MOVIES HOLD THEIR OWN ON SUPER BOWL WEEKEND

The Super Bowl may have kept most Americans tethered to their TV sets on Sunday, but that did not prevent two relatively low-budget movies from earning more than $20 million — the first time ever that has happened on a Super Bowl weekend, according to researchers Box Office Mojo. The sci-fi film Chronicle topped the […]

CBS FILMS: MOONVES ADMITS IT GIVES NETWORK A BLACK EYE

The strategy behind CBS Films had been simplicity itself: make a small number of quality low-budget movies and hope that a few of them would generate excitement — and ticket sales — at the box office. The problem is that after four years, the company has yet to have a hit — and its last […]

CBS FILMS MAY FINALLY HAVE ITS FIRST NON-LOSER

The relatively low-budget Beastly, starring Alex Pettyfer and Vanessa Hudgens, may finally make some money for CBS Films, whose initial releases have amounted to a string of flops. The film, a contemporary take on Beauty and the Beast set in high school, earned an estimated $10.1 million at the box office, a respectable amount given […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: THE MECHANIC

CBS Films simply can’t win for trying. The wannabe contender has produced a string of flops since it was launched early last year, and its latest release, The Mechanic, starring Jason Statham, seems destined to join them. Liam Lacey in the Toronto Globe and Mail compares it to “a jalopy with dirt in the fuel […]

CBS FILMS’S COO EXITS AFTER LATEST FLOP

Just days after the recently reborn CBS Films saw its latest release, Faster, flop at the box office, it has parted ways with its COO, Bruce Tobey, and replaced him with Lionsgate exec, Wolfgang Hammer. In a statement, CBS Films President/CEO Amy Baer said, “Wolfgang’s aptitude for innovative dealmaking, strong background in international financing, his […]

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 […]

CBS FILMS: “A TINY PART OF OUR BUSINESS,” SAYS MOONVES

In an SEC filing on Tuesday, CBS reported solid results for its second quarter, with revenue from advertising, new cable-TV carriage fees, and pay-TV revenue boosting operating profits by 80 percent. However, the company barely mentioned its CBS film division, which has struggled since its rebirth in 2007. The unit has released two films this […]

CBS FILMS DENIES IT’S IN TROUBLE

Just because CBS Films moved its planned July 30 release of Beastly, starring Vanessa Hudgens, from July of this year to March of next year doesn’t mean the recently launched film unit is in trouble, executives of the company have told TheWrap.com. The decision, which leaves the studio without a single summer release, comes after […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: “THE BACK-UP PLAN”

The fledgling CBS Films’s strategy is to make relatively low-budget movies starring big marquee names and hope that those names will draw audiences to the multiplex. That was apparently its plan when it released Extraordinary Measures, starring Harrison Ford and Brendan Fraser last January and so it seems to be now as it offers The […]