LAWSUIT: FILMS MADE $7 BILLION; INVESTORS EARNED $0

In the latest lawsuit to accuse a Hollywood studio of cooking the books, a group of investors is claiming that it invested $375 million in 29 Paramount films that together grossed nearly $7 billion but have yet to see a profit. The group, Melrose 2, accused the studio of “understating gross receipts, delaying payments to […]

MOVIEGOERS ON OTHER SIDE OF TRACKS

Forget all those expensive tracking studies and the forecasts of those know-it-all box-office gurus. Moviegoers simply didn’t behave the way they were supposed to over the weekend. Cowboys & Aliens, which was expected to be an easy winner with around $45 million, wound up instead with $36.4 million. On the other hand, The Smurfs, which […]

CAPTAIN AMERICA TRIUMPHS OVER HARRY IN AMERICA

Just as it had during another war with Great Britain — one that no doubt cost far less than the current one — America returned from crushing defeat last weekend to win the latest weekend at the box office in spectacular fashion. Paramount’s Captain America: The First Avenger blew past the U.K.-produced Harry Potter and […]

HARRY TRIUMPHS OVERSEAS

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 continued to dominate the overseas box office for the second week in a row. It amassed $121.3 million in 59 countries to bring its foreign total to $560.4 million and a worldwide total of $834.6 million. Coming in second was Transformers: Dark of the Moon with $62 […]

TRANSFORMERS 3: BIGGEST MOVIE OF 2011

Transformers: Dark of the Moon officially became the top movie at the box office this year when it earned an additional $47.1 million in its second weekend to bring its domestic total to $261.1 million. It thereby replaced The Hangover: Part II in the top spot. Two other new — and relatively low-cost — films […]

TWO COMEDIES CHALLENGE TRANSFORMERS AT BOX OFFICE

It’s clear that no major studio was going to take on the latest Transformers movie on its second weekend by putting up any costly production against it. (That will come next weekend with the opening the finale of the Harry Potter movies.) But two low-budget comedies being released this weekend are expected to do OK. […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON

Reviews for Transformers: Dark of the Moon read like, well, reviews for the other Transformers movies: that is, they’re replete with complaints about a senseless plot, senseless mayhem, and senselessness in general. But a couple of reviewers make the point that that’s the whole point of a Transformers movie. As Betsy Sharkey observes in her […]

DIRECTOR BAY LOOKING TO TRANSFORM 3D

With moviegoers increasingly shunning 3D screenings — only about a third of the audiences for last weekend’s Green Lantern — opted to see it in 3D — director Michael Bay has gone on a media offensive to get out the word that the 3D they’ll get with next weekend’s Transformers: Dark of the Moon is […]

REPORT: SPIELBERG FIRED MEGAN FOX FROM TRANSFORMERS SEQUEL

Steven Spielberg fired Megan Fox from the third Transformers film after she told the British magazine Wonderland that Michael Bay behaved “like Hitler” on the set,GQ magazine reported in its current edition. Spielberg, the producer of the film — and the director of Schindler’s List, which told of one man’s resistance to Hitler — was […]

HOLLYWOOD’S SEQUELITIS WORSENS

Lending further credence to film industry critics’ claims that Hollywood fears innovation and originality, the industry website BoxOfficeMojo.com reports that one out of five films that are planned for release this year will be either a sequel, a prequel, or a spin-off. In all, 27 films fall into that group, a record. The previous high, […]