Movies

Just when you thought the Internet provided every possible information service, along comes Runpee.com. The website lists current movies in theaters, and suggests points in the action during which you could quickly run to the restroom without missing anything substantial. For example, let's say you're watching "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" and feeling the need.

"Push: Based on the novel by Sapphire" scored a rare triple victory Saturday night at the Sundance Film Festival, winning both the grand jury prize and the audience award for drama as well as a special jury prize for acting.

This time, the women rode to Hollywood's rescue. Film executives, who typically cast men as the heroes, were breathing easier after six movies each generated more than $10 million in ticket sales this weekend, fueling a dramatic 35% increase in total receipts over the same week a year ago. Such films as "He's Just Not That Into You," which was particularly popular among women, beat expectations and suggested that the recession and rising unemployment rate have not yet damped movie attendance.

Workday be damned. "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" blew away the existing record for a weekday movie opening by selling an estimated $60.6 million worth of tickets Wednesday in the U.S. and Canada. The Paramount Pictures movie, made for about $200 million, also pulled in an impressive $58.5 million at the box office in other countries. Nearly $40 million of that amount came Wednesday, when the film opened in most major territories.

The bloodsuckers of "Underworld: Rise of the Lycans" skulk in the shadows of a gloomy medieval castle, but their leader, Viktor (Bill Nighy), sports a look best described as "vampire fabulous." Goth rockers everywhere are pale with envy. "Let's face it, Viktor's a pretty fabulous character," said costume designer Jane Holland. Given the film's habitual darkness, "the choice of fabrics and their interplay with light was very important.

Reviewing one of Sidney Poitier's films in the late '60s, the New York Times critic Vincent Canby noted that the actor "does not make movies, he makes milestones." Canby's point, which was not entirely a compliment, holds even truer today.

When former North Korean spy-turned-movie director Chae Myeong-min went looking for actors for a film based on his life, he included a caveat: South Koreans need not apply. In a domestic movie industry where South Koreans traditionally play their Northern cousins, the 50-person crew for the film "Choice" features only North Korean defectors. Chae says he has seen enough movies depicting life across the DMZ to know that South Koreans fail to capture the harsh reality.

Paramount Pictures Chairman Brad Grey is elated that his pet movie "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" topped the Academy Award nominations Thursday with 13 nods, including best picture. But such elation could be tempered by a sobering reality. Although Oscar honors can lead to an increase in ticket sales as moviegoers flock to theaters to see what all the hoopla is about, the boost may not be enough to help make "Button" a financial home run for Paramount.

Warner Bros. is setting its sights on Redbox and Netflix amid the latest sign that consumers are abandoning retail DVD stores in favor of the fast-growing rental kiosks and mail subscription companies. The Time Warner-owned studio on Thursday joined 20th Century Fox and Universal Pictures in announcing that it would not provide movies to leading kiosk operator Redbox until 28 days after they go on sale. In a surprising move that hasn't yet been made by any of its competitors, Warner said it would impose the same restriction on Netflix and other DVD-by-mail subscription providers unless they agreed to "a day-and-date revenue sharing option."