Nikki Finke at Deadline Hollywood Daily is reporting that Batman anticipation has lucrative effects. "MovieTickets.com says that, four days prior to its release, Warner Bros' Batman: The Dark Knight has sold out 700 performances in North America and is outselling 3 of MovieTickets.com’s Top 10 Performing Films of All-Time." That's 90% sold-out. Are you ready for 152-minutes of glory?......

SAG Members at a 'Solidarity Rally' on June 9, 2008 (more photos here) | Photo by Tom Andrews/LAist The votes came in and were counted: members of AFTRA--the nation’s second largest performers’ union--overwhelmingly voted to ratify a contract with the AMPTP, who represents movie studios and producers, by a 62.4% margin. “Today’s vote reflects the ability of AFTRA members to recognize a solid contract when they see it," AFTRA National President Roberta Reardon said......

The Screen Actors Guild announced today that they will "present its response" to the "last best final" contract offer by movie studios and producers, who hope it will be accepted. With that, Nikki Finke opines: "... the Big Media companies are prepared to play hardball. I forsee a repeat of what happened during the lowest ebb of the writers strike: the AMPTP walks away from the talks and issues an ultimatum to SAG to take......

Hancock is a nearly great movie. I suppose that means it was only good, but that obscures the fact that, unlike other good movies, it could have been great. Will Smith's latest flick tells the story of an alcoholic superhero addled not so much by his addiction to hard liquor, as much as his plunging loneliness. As such, he is a depressed and lonely fuck who believes he is the only one in the world......

www.strike.tv Teaser from StrikeTV on Vimeo. During the Writers Strike, a group of creatives got together to make Strike.TV and began to develop 40 projects that are expected to debut starting today (as of this writing on the morning of July 4th, only the above teaser has been launched). One of their promises is "to demonstrate that it was possible for Hollywood professionals to coexist and flourish with the studio system that has supported......

This is a difficult movie to market without a red-band trailer, due to the subject matter. The Wackness is this summer's "it" indie movie. It's got all of the typical elements you'd see in an indie film; it's the coming-of-age story of an apathetic and depressed graduate (Josh Peck) who meets and falls in love with a carefree girl (Olivia Thirlby). This chance encounter allows him to experience a whole slew of emotions he......

Now that the contract between the largest actors guild and the movie studios has expired, with talks to resume Wednesday, the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers is using a tactic on their website to show the economic pain the actors will supposedly cause if they authorize a strike. Two flash animation boxes on their homepage give out these statistics based on an Milken Institute study (for the writers strike) and Screen Actors Guild's......

Photo by Peggy Archer via Flickr Day 42 into the negotiations between the Screen Actors Guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and no result. The contract expires Tuesday at 12:01 a.m. and the next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday. SAG has been saying along that they have no plans to strike but AMPTP has said in a statement that the "industry is now in a de facto strike, with film......

Living in Hollywood is never so fun as when attending an old-school movie event. Granted, there wasn't anything highly unusual about the screening of "Gilda" at the Silent Movie Theater yesterday -- it was the third movie in the Cinefamily's month-long series, Femme Fatale Hall of Fame. But some things happen in Hollywood that just can't happen elsewhere. In this case, it was Peter Ford, son of Glenn Ford - the star of the film......

Actors Union: "Management is stubborn and intransigent." Studio Reps: "'Frustrated and discouraged' at the guild's attitude." The Screen Actors Guild's contract with studios expires on June 30 and with the way things are going, the union is saying contract talks could extend past that deadline. That doesn't mean a strike, however. SAG has worked past the deadline in the past and plans to this time if talks are progressing, albeit slowly. Both the studios representation,......

SAG's 'Solidarity' Rally on Monday (see more photos here) | Photo by Tom Andrews/LAist Screen Actors Guild members outside of Los Angeles are reportedly fuming over Monday's rally, which was billed as a pro-SAG "solidarity" event, but ended up having anti American Federation of Television and Radio Actor tones. Around 500 actors and supporters of the movement rallied outside SAG's Wilshire Blvd. headquarters chanting "Vote No!" "We were told this would be a pro......

Although the Screen Actors Guild said today was a "solidarity" rally, Variety plainly headlines the event: "SAG rallies against AFTRA, Guild member encourage to vote down deal." Some 500 or so actors and supporters came out to bolster support for duel cardholding SAG/AFTRA members (44,000 people are in both unions) voting down the American Federation of Television and Radio Actors' deal with the Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers. SAG says the AFTRA deal......

UPDATE: About 500 people showed for the rally. See photos here.This morning, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) will hold a "solidarity" rally at their Wilshire Blvd. Headquarters, a move the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) is calling decisive and possibly illegal. "It’s disingenuous of SAG to call it a ‘solidarity’ rally when it’s clear that it will be an anti-AFTRA rally,” said AFTRA President Roberta Reardon. The Writers Guild of America held......

You know, I didn't have very high expectations going in to see Kung Fu Panda. I expected a lot of slapstick, pop-culture jokes, and a lot of smart-ass remarks from Jack Black's panda character. I had no expectations for any real, exciting, actual Kung Fu action. This time, I'm so glad I was wrong.......

While Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull couldn't quite break the Memorial Day weekend record ($139.8M), it did come close by grossing a robust $126M ($151M) over the long holiday. As the only new film in wide release, it won the weekend by a wide margin. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian fell to $28.6M ($96.6M) in its second frame while mega-blockbuster Iron Man continued to do great business, finishing just......

Photo by Robert L. Wells There's really no point to discussing the plot of this movie as it's nearly identical to the other movies in the franchise: Indy gets dragged into trouble with bad guys (Russians this time), travels to a place with a lot of cobwebs and gets wet and/or mucky in the process and then runs from fire/mud/water/big rock/CGI something-or-other while dodging bad guys and dragging along a sidekick and then, of course,......

Don't fucking push any levers! | Photo courtesy of Paramount By now you've probably read everything you want to read about Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. All I'll add is a few interesting stats: the total domestic box office of all the films that Harrison Ford has appeared in is a staggering $3,094,851,491. That's just ahead of the films that George Lucas has produced ($2,977,630,768) and behind the movies that......

LA Magazine has already crowned it one of the best things about living in LA. If you've ever tried to drive down Santa Monica Blvd. around Gower on a Saturday night, you'll quickly find out what thousands of Angelenos already know: there's no better way to spend a Saturday night than with a picnic and a bottle of wine in the middle of a cemetery, watching a classic film. In fact, Cinespia's weekly summer......

To one's surprise, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian zoomed to the top of the weekend box office. Early estimates of an $80M haul, however, proved far too optimistic as Prince Caspian settled for what can only be considered a disappointing $56.5M. Mega-blockbuster Iron Man had another great weekend, pulling in $31.2M and surging past the $200M mark ($222.4M). Despite not being any good, What Happens in Vegas had an above-average second frame ($13.8M/$40.3M).......

Does the little girl playing Lucy have a Kathleen Turner basso profundo voice or what? | Photo courtesy of Disney It's an incredibly light week for new releases this weekend. Looks like everyone is getting out of the way of the presumed blockbuster, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. I liked the first movie well enough, but that was probably due more to my childhood love of the books than the actual quality of......

Emile Hirsch surveys a giant green screen...DEAD AHEAD! | Photo courtesy of Warner Brothers Anyone else as not excited as I am about Speed Racer? I mean, I watched the cartoon when I was kid, but it was no Gaiking or Starblazers. Even as a nine year-old I recognized the premise as a little stupid (chimps and helicopters?), and the visual design of the movie by the Wachowski Brothers seems move seizure-inducing than sumptuous.......

Heartless personality Jonathan Nail interrogates helpless patrons during opening weekend of Iron Man. | Video courtesy of Just Us Films No one doubted that Iron Man would easily top the box office this weekend, but the scale of its success is virtually unprecedented. The latest entry from Marvel's deep stable of superheroes blasted early estimates of $60-70M by raking in a mammoth $104.3M since Thursday night's late showings. It was the second-largest, non-sequel debut......

Repulsors fire! | Photo courtesy of Paramount What else can I say about Iron Man that I didn't say in my rave yesterday? According to the great Nikki Finke, it looks like it's going to be a monster hit so I guess I don't need to encourage you to go see it. I'll actually be seeing it again this weekend because I failed to stay through the entire end credit roll and see the......

Is there anyone on the planet who doesn't love Robert Downey Jr. as an actor? | Photo courtesy of Paramount I won't keep you in suspense a moment longer: Iron Man is a rousing start to the summer movie season. It succeeds not only as a visually dazzling popcorn movie, but as a human drama about a man forced to finally consider his former and future place in the world. Great credit must be......

My love, there's only you in my life. The only thing that's pride. | Photo courtesy of Universal In a bit of a surprise, the surrogate pregnancy comedy Baby Mama ($18.2M) easily outdistanced the stoner comedy Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay ($14.5M) in the weekend box-office race. A huge influx of female ticket buyers (68% of the audience) buoyed Baby Mama while many of Harold & Kumar's target audience forgot that the......

This time with more drugs, bigger laughs, bigger nudity! | Photo courtesy of New Line Cinema I think it will be hard for Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay to replicate the success of the original Harold & Kumar adventure. Sure, Guantanamo Bay will almost certainly make more money, but I can't imagine it capturing the innocent magic that was White Castle. Think about it--the Neil Patrick Harris joke can really only work......

How did they convince Downey to actually fly this high? What a brave actor. | Photo courtesy of Paramount If you absolutely can't wait until 12:01 am on May 2nd to see what's looking to be the summer's first big blockbuster, the Aero Theater in Santa Monica is holding a charity screening of Iron Man on May 1st at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $20 and proceeds go the Aero Building Fund Donation. If seeing......

Let's go over the ground rules. Rule number 1: No touching of the hair or face... AND THAT'S IT! | Photo courtesy of Lionsgate As expected (due to its wussy PG-13 rating and higher theater count) The Forbidden Kingdom ($20.8M) knocked off the R-rated Forgetting Sarah Marshall ($17.3M) in the opening weekend for both films. Last week's dreary winner Prom Night endured the typical precipitous drop (-56%) but still managed to hold onto third......

Photo by delara-photos via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr DID U C OPRAH 2DAY? OMG SO GR8! OOPS G2G, PPL R B-TING SUM GUY UP TTYL! Pasadena ain't your ashtray. So tonight their city council meets to vote on a massive smoking ban that will prohibit puffers to indulge in their habit in almost any public place. Hey, what's the latest on the upcoming SAG/AFTRA contract talks? Deadline Hollywood Daily has an......

Photo submitted by benrodian to the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr He may be young and may not have billboards of himself around Hollywood like Angelyne, but the twenty-something Chad Luckette does have a van and trailer displaying his name, which seems to be found in Silver Lake Sunset Junction area more than often. Who is he? "[Chad is] an aspiring actor you can also find his resume and headshots as well as......