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Avatar is no longer No. 1 with movie fans. The James Cameron movie was unseated over the Super Bowl weekend by Dear John, a critically drubbed weepie that brought women together en masse while their husbands and boyfriends took part in the annual testosterone observance. Dear John wound up with an estimated $32.4 million -- making it the highest grossing film ever to open on the weekend of the big game. Sony said that 89 percent of ticket buyers were female. With $23.6 million, Avatar fell out of first place for the first time in its eight-week run. (Titanic, by contrast held on to the the box office crown for 15 weeks.) The film that seemed the most damaged by the competition from the two-pronged attack of the Super Bowl and Avatar was the John Travolta action film To Paris with Love. The movie opened with just $8.1 million.

Source: Studio Briefing

The Na'vi of Avatar will go head-to-head against the New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts, and the blue-man crew is expected to be thrown for a loss. The film has continued to play strongest among young males who are expected to desert theaters on Sunday and to be active lugging home the beer, chips, and dips for Super Bowl parties on Saturday. The movie also faces competition from the romantic weepy Dear John, which is expected to attract women abandoning their homes to their husbands and boyfriends on Sunday. Some analysts are predicting that the movie could unseat Avatar as the No. 1 film at the box office for the first time in eight weeks. (The Hollywood Reporter's box-office maven Carl Diorio wrote, "This could be the last time James Cameron's Avatar tops the domestic box office.") But most feel that it can hold on until next week, when it will face the romantic comedy Valentine's Day (on Valentine's Day weekend), the fantasy film Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, and the latest remake of The Wolfman. Also opening this weekend is the action film From Paris with Love, starring John Travolta and Jonathan Rhys Myers, which some analysts regard as an odd choice for a Super Bowl weekend but point out that the previous film from its director, Pierre Morel, opened with a solid $24.7 million a year ago.

Source: Studio Briefing

Time was when critics might have called a movie like Dear John "schmaltzy," referring to the Yiddish term for the sickly sweet chicken fat that Jewish families once slathered on rye bread. An acquired taste was necessary to appreciate it. Apparently it has not been acquired by today's critics who appear to have had a collective case of indigestion over Dear John. Indeed, Lou Lumenick in the New York Post writes that Dear John "pushed me perilously close to nausea and diabetic shock, not to mention deep sleep." The movie is based on a novel by Nicholas Sparks, a leading schmaltz purveyor. (He has turned out 15 of them.) Orlando Sentinel film critic Roger Moore describes them as "beach novels" and the movies made from them as "cinematic sand castles -- sappy, old fashioned and utterly forgotten by the next time the tide rolls in." Writes A.O. Scott in the New York Times, "In Mr. Sparks's novels ... star-crossed lovers, often shadowed by illness and death, have an odd way of producing happy, or at least blissfully cathartic, endings. He is a master of the feel-good weepie." Linda Barnard in the Toronto Star agrees, saying that Dear John is contrived to have "romantics reaching for their hankies," but, she adds, "the only eyeball action Dear John got out of me involved rolling."

Source: Studio Briefing

Critics have barely finished polishing off John Travolta's last movie, Old Dogs, when here comes another one that they're kicking around. Joe Neumaier in the New York Post clearly has no love for From Paris, With Love, which he says has "the patchwork plotting of grade-schoolers making up a game at recess." He adds: "This sock-it-to-'em souffle falls very quickly, unless watching Travolta trying on another faux-hip look is considered fun." Claudia Puig in USA Today, while calling the movie "leaden and obnoxious" trains her guns primarily on Travolta, who, she says, "overplays his trigger-happy, racist, sexist character so much that he qualifies as one of the most annoying screen presences ever." Liam Lacey in the Toronto Globe and Mail describes that presence: "In a black leather jacket, with a shaved bald head and a goatee and a perpetual scarf to hide his jowls, he looks like a well-fed pimp or a gay bear." On the other hand, Michael Phillips in the Chicago Tribune, while calling the movie "stoopid fun," writes that it doesn't do much for Paris or love, or your brain cells, but it flies like a crazed eagle on uppers." Kyle Smith in the New York Post writes that director Pierre Morel delivers "all screech and no suspense, takedown without buildup, pure slam, bam, merci madame."

Source: Studio Briefing

Robert Downey Jr. may have starred in two films in 2009 (The Soloist, Sherlock Holmes); Matt Damon may also have starred in two films (Invictus, The Informant); George Clooney may have made three movies in 2009 (Up in the Air, The Men Who Stare at Goats, Fantastic Mr. Fox), but their $22 million in earnings apiece for the year paled in comparison with the $30 million earned by Rupert Grint and Emma Watson for their appearances in the two-part Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, according to Vanity Fair magazine. Nineteen-year-old Watson's earnings, in fact, topped those of any actress in Hollywood. And the highest paid actor in movies in 2009? Twenty-year-old Daniel Radcliffe, Harry Potter himself, who earned $40 million for the two films, plus an additional $1 million for the use of his image in Potter merchandise. (That merchandise fee put him slightly ahead of Ben Stiller, who earned a total of $40 million for the year.) But the two highest-paid creative figures in the movie business were producer-directors Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg with $125 million and $85 million respectively.

Source: Studio Briefing

Suggesting that Hollywood's anti-piracy campaign may finally be bearing fruit, the website TorrentFreak reported Thursday that of 34 films (by the website's reckoning) nominated for Oscars, 21 percent have thus far not shown up online in DVD quality. At the time of last year's announcement of Oscar nominees, all of the nominated films had been leaked online, the website noted. "The movie industry has certainly scored a small victory," TorrentFreak conceded. Moreover, it observed, it now takes an average of 21 days for a film to wind up online after their U.S. release; that compares with just one day in 2003. TorrentFreak commented: "Although this data suggests that the movie industry is becoming more effective in preventing screeners from leaking online, we have to emphasize that more than a third of the leaks originated from deviant Academy members who like to share the work of their colleagues."

Source: Studio Briefing

The motion picture academy has decided that four producers among the seven listed in the credits for The Hurt Locker will be officially recognized as nominees for the best film Oscar and that three producers among the eight listed for The Blind Side will be recognized. When the announcement of Oscar nominees was announced this week, the producer credits for the two films were tagged "Tbd" (to be determined). The decision to select four persons for the Hurt Locker nomination was regarded as extraordinary since the academy's rules limit producer nominations to "those three or fewer producers who have performed the major portion of the producing functions." However, the rules also allow the academy to name more in case of "a rare and extraordinary circumstance." In 2006 Bob Yari sued the academy after his name was omitted from the list of nominees for the best film, Crash. The lawsuit was later tossed out.

Source: Studio Briefing

On just its 47th day in release, Avatar accomplished what it took Titanic 252 days to pull off -- cross the $600-million mark at the domestic box office and thereby establish a new record. As of Tuesday, Avatar's gross stood at $601.1 million, breaking the record of $600.8 million established by Titanic in August 1998, the last month it was in theaters. Each James Cameron film opened in December. Avatar took the lead on the same day it received nine Oscar nominations, including one for best film and another -- for Cameron -- for best director. The Associated Press on Tuesday quoted Jon Landau, Cameron's producing partner, as saying, "Lightning is not supposed to strike twice. And it has. And it's a pinch-me moment when you sit there and you hear that we're going to break another record. It's beyond anything that we could have imagined."

Source: Studio Briefing

The latest effort to hold Internet service providers liable for allowing copyright infringement via file-sharing sites was thwarted by an Australian judge today (Thursday), who ruled that the Australian ISP iiNet could not be held responsible for the possibly illegal acts of its subscribers and that the ISP had "done no more than to provide an Internet service to its users." The lawsuit against iiNet had been brought by five major U.S. film companies, Warner Bros., Paramount, Sony, 20th Century Fox, and Disney (Universal was not a party to the suit) -- as well as Australian producer Village Roadshow and Australian broadcaster Seven Network. They had united under the banner of the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (Afact). In his ruling, Federal Court Justice Dennis Cowdroy acknowledged that iiNet was probably aware that some of its subscribers were involved in illegally downloading movies but that it "did not have relevant power to prevent infringements occurring." In a statement following the ruling Afact executive director Neil Gane said the group was disappointed with the ruling. "Today's decision is a setback for the 50,000 Australians employed in the film industry," he said. "But we believe this decision was based on a technical finding centered on the Court's interpretation of the how infringements occur and the ISPs' ability to control them." Gane did not indicate whether the group would appeal the ruling.

Source: Studio Briefing

For the second time in three years, Movie Gallery is visiting a Richmond, Va bankruptcy court. The company, which operates the Hollywood Video DVD rental chain, has been struggling under the debt load it took on when it acquired Hollywood Entertainment in 2005 as well as crippling competition from Netflix, Redbox, on-demand cable networks as well as its old nemesis Blockbuster, which is also grappling -- some say futilely -- with its digital rivals. In announcing that it is filing for Chapter 11 protection, Movie Gallery also said that it plans to shut down more than 800 unprofitable stores, around a third of its total. They are in addition to 2,400 stores that the company has already closed over the past three years.

Source: Studio Briefing

Sony is planning to take a risky plunge into 3D technology by converting some of its library to 3D, then presenting the result in theaters and on Blu-ray discs, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday. "We'll probably be able to start next fiscal year, if we can convert them into 3D with good effects," Joe Nakata, a deputy general manager for Sony's 3D strategy unit, told Bloomberg News in Tokyo. The converted movies and videogames would then be available for rental or purchase by owners of Sony's upcoming line of 3D television sets. Sony projected that -- content aside -- it will probably earn $11 billion from projected sales of 3D TV sets. Meanwhile, Sony said Wednesday that the Michael Jackson concert documentary This Is It sold 1.2 million copies in its first week, making it the No. 1 home video of the week. Surprisingly the video debuted at No. 5 on Home Media magazine's rental chart. In first place was the sci-fi thriller Surrogates starring Bruce Willis.

Source: Studio Briefing

On just its 47th day in release, Avatar accomplished what it took Titanic 252 days to pull off -- cross the $600-million mark at the domestic box office and thereby establish a new record. As of Tuesday, Avatar's gross stood at $601.1 million, breaking the record of $600.8 million established by Titanic in August 1998, the last month it was in theaters. Each film opened in December. Avatar took the lead on the same day it received nine Oscar nominations, including one for best film and another -- for James Cameron -- for best director. The Associated Press on Tuesday quoted Jon Landau, Cameron's producing partner, as saying, "Lightning is not supposed to strike twice. And it has. And it's a pinch-me moment when you sit there and you hear that we're going to break another record. It's beyond anything that we could have imagined."

Source: Studio Briefing

News Corp Chairman Rupert Murdoch sounded buoyant during a conference call Tuesday after his company reported a 44-percent rise in operating profit to $1.2 billion during the last quarter on revenue of $8.7 billion. The results demonstrate, he said, "that News Corporation is emerging from this recession with renewed vigor and strength." He praised his management team for "taking prudent, creative risks like Avatar that lead the industry forward." The company reported that its 20th Century Fox film unit nearly tripled its second-quarter results as it rose from $112 million to $324 million, helped in large measure by strong DVD sales for Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. The impact of Avatar was only beginning to be recorded on the company's ledgers as the quarter ended, and it said that it expects at least 60 percent of the profit from Avatar to be reported over the next two quarters. Asked about a possible sequel, Murdoch said that "We will be pushing for one" and that Fox is already in "very early talks about it" with James Cameron. However, he warned that it was unlikely that it would be arriving soon. He indicated that current plans call for releasing Avatar on DVD and Blu-ray in June -- although those plans could change if the movie is still performing relatively well in theaters at that time. "We're not going to yank it out of theaters if it is doing $30 million a weekend [worldwide]," News Corp. president Chase Carey said during the conference call.

Source: Studio Briefing

Time Warner, which spun off its AOL unit and Time Warner Cable last year, said today that it returned to profitability in its fourth quarter, posting earnings of $627 million versus a loss of $16 billion during the same period a year ago. The company was particularly helped by the surprising smash success of Warner Bros.' The Blind Side and the solid opening of Sherlock Holmes. Overall, revenue at the studio was up 6.6 percent to $3.32 billion for the year, with $2.11 billion of that coming from box-office sales. The company also posted a 10-percent increase in subscription revenue for its HBO pay-tv channel.

Source: Studio Briefing

Financial analysts were trying to figure out what to make of activist investor Carl Icahn's announced decision on Tuesday to resign from the board of Blockbuster. Icahn, who had waged a bruising battle with former Blockbuster CEO John Antioco in 2005 and won a place for himself and two hand-picked members on Blockbuster's board, has seen his stock in the company, once worth about $300 million, drop to near worthlessness as it plunged from around $10 at the time he first began investing in the company to around 45 cents today. Some analysts interpreted Icahn's departure as an indication that he believed that the company's prospects were bleak in the face of competition from online "rentailers" like Netflix, kiosk operators like Redbox, and video-on-demand cable providers. For his part, Icahn said in a letter to Blockbuster chief Jim Keyes that he was resigning in order to comply with federal regulatory limitations on the number of board seats he can hold. His departure from the Blockbuster board comes just days after it was reported that Movie Gallery, which operates the Hollywood Video DVD rental chain, Blockbuster's chief brick-and-mortar-store competition, was about to seek bankruptcy protection for the second time.

Source: Studio Briefing

Saying that he was resigning as president and CEO of the Motion Picture and Television Fund because it was "in my own best interests as well as in the best interest of the Fund," Dr. David Tillman on Wednesday stepped away from the ongoing controversy over the decision to shut down the Fund's long-term care facility and hospital in Woodland Hills, CA. Although he was backed by most directors of the fund, Tillman became the focus of protests by actors' groups who complained that the decision to close down the facilities was unnecessary and a contradiction of the fund's aims. Tillman had responded that the facilities lacked modern technical equipment and resources and that it was losing money that could be better spent by relocating patients to superior facilities nearby.

Source: Studio Briefing

If The Weinstein Co. had had the same sort of success with its other recent releases as it did with Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds it probably would be the leading bidder for Miramax, the studio founded by the Weinsteins that Disney has shut down and is trying to sell, along with its film library, the Los Angeles Times indicated today (Wednesday). But such a bid, the newspaper commented, "appears to be a long shot, given [the Weinsteins'] own financial struggles." The Weinstein Company, which released a string of flops last year, has been forced to retrench and is cutting its releases to just eight films this year. Asked about Disney's action in shutting down Miramax, which obviously holds a special place in his heart since it is named after his parents, Miriam and Max, Harvey Weinstein told the Times, "I'm sad that it's closing." But when asked whether he has any plans to buy back the studio, he demurred, saying only, "As people approach me, I'm considering all my options."

Source: Studio Briefing

James Cameron's Avatar has received nine Oscar nominations, far short of the 14 that Titanic, his previous blockbuster, received in 1998. Aside from nominations that the film received for best film, director, and score, the remaining nominations were generally related to the film's technical wizardry. Kathryn Bigelow's Hurt Locker also received nine nominations. The general consensus among the industry's cognoscenti is that Cameron's Avatar will take the best picture Oscar and his ex-wife Bigelow will take the best director award for Hurt Locker. Other best picture nominees include District 9, Inglourious Basterds, Up, Precious, Up in the Air, The Blind Side, An Education, and A Serious Man. It is the first time since 1943 that the academy has included 10 nominees in its best film category. The Oscar ceremonies are scheduled to air on ABC on March 7. A complete list of nominees has been posted on the academy's Oscar website at http://oscar.go.com.

Source: Studio Briefing

Never underestimate Avatar -- that appeared to be the message the box office sent Monday when the film's actual weekend total turned out to be $31.28 million instead of the $30 million that the studio had forecast. Defying the usual norm, the 20th Century Fox blockbuster performed as well on Sunday as it did on Friday and Saturday. (While the studio had estimated it would earn about $8.5 million on Sunday, it actually took in $10.1 million.) In its seventh weekend at the top of the box office, Avatar dropped just 10 percent from the previous weekend, bringing its domestic total to $595.8 million after 45 days. By contrast, Titanic had just crossed $300 million at the same point in 1998. Although the studio has not yet released comparative figures on actual ticket sales for the two movies to date, the fact that the average ticket price in 1998 was $4.69 and the average ticket price today is $7.46 makes it likely that the two films are running neck and neck in attendance -- even factoring in premium pricing for tickets at 3D theaters. Indeed, Avatar might be running slightly ahead. No other film came close to challenging Avatar this past weekend. The closest competitor was Warner Bros.' Edge of Darkness, starring Mel Gibson, which took in a decent $17.21 million. Disney's When in Rome opened in third place with $12.31 million -- far better than box office forecasters had predicted. Overall ticket sales were about flat with those for the comparable week a year ago.

Source: Studio Briefing

Sony Pictures may be coming off its best year ever at the box office, but its home video division continued to show attrition -- a condition that led it to tell employees Monday to brace for another round of layoffs, this time affecting about 450 people. The studio said that while most of the pink slips will be distributed to employees in the home video division, all units, including film, TV, digital production and corporate operations will be affected. In addition, the company said that it will not fill about 100 open positions. In a video message to Sony employees, Co-chairman Amy Pascal alluded to the battle against piracy and the rise of digital delivery. Those challenges, she observed, have "changed people's DVD-buying habits, which has had a huge effect on our company and the industry at large." She noted that an increase in ticket sales at the box-office wasn't enough to offset the severe slump in sales of DVD and Blu-ray discs, estimated to be around 13 percent for the industry as a whole.

Source: Studio Briefing