Movies Business

It's hard not to admire the visual artistry in co-writer-directors Alexei Kaleina and Craig Macneill's "The Afterlight," with its beautifully composed shots of lyrical, sometimes-ominous countryside and near-painterly, lived-in interiors; Zoe White's cinematography is nothing short of masterful. At the same time, it's hard to embrace this glacially paced, symbolism-heavy film's elusive — when it's not being elliptical — story about a city couple's escape to rural life. Andrew (Michael Kelly)

Tom Brady and Eli Manning are expected to light up the scoreboard at the Super Bowl, but don't look for equally big numbers at the box office this weekend. Three new movies will scramble for ticket sales as tens of millions of Americans will be tuning in Sunday to the biggest television event of the year. The found-footage teen adventure film "Chronicle"is expected to edge out the competition with about $15 million, according to those who have seen pre-release audience surveys.

It's hard not to admire the visual artistry in co-writer-directors Alexei Kaleina and Craig Macneill's "The Afterlight," with its beautifully composed shots of lyrical, sometimes-ominous countryside and near-painterly, lived-in interiors; Zoe White's cinematography is nothing short of masterful. At the same time, it's hard to embrace this glacially paced, symbolism-heavy film's elusive — when it's not being elliptical — story about a city couple's escape to rural life. Andrew (Michael Kelly)

One of the last links to the silent film era, Frederica Sagor Maas wrote the script for 1925's "The Plastic Age," which launched actress Clara Bow. But she watched in horror as her serious treatment on women and work was turned into a frivolous 1947 musical, "The Shocking Miss Pilgrim," starring Betty Grable. It was Maas' final Hollywood credit. Disgusted by the "shallow" industry, she and her screenwriter husband contemplated suicide before leaving the movie business altogether, she later wrote.

Nearly two dozen Hollywood directors and producers have collectively criticized initiatives by the major studios to release movies in the home closer to when they open in theaters. In an open letter released Wednesday by the National Assn. of Theatre Owners, some of the entertainment industry's biggest filmmakers — including James Cameron, Peter Jackson and Gore Verbinski — lashed out at imminent plans by four studios to offer movies via video on demand, or VOD, just eight weeks after their theatrical release.

The hottest thing in movie rentals is as old as the Coke machine -- and just as red. Redbox movie kiosks are popping up by the thousands in supermarkets, drugstores, restaurants and convenience stores around the country. The kiosks stock DVDs that rent for $1 a day, a remainder-bin price that is less than a cup of coffee at Starbucks.

The Japanese video-game company behind the animated movie "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within" said Thursday that it is quitting the film business after its first and only effort proved to be a box-office flop. Tokyo-based Square Co., which plowed about $115 million into making "Final Fantasy," said it will post a loss of about $83 million this fiscal year as a result of the film, which grossed just over $33 million in North America.

Barry Diller has plans to reenter the movie business. The chief of USA Networks, who early in his career achieved fame as the young head of Paramount Pictures, is negotiating with Universal Studios to take control of the specialty film distributor October Films, as well as some assets of PolyGram Filmed Entertainment, according to sources close to the transactions. The addition of filmmaking would add one more dimension to Diller's increasingly formidable media empire.

Sony Corp. on Wednesday disclosed that its movie business posted an operating loss as well as a drop in revenue in the quarter ended Dec. 31, reflecting a disappointing slate of holiday films such as "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein," "Mixed Nuts" and "Road to Wellville." Sony did not break out the actual loss for Sony Pictures Entertainment in releasing results for its third fiscal quarter, but did say that the loss was narrower than in the year-earlier period.

While Warner Bros. rides high on a record $850-million deal with NBC for the nation's top-rated TV show, "ER," the studio's prolonged dry spell at the box office has forced co-Chairman Terry Semel to refocus his energies on the company's beleaguered motion picture business.

Across Hollywood, a quiet revolution is brewing that's about to transform living rooms around the world. After desperate attempts to prop up the industry's once-thriving DVD business, studio executives now believe the only hope of turning around a 40% decline in home entertainment revenue lies in rapidly accelerating the delivery of movies over the Internet. In the next few years, the growing number of consumers with Internet-connected televisions, tablets and smartphones will face a dizzying array of options designed to make digital movie consumption a lot more convenient and to entice users to spend more money.

It's hard not to admire the visual artistry in co-writer-directors Alexei Kaleina and Craig Macneill's "The Afterlight," with its beautifully composed shots of lyrical, sometimes-ominous countryside and near-painterly, lived-in interiors; Zoe White's cinematography is nothing short of masterful. At the same time, it's hard to embrace this glacially paced, symbolism-heavy film's elusive — when it's not being elliptical — story about a city couple's escape to rural life. Andrew (Michael Kelly)

It's hard not to admire the visual artistry in co-writer-directors Alexei Kaleina and Craig Macneill's "The Afterlight," with its beautifully composed shots of lyrical, sometimes-ominous countryside and near-painterly, lived-in interiors; Zoe White's cinematography is nothing short of masterful. At the same time, it's hard to embrace this glacially paced, symbolism-heavy film's elusive — when it's not being elliptical — story about a city couple's escape to rural life. Andrew (Michael Kelly)

Each year, hundreds of film commissioners from Serbia, South Africa, Michigan and elsewhere around the world descend on Santa Monica, pitching their locales with tax breaks and other incentives designed to entice filmmakers. This year, however, the Assn. of Film Commissioners International will for the first time join with the Producers Guild of America in holding one major event at Walt Disney Studios in Burbank in recognition of the increasingly global nature of the movie business.

Nearly two dozen Hollywood directors and producers have collectively criticized initiatives by the major studios to release movies in the home closer to when they open in theaters. In an open letter released Wednesday by the National Assn. of Theatre Owners, some of the entertainment industry's biggest filmmakers — including James Cameron, Peter Jackson and Gore Verbinski — lashed out at imminent plans by four studios to offer movies via video on demand, or VOD, just eight weeks after their theatrical release.

In his first speech to Hollywood since becoming head of the Motion Picture Assn. of America nine days ago former Sen. Christopher J. Dodd delivered a reassuring message about the state of the movie business. Dodd, speaking at the annual gathering of the cinema owners in Las Vegas on Tuesday, acknowledged concern about this year's falloff in theater attendance — which is down about 20% so far this year — but predicted that the slowdown would be temporary. "I for one do not believe the sky is falling," Dodd said.

One of the big questions hovering over Hollywood is whether Edgar Bronfman Jr. wants out of the movie business. Big losses in Universal Studios' film division, exacerbated by a $100-million-or-more write-off expected from costly box-office flops "Babe: Pig in the City" and "Meet Joe Black," have led some to conclude that Bronfman has lost confidence in the ever-volatile industry.

When Sony Pictures' plan for a fourth "Spider-Man" movie starring Tobey Maguire fell apart in January, the studio had to come up with a new way to keep the superhero series alive after three movies released from 2002 to 2007 grossed $2.5 billion worldwide. Its solution: Start over. Like many others in Hollywood seeking to breathe new life into an established movie franchise, Sony decided to "reboot. " FOR THE RECORD: In an article published Sept. 10 about Hollywood's efforts to breathe new life into established movie franchises, Matt Tolmach and Doug Belgrad were called co-presidents of production for Sony Pictures.