SONY LOSES RECORD $5.7 BILLION — BUT FILM STUDIO SOARS

Sony’s motion picture unit was the one bright spot on the parent company’s dismal annual SEC filing today (Thursday), which reported a record loss of $5.7 billion, including a loss of $3.2 billion in the most-recent quarter. Over the weekend, however, Sony Films became the year-long domestic box office leader, with $518.1 million in ticket […]

BIN LADEN FILM BLASTED BY CONSERVATIVES

Conservative commentators have denounced plans to release a movie about the hunt for Osama bin Laden next October 12, just before the presidential election. On his BigHollywood blog, Andrew Breitbart remarked on Wednesday that the scheduled release date “is THE elephant in the room. … There’s no logical reason to release the film on that […]

BIEBER TO MAKE MOVIE DEBUT AS AN ACTOR — WITH ASHTON KUTCHER

Justin Bieber is being paired with Ashton Kutcher to star in a “buddy comedy” from Sony Films about “a relationship between a 17-year-old and his thirtysomething self, the Los Angeles Times reported today (Thursday), citing a person who was briefed on the project. Surprisingly for a movie featuring the squeaky-clean Bieber in his first acting […]

GREEN HORNET GREENER THAN EXPECTED

After a significant improvement in ticket sales on Saturday, Sony estimated that The Green Hornet would wind up with $34 million for the three-day weekend and $40.5 million for the four-day Martin Luther King holiday. On Saturday, the studio had estimated that Friday’s gross had totaled $11.2 million, at the low end of analysts’ estimates. […]

MEET ROBERT PATTINSON — FOR $32,500

As of this morning (Thursday), the charity auction site CharityBuzz.com, which brings celebrities and fans together for a price — the money goes to selected charities — was offering a “meet and greet” with Robert Pattinson and a visit to the set of Twilight: Breaking Dawn in Vancouver for $32,500 — with bids rising daily. […]

REPORT: WILL SMITH FEUDING WITH MEN IN BACK PRODUCERS

Feuding between Will Smith on the one hand and director Barry Sonnenfeld and the producers on the other has resulted in production of Sony’s Men in Black III being halted in New York, the New York Post‘s “Page Six” gossip column reported today (Tuesday), citing unnamed sources. The newspaper said that Smith and the filmmakers […]

MOVIEGOERS BUY WALL STREET DERIVATIVE (UPDATED)

The overall economy may be sagging but Wall Street raked in handsome profits this weekend — Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, the 20th Century Fox movie, that is. According to studio estimates, it earned $19 million, about what industry gurus had predicted. Also as predicted, persons over 30 made up the bulk of the movie’s […]

THE OTHER GUYS GIVES INCEPTION A WAKE-UP CALL

The box office woke up laughing this weekend as the straight-up silliness of Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg in Sony’s The Other Guys out-performed the dream convolutions of Leonardo DiCaprio in Inception. According to studio estimates, The Other Guys came in at the high end of industry forecasts with about $35.6 million. The result no […]

SONY FILMS AND HSN TEAM UP

In its first foray into entertainment, HSN, formerly called the Home Shopping Network, is developing a marketing campaign with Sony Pictures to promote the studio’s August 13 release of Eat, Pray, Love, starring Julia Roberts among adult women, the Wall Street Journal reported today (Thursday). HSN will be selling mostly fashion items from countries that […]