Movies

Call it the Marion Cotillard Effect. Few American moviegoers had heard of the French actress before she won the Academy Award last year for her performance in the art-house film "La Vie en Rose." That year also marked the lowest ratings ever for an Oscar telecast. Publicly, executives of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and ABC, which has broadcast the show annually since 1976, shrugged off the sinking ratings.

When a German general cautions his fellow conspirators in the new film "Valkyrie" that "nothing ever goes according to plan," he was referring to an elaborate plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. But he could just as well have been talking about the spate of Hollywood World War II movies that have invaded multiplexes in recent weeks. These current films include a wide mix of genres.

Reversing a long-standing practice, the trade and lobbying arm of the Hollywood studios won't disclose the average costs of making and marketing movies. For years, the Motion Picture Assn. of America has annually released a statistical analysis showing average movie costs of its six members, made up of the major studios and their specialty film labels.

Unless you're making "Transformers 3" or "Iron Man 2," every movie in Hollywood is a gamble in one way or another. But some gambles are more intriguing than others, like the one Lionsgate recently announced teaming Russell Crowe and Paul Haggis. The two Oscar winners have joined forces on "The Next Three Days," a Haggis-directed adaptation of the 2008 French film "Pour Elle" that begins production in Pittsburgh in late September.

The mid-movie dash to the restroom can turn us into calculating Usain Bolt wannabes: Ah, this looks like a lull -- time to dash. When we return to our seats, we pray the answer to "What did I miss?" isn't "Darth Vader is really Luke's father" or "the girlfriend is really a guy." The website RunPee.com can help with such anxious guesswork. The site provides recommended opportunities to race to the restroom. It tells you when the action or romance wanes, and gives you a cue ("Baby O.J.

If there has been one consistent surprise at the box office this year, it's kids' flicks. Pre-release audience polling, called tracking, has a tough time divining the interests of the youngest moviegoers. As a result, studio executives usually rely on the interests of parents as proxies. But that system is far from exact, and this year it has resulted in a number of family films that beat expectations, including "Paul Blart: Mall Cop," "Hotel for Dogs" and "Hannah Montana."

While thousands of fans lined up outside the San Diego Convention Center on Thursday morning, hoping to get into one of Comic-Con's most anticipated panels, a session devoted to a little franchise called "Twilight," the series' stars spent some time with the media at the nearby Hilton Hotel. The trio -- Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner -- arrived a fashionable 30 minutes late.

Walt Disney Co., looking to rein in costs at its Hollywood studio as it focuses on mainstream movies, is slashing staff by 70% at its Miramax Films specialty label and is substantially reducing the number of pictures it releases. The retrenchment, which has been foreshadowed in Disney Chief Executive Robert Iger's strategy to emphasize family and "branded" films, comes quickly on the heels of the recent ouster of former Disney Studios Chairman Dick Cook. The former movie chief left abruptly last month under pressure from Iger, who had been unhappy with the studio's direction and performance.

Whether rich and privileged or struggling and living on the margins, one of the principal ways that teens cope with the difficulties of a life in the process of defining itself is . . . they don't. Instead they lash out in anger; they shut down when they should open up; they walk away when they should stay. Add in the issue of race, and the pot boils over, scalding hot.

Hollywood's commitment to independently financed movies has declined as much as the stock market. Now, a distributor wants to take advantage of the retrenchment -- the fatalities include Warner Independent Pictures, Yari Film Group, Picturehouse, Paramount Vantage, New Line Cinema and ThinkFilm -- by launching a specialty film label.