BARON-COHEN’S THE DICTATOR BLITZES THEATER OWNERS

Sacha Baron-Cohen certainly knows how to promote his movies to maximum effect. His appearance in the garb of his title character in the upcoming The Dictator before the theater owners’ convention CinemaCon 2012 in Las Vegas Monday night managed to grab the attention of reporters in attendance, who seemed delighted to quote Cohen’s remarks extensively […]

“SUMMER STARTS EARLY”

On the calendar, summer officially begins more than a month and a half from now, but so far as Universal Pictures is concerned, it begins this weekend. “Summer Starts Early” is the slogan the studio is using to usher in Fast Five, a movie requiring the accompaniment of popcorn, starring Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana […]

HARRY BEATS HAIRY AT HOLIDAY BOX OFFICE

As expected, Warner Bros.’ Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 remained magical at the box office over the Thanksgiving holiday, earning $50.3 million over the weekend and $76.3 million from Wednesday, according to studio estimates. But Disney’s animated musical Tangled, based on the Rapunzel fairy tale, proved to be a worthy competitor as […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: FASTER

CBS Films, which has been experiencing a difficult reincarnation since it returned from the dead after 20 years last year — its first two movies, Extraordinary Measures and The Back-up Plan flopped and a third film, Beastly, was yanked from its scheduled release — is trying again with Faster, this time pinning its hopes on […]

WHO WILL CAST THE BIGGEST SPELL AT BOX OFFICE?

Four new movies are arriving at theaters over the Thanksgiving holiday, including what some are saying will likely be Disney’s last animated feature based on a popular fairy tale, Tangled. But none of them is likely to earn more than Week 2 of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, analysts say. The penultimate […]