Latest Film genres Stories

By Dean Goodman LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - So much for the Internet hype. "Snakes on a Plane," a camp thriller that generated an unprecedented tsunami of online hysteria during the past year, crawled into the No. 1 slot at the North American weekend box office with estimated ticket sales of just $15.3 million, its distributor said on Sunday. New Line Cinema had hoped the movie would open in the low-$20 million range, a spokeswoman said. While the Time Warner Inc.-owned studio was...

By Bob Tourtellotte LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Comedy "Little Miss Sunshine," a top movie from January's Sundance Film Festival, debuts in theaters on Wednesday bringing with it the fear that the "Sundance curse" may hurt it with mainstream audiences. Husband-and-wife directors Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton spent five years raising cash to make "Miss Sunshine" with a "whatever-it-takes" zeal typical in indie moviemaking. The pair won a fat $10 million-plus payday, but success...

LONDON (Reuters) - One in four Britons went to the cinema at least once a week last year, making British film fans amongst the keenest in the world and defying a global decline in ticket sales, the UK Film Council said on Saturday. A raft of successful home-grown films like "Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire," "Wallace And Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit" and "Batman Begins" helped draw in audiences. Admissions around the world fell in 2005, by nine percent in the United States,...

By Gregg Goldstein NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - It's an epidemic. In the New York City area, well over 50 film festivals have sprung up over the last few decades, most of those in the last 10 years alone. With more than a film festival a week, and the average fest running about eight days, there's hardly a moment in which New Yorkers can't see the latest works from independent filmmakers showcased onscreen. "Organizers bring festivals here because they know that filmmakers want to...

By Bob Tourtellotte CANNES, France (Reuters) - While stars like Tom Hanks and Penelope Cruz grabbed the limelight on the red carpet at the Cannes film festival this week, deal-making for global movie rights proved fast and furious, industry players said. To the general public, images of the A-listers as they are dazzled by walls of paparazzi and TV crews are what the world's biggest film shindig is best known for. Behind closed doors, or over a bottle of champagne aboard a luxury...

By Gregg Kilday CANNES (Hollywood Reporter) - Thanks to intense press coverage of film festivals ranging from snowy Sundance to sunny Cannes, a popular myth has developed: Given enough innate talent, all an aspiring filmmaker has to do is bet everything on his first film -- loading up credit cards, mortgaging his parents' home -- because he will then be magically invited into a high-profile festival, where his movie will be enthusiastically embraced by critics while free-spending...

By Dean Goodman LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The $160 million disaster film "Poseidon" capsized on its maiden voyage in North America, allowing Tom Cruise's struggling sequel "Mission: Impossible III" to retain the weekend box office crown. According to studio estimates issued on Sunday, "Poseidon" opened at No. 2 after selling just $20.3 million worth of tickets for the three days beginning May 12. The third installment in Cruise's action franchise earned $24.5 million. The soggy opening...

By Bob Tourtellotte LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Last year it was the final installment of "Star Wars." This year it is "The Da Vinci Code." With an eye on the international box office, Hollywood studios are choosing the film festival in Cannes to launch some of their biggest blockbusters, and 2006 is no exception. The studios want in, and, whatever the French may think of U.S. cultural exports, Cannes these days is happy to comply in a bid to get the 'A'-listers on its famed red carpet....

By Claudia Parsons NEW YORK (Reuters) - Long criticized by conservative Christians for profiting from violent or sexually graphic films that corrupt the young, Hollywood is starting to see there is money to be made catering to those critics. "On Sunday, 43 percent of America was in church," Jonathan Bock, head of a movie marketing company that specializes in religious audiences, said at a panel discussion on "What Would Jesus Direct?" at the Tribeca Film Festival this week. "For...

By Bob Tourtellotte LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Pimps, prostitutes and thugs often have big parts in Hollywood movies set in black America, but if Jeff Clanagan succeeds, audiences may soon see a greater number of smart, independent films about mainstream African-American life. Clanagan formed Codeblack Entertainment this year to distribute films like "Preaching to the Choir," a drama that played at festivals in 2005 and debuts in 150 commercial theaters on Friday. "Preaching to the...