Stories related to: movie industry

This has been a banner year for Hollywood blockbusters, but things look dour for explosion-free cinema, David Carr writes in the New York Time s reports. Small movies have flooded multiplexes, choking each other out—a sign, producer Mark Gill says, of big-money backing meeting the ease of digital film-making. The money's disappearing, and eventually only good indie flicks will get made. More »

Although big-name documentaries such as An Inconvenient Truth and Sicko have raised the genre's profile, recent ones just aren't pulling in audiences, the Los Angeles Times reports. The critically acclaimed steroid film Bigger, Stronger, Faster has grossed only $164,000 since its release three weeks ago, and the Oscar-winning Taxi to the Dark Side topped out at $275,000. More »

Lindsay Lohan is back at work on the set of the comedy Labor Pains , and after a week, the movie's producers are impressed with her skill and professionalism. "We were a little bit reluctant to work with her," producer Lati Grobman tells People . "But she's been amazing. She's so natural at what she does." More »

Are Mel Brooks' days in Hollywood over? The comic king is quietly closing his Brooksfilms, the New York Post reports. He founded the LA-based production company in 1980 to produce more serious films such as The Elephant Man but also put out classics such as Spaceballs . Brooks, who turns 82 next month, is still considering a couple gigs on Broadway. More »

Lindsay Lohan has been dumped from the upcoming Manson Girls movie—and not for the official reasons being circulated, says Deadline Hollywood columnist Nikki Finke in LA Weekly . Apparently, Lohan has become something of an industry pariah—the producers couldn’t find a single name actress willing to work with her. Lohan was to play a rich surfer girl who became obsessed with Charles Manson. More »

The lure of A-list movie stars is on the wane, the Hollywood Reporter notes after an examination of recent box-office receipts and extensive polling of Tinseltown insiders. Due in part to ubiquity on the internet and magazine racks, big names like Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts have seen their films gross far less than those driven by franchises—think Pirates of the Caribbean or Bourne . More »

Movie theaters just aren’t adding digital and 3D screens fast enough, says DreamWorks animation chief Jeffrey Katzenberg, a big believer in the technology. DreamWorks has pledged to make all future releases available in 3D, at a cost of $15 million per film. But theater chains haven’t matched his enthusiasm. “Things have dragged along, and it’s been pretty disappointing,” he said. More »

Stop-Loss is hardly the first blockbuster to take a hard line on war. Entertainment Weekly lists 17 of the best anti-war films of all time. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930): One of the earliest anti-war films follows naïve German troops into battle in WWI. Paths of Glory (1957): Kirk Douglas stars as a WWI colonel in Stanley Kubrick’s first box office hit. More »

Actress Lindsay Lohan will play a member of the violent Manson family in the upcoming movie Manson Girls , reports E! Online. LiLo will portray Nancy Pitman, who grew up well-to-do in Malibu and was just 16 when she met Manson through a  friend and quickly became one of his followers. More »

Think your movie-going experience could be more than sticky floors and greasy popcorn? Village Roadshow Gold Class Cinemas agrees. The high-end theater chain is making its debut in America, offering a bar selling cocktails and sushi, reclining lazy-boy style seats (with service buttons to call waiters), and valet parking for the deluxe price of $35 a ticket, Variety reports. More »

Film execs looking to inject life into the dormant sphere of alternative content—showing concerts, sporting events, etc., in theaters—are turning their eyes toward teen star Miley Cyrus and her cash-cow alter ego, Hannah Montana. Cyrus dominated conversation today at an industry conference because her enormously popular 3-D concert film proved that the concept can work in the US, Variety reports. More »

Nearly 30 films took in more than $100 million each last year as the movie industry recorded its best box office year ever, reports the Wall Street Journal. The writers' strike, rising costs, and a spate of so-so releases at the end of the year put a damper on an otherwise outstanding 2007 that saw the industry earn $26.7 billion.  More »

College students aren't such movie thieves after all. Hollywood laid heavy blame for illegal downloading on colleges when a 2005 study alleged that 44% of domestic industry losses came from students downloading films. Now the industry has revised to 15%, citing "human error" in the study. Critics, however, say even the new figure also looks fishy, the AP reports. More »

Focus Features says it will stand by Ang Lee and his racy new war flick “Lust, Caution,” even though a movie trade group branded the film NC-17. The film industry's Scarlet Letter could cost the pic audiences, ad dollars, and theater distribution, but Focus CEO James Schamus said he won’t “change a frame” to satisfy the MPAA—or even appeal its decision. More »

Cigarette and cigar smoking will be considered alongside violence, profanity, nudity, and drug use in assigning ratings, the MPAA announced yesterday. Any film that glamorizes the habit or features lighting up outside of "an historic  or other mitigating context "could face a box-office-busting R.  More »