Twitter Makes Brüno a 1-Day Wonder

(NEWSER) - Sacha Baron Cohen has partnered up with MySpace to promote his new film, Bruno, in a move that could help revive the struggling social networking site, Advertising Age reports. MySpace is hosting a movie site for the gay Austrian fashionista—MeinSpace—and the parent site has started running an unrestricted trailer. Cohen was convinced to strike the deal because Bruno could plausibly be into MySpace. More»

'Avengers' keeps crushing the competition

(NEWSER) - Battleship barely raised anchor this weekend with a weak $25 million opening that could make it the next John Carter mega-flop. Even the action flick's $226 million international gross won't ease the pain unless domestic interest picks up, says the Hollywood Reporter . Avengers continued to wallop the domestic competition with $55 million, making it the fourth-highest grosser ever. Sacha Baron Cohen's Dictator took third ($17 million), followed by Johnny Depp's Dark Shadows ($12 million) and What to Expect When You're Expecting ($10 million). More»

'Tropic Thunder' leads the way

(NEWSER) - The decade had lots of lousy movies, but 11Points rounds up the most disappointing—those that didn't live up to their promise:

• Tropic Thunder (2008): Amazing cast, great premise. Slam dunk, right? Not when "your go-to bit is a retarded joke." Such a lazy waste.
• Bruno (2009): Sacha Baron Cohen's Borat follow-up "didn't expose homophobia—it manufactured homophobia."

Box office performance for latest flick a mystery

(NEWSER) - Though it’s called Funny People, Adam Sandler’s latest film is a bit more serious than his fans are used to—and its opening-weekend performance is a mystery, Variety reports. Forecasts range from just over $20 million to more like $35 million, Audiences loved director Judd Apatow’s prior efforts—which were more upbeat than the R-rated, 2½-hour Funny People. More»

(NEWSER) - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince conjured up a weekend box-office win with $79.5 million, bringing its 5-day total to $159.7 million, Bloomberg reports. The Hogwarts sequel trailed only Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen for the year's best bow. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs ($17.7 million), Transformers ($13.8 million), Bruno ($8.4 million) and The Hangover filled out the top five. More»