a late-season surge that has helped the industry recover from a monthlong slide in receipts. Overall ticket sales were $134 million, up 27 percent compared to the same weekend last year.

The weekend put Hollywood back on track to break last summer's revenue record of $4.2 billion, though receipts this season are up only a fraction.

Factoring in higher ticket prices this year, movie attendance is running 3 percent below last summer's, according to Hollywood.com.

Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "Inglourious Basterds," $37.6 million.
2. "District 9," $18.9 million.
3. "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra," $12.5 million.
4. "The Time Traveler's Wife," $10 million.
5. "Julie & Julia," $9 million.
6. "Shorts," $6.6 million.
7. "G-Force," $4.2 million.
8. "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," $3.5 million.
9. "The Ugly Truth," $2.9 million.
10. "Post Grad," $2.8 million.

Paramount bumps `Shutter Island' to February

LOS ANGELES – Paramount Pictures has moved Martin Scorsese's "Shutter Island" from an October release date to February, which takes it out of awards consideration for this year.

Studio chairman Brad Grey said Friday that the scheduling change was a financial decision.

The thriller marks the latest pairing of Scorsese and star Leonardo DiCaprio, following "Gangs of New York," "The Aviator" and Scorsese's Oscar-winning "The Departed." It also stars Ben Kingsley, Patricia Clarkson, Jackie Earle Haley and Michelle Williams.

Based on a novel by "Mystic River" author Dennis Lehane, "Shutter Island" follows the investigation into the disappearance of murderess from a mental institution.

'District 9' lifts off with No. 1 weekend at $37M

LOS ANGELES – The first-time director and cast of unknowns of the acclaimed sci-fi thriller "District 9" have given Hollywood a late-summer box-office boost.

The Sony release produced by "Lord of the Rings" director Peter Jackson led the weekend with a $37 million debut, according to studio estimates Sunday.

"District 9" is the debut feature from commercial and music-video director Neill Blomkamp, who co-wrote the tale about extraterrestrials forced by humans to live in squalor in a ghetto in South Africa.

The movie built audience interest with a clever marketing campaign playing up the theme of prejudice against aliens, including posters instructing citizens to report non-humans and ads on bus benches stating that the seats are for humans only.

"Everybody was like, 'What is this?' There was a big question mark in people's minds," said Rory Bruer, head of distribution for Sony. "It did really pique their interest and drove them to the Internet and elsewhere to discover what's going on."

The previous weekend's No. 1 movie, Paramount's "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra," slipped to second place with $22.5 million, raising its 10-day total to $98.8 million.

Another sci-fi tale, the Warner Bros. romance "The Time Traveler's Wife" starring Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams, opened a solid No. 3 with $19.2 million. The film joined the previous weekend's "Julie & Julia" as a choice for women, with females accounting for 76 percent of its audience.

"District 9" and "Time Traveler's Wife" led a wave of five new wide releases for mid-August, when Hollywood's summer output normally is petering out. The rush continues next weekend with another surge of new releases, led by Quentin Tarantino's World War II saga "Inglourious Basterds."

"It's getting very crowded, and it's these films that want to compete in the summer time frame but can't compete in the sweet spot of summer," said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com. "Opening 'District 9' against 'Star Trek,' that would not be a good strategy. But to release it now makes sense. August is the month of opportunity for films that in other months of summer would get slaughtered."

The weekend's other debuts: Paramount Vantage's used-car comedy "The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard," opening at No. 6 with $5.4 million; Disney's animated adventure "Ponyo" from animation master Hayao Miyazaki ("Spirited Away"), coming in at No. 9 with $3.5 million; and Summit Entertainment's teen rock 'n' roll tale "Bandslam," which tanked at No. 13 with just $2.3 million despite a cast that includes Vanessa Hudgens of "High School Musical."

It was Hollywood's second weekend in a row of rising revenues after a monthlong slide compared with summer 2008, when the Batman blockbuster "The Dark Knight" was smashing box-office records.

Overall receipts came in at $142 million, up 14 percent from the same weekend a year ago, when "Tropic Thunder" debuted at No. 1 with $25.8 million.

Revenues since the summer season opened the first weekend of May are at $3.77 billion, just a fraction below where Hollywood was last summer, according to Hollywood.com.

Factoring in higher ticket prices, admissions are off 4 percent compared to summer 2008, though movie attendance remains strong given how "The Dark Knight" dominated a year ago. The biggest blockbuster since "Titanic," "The Dark Knight" topped out with a domestic haul of $531 million.

"Considering we had a movie of that magnitude in the mix, I think this summer has held up very well for itself," said Dan Fellman, head of distribution for Warner Bros., which released "The Dark Knight."

Here are the estimated ticket sales are for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "District 9," $37 million.
2. "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra," $22.5 million.
3. "The Time Traveler's Wife," $19.2 million.
4. "Julie & Julia," $12.4 million.
5. "G-Force," $6.9 million.
6. "The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard," $5.4 million.
7. "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," $5.2 million.
8. "The Ugly Truth," $4.5 million.
9. "Ponyo," $3.5 million.
10. "500 Days of Summer," $3 million.

Myers plays it straight in 'Basterds'

TORONTO - It's not the role you might expect Canadian actor Mike Myers to play.

Myers, perhaps best-known for his work in comedies like "Austin Powers" and "Wayne's World," plays a general in the new war movie, "Inglourious Basterds."

Director Quentin Tarantino was in Toronto Wednesday night for the Canadian premiere of the film and said Myers was a great fit for the part.

"He's a big fan of mine and he just let it be known that he's a fan and if there was something in the movie that would be proper for him, he would love to do it," Tarantino said, adding that Myers is a huge Second World War buff and has always wanted to play an older British general.

"It was a perfect storm for getting Mike Myers, a perfect storm for a yes."

"Inglourious Basterds" also stars Brad Pitt and Eli Roth and is scheduled for wide release on Aug. 21st.

John Hughes doc finds distributor

Until a few days ago, "Don't You Forget About Me" was just another Canuck feature documentary with no distributor and an uncertain future.
But that changed Thursday, with the death of its subject -- John Hughes.

When Toronto helmer Matt Austin-Sadowski woke up Friday morning, the first email in his inbox was from CNN requesting an interview. By noon, world rights to the low-budget doc had been snapped up by Alliance Films of Montreal with a U.S. deal in the offing.

The doc looks at the life and work of the filmmaker behind teen hits "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," "The Breakfast Club" and "Sixteen Candles."
But "Don't You Forget About Me" -- a nod to the Simple Minds pop song featured in "The Breakfast Club" -- is hardly a standard biopic.

Rather it's a 75-minute, "Roger and Me"-like road trip in which Austin-Sadowski and his producers Kari Hollend, Mike Facciolo and Lenny Panzer head to suburban Illinois in their van to try to find the reclusive Hughes.

It was made without public funding, something extremely rare in Canadian cinema.

Austin-Sadowski, an actor best known for his role in the "Power Rangers: S.P.D." TV series, is thrilled his film is getting so much attention, but it's a bittersweet feeling given it took Hughes' death to spark the interest.

Austin-Sadowski, 31, said Hughes' films had a huge impact on him when he was in high school.

"He inspired me as a person, going through an awkward adolescence, as many people do," Austin-Sadowski said. "He took affairs of the heart very seriously, and no other director gave teenagers that sort of treatment at that time."

Thesps interviewed in the doc include Ally Sheedy, Judd Nelson, Mia Sara, Kelly LeBrock and Andrew McCarthy. Molly Ringwald, perhaps the actress most associated with Hughes' hits, refused to take part in the project.

Austin-Sadowski said he hopes the buzz translates into renewed interest in Hughes' films. "That's what's important to us. It's not the deal. It's not more exposure for us."

'G.I. Joe' commands box office with $56.2M debut

LOS ANGELES – G.I. Joe is the latest toy to invade Hollywood and plant its blockbuster flag.

Inspired by the Hasbro action figure, Paramount's "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" took command of the weekend box office with a $56.2 million debut domestically, according to studio estimates Sunday. "G.I. Joe" also took in $44.3 million overseas for a worldwide total of $100.5 million.

Meryl Streep's Julia Child tale "Julie & Julia" opened a solid No. 2 as an alternative for adult crowds with $20.1 million. While "G.I. Joe" was the first choice for young males, women 35 and older were the main audience for "Julie & Julia."

"G.I. Joe" follows Paramount's "Transformers" franchise as the latest toy story to find success on the big screen.

Harsh reviews for "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" earlier this summer prompted Paramount to skip critic screenings for "G.I. Joe" and put the movie in theaters sight-unseen by most reviewers.

Critics generally trashed the "Transformers" sequel, yet it had a colossal opening and is on its way to joining the handful of movies to top $400 million domestically. Based on that disparity between critical and commercial reaction, the studio decided it could do without reviews for "G.I. Joe."

"The thing we saw from 'Transformers' is that with these kind of movies, at times critics have a hard time getting their arms around them," said Rob Moore, Paramount vice chairman. "But the audience got exactly what it was. A fun summer movie, a great way to end your summer. You just relax and have a good time. You don't have to worry about global politics or global warming."

Critics who went to see "G.I. Joe" after it opened gave it mixed reviews at best, with many branding it mindless action but some finding it fun and entertaining.

The weekend's other new wide release, Universal's slasher thriller "A Perfect Getaway" with Steve Zahn and Milla Jovovich, opened weakly at No. 7 with $5.8 million.

The previous weekend's top movie, Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen's "Funny People," tumbled to No. 5 with $7.9 million, down a whopping 65 percent from its opening weekend. The Universal release has taken in $40.4 million so far.

"G.I. Joe" pulled Hollywood out of a monthlong box-office swoon compared with last summer. The overall box office came in at $147 million, up 22 percent from the same weekend a year ago, when the Batman blockbuster "The Dark Knight" still was the No. 1 flick after four weeks in release.

"'Joe' kind of saved the day," said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com. "We needed a box-office hero to turn things around, and we certainly got it."

But summer revenues continue to lag behind last year's, with receipts this season down about 1 percent.

"G.I. Joe" features Dennis Quaid, Channing Tatum, Sienna Miller, Marlon Wayans and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in a globe-trotting adventure about an elite military unit taking on a corrupt arms dealer.

While the G.I. Joe action figures started out as all-American heroes, the movie expands their story to include an international team of good guys to capitalize on overseas box office, which nowadays can equal or exceed domestic receipts for Hollywood movies.

"One of the best markets on the movie was Russia," Moore said. "How far G.I. Joe has come. He was incredibly popular in Russia."

"Julie & Julia" casts Streep as celebrated chef Child and Amy Adams as a woman trying to revitalize her own life by cooking every recipe in Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking."

Sony opened it opposite "G.I. Joe" to give adults a fresh option after a summer of action adventures, family flicks and comedies.

"We felt the audience we were going to start with was going to be very hungry by this point," said Rory Bruer, Sony's head of distribution. "It's a really fun movie with heart and humor and good food."

Child was also a hit on Amazon.com this weekend. "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" was the Web site's top seller Sunday, while Child's memoir "My Life in France" was No. 9.

Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra," $56.2 million.
2. "Julie & Julia," $20.1 million.
3. "G-Force," $9.8 million.
4. "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," $8.9 million.
5. "Funny People," $7.9 million.
6. "The Ugly Truth," $7 million.
7. "A Perfect Getaway," $5.8 million.
8. "Aliens in the Attic," $4 million.
9. "Orphan," $3.73 million.
10. "500 Days of Summer," $3.7 million.

"G.I. Joe" set to storm weekend box office

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Get ready for a slew of military metaphors in box office reports this weekend.

"G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra," the first pure action release in several weeks, will open at No. 1, unencumbered by a single mainstream review.

In an unusual gambit generally reserved for obvious stinkers, Paramount decided that critics likely would bash the film and perhaps dent moviegoers' must-see interest. Yet prerelease tracking is strong, and "Joe" seems headed for an opening of $45 million-$50 million.

Its core support will come from male youngsters, although its unclear if the coveted demo will be able to help Hollywood end four weeks of year-over-year box office declines.

"'G.I. Joe' is tracking well, so maybe it will get people interested in going back to the movies. But right now, the interest is pretty low," said an industry observer.

Two other films are opening in theaters on Friday. Sony's Nora Ephron-directed "Julie & Julia" -- about famed TV chef Julia Child (Meryl Streep) and a woman (Amy Adams) who blogs about preparing her recipes -- is also tracking well with a narrow swath of prospective patrons; older females should make a $20 million debut reachable.

But the weekend's third wide opener is tracking much more softly. The R-rated horror thriller "A Perfect Getaway," which Universal will distribute on behalf of indie producer Relativity's Rogue Pictures unit, might get away with $5 million-$7 million through Sunday.

The most-scrutinized holdover performance will be Universal's "Funny People," which opened at No. 1 last weekend with a sub-par $22.6 million. A (modest) 50% drop would see "People" potentially nab the weekend's bronze medal.

Meanwhile, the industry's year-to-date box office performance has taken a battering from the recent weekend downticks -- the result of comparisons with year-ago frames stuffed fat with "Dark Knight" sales.

Just three weeks ago, 2009 was pacing ahead of the same portion of last year by a healthy 6%, putting admissions (the number of tickets sold) on course for an annual uptick as box office sales exceeded the roughly 4% increase in average ticket prices. After the latest year-over-year decline -- which saw the last session off a hefty 25% from the year-earlier tally -- domestic box office now is up only 4% at $6.13 billion, according to Nielsen EDI.

John Hughes defined a genre and a generation

LOS ANGELES – "Saturday, March 24, 1984. Shermer High School, Shermer, Illinois, 60062.

"Dear Mr. Vernon: We accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did wrong. And what we did was wrong. But we think you're crazy to make us write an essay telling you who we think we are. What do you care? You see us as you want to see us."

Those are the opening lines from "The Breakfast Club," voiced by Anthony Michael Hall, accompanied by Simple Minds' "Don't You (Forget About Me)." And even though it's been nearly a quarter-century since John Hughes' seminal high-school drama came out, I still know them by heart. I probably still know the entire movie by heart. Any self-respecting child of the 1980s does.

"The Breakfast Club" and "Sixteen Candles" may not qualify as the greatest movies ever, but we're talking favorites, the ones that still engage you no matter how many times you've seen them.

And so the news that Hughes died of a heart attack at 59 Thursday will, for many, strike the same sort of cultural chord that Michael Jackson's did: It prompts more than just a passing feeling of nostalgia but an active longing for a happier, more prosperous time. As both a writer and director, Hughes defined not just a genre but a generation.

His movies didn't exactly represent high school as it was (seriously, who ever went to a blowout bash at a mansion like Jake Ryan's in "Sixteen Candles" or got away with as much as Ferris Bueller?) but rather, high school as we wished it could have been — funnier, weirder, sweeter, full of kids who have just the right zinger or poignant thing to say:

"Does Barry Manilow know that you raid his wardrobe?"

"How about a nice, greasy pork sandwich served in a dirty ashtray?"

"Blane? His name is Blane? That's a major appliance, that's not a name."

"I can't believe I gave my panties to a geek."

After watching "The Breakfast Club" with me on cable for the millionth time when I was a chubby 13-year-old, my mom suggested that we go to the video store and rent the teen-angst movie of her generation: "Rebel Without a Cause." I would like it, she said — they were similar. And she was right in that they both captured the frustrating feeling that nobody understands you when you're young, that your problems are unique and insurmountable. Hughes took that raw energy and made it ironic and idiotic, self-referential and self-deprecating.

Every teen movie that's come out since the mid-1980s owes a debt to John Hughes. He was that influential. Some acknowledge this willingly, as director Nanette Burstein did with last year's "American Teen," which was essentially a documentary version of "The Breakfast Club." Bill Paxton has said that of the dozens of character roles he's played over his lengthy career, he's still best known as Chet, the bullying older brother from 1985's "Weird Science." And "Some Kind of Wonderful" (which Hughes wrote) plays a pivotal part in the recent romantic comedy "He's Just Not That Into You."

Others have parodied him endlessly in such varied settings as raunchy Kevin Smith comedies, the spoof "Not Another Teen Movie" and the animated TV series "Family Guy." (In the episode where Peter goes undercover at Meg's high school as Lando Griffin, he walks across the football field and defiantly thrusts his fist in the air at the end, just as Judd Nelson did in the last image of "The Breakfast Club.")

Granted, Hughes' work dwindled once the 1990s arrived and he lost his insight, his edge. His scripts for "Dennis the Menace," "Beethoven" and "Flubber" can't exactly compare with the ones he wrote for "National Lampoon's Vacation," "Home Alone" and "Planes, Trains and Automobiles."

But if it weren't for Hughes, there would never have been a Brat Pack, that clique of sizzling young Hollywood actors who dominated the 1980s after "St. Elmo's Fire" (a Joel Schumacher film, but one with clear links to Hughes).

Imagine the career trajectories of Hall, Nelson, Molly Ringwald, Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy and Jon Cryer without him. Or just try to think of Macaulay Culkin without conjuring the image of him slapping his hands to his wholesome face in horror.

And so there's nothing wrong with wallowing in some unabashed '80s nostalgia upon the passing of John Hughes. As Ferris Bueller himself might have said at a time like this, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."

'G.I. Joe' not screening for most critics

LOS ANGELES - It's the biggest movie of the summer that practically no one has seen.

"G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" opens Friday, but Paramount Pictures isn't screening the blockbuster for critics beforehand. Only a select few writers from blogs and movie Web sites have seen it for review - such as Harry Knowles, the self-professed "Head Geek" from Ain't It Cool News - and their opinions have been mostly positive.

Instead, the studio says it's intentionally aiming the movie at the heartland, at cities and audiences outside the entertainment vortexes of New York and Los Angeles. Paramount held a screening Friday for 1,000 military service members and their families at Andrews Air Force Base; it's also focusing marketing efforts in places like Kansas City, Charlotte, N.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

While appealing to a sense of patriotism nationwide, the plan also is inspired by the disparity that existed between the critical trashing "Transformers: Rise of the Fallen" received and the massive crowds it drew at the box office.

"'G.I. Joe' is a big, fun, summer event movie - one that we've seen audiences enjoy everywhere from Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland to Phoenix, Ariz.," said Rob Moore, vice chairman of Paramount Pictures. "After the chasm we experienced with 'Transformers 2' between the response of audiences and critics, we chose to forgo opening-day print and broadcast reviews as a strategy to promote 'G.I. Joe.' We want audiences to define this film."

With a reported production budget of $175 million and a cast that includes Dennis Quaid, Channing Tatum, Sienna Miller, Marlon Wayans and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, "G.I. Joe" follows the adventures of an elite team using high-tech spy and military equipment to take down a corrupt arms dealer. It comes from director Stephen Sommers, whose previous films include "The Mummy" and "Van Helsing."

Long before anyone saw the completed product, though, "G.I. Joe" drew mixed buzz at best for its trailer, which premiered during the Super Bowl. Now it's the final action picture of the summer - and it has a lot in common with the highest-grossing film so far this year, the "Transformers" sequel. Both are effects-laden spectacles based on Hasbro toys and both are Paramount releases from producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura.

"Transformers" has gone on to gross more than $388 million in the United States alone since its opening six weeks ago, despite receiving just 20 per cent positive reviews on the Web site Rotten Tomatoes, a critical aggregator. The withholding of "G.I. Joe" from mainstream critics suggests that the studios believe they can succeed at the box office without them.

It's a tactic normally reserved for horror movies or other genre pictures with built-in fans who don't necessarily care about reviews - ones based on video games, for example - not summer blockbusters. Still, "G.I. Joe" has been tracking well because it represents the last big bang of the season, said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com.

"They don't need (to screen) it and there's no upside to negative reviews. The film is going to open well no matter what," Dergarabedian said. "They're being very strategic in who they show the movie to. If they can win over their core audience from these reviews, that's good for the movie."

Devin Faraci from the film Web site CHUD.com is one of the few writers who have seen it for review purposes, and not just for junket interviews. He's among the critics who've contributed to the movie's 88-per cent positive rating as tabulated by Rotten Tomatoes, saying: "If I was 10 years old, 'G.I. Joe' would be one of the best movies I had ever seen."

Faraci said he was in Toronto recently when he received a phone call at 8:30 a.m. Los Angeles time, asking if he could come to the Paramount lot that day for a "G.I. Joe" screening. He flew back, got off the plane and headed right over.

"It's silly. It's a film that plays on its own terms," he said. "I don't think reviews will kill it but I think it'll get a more positive response than they expect. It's a big, silly, pulpy, cartoony action film and it makes no apologies for being that way."

'The Hobbit' films still in limbo

Director Peter Jackson has warned Lord Of The Rings fans not to get too excited about The Hobbit prequels - because they have yet to receive the go-ahead from movie studio executives.

Jackson has signed on to co-write and co-produce two Hobbit movies, based on the fantasy novels by J.R.R. Tolkien, which will be directed by Guillermo del Toro.

Reports suggest the first film is slated for release in 2011, while the second part will follow in 2012.

But Jackson insists the projects are still in their very early stages - and they've yet to come up with a script, let alone secure funding for the movies, reports Starpulse.

Speaking at Comic-Con in San Diego, California at the weekend, Jackson said, "I mean, people assume that we have a green light and we're making the movie which we don't. I mean, we have to deliver the script. The studio obviously has to approve the script and then we have to budget that script because we have no budget yet. They're not going to make the film with an open cheque book so we have to figure out how much it's going to cost and if that's going to be okay."

And Jackson is refusing to begin speculating about casting until the script is finished - despite Lord of the Rings actors Sir Ian McKellen and Andy Serkis already expressing their desire to reprise their roles in the franchise.

He adds, "We have a process to go through that really, once we get the script delivered, we can break it down, we can do the budgeting, we can figure out schedules and we can move onto the second script that we have to obviously start writing immediately (after) the first one's done. Then we can start casting the movie once we have a budget and once the studio greenlight the movie."

'Potter' film tops bloopers list

Eagle-eyed filmgoers have named and shamed the newest Harry Potter release as the most error-filled movie of 2009 so far.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth instalment of the wizard franchise, was released to North American theatres less than two weeks ago on July 15 but has already notched up a whopping 57 mistakes, each detailed on website MovieMistakes.com.

In one scene, Rupert Grint's character Ron Weasley can be heard speaking but his mouth doesn't move, while in another, Daniel Radcliffe's Harry Potter appears with a windswept and messy hairstyle just seconds after his locks were neatly combed.

The number of blunders means the latest Harry Potter movie is leading a list of the year's most mistake-ridden films, toppling Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, which was littered with 53 bloopers.

Mila Kunis dances to 'Swan' song

At long last, we'll know: Is Mila Kunis for real?

Kunis has joined the cast of Darren Aronofsky's "Black Swan" as a mysterious (and possibly not real) dancer, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The role will place Kunis opposite Natalie Portman, who signed on in June to play a New York ballerina contending against a possibly supernatural rival.

"Black Swan" is a bit of a pet project for Aronofsky, whose films ("Pi" and "The Fountain," among others) had largely languished in arthouse theaters until the mainstream popularity of 2008's "The Wrestler."

Filming begins this fall in New York City.

Tron's time has finally come

SAN DIEGO, Calif. -- There's a term for movies that are ahead of their time.

Flops.

Take, for instance, 1982's Tron, heavily hyped for its groundbreaking computerized graphics only to be snubbed at the box office by the then-pre-digital masses.

Still, the film managed to cultivate a fanbase so enthusiastic that reports have long persisted of a possible sequel.

Even star Jeff Bridges remembers hearing recurring rumours of a Tron 2.

"Over the years, somebody would say, 'So I hear they're making a new Tron' and I'd say, 'What are you talking about?' They'd say, 'Oh yeah, you're kind of lost in the world, kind of Apocalypse Now -- you're (Marlon Brando's) Kurtz or something' and I'd say, 'What are you talking about?' And here it is, 30 years later. It's quite amazing."

First announced at last year's Comic-Con, Tron Legacy, which has been shooting in Vancouver, is due out in the fall of 2010.

Bridges returns -- as multiple versions of himself, no less -- alongside Garrett Hedlund and House's Olivia Wilde.

"It's kind of bizarre," says Bridges, 59. "I'm kind of reticent to discuss this stuff because it's like a magician shows up and tells you how he's going to do his trick."

Behind the camera is Joseph Kosinski, a commercial director who is making his feature-film debut under the aegis of Tron creator Steven Lisberger.

Kosinski believes the plot -- in which Hedlund, as Bridges' son, enters the cyber-scape to locate his missing father -- will appeal to more than just the die-hards that have been salivating decades for a sequel.

What both demos -- newcomers and fans -- will discover is that "the world of Tron has evolved kind of on its own like an aquarium, disconnected from the outside world for 20, 25 years," Kosinski says. "The simulation has gotten more perfect and more realistic so the scale of the world is much bigger than it was before ... The line between what's real and what's not should be blurred so that you can't tell the difference."

All of which should please Lisberger most of all. What does he think of this chance at a better-appreciated version 2.0? "It's a generational thing," he says philosophically. "Part of the reason Tron is happening now is that it feels like the generational wheel has aligned."

'G-Force' topples `Harry Potter' at box office

LOS ANGELES – An elite squad of guinea pigs has worked its own brand of magic at the box office, taking the No. 1 spot from boy wizard Harry Potter.

The 3-D "G-Force" was the top movie at the box office this weekend, opening with $32.2 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. The Walt Disney release from producer Jerry Bruckheimer, with its mixture of live action and computer-generated animation, is a "Mission: Impossible"-style adventure. It features voiceover work from Nicolas Cage, Sam Rockwell, Tracy Morgan and Penelope Cruz as resourceful rodents.

Last week's No. 1 film, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," came in a close second with an estimated $30 million. That's a whopping 61-percent drop from its huge opening last weekend of $79.5 million.

Coming in third was another of the week's wide releases, the battle-of-the-sexes romantic comedy "The Ugly Truth," which had a $27 million opening.

The sixth installment in the Harry Potter franchise has now made $222 million total, which is $14 million ahead of where part five, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," was after 12 days in theaters in 2007. And this week, "Half-Blood Prince" will start showing on 166 IMAX screens, which the last "Harry Potter" movie did from the start.

"So we're coming in with this one (in IMAX) a little bit late, but it's going to be a great addition and it'll keep our momentum going," said Dan Fellman, Warner Bros.' head of distribution.

"G-Force" triumphed in a crowded summer marketplace with its combination of 3-D effects and the Disney and Bruckheimer brands, said Mark Zoradi, president of Disney's motion-picture group.

"You never go into a situation where you're competing against two important movies — the second weekend of 'Harry Potter' and the opening weekend of 'The Ugly Truth' — you never go in cocky," Zoradi said.

The one-two of PG-rated movies reinforces the fact that summer is prime family movie time, said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com.

"This summer is all about packaging and escapism," Dergarabedian said of the strong showing for "G-Force." "People were scratching their heads and dragging their kids to go see this thing. They were watching the trailers with absolute shock going, 'Is that really happening?' But as a kid you're like, 'I gotta go see it.' This is a testament to the fact that Jerry Bruckheimer, like ('Transformers' director) Michael Bay, knows exactly what summer movie audiences want."

With $27 million, "The Ugly Truth" performed at the high end of Sony Pictures' expectations, said head of distribution Rory Bruer.

"The chemistry between Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler is a blast. It's really a lot of fun, everything we'd hoped it would be," Bruer said. "From sneak previews to word-of-mouth screenings we had on the movie, we knew people liked the movie."

Critics weren't so enamored, though: "The Ugly Truth" received just 15 percent positive reviews on the Rotten Tomatoes Web site.

"If I have a choice of deciding between what the audience's opinion is going to be versus the critics', I'll definitely go with the audience's every day, and they spoke loud and clear," Bruer said.

Also opening nationwide this weekend was another Warner Bros. release, the horror movie "Orphan," about a couple who adopts a little girl who's not nearly as sweet as she seems. It came in fourth place with $12.8 million.

Expanding in its second week of limited release, the Fox Searchlight romantic comedy "500 Days of Summer" made $1.63 million. Going from 27 screens to 85, it's grossed just over $3 million. The critical hit stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel in an out-of-order tale of boy-meets-girl.

On the other end of the cinematic spectrum, the dominant movie of the summer, "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," is now the 10th-highest grossing film of all time with just over $379 million. The Paramount sequel made $8 million this weekend, pushing it past 2003's "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King," which made just over $377 million.

Dergarabedian said movies like "Transformers," "Harry Potter" and the R-rated, surprise-hit comedy "The Hangover," which has now made over $247 million, have kept this summer's revenues right in line with 2008, when "The Dark Knight" was all the rage.

Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "G-Force," $32.2 million.
2. "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," $30 million.
3. "The Ugly Truth," $27 million.
4. "Orphan," $12.8 million.
5. "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs," $8.2 million.
6. "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," $8 million.
7. "The Hangover," $6.5 million.
8. "The Proposal," $6.4 million.
9. "Public Enemies," $4.2 million.
10. "Bruno," $2.7 million.

Johnny Depp Crashes Comic-Con—Then Splits!

Los Angeles (E! Online) – There had been murmurs that Johnny Depp, one of the stars of Tim Burton's way weird live-action adaptation of Alice in Wonderland, would drop by this morning's Disney 3-D panel.

And—would you look at that!—he did.

In fact, Depp stopped by, said five words and then totally just left.

Here's what went down:

After screening a custom-made trailer for his Comic-Con fans, director Burton asked the crowd if they would like to meet the "imaginary friend" that follows him around.

The crowd cheered and Depp, who plays the Mad Hatter, walked onstage in a button-up shirt and fitted black vest. He had long bangs sweeping the side of his face, and wore a thick leather bracelet.

After several moments of cheering, Depp whispered into the mic:

"Hey. Happy to be here."

And then, poof, he was gone.

Moderator Patton Oswalt told the crowd that Depp could reappear later in the day, so "be nice to every guy you see dressed like Jack Sparrow."

Meanwhile, Burton said he's still filming the CGI-heavy fantasy flick, due next spring, and that he feels there's a "white rabbit with a stop watch" timing him.

In terms of plot, he also dished that there was an effort to make Alice (Mia Wasikowska) more active in the story rather than a bunch of "weird scenes" happening to her. Oh, and remember that Depp isn't the only person in this movie: Anne Hathaway and Helena Bonham Carter also star.

"Potter" prepared to fend off trio of newcomers

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" is on course to be crowned king of the domestic box office again this weekend.

With $200 million in its cauldron at the start of just its second weekend, Warner Bros.' "Prince" could fall 60 percent from its first-frame tally and still produce a $31 million sophomore session. Bolstering the film's prospects is its expansion from four high-grossing Imax venues to 162.

Although three films opening in wide release Friday are expected to do solid business, none is likely to compete for the weekend title.

Sony's romantic comedy "The Ugly Truth," helmed by Robert Luketic ("21") and starring Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler, might be the strongest of the new pictures, with prerelease tracking surveys showing prospects for an opening north of $20 million.

Produced for less than $40 million, "Truth" carries an R rating but is likely to draw best among older females, who executives hope will rope in a few guys for a date-night outing. Sony offered 160 sneak previews of "Truth" last weekend and attracted 90 percent capacity audiences.

Meanwhile, Disney's Jerry Bruckheimer-produced family action-comedy "G-Force," featuring a mix of CGI and live action, also is looking good amid signs that its hefty marketing campaign is taking hold.

Helmed by effects supervisor-turned-director Hoyt Yeatman, "G-Force" also could top $20 million this weekend. Premium ticket prices in more than 1,600 3D auditoriums will help the cause. The studio's May release of Pixar's "Up" boasted 1,540 3D locations.

But there's little doubt the still-strong interest in the Potter pic will affect "G-Force," which carries the same PG rating. The question is whether the impact will be minimum or severe. "Prince" and "G-Force" target a similar audience, but the latter plays much younger.

Set for 3,693 playdates, "G-Force" totes a negative cost of $80 million-plus.

Warners' R-rated horror film "Orphan" should do midteen millions this weekend, with solid interest evident among younger moviegoers. The story of a demon-seed orphan on a tear is female-oriented, but the question remains whether young female moviegoers will be turned off by the restricted rating. "Orphan" was directed by Jaume Collet-Serra ("Goal II: Living the Dream").

'Potter' conjures up $159.7 million in 5 days

LOS ANGELES – Harry Potter continues to work box-office alchemy, turning his latest movie adventure into an overnight blockbuster. The sixth installment, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," took in $79.5 million domestically over opening weekend and $159.7 million since debuting last Wednesday, according to estimates from distributor Warner Bros. on Sunday.

With some of the best reviews of any "Harry Potter" movie, "Half-Blood Prince" was off to the fastest overall start in franchise history.

The sixth movie about the young wizard came in $20 million ahead of the last movie, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," which grossed $139.7 million in its first five days two years ago.

The new film had the second-highest start ever for a movie premiering on Wednesday, trailing the $200 million five-day opening for last month's "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen."

"Half-Blood Prince" already has surpassed the $157.3 million "Order of the Phoenix" pulled in during its entire first week. By the end of its seventh day Tuesday, "Half-Blood Prince" will be in the $180 million range on its way to becoming the franchise's first $300 million domestic smash since the original movie, 2001's "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," said Dan Fellman, Warner head of distribution.

The audience was a bit older for the new movie, with more elder teens turning out to see Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and pals Hermione (Emma Watson) and Ron (Rupert Grint) as they deal with adult concerns such as heartache, jealousy and romantic triangles.

Fans have grown up with the franchise, from young readers whose parents had to debate whether the early movies might be too intense for their children to see.

"When the first movie came out, they fought to go. The mother was like, well, should I take them, should I not take them?" Fellman said. "Now they're driving themselves to this and going to the midnight show."

Sacha Baron Cohen's mock documentary "Bruno" plummeted after its No. 1 debut the previous weekend. The Universal Pictures comedy fell to fourth-place with $8.4 million, down a whopping 73 percent from its $30.6 million opening.

Crowd-pleasing movies typically dip 50 percent or less in their second weekends. But "Bruno" has had mixed reviews and failed to earn the audience buzz that made a $128 million hit out of Baron Cohen's 2006 comedy "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan."

After 10 days in release, "Bruno" has climbed to $49.6 million and will finish far below $100 million domestically.

While "Harry Potter" had a healthy start, the overall box office plunged compared to the same weekend last year, when the Batman juggernaut "The Dark Knight" had its record opening weekend of $158.4 million.

The top-12 movies this weekend combined for less than that, taking in $153.9 million, down 39 percent from a year ago.

"We got kind of slaughtered even with the 'Potter' movie, but we knew that was going to happen," said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com. "When one movie last year makes more than what the top-12 movies did this year, you're going to have a down weekend."

Fox Searchlight's romantic comedy "500 Days of Summer," starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel, got off to a big start in limited release with $837,588 in 27 theaters. That amounted to an average of $31,022 a cinema, compared to $18,376 in 4,325 theaters for "Half-Blood Prince."

A hit with critics, "500 Days of Summer" expands gradually into wide release over the next few weekends.

Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," $79.5 million.
2. "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs," $17.7 million.
3. "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," $13.8 million.
4. "Bruno," $8.4 million.
5. "The Hangover," $8.32 million.
6. "The Proposal," $8.3 million.
7. "Public Enemies," $7.6 million.
8. "Up," $3.1 million.
9. "My Sister's Keeper," $2.8 million.
10. "I Love You, Beth Cooper," $2.7 million.

Crowe considering new Master & Commander movie

LONDON – Russell Crowe is in the early stages of negotiations to reprise the role of Jack Aubrey as a British sea captain in a new movie version from the Master & Commander series of novels.

Crowe told The Associated Press on Friday that a script based mostly on the eleventh novel of Patrick O'Brian's 20-novel series, The Reverse of the Medal, had been written, but that discussions were at a very early stage.

"There's still a long way to go," the New Zealand-born actor told AP at a cricket match between England and Australia in London. He said talks had been taking place with the owner of the rights to the novels.

The 44-year-old Crowe, who won a best actor Oscar for his starring role in Gladiator, is a keen cricket fan. His two cousins, Jeff and Martin, are former captains of the New Zealand national team. Jeff is now a senior cricket official and is in charge of the team of officials at the England-Australia match.

The AubreyMaturin novels consists of 20 books and one partly written before his death in 2000 by O'Brian, all set during the Napoleonic Wars.

The 2003 movie Master and Commander took material from several of the novels. The Reverse of the Medal, published in 1986, sees Aubrey in the Caribbean in his ship HMS Surprise, where he meets his illegitimate son Samuel Panda, a Catholic priest born from an illicit liaison.

Crowe gave no indication of when filming could start but said it was one of a number of projects he is considering.

NASA restores moon landing video

With the help of Hollywood, those historic, grainy images of the first men on the moon never looked better.

NASA unveiled refurbished video Thursday of the July 20, 1969, moonwalk restored by the same company that sharpened the movie Casablanca.

NASA lost its original moon landing videotapes and after a three-year search, officials have concluded they were probably erased. That original live video was ghostlike and grainy.

NASA and a Hollywood film restoration company took television video copies of what Apollo 11 beamed to Earth 40 years ago and made the pictures look sharper.

NASA emphasized the video isn't "new" — just better quality.

"There's nothing being created; there's nothing being manufactured," said NASA senior engineer Dick Nafzger, who's in charge of the project.

But some details seem new because of the sharpness.

Original tapes likely erased

Originally, Armstrong's face visor was too fuzzy to be seen clearly. The refurbished video shows his visor and a reflection in it.

The $230,000 US refurbishing effort is only three weeks into a months-long project, and only 40 per cent of the work has been done.

But it does show improvements in four snippets: Armstrong walking down the ladder, which includes the face visor image; Buzz Aldrin walking down the ladder; the two astronauts reading a plaque they left on the moon; and the planting of the flag on the moon.

The original videos beamed to Earth were stored on giant reels of tapes that each contained 15 minutes of video, along with 13 other channels of live data from the moon. In the 1970s and 1980s, NASA had a shortage of the tapes and erased about 200,000 tapes and reused them. That's apparently what happened to the famous moon landing footage.

Nafzger praised the restored work for its crispness. The restoration company, Lowry Digital of Burbank, Calif., also refurbished Star Wars and James Bond films, along with Casablanca.

The company noted that the latter film had a pixel count 10 times higher than the moon video, meaning the moon footage was fuzzier than that vintage movie and more of a challenge.

Lowry president Mike Inchalik said of all the video the company has dealt with, "This is by far and away the lowest quality."

Recession hits Toronto film festival, filmmakers

TORONTO (Reuters) – The effects of the global recession are forcing big cutbacks in the world of film and could also hamper independent filmmaking for years to come, organizers of the Toronto International Film Festival said on Tuesday.

Festival chief executive Piers Handling said sponsorship funding is down from previous years, meaning cuts to travel and entertainment budgets.

"We've actually had to make some very, very hard decisions, some very difficult decisions," Handling told a news conference announcing some of the top movies.

"We literally looked at every single part of the organization, every facet, and we tried to squeeze every single piece of money."

But Handling said the stars will still show up at the premiere-studded 10-day event, which starts on September 10, and the internal cuts would likely not be obvious to audiences.

He hoped the same number of international stars and filmmakers would attend.

Last year, more than 500 stars and special guests attended the festival, which showed over 300 features and short films.

The organizers broke with tradition this year, picking a British film to open the festival, rather than a Canadian selection.

"Creation" tells of Charles Darwin and his struggle to bring the idea of evolution into a world still rooted in faith. It stars real-life husband and wife Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly as Mr. and Mrs. Darwin, and pits them on opposite sides of the divide between reason and faith.

"We fell in love with this movie and this is the one we felt really sets the tone for the conversations we hope will happen around the films at the festival," said festival co-director Cameron Bailey.

The films showing this year were in production before the global recession hit and the organizers had plenty to choose from. But Handling said that is about to change as funding dries up for mid-sized productions in the $5 million to $30 million range.

"It's those smaller, more personal works by filmmakers in mid-career ... established film makers. They are having a tough time right now funding their projects for next year," he told Reuters.

The recession is not hitting blockbuster movies and low budget works as hard, he said.

Natalie Portman Abandons Art House, Thunders to Thor

Los Angeles (E! Online) – Natalie Portman is nothing if not an equal-opportunity fanboy pleaser.

Both comic-book nerds and summer blockbuster connoisseurs have reason to rejoice today, as the actress—not one typically associated with the grand tradition of green screen, save for her reign as Queen Amidala in Star Wars and surprisingly flattering foray into head shaving in V for Vendetta—has formally signed on to star as the requisite damsel-in-distress love interest in Marvel Studios' upcoming Thor.

Portman will play Jane Foster, the nurse who develops romantic feelings for the Norse god of thunder's earthbound alter ego, Donald Blake. Aussie star Chris Hemsworth, who recently honed his action-star skills as James Kirk the elder, will play the titular superhero.

The film is due out May 20, 2011.

Mel Gibson To Star In Jodie Foster’s ‘Beaver’

Fifteen years ago Mel Gibson and Jodie Foster starred together in Maverick. Now the pair are set to reunite in The Beaver.

It is believed that Foster will also direct the quirky drama that is expected to shoot this Fall in New York.

According to Variety:

“Gibson will play a depressed man who finds solace in wearing a beaver hand-puppet. On top of helming, Foster will play the role of the man’s wife.

The budget for the film is $18-19 million, which is pretty economical when you consider that Gibson and Foster could conceivably each ask for that kind of salary when making a studio blockbuster. Financing for the film isn’t in place yet; it could be made independently or shopped to a studio now that the two A-listers are attached.

The much-lauded script by Kyle Killen has been included on “the black list” (a list of Hollywood’s best unproduced screenplays) and has made rounds around town with Steve Carrell and Jim Carrey both circling the project at various stages.

The Beaver sounds like an odd film (the script has been compared to Charlie Kaufman’s work), but Gibson has enough screen presence and quirky personality to make the role work, while Foster should have the required directing chops for it, having directed Little Man Tate and Home for the Holidays.

Gibson will next be seen in Edge of Darkness, his first film as an actor since 2002’s Signs.

The Beaver is tenatively slated for release in 2011.

'Bruno' sashays to box-office fame with $30.4M

LOS ANGELES – Gay Austrian fashion devotee Bruno has landed the No. 1 spot at the weekend box office, though it's uncertain how much staying power he has.

Sacha Baron Cohen's "Bruno" started big on opening day Friday but had a huge drop the rest of the weekend, with the Universal Pictures mock documentary finishing with $30.4 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The movie took in nearly half of its weekend total — $14.4 million — on Friday, then tumbled with just $8.8 million Saturday and an estimated $7.2 million Sunday.

Revenues for hit movies typically go up on Saturday, so the nosedive for "Bruno" could be a sign that it lacks the shelf life that made Baron Cohen's "Borat" a $100 million smash.

"It is unusual for a film to drop on Saturday. Normally, you expect the film at least to be even on Saturday or above compared to Friday, because Saturday is the biggest moviegoing day of the weekend," said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com. "It's going to be interesting to see how it does over the long run."

"Bruno," which features Baron Cohen as a wannabe going to extremes to achieve celebrity, finished ahead of 20th Century Fox's "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs," which took second with $28.5 million. The "Ice Age" sequel raised its domestic total to $120.6 million.

Finishing third after two weekends in the No. 1 spot was Paramount's sci-fi blockbuster "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" with $24.2 million, raising its domestic haul to $339.2 million. The sequel passed the $319 million total of 2007's "Transformers."

The weekend's other new wide release, 20th Century Fox's romantic comedy "I Love You, Beth Cooper" opened weakly with $5 million, finishing at No. 7. The movie centers on a high school valedictorian who uses his graduation speech to declare his love for a bombshell classmate (Hayden Panettiere).

"Bruno" outpaced the $26.5 million opening weekend for Baron Cohen's surprise 2006 hit "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan." "Borat" started with $9.2 million on opening day Friday then climbed to $10.1 million Saturday, a sign that fans were talking it up to friends.

That good word-of-mouth propelled "Borat" to a long run at theaters, the movie climbing to a $128.5 million domestic total.

"Borat" also scored its big opening weekend in far fewer theaters. "Bruno debuted in 2,756 cinemas, more than three times the number for "Borat."

Nikki Rocco, head of distribution at Universal, said comedies such as "Bruno" typically drop off over opening weekend this time of year, while "Borat" opened in November, when audiences are less fickle than summer crowds.

The studio will have to wait until next weekend for a sense of how well "Bruno" can hold up for the long haul.

"I don't know. That crystal ball just isn't on my desk this morning," said Nikki Rocco, head of distribution for Universal. "Zany comedies tend to be like that, so I'm hoping that in the scheme of things, it just plays out the way zany comedies will play out."

Reviews on "Bruno" were not as strong as those for "Borat," which critics generally liked. There also had been questions about whether Baron Cohen's flamboyantly gay persona might prove off-putting to audiences.

"Bruno" did most of its business in cities on the East and West coasts, while revenues were "softer, much softer in middle America," Rocco said.

Even if revenues continue to plunge, "Bruno" is well on its way to turning a profit for Universal, which paid $42.5 million for rights to distribute it domestically and in eight other territories. "Bruno" took in $25 million in overseas markets so far, including $20 million in those Universal acquired, among them Great Britain, Australia and Germany.

Modi Wiczyk — co-chief executive officer of Media Rights Capital, which financed "Bruno" — said the movie exceeded the company's expectations. Wiczyk said he had anticipated "Bruno" would finish in the range of $25 million domestically for the weekend.

"We don't have talking robots or karate in our film," Wiczyk said. "For that increasingly small subset of films that don't have robots, we did terrific."

Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "Bruno," $30.4 million.
2. "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs," $28.5 million.
3. "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," $24.2 million.
4. "Public Enemies," $14.1 million.
5. "The Proposal," $10.5 million.
6. "The Hangover," $9.9 million.
7. "I Love You, Beth Cooper," $5 million.
8. "Up," $4.7 million.
9. "My Sister's Keeper," $4.2 million.
10. "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3," $1.6 million.

Jackson skit officially cut from 'Bruno'

The filmmakers behind Sacha Baron Cohen's new comedy Bruno have officially axed scenes featuring La Toya Jackson from the movie's final cut in the wake of her brother Michael Jackson's death.

Jackson made an accidental cameo in the film after British funnyman Cohen convinced her he was an Austrian fashion journalist, called Bruno, for a skit in his new film.

During La Toya's appearance, the comedian jokes about the Thriller hitmaker and attempts to steal his contact details from his sister's cell phone.

Producers omitted the scene when it was screened at the Los Angeles premiere on June 25 - the same day the King of Pop died.

And they've decided to leave it out altogether, fearing its inclusion would be in bad taste.

A spokeswoman for the Bruno movie says, "Out of respect for the Jackson family, the filmmakers have decided to remove a small scene involving La Toya Jackson."

Meanwhile, a similar move has been made by producers of new Bollywood movie Short Kut: The Con Is On - they've removed a scene ridiculing Jackson's dance style after receiving complaints about the sketch.

Lohan turned down 'Hangover' role

Lindsay Lohan is reportedly reeling after turning down a starring role in hit comedy The Hangover - because she believed the script had "no potential".

The star has struggled to land work in Hollywood since her days as Disney's golden girl following her wild partying ways and arrests for drinking under the influence.

She was also reprimanded by movie bosses on 2006's Georgia Rule for "irresponsible and unprofessional" behaviour as her personal life became front page tabloid news.

But director Todd Phillips was reportedly set to take a risk on Lohan by asking her to play stripper Jade in his bachelor party movie.

However, Lohan wasn't impressed by the film's screenplay, and rejected the part, which eventually went to Heather Graham, according to Us Weekly.

A source tells the magazine that the star's agent "tried hard to get Phillips to consider her," but "Lindsay said she didn't like the script".

And it seems Lohan made a huge mistake - the movie has been a surprise smash hit at the box office, pulling in over $265 million worldwide.

"Ice Age" sequel heats up worldwide box office

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – In a rare tie, reigning champ "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" and the new cartoon "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" shared the top spot at the holiday weekend box office in North America.

According to studio estimates issued Sunday, the movies each sold about $42.5 million worth of tickets during the three-day U.S. Independence Day holiday weekend.

But "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs," the third movie in 20th Century Fox's family franchise, was clearly the top pick on a worldwide basis. It earned $148 million from 101 foreign markets, which the News Corp-owned studio said was the sixth-biggest opening overall.

Including its North American tally of $67.5 million since opening Wednesday, the global total stands at $215.5 million.

Paramount's "Transformers" sequel earned $55 million from 62 markets during its second weekend, taking the foreign haul to $298 million. The global total stands at $591 million, taking the robot sequel past Columbia Pictures' "Angels & Demons" ($474 million) to become the biggest film of the year.

In North America, the lucrative summer season is 5 percent ahead of last year's record-setting haul in terms of ticket sales with $2.3 billion banked so far, said industry analyst Paul Dergarabedian, president of Hollywood.com Box-Office. But he doubted the number of tickets sold (currently 319 million) would exceed the modern record of 653 million set in 2002.

He said it appeared to be unprecedented for two films to be tied, but noted that an eventual victor will be determined on Monday, when the studios release their final data.

Johnny Depp's gangster saga "Public Enemies" got off to a strong start at No. 3 with $26.2 million, a rare adult-oriented drama in a summer field dominated by effects-driven action movies. As with "Ice Age," Universal Pictures' $100 million release opened Wednesday to get a foothold ahead of holiday distractions. Its five-day total stands at $41 million.

Both Fox and Universal declared themselves thrilled with the initial results.

Comparisons with the first two "Ice Age" movies, released in 2002 and 2006, are difficult because they came out on Fridays in March. They eventually earned $176 million and $195 million domestically, respectively. The new film cost $90 million to make, said Fox.

Some question marks did surround director Michael Mann's "Public Enemies," in which Depp plays Depression-era bank robber John Dillinger, because moviegoers have opted for fantasy over serious dramas in recent months.

"Good news for people who like films about grown-ups. The genre is not dead," said Adam Fogelson, Universal's president of marketing and distribution.

"Transformers" has earned $293 million after 12 days of release in the United States and Canada, about $100 million more than its 2007 predecessor had earned in the same period. The sequel also surpassed Paramount's "Star Trek" ($250 million) to become the biggest movie of the year in the markets.

TWENTY YEARS AFTER 'DO THE RIGHT THING,' LEE AND HIS CO-STARS REFLECT ON HOW THEIR MOVIE MADE HISTORY

On Christmas Day, 1987, 30-year-old Brooklyn-based filmmaker Spike Lee started working on the script for his third feature, "Do the Right Thing." The film would examine the racial tension that enveloped New York City at the time, most of which was due to an incident that occurred in the predominantly white section of Howard Beach in Queens a year earlier: A group of white youths attacked three black men outside a pizza place for simply being the wrong color in the wrong neighborhood. One of the black men, 23-year-old Michael Griffith, was chased onto the Belt Parkway, where he was struck by a car and killed.

The movie wound up detailing how a single block in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant -- one with the white-owned Sal's Famous Pizzeria at its heart -- erupted in racial violence on the hottest day of the year. It featured a striking visual style, an idiosyncratic blend of comedy and tragedy, and an extraordinary ensemble cast including Danny Aiello as Sal, the pizzeria owner; Lee as Mookie, an unambitious deliveryman; and Ossie Davis as Da Mayor, the local drunk. It also instantly established Lee as a major talent who couldn't be ignored or dismissed.

When the film was released, audiences and critics were divided. Vincent Canby hailed it in the New York Times as "a remarkable piece of work," and Roger Ebert, in his four-star Chicago Sun-Times review, added that it came "closer to reflecting the current state of race relations in America than any other movie of our time."

On the flip side, Lee was criticized for presenting a crack-ravaged neighborhood as drug-free, and for being recklessly incendiary. In his review in the June 26, 1989, issue of New York magazine, David Denby said, "The end of this movie is a shambles, and if some audiences go wild, [Lee's] partly responsible." Jack Kroll in Newsweek called the film "dynamite under every seat." The critics' fears underestimated the audience -- no riots resulted.

The movie received two Oscar nominations (Supporting Actor for Danny Aiello and Original Screenplay), but no awards. The motion picture academy's political timidity was reflected in its choice for best picture, "Driving Miss Daisy," which featured Morgan Freeman as a Southern chauffeur. Lee, however, would have the last laugh. When the American Film Institute unveiled its list of the 100 greatest American movies of all time, neither "Driving Miss Daisy" nor "sex, lies, and videotape," which beat out Lee's film for the Palme d'Or at Cannes, were anywhere to be found. "Do the Right Thing" came in at No. 96.

On June 30, the film celebrates its 20th anniversary. To mark the occasion, Universal is releasing a two-disc special-edition DVD with hours of extras, including a never-before-seen documentary and new commentary from Lee. Since making "Do the Right Thing," Lee has averaged nearly a film a year -- his latest is the basketball documentary "Kobe: Doin' Work." But "Do the Right Thing" continues to be his most celebrated movie.

In this oral history, key members of the cast and crew, including Lee, who sat down for two lengthy interviews, were eager to discuss the controversy that accompanied the film, the tensions on the set and how the movie played a role in bringing our president and first lady together.

'It's gonna be a scorcher'

Spike Lee [Mookie], actor, writer, producer and director: The Howard Beach incident had happened, and I wanted to explore the love-hate relationship between African-Americans and Italian-Americans. I also wanted to do something that took place on the hottest day of the summer.

Ernest Dickerson, cinematographer: Spike and I were sitting together on a plane to Los Angeles and he was writing a script on a legal pad. The title at that point was "Heat Wave." He then asked me, "How do you portray heat on film? How do you get the audience to really feel it?" I remember we talked about having car radiators boiling over, hot asphalt and steam.

Lee: Paramount was on track to make the film. Then, at the last moment, out of nowhere, they didn't like the ending. They wanted Mookie and Sal to hug, all happy and upbeat. I wasn't doing that, so I called up Universal executive Sam Kitt, who I had known from my independent days, and he gave it to Tom Pollock.

Tom Pollock, then-chairman, Universal Pictures: I liked "She's Gotta Have It." I thought, "Wow, this guy's really talented." So when Spike submitted the script for "Do the Right Thing," I felt it had the potential of being great. I also had never before seen a movie that dealt explicitly with race and what was then called a race riot from a black director.

Lee: Tom said, "Make the film the way you want to, but you're not getting a penny more than $6.5 million."

'My people, my people'

Danny Aiello [Sal]: I was in New York at a party for Madonna and as I was leaving, this little guy runs after me and says, "I have this script." So we started a dialogue, which led to our meeting in restaurants, going to a Yankees game, going to a Knicks game. We became close.

Lee: I was in a Los Angeles club called Funky Reggae at a party for my birthday. This young lady was dancing on top of a speaker, and since it was my party, if she fell and broke her neck, I was going to get sued. So I told her to please get off, and she jumped down and cursed me out. I had never heard a voice like that before.

Rosie Perez [Tina]: That's fiction. There was a bunch of African-American girls on the stage bending over. It was a contest to see who had the biggest butt. I jumped on the speaker and started screaming for the women not to degrade themselves. I wasn't dancing.

Lee: I love Rosie, but she was not on top of the speaker saying, "Women, we must rise against this!" She was the choreographer for "In Living Color," and all the Fly Girls did were shake their asses. That story is bull.

Giancarlo Esposito [Buggin Out]: I'm half-Italian and half-black, so I understood both sides on a deep level. And a hard part of growing up for me was that I didn't want to take sides. But for this character, I had to.

Roger Guenveur Smith [Smiley]: All of my work throughout the film was improvised. There's no Smiley in any script.

Lee: Matt Dillon turned down the role of Pino. His agent told him not to do it. Then I saw the film "Five Corners," in which John Turturro beats a penguin to death and throws his mother out a window. I was like, "That's the guy I want to play Pino."

John Turturro [Pino]: When I read the script, I thought, "This is what's happening." I grew up in Hollis, Queens, which was basically more black than white. So I knew both sides.

'Bed-Stuy -- do or die'

Turturro: The neighborhood had a lot of energy, but it was dangerous to drive through at night. You definitely didn't want to have a flat tire at 4 o'clock in the morning. There were a lot of hungry dogs out on some streets.

Lee: There were crack houses in the neighborhood. The NYPD was not thought of that highly in most black communities, especially Bed-Stuy, so we got the Fruit of Islam [Minister Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam's security force] to watch the set.

Dickerson: It became the safest block in Brooklyn!

Richard Edson [Vito]: I tried to get through to the Fruit of Islam guys. It was kind of a challenge because I knew they had very strong racial feelings. So every morning, I would say hello and try to engage them. I don't think they ever even acknowledged me. I finally gave up after about four weeks.

Esposito: Those guys were hard-core. They just didn't like or hang out with white people.

Turturro: They talked to me all the time. They called me Brother John. I guess Richard is not as black as I am.

'Burn it down, burn it down!'

Aiello: It was sad to watch Sal's burn down. I thought it should have been preserved, almost like a landmark or tourist attraction.

Lee: I wanted to use three Frank Sinatra songs in "Jungle Fever," so I approached Tina Sinatra, who handled that stuff. She said, "Spike, I don't know. My father wasn't happy about his picture being burned in the pizzeria." It's funny -- Pacino never said anything, De Niro never said anything. I had to do some serious smoothing over with Frank.

'Always do the right thing'

Lee: To this day, no person of color has ever asked me why Mookie threw the can through the window. The only people who ask are white.

Edson: I don't think Mookie did the right thing. He did what he felt he had to at that moment. But then did Sal do the right thing by smashing the radio? I think there were a lot of wrong things.

Bill Nunn [Radio Raheem]: I didn't really understand why Mookie did what he did. Sal was doing the neighborhood kids a favor by staying open late. He was trying to do a good thing.

Esposito: Mookie did the right thing for Mookie. But I think he definitely made a mistake.

'Together, are we gonna live?'

Barry Alexander Brown, editor: I showed a filmmaker friend of mine the movie. And afterward, he said, "You and Spike are irresponsible. There are going to be riots and people are going to get killed."

Lee: People actually thought that young black Americans would riot across the country because of this film. That's how crazy it was. It was the furthest thing from my mind because I had faith in my people. But I still feel that some white moviegoers were scared to see it in theaters because they might be filled with crazy black people.

Edson: It incited discussion, that's what it incited.

Perez: The Latin community just blew a gasket over my depiction. They were bothered that I was a single mom, that I was -- whether they would admit it or not -- impregnated by a black man, that my accent was heavy. I would say, "If you don't believe that there is truth to my character, walk into a welfare office." And that pissed them off even more.

Lee: It disturbed me how some critics would talk about the loss of property -- which is really saying white-owned property -- but not the loss of life. "Do the Right Thing" was a litmus test. If in a review, a critic discussed how Sal's Famous was burned down but didn't mention anything about Radio Raheem getting killed, it seemed obvious that he or she valued white-owned property more than the life of this young black hoodlum. To me, loss of life outweighs loss of property. You can rebuild a building. I mean, they're rebuilding New Orleans now but the people that died there are never coming back.

Aiello: Spike brought attention to the film and that is, of course, good. But he was quite controversial in his press conferences, talking about Malcolm X and so forth. If it wasn't for that, I feel the film had a chance to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Dickerson: ["Driving Miss Daisy" winning Best Picture] still hurts. It definitely does.

Lee: I let it go. But let's be honest. If you look at the Academy voters 20 years ago, which movie are they going to like? One with characters named Buggin Out and Radio Raheem? Or one with a subservient, obedient, yassah-massa character?

Aiello: I love Denzel [Washington, who beat Aiello in the supporting actor category, for "Glory"], but that film was a joke. I look at it today and laugh.

'We had a great, great day'

Turturro: They don't make movies like that anymore, man.

Aiello: We made something special.

Lee: There was a benefit for Barack Obama on Martha's Vineyard when he was running for the Senate. I didn't really know who he was. He came over and said, "You're responsible for me and my wife getting together." Then he told me how they saw "Do the Right Thing" on their first date, and then went to Baskin-Robbins for ice cream and talked about it.

Smith: We're actually responsible for a whole new era in American political achievement.

Lee: I think he is a very smart man, because if he had taken Michelle to see "Driving Miss Daisy," things would have turned out a whole lot different.

'Transformers' takes to sky with $112M weekend

LOS ANGELES – Alien robots have transformed into box-office superstars with $200 million in domestic ticket sales in just five days.

"Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" took in $112 million in the sequel's first weekend and $201.2 million since opening Wednesday, according to Sunday estimates from Paramount, which is distributing the DreamWorks movie.

It was well on the way to becoming the year's top-grossing movie.

That was a few million dollars higher than other studios were expecting for the movie, and the figures could change a bit when final numbers are released Monday.

Still, it was a colossal start for the "Transformers" sequel, whose opening five days amounted to nearly two-thirds of the $319 million domestic total the franchise's first movie did over its entire run in 2007.

Now playing in almost every other country except India, the movie added $185.8 million overseas, for a worldwide total of $387 million. That's well over half the $708 million global total for the first "Transformers."

That first movie began with a $70.5 million weekend. Based on how well the sequel has done, "Revenge of the Fallen" could join the handful of movies that have topped the $400 million mark domestically.

"I'd say given the momentum it has, it's got a real shot," said Rob Moore, vice chairman at Paramount.

For the first five days, the "Transformers" sequel was second only to last summer's "The Dark Knight" with $203.8 million.

This was the biggest opening weekend of this year, surpassing the $85.1 million debut of "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" in early May.

The sequel began with $60.6 million on its opening day Wednesday. That also was second only to "The Dark Knight," which had the biggest box-office day ever with $67.2 million on opening day.

With $14.4 million at 169 IMAX theaters, "Transformers" set a record for a five-day opening in the giant-screen format, nearly doubling the previous best of $7.3 million set by "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix."

"Transformers" overcame harsh reviews from critics, who called it a visual-effects extravaganza without much story or human heart. Director Michael Bay has a history of bad reviews and big box office with "Armageddon" and "Pearl Harbor."

"Michael Bay knows how to build the perfect summer box-office beast," said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com. "He squarely aimed right at the demographic, right at what summer movie-goers want, and he put it on the screen. And audiences can't seem to get enough of it."

The sequel broadened the franchise's fan base. Females accounted for just 40 percent of the audience for the first "Transformers" but 46 percent for the sequel, Moore said.

Much of that was due to the on-screen romance for the characters played by Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox, who were relative unknowns when the first movie came out.

With a $13 million weekend, Disney and Pixar Animation's "Up" became the year's top-grossing film domestically at $250.2 million. It surpassed Paramount's "Star Trek," which did $3.6 million over the weekend to hit a $246.2 million total.
The reign of "Up" at the top of the year's box-office chart will be short-lived, though. The "Transformers" sequel should shoot past it in a matter of days.

The Warner Bros. melodrama "My Sister's Keeper," with Cameron Diaz and Abigail Breslin, had a so-so debut, coming in at No. 5 with $12 million. Breslin plays a daughter conceived as a donor for her older sister, who has leukemia.

Summit Entertainment's Iraq War drama "The Hurt Locker" had a strong start in limited release, taking in $144,000 in four theaters for an average of $36,000 a cinema. That compares to an average of $26,453 in 4,234 theaters for "Transformers."

Starring Jeremy Renner and Anthony Mackie as members of a U.S. bomb squad in Baghdad, "The Hurt Locker" has a chance to become the first real commercial success among recent war-on-terror movies, which audiences generally have avoided.

"The Hurt Locker" has earned stellar reviews since debuting at film festivals last year. It rolls out to more theaters on July 10.

Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," $112 million.
2. "The Proposal," $18.5 million.
3. "The Hangover," $17.2 million.
4. "Up," $13 million.
5. "My Sister's Keeper," $12 million.
6. "Year One," $5.8 million.
7. "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3," $5.4 million.
8. "Star Trek," $3.6 million.
9. "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian," $3.5 million.
10. "Away We Go," $1.7 million.

Neve Campbell rejects 'Scream 4'

Scream creator Kevin Williamson has been forced to re-write his screenplay for a fourth SCREAM movie, after the franchise's star Neve Campgell refused to reprise her role.

Director Wes Craven recently revealed Courteney Cox and her husband David Arquette were returning for a fourth instalment of the movie series, to shoot a screenplay written by Williamson.

The filmmakers hoped Campbell would reprise her role as Sidney Prescott for a fourth time - but the actress has turned down the offer.

Now Williamson has to go back to the drawing board.

He tells NYPost.com's PopWrap blog, "I've had numerous conversations with Neve. She's a friend. Nicest girl on the planet. It just ain't workin' out and it sucks for me. It was no cameo. I'd never play Sid out that way. And I ain't got no Sid-less scenario. So, I don't know yet what to do."

'Moneyball' can't find a place in Hollywood's lineup

At a time when expensive adult dramas keep striking out at the box office, it appears not even Brad Pitt and director Steven Soderbergh can entice a Hollywood studio to spend about $57 million on a baseball movie.

Pitt and Soderbergh, who were given a short window to set up their adaptation of the 2003 bestselling book "Moneyball" at a rival studio after Sony Pictures unexpectedly killed the project just three days before production was to begin today, have been turned down by Warner Bros. and Paramount Pictures, which shared concerns about the film's high budget and limited commercial appeal.

Sony movie chief Amy Pascal had given them the weekend to try and set the movie up at the two studios where they have the closest ties. Pitt's production company is based at Paramount, and the actor and Soderbergh have made the "Ocean's 11" movies at Warner.

On Friday, as first reported by industry trade paper Daily Variety, Sony's Pascal pulled the plug on the production after Soderbergh turned in a rewrite of the script by Steve Zaillian that she found unacceptable, according to people close to the situation. A person informed about the matter said that Pascal had liked Zaillian's adaptation of Michael Lewis' book about Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane, but when Soderbergh's rewrite came in last Wednesday, she was surprised that there were "substantial changes."

Pascal met with Soderbergh in her Culver City office to see if he was willing to revise his take, but the two couldn't agree on a vision for the film. They also disagreed over Soderbergh's plan to shoot the film in a more improvisational documentary style, the person said.

She then made a last-minute decision to scrap the production, shocking those who were about to start shooting, said one individual involved in the project.

By Monday, Paramount and Warner Bros. had already decided to pass. Similarly budgeted dramas aimed at adults, such as "State of Play," "Duplicity" and "The International," have all fared poorly at the box office this year. "Moneyball" has the added burden of being about baseball, which would not only limit its appeal among women, but also overseas audiences. International receipts from theatrical, television and DVD sales typically account for more than half of a film's total sales.

As studios continue to tighten their belts, those added up to more than enough reasons to flash a red light.

"In light of the economic climate, Warner and Paramount said they weren't going to make the movie," said Pitt's manager, Cynthia Pett-Dante. She added that Pitt "totally supports Steven all the way" in his vision for the movie.

Soderbergh's manager, Michael Sugar, declined comment on behalf of the director.

One executive who had considered bringing the project to his studio said the movie would have had to gross more than $100 million at the domestic box office just to break even.

Sony is still weighing its options, which now appear limited to either convincing Soderbergh to alter his vision, proceeding with another director, or putting the entire project on the disabled list.

Either way, the studio will be on the hook for the nearly $10 million it has already spent on preproduction and screenplay development.

"Transformers" director rips studio in leaked memo

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Powerhouse Hollywood director Michael Bay, who returns to theaters worldwide on Wednesday with a "Transformers" sequel, has blasted the marketing efforts of the film's studio, Paramount Pictures.

In a memo sent last month to top brass at the Viacom Inc unit, and published on Sunday by celebrity gossip Web site TMZ.com, Bay complained there was no buzz surrounding "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen."

"Right now we are not an event. We are just a sequel, which is very different. There is no anticipation. Remember back to 'Spider-Man 2' -- it was everywhere," he wrote.

Bay added that advance word on the $200 million robot extravaganza in publications like Entertainment Weekly, the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times had been an "abject failure," and he described as "lame" a plan for him to preview a small clip at the MTV Movie Awards this month.

"I cannot figure if this is a cash issue with your company? Is there some clever idea why we are not spending? I'm not sure," he said. "I'm sure though the movie will do fine, but not to your internal expectations because right now we are fooling ourselves by being cocky."

But in a second e-mail, sent June 6, Bay compared Paramount to a family and thanked the executives for "busting your butts and bringing your 'A game' for the release of Transformers."

A Paramount spokeswoman declined to comment other than to point out that the latter e-mail "clearly speaks to a differing stance than the former." Two of the top production executives on Bay's e-mail list were coincidentally ousted on Friday amid a failure to speed up production of in-house movies.

"Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" is the follow-up to "Transformers," which earned $708 million worldwide in 2007. Bay, 44, recently told Forbes magazine that he earned $80 million from that film.

Early reviews of the latest film have been unfavorable. In Britain, where the film debuted at No. 1 this weekend, The Guardian newspaper said the 150-minute movie was "like watching paint dry while getting hit over the head with a frying pan."

Bullock's 'Proposal' woos date crowds with $34.1M

LOS ANGELES – Movie audiences accepted a proposal from Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds, who scored the summer's first big romantic comedy hit.

Bullock and Reynolds' "The Proposal" took in $34.1 million to open as the weekend's No. 1 movie, according to studio estimates Sunday. The Disney flick delivered the biggest opening ever for Bullock, nearly double that of her previous best of $17.6 million for the 2007 paranormal thriller "Premonition."

Bullock stars as a ruthless publishing executive who coerces her put-upon assistant (Reynolds) into a fake marriage so she can avoid deportation back to her native Canada.

"I think the market was ready for a really fun, broad romantic comedy," said Mark Zoradi, president of Disney's motion-picture group.

"The Proposal" took over the top spot from the Warner Bros. bachelor-party comedy "The Hangover," which slipped to second place with $26.9 million. A surprise smash hit, "The Hangover" raised its total to $152.9 million.

Disney's animated adventure "Up" was No. 3 with $21.3 million, lifting its total to $224.1 million and following Paramount's "Star Trek" as the second movie of 2009 to cross the $200 million mark.

Debuting in the fourth spot with $20.2 million was Sony's caveman comedy "Year One," starring Jack Black and Michael Cera as Neanderthals on a road trip after they are banished from their village.

It was summer's second big-name comedy set in prehistoric times to take a back seat to a wedding-themed romp. Will Ferrell's "Land of the Lost" opened at No. 3 in early June, the same weekend "The Hangover" pulled off a No. 1 upset.

"June is officially comedy month at the theaters. Comedy is really ruling things," said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com.

Woody Allen's latest comedy, "Whatever Works," had a strong start in limited release, hauling in $280,720 in nine theaters for an average of $31,191 a cinema. That compares to an average of $11,163 in 3,056 theaters for "The Proposal" and $6,684 in 3,022 cinemas for "Year One."

Released by Sony Pictures Classics, "Whatever Works" stars Larry David as a misanthropic New Yorker who forges unlikely relationships with a conservative Southern family (Evan Rachel Wood, Patricia Clarkson and Ed Begley Jr.).

While some of June's comedies performed well, the month generally has been a downer for Hollywood, which tore through the first part of the year with a record box-office pace.

Revenues this weekend were up slightly compared to the same period a year ago, but that followed three straight weekends of declining box-office receipts.

For the year, revenue remains up a solid 10 percent, though summer ticket sales are dead even with last year's, Dergarabedian said.

That should turn around this coming weekend with the debut of the blockbuster sequel "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," which industry analysts say could deliver the year's first $100 million opening.

Paramount's "Transformers" sequel got off to a big start in Great Britain and Japan, where it opened this weekend in advance of its U.S. debut Wednesday, pulling in $14.1 million in Britain and $5.8 million in Japan.

Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "The Proposal," $34.1 million.
2. "The Hangover," $26.9 million.
3. "Up," $21.3 million.
3. "Year One," $20.2 million.
5. "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3," $11.3 million.
6. "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian," $7.3 million.
7. "Star Trek," $4.7 million.
8. "Land of the Lost," $4 million.
9. "Imagine That," $3.1 million.
10. "Terminator Salvation," $3.07 million.

Cruise, Abrams prepare for new 'Mission'

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Tom Cruise and J.J. Abrams have chosen to accept another impossible mission.

Cruise and Abrams have signed on to produce a fourth installment of the Mission: Impossible franchise for Paramount. Abrams directed Cruise's last outing as covert operative Ethan Hunt in 2006's Mission: Impossible III.

While they have set 2011 as a target release date, it's still unknown if Cruise will star again or if Abrams will return to direct. According to studio spokeswoman Katie Martin Kelley, Cruise and Abrams are only attached as producers at this point.

It would mark a reunion for Cruise and Paramount after the studio cut the actor loose from a long-term development deal in 2006.

Harold Ramis Doesn't Think Ivan Reitman Wants To Make Ghostbusters 3

Harold Ramis is doing the rounds of publicity for his upcoming comedy Year One, and you know what that means: more Ghosbusters 3 rumors! Ramis has confirmed that he's still waiting to see the first draft from The Office writers Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg, and will see where things go from there.

"Everyone says they'll do it, they've all said they'll do it. No one has signed anything yet--we haven't signed anything either--but there's the spirit of willingness in the air."

Ramis also suggested that, whoever directs, the movie, it might not be either him or Ivan Reitman, who directed the first two. "I don't think he wants to; I'm not sure I want to (direct). It's just a lot of open questions. Until we see a script, I don't think anyone really knows how they feel about it. Everyone's open to doing it, that's the main thing, that's what got it moving forward."

I'm pretty sure it's not necessarily Reitman's potential direction, rather the participation of the original cast, that has everyone tentatively excited about this. Will the movie be better if Reitman or Ramis, now an established director himself, handles it? Maybe. But it's just as likely that, with a new cast taking the story in a new direction, a fresh face could handle things even better.

'Hangover' takes down `Up' for top box-office spot

LOS ANGELES – Hollywood had a bigger hangover this weekend than expected.

The Warner Bros. comedy "The Hangover" drew larger audiences than earlier projected to raise its weekend ticket sales to $45 million, about $1.8 million more than the studio estimated Sunday.

That made it the No. 1 draw for the weekend instead of Disney and Pixar Animation's "Up," which came in second with $44.1 million. Sunday studio estimates had "Up" edging "The Hangover" by about $1 million.

It's rare that the first- and second-place movies on Sunday flip-flop when final numbers come out Monday. But strong attendance Sunday allowed "The Hangover" to pull ahead.

With heavy matinee traffic, family films such as "Up" usually hold on better through Sunday than adult movies like "The Hangover."

Warner Bros. had expected Sunday's National Basketball Association playoff game between the Los Angeles Lakers and Orlando Magic to cut into business for the R-rated "The Hangover," the tale of four friends at an out-of-control bachelor party weekend in Las Vegas.

Yet more people turned up for the movie than anticipated, said Dan Fellman, Warner head of distribution.

"The Lakers weren't the only winners," Fellman said. "We had an unbelievable day."

Disney spokeswoman Heidi Trotta said the studio was happy to finish at No. 2 with "Up," whose final weekend total came in about $100,000 lower than the studio estimated Sunday.

"Up" has topped $137 million in just 10 days and is on track to become the latest $200 million blockbuster from Disney and Pixar, whose hits include "WALL-E," "The Incredibles," "Finding Nemo" and the "Toy Story" movies.

"Up" retains altitude, tops box office again

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – "Up," the story of a floating house, its grumpy 78-year-old owner and an inquisitive 8-year-old accidental stowaway, remained atop the weekend box office in North America, selling $44.2 million of tickets its second weekend in theaters.

The family-friendly Disney/Pixar animated release about a house lifted by colorful balloons and the odd couple's adventures showed surprising staying power. Its weekend gross was down 35 percent from its opening weekend but still made a strong showing for a film in its second week.

Movie industry analysts had predicted that "Up" would bring in less than $40 million.

"The Hangover," released by Warner Bros. Pictures, was a close second at $43.3 million. The film about a group of men trying to reconstruct what happened at a wild, Las Vegas bachelor party benefited from a good buzz and positive reviews. It also was the first big comedy released after a month dominated by action flicks.

Universal's "Land of the Lost," a new release starring Will Ferrell, finished a disappointing third at $19.5 million. It is a remake of a mid-1970s U.S. children's television series.

Four of the top five films attracted families with small children as recession-weary parents continued to seek entertainment at the movies.

"Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian," collected $14.7 million and landed in the No. 4 spot. It made about $54 million when it opened two weekends ago, and has taken in $127 million overall.

"Star Trek," a Paramount issue, also showed staying power, finishing fifth for the weekend in its fifth week of release. It brought in $8.4 million. Its cumulative total stands at $223 million.

ANGELIC WORLD GROSS

"Angels & Demons," from Sony/Columbia, earned $6.5 million in North America during the weekend and its worldwide gross surpassed the $400 million mark, making it the No. 1 film in the world in 2009.

The film, based on Dan Brown's popular novel about conspiracy in the Catholic church, is the follow-up to the Brown novel and 2006 movie, "The Da Vinci Code."

Rory Bruer, president of worldwide distribution for Sony Pictures, said the weekend pushed the "Angels & Demons" international gross to about $405 million. "The Da Vinci Code" brought in about $540.7 million globally.

The website rottentomatoes.com, which aggregates movie criticism, showed that positive reviews for "The Hangover" helped it prevail over "Land of the Lost" in their debut weekends. "The Hangover" gathered 75 percent positive reviews, compared to only 28 percent for "Land of the Lost."

A reason for the resilience of "Up" may be the fact that it had a 98 percent rating on the website.

Third among new released and seventh for the week overall was Fox Seachlight's "My Life In Ruins," which took in $3.2 million. It suffered from negative reviews -- only 12 percent positive criticism according to rottentomatoes.com.

Reitman Mulls Over Ghostbusters 3 Offer

Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman is considering returning to direct the long-awaited third installment of the spooky movie franchise.

Original stars Billy Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson are returning to the big screen for a second sequel - a full 20 years after Ghostbusters 2.

Reitman, who directed the first two films, has been offered the chance to complete the trilogy - but is waiting until he reads the script before he commits.

He tells MTV News, “I’ve never ruled (directing it) out. I certainly was responsible in every capacity for the first two movies so I certainly wouldn’t wander away from the third one - especially if it’s something we all think is worth doing.

“The script is going to be turned in a month or so and we’ll see. All the casting and directing speculation is really just speculation.”

'Land of the Lost' may be summer's first flop

If pre-release audience polling proves right, not many moviegoers will find "Land of the Lost" this weekend.

Universal and Relativity Media's $100-million comedy based on the 1970s TV show is tracking to sell $30 million to $35 million worth of tickets this weekend. That's in line with other recent films starring Will Ferrell, such as "Step Brothers." But for a big-budget summer event movie, it would be a weak debut.

The movie's marketing campaign doesn't seem to be drawing enough teenagers or adults. Its best hope is to draw families with older kids who aren't interested in "Up."

Universal surely picked this Friday to open the film in hopes it would launch in a dominant first-place position. But a movie that originally looked like counter-programming, "The Hangover," will probably end up close and could possibly beat it.

Warner Bros. and Legendary's modestly budgeted comedy is tracking to open in the mid-$20 millions. Both men and women seem to be drawn to the film's hilarious advertisements -- you can never go wrong with a baby in sunglasses -- despite the lack of a major star.

Regardless of which new movie comes out on top, the No. 1 film this weekend almost certainly won't be a new one. If it follows the pattern of previous Pixar animated features, "Up" will drop less than 50% on its second weekend in theaters, meaning it should gross close to $40 million. Strong weekday ticket sales as children start getting out of school have boosted "Up's" total gross to $86.9 million after a $68.1-million opening weekend.

Fox Searchlight is also opening the low budget Nia Vardalos comedy "My Life in Ruins." It will probably gross under $10 million.

In international markets, the major new release will be "Terminator Salvation." Sony Pictures is releasing the film in 61 countries on behalf of the Halcyon Co., which has to hope the fourth series entry will do better overseas than it has at home. After a two full weeks, "Salvation," which had a production budget around $200 million, has grossed only $95.9 million in the U.S. and Canada, suggesting its own salvation has yet to come.

Pixar goes `Up' with $68.2 million debut weekend

LOS ANGELES – The animated action comedy "Up" is soaring in its first weekend at theaters.

According to distributor Walt Disney, the film from Pixar Animation pulled in $68.2 million.

That's the third-best opening weekend for a Pixar animated film, just behind the $70 million debuts for "Finding Nemo" and "The Incredibles." "Up" came in about $5 million ahead of Pixar's "WALL-E" last summer.

Factoring in higher admission prices, some other early Pixar movies such as "Toy Story 2" and "Monsters, Inc." also sold more tickets than "Up" over their first weekends.

Critics gave glowing reviews to "Up," the story of a lonely widower who ties helium balloons to his house and flies off on a South American adventure.

"Up" up and away at the weekend box office

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Things are looking "Up" at the weekend box office where Disney is rolling out its latest Pixar cartoon to predictably rave reviews.

Boasting a notably unflashy voice cast headlined by Ed Asner and newcomer child actor Jordan Nagai, "Up" tells the story of an old man traveling the globe in a balloon-hoisted house with an 8-year-old stowaway.

The 3-D adventure toon was directed by Pete Docter ("Monsters, Inc.") and Bob Peterson, a first-time fimmaker who penned the original screenplay.

The most recent Disney/Pixar release, "WALL-E," opened with $63 million in June and grossed $224 million domestically. Those represent sensible targets for "Up," though studio executives said they would be happy with an opening anywhere north of $50 million.

"I'm very bullish," said Chuck Viane, president of Disney's domestic theatrical distribution. "The reviews have been nothing but spectacular, and it could be our time."

RottenTomatoes.com, which tracks critical reaction to upcoming releases, had "Up" attracting 97% positive reviews (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/up/) late Thursday. Even the oft-tough crowd of Cannes cineastes responded enthusiastically when the film opened the festival this month.

"Up" will play in 3,766 theaters, with at least 1,530 3-D auditoriums set for its first weekend. That's the biggest number of extra-dimensional screens for any release as the industry scrambles to roll out 3-D systems amid burgeoning public interest in such films.

The stiffest competition for "Up" is likely to come from Fox's holdover family comedy "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian." The No. 1 grosser last weekend, the Ben Stiller sequel opened with $70 million over the four-day Memorial Day holiday weekend, and a 50% drop from its Friday-Sunday tally would see "Smithsonian" fetch $28 million during its second session.

But there is another wide opener Friday: the Universal horror picture "Drag Me to Hell" also had a well-received Cannes screening and has drawn overwhelmingly positive early reviews.

Toting a PG-13 rating, "Hell" normally would be expected to skew female. Yet with "Spider-Man" director Sam Raimi guiding the frightfest, Raimi's more male-skewing fan base could round out opening audiences and help the Alison Lohman-Justin Long vehicle reach the upper teen millions through Sunday.

"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" returning to big screen

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – A new incarnation of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" could be coming to the big screen, courtesy of the director of the original movie.

"Buffy" creator Joss Whedon isn't involved and it's not set up at a studio, but director Fran Rubel Kuzui is working on a relaunch with Vertigo Entertainment, which specializes in English-language remakes of Asian films, such as "The Grudge" and "The Departed."

While Whedon is the person most associated with the "Buffy" franchise, Kuzui and her Kuzui Enterprises have held onto the rights since the beginning, when she discovered the "Buffy" script from then-unknown Whedon. She developed the script while her husband Kaz put together the financing to make the 1992 movie, which was released by Fox.

Kuzui later helped bring back Whedon to make the TV series, which began its successful run on the WB in 1997. She received executive producer credits on "Buffy" and its spinoff, "Angel."

The new "Buffy" film, however, would have no connection to the TV series, nor would it use popular supporting characters like Angel, Willow, Xander or Spike.

Kuzui and Vertigo are looking to restart the story line without trampling on the beloved existing universe created by Whedon.

One of the underlying ideas of "Buffy" allows the filmmakers to do just that: that each generation has its own vampire slayer to protect it. The goal would be to make a darker, event-sized movie that would, of course, have franchise potential.

The parties are meeting with writers and hearing takes, and later will look for a home for the project. The producers do not rule out Whedon's involvement but have not yet reached out to him. Speaking from Tokyo, Fran Kuzui said she is constantly approached not only about sequels but theater, video games and foreign remakes for "Buffy." When Vertigo's Roy Lee contacted them, they were intrigued.

"It was Roy's interest in taking Buffy into a new place that grabbed us," she said. "It was based on our respect for what he does, and his particular sensitivity to Asian filmmakers, that we wanted to work with him."

Kuzui, who is preparing to direct a movie in Japan in the fall, added: "Everything has its moment. Every movie takes on a life at some point, and this seems like the moment to do this."

Memorial Day box office sluggish as 'Museum' opens strong but 'Terminator' struggles

The healthy box office seemed to lose its mojo over Memorial Day.

Overall ticket sales for the weekend rose only 2% from last year, according to Hollywood.com, a big downward shift in a year where the total is up more than 14%.

"Night at the Museum: Battle for the Smithsonian" grossed a healthy $70 million over the four days, while "Terminator Salvation" came in at a relatively weak $53.8 million. However, combined, they barely matched the opening of "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" last year, leading to virtually flat total sales for the industry.

The opening of Fox's family sequel was right in line with estimates based on pre-release tracking and a solid figure given its $125-million production budget, after Canadian tax rebates. However, its $50.1-million gross in 93 foreign markets was less impressive compared with other movies that have opened simultaneously worldwide this year. That's an early indication it may not mirror the performance of the original, which made more money overseas than in the U.S. and Canada.

Family films tend to hold on very well at the box office, but "Smithsonian" will face significant competition Friday from Disney and Pixar's "Up," which is pursuing the same audience.

"Terminator" paled next to other big summer action movies like "Wolverine" and "Star Trek" and didn't even match the opening weekend of "Terminator 3" six years ago. The $200-million movie started relatively well Thursday but quickly lost momentum. That's a sign of weak word of mouth and should leave Warner Bros. and The Halycon Co., which financed the film, concerned that it will decline rapidly in the coming weeks.

"Salvation's" hopes now rest largely on international markets, where Sony Pictures will launch the film next week.

"Dance Flick" did decent business for a low-budget spoof comedy, grossing $13.1 million through Monday on its opening weekend.

Here's the domestic box-office top 10 chart for the weekend based on studio estimates and data from Hollywood.com. While all grosses are over four days, percentage drops are based on the Friday-Sunday receipts so that the comparison with last weekend is fair.

1. "Night at the Museum: Battle for the Smithsonian" (Fox): Opened to a healthy $70 million for the four-day weekend. Overseas its performance was less impressive, as it debuted to $50.1 million in 93 countries.

2. "Terminator Salvation" (Warner Bros.): Its four-day gross of $53.8 million was a soft launch for a $200-million summer event film. The total gross since Thursday is $67.2 million. Sony opens the film internationally in two weeks.

3. "Star Trek" (Paramount): Continuing to post relatively modest declines, it fell 47% and grossed $29.4 million through Monday. Domestic total (19 days): $191 million. International total: $87.5 million.

4. "Angels and Demons" (Sony): Grossed $27.7 million on its second weekend, down 53%. Foreign grosses continue to be big, though the figures for U.S. and Canada are not. Domestic total (11 days): $87.8 million. International total: $198.3 million.

5. "Dance Flick" (Paramount): Opened to $13.1 million, about what was expected.

6. "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" (Fox): Grossed $10.1 million, down 46%. Domestic total (25 days): $163.4 million. International total: $156.7 million.

7. "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past" (Warner Bros. / New Line): $4.8 million, down 43%. Domestic total (25 days): $47 million.

8. "Obsesssed" (Sony / Screen Gems): $2.5 million, down 57%. Domestic total (32 days): $66.4 million.

9. "Monsters vs. Aliens" (Paramount / DreamWorks Animation): $1.9 million, down 55%. Domestic total (60 days): $193.5 million.

10. "17 Again" (Warner Bros. / New Line): $1.3 million, down 70%. Domestic total (39 days): $60.6 million.

"Museum" comedy beats "Terminator" at box office

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Ben Stiller beat Christian Bale in the North American weekend box office duel between their respective "Night at the Museum" and "Terminator" sequels, according to studio estimates issued on Sunday.

Reigning champ Tom Hanks fell to No. 4 with "Angels & Demons," although the Vatican thriller remained the top choice internationally.

"Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian" sold $53.5 million worth of tickets across the United States and Canada during the three days beginning Friday, said 20th Century Fox, a unit of News Corp.

The comedy far exceeded the $30.4 million debut of its 2006 predecessor, "Night at the Museum," and also set a new live-action record for Stiller, one of Hollywood's most reliable box office performers.

Stiller, 43, reprises his role as a night security guard, this time at the center of a battle involving historical figures at the massive Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. The cast includes Robin Williams as former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt and Amy Adams as aviatrix Amelia Earhart. The film cost about $125 million to make, Fox said.

It also enjoyed a strong foreign debut, earning $50.5 million from 93 markets, bested only by the $60.4 million haul for "Angels & Demons" from a similar number of territories.

"Terminator Salvation," meanwhile, earned $43.0 million in North America. The film failed to beat the $44 million start for the previous entry in the cyborg series, 2003's "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines," the swan song of franchise star Arnold Schwarzenegger.

But the race between the two new sequels was closer than it appeared because Warner Bros. got a head start on the U.S. Memorial Day holiday weekend by opening "Terminator" on Thursday, when it earned about $13.4 million. Much of those ticket sales would have been pushed over to the weekend if it had opened on Friday. Its four-day total was $56.4 million.

"TERMINATOR" BATTLES "TREK"

The studios generally try to avoid each other when they roll out their big movies. In this case, "Night at the Museum" played to a broad audience, while "Terminator" was more targeted at male moviegoers.

Time Warner Inc-owned Warner Bros. said "Terminator" was likely more affected by competition from the similarly-skewing "Star Trek," which slipped one place to No. 3 in its third weekend with $22 million. The National Basketball Association playoffs also appeared to siphon off older men in cities such as Los Angeles.

Warner Bros. paid $50 million for domestic distribution rights. The post-apocalyptic film, in which "Batman" star Bale takes on the freedom-fighter role of John Connor, cost about $180 million to make, the studio said.

"Angels & Demons," sequel to 2006 film "The Da Vinci Code," earned $21.4 million, taking the 10-day total for the Columbia Pictures release to $81.5 million. By contrast, "The Da Vinci Code" had earned $136.5 million after the same period.

But the Sony Corp unit has said it never expected the second film to be as big. As was the case with "The Da Vinci Code," the film is a much bigger international draw. Its overseas total now stands at $198.3 million.

Paramount Pictures' youth-oriented reboot of the "Star Trek" sci-fi franchise has earned $183.5 million after three weekends.

The Viacom Inc unit also claimed the No. 5 spot with "Dance Flick," a comedy spoof from the Wayans family. It earned a modest $11 million.

Aykroyd spills details of third Ghostbusters

The ghostbusters are set for a new round of paranormal policing.

Ottawa native Dan Aykroyd tells the Los Angeles Times there will be a third Ghostbusters film starring himself and original cast members Sigourney Weaver, Bill Murray, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson.

Aykroyd says production could be under way by winter.

The Saturday Night Live alumnus and Ramis co-wrote the first two films in the sci-fi comedy franchise, about eccentric paranormal exterminators in New York City.

The hit 1984 debut and its 1989 sequel also starred Rick Moranis and Annie Potts and were directed and co-produced by Ivan Reitman.

The next instalment is penned by Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, who also write for the TV series The Office.

In a report on the L.A. Times website, Aykroyd says Reitman is too busy to helm the third incarnation of Ghostbusters, so Ramis might direct instead.

Aykroyd – who was nominated for an Academy Award for his supporting role in Driving Miss Daisy – also says some females might be added to the ghost-busting team.

He thinks Alyssa Milano and Eliza Dushku would be good in the roles.

Milano already stars in part of the franchise – she voices the character of Dr. Ilyssa Selwyn, a brainy curator, in Ghostbusters: The Video Game, written by Aykroyd and Ramis.

'Angels & Demons' wins box office from 'Star Trek'

NEW YORK – "Angels & Demons" took the box office from "Star Trek" by earning $48 million in its first weekend of release.

The haul was far less than the earlier Dan Brown adaptation "The Da Vinci Code" — which earned $77.1 million when in opened in 2006 — but still enough to topple the popular "Star Trek," according to studio estimates Sunday.

In its second weekend, Paramount Pictures' "Star Trek" took in $43 million, a strong number after its $75.2 million opening last weekend, excluding its Thursday midnight screenings. The cumulative total for J.J. Abram's reboot of the sci-fi franchise is $147.6 million.

Sony's "Angels & Demons" reunites Tom Hanks and director Ron Howard for the sequel to "The Da Vinci Code." It opened without the benefit of the buzz and controversy that propelled "The Da Vinci Code" to a $753 million worldwide total.

Overseas business was again strong for "Angels & Demons," which earned $104.3 million internationally. Rory Bruer, president of worldwide distribution for Sony, said the studio expects the film will eventually take in half a billion altogether in theatrical release.

"That chemistry (of Hanks and Howard) worked incredibly well with 'Da Vinci' and it looks like it's absolutely headed in that same vein, certainly on a lesser scale," said Bruer. "We never expected anything to the phenomenon of `Da Vinci.'"

Like "The Da Vinci Code," reviews were not illustrious for "Angels & Demons," but they were mostly better. Bruer called Brown's action-packed best-seller "a far more cinematic story" than "Da Vinci." In it, Hanks again plays Harvard symbolist Robert Langdon who's trying to prevent a series of murders at the Vatican.

"Sony positioned it well," said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com. "They didn't try to say, `This is going to be "The Da Vinci Code."' It was actually quite the contrary. They tried to say this was not `Da Vinci Code,' that it was a different kind of movie."

"Angels & Demons" was the only new wide-release film of the weekend. Coming in third was "X-Men Originals: Wolverine," which earned $14.8 million in its third week, bringing its total to $151.1 million. The prequel to the "X-Men" franchise, starring Hugh Jackman as the mutant with metal claws, had a step drop-off in its second week.

On the whole, it was another robust weekend of business at movie theaters, which have been drawing large crowds throughout the recession. Dergarabedian pegs the year-to-date box office at a 16 percent increase over last year.

"We're headed toward a record breaking summer," said Dergarabedian. "If you've got a blockbuster in the pipeline, you're very happy about all the strength of the box office right now. Momentum is key in this business."

That's good news for the two blockbusters opening next weekend: "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian" and "Terminator Salvation."

Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "Angels & Demons," $48 million.
2. "Star Trek," $43 million.
3. "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," $14.8 million.
4. "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past," $6.9 million.
5. "Obsessed," $4.6 million.
6. "17 Again," $3.4 million.
7. "Monsters vs. Aliens," $3 million.
8. "The Soloist," $2.4 million.
9. "Next Day Air," $2.2 million.
10. "Earth," $1.7 million.

Kevin Smith Gunning For An Oscar?

Kevin Smith has revealed to MTV News exclusively that he's planning to collaborate on his next film with... Mitch Albom.

Yeah, Mitch Albom, the Tuesdays With Morrie guy, who is quite possibly your sentimental dad's favorite author. In 2003 Albom and rock icon Warren Zevon collaborated on the song "Hit Somebody," shortly before Zevon's death from cancer. Now Smith, a longtime hockey fan, wants to adapt the song about a violent hockey goon into a feature film.

“The song’s been one of my favorites since I heard it and I’ve always seen this whole movie behind. I got in touch with Mitch because Warren Zevon has passed on and we started talking about it and he was into it and into what I was kind of pitching.”

Not only that, but Smith thinks this is one that might gain some end-of-the-year Oscar traction. For real. You can read all about it at MTV, and hockey fans, prepare to replace Slapshot as your favorite hockey movie of all time.

Martin Scorsese to direct biopic of Frank Sinatra

LOS ANGELES – Martin Scorsese will tell Frank Sinatra's life story on film.

The Academy Award-winning director of "The Departed" will direct "Sinatra," the first feature film about Ol' Blue Eyes' life, Universal Pictures and Mandalay Pictures said Wednesday.

The film will be "an unconventional biopic," said Mandalay Pictures President Cathy Shulman, who is co-producing the film with Mandalay Chairman Peter Guber.

"It's not a cradle-to-the-grave traditional portrait of the consecutive events in a man's life," Shulman said. "Instead it's more of a collage and, in many ways, it will feel like an album itself. It's a collection of various moments and impressions in his life and together we hope they'll tell the full story and present full themes."

Oscar-nominated screenwriter Phil Alden Robinson ("Field of Dreams") has spent "at least a year buried in 30,000 pages of research" to write the screenplay, Schulman said.

No casting decisions have been made and no production date has been determined, she said, adding: "It's everyone's hope that this will be a movie that comes to the screen shortly."

It took two years to secure the rights to Sinatra's life and music, Shulman said. Warner Music Group and the Sinatra estate are partners on the project.

Having Scorsese bring "Sinatra" to the screen "seems like a match made in heaven," she said.

"In any family, you're dealing with a precious life, and in this case, you're dealing with an extraordinary life," she said. "We knew Scorsese would lead the troops to a true, fair, exciting and entertaining portrait of the man."

Sinatra's daughter, Tina, said it was "personally pleasing" to know Scorsese would oversee the celluloid version of her father's life story.

"My father had great admiration for the talent of the people he chose to work with, and the talented people who worked with my father had great admiration for him," she said, adding, "to me that this paradigm continues with Marty Scorsese at the helm of the Sinatra film."

An iconic entertainer, Sinatra was known for his smooth voice and even smoother personal style. He was part of the Rat Pack that included Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and Peter Lawford.

Sinatra "was indisputably the 20th century's greatest singer of popular song," according to Rolling Stone.

"Not only did his freely interpretive approach pave the way for the idiosyncrasies of rock singing, but with his character a mix of tough-guy cool and romantic vulnerability, he became the first true pop idol, a superstar who through his music established a persona audiences found compelling and true," the magazine says on its Web site.

Sinatra, who died in 1998, performed on more than 1,400 musical recordings, was awarded 31 gold records and earned 10 Grammys. He also appeared in 58 films and won a supporting-actor Oscar for 1953's "From Here to Eternity." In 1971, he was presented with another Oscar: the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.

Sinatra's story has been told before on the small screen. A 1992 made-for-TV movie, "Sinatra," starred Philip Casnoff in the title role. It won a Golden Globe for best miniseries and an Emmy for director James Sadwith. Ray Liotta played Sinatra in the 1998 HBO film, "The Rat Pack."

At one time, Scorsese was in talks to direct a Dean Martin biopic, but that project never came to fruition.

Summer movie preview

Welcome to summer, post-Blart. Excited? Hollywood is, primed by the momentum of an already booming box office.

As 2009’s first smash (Paul Blart: Mall Cop) showed, in times of crisis moviegoers just want to escape — and they’re not terribly discerning about where they escape to. Thus, such lunkheaded hits as Fast & Furious, Hannah Montana: The Movie, Knowing and Race to Witch Mountain.

That’s good news for studios, but bad news for discriminating film goers. Compare last year’s summer line-up — packed with such cross-demo offerings as The Dark Knight, Iron Man, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Wall•E and Sex and the City — to this summer’s slate. Can

X-Men Origins: Wolverine really duplicate the dazzling heights of Iron Man? Does anyone think the new Transformers will resonate beyond clang-bang-metal mayhem?

Sure, there may be the odd surprise — J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek or Michael Mann’s Public Enemies — but by and large this is a summer made by the Blarts for the Blarts. Oh well.

So what will hit, and what will miss? Here are 10 we suspect will come up aces with audiences:

Star Trek

(May 8)

In 25 words or less: A vengeful Romulan screws with the space-time continuum so that the early adventures of Kirk and Spock aren’t exactly what fans remember.

Who’s in it: Chris Pine (Kirk), Zachary Quinto (Spock), Karl Urban (McCoy), Eric Bana and some old dude named Leonard Nimoy.

Who’s directing: Geek god J.J. Abrams, who co-created Lost.

Why do we care? If Abrams can convince kids Trek is cool — thus why the Enterprise looks like an Apple store — then the franchise may well live long and prosper (at least for the already-announced sequel).

We’d pay to see ... William Shatner beam up to shoulder-flip Pine.

Angels & Demons

(May 15)

In 25 words or less: Symbologist Robert Langdon races to foil a plot against the Vatican by a secret society called the Illuminati.

Who’s in it: Tom Hanks, along with Ewan McGregor and Stellan Skarsgaard.

Who’s directing: Ron Howard. One of these pays for a dozen Frost/Nixons.

Why do we care? The Da Vinci Code was a sanctimonious bore, so why make a sequel? Because it still grossed $700 million worldwide, people.

We’d pay to see ... the Fonz turn up as Pope.

Terminator Salvation

(May 21)

In 25 words or less: Grown-up John Connor (Christian Bale) leads resistance fighters in a post-apocalyptic landscape overrun by terminators.

Who’s in it: Aside from Bale, newcomer Sam Worthington (whose character, Marcus, offers a potential link between man and machine), Bryce Dallas Howard and Helena Bonham Carter.

Who’s directing: The reviled McG (Charlie’s Angels) looking for a little street cred.

Why do we care? Bale. The script was rewritten by Jonah Nolan (The Dark Knight, Memento). And if audiences embrace a Terminator flick without creator James Cameron and star Arnold Schwarzenegger, it will mean new life for the series.

We’d pay to see ... a cameo by California’s governor. (And thanks to digital wizardry, we’ll get our wish.)

Up

(May 29)

In 25 words or less: Grumpy old man Carl Fredricksen (Ed Asner) ties thousands of balloons to his house and soars away, seeking adventure.

Who’s in it: The voices of Ed Asner, Christopher Plummer and John Ratzenberger.

Who’s directing: Pete Docter and Bob Peterson.

Why do we care? Pixar hasn’t misfired yet, which makes this a can’t-miss proposition.

We’d pay to see ... whatever Pixar makes.

The Hangover

(June 5)

In 25 words or less: Three groomsmen lose the groom after a night of debauchery in Vegas.

Who’s in it: Up-and-comers Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis and still-hot Heather Graham.

Who’s directing: Todd Phillips (Old School).

Why do we care? Could be the sleeper comedy of the summer — which explains why the studio is already plotting a sequel.

We’d pay to see ... Rollergirl back in her skates.

Year One

(June 19)

In 25 words or less: Two Old Testament bumblers wander through Biblical times.

Who’s in it: Jack Black and Michael Cera, basically playing themselves. Along the way, they encounter such old favourites as Cain and Abel (David Cross and Paul Rudd) and Abraham and Isaac (Hank Azaria and Christopher Mintz-Plasse).

Who’s directing: Ghostbuster Harold Ramis.

Why do we care? Judd Apatow — he of the Midas touch — is the producer.

We’d pay to see ... this turn out to be more Superbad than Walk Hard.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

(June 24)

In 25 words or less: The Decepticons exact their revenge on Optimus Prime after the exhaust-pipe whipping they got in 2007.

Who’s in it: Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel and robots. Lots and lots of robots.

Who’s directing: Michael Bay, who never met an explosion he didn’t think was “Awesome!”

Why do we care? The original earned $700 million worldwide and imprinted the small of Fox’s back on the minds of heterosexual men and bi-curious women everywhere.

We’d pay to see ... Shia get squashed.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

(July 15)

In 25 words or less: The boy wizard faces the gathering forces of evil. And his hormones.

Who’s in it: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint and the rest of Britain.

Who’s directing: David Yates (The Order of the Phoenix), who will follow this with a two-part adaptation of the final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Why do we care? You have to ask?

We’d pay to see ... them condense this thing to a brisk two hours.

G.I. Joe:

The Rise of Cobra

(August 7)

In 25 words or less: An elite military unit clashes with a nefarious organization known as Cobra. Based on the 1980s cartoon and toyline.

Who’s in it: Dennis Quaid (Gen. Hawk), Channing Tatum (Duke), Rachel Nichols (Scarlet), Cobra Commander (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Destro (Christopher Eccleston) and the Baroness (Sienna Miller).

Who’s directing: Stephen Sommers, architect of craptaculars The Mummy and Van Helsing.

Why do we care? Aside from Nichols and Miller in dueling skintight body-armour, we don’t. But if this rakes in nearly as much cash as Transformers, look for sequels for years to come.

We’d pay to see ... the Baroness finding ways of making us talk.

Inglourious Basterds

(August 21)

In 25 words or less: Pulp Fiction meets Valkyrie? We can hope.

Who’s in it: Brad Pitt, Eli Roth, B.J. Novak, Diane Kruger, Samuel L. Jackson and — as an Allied general — Mike Myers.

Who’s directing: Quentin Tarantino, hoping to show he’s relevant even though it’s not 1994.

Why do we care? Because it sounds bloody and outrageous. Set in the Second World War, a band of Jewish-American soldiers enter German-occupied France looking to collect Nazi scalps.

We’d pay to see ... someone teach Tarantino how to spell.

Fans fixate on Beyonce as 'Obsessed' takes in $28M

LOS ANGELES – Audiences were in the mood for some fatal attraction action at the box office. Beyonce Knowles and Idris Elba's "Obsessed" debuted as the top weekend movie with $28.5 million in ticket sales. The Sony Screen Gems thriller stars Knowles and Elba as a couple whose ideal marriage lands on the rocks after a psychotic temp played by Ali Larter begins stalking the husband.

The strong opening for "Obsessed" helped maintain Hollywood's hot streak, with overall revenues at about $112 million, up 23.5 percent from the same weekend last year, according to box-office tracker Media By Numbers.

The busy summer season starts Friday with 20th Century Fox's spinoff "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," starring Hugh Jackman in the title role he played in three "X-Men" blockbusters.

Studios head into summer on a box-office tear, with receipts running at a record pace. Revenues for the year are at $3.06 billion, up 17.4 percent over last year. Factoring in higher ticket prices, movie attendance is up 15.7 percent.

"We have never been in this strong a position heading into the summer season, ever," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media By Numbers.

Zac Efron's "17 Again" and Channing Tatum's "Fighting" were neck-and-neck for the No. 2 spot. With Sunday estimates of $11.7 million, the Warner Bros. comedy "17 Again" had the edge. After debuting in first-place a week earlier, "17 Again" raised its 10-day total to $40 million.

Rogue Pictures' "Fighting," starring Tatum and Terrence Howard in the story of a rising star in New York City's underground bare-knuckle fight circuit, debuted with $11.4 million.

The two movies were close enough that rankings could change when final numbers come out Monday.

Paramount's drama "The Soloist" opened at No. 4 with $9.7 million. It stars Jamie Foxx as a schizophrenic music prodigy living on the streets of Los Angeles and Robert Downey Jr. as a reporter who befriends him.

Disney's nature documentary "Earth" premiered in fifth place with $8.6 million, bringing its total to $14.2 million since opening Wednesday.

"Obsessed" was not screened in advance for critics, and those who reviewed it generally trashed the movie as a lame retread of 1987's "Fatal Attraction," which starred Glenn Close as a demented woman pursuing a married man, played by Michael Douglas.

But "Obsessed" had the lure of singer Knowles stepping out from her pop star image and duking it out with the crazy lady threatening her home and marriage.

"There's something about wanting to see Beyonce kick butt. She's taking on one wacked chick, played very well by Ali Larter," said Rory Bruer, head of distribution for Sony. "Let's face it, everyone loves Beyonce, and to see her in this role is a treat."

Documentaries rarely open in nationwide release or break into the top 10, but Disney aimed for a wide audience with "Earth," which traces families of polar bears, elephants and humpback whales over the course of a year.

Disney pledged to plant a tree for every viewer who sees the movie in the first week, with the number climbing to more than 2 million after five days. The film was tied to Earth Day and was the first release of the studio's Disneynature label.

"We just felt like if we make an event out of this, tied it to this whole plant-a-tree effort, tied it to Earth Day, maybe we could break the mold and come up with the kind of opening that you'd be satisfied with on a regular film," said Mark Zoradi, president of Disney's motion-picture group.

Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "Obsessed," $28.5 million.
2. "17 Again," $11.7 million.
3. "Fighting," $11.4 million.
4. "The Soloist," $9.7 million.
5. "Earth," $8.6 million.
6. "Monsters vs. Aliens," $8.5 million.
7. "State of Play," $6.9 million.
8. "Hannah Montana: The Movie," $6.4 million.
9. "Fast & Furious," $6.1 million.
10. "Crank: High Voltage," $2.4 million.

Robert Rodriguez wields 'Machete'

Robert Rodriguez is ready to cut a wide swathe, and his plans include re-launching the "Predator" franchise for Fox and co-directing "Machete."

For the later, the filmmaker will create a feature out of the blade- wielding antihero who appeared in a mock trailer that was part of "Grindhouse."

Rodriguez is eyeing a June start date in Austin for "Machete," a film that is financed and produced by Overnight Productions, with Danny Trejo starring as the title character.

Machete is a Mexican ex-Federale with a gift for wielding a blade, who hides out as a day laborer, who is double-crossed by a corrupt state senator.

Rodriguez wrote the script and will direct the film with Ethan Maniquis, his longtime editor. The film is being produced by Rodriguez, Rick Schwartz of Overnight Productions and Aaron Kaufman.

Not immediately clear is whether Rodriguez and Overnight will find a way to use the irresistible marketing slogan that appeared in the "Grindhouse" trailer: "This time, they fucked with the wrong Mexican." It is the first non-studio movie that Rodriguez has directed since "El Mariachi."

For Fox, Rodriguez has scripted "Predators," a film that will bring back the dreadlock-sporting alien hunter who originated in the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger hit "Predator." While a sequel didn't become a hit, Fox kept the alien sharp by launching the "Alien Vs. Predator," a wildly profitable series that has racked up strong grosses and DVD sales, wit little or no gross out the door.

While Rodriguez juggles these projects, he's also directing his script "Nerveracker" for Dimension Films, with Bob Weinstein setting a 2010 release for the futuristic action thriller.

CSI movie in the works, says former star, producer Petersen

TV's CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is heading to the movies, according to executive producer and former star William Petersen.

The actor, whose paternal forensic investigator Gil Grissom left the drama earlier this season, told the U.K.'s Radio Times that a movie featuring the Las Vegas team is in the works.

Petersen, who has since returned to the theatre world, acknowledged that some fans might feel "a little trepidatious" about the prospect of a CSI film project.

"Usually people leave it till a series has finished — they did that with The X-Files and Sex and the City," he told the magazine.

"But it's about finding the right story…You don't just do it because you want to make money. You do it because there's a story that can't be told on TV and needs to be told from CSI's perspective, and the audience wants it," Petersen said.

"And we can't wait for CSI to end or Grissom will be about 90."

Petersen had previously expressed a desire to see a CSI movie, quipping "that's the real reason Grissom isn't going to die of a brain tumour."

Having portrayed the show's lead investigator since the series debut in 2000, Petersen made his exit this season — the show's 10th — paving the way for Emmy and Tony Award-winning film, TV and stage actor Laurence Fishburne to join the cast of the top-rated forensics drama.

Petersen has since joined Chicago's celebrated Steppenwolf Theatre Company as a member of its acting ensemble.

Adults steering clear of movies As Recession forces studios to aim younger

Pricey, star-driven thrillers and dramas will struggle for profitability as the recession intensifies a trend toward youth-dominated openings.

That's the consensus after the weekend's soft opening for Universal's Russell Crowe starrer, the latest in a series of misfires by adult-oriented releases. Investigative-journo thriller "State of Play" rung up just $14.1 million over its first frame, meaning the Americanized adaptation of a British miniseries must overperform dramatically overseas for the $60 million production to break even.

The pic's travails reflect this rude awakening in Hollywood: Older demos may be resisting the recent enthusiasm for moviegoing. Certainly it's been months since anything has caught fire at the arthouses.

But it's the ill-fated outings of studios' highest-profile adult fare that's stirred the most concern.

"Not as many adults are going to the movies because of the recession," a highly placed studio exec lamented. "More and more, it's the kids who come out and support the pictures over opening weekend and not as much the older adults."

The good news is that ticket sales are pacing ahead of last year's by a healthy single-digit percentage, and boxoffice is up by a double-digit margin on a calendar-year basis. In fact, the market has been so robust it can produce even the odd adult-driven success: Fox's Liam Neeson starrer "Taken" -- produced for under $30 million -- rang up $218 million in worldwide boxoffice after unspooling in January.

"The success of 'Taken' has a lot to do with the audience rooting so hard for Liam Neeson to find his daughter in the picture," Fox distribution president Bruce Snyder said. "The audience involvement is great. That personal involvement doesn't happen often with these kind of movies. It's more common in the younger movies, but that emotional note is important to hit."

Marketing also figures prominently in any success or failure at the boxoffice.

"Adults are a harder audience to motivate, and the problem with some adult movies is compounded by their not being high-concept films that you can boil down to 30-second spots," a top studio exec said. "With 'Taken,' it was, 'You took my kid, motherfucker, and you're going to pay.' "

A succession of adult-oriented boxoffice laggards has been noticeable for at least six months, though the trend was in evidence with 2007's critically lauded but commercially constrained "Michael Clayton." Warner Bros. rung up less than $93 million worldwide with the George Clooney starrer.

More recently, Uni absorbed a bottom-line hit with its recent Julia Roberts-Clive Owen starrer "Duplicity," a mere $39 million domestic performer through five frames that's unlikely to compensate with outsized foreign coin. Warners registered a similar sum with the thriller "Body of Lies" -- an October opener starring Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio that overperformed only modestly overseas -- while Sony's political thriller "The International" unspooled over Valentine's Day and raked in less than $50 million worldwide.

With films like "State of Play," critical praise is nice but goes only so far. If the kids don't take notice, then it's fingers-crossed for a successful DVD release to stanch some of the inevitable red ink -- though adult thrillers also have been a tough sell on shiny disc.

The worrisome trend is likely to put additional pressure on studios to rein in production costs on adult-skewing films where possible, including talent deals.

"If these things were made for a reasonable cost, it wouldn't be a problem," a studio exec groused.

"Not a lot of them break through," acknowledged another top distribution exec. "With an R-rating you're playing to an older audience, and the subject matter has to be something besides politics. People at the moment are kind of fed up with that stuff."

Warners hit big last year with Clint Eastwood's older-skewing but leggy "Gran Torino," a neighborhood-vigilante tale of personal redemption. Like the avenging-father thriller "Taken," "Torino" was a crowd-pleaser with emotional wallop. The pic grossed $237 million worldwide.

"Material-wise, I thought 'State of Play' was too 'been there, done that,'" a studio exec mused.

The comment echoed sentiment heard repeatedly last week when pre-release interest in the pic prompted forecasts for a limp "Play" bow.

"The opening was better than expected," a Uni publicist noted Monday.

Summer heroes: Wolverine, Kirk & Spock, Potter

LOS ANGELES – What a who's who list Hollywood has lined up for its summer action spectacles: Wolverine. Transformers. Harry Potter. James Kirk. G.I. Joe. Terminator.

If there's one word to sum up it all up, it's this: Relentless.

Starting May 1, barely a weekend will pass without another brawny special-effects extravaganza landing in theaters.

Appropriately, summer starts with a couple of prequels.

After co-starring in three "X-Men" adventures about the Marvel Comics mutants, Hugh Jackman steps out from the pack for "X-Men Origins: Wolverine." The film spins the back story of Jackman's metal-clawed loner, a military experiment gone rogue amid a government conspiracy to control his super-freak kinfolk.

Next, the starship Enterprise is relaunched in "Star Trek," with a new cast taking on the characters originated in the 1960s TV show. Chris Pine inherits William Shatner's role as dashing James Kirk, while Zachary Quinto plays Vulcan egghead Spock (Leonard Nimoy, who created the role, pops up as the older Spock).

Like "Star Trek" director J.J. Abrams, Pine grew up more a "Star Wars" kid than a "Star Trek" kid. After snagging the role, Pine started watching the original series but stopped halfway through the first season.

"It was kind of nice to familiarize myself with the world, but it didn't help me much at all to delve any deeper," Pine said. "If anything, it was a hindrance to kind of watch what Mr. Shatner had done, because he'd done it so well, and he was so specific.

"There were certain mannerisms that I think are definitely Kirk-ian things that I wanted to use in my portrayal, but for the most part, I wanted to free myself up to create something new."

The director of the final four "Harry Potter" movies, David Yates, is still giving thanks for the young cast he inherited, led by Daniel Radcliffe as boy wizard Harry and Emma Watson and Rupert Grint as his school pals.

"There was something very, very, very clever in their choices. Not a day goes by I'm not grateful for this bunch they put together," Yates said. "It's a remarkable bunch of kids."

In "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," Harry is charged with uncovering a forgotten memory from a new Hogwarts teacher (Jim Broadbent), information the young sorcerer needs for his final showdown against dark wizard Voldemort.

While Yates marvels over how his youthful cast has blossomed, "Transformers" director Michael Bay was thrilled over the improved acting chops of his computer-animated robots for the sequel.

"We were just touching the surface last time in what they're capable of doing," Bay said. "This time, they really emote."

"Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" reunites puny but plucky human Shia LaBeouf with his giant, shape-shifting Autobot buddies in a rematch against the evil Decepticon robot clan.

Also in a rematch are Tom Hanks and Ron Howard with "Angels & Demons," their follow-up to "The Da Vinci Code." This installment hurls Hanks' symbologist into an ancient feud between the Vatican and a secret brotherhood that has kidnapped the cardinals in line to become the next pope.

Howard felt less pressure this time adapting Dan Brown's best-seller than he had with "The Da Vinci Code," a literary phenomenon whose did-Christ-have-kids premise put the movie under a severe microscope by fans and detractors alike.

"Documentaries are being made about `Da Vinci Code.' Theologians develop symposiums around it. Ministers were using it as a way to, frankly, entice people to church," Howard said, adding that the new film "remains provocative, yes, but it doesn't hold that same place at the center of the zeitgeist. So it's really full-on escapism.

Other action highlights:

• "Terminator: Salvation": Christian Bale leads the last shreds of humanity against machine enemies as the franchise reboots without Arnold Schwarzenegger.

• "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra": The action figures get their own movie as the G.I. Joe guys take on an arms dealer and a militant secret organization.

• "Inglourious Basterds": Brad Pitt and Quentin Tarantino resurrect "Dirty Dozen"-style action as Jewish soldiers dish out chaos among the Nazis.

• "Public Enemies": Johnny Depp is gangster John Dillinger and Christian Bale is G-Man Melvin Purvis in Michael Mann's Depression-era crime saga.

• "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3" — The remake casts Denzel Washington as a subway dispatcher and John Travolta as a bad guy ransoming a trainload of passengers.

• "Drag Me to Hell": "Spider-Man" director Sam Raimi returns to his "Evil Dead" roots with a horror tale about a bank employee (Alison Lohman) tormented by a vengeful customer's supernatural curse.

• "District 9": "Lord of the Rings" overlord Peter Jackson produces a sci-fi tale about a human who becomes an unlikely ally for aliens held in a South African ghetto.

Efron turns '17 Again' into No. 1 hit with $24M

LOS ANGELES – Zac Efron has taken the box-office crown from his Disney teammate Miley Cyrus.

Efron's comedy "17 Again," in which he plays the youthful version of a middle-aged man magically transformed to high school age, debuted as the top weekend movie with $24.1 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The No. 1 opening for the Warner Bros. movie solidifies the big-screen potential for Efron, who rose to fame with Disney's "High School Musical" series.

"There's no question that Zac's a star," said Dan Fellman, head of distribution for Warner Bros. "He's such a hardworking, talented individual. He certainly has given his all to promote this movie."

Universal had the No. 2 movie with Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck's Washington thriller "State of Play," which pulled in $14.1 million. Crowe plays a reporter investigating a series of deaths linked to an old college friend (Affleck) who's now a rising star in Congress.

Cyrus' "Hannah Montana: The Movie" slipped from first place to fourth with $12.7 million. That lifted the domestic total for Cyrus' movie spinoff of her Disney Channel show to $56.1 million after 10 days in theaters.

"Hannah Montana" finished just behind DreamWorks Animation's "Monsters vs. Aliens," which took in $12.9 million to raise its domestic haul to $162.7 million.

Estimates for "Hannah Montana" and "Monsters vs. Aliens" were close enough that the movies could switch rankings when final numbers are reported Monday.
Jason Statham had a so-so opening for his action sequel "Crank: High Voltage," which came in at No. 6 with $6.5 million, $4 million less than the first weekend for the 2006 original.

The Lionsgate sequel features Statham in a race to recover his heart, which has been stolen by organ thieves and replaced with a mechanical one.

Hollywood maintained a record box-office pace with just one weekend to go before the busy summer season arrives May 1 with "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," Hugh Jackman's spinoff of the blockbuster "X-Men" franchise.

Overall revenues were at $112 million, up nearly 20 percent from the same weekend last year, according to box-office tracker Media By Numbers.

For the year, Media By Numbers is tracking receipts at $2.92 billion, 17.3 percent ahead of 2008's and well above the box-office pace of 2007, when Hollywood took in a record $9.7 billion. Accounting for higher ticket prices, movie attendance this year is up 15.6 percent compared to last year's.

The movie business is poised to top $10 billion at the box office for the first time in 2009, said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media By Numbers.

"It's going to be a record year, because we've never had a start to a year this strong," Dergarabedian said. "Unless the world goes off its axis and spins into the sun, I don't see how we're not going to have a $10 billion year."

Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "17 Again," $24.1 million.
2. "State of Play," $14.1 million.
3. "Monsters vs. Aliens," $12.9 million.
4. "Hannah Montana: The Movie," $12.7 million.
5. "Fast & Furious," $12.3 million.
6. "Crank: High Voltage," $6.5 million.
7. "Observe and Report," $4.1 million.
8. "Knowing," $3.5 million.
9. "I Love You, Man," $3.4 million.
10. "The Haunting in Connecticut," $3.2 million.

Carell, Fey playing 'Date Night' for laughs

So this one time, Steve Carell and Tina Fey had a romantic night out.
"And it goes crazy. Everything that can possibly go wrong goes wrong, and they're caught up in a web of malice and intrigue," Carell says.

He's referring to the comedy Date Night, directed by Night at the Museum's Shawn Levy. The flick starts shooting in a few weeks and stars the comedy dream team of Carell and Fey, who have never done a movie together. The stars of The Office and 30 Rock play a married couple who go out to a trendy Manhattan bistro for some couple bonding time, when things go terribly awry thanks to a case of mistaken identity.

"I'm a huge fan and have known her for some time, so it's great that we finally get to do something," Carell says.

Neeson to star as Zeus in `Clash of the Titans'

LOS ANGELES – Liam Neeson is set to begin work on his first film since the death of his wife, Natasha Richardson.

Neeson will play Zeus, king of the gods, in a remake of "Clash of the Titans" opposite Ralph Fiennes as Hades, ruler of the underworld. Louis Leterrier ("Transporter 2," last year's "The Incredible Hulk") will direct the film, which is scheduled to begin production in the United Kingdom later this month, Warner Bros. said Thursday.

Longtime friends Neeson and Fiennes haven't shared the screen since 1993's "Schindler's List." Also among the cast are "Casino Royale" villain Mads Mikkelsen, Sam Worthington of the upcoming "Terminator Salvation" and Alexa Davalos ("Defiance").

The original "Clash of the Titans" from 1981 starred Laurence Olivier as Zeus.
This marks the first project for Neeson, 56, since Richardson's death in a skiing accident. The 45-year-old actress died March 18 after falling and hitting her head during a lesson at Quebec's Mont Tremblant two days earlier. He had signed on to star in the movie before her death.

Neeson's most recent movie, the kidnapping thriller "Taken," became a surprise hit with nearly $140 million at the domestic box office earlier this year. He just finished work on the Atom Egoyan film "Chloe," which he was in the middle of shooting when his wife died.

Jackman 'heartbroken' over leaked superhero film

SYDNEY (AFP) – Hugh Jackman, who plays superhero Wolverine in the new X-Men movie, said Wednesday he was "heartbroken" that the film was leaked on the Internet a month before its official release.

The Australian star of "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" said the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was on the case and he believed the culprit would be found.

"It's a serious crime and there's no doubt it's very disappointing -- I was heartbroken by it," Jackman told reporters at a promotion for the movie in Sydney.

The leaked version of the 20th Century Fox action movie was reportedly downloaded tens of thousands of times within a day of being posted on file-sharing websites at the end of March.

"Obviously, people are seeing an unfinished film," Jackman said. "It's like a Ferrari without a paint job."

The 40-year-old Hollywood heartthrob, named Sexiest Man Alive by People magazine last year, said he was convinced that whoever had posted the copy would be tracked down.

"The FBI are on to it and they're taking it very, very seriously," he said. "Rest assured that person will be found."

Jackman arrived by helicopter on Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbour, where some of the movie was filmed, for the first stop of a world promotion tour ahead of its official release at the end of the month.

He then delighted hundreds of invited guests and media by swooping down from a clifftop on a cable before unveiling 20 minutes of completed footage.

Jackman said he was heartened by the fact that most people had condemned the leak and thought fans would still go to see it at the cinema.

The leak has already claimed at least one casualty -- a US entertainment columnist who was fired for reviewing a stolen copy downloaded from the Internet.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, which owns both 20th Century Fox Films and Fox News, said writer Roger Friedman had been "promptly terminated" after posting his column on the Fox News website last week.

"We, along with 20th Century Fox Film Corporation, have been a consistent leader in the fight against piracy and have zero tolerance for any action that encourages and promotes piracy," News Corporation said in an emailed statement.

"When we advised Fox News of the facts they took immediate action, removed the post, and promptly terminated Mr Friedman."

The "X-Men" film, based on the eponymous comic book characters, was apparently spread with BitTorrent file-sharing technology that lets people exchange large data files between computers.

'Fast & Furious' accelerates to $72.5M opening

LOS ANGELES – "Fast & Furious" left the competition in the dust with a $72.5 million opening weekend, the best so far this year.

That topped last weekend's $59.3 million debut for DreamWorks Animation's "Monsters vs. Aliens," which slipped to second place with $33.5 million, raising its 10-day total to $105.7 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

Universal's "Fast & Furious" also raced to a record for April debuts, easily passing the previous best of $42.2 million set in 2003 by "Anger Management."
It was a blockbuster opening more customary to summer. But Hollywood has been extending its busy season more and more by placing summer-style flicks earlier in the year.

"It's summer time in April," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box office tracker Media By Numbers. "We've seen the summer season stretch from what used to be Memorial Day through Labor Day, then the first of May through Labor Day. Now maybe with `Fast & Furious,' it's going to be early April as the beginning of summer."

The weekend's other new wide release, Miramax's 1980s nostalgia comedy "Adventureland," debuted at No. 6 with $6 million. The movie stars Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart as summer workers at a second-rate theme park in the late '80s.

The fourth installment of the "Fast and the Furious" street-racing franchise brings back the four stars of the 2001 original — Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez and Jordana Brewster. The new movie has Diesel's fugitive driver and Walker's undercover cop reteaming for more illegal races as they take on a murderous drug lord.

The reunion paid off for distributor Universal, which also pulled in $30.1 million in 32 other countries where "Fast & Furious" was playing.

The original was a surprise hit, but the franchise was slowly running out of gas after the sequel "2 Fast 2 Furious," which starred Walker. Part three, "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift," had a new cast and took in a solid but unremarkable $62.5 million over its entire run.

But "Tokyo Drift" ended with a cameo by Diesel, sparking interest in reviving the series with the "Fast & Furious" reunion.

"The marketing campaign let everyone know it's not what you've seen before. It's the original cast," said Nikki Rocco, head of distribution for Universal. "For the audience, the first main reason to see the movie was the action, then the car racing, then Vin Diesel."

"Fast & Furious" paced Hollywood to another huge weekend, with overall revenues at $160 million, up 68 percent from the same period last year.

For the year, domestic revenues are running at a record pace of $2.57 billion, up 14.5 percent from 2008's, according to Media By Numbers. Factoring in 2009's higher ticket prices, movie attendance is running 12.8 percent ahead of last year's.

"The title of this movie perfectly describes the box office year of 2009. Fast and furious," Dergarabedian said.

Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "Fast & Furious," $72.5 million.
2. "Monsters vs. Aliens," $33.5 million.
3. "The Haunting in Connecticut," $9.6 million.
4. "Knowing," $8.1 million.
5. "I Love You, Man," $7.9 million.
6. "Adventureland," $6 million.
7. "Duplicity," $4.3 million.
8. "Race to Witch Mountain," $3.4 million.
9. "12 Rounds," $2.3 million.
10. "Sunshine Cleaning," $1.9 million.

Woody Allen takes Manhattan again

LAS VEGAS - Woody Allen is back on familiar ground with his latest movie, the first shot in his beloved New York City after four made in Europe.

And for "Whatever Works," Allen has found a suitable mouthpiece for his cynical humour in Larry David, star of "Curb Your Enthusiasm."

The film received a warm reception and a lot of laughs at a screening Thursday at ShoWest, an annual convention of theatre owners. "Whatever Works" opens the Tribeca Film Festival on April 22 in advance of its theatrical debut in June.

Allen had shot most of his films in New York before doing three straight in London - "Match Point," "Scoop" and "Cassandra's Dream" - then making last year's "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" in Spain, which featured Allen's frequent collaborator, Scarlett Johansson.

Patricia Clarkson, who had a small role in "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" and takes on a key part in "Whatever Works," said the New York shoot was a pleasure - since she lives there, too.

"It was so nice to be shooting with Woody Allen in New York. It was divine," said Clarkson, who introduced "Whatever Works" to the ShoWest crowd. "There were a couple of days I walked to work. It was beautiful.

"He was definitely on his own turf," Clarkson said. "When we were shooting in Barcelona, it was like shooting with Mick Jagger. I mean, the streets were lined wherever we went for Scarlett and for Woody. It was like they were rock stars. In New York, the crowds gather, but I think because it's Woody, they're actually respectful of him."

"Whatever Works" casts David as a brilliant, misanthropic physicist whose dour outlook drives him to failed suicide attempts. After splitting with his worldly wife and giving up his teaching job, he becomes a cranky chess instructor in a May-December relationship with a naive southern beauty (Evan Rachel Wood), whose mother (Clarkson) schemes to split them up.

David delivers nicely as the sort of eccentric New Yorker that Allen has played himself in past films. But David is more than a stand-in for Allen, Clarkson said.

"They are kissing cousins. They are kindred spirits, absolutely," Clarkson said. "But Larry David is very different in the film. He's very different than he is on 'Curb Your Enthusiasm.' People think he's absolutely that person on 'Curb Your Enthusiasm,' but he's a different man, and he's different in the Woody Allen film.

"It's Larry's own DNA mixed with Woody's writing. Those are two powerful DNAs mixing. It's inspired."

Another Ghostbusters Sequel Update

About a month ago, Dan Ackroyd gave an update on the next Ghostbusters movie. Now another star and co-writer from the original movies is offering his take on the new sequel, and when we can expect it.

Harold Ramis, Egon Spengler for those familiar with the jumpsuit-wearing Ghostbusters characters, talked with MTV’s Splash Page about that long-talked about sequel. His take is pretty similar to Ackroyd’s: the sequel is coming, the script is underway, and the original players will all be involved, albeit passing the torch to new characters.

"We're all going to be in it in different kinds of roles. We're going to be the sage mentors. There are going to be young Ghostbusters," Ramis declared. When he says “we” he means all of the originals, even the notoriously difficult Bill Murray. "Bill Murray is just waiting for the truckload of money to arrive to get him out of his office," Ramis jabbed, before turning a bit more serious. "I haven't talked to him about it. I want to talk to him about it eventually. I think we just need a script, because he's the thorniest of the group."

As for who those younger Ghostbusters will be, Ramis pointed out that rumors have been going on as far back as including Chris Farley in the cast (along with Ben Stiller, and Chris Rock). The truth is nobody’s been cast, and the movie is still in the script phase, with Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky handling the script duties while Ramis, Ackroyd, and director Ivan Reitman serve as consultants.

The actors aren’t the only thing up in the air for the third movie in the series. Reitman is not planning on returning to direct, nor does Ramis want the task, leaving the director’s chair open. With Judd Apatow already signed on to produce, somehow I don’t think finding a director is going to be all that difficult.

'Monsters vs. Aliens' hurtles to $58.2M debut

LOS ANGELES – Movie beasts from old-time Hollywood got a makeover as heroes and conquered the weekend box office.

DreamWorks Animation's action comedy "Monsters vs. Aliens," which features creatures from 1950s flicks in a showdown with invading extraterrestrials, launched itself into the No. 1 spot with a $58.2 million debut, according to studio estimates Sunday.

It was the biggest debut so far in 2009, topping the $55.2 million first weekend of "Watchmen" in early March.

Opening in second place was Lionsgate's ghost story "The Haunting in Connecticut" with $23 million in ticket sales.

The previous weekend's top movie, Summit Entertainment's apocalyptic thriller "Knowing," slipped to third with $14.7 million, raising its 10-day total to $46.2 million.

The big opening for "Monsters vs. Aliens" boosted Hollywood revenues after a couple of down weekends. Movies overall pulled in about $148 million, up 39 percent from the same weekend a year ago, according to box-office tracker Media By Numbers.

For the year, revenues have reached $2.38 billion, up 12 percent from 2008's, according to Media By Numbers. Accounting for this year's higher ticket prices, movie attendance is up 10.4 percent.

Hollywood historically weathers recessions well given the relative low cost of movies compared with other entertainment such as concerts or sports events. But the declining revenues of the previous two weekends showed that audiences will not run out to just any old flick, said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media By Numbers.

"The recession offers a framework from which movies can do well for people looking to escape," Dergarabedian said. "But they have to want to escape to these movies. The appeal has to be there, and it clearly was for `Monsters vs. Aliens.'"

Reese Witherspoon leads the cast of "Monsters vs. Aliens," providing vocals for a woman who grows to nearly 50 feet after an encounter with a meteor. The voice cast also includes Seth Rogen, Kiefer Sutherland, Hugh Laurie, Will Arnett and Stephen Colbert.

"Monsters vs. Aliens" was the latest success story for digital 3-D projection. While the 2,080 3-D screens accounted for just 28 percent of the roughly 7,300 on which the movie played, they made up 56 percent of its total box-office haul, said Anne Globe, head of marketing for DreamWorks Animation.

Tickets for 3-D movies typically cost a few dollars more than the 2-D version.
"Audiences donned 3-D glasses in the biggest way ever," Globe said. "`Monsters vs. Aliens' serves as valuable proof of concept for the next generation of 3-D."
The company plans to offer 3-D versions of all of its future animated films, including next year's "How to Train Your Dragon" and "Shrek Goes Fourth," the third sequel to the blockbuster ogre franchise.

Other upcoming 3-D releases this year include Pixar Animation's "Up" and James Cameron's sci-fi adventure "Avatar."

Large-screen IMAX theaters showing "Monsters vs. Aliens" in 3-D accounted for $5.2 million of the movie's overall grosses. Those 143 IMAX theaters represented only about 2 percent of the screens on which the movie played but contributed 9 percent of its total box office.

Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "Monsters vs. Aliens," $58.2 million.
2. "The Haunting in Connecticut," $23 million.
3. "Knowing," $14.7 million.
4. "I Love You, Man," $12.6 million.
5. "Duplicity," $7.6 million.
6. "Race to Witch Mountain," $5.6 million.
7. "12 Rounds," $5.3 million.
8. "Watchmen," $2.755 million.
9. "Taken," $2.75 million.
10. "The Last House on the Left," $2.6 million.

Warner Bros. launches 'on demand' DVD sales

One of Hollywood's biggest movie vaults is about to be opened wide.

Warner Bros. is launching an innovative "on demand" DVD initiative in which fans eventually will be able to order any of the 6,800 theatrical features in the studio's library not available on disc and receive a custom-made DVD within a week for $20.

Only about 1,200 films in the Warner library have been released on DVD, large part because of space constraints at retail. "This news is going to make a lot of people really happy," says George Feltenstein, senior vice president of theatrical catalog marketing at Warner Home Video.

The Warner Archive Collection launches today (warnerarchive.com) with an initial slate of 150 films that have never been on DVD, such as 1943's Mr. Lucky, with Cary Grant and Laraine Day, and 1962's All Fall Down with Warren Beatty and Eva Marie Saint. The oldest film in this first wave is the 1923 silent scorcher Souls for Sale; the newest is 1986's Wisdom, with Demi Moore and Emilio Estevez.

Plans call for 20 or more classic films and TV shows to be added each month, Feltenstein says. To order films, consumers go to the website, select titles and place orders, which are manufactured and shipped in shrink-wrapped plastic cases identical to those of commercial DVDs. Consumers also will be able to order films digitally, downloaded directly to their computers, for $15.

"Our goal is to eventually open up our entire vault," Feltenstein says. "We've been working on this for three years. I've always said it would be great if people could buy anything in our library, and now the time has come, because the technology finally exists."

As a general rule, films considered for release are evaluated by how well they did in the VHS era, which saw about 4,100 movies from Warner's library released on videocassette over a span of more than 20 years. Other factors include the availability of good-quality prints, consumer requests and interest on the black market.

"Some films that are not available on DVD have gotten a lot of bootlegging," Feltenstein says. "We track that on the Internet."

Initially, special features will be limited to original theatrical trailers, but down the road additional extras might be added, Feltenstein says. "Right now, our focus is to get some of these movies that have been sitting in the vaults for years out there to the public, so that by Christmas we'll have at least 350 films available," Feltenstein says.

That's music to the ears of film aficionados such as Mike Weldon, 64, of Costa Mesa, Calif. "I think it's great, because there are a lot of movies out there we just don't get exposure to anymore," he says. "There are films I'd like to own and see every few months, but I just can't find them anywhere."

Scanning the initial list of titles, Weldon points to Homecoming, a 1948 romantic drama from MGM starring Clark Gable and Lana Turner. "Here's one right now," he says. "I've been looking for that everywhere."

Sci-fi thriller "Knowing" tops weekend box office

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The science-fiction adventure "Knowing," starring Nicolas Cage, grossed an estimated $24.8 million in its first three days in theaters to top the North American box office this weekend, according to studio figures on Sunday.

"Knowing," which features Cage as an astrophysicist racing to save the world from impending doom, easily beat out two other movies opening in wide release -- the male-bonding comedy "I Love You, Man" and the spy thriller "Duplicity," co-starring Julia Roberts and Clive Owen.

"I Love You, Man," featuring Paul Rudd and Jason Segel, opened at No. 2 with just over $18 million in U.S. and Canadian ticket sales estimated for Friday through Sunday.

"Duplicity" was No. 3 with $14.4 million in receipts, according to numbers compiled by box office tracking service Media By Numbers.

Last weekend's top movie, "Race to Witch Mountain," fell to fourth place with receipts of $13 million, while the superhero film "Watchmen" rounded out the top five at $6.7 million.

Vulcans 'deserve their day in the sun,' says Spock

CALGARY–Mr. Spock would never admit to any emotion, but the actor who portrayed the very logical character is peeved about a decision not to show the premiere of the new Star Trek movie in a southern Alberta town.

Leonard Nimoy thinks Star Trek XI should go where no film has gone before.

A mission by the town of Vulcan, southeast of Calgary, to beam in the movie on opening day May 8 appeared to have failed this week when Paramount Pictures said it couldn't work out details.

The community with the same name as Spock's birthplace has used that connection to develop itself as a tourist attraction.

And now Spock has returned to help his people.

"It seems to me that someone at Paramount should show some interest and not take this lightly. This is a serious issue," Nimoy said in a phone interview from Los Angeles with The Canadian Press.

"The people of my home planet of Vulcan are not happy about this. I won't say they're sad or upset because that would express emotion but they think it's illogical that somehow Paramount could not arrange to get a screening of the movie up there in Vulcan," he said, laughing.

Nimoy, who played Mr. Spock in the original series as well as several Star Trek movies, only learned of Vulcan, Alta.'s existence when he saw the story about its failed bid Thursday on the Internet.

He said he's been sending emails to Paramount every couple of hours in an attempt to force the movie giant to do something for the town.

"I got the word out to Paramount that there's an issue here that should be dealt with," he said. "The Paramount press people are aware of it and hopefully the word will filter into the proper offices and somebody will do something about it."

"My position is if they can produce this gigantic movie and get it done with all the physical requirements that are involved in making this film, they can find some way to show it in Alberta, Canada," Nimoy added.

"The people of Vulcan deserve their day in the sun."

Nimoy has a small part in Star Trek XI, which focuses on Mr. Spock and Capt. James T. Kirk's early years, and is scheduled to premiere on stardate 05-08-09, otherwise known as May 8.

Vulcan pulled out all the stops to try to gain the premiere or even a sneak peak of the movie. It even launched a Facebook site which now boasts over 1,500 members.

"This is the voyage of a small town's quest for the Star Trek XI movie premiere," begins a video on the Facebook site with the Star Trek theme playing in the background.

"Our Mission – to showcase our Star Trek spirit, to help Hollywood showcase the new Star Trek movie and to host a spectacular event that brings Spock home to Vulcan, Alta."

Dayna Dickens, tourism co-ordinator for Vulcan, was nearly speechless over Mr. Spock's endorsement and had an embarrassing admission.

"I got a call from Leonard Nimoy this morning but I ... seriously thought it was a prank call," she sighed.

"We get calls from people pretending to be Montgomery Scott (Scotty) and Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock. I always respond professionally and I will play along to a certain extent. But I can't believe this. Wow."

Nimoy laughed when told that Dickens questioned the authenticity of his call and noted she did appear a "bit guarded". He said he will not be beaming in any reinforcements from the old Star Trek cast including Canadian-born William Shatner.

"No, I think this is strictly a Vulcan project but Zachary Quinto, who plays the young Spock, he might be interested. I'll have to talk to him," said Nimoy.

Vulcan held its first Vul-con convention in 1993. Two years later, the town unveiled its own Star Ship FX6-1995-A to welcome visitors. A plaque includes greetings written in English, Vulcan and Klingon.

Another sign welcomes visitors with the Vulcan motto "Live Long and Prosper." There's also a space-themed visitors centre and, in an odd combination of Prairie tradition and outer space zeal, there's also the annual Spock Days Rodeo.

Nimoy, who also starred in the popular series, In Search Of, said he has a soft spot for the Star Trek series and his alter ego.

"I care a lot. It's been very good to me and I have to be good in return," he said.

"It has given me a great life, creative opportunities. I have no disappointment, no anger, no frustration and I am very grateful."

Natasha Richardson mourned as a 'wonderful woman'

NEW YORK – Tributes have begun to pour in from across the show business generations for Natasha Richardson, the Tony Award-winning actress who died after suffering a head injury on a ski slope.

"She was a wonderful woman and actress and treated me like I was her own," said Lindsay Lohan, who as a preteen starred with Richardson in a remake of "The Parent Trap" in 1998. "My heart goes out to her family. This is a tragic loss."

Actress Judi Dench told the BBC that Richardson was "a really great actress" who had "an incredibly luminous quality, that you seldom see, and a great sense of humor."

"It's just so shocking, really shocking, and I hope that everybody leaves the family quietly to somehow pick up the pieces," Dench said.

Sam Mendes, who produced the Broadway musical "Cabaret" for which Richardson won a Tony, said, "It defies belief that this gifted, brave, tenacious, wonderful woman is gone."

Richardson fell during a private lesson Monday at a ski resort in Quebec. She was not wearing a helmet. The 45-year-old actress was seemingly fine afterward, but about an hour later, she complained that she didn't feel well. She was hospitalized Tuesday in Montreal and later flown to a hospital in New York.

Alan Nierob, the Los Angeles-based publicist for Richardson's husband, Liam Neeson, confirmed her death Wednesday without giving details on the cause.

There were no details on funeral arrangements.

Neeson and Richardson's sister, actress Joely Richardson, were seen leaving Lenox Hill hospital Wednesday. Actress Lauren Bacall also visited the hospital.

Yves Coderre, director of operations at the emergency services company that sent paramedics to the Mont Tremblant resort where Richardson suffered her fall, told The Globe and Mail newspaper Wednesday the paramedics who responded were told they were not needed.

"They never saw the patient," Coderre told The Globe and Mail. "So they turned around."

Coderre said another ambulance was called later to Richardson's luxury hotel. By that point, her condition had gotten worse and she was rushed to a hospital.

Richardson's career highlights included the film "Patty Hearst" and a Tony-winning performance in a stage revival of "Cabaret."

Richardson was a proper Londoner who came to love the noise of New York, an elegant blonde with large, lively eyes, a bright smile and a hearty laugh.

Jane Fonda on Wednesday recalled meeting a young Richardson on the set of "Julia," the 1977 film Fonda starred in opposite Richardson's mother, Vanessa Redgrave.

"She was a little girl but already beautiful and graceful. It didn't surprise me that she became such a talented actor," Fonda recalled on her blog. "It is hard to even imagine what it must be like for her family. My heart is heavy."

As an actress, Richardson was equally adept at passion and restraint, able to portray besieged women both confessional (Tennessee Williams' Blanche DuBois) and confined (the concubine in the futuristic horror of "The Handmaid's Tale").

Like other family members, she divided her time between stage and screen. On Broadway, she portrayed Sally Bowles in the 1998 revival of "Cabaret." She also appeared in New York in a production of Patrick Marber's "Closer" (1999) as well as the 2005 revival of Tennessee Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire," in which she played Blanche opposite John C. Reilly's Stanley Kowalski.

She met Neeson when they made their Broadway debuts in 1993, co-starring in "Anna Christie," Eugene O'Neill's drama about a former prostitute and the sailor who falls in love with her.

The New York Times critic Frank Rich called her "astonishing" and said she "gives what may prove to be the performance of the season."

Her most notable film roles came earlier in her career. Richardson played the title character in Paul Schrader's "Patty Hearst," a 1988 biopic about the kidnapped heiress for which the actress became so immersed that even between scenes she wore a blindfold, the better to identify with her real-life counterpart.

Richardson was directed again by Schrader in a 1990 adaptation of Ian McEwan's "The Comfort of Strangers" and, also in 1990, starred in the screen version of Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale."

She later co-starred with Neeson in "Nell" and with Mia Farrow in "Widows' Peak." More recent movies, none of them widely seen, included "Wild Child," "Evening" and "Asylum."

Richardson was born in London in 1963, the performing gene inherited not just from her parents (Redgrave and director Tony Richardson), but from her maternal grandparents (Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson), an aunt (Lynn Redgrave) and an uncle (Corin Redgrave). Her younger sister, Joely Richardson, also joined the family business.

She also is survived by two sons, Micheal, 13, and Daniel, 12.

Friends and family members remembered Natasha as an unusually poised child, perhaps forced to grow up early when her father left her mother in the late '60s for Jeanne Moreau. (Tony Richardson died in 1991).

Interviewed by The Associated Press in 2001, Natasha Richardson said she related well to her family if only because, "We've all been through it in one way or another and so we've had to be strong. Also we embrace life. We are not cynical about life."

Her screen debut came at 4, when she appeared as a flower girl in "The Charge of the Light Brigade," directed by her father, whose movies included "Tom Jones" and "The Entertainer." The show business wand had already tapped her the year before, when she saw her mother in the 1967 film version of the Broadway show "Camelot."

"She was so beautiful. I still look at that movie and I can't believe it. It still makes me cry, the beauty of it," Richardson said.

She studied at London's Central School of Speech and Drama and was an experienced stage actress by her early 20s, appearing in "On the Razzle," "Charley's Aunt" and "The Seagull," for which the London Drama Critics awarded her most promising newcomer.

She and her mother acted together, most recently on Broadway to play the roles of mother and daughter in a one-night benefit concert version of "A Little Night Music," the Stephen Sondheim-Hugh Wheeler musical.

Before meeting up with Neeson, Richardson was married to producer Robert Fox, whose credits include the 1985 staging of "The Seagull" in which his future wife appeared.

She sometimes remarked on the differences between her and her second husband — she from a theatrical dynasty and he from a working-class background in Northern Ireland.

"He's more laid back, happy to see what happens, whereas I'm a doer and I plan ahead," Richardson told The Independent on Sunday newspaper in 2003. "The differences sometimes get in the way but they can be the very things that feed a marriage, too."

She once said that Neeson's serious injury in a 2000 motorcycle accident — he suffered a crushed pelvis after colliding with a deer in upstate New York — had made her really appreciate life.

"I wake up every morning feeling lucky — which is driven by fear, no doubt, since I know it could all go away," she told The Daily Telegraph newspaper in 2003.

Brad Pitt, Natalie Portman find 'Important Artifacts'

Brad Pitt and Natalie Portman want you to buy what they're sellin'.

Pitt and Portman have signed on for the adaptation of Leanne Sharpton's (deep breath) "Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion, and Jewelry," according to Variety. The transition from Sharpton's novel to the big screen should be interesting, to say the least: "Important Artifacts" reveals the characters not through narrative but via a mock auction catalog, leaving readers to explore the relationship based on the items for sale and their descriptions.

Instead, Variety says the film will be a romantic comedy with Pitt and Portman in the title roles.

Pitt, 45, will co-star this year in Quentin Tarantino's "Inglorious Basterds." Portman, 27, last starred opposite Scarlett Johansson in "The Other Boleyn Girl."

Salma Hayek back acting in Adam Sandler comedy

LOS ANGELES (AFP) – Actress Salma Hayek will return to movie screens in a comedy alongside Adam Sandler, after a break in which she was producing and acting for television, Hollywood media reported Wednesday.

Hayek joins funnyman Sandler and his fellow former "Saturday Night Live" stars Chris Rock, Rob Schneider and David Spade in a comedy about best friends from high school who reunite 30 years later, according to Variety.

The 42-year-old star of "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" and "Traffic" has been devoting time to producing the US TV series "Ugly Betty" and guest-starring in the Golden Globe-winning "30 Rock."

Sandler co-wrote the new project and his "Happy Gilmore" director Dennis Dugan is onboard, said the Hollywood press. It will start shooting in the coming months, ready for release in 2010.

Hayek wed French businessman Francois-Henri Pinault last month in Paris. The couple have an infant daughter together.

She became famous after starring in a telenovela in her native Mexico when she was 22 years old, before moving to Hollywood.

Hayek has also starred in the action flicks "Desperado" and "Wild Wild West" and appeared in "Dogma." Her role as the eccentric Mexican painter Frida Kahlo in the film "Frida" earned Hayek a best actress nomination at the 2003 Oscars.

'Transformers 3,' 'Thor' get new release dates

The Autobots and Decepticons will battle it out again, this time over Independence Day weekend in 2011.

Paramount has given "Transformers 3" a coveted July 1 release date for that year, despite the lack of director, script or signed stars, sources say. Despite opening the weekend after July 4, the first installment pulled in more than $70 million. "Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen" won't be waiting for the fireworks: It hits theaters on June 24 this year.

Marvel's "Thor," meanwhile, will move to May 20, 2011. Just last week, the movie was pushed back a year from its original 2010 spot.

'Witch Mountain' races to top spot at box office

LOS ANGELES – Disney's "Race to Witch Mountain" raced to No. 1 at the weekend box office, bypassing expectations with $25 million in ticket sales.

The PG-rated sci-fi flick starring Dwayne Johnson as a cab driver with a pair of alien teenagers along for the ride topped the R-rated superhero epic "Watchmen," which earned $18.1 million in its second week.

Mark Zoradi, president of Disney's motion-picture group, said analysts had predicted that "Race to Witch Mountain," director Andy Fickman's re-imagination of the 1975 live-action film "Escape to Witch Mountain," would fly away with $20 million or less. Now he expects this "Witch Mountain" to maintain a high orbit in theaters with kids on spring break.

"I think audiences this weekend were really drawn to the action adventure of 'Race to Witch Mountain,'" said Zoradi. "There was also this element of parents over 30 who remembered the original and were drawn to this one, so I think that combination is what helped us exceed what folks in the industry thought this movie was going to do."

Ticket sales for "Watchmen" plummeted 67 percent from last weekend's $55.2 million debut, according to studio estimates Sunday. Jeff Goldstein, Warner Bros. executive vice president of distribution, said the studio anticipated the big dip for director Zack Snyder's comic book adaptation about a team of subversive superheros.

"It's very common with higher profile, highly anticipated movies," said Goldstein.
Also opening this weekend in wide release was "The Last House on the Left," the Universal horror remake, which turned up at No. 3 with $14.7 million in ticket sales, and "Miss March," the Fox Atomic comedy in the No. 10 spot with $2.4 million. 20th Century Fox's thriller "Taken" remained at No. 4 with $6.7 million in its seventh weekend in theaters.

Factoring in 2009's higher admission prices, the weekend box office total was down 16 percent compared with last year, making it the first down weekend in six weeks. Paul Dergarabedian, president of box office tracker Media By Numbers, does not believe the shift signals the end of 2009's otherwise stellar year at the box office.

"I don't think this down weekend reflects any kind of lack of interest by the audience," Dergarabedian said. "I think it has to do with 'Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who' opening a year ago with $45 million. That's really a tough comparison. Not every weekend this year is going to be up when you have some strong openings like that from last year."

Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "Race to Witch Mountain," $25 million.
2. "Watchmen," $18.1 million.
3. "The Last House on the Left," $14.7 million.
4. "Taken," $6.7 million.
5. "Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail," $5.1 million.
6. "Slumdog Millionaire," $5 million.
7. "Paul Blart: Mall Cop," $3.1 million.
8. "He's Just Not That Into You," $2.9 million.
9. "Coraline," $3.3 million.
10. "Miss March," $2.4 million.

Marvel delays "Thor," "Avengers"

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – The superheroes will take just a little longer to arrive on the scene.

Marvel Entertainment said Thursday it was pushing back by a year a pair of key properties in its comic book franchises "Thor" and "Avengers."

"Thor" will now come out on June 17, 2011 (it had previously been scheduled for July 16, 2010), while "Avengers" will hit theaters May 4, 2012 (it had been slotted for July 15, 2011).

Marvel Studios chairman David Maisel said the move "maximizes the visibility of our single character-focused films, leading to the highly anticipated release of the multicharacter 'The Avengers' film in 2012."

It's likely, however, that the studio wanted to ensure at least one tentpole in as many years as possible. Under the previous schedule, it had nothing slated for 2012. Also, as Maisel suggested, the move gives maximum runway for the characters leading up to "Avengers," which will wrap in roles for many of its top-tier characters.

Had it let the previous dates stand, it would have seen the bunching of two properties (Iron Man and Thor) in 2010 and then three (Captain America, Spider-Man and the multicharacter Avengers) in 2011. Under the new schedule, it will space out the characters more: just one (Iron Man) in 2010, Spider-Man, Thor and Captain America in 2011, and Avengers in 2012.

The studio also announced that it was pushing the release of the Captain America picture, titled "The First Avenger: Captain America," back several months, from May 6, 2011, to July 22, 2011.

That move was not unexpected given that Sony, which is releasing "Spider-Man 4" via its licensing deal with Marvel, is bringing out its picture in May of that year. Marvel clarified on Thursday that that pic will come out on May 6, 2011. It had previously given the month of May but no exact date.

Marvel is pursuing a strategy similar to that of its classic comic books, in which characters frequently cross over between properties. Samuel Jackson recently signed a nine-picture deal to play superhero Nick Fury, who will appear in many of its upcoming pics.

The studio's current priority is "Iron Man 2." Casting is coming together for the project, with Mickey Rourke and Scarlett Johansson recently signing on for the project, which will shoot this year.

ScarJo & Mickey Rourke Help Raise Iron Curtain

(E! Online) – Scarlett Johansson is joining the superhero set.

Her rep confirms that the actress has signed on to play Black Widow in the Iron Man sequel opposite Robert Downey Jr. The deal was signed Wednesday afternoon.

"Scarlett is thrilled to be a part of Iron Man," her rep, Marcel Pariseau, is quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, after months of negotiations...The Wrestler's comeback kid Mickey Rourke has finally sealed a deal to play the villain Whiplash, according to Variety.

Rourke's team had reportedly held out for more money after Marvel's initial offer was just $250,000.

Scheduled for a May 2010 release, part two of the franchise will also include Gwyneth Paltrow returning as Pepper Potts along with Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury and Don Cheadle playing Col. James "Rhodey" Rhodes.

"Watchmen" hits big time at box office

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – "Watchmen," an unorthodox superhero movie that took two decades to reach the big screen, took the No. 1 spot at the weekend box office in North America on Sunday, but fell a little short of expectations.

The adaptation of a cult comic book series sold an estimated $55.7 million in tickets in its first three days, distributor Warner Bros. Pictures said, becoming the biggest opening of the year.

But pundits had expected an opening in the $60 million-plus range, and the tally was considerably lower than the $71 million start two years ago for "300," the previous film from "Watchmen" director Zack Snyder. The ancient battle epic holds the record for a March opening. "Watchmen" ranks at No. 3.

"Our expectations were met," said Dan Fellman, president of domestic theatrical distribution at the Time Warner Inc-owned studio.

He said the film's 161-minute running-time inevitably affected business, restricting theaters to one main evening screening. Male moviegoers accounted for about two-thirds of the audience, with the "sweet spot" aged between 17 and 35, Fellman said.

The occasionally gruesome film, which cost about $120 million to make, revolves around a team of crime-fighters targeted in a dastardly plot with dangerous implications for mankind.

OBSCURE ACTORS, CHARACTERS

A relatively unknown cast plays a similarly obscure lineup of characters, including the vigilante Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley), the naked blue giant Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup), and the occasionally topless Silk Spectre (Malin Akerman).

The project is based on the sprawling 1980s "Watchmen" comic books by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, which were long considered unfilmable because of their multiple characters, violence, digressions and abundance of dialogue.

That did not stop studios such as Twentieth Century Fox and Paramount Pictures from attempting adaptations. Warner Bros. came aboard in late 2005, and brought on Snyder who was working on the effects-heavy "300" at the time.

But all the hard work on "Watchmen" was almost ruined earlier this year by a last-minute legal challenge from Fox, which claimed it held the distribution rights. Under a settlement announced in January, the News Corp-owned studio will take 8.5 percent of gross profits.

Warner Bros. is already sharing profits with closely held financier Legendary Pictures, its partner on "The Dark Knight," and foreign distributor Paramount. The Viacom Inc-owned studio opened the film simultaneously in much of the world. Sales data were not immediately available.

Top critics were largely underwhelmed by "Watchmen," according to Rotten Tomatoes (http://www.rottentomatoes.com), a web site that aggregates reviews.

After two weekends at No. 1, "Madea Goes to Jail" slipped to a distant No. 2 with $8.8 million, taking its 17-day haul to $76.5 million, a record for prolific actor/writer/director Tyler Perry. The black-themed comedy was released by Lionsgate, a unit of Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.

Fox's unstoppable Liam Neeson thriller "Taken" rose one place to No. 3 with $7.5 million in its sixth weekend. It has earned $118 million to date.

Previewing Hollywood's spring movies

Optimism may be a scarce commodity in most quarters of the economy right now but hope springs eternal in the movie business. The box office was booming through the first months of the year and Hollywood's hoping that it can stave off a slump as it readies a huge slate of releases for the spring movie season.

But what with a new U.S. president in office and folks everywhere facing the worst economic conditions in decades, these movies are entering a far different world than their makers might have expected. How will they fit with viewers' new demands and expectations? Do audiences want escapist fluff or opportunities to vent their anger and anxiety?

All that seems certain is that middle-aged action heroes are in (the Liam Neeson flick Taken was a surprise smash) and crass displays of consumerism are out (sorry, Confessions of a Shopaholic).

Here's a list of the movies coming soon to theatres and how they might fare in light of the current crisis.

MARCH 13

Race to Witch Mountain

Who's in it: Dwayne Johnson, AnnaSophia Robb, Carla Gugino

What it's about: In this remake/reboot of the Disney science-fiction series spawned by the books by Alexander Key, two mysteriously gifted teens and their reluctant protector race to prevent an alien invasion.

Recession ready: Yes – the highway chase scenes are rendered plausible again due to depressed gas prices. Our interplanetary visitors may also have some valuable advice about alternate energy sources.

Gomorrah

Who's in it: Toni Servillo, Gianfelice Imparato, Salvatore Cantalupo

What it's about: A defiantly unglamorous sort of mob movie, this Cannes prize winner from Italy exposes the inner workings of a crime syndicate in Naples.

Recession ready: Definitely. Thoughtful viewers will appreciate Gomorrah's bracing portrayal of the ways that greed and criminality turn an economy toxic.

MARCH 20

Duplicity

Who's in it: Julia Roberts, Clive Owen, Paul Giamatti

What it's about: Two corporate spies (and ex-lovers) team up to get back at a company that burned them in writer-director Tony Gilroy's follow-up to Michael Clayton.

Recession ready: Not as much as it seems. Gilroy's film is poised to capitalize on viewers' anger at corporate weasels but the poor performance of The International doesn't bode well for biz-minded thrillers.

MARCH 27

Monsters vs. Aliens

Who's in it: Voices of Reese Witherspoon, Paul Rudd, Hugh Laurie

What it's about: In this 3-D animated feature from the DreamWorks team behind Shrek and A Shark's Tale, a ragtag crew of mutant humans helps defend the Earth from – you guessed it – an alien invasion.

Recession ready: Hollywood bean-counters are banking on ever-improving digital 3-D technology to turn young viewers (and their parents) into loyal ticket buyers.

Before Tomorrow

Who's in it: Peter-Henry Arnatsiaq, Madeline Ivalu, Paul-Dylan Ivalu

What it's about: Named the best Canadian first feature at TIFF last September, the latest production by the team behind Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner) tells of an elderly Inuit woman and her grandson who struggle to survive in the Far North after their community is devastated.

Recession ready: Yes. The depiction of the pair's hardships in the Arctic is a vital reminder of what people can endure (though maybe not for very long).

APRIL 3

Adventureland

Who's in it: Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Ryan Reynolds

What it's about: Young amusement-park employees get up to no good in this comedy by Superbad director Greg Mottola.

Recession ready: Fer sure. Adventureland's nostalgic '80s setting removes it from the stresses of the here and now.

Fast & Furious

Who's in it: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez

What it's about: The stars of the original The Fast and the Furious movie reunite to bring down a heroin operation and to race some more hot cars.

Recession ready: Looks dicey – the withering auto market could spell doom for this car-crazy franchise. Plus, real-life tragedies due to illegal street racing have made the phony kind a lot less sexy.

APRIL 10

Hunger

Who's in it: Michael Fassbender, Liam Cunningham, Stuart Graham

What it's about: The debut feature by video artist Steve McQueen recounts the circumstances surrounding the early-1980s hunger strike by Bobby Sands and other members of the IRA.

Recession ready: Yes. Major awards from TIFF, Cannes and nearly everywhere else make Hunger one of the movies of the moment.

Even so, its horrific images of brutality and suffering are tough to take at any time.

Observe and Report

Who's in it: Seth Rogen, Anna Faris, Ray Liotta

What it's about: A dim-witted mall security guard gets a chance to shine when he becomes part of a police operation to catch a flasher.

Recession ready: More so than you'd think. The surprise success of Paul Blart: Mall Cop suggests that viewers still have warm feelings for shopping malls despite not having any money to spend.

APRIL 17

17 Again

Who's in it: Matthew Perry, Zac Efron, Leslie Mann

What it's about: An unhappy man gets a chance to rewrite his life story when he's mysteriously transformed back into his teenage self.

Recession ready: Weirdly so – what with unemployment rising and expectations sinking, it already feels like we've been transported back to 1976, the same year that audiences flocked to see Freaky Friday or 1988 for Big – other tales of youth regained.

Crank: High Voltage

Who's in it: Jason Statham, Dwight Yoakam, David Carradine

What it's about: Despite dying at the end of its over-adrenalized 2006 predecessor – regarded by action fans as the best of Statham's star vehicles – Chev Chelios is back for more abuse as he hunts the baddies who have his heart – literally.

Recession ready: Damn straight – if this sequel even has half of the ridiculous velocity of the original Crank, that'll be more than enough to take your mind off your woes.

APRIL 24

The Soloist

Who's in it: Robert Downey Jr., Jamie Foxx, Catherine Keener

What it's about: In this adaptation of the memoir by Steve Lopez, a reporter befriends a Juilliard-trained violinist he discovers living on skid row in Los Angeles.

Recession ready: Better now than last fall. Though The Soloist's postponement from its November release date was interpreted as a sign of trouble, this story of small triumphs in hard times may actually benefit from our tough new economic climate.

MAY 1

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Who's in it: Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Danny Huston

What it's about: A sensitive young mutant – a French Canadian in the original Marvel comic, though he's since been Americanized – copes with life with an indestructible metal skeleton.

Recession ready: Looking good. The all-pervasive atmosphere of dread is likely to encourage viewers' fondness for internally conflicted movie heroes, a trend already established with the popularity of The Dark Knight's Batman, James Bond and Jason Bourne.

The Ghost of Girlfriends Past

Who's in it: Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner, Emma Stone

What it's about: An incorrigible ladies' man gets a supernatural kind of comeuppance when he is taught some harsh lessons by the ghosts of former girlfriends on the eve of his younger brother's wedding.

Recession ready: Women think so. The healthy box office for female-targeted films like Mamma Mia! and He's Just Not That Into You have helped keep the studios in the black. What's more, McConaughey's charms are powerful enough to make hits even out of movies as awful as Fool's Gold and Failure to Launch.

MAY 8

Star Trek

Who's in it: Chris Pine, Zachary Pinto, Simon Pegg

What it's about: J.J. Abrams and his young cast boldly go where umpteen Star Trek TV shows and feature films have gone before. That said, the Enterprise crew's new mission could freshen up a moribund franchise.

Recession ready: Fanboys think so, plus, the multiracial cast and Obama-appropriate emphasis on hope and cooperation may capture the zeitgeist more successfully than other new blockbusters.

Adoration

Who's in it: Scott Speedman, Arsinee Khanjian, Rachel Blanchard

What it's about: A Toronto teen's phony claims to be the offspring of would-be bombers sparks an inquiry into the real history of his parents' tragic demise.

Recession ready: Atom Egoyan hopes so. The latest feature by the local auteur marks a return to some favourite themes and a more modest scale after the big-budget misfire of Where the Truth Lies.

MAY 15

Angels and Demons

Who's in it: Tom Hanks, Ewan McGregor, Stellan Skarsgard

What it's about: In this follow-up to The Da Vinci Code (presented as a sequel here, though Dan Brown's original book was actually that bestseller's predecessor), more of the Vatican's best-guarded secrets are brought to light by intrepid professor Robert Langdon.

Recession ready: Iffy. Recent troubles have made many people more interested in spiritual matters than in sinister conspiracies.

MAY 22

Terminator Salvation

Who's in it: Christian Bale, Sam Worthington, Bryce Dallas Howard

What it's about: The science-fiction franchise launched by James Cameron's 1984 hit enters its latest incarnation by returning to the early days of warfare between humans and machines.

Recession ready: We refuse to speculate lest we incur Bale's fiery wrath.

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

Who's in it: Ben Stiller, Jonah Hill, Robin Williams

What it's about: Statues and dioramas get lively once again as Stiller and his co-stars cause a ruckus in another American institution.

Recession ready: Yes indeed. A movie ticket still remains far cheaper than an actual visit to Washington, D.C.

MAY 29

The Brothers Bloom

Who's in it: Adrien Brody, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel Weisz

What it's about: In this caper movie by Brick director Rian Johnson, sibling con men meet their match when they try to bilk an heiress who's just as crafty.

Recession ready: Hard to say. The Brothers Bloom might have missed its moment when its release was postponed from last October. And its cool reception at the Toronto International Film Festival the month before suggests that audiences may be wary of these grifter brothers.

And do we really need to be reminded of the Bernie Madoffs of the world?

'Madea' locks up top spot at weekend box office

LOS ANGELES – "Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail" locked up $16.5 million in ticket sales to claim the top spot at the box office for a second straight weekend, beating out "Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience."

The Jonas Brothers film, featuring the band on stage and off, took in $12.7 million, the second-biggest opening for a concert film behind 2008's "Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert." That 3-D film, chronicling fellow Disney idol Miley Cyrus, premiered at the top of the charts after playing in just 683 theaters. "Jonas Brothers" opened in 1,271 theaters.

"'Hannah Montana' set a bar so high it's going to take forever to knock it off," said Chuck Viane, president of distribution for Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. "Everything about it worked. She was coming off a great album and tour and three years on the Disney Channel. I don't think any set of circumstances will ever be quite what 'Hannah' had."

Feisty, pistol-packin' granny Madea remained unstoppable at the box office. The two previous films centering on Perry's foul-mouthed character — 2005's "Diary of Mad Black Woman" and 2006's "Madea's Family Reunion" — also debuted at No. 1, and they grossed more than $150 million total.

"We've been talking a lot lately about people going to the movies to escape," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box office tracker Media By Numbers. "Usually, people want to escape from jail, but people keep wanting to escape to jail with Madea. That character has made a huge mark. If you've got 'Tyler Perry' or 'Madea' in the title, you've got a hit."

"Slumdog Millionaire," riding high after collecting eight Oscars last week, finished third with $12.1 million, bringing its total to $115 million and giving it the biggest post-Academy Awards weekend for a best picture Oscar winner in 10 years.

"I still run into people who haven't seen it," said Sheila DeLoach, senior vice president of distribution at Fox Searchlight. "I'm like 'Hello? Do you live on the planet?' But obviously, there were a lot of people who hadn't seen it yet or we wouldn't have gone up 45 percent this weekend, so it's really terrific."

The week's other new wide release, the video game adaptation "Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li" distributed by 20th Century Fox, opened at No. 8 with $4.6 million.

Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail," $16.5 million.
2. "Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience," $12.7 million.
3. "Slumdog Millionaire," $12.1 million.
4. "Taken," $9.9 million.
5. "He's Just Not That Into You," $5.8 million.
6. "Paul Blart: Mall Cop," $5.6 million.
7. "Coraline," $5.2 million.
8. "Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li," $4.6 million.
9. "Confessions of a Shopaholic," $4.4 million.
10. "Fired Up," 3.8 million.

John Cusack, Rob Corddry Dip Into 'Hot Tub Time Machine'

The star of classic '80s teen films "Say Anything..." and "One Crazy Summer" will pair with Rob Corddry for "Hot Tub Time Machine," according to The Hollywood Reporter. The plot follows four buddies who, missing their wild high-school days, stumble upon the titular device and revisit 1987.

Craig Robinson ("Pineapple Express") and Clark Duke ("Sex Drive") are in talks to round out the group.

Cusack, 42, can be seen this November in end-of-the-world flick "2012." Corddry, 38, co-starred in 2008's "Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay."

'Friday the 13th' nails No. 1 spot with $42.2M

LOS ANGELES – "Friday the 13th" had all the luck as the remake of the 1980 slasher flick opened with $42.2 million, putting blood and guts ahead of hearts over Valentine's Day weekend.

That was a record for the horror genre, topping the $39.1 million debut for 2004's "The Grudge." Accounting for today's higher admission prices, "The Grudge" sold slightly more tickets, however.

Released by the Warner Bros. banner New Line Cinema, "Friday the 13th" updates the grisly story of killer Jason Voorhees and his rampage among youths at a secluded summer camp.

On opening day — which fell on Friday the 13th — the remake pulled in $19.4 million, slightly more than the $19 million it cost to make the movie.

"It's a great title, and it was a great weekend to open. We had Friday the 13th and Valentine's Day," said Dan Fellman, head of distribution for Warner Bros. "I've seen it play a number of times, and the audience is with it the whole way. A lot of screams and a lot of laughs."

The "Friday the 13th" series has been one of the most-enduring horror franchises, spawning 10 sequels, including the crossover grudge match "Freddy Vs. Jason," pitting Voorhees against the boogeyman from "A Nightmare on Elm Street."

The movie bumped off the previous weekend's top earner, the Warner-New Line romance "He's Just Not That Into You," which fell to second-place but held up strongly over Valentine's weekend with $19.6 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

Among other new movies, Disney's comedy "Confessions of a Shopaholic" landed in fourth-place with $15.4 million, while Sony's thriller "The International" is No. 7 with $10 million.

"Confessions of a Shopaholic" stars Isla Fisher as a magazine retail writer coping with her own compulsive buying habits. "The International" features Clive Owen as an Interpol agent and Naomi Watts as a prosecutor uncovering a bank's global misdeeds.

The combination of solid debuts and strong holdovers lifted Hollywood to its best President's Day weekend ever. The three-day overall total of $190 million blew away the previous best of $157.1 million over President's Day weekend in 2007, according to box-office tracker Media By Numbers.

For the year, revenues continue to soar, with revenue at $1.44 billion, up 22 percent through the same point in 2008. Factoring in 2009's higher ticket prices, movie attendance is running 20 percent higher than last year's.

"Hollywood seems to be unstoppable right now. With this notion of the recession helping the box office, I guess this is just another example of that," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media By Numbers. "People want to go to the movies and just have fun and escape. `Friday the 13th,' as scary as your mortgage banker is, Jason's scarier."

Academy Awards front-runner "Slumdog Millionaire" heads into Oscar weekend with sturdy box-office momentum. The Fox Searchlight release took in $7.2 million, raising its 14-week total to $86.5 million.

"Slumdog Millionaire" has dominated at earlier Hollywood honors and is considered the likely best-picture winner at next Sunday's Oscars.

"The awareness for the film just keeps increasing every week," said Richard Shamban, vice president of distribution for Fox Searchlight. "The publicity from the awards themselves will continue to help, win or lose."

Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "Friday the 13th," $42.2 million.
2. "He's Just Not That Into You," $19.6 million.
3. "Taken," $19.3 million.
4. "Confessions of a Shopaholic," $15.4 million.
5. "Coraline," $15.3 million.
6. "Paul Blart: Mall Cop," $11.7 million.
7. "The International," $10 million.
8. "The Pink Panther 2," $9 million.
9. "Slumdog Millionaire," $7.2 million.
10. "Push," $6.9 million.

Adam Sandler Leads Comedy Dream Team

Variety reports Sandler will be joined on his next movie by Kevin James, Chris Rock, Rob Schneider and David Spade. They'll play former high-school classmates who come together during a reunion.

All four have worked separately with Sandler, but this is the first time they've been together in one place. Sandler and James co-starred in "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry"; Rock and Sandler were teammates in "The Longest Yard"; and Spade worked with Sandler in "Chuck and Larry." Schneider has had roles in most of Sandler's movies, most recently "You Don't Mess with the Zohan."

"Dark Knight" director setting up sci-fi movie

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – "Dark Knight" director Christopher Nolan has set up his next movie, an original sci-fi project he hopes to shoot in the summer.

"Inception," which Nolan also wrote, is described as "a contemporary sci-fi actioner set within the architecture of the mind." It will be released in summer 2010 through Warner Bros.

This pushes back any potential filming on a new Batman film, but three years -- and "The Prestige" -- passed between "Batman Begins" and last year's blockbuster "The Dark Knight." Nolan has also long been attached to direct a big-screen adaptation of the British TV series "The Prisoner" at Universal.

'He's Just Not That Into You' woos with $27M debut

LOS ANGELES – Movie fans were into "He's Just Not That Into You" as the ensemble romance got a jump on Valentine's Day to lead the weekend box office with a $27.5 million debut, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The movie whose cast includes Jennifer Aniston, Scarlett Johansson, Ben Affleck, Drew Barrymore and Jennifer Connelly knocked off the previous weekend's top flick, the abduction thriller "Taken," which dropped to second place with $20.3 million.

With Valentine's Day falling in the middle of next weekend, the movie released by the Warner Bros. banner New Line Cinema is positioned for another solid showing, said Dan Fellman, head of distribution for Warner Bros.

"We're really walking into a terrific weekend. The biggest bump you can ever get for a romantic comedy is when Valentine's Day falls on a Saturday," Fellman said. "We'll see the girls, female power, drag the guys back in next Saturday."

"Taken," distributed by 20th Century Fox, raised its 10-day total to $53.4 million, its second-weekend gross dropping just 18 percent from its debut. Top films often can drop 50 percent or more in their second weekend.

Two movies featuring Dakota Fanning opened in the top 10 — Focus Features' animated adventure "Coraline" at No. 3 with $16.3 million and Summit Entertainment's sci-fi thriller "Push" at No. 6 with $10.2 million.

Steve Martin's Inspector Clouseau bumbled through the weekend as "The Pink Panther 2" turned in a so-so $12 million debut to finish at No. 4. The Sony-MGM sequel came in well behind 2006's "The Pink Panther," which premiered with $20.2 million.

Hollywood continued its hot streak as the top 12 movies hauled in $131.4 million, up 46 percent from the same weekend last year, when the romantic comedy "Fool's Gold" was No. 1 with $21.6 million.

Overall revenues are just above $1.2 billion for the year and are running 19.4 percent ahead of 2008's, according to box-office tracker Media By Numbers.

"It seems like every film that's been opening has been doing better than expected, or many of them have," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media By Numbers. "I've not seen the start of a year this strong in my entire career."
Academy Awards front-runner "Slumdog Millionaire" continued to make good on its Oscar buzz, pulling in $7.4 million and raising its total to $77.4 million. The movie passed "Sideways" to take second-place on Fox Searchlight's list of highest-grossing films, behind "Juno" at $143 million.

In narrow release, the Weinstein Co. comedy "Fanboys" opened modestly with $164,000 in 44 theaters, averaging $3,727 a cinema. That compared to an $8,650 average in 3,175 theaters for "He's Just Not That Into You."

Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "He's Just Not That Into You," $27.5 million.
2. "Taken," $20.3 million.
3. "Coraline," $16.3 million.
4. "The Pink Panther 2," $12 million.
5. "Paul Blart: Mall Cop," $11 million.
6. "Push," $10.2 million.
7. "Slumdog Millionaire," $7.4 million.
8. "Gran Torino," $7.2 million.
9. "The Uninvited," $6.4 million.
10. "Hotel for Dogs," $5.8 million.

Sex and the City Sequel: SJP & Co. Make it Official!

(E! Online) – Break out the bubbly—the Sex and the City sequel is finally official!

I can exclusively reveal that all four stars—Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon, Kim Cattrall and Kristin Davis—and writer-director Michael Patrick King have now signed their deals for another round of Carrie Bradshaw & Co.

"Everything was finalized yesterday afternoon," a source reports.

Until now, everyone had agreed to do a sequel, but there were no contracts signed with New Line, the studio behind the megahit.

As it is, King has yet to write a script, but shooting will reportedly begin this summer with a release date sometime in summer 2010.

Reps for the stars and the studio did not immediately comment.

In its first weekend alone, Sex and the City opened with almost $58 million in ticket sales, reportedly making it the biggest R-rated comedy opener ever. Budget to make the movie? A cool $65 million.

Quick recap in case you were one of the few who missed it: When we last left Carrie, she had married Mr. Big even after he left her at the altar. Samantha and her young beau (Jason Lewis) split, while Miranda and Steve (David Eigenberg) patched things up after he cheated on her. Charlotte and Harry (Evan Handler) not only adopted a baby girl, but Charlotte gave birth to a second daughter.

"Taken" captures weekend box office lead

LOS ANGELES – Liam Neeson's CIA thriller "Taken" bumped off "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" at the weekend box office, raking in $24.6 million and helping fuel the first $1 billion January in Hollywood history.

North American box office revenues were up nearly 20 percent in January over the same period last year, reaching a record $1.03 billion for the month. Attendance was up 16 percent over last year, said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media by Numbers.

"This is exactly how you want to start a year," Dergarabedian said Sunday. "I think people feel movies are a good value for their dollar. Going to a movie is a habit people aren't willing to break."

"Taken" follows Neeson as a former CIA operative trying to track down a group of kidnappers who want to sell his daughter into the sex slave trade.

"We are thrilled. It's an all-audience movie," said 20th Century Fox distribution executive Bert Livingston. "When people come out they are going to talk about it. I think it's going to play for a long time."

"Paul Blart: Mall Cop," the Kevin James comedy about a clumsy security guard, had been No. 1 the previous two weeks. Although it dropped to second place, it earned $14 million to boost its three-week total to more than $83 million.

Also opening this weekend was "The Uninvited," a remake of the 2003 South Korean thriller that pits two sisters against their potentially evil stepmother. It earned $10.5 million for third place.

In fourth was "Hotel for Dogs" with $8.7 million, followed by "Gran Torino" with $8.6 million.

"Gran Torino," directed by and starring Clint Eastwood as a bigot who becomes a reluctant neighborhood hero, has now earned more than $110 million, making it Eastwood's highest grossing film.

It surpassed "In the Line of Fire," which starred Eastwood and made $102 million, and "Unforgiven," directed and starring Eastwood, which earned $101 million. "Unforgiven" won Oscars in 1992 for best picture and best director.

"Slumdog Millionaire," which continues to collect honors this awards season, was sixth with $7.7 million, bringing its total to more than $67 million in 12 weeks, as it moves into wider release across the U.S.

Its director, Danny Boyle, won the top honor Saturday night from the Directors Guild of America.

The awards are "adding to the prestige of the film in the marketplace and making it more important for the public to see," said Richard Shamban, vice president of theatrical distribution for the film's distributor, Fox Searchlight.

Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "Taken," $24.6 million.
2. "Paul Blart: Mall Cop," $14 million.
3. "The Uninvited," $10.5 million.
4. "Hotel for Dogs," $8.7 million.
5. "Grand Torino," $8.6 million.
6. "Slumdog Millionaire," $7.7 million.
7. "Underworld: Rise of the Lycans," $7.2 million.
8. "New in Town," $6.7 million.
9. "My Bloody Valentine 3-D," $4.3 million.
10. "Inkheart," $3.7 million.

Laserdisc - Goodbye old friend

Pioneer has closed the doors on it's final three Laserdisc production lines today. Twelve years after the lauch of DVD, Laserdisc graciously made way with class (despite some fearful resistance from the LD owners of that day). So power on your Pioneer Elite today and watch The Godfather Collection, the original Star Wars, Frighteners, The Jaws documentary, Dune or Chasing Amy.

And do you remember: "Leonard Nimoy Demonstrates the Magnavox LaserVision Player".

Good times!!

'Paul Blart: Mall Cop' grabs top box office spot

LOS ANGELES – "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" wasn't ready to turn over his box-office badge this weekend as the film about a bumbling shopping center security guard earned $21.5 million to nab No. 1 for a second week in a row.

The comedy, starring Kevin James as the guard who tries to protect the mall where he works from criminals, has now grossed $64.8 million in its two weeks of release and appears on its way to surpass $100 million.

"It's just a very funny film," said Rory Bruer, president of worldwide distribution for Sony. "It's not only a great family film, it really is a film that everyone loves."

The third installment of the "Underworld" series fared well in its opening weekend. "Underworld: Rise of the Lycans," a prequel that looks at the roots of a feud between vampires and werewolves, made $20.7 million. Its two predecessors — "Underworld" and "Underworld: Evolution" — earned $21.7 million and $26.8 million, respectively, in their opening weekends.

The fantasy adventure "Inkheart" was unable to cast a spell over movie-goers, earning only $7.7 million in its debut. The movie, taken from the best-selling novel by Cornelia Funke, features Brendan Fraser playing a bookbinder with the ability to read characters right out of books and into real life.

"Unfortunately, families didn't come out in larger numbers," said Jeff Goldstein, Warner Bros.' executive vice president of distribution.

Films that received Academy Award nominations this past week had a strong showing at the box office as studios expanded their release.

"Slumdog Millionaire," the drama about a game-show contestant from the slums of Mumbai, earned $10.6 million this weekend as the movie appeared in more than 1,400 theaters. Studio executives said the film, which has now made nearly $56 million, has been boosted by its recent haul of awards, including top honors from the Producers Guild of America on Saturday.

"I think the word of mouth has been very strong since we opened in November, but with the Golden Globes and the Academy Award nominations as well as the PGA, it's the must-see movie before the Academy Awards in February," said Sheila DeLoach, senior vice president of distribution at Fox Searchlight.

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" re-entered the Top 10, earning $6 million to boost its total to $111 million. The film, starring Brad Pitt as a man aging backward toward infancy, landed 13 Oscar nominations, including best actor for Pitt. "The Wrestler" and "Frost/Nixon" also drew big crowds this weekend.

"This group has gotten the biggest (Oscar) bump collectively that I've ever seen," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of the box-office tracker Media by Numbers. "This lays to rest the argument that Oscar nominations can't help out your box-office numbers."

Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "Paul Blart: Mall Cop," $21.5 million.
2. "Underworld: Rise of the Lycans," $20.7 million.
3. "Gran Torino," $16 million.
4. "Hotel for Dogs," $12.4 million.
5. "Slumdog Millionaire," $10.6 million.
6. "My Bloody Valentine 3-D," $10.1 million.
7. "Inkheart," $7.7 million.
8. "Bride Wars," $7 million.
9. "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," $6 million.
10. "Notorious," $5.7 million.

Jackman Reassures Fans Over Wolverine 'Problems'

Australian actor Hugh Jackman has written a personal letter to X-Men fans assuring them his upcoming Wolverine movie is going to plan - despite growing rumours of problems with the film.

Comic book prequel, X Men Origins: Wolverine, is due for release in May but speculation about the film's slow progress has been increasing since the cast was recently recalled to the set in Vancouver, Canada to reshoot several scenes.

Many fan forums and internet gossips have voiced concerns that movie bosses ordered the reshoots after the film failed to come up to standard.

But Jackman has now come forward to defend the project - insisting the extra filming does not have any bearing on the quality of the picture.

He writes in a letter to Aintitcool.com, "It's Hugh Jackman, sending this note from freezing Vancouver. I have read a lot of your online comments regarding the footage that we are currently shooting and I share your passion for the Wolverine character and the movie - I owe it all to you guys!

"I wanted to reach out and let you know that due to scheduling conflicts with certain cast members and location/weather considerations, we had to wait until now to shoot a couple of scenes. Please rest assured that Wolverine will be badass and hopefully meet all of your expectations."

Canadian town hopes to premiere 'Star Trek'

CALGARY - An attempt by residents of Vulcan to beam the world premiere of the new Star Trek movie into their small Alberta community remains in a holding pattern, but the captain of the mission is optimistic the quest will still be a success.

It may not be the planet of Vulcan, but the town of the same name, population 1,942, has already developed itself as a tourist attraction focusing on the birthplace of Star Trek's beloved Mr. Spock.

And after word that filming on director J.J. Abrams' new Star Trek movie was about to begin, Trekkies in the community southeast of Calgary began the process of attempting to go where no small Canadian town has gone before.

"I've been communicating with executives at Paramount Canada and they still haven't said no. We're optimistic but they also haven't said yes," acknowledged Dayna Dickens, Vulcan's tourism co-ordinator.

"We are developing a second proposal now which we're going to send down which outlines the logistics of what an event would look like if it were to happen here.

"My hope is when I send that on to Paramount they'll say, 'Gee, this offer's too good to pass up and let's give them the movie.' "

"Star Trek XI," which focuses on Mr. Spock and Capt. James T. Kirk's early years, is scheduled to premiere on Stardate 05-08-09, otherwise known as May 8.

Vulcan pulled out all the stops to try to gain the premiere or even a sneak peak of the movie event. It even launched a Facebook site which now boasts over 1,500 members.

"This is the voyage of a small town's quest for the 'Star Trek XI' movie premiere," begins a video on the Facebook site with the Star Trek theme playing in the background.

"Our Mission - to showcase our Star Trek spirit, to help Hollywood showcase the new Star Trek movie and to host a spectacular event that brings Spock home to Vulcan, Alta."

Supporters of the quest are equally passionate about the TV and movie franchise.

"I think we should have the event here in Vulcan, Alta. Then again, I am only one Klingon," wrote Jaymz Smith. "But one Klingon is a force to be reckoned with."

Already on the international radar for its famous name and for its homage to Star Trek, Vulcan held its first Vul-con convention in 1993. Two years later, the town unveiled its own Star Ship FX6-1995-A to welcome visitors. A plaque includes greetings written in English, Vulcan and Klingon.

Another sign welcomes visitors with the Vulcan motto "Live Long and Prosper." There's also a space-themed visitors centre and, in an odd combination of prairie tradition and outer space zeal, there's also the annual Spock Days Rodeo.

There were 16,693 people who made the trek to Vulcan in 2008, said Dickens - an increase of 19 per cent over 2007.

Dickens said the local community centre could easily be turned into a large movie theatre and parts of the town converted into a mini Star Trek convention. She realizes not many people have faith that the stars will end up in perfect alignment.

"Most people say you haven't got a chance and it's just crazy but my theory is as long as the senior vice-president of motion picture monitoring isn't saying no to me then I have to be optimistic," she said.

And with the release of what could be one of the summer's biggest blockbusters approaching at warp speed, the lack of word from the studio isn't a concern.

"When I first spoke to them a year ago they said they were considering the proposal but they did mention it might be something we wouldn't be able to find out about until four weeks out from the actual release date," Dickens said.

'Paul Blart: Mall Cop' nabs top box office spot

Reuters LOS ANGELES – Kevin James bumbles and stumbles to take down the bad guys, but his "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" had no trouble nabbing the top spot at the box office this weekend.

The PG-rated comedy, starring James as a portly shopping center security guard who tries to foil a bank heist, made $33.8 million in its first three days and is expected to reach $40 million over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend.

That far surpasses expectations, said Rory Bruer, president of worldwide distribution for Sony, which released the movie.

"We had a lot of screenings as well as tracking that was good on it. We were hopeful we could do in the range of $25 million for four days and that would have been a terrific result for us. But now it looks like we're going to do $40 million for four days, and that is just, like, a 'wow' number," Bruer said Sunday. "It totally speaks to just how much audiences love Kevin James, No. 1, and how hard he worked to promote this film."

After proving his value as a sidekick to Will Smith in "Hitch" and Adam Sandler in "I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry," James shows here he can also be a reliable leading man, said Paul Dergarabedian, president of the box-office tracker Media by Numbers.

"In these tough, recession-laden times, you'd think people wouldn't want a movie that's based around a mall, but they totally do," Dergarabedian said. "Kevin James has that everyman quality. People relate to him."

Last week's No. 1 movie, "Gran Torino," dropped to second place but only by 25 percent. The Warner Bros. drama, directed by and starring Clint Eastwood as a bigot who becomes a reluctant neighborhood hero, made $22.2 million this weekend for a cumulative gross of $73.2 million.

Among other new releases, the Lionsgate horror flick "My Bloody Valentine 3-D" opened at the No. 3 spot with $21.9 million.

Fourth was "Notorious," about slain rapper Notorious B.I.G., which made $21.5 million. That's the biggest opening ever for Fox Searchlight, which previously released such critical darlings and crowd-pleasers as "Juno" and "Little Miss Sunshine."

"It's a very high quality film, and it's a compelling look at a compelling cultural icon who, like many cultural icons, left way too early but left an indelible mark on society," said Chris Aronson, senior vice president of domestic distribution for 20th Century Fox.

The week's other new wide release, the Paramount family comedy "Hotel for Dogs," opened at No. 5 with $17.7 million. Over at Paramount Vantage, "Defiance," based on the true story of Jews who survived the Holocaust by forming a community in the forests of Belarus, did well in its nationwide expansion. The movie starring Daniel Craig and Liev Schreiber made $9.8 million to reach the No. 8 spot.

The big winner at last weekend's Golden Globes, "Slumdog Millionaire," crept into the No. 10 spot with $5.9 million. The Fox Searchlight drama about a teen who rises from the slums of Mumbai to become a game show champion won awards for best picture, director (Danny Boyle), screenplay and original score.

Now playing in limited release in 582 theaters, "Slumdog" will expand to more than 1,200 theaters next weekend following Thursday's Academy Award nominations. It's made a total of $42.7 million in 10 weeks.

"You can see the impact of the Golden Globe winnings and, also, people are just discovering this film so we're able to keep growing our audience," said Richard Shamban, vice president of theatrical distribution for Fox Searchlight.

Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Tuesday.

1. "Paul Blart: Mall Cop," $33.8 million.
2. "Gran Torino," $22.2 million.
3. "My Bloody Valentine 3-D," $21.9 million.
4. "Notorious," $21.5 million.
5. "Hotel for Dogs," $17.7 million.
6. "Bride Wars," $11.75 million.
7. "The Unborn," $9.8 million.
8. "Defiance," $9.2 million.
9. "Marley & Me," $6.3 million.
10. "Slumdog Millionaire," $5.9 million.

Sundance opens with hope for indie film

PARK CITY, Utah (Reuters) – The 25th Sundance Film Festival opened on Thursday with founder Robert Redford sounding an optimistic note for cinematic art and an artful movie challenging audiences to laugh through the pain of an imperfect world.

The Australian animated film "Mary and Max," a tale of misfits on opposite sides of the globe who find friendship by becoming pen pals, was described by festival director Geoffrey Gilmore as being about "compassion, love, friendship and ideas."

It seemed a fitting opening for 25th anniversary of the top U.S. festival for independent film; while it illustrates the broadening of "indie" movies -- it has a global perspective and uses stop-motion technology and clay figures -- "Mary and Max" reminds audiences that films made outside Hollywood's mainstream often deal with human frailty.

"It's not the sort of story you'd see from (Hollywood studios) DreamWorks or Pixar. It deals with different or marginalized characters," director Adam Elliot told Reuters. "It's something a bit odd. But at the end of the day, it's supposed to be a feel-good film."

Sundance, backed by Redford's Sundance Institute for filmmaking, has long championed non-mainstream work.

When it began in 1985, the festival's low-budget movies often centered on human dramas, and as past Sundance films like "sex, lies and videotape" and "Clerks" proved profitable, the indie market began to grow.

The range of independent films broadened to include more comedy and technology, and the movies became more global in their scope. Sundance has helped usher in those changes.

TOUGH TO BE INDIE

But in 2008, the industry fell on hard times. Mighty distributors like Paramount Vantage and Warner Independent Pictures ceased to exist or changed business plans.

The quality and range of independent movies had improved with titles such as "Little Miss Sunshine" or "Napoleon Dynamite," but with that came more independent films competing to reach theaters. Revenues per film have fallen.

Still, Redford believes independent filmmakers will find new ways to make movies and reach fans, and at Thursday's premiere of "Mary and Max" he saw the upcoming inauguration of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama as a harbinger for change in the art of cinema.

"I'm actually thinking positive because when times are bad, there's always an opportunity for artists," Redford told the opening night audience.

Sundance runs through January 25 and reaches its climax at a closing ceremony where awards for the best independent films, directors, writers and cinematographers will be given in categories for dramas and documentaries. The festival recognizes films from the United States and around the world.

Over the next 10 days, stars including Chris Rock, Ben Affleck, Ashton Kutcher, Amy Poehler and newcomer Kristen Stewart, star of "Twilight," are expected to hit town.

While this year's Sundance has been overshadowed by the recession, organizers say ticket sales are up from 2008.

So, while Hollywood studios have scaled back travel to the festival -- several executives and talent agents told Reuters they were bringing five to 10 percent less staff -- and clearly there are fewer companies hawking their wares and clamoring for media attention, movie lovers remain in theaters.

They are looking for a little laughter, some new technology and maybe even human frailty -- the stuff of life.

"Art," Redford said. "will always find a way."

Clint Eastwood's `Gran Torino' tops box office

NEW YORK – Make my weekend. Clint Eastwood has had the best movie opening of his long and esteemed career. His "Gran Torino" revved up the winter box office with $29 million in ticket sales in its first weekend of wide release, according to studio estimates Sunday.

It's Eastwood's best opening ever, topping the $18 million his "Space Cowboys" made in 2000.

In what Eastwood, 78, has said may be his last starring performance, he plays a disgruntled war veteran who reluctantly comes to the aid of his neighbors.

The National Board of Review dubbed Eastwood's performance the best for an actor in 2008, and his song "Gran Torino" was nominated for a Golden Globe at Sunday's awards ceremony.

"Gran Torino," which Eastwood also directed, was previously in limited release for four weeks. It jumped from 84 theaters to 2,808 this weekend after boasting very high theater averages.

"At this stage of his career, I think it's remarkable," said Dan Fellman, head of distribution at Warner Bros., which released "Gran Torino." "There are a lot of younger people that can identify with him in a role like this that maybe haven't seen him a role like this since `Dirty Harry.'"

Eastwood stole the box-office bouquet from Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson. Their wedding comedy "Bride Wars," released by 20th Century Fox, came in second with $21.5 million. The horror film "The Unborn" from Universal Pictures followed with $21.1 million in its debut.

"Marley & Me," the Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson's family dog tale that topped the box office the last two weekends, fell to fourth with $11.4 million and a cumulative total of $124 million for the 20th Century Fox film.

While awards season was heating up, most of the major contenders had solid numbers, though mostly in limited release.

Paramount Vantage's "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" took in $9.4 million in its third week of release, bringing its total closer to the century mark with $94 million.

Focus Features' "Milk," Paramount Vantage's "Revolutionary Road" and Fox Searchlight's "The Wrestler" — all with awards hopes at the Globes and beyond — were among the best performers in screen average. Each hopes to continue to build momentum as the Oscars near.

"Defiance," in its second week of limited release, led with a robust $33,000 screen average. "Defiance" stars Daniel Craig in the story of Jewish brothers who form a band of freedom fighters against the Nazis in Eastern Europe.
Fox Searchlight's underdog hit "Slumdog Millionaire" added $3.7 million to its total of $34 million.

The success of "Gran Torino" could boost Eastwood's awards chances. The film was largely overlooked by the Globes, but the Oscars have long supported Eastwood's directorial efforts and awarded his "Million Dollar Baby" best picture in 2005.

"This will raise its profile in a very profound way," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media by Numbers. "Certainly `Gran Torino' is in an excellent position. It's a textbook case of releasing a film in limited, nurturing it for about a month and unleashing it upon the world in a wide release and really capitalizing on that."

That audiences remain so eager to see Eastwood on the screen suggests to Fellman that he should rethink any acting retirement.

"Clint has said this is the last time he's going to be in front of the lens. I hope he reconsiders after this," Fellman said.

Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "Gran Torino," $29 million.
2. "Bride Wars," $21.5 million.
3. "The Unborn," $21.1 million.
4. "Marley & Me," $11.4 million.
5. "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," $9.4 million.
6. "Bedtime Stories," $8.6 million.
7. "Valkyrie," $6.7 million.
8. "Yes Man," $6.2 million.
9. "Not Easily Broken," $5.6 million.
10. "Seven Pounds," $3.9 million.

Warner Puts DC Comics Film Projects "On Hold"

According to David Goyer of Batman Begins and Blade fame, Warner Brothers has pressed the pause button on "a lot" of in-development superhero projects while the studio reassess their approach to handling the potentially enormously lucrative properties.

In an interview with IESB, Goyer stated, "A lot of the DC movies at Warner Brothers are all on hold while the figure out, they're going to come up with some new plan, methodology, things like that so everything has just been pressed pause on at the moment. It was the double header of both Iron Man and The Dark Knight coming out, so more than ever I think they've realized, I think DC was responsible for 50% of Warner Brother's revunue this year, something crazy like that, so they realized that comic books, it's become a new genre, one of the most successful genres."

Among the superhero projects that Warner is speculated to have in development that are likely affected by this "time out" include:

Justice League of America - George Miller is attached to direct the superhero team-up movie. Megan Gale, Teresa Palmer and Adam Brody are rumored to be on-board to play Wonder Woman, Talia Al Ghul and The Flash, respectively.

Super Max - Goyer has penned this Green Arrow film in which the emerald-toned superhero is sent to a Maximum Security Prison. Superman and The Joker might make cameo appearances, among other popular comic characters.

The Flash - Originally set to be directed by Goyer, David Dobkin (Wedding Crashers) has now taken over the reigns on this fast-man feature. Ryan Reynolds was set to play the character when Goyer was involved but that's no longer the case.

The Man of Steel - The sequel to Superman Returns will see Kal-El going head-to-head with a new villain. This one is always on-and-off as no one seems confident or willing to spend the cash or time on it. Might Warner end up going with Mark Millar's "Superman" trilogy reboot idea?

Batman 3 - The inevitable second sequel to "Batman Begins". All those rumours you've read - Eddie Murphy as The Riddler, Shia LaBeouf as Robin - can be taken with a mound of salt.

Wonder Woman - Joel Silver has been trying to get a feature film version of the curvy underwear clad crime fighter off the ground for years. They paused momentarily while Miller tried to get Justice League off the ground.

Must-see films for 2009

Here are the movies to watch out for in 2009:

Watchmen (March)

Who's in it: Billy Crudup, Patrick Wilson, Malin Akerman, Jackie Earle Haley

Who's making it: Zack Snyder, the gifted stylist behind 300.

The lowdown: Part conspiracy-thriller, part murder-mystery, it follows a group of reunited costumed crime-fighters after one of their own is murdered.

Why watch the Watchmen? The 1986 graphic novel is considered the Citizen Kane of comics. Can Snyder's film retain the source material's sex, violence and psychological depth? One more note: As of press time, the film's release was still in jeopardy because Fox is contesting Warner Bros.' rights to the property.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (May)

Who's in it: Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Danny Huston

Who's making it: Gavin Hood, who directed the thriller Rendition.

The lowdown: Jackman reprises his X-Men role in this prequel that reveals the character's mysterious past.

A furry, fanged Schreiber turns up as sociopathic Sabretooth.

Evolve or die: X-Men: The Last Stand raked in more than $200 million in May 2006. Should it perform as well as expected, look for Fox to greenlight more X-prequels (X-Men Origins: Magneto is on the launchpad).

Star Trek (May)

Who's in it: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Eric Bana and some dude named Leonard Nimoy.

Who's making it: Geek god J.J. Abrams, creator of Lost, Alias and Fringe.

The lowdown: A Romulan (Bana) travels back in time to assassinate a youthful James T. Kirk (Pine). Quinto plays young Spock while Nimoy turns up as the character's elder pointy-eared incarnation.

The new -- or final -- frontier? This $150-million Trek will have to beam up young moviegoers, and lots of them, so that this four-decade-old franchise can live long and prosper.

Terminator Salvation (May)

Who's in it: Christian Bale, Sam Worthington

Who's making it: McG, hoping to prove he has the cajones to direct more than Charlie's Angels movies.

The lowdown: Set after Judgment Day, Christian Bale's John Connor encounters a mysterious survivor named Marcus (Worthington) while battling various incarnations of Terminators.

Guess who won't be back: Arnold Schwarzenegger and creator James Cameron. Although there's a chance we might see Schwarzenegger's mug digitally grafted -- a la Benjamin Button -- onto the odd cyborg.

Public Enemies (July)

Who's in it: Johnny Depp, Christian Bale

Who's making it: Michael Mann, director of Heat.

The lowdown: Set during the crime wave of the 1930s, Depp stars as famed bank robber John Dillinger. Bale plays Melvin Purvis, the FBI agent who hunted Dillinger down.

Why we care: Depp. Bale. And Mann, who's better than anybody at playing cops 'n' robbers.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (July)

Who's in it: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson

Who's making it: David Yates, the Brit who directed Order of the Phoenix.

The lowdown: The teen wizard learns new secrets about his nemesis Lord Voldermort.

Big Harry deal: A Potter flick is cause for celebration -- particularly for Warner Bros., which bumped its release back six months so it could prop up a flimsy summer schedule.

Sherlock Holmes (November)

Who's in it: Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Rachel McAdams

Who's making it: Guy Ritchie, looking to expand his range beyond dark comedies about snarky London gangsters.

What's it about: Holmes (Downey Jr.) and Watson (Law) must save England from a new nemesis with a combination of intellect and brawn.

Elementary appeal: Downey couldn't be hotter right now, thanks to his other franchise Iron Man. Ritchie says audiences can expect a more action-oriented Sherlock than they're used to. McAdams is always welcome.

The Lovely Bones (December)

Who's in it: Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Susan Sarandon and Saoirse Ronan.

Who's making it: Peter Jackson, returning to Heavenly Creatures territory.

What's it about: After her brutal rape and murder, a 13-year-old girl (Ronan) observes her family -- and her killer -- from heaven. Based on the acclaimed novel by Alice Sebold.

Sounds heavenly: Jackson courts Oscar once again with a tale that demands a mastery of both emotion and visual effects.

THE BEST OF THE REST

From vampires to real American heroes to dinosaurs to musicals, here are more of the movies coming to a multiplex near you over the next 12 months:

Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (Jan. 23)

Kate Beckinsale has hung up her rubber catsuit for good, so the equally-gorgeous Rhona Mitra (playing a new character) anchors this medieval prequel.

Pink Panther 2 (February)

Steve Martin's Inspector Clouseau meets his match in a team of detectives as inept as he is.

Friday the 13th (February)

From the recyclers who brought us new, lesser versions of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and The Hitcher.

Race to Witch Mountain (March)

The Rock -- sorry, Dwayne Johnson -- plays a cabbie tasked with protecting two kids with paranormal powers.

Duplicity (March)

Julia Roberts and Clive Owen are corporate spies conspiring to con their bosses. From Michael Clayton director Tony Gilroy.

Adventureland (March)

Twilight's Kristen Stewart stars in this teen comedy set in 1987 and directed by Superbad's Greg Mottola.

The Ugly Truth (April)

Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler square off in battle of the sexes comedy from the maker of 21 and Legally Blonde.

Fast and Furious (April)

Will Vin Diesel and Paul Walker get their careers back on track by returning to the car-racing franchise that made them famous?

State of Play (April)

After Brad Pitt bailed, Russell Crowe signed on as a Washington reporter investigating a murder with links to a politician (Ben Affleck) who just happens to be his dearest friend.

The Soloist (April)

Jamie Foxx is a musical prodigy discovered living on the streets of Los Angeles by Times reporter Robert Downey Jr.

17 Again (April)

When Matthew Perry wishes he could be a teenager again, he wakes up 17 years old -- and looking just like Zac Efron.

Angels and Demons (May)

Tom Hanks, sans the mini-mullet he sported in The Da Vinci Code, tackles yet another ancient conspiracy.

Up (May)

Pixar's summer entry finds a grumpy old codger taking to the skies and seeking adventure after tying his house to hundreds of balloons.

Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian (May)

Ben Stiller is joined by Amy Adams for this sequel, set in D.C.

The Proposal (June)

Hard-driving boss Sandra Bullock and beleaguered employee Ryan Reynolds pretend they're engaged so she can get a green card.

Land of the Lost (June)

Big-budget fantasy-comedy starring Will Ferrell, based on the 1970s TV show.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (June)

The Autobots face an ancient threat while the Decepticons are again in hot pursuit of Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox.

Inglorious Bastards (TBD)

Brad Pitt leads the ensemble of this pulpy Second World War action yarn from Quentin Tarantino.

Ice Age: Dawn of Dinosaurs (July)

The third instalment in the hugely popular Ice Age series.

2012 (July)

The director of Independence Day is laying waste to the world again. John Cusack stars.

Funny People (July)

Judd Apatow directs Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen and Eric Bana in this dramedy about stand-up comics.

G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra (August)

The 1980s toy line charges to the big-screen under the direction of Stephen Sommers (The Mummy, Van Helsing).

The Taking of Pelham 123 (August)

Denzel Washington is the transit cop and John Travolta the subway highjacker in this Tony Scott thriller.

The Informant (September)

Matt Damon packed on extra weight to play a corporate whistleblower in Steven Soderbergh's comedy.

Shutter Island (October)

Leonardo DiCaprio and director Martin Scorsese reunite for this Hitchcockian psycho-drama set in a mental institution for the criminally insane.

The Princess and the Frog (November)

Disney's return to 2D traditional animation concerns a princess who kisses a frog, then winds up an amphibian herself.

Nine (December)

Daniel Day-Lewis can act, sure, but can he carry a tune? We'll find out when this musical from Chicago director Rob Marshall hits screens at the end of the year.

The Surrogates (December)

Bruce Willis hunts a killer in a futuristic world in which all human interaction happens between robotic surrogates.

'Marley & Me' remains top dog with $24M weekend

LOS ANGELES – Jennifer Aniston, Owen Wilson and their little dog have not lost their box office bite.

The family tale "Marley & Me," starring Aniston and Wilson as owners of an adorably mischievous pooch, took in $24.1 million to finish as the No. 1 movie for a second-straight weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The 20th Century Fox flick raised its total to $106.5 million since opening Christmas day.

With no new wide releases, the weekend shaped up largely like the previous one, with Disney's Adam Sandler comedy "Bedtime Stories" in second place with $20.3 million.

Rounding out the top five again were Paramount's Brad Pitt romantic drama "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" with $18.4 million, MGM's Tom Cruise World War II saga "Valkyrie" with $14 million and the Warner Bros. Jim Carrey comedy "Yes Man" with $13.9 million.

In a season loaded with wartime stories, two more Nazi-themed films opened in limited release.

Paramount Vantage's "Defiance" debuted with $121,000 in two theaters for a whopping average of $60,500 a cinema. By comparison, "Marley & Me" averaged $6,862 in 3,505 theaters. "Defiance" stars Daniel Craig in the story of Jewish brothers who form a band of freedom fighters against the Nazis in Eastern Europe.

ThinkFilm's "Good" opened with $9,300 in two theaters, averaging $4,650. The film casts Viggo Mortensen as an upright German academic gradually seduced into the Nazi fold as World War II approaches.

Hollywood finished 2008 with solid returns. Domestic movie revenues totaled $9.63 billion for the year, just shy of the $9.68 billion record set in 2007, according to box-office tracker Media By Numbers.

Factoring in 2008's higher admission prices, the number of tickets sold fell to 1.35 billion, down 4.3 percent from the year before.

That was a solid result given hard economic times, said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media By Numbers.

"The movie industry is totally holding its own in the face of the recession, increased competition from other entertainment options and emerging technologies," Dergarabedian said.

The new year was off to a good start, with the top 12 movies taking in $130.1 million, up 7.4 percent from the same weekend in 2008.

"Marley & Me" remained the pet picture for audiences looking to relax and unwind over the holidays, said 20th Century Fox distribution executive Bert Livingston.

"A picture doesn't stay No. 1 for two weeks without getting great word of mouth," Livingston said. "It's a feel-good movie. That's what people want to see right now."

Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "Marley & Me," $24.1 million.
2. "Bedtime Stories," $20.3 million.
3. "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," $18.4 million.
4. "Valkyrie," $14 million.
5. "Yes Man," $13.9 million.
6. "Seven Pounds," $10 million.
7. "The Tale of Despereaux," $7 million.
8. "Doubt," $5 million.
9. "The Day the Earth Stood Still," $4.9 million.
10. "Slumdog Millionaire," $4.8 million.

August date for Quentin Tarantino World War II movie

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Controversial director Quentin Tarantino's take on World War II will hit movie theaters on August 21 2009, the studios behind the highly-anticipated film called "Inglourious Basterds" said on Wednesday.

Tarantino often takes a long time between projects. His last movie was a 2007 combined feature called "Grindhouse" made with director Robert Rodriguez, but he has not single-handedly directed a film since the 2004 "Kill Bill: Vol. 2."

The director's oddly spelled World War II epic "Inglourious Basterds" stars actor Brad Pitt, and production began in Europe in October.

Pitt plays a U.S. army lieutenant leading a group of soldiers operating behind Nazi lines, terrorizing the enemy.

"Inglourious Basterds" reportedly borrows from Spaghetti Westerns, the mostly Italian-made films of the 1960s and '70s that combine brutal violence and lyrical, fairytale-like qualities in a different take on Hollywood cowboy movies.

The film was inspired by the 1978 World War II movie "Quel maledetto treno blindato," also called "The Inglorious Bastards," from Italian director Enzo Castellari.

The August 21 release date of "Inglourious Basterds" is for the U.S. and Canada, and dates remain undetermined for its international release, said The Weinstein Company and Universal Pictures, which are jointly presenting the film.

Tarantino, who won an Oscar for his 1994 "Pulp Fiction" movie script, made the martial arts epics "Kill Bill: Vol. 1" (2003) and "Kill Bill: Vol. 2" (2004). The first film made $181 million worldwide and the sequel grossed $152 million, according to tracking firm Box Office Mojo.

Critics say Tarantino's films trivialize and stylize violence, but the director has a devoted fan base and has received numerous awards, including the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival for "Pulp Fiction."

"Australia" another letdown for Nicole Kidman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Maybe Crocodile Dundee should have starred in "Australia."

Twentieth Century Fox appears to have given up on director Baz Luhrmann's latest period epic in North America, and is hoping that foreign sales will rescue the costly picture.

The movie has sold just $44.3 million worth of tickets at the U.S. and Canadian box office after five weekends, and is shaping up to be the latest in a line of disappointments for its star, Nicole Kidman.

The News Corp-owned studio says it hopes "Australia" will reach $50 million domestically. The project cost $130 million and movie theaters generally keep about half of the gross.

"We were hoping to do more in the U.S., but it's tough. There's a lot of competition," said Bert Livingston, Fox's senior vice-president of domestic distribution.

Adding insult to injury, "Australia" failed to get any nomination for the Golden Globe, Critics Choice and Screen Actors Guild awards. Fox had counted on the recognition to boost its Oscar hopes and to expand the movie beyond its core audience of older women.

This past Christmas holiday weekend, one of the busiest of the year, "Australia" tumbled 10 places to No. 19 with four-day sales of $1.3 million, according to tracking firm Media By Numbers. It played in 711 theaters, down from 2,212 the weekend before. The top film was Fox's canine comedy "Marley & Me," which opened to $50.7 million.

RESPECTABLE OVERSEAS SALES

"Australia" is doing respectably overseas, with ticket sales of about $46 million from 51 countries, Fox said. The top market, naturally, is Australia with $16 million after five weekends. It opened at No. 1 in Spain, France and Germany last weekend, but at No. 3 in Britain.

Foreign sales are crucial as Luhrmann's previous films, 2001's "Moulin Rouge" and 1996's "Romeo + Juliet" each earned about two-thirds of their worldwide hauls outside of North America. By contrast, recent smashes "The Dark Knight" and "Iron Man" tallied slightly more domestically.

Kidman plays an icy English aristocrat who falls for a cowboy played by compatriot Hugh Jackman as they drive her herd of cattle across the Australian outback during the early days of World War Two.

Reviews were mixed, although critics generally agreed that it looked great.
Despite winning an Oscar in 2003 for "The Hours," Kidman is not a big box office draw. The 41-year-old actress has never headlined a movie that grossed more than $100 million in North America. Her recent flops include "The Invasion" and "Fur." Forbes magazine reported in September that she was Hollywood's most overpaid celebrity.

Fox was hoping "Australia" would make up for a bad summer, when it dropped such bombs as the Eddie Murphy comedy "Meet Dave" and a belated "X-Files" sequel. But the studio enjoys a reputation for fiscal discipline, and a spokesman said Australian taxpayers would refund upwards of 40 percent of the film's $130 million cost through a new government subsidy.

Kidman's publicist did not return messages. Luhrmann's publicist referred inquiries to Fox. In an interview two weeks ago with the Hollywood Reporter, Luhrmann likened his movie to "old Hollywood classics" like "Gone with the Wind."

He also said "Australia" was on a similar trajectory as "Moulin Rouge," which ended up with $72 million in North America. But after five weekends in wide release, that film had banked about $60 million and was still playing in 1,271 theaters, according to inflation-adjusted data provided by Box Office Mojo.

Twilight Was Bigger than Dark Knight?!

Los Angeles (E! Online) – If only Wall Street had bet on Twilight. Or Hannah Montana. Or Kirk Cameron.

With a $167.3 million overall domestic take as Sunday, per Box Office Mojo, Twilight made more than four times its reported $37 million production budget—the best rate of return on any film in the 2008 Top 10, including The Dark Knight.

The Batman epic was a pretty good investment, too, very nearly tripling its gargantuan $185 million budget with a $530.8 million domestic take, Hollywood's second-biggest ever.

Still, The Dark Knight was nothing compared to these off-the-charts performers: High School Musical 3: Senior Year ($89.7 million), which grossed about eight times its $11 million budget; the Hannah Montana concert movie, which made about nine times its $7 million budget; and, Cameron's Fireproof, which cost $500,000 to produce, and made $33.1 million—or, more than 60 times its budget.

Other winners—and losers—of the box-office year that was, per stats from Box Office Mojo and The-Numbers.com:

Winners:

• Titanic. If The Dark Knight couldn't get within even $50 million of the big-boat movie, then maybe it really won't ever be sunk as Hollywood's all-time domestic box-office king.

• Robert Downey Jr. Rising from The Shaggy Dog, Downey was the only star to score two Top 20 live-action hits, Iron Man ($318.3 million) and Tropic Thunder ($110.5 million).

• Will Smith. With apologies to Downey, Smith was the only star to sell a Top 10 movie, Hancock ($227.9 million), solely with his name.

• Women. Tween and teen girls flocked to Twilight. Actresses fronted, or helped front, four Top 20 hits: Sex and the City ($152.6 million), Mamma Mia! ($143.8 million), Wanted ($134.3 million) and Four Christmases ($111.8 million).

• Paris Hilton. Her opus, The Hottie & the Nottie ($27,696), was so not the lowest-grossing movie of the year. In fact, it reigned over films starring Catherine Zeta-Jones (Death Defying Acts, $3,561), Heather Graham (Miss Conception, $1,503) and Nick Stahl (How to Rob a Bank, $711—yes, $711).

In-Betweeners:

• Hollywood. Despite The Dark Knight, overall revenue was down $86.8 million from last year, a drop of about 1 percent. Ticket sales fell even further—a dip of about about 4.25 percent, representing 59.1 million fewer admissions. But, given the nation's economic meltdown, things could have been worse, and, oddly, things got better after Wall Street's collapse in September. "I think the fact that the Industry held its own is remarkable," Exhibitor Relations' Jeff Bock said.

• Speed Racer. In May, this looked like the flop of the year. Then came the $130 million Australia ($44.3 million gross), and the realization by Disney that Prince Caspian ($141.6 million) wasn't The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe ($291.7 million). In the end, Speed was still a bomb—$43.9 million gross; $120 million budget—but it wasn't the bomb.

• Adam Sandler. You Don't Mess with the Zohan ($100 million) didn't bomb, but it didn't clear its $90 million budget by much. Bedtime Stories, which opened on Christmas, isn't bombing, but it isn't Night at the Museum.

• Brendan Fraser. Put him in a $145 million movie, like The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, or a $60 million movie, like Journey to the Center of the Earth, and you get the same result: a so-so $100 million or so gross.

• M. Night Shyamalan. His The Happening ($64.5 million) made more than it cost, but people disliked it about as much as Lady in the Water.

Losers:

• Wallets. The average ticket price hit $7.20, the National Association of Theatre Owners reported on its blog, a new all-time high.

• Blockbusters. Of the year's 24 members of the $100 million club, four failed to match their budgets with their domestic takes alone: Quantum of Solace ($164.3 million gross; $200 million budget); The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian ($141.6 million gross; $200 million budget); The Incredible Hulk ($134.3 million gross; $150 million budget); and, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor ($102.3 million gross; $145 million budget).

• Prince Capsian. "That one looked like a guaranteed $200 million-plus superhit, with a real chance of surpassing $300 million," Box Office Guru's Gitesh Pandya said in an email. Instead, it might have cost the Narnia trilogy its third leg.

• The X-Files. Fox revived the franchise with a can't-lose $30 million investment only to lose when I Want to to Believe couldn't crack even $21 million.

• 10,000 B.C. ($94.8 million), The Spiderwick Chronicles ($71.2 million), Hellboy II: The Golden Army ($75.8 million) and Mike Myers' The Love Guru ($32.2 million) and every other underperformer.

Here's a look of the top-grossing films of 2008 through Sunday based on numbers compiled by Box Office Mojo:

1) The Dark Knight, $530.8 million
2) Iron Man, $318.3 million
3) Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, $317 million
4) Hancock, $227.9 million
5) WALL-E, $223.8 million
6) Kung Fu Panda, $215.4 million
7) Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, $174.9 million
8) Twilight, $167.3 million
9) Quantum of Solace, $164.3 million
1) Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!, $154.5 million

(Published Dec. 29th, 2008)

'Terminator' to be preserved in US film registry

WASHINGTON – One of Arnold Schwarzenegger's most famous one-liners will be back for generations to come, now that 1984's "The Terminator" has been selected for preservation in the nation's film archive.

The low-budget film directed by James Cameron set a new standard for science-fiction and made Schwarzenegger, now California's governor, a star. The Library of Congress announced Tuesday morning that it's one of 25 films being added to the National Film Registry. The formal unveiling was scheduled for 8 a.m.

The move will guard Schwarzenegger's deadpan, "I'll be back," against deterioration, along with the sounds and images of the other culturally significant picks. Other titles being added to the registry include the groundbreaking all-black-cast film "Hallelujah" from 1929; Richard Brooks' 1967 film adaptation of Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood"; and the 1972 film "Deliverance," based on James Dickey's novel about four businessmen on a nightmarish canoe trip in the remote Georgia wildnerness.

"The registry helps this nation understand the diversity of America's film heritage and, just as importantly, the need for its preservation," Librarian of Congress James H. Billington said in announcing his 2008 selections. "The nation has lost about half of the films produced before 1950 and as much as 90 percent of those made before 1920."

As time passes, older nitrate- and acetate-based films begin to deteriorate, Billington said. The Library of Congress is working to digitize and preserve endangered film and audio files at its new Packard Campus of the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, an approximately $250 million facility built in a bunker in the hills near Culpeper, Va.

With Tuesday's additions, the total number of films in the registry will reach 500.

The registry, established by Congress in 1989, works with film archives and movie studios that own the rights to the selected films to ensure original copies are kept safe. It also acquires a copy for preservation in its own vaults among millions of other recordings.

Curators select films based on their cultural, historical or aesthetic significance, saying their picks wouldn't necessarily overlap with those of a movie critic. And some aren't feature films at all: This year's list includes a family's home movie, "Disneyland Dream," which documented a trip to the newly opened park in Anaheim, Calif., in 1956.

"The selection of a title for the registry is not meant to duplicate the Academy Awards or anything like that," said Patrick Loughney, head of the library's audio-visual center.

The library accepted public nominations for the film registry selections online and issued a specific call for lesser-known films, including amateur and home-movie footage.

Some films were selected for their historical value, such as "Hallelujah," the tale of a cotton sharecropper made by MGM as the studio was transitioning from silent to sound films. The 1910 film "White Fawn's Devotion," the oldest film selected this year, was made by James Young Deer. He was the first documented American Indian movie director, a member of the Winnebago tribe.

Other movies inspired the nation during times of trouble, such as "Sergeant York" from 1941, which told the story of a Tennessee pacifist who captured 130 German soldiers in World War I. The film, starring Gary Cooper, was released just months before the United States entered World War II.

Movie crowds adopt `Marley' with $37M weekend

LOS ANGELES – Hollywood had a happy holiday with a huge Christmas weekend as movies from Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson, Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett and Adam Sandler all opened strongly.

Even Tom Cruise scored solidly in an eye patch and a German World War II uniform.

Aniston and Wilson's dog tale "Marley & Me" debuted at No. 1 with $37 million in weekend ticket sales and a total of $51.7 million since opening Christmas Day, according to estimates Sunday from distributor 20th Century Fox.

Disney's Sandler comedy "Bedtime Stories" came in second for the weekend with $28.1 million and $38.6 million since it debuted on Christmas.

Paramount's "Benjamin Button," a romantic fantasy with Pitt and Blanchett, ran a close third with $27 million for the weekend. The film has grossed $39 million since premiering Christmas Day.

MGM's "Valkyrie," starring Cruise as a German officer plotting to kill Adolf Hitler, had a No. 4 debut weekend of $21.5 million and took in $30 million since opening on Christmas.

Rounding out the holiday rush of new wide releases was Lionsgate's action thriller "The Spirit," which came in at No. 9 with $6.5 million over the weekend and $10.4 million since its Christmas debut.

"Marley & Me" was based on John Grogan's best-seller about a couple going through the ups and downs of marriage with their mischievous dog in tow. The holiday timing was ideal for a story about an adorable pup, said 20th Century Fox distribution executive Bert Livingston.

"It's an all-audience picture, ages 8 to 80. That's who's coming," Livingston said. "This is a movie about life, love and family. It's what people want to see now."

Audiences wanted to see pretty much everything over the holiday weekend. Revenues had plunged the previous two weekends, but Hollywood ended the year on a high note as the top 12 movies took in $182.5 million, up 8 percent from the same weekend in 2007.

"It's a very strong finish to the year," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers. "Audiences are really enjoying the movies in the marketplace right now."

For the year, revenues are running a fraction behind the pace of 2007,