Director Eli Roth had the guts to get in touch with me the other day even though I've named him as Enemy No. 1 again and again in my campaign against torture porn in horror movies. Of course, I totally get that he's looking for publicity timed to the October 23rd release of the unrated widescreen edition of his loathesome Hostel Part II DVD, especially after the film flopped at the box office during the summer. (In fact, just on October 8th, the pic was dissed during debate in the British House Of Commons for depicting "obscene, misogynistic acts of brutality against women". And a proposed UK Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill could make it illegal to possess stills from Hostel Part II.) Nonetheless Roth told me he's moving on from the horror genre, and I'm thrilled by this news:

"As far as violence goes, I think at this point I've pushed the boundaries of horror as far as I can, and it's someone else's turn to take over spilling blood and guts. I have new challenges and much more ambitious ideas that are not horror related that I'm working on, as well as other artistic endeavors outside of film. I love directors like Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson, who pushed the boundaries of gore and horror in their early career, and then took that same energy and aesthetic and applied it to other genres. I'll always love horror and I'm sure I'll make more horror movies, but once you've spilled that much blood, you kind of have it out of your system and look for other ways to make audiences scream and cheer and vomit."

1. More Eli Roth Whining About Anti-Torture Porn Media
2. Putting Summer 2007 On The Couch...
3. Eli Roth Reacts Badly To Hostel II Failure; Says R-Rated Horror In Serious Jeopardy
4. Moviegoers Hostile Towards 'Hostel II'
5. Pirated: 'Hostel II' Bootlegs & Downloads
6. Lionsgate Is Still Releasing College Coed Killing Pic Despite Virginia Tech Tragedy
7. 'Hostel' Eli Roth, Lover Of Torture Porn

High time to look at the nexus of Hollywood and Halo 3. So I defer to video game biz expert Keith Boesky, who today wonders whether last week's Biggest Entertainment Day In History -- i.e. the launch of Halo 3 -- could jumpstart the stalled Halo film franchise. (When last I checked, Universal & Fox were fighting over Halo development money.) Why listen to Boesky? He's the former Eidos Interactive president turned video game agent whose Boesky & Company closes more gaming development deals than any other agency in the world and whose client list includes the Robert Ludlum estate, Clive Barker, Spark Unlimited, Liquid Entertainment and GDH. Boesky runs the numbers and compares Halo 3 The Game to Spidey 3 The Movie. What he finds may surprise you:

"Even though the media trumpeted how the launch of Halo 3 was the largest single day financial event in entertainment history, the articles fail to address how much larger. The retail vs. box office numbers show revenue for first day sales of Halo was about 13% higher than Spider-Man 3, this year's biggest movie opening weekend. This is pretty cool. However, when you compare the bottom lines, it is beyond pretty cool. It is really f'ing cool and cannot even be touched by the movie business. When you consider the nearly 50% audience growth over Halo 2 despite a nearly 50% smaller installed console base, it is even more incredible. Even Steve Jobs has to be eyeing those margins...

"We know that Spider-Man 3 had an opening weekend of $151,116,516 and a total gross of $336,530,303. Considering the average price of $6.58 for the film, roughly 23 million tickets were sold opening weekend, or, roughly 5 1/2 times the number of Halo 3 purchasers. This would render Halo very uninteresting if the Halo consumer didn't spend a little more than 9 times as much on the product...

"We can assume Sony received 90% of the rental from the opening weekend for Spider-Man 3. This would equate to return of $136,004,864. Relative to the gross national product of many countries that is a lot of money, but relative to the $270 million production cost (that's if we accept Sony's number; some say it is well over $300 million) and $100 million plus of marketing, they have a long way to go before the investment is recouped. It is even longer when you consider the first-dollar gross participants who get a piece of the revenue even before the studio recoups. Sure, this is the launch of a 20+ year equity, and sure there are trailing revenue streams, but those revenue streams are now factored in to support the production cost. These ancillary revenue streams are no longer a windfall...

"Now take a look at Halo 3. The projected retail revenue for the first week of release is $252,000,000. Microsoft will sell the game for a wholesale price of $49.99 (I know there are special editions out there, but I am keeping the single price). They will likely not deduct the technology license fee, which is otherwise paid by third party publishers, and likely have some pretty good manufacturing discounts based on their scale. Moreover, they own Bungie, so there is likely no per unit royalty paid to the developer or for the IP (Does anyone remember that Microsoft bought Halo from Take Two for $4 million?) A generous characterization of manufacturing expenses, and factoring in a 15% return allowance, would indicate that Microsoft would take roughly $40 to the bottom line, roughly, $168,000,000. Even assuming a ridiculously expensive production and marketing budget, Microsoft is still more than $100 million into profit at launch. Realizing that Halo 3 sales will likely continue at full price for a long time, sales could easily hit 10 million units, or $400 million in revenue to Microsoft. After all, Halo 2 sold 7.5 million copies in the first six weeks. The Halo bottom line revenue and potential profit could exceed the box office of Spider-Man 3's entire domestic run...

"Oh yeah, and there are all those other opportunities for ancillary revenue like novelization, action figures, graphic novels, related merchandise, they are all there, contributing incremental revenue. There is even a film. Most of the articles are reporting the film is dead...but is it?...

"Hollywood cannot ignore something that makes this much money. They will not look at the audience size; they will see the numbers and immediately start discussing the Halo film. But it would be only marginally less relevant to discuss Halo's impact on the cure for cancer. The film died last year when the projected budget for the already expensive acquisition was much more than Fox and Universal were willing to spend. A film greenlighting decision is about risk mitigation, and the audience for Halo, even with Peter Jackson's involvement, is simply not big enough to justify the expenditure--especially when the lead character wears a mask most of the movie...

"While the 4.2 million units equate to major profit for Microsoft, that same audience would amount to major failure for Fox and Universal. If each of the roughly 11 million Xbox 360 owners buys two tickets to the film, it is still a bust. Of course, a film would be made to appeal to a larger audience, but despite best intentions, that rarely happens. Absent a significant leap of faith, or hubris, Halo may never be a film. For Halo fans, that could be a good thing. It could even be a good thing for Microsoft. Games are a stand-alone medium. Financially, compared to film, they are a much better one."

Disgusting filmmaker Eli Roth sounds increasingly desperate. (Recall when he reacted badly to the failure of his Hostel II)? Here's the latest from his MySpace:

"And did anyone read that absurd article by Lisa Schwartzbaum in Entertainment Weekly, about how she'd never watch a "Torture Porn" film? I think it's time for her to hang up her critic's pen. I mean, seriously, I hate to break it to you Lisa, but there is no such thing as "torture porn." It's a made up term, made up by people who don't understand these movies, who are afraid to even watch them, and who feel some bizarre sense of moral obligation to warn the public about them, despite the fact they don't watch them and never would. Lisa Schwartzbaum has let others define for her what the films are - she admits that she's never seen any of the Saw films, and that she never would. Well, why wouldn't you? Because someone else TOLD you that's what they were? Are you that weak minded that you couldn't even decide these things for yourself? What makes me sick is her smug, holier-than-thou attitude, as if to say "I wouldn't watch these films because I don't enjoy torture!" Well, no shit lady, nobody does, but maybe these films are actually making a statement about torture.

Would you not watch Three Kings because there's torture in it? What about Marathon Man? And are you implying that the millions and millions of people who do watch these films actually endorse torture themselves? No, it seems to me you're directly saying it. Well, I have a suggestion: GET ANOTHER JOB. I'm not saying you have to like every movie made, but you do have to see every movie made if you're going to be a critic, and watch them with a critical eye. But you're watching them with a prejudice, a prejudice that was decided for you not by the filmmakers, but by some jealous critic who probably wishes he had the balls to actually write and direct his own movie, but who never would because he's too fucking chickenshit to put himself out there where anyone can take shots at him. It's too bad, she doesn't know what she's missing. Which is why I'm thankful they have Owen Glieberman over there, who's someone who clearly gets it.

Here's what film critic Schwartzbaum posted back in July, explaining under the headline "What I Hate" why she refuses to cover Captivity and other ''torture-porn horror'' flicks:

This week, my colleague Owen Gleiberman describes the majority of Captivity as being ''not sick enough to disturb anyone who'd go to see this film.'' For the sake of readers who appreciate guidance in the nuances of the genre referred to as ''torture-porn horror,'' I'm glad Owen took the assignment. I wouldn't.

It's quite simple: I hate these movies. I won't see these movies. Never saw Saw or its sequels, never will. I'm not impressed with the ''quality'' of the gore or the ''wit'' of the filmmaking. I'm not enjoyably scared; I'm horrified, and not in the way horror fans get off on, groaning and screaming with pack-mentality excitement. Instead, my horror is one of disturbance and anger: Who makes this vile crap? What is remotely defensible about a movie like Captivity, in which a woman is abducted and tortured for the sake of ticket sales? Nothing, that's what. While moviegoers can vote with withheld wallets, I vote with my computer keyboard. Or rather, the silence of the keys, as I stay away from stuff I have no stomach for seeing, even on the job.

Hollywood has no institutional memory. One of the reasons that the vast majority of its execs aren’t in therapy, and should be, is because they don’t want to talk about the past even if it’s prologue. They’re purposefully amnesiac. Otherwise, they’d have to confront the lunatic decisions they make over and over again (since repeating the same behavior and expecting different results is one definition of insanity). Which is why I want to revisit Summer 2007 whose $4.18 billion worth of threequels and blockbusters smashed the May 1st through Labor Day domestic box office gross record. (Not adjusted for inflation or ticket prices, however, which is why Hollywood stats have as many asterisks these days as does baseball.) It’s not that Hollywood denizens started doing everything right. It’s more like they just started doing less things wrong. The product is still terrible. The process is still tainted. The system is still broken. Feed it with praise and its players will never engage in the introspection necessary to ask, “What the hell are we doing even playing this rotten game?” So let me review what Hollywood learned during its summer vacation:

Don’t make threequels with cast and director intact: So the first Spider-Man and Pirates Of The Caribbean and Rush Hour were humongous hits. And the sequels made even more moolah than the originals primarily because original stars Tobey Maguire, Johnny Depp and Chris Tucker were on board as well as repeat helmers Sam Raimi, Gore Verbinski and, yes, even Brett Ratner. The consistency certainly helped make the pics into profitable franchises in the first place. But by the time the threequels rolled around, the budgets became as bloated as the talent's salaries. Chris Tucker shook down New Line for a new pay record on Rush Hour 3, while Brett Ratner brought the studio to its knees when he went wildly overbudget. And both Spidey 3 and Pirates 3 broke the $300 mil cost barrier not counting marketing costs. Then again, directors Raimi and Verbinski respectively were allowed to do pretty much anything they wanted, even making absurdly ass-numbingly long pics, because the studios were so desperate to keep the franchises going. No one wants to get off the gravy train, but if the fourquels are ever going to see the light of day, hire hungrier helmers whom the studios can more easily bludgeon into obedience and/or hotter younger stars to freshen the franchises.

Don’t make expensive comedies: The whole point of greenlighting laughers is supposed to be because they’re cheap. They’re the K-Mart of motion pictures, not the Neiman Marcus (aka Needless Mark-Up). Judd Apatow’s Knocked Up cost only $30 mil. His Superbad was only $20 mil. Constrast that to Evan Almighty’s $210 mil. If a comedy has to rely on CGI for humor instead of spittakes and pratfalls, don’t make that script.

Don’t go after the religious market: There’s no surer guarantee of box office disaster than to make a movie aimed at appealing to The Passion Of The Christ audience. Look, that pic evolved from Mel Gibson’s deeply felt religious beliefs – not from a pitch meeting. Universal moguls dragged out every trick in the Christian playbook to Hail Mary make and market Evan Almighty's tired Noah’s Ark retelling. But the Passion crowd wants stories based on the New Testament. Heathen Hollywood didn’t comprehend that.

Don’t forget that the toys are more important than the toons: Granted, summer kiddie matinees are one of Hollywood’s most profitable traditions. But Sony still lost $50 mil on its underperforming Surf’s Up animated pic this summer. Then again, Pixar films have lost their magic and each keeps earning less than the previous one. At least last summer’s Cars was a merchandising bonanza. Not so with this summer’s Ratatouille because even Disney can't market a kitchen rat. I still don’t understand why Remy wasn’t transformed into Lucy Lapin or Gary Grenouille.

Don’t expect niche audience pics to gross over $200 mil: One of the reasons so many tentpoles did so well this summer is that they appealed simultaneously to several generations of moviegoers. Of course, wide demos went to see Spidey 3 and Pirates 3 and Shrek The Third. But also Transformers whose toys and toons were first introduced back in 1984. So not only did today’s tykes, tweens and teens want to see the bots battle, but so did guys in their 20s and 30s and 40s for whom nostalgia was the big draw.

Don’t bank on stale mythologies: Just as 300 breathed new life into tiresome toga tales, so did Pirates of the Caribbean provide a fresh take on what long hair, eye makeup and nice jewelry can do for a guy at sea. This summer’s handful of original pics helped reinvent the anti-hero, whether robots or Seth Rogan or EPA head Russ Cargill. Of course, I keep waiting in vain for comic book films to flop, but then I don’t do geek.

Don’t think the public wants torture porn: Gore icon Eli Roth is blaming piracy and critics for his Hostel Part II’s lousy box office, warning that the R-rated horror film is in serious jeopardy. But he got it all wrong even before the summer started when he wished in interviews that "hopefully we'll get to a point where there are absolutely no restrictions on any kind of violence in movies”. Horror flicks are alive and well as long as they don’t venture into torture porn hell. Problem is, Hollywood filmmakers are such an inbred bunch that they make films more for each other than for the audience so they always want to push the boundaries set by their rivals. In the case of torture porn, don’t. It’s icky.

Don’t believe in summer counterprogramming: The chances were nil that an adult-oriented downer movie like A Mighty Heart could do well, especially when sexy star Angelina Jolie dresses down and dons a horrible wig, if the alternatives at the megaplex are super robots, super heroes and super sperm. Talk about idiocy. Release those small, important, politically-themed Oscar hopeful films in the fall.

Don’t make chick flicks that even chicks won’t go to see: When I saw the ads for Evening and Georgia Rule and No Reservations and Lucky You, I gagged. Hey, I love a good romance,. But don’t stretch credulity and cast a real-life glamour gal like Catherine Zeta-Jones as a working single mother with boyfriend problems.

Don’t make movies starring Lindsay Lohan: This summer provided proof her act has worn thin. Moviegoers gave an "F" to Lindsay Lohan's horror flick I Know Who Killed Me. And 70-year-old Jane Fonda beat the 20-year-old head-to-head at the box office while starring in the same movie when exit polls showed 53% of the audience for Georgia Rule went to see Jane Fonda (even though she was channeling her father Henry), and only 34% went to see Lindsay Lohan (whose price quote sank by half after this summer).

Don’t make commercial movies with Nicole Kidman: When John Cusack can open a horror film (1408), and Nicole can’t (The Invasion), this actress has officially become box office poison. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Nicole should be paying film companies to hire her, not the other way around. I don’t care if she can act: she’s the female equivalent of Sean Penn. Let her finance her own films from now on.

Don’t think you can skate with a lousy trailer: Ads will always be the bedrock of a movie’s marketing campaign, and they’ve never been more important because of all the competition and clutter. Rush Hour 3 and I Now Pronounce You Chuck And Larry would have been stillborn had it not been for summer trailers funnier than the pics themselves. Stardust and Balls of Fury had terrible trailers and were flops at the box office.

Don’t forget that Judd Apatow is officially now a mogul: More bowing and scraping to him is therefore called for. And a bigger bonus than the $1 mil Universal forked over. I hear Amy Pascal is serious about having Sony buy him his own country.

Don’t expect the international box office to save Hollywood summers forever: Yeah, French and Russian TV sucks worse than NBC. But one of these days, and probably sooner rather than later, entertainment choices in Bolivia and Bahrain will become as myriad as those in the U.S., and foreigners will find better ways to amuse themselves than sitting through American crap like Daddy Day Camp.

With the success of this summer's Harry Potter And The Order of the Phoenix, Warner Bros announced today that its five Harry Potter films have combined to become the top-grossing film franchise worldwide in history. It surpasses even the box office total of all 22 James Bond and 6 Star Wars franchises, with two films yet to come -- Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The combined worldwide box office gross for the five Harry Potter films to date is in excess of $4.47 billion even as The Order Of The Phoenix is still going strong in theaters around the globe. In addition to holding the franchise box office record, all five of the Harry Potter films are among the 20 top-grossing box office hits of all time. The next Harry Potter film, Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince, will open on November 21, 2008. The seventh and final film, Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows, is planned for a 2010 release. None of this comes as much of a surprise since the Harry Potter films have truly been a cut above in terms of production and casting with perfect plotting provided by J.K. Rowling. Still, the studio should be congratulated for keeping up the quality. And Warner Bros Entertainment and Universal Orlando Resort have "The Wizarding World Of Harry Potter" coming to Universal’s Islands of Adventure theme park in late 2009.   

UPDATED BELOW: Hopefully, this isn't the start of a trend. "As soon as we found out about it, we raised a flag," NY Times' Culture Editor Sam Sifton told me today. He's talking about what The Denver Post did to a rave New York Times review of Julie Delpy's 2 Days In Paris. On August 24th, The Denver Post published Stephen Holden's August 10th review of the pic both in print and online. But not only was the critique abbreviated, its edit seemed to reflect the opposite tone and opinion of the original. So a clearly positive review became a negative one, even down to the headline. As if that weren't enough, The Denver Post then arbitrarily assigned a star rating -- 2 1/2 stars -- to the edited review that reflected the newly negative tone. (The New York Times does not even use star ratings.) Since The Denver Post subscribes to The New York Times syndicate, it had every right to pick up the review. But not to alter it or slap stars on it. Needless to say, Samuel Goldwyn Films went apeshit, claiming that The Denver Post edit impacted the distributor’s box office revenue in that town. I'm told that publicists alerted The New York Times, and the NYT syndicate promptly dealt with The Denver Post. As Sifton explained to me: "Our editors who run the syndicate come down heavily on people who mess around with our prose. In this particular case, it's a drag for the filmmaker. In other cases, it's a drag for our reporters. It's one thing to take a 1,200 word story about government malfeasance and put it in a small town paper six states away. It's something entirely different to cut down a review. But, to the best of my knowledge, someone in the Mile High City got booted about 2 miles up and won't do that again."

UPDATE: I just heard from Ed Smith, the Arts & Entertainment Editor for The Denver Post, in response to my request for his comment. I've edited down his email:

"Yes, we did a run a review of 2 Days in Paris by Stephen Holden of The New York Times. The review was edited, as are most wire reviews that run in our paper because of space. I was contacted by the local agency that represents the studio that released the film, complaining about the fact that the review was edited and that we gave it two and half stars (out of four). The studio complained to The New York Times wire service and culture editor at the Times about the editing of the review... On reflection, I probably was too harsh in my reading of Holden's review, and it probably should have been a three star review at least. I ran the entire, unedited review on our website and removed the stars from the posted version. We also decided that in the future when running wire reviews we will not award stars unless the originating newspaper did so and that is a practice we've put into effect."

MONDAY AM: Overall, the top films for the Labor Day weekend made $141.6 mil, which smashed 2003's previous record of $132.2 mil and did 15% better than 2006's $123 mil. That's going to cause Hollywood to take a fresh look at releasing a lot more new product during this 4-day holiday which studios have traditionally shunned. The holiday was in keeping with what I've already reported: that Summer 2007's over-heated overall domestic gross set a new all-time record (though not adjusted for inflation or ticket prices). Media By Numbers puts the May 1st through September 3rd figure at $4.180 billion -- compared to $3.850 billion for 2006 and $3.95 billion for 2004. Revenue is up 8.57% and attendance up 3.82% over last year. Not only was this Hollywood's first $4 billion summer, but it crossed 600 million tickets sold for the first time since 2004 (though not close to the 653 million tickets sold during the Summer of 2002).

Moviegoers flocked to the three decades old Michael Myers horror franchise as the reimagined Halloween debuted to $11.1 mil on Friday and $8.6 million on Saturday and $6.9 million on Sunday at 3,472 theaters. The R-rated pic directed by Rob Zombie and based on the chilling 1978 original made a better than expected $26.7 mil for the 3-day weekend and should climb to $33.3 mil for the 4-day Friday through Labor Day. It's the biggest pure horror or thriller opening of the year, ahead of Disturbia and TWC's own 1408. That's also a new record for biggest Labor Day holiday 3- and 4-day domestic gross as well as biggest Friday gross for a Labor Day holiday (previous best Labor Day weekend opening was Transporter 2 with $20.1 mil, non-opening was Sixth Sense with $29.1 mil). As I'd predicted, the so-called ninequel did collapse 23% Saturday once audiences got wind of the terrible buzz. Still, it's a rare and welcome Dimension Film hit for embattled The Weinstein Co and distributor MGM, which is sick of getting fleas from TWC's many dogs.) No. 2 was Sony's low-cost coming of age comedy Superbad, falling out of the top spot for the first time since its release three weeks ago. The Judd Apatow-produced laugher made $3.4 mil Friday and $4.2 mil Saturday and $4.7 mil Sunday from an expanded run of 3,002 for a $12.3 mil 3-day weekend. Its 4-day holiday is $15.6 mil and its cume surged past $92.1 mil.

Rogue Pictures / Focus Features' Balls Of Fury, with a marketing campaign unfunny to the extreme despite the presence of Christopher Walken, limped into 3rd place with an opening of $3.4 mil Friday and $4.1 mil Saturday (up 20%) and $4.7 mil Sunday from 3,052 dates for a new 3-day weekend gross of $11.3 mil and 4-day holiday of $13.8 mil. The other newcomer to crack the Top 10 was 20th Century Fox's Death Sentence starring Kevin Bacon: it debuted in 8th place for the 3-day weekend of $4.2 mil from 1,822 theaters, but fell to 9th for the 4-day holiday of $5.2 mil.

No. 4 went to Universal's The Bourne Ultimatum with a hefty new cume of $202.6 mil after squeezing out another $10.3 mil for the 3-day weekend and $13.1 mil for the 4-day holiday from 3,290 venues. Overseas, the Matt Damon strarrer stayed strong for an estimated $15.1 mil at 2,404 dates in 31 territories and a new international total of $75 mil. It had No. 1 openings in 6 territories including Australia where it is dominating the market with 60% market share. But it was DreamWorks Animation's Shrek the Third that ruled at the international box office in the final summer weekend with $17.2 million. Brett Ratner's Rush Hour 3 from New Line has made $122.5 mil after its $8.5 mil 3-day weekend and $10.4 mil 4-day holiday from 3,008 plays -- good enough for #5.

In 6th place sits Rowan Atkinson's Mr. Bean's Holiday after the Universal laugher eked out $5.9 mil for the 3-day weekend and $8.1 mil for the 4-day holiday from 1,765 venues for a new cume of $21.1 mil. The 7th spot went to The Weinstein Co's slacker The Nanny Diaries with Scarlett Johannson. After a paltry $5.2 mil 3-day weekend and $6.7 mil 4-day holiday from 2,636 dates, this MGM-distributed pic's new cume is a disastrous $16.8 mil. War from Lionsgate starring Jet Li dropped a whopping 71% at the box office Friday compared to its opening a week ago: its new cume is a disappointing $18.1 mil after finishing the 3-day weekend in #9 with $4.2 mil and moving up to #8 for the 4-day holiday with $5.3 mil. Finishing the Top 10, Paramount's romantic fantasy Stardust hung in for a 3-day weekend of $3 mil and a predicted 4-day holiday of $3.9 mil from 1,766 runs; but its new cume starting four weeks in release is just $31.9 mil, thus cementing its status as a flop. 

Halloween is arriving awfully early this year, but moviegoers have flocked to this franchise ever since 1978 when Michael Myers first began causing havoc. (I doubt they'll care that this weekend is the wrong holiday.) My box office gurus expect the R-rated Halloween 9, directed by the aptly named Rob Zombie, to treat more than trick the box office over Labor Day weekend with $20+ million from 3,472 theaters. Finally, The Weinstein Co's long drought hit-wise should ease modestly thanks to this reimagined horror pic from its Dimension Films. (What a relief to distributor MGM.) Sony's low-cost coming of age laugher Superbad from mogul Judd Apatow's comedy wheel expands into 3,002 venues (+54%) and should finish in 2nd place; its cume is already $75.1 mil going into its third weekend in release. My analysts expect Rogue Pictures' extreme sports spoof Balls Of Fury opening in 3,052 runs to occupy 3rd despite some of the unfunniest ads I've ever seen. Universal's The Bourne Ultimatum and New Line's Rush Hour 3 should place 4th and 5th respectively.

Reminder: DHD will be posting box office this holiday weekend but little else.

This one, in Sunday's paper by Jeannette Catsoulis, about sequels: "Fans who tolerate the repetitiveness and ideological bankruptcy of the Rush Hour franchise, for example, may be testaments to the power of hope and a need for familiarity at a time when the Iraq war continues unabated, pensions and polar ice disappear, and Al Qaeda videos enjoy wider distribution than Sundance winners." ...I can't believe a New York Times editor let such garbage be published.

Because of (or in spite of) all those blockbusters and threequels, Summer 2007 today crossed the $4 billion mark, setting a new record for total domestic gross receipts. Media By Numbers which has been keeping a running tally on summer-to-date statistics just told me that the period May 1 through today has made $4.003 billion. That's way past 2006's $3.633 billion, with revenue up 10.18% and attendance up 5.35%. But it surpasses even 2004's record of $3.95 billion reached by Labor Day (that summer-to-date figure is only $3.810 billion). This is the first $4 billion summer ever. By September 3rd, attendance will be over 600 million tickets for the first time in two years, but that's still short of 2002's 650 million tickets sold. True, not all the big tentpoles worked for critics, some sequels sank, pics faded faster than expected, and these numbers aren't adjusted for ticket prices or inflation. For instance, average ticket prices in 2004 was $6.21 versus $6.85 in 2007. (Which is why Hollywood box office figures are starting to resemble baseball statistics with lots of asterisks after every record set...) But there were so many blockbusters crowded in weekend after weekend that Summer 2007 was able to break the record before even reaching September 3rd. Here are the Top 10 Summer Movies so far:

SUNDAY AM: Today, Summer 2007 box office smashed the record for domestic gross receipts and zoomed past $3.95 billion set in 2004 to $4.003 billion. (See my story here.) Otherwise, this was one of those few times in Hollywood when age and familiarity bested youth and novelty. I'm talking about the Top 10 weekend box office, of course. (What did you think?) So oldies but goodies occupied Numbers 1-3. Of course, the fact that this is late August, and the best summer movies have already opened, and now all we're left with is the dogs, may have something to do with it as well. Sony's holdover Superbad finished at the top with $18 million ($5.7 mil Friday and $6.7 mil Saturday, or -46%) from 2,948 theaters. The new cume for mogul Judd Apatow's low-cost coming of age laugher is $68.6 mil. It's only the 3rd summer film to win back-to-back weekends with Spidey 3 and Pirates 3. But, again, the competition was weak.

So much so, that even for its fourth weekend, Universal's The Bourne Ultimatum starring Matt Damon managed #2 with $12.3 mil ($3.6 mil Friday and $5.4 mil Saturday from 3,679 runs) for a hefty new cume of $185.1 mil. New Line's Rush Hour 3 finished the weekend #3 with $11.5 mil from 3,442 dates for a new cume of $107.7 mil. A newcomer grabbed No. 4, Universal's freshman laugher Mr. Bean's Holiday debuted with $10.1 mil this weekend from just 1,714 venues. This latest in Brit comic Rowan Atkinson's comedy franchise should move up after a projected $10 mil weekend. Managing 5th place, Lionsgate's War starring Jet Li and Jason Statham opened to $9.5 mil this weekend from 2,277 plays. No. 6 was yet another Weinstein Co bomb, horribly reviewed The Nanny Diaries distributed by MGM. It's hard to ruin a hot book and a hot starlet, Scarlet Johannson, but the Weinsteins turned this into a dreadful sitcom of a film which debuted to only $7.3 mil this weekend from 2,277 runs.

For its fifth weekend, 20th Century Fox's The Simpsons Movie hung on to #7 with $4.5 mil from 2,600 theaters and a fat new cume of $173.6 mil. No. 8 went to Paramount's bomb Stardust whose new cume from 3 weekends out is only $26.6 mil after taking in $4.1 mil from 2,339 venues. Concluding 6 weekends in release, New Line's Hairspray was 9th taking in $3.5 mil from 2,016 plays for a new cume of $107.6 mil. And, rounding out the Top 10, Warner's dog of a movie The Invasion, starring career-troubled Nicole Kidman, eked out a paltry $3.2 mil (-46%) from mostly empty 2,776 theaters its second weekend out for a paltry new cume of $11.6 mil. I should also point out that Yari Film Group's Resurrecting The Champ with Josh Hartnett was a huge disaster despite an expensive TV ad campaign, opening only 15th with $1.6 mil this weekend from 1,605 dates and a lousy per screen average.

Meanwhile, Mitt Romney has nothing to fear from the pic September Dawn because no one saw it: the Slowhand film opened to only $615K this weekend from 857 venues for a paltry per screen average under $250 (probably, people who were just craving movie theater popcorn). It's ridiculous to think an indie film depicting one of the darkest and most controversial events in Mormon history could ruin the Republican presidential candidate because he's a Mormon. Even more ridiculous to think Hollywood is releasing this pic depicting graphic scenes of violence and fanaticism by 19th century Mormons on purpose to upset his campaign. See my previous Will New Anti-Mormon Movie Hurt Mitt? 

Sony's Superbad should continue as No. 1 this weekend. Down 40% or less would be a big show of strength for this low-cost coming-of-age comedy from producer Judd Apatow (who's now officially a mogul in my opinion). My box office gurus expect a Superbad weekend close to $20 mil from its 2,948 theaters. Next among newcomers comes Lionsgate's War with Jet Li and Jason Stratham which should debut "in the high teens" from 2,277 venues. And No. 3 among freshmen probably goes to The Nanny Diaries starring Scarlett Johansson from The Weinstein Co/MGM in the low teens with 2,629 runs. Really, how irritating that these people took a hot book and made a sitcom instead of a movie (horrible reviews on RottenTomatoes). No one knows quite where Mr. Bean's Holiday (1,713 dates) will end up since his movies are always hard to predict. Instead of the films, the really BIG news this weekend will be the moment that Summer 2007 crosses into the record books. Media By Numbers said yesterday's total is $3.881 billion, close to the precedent-setting $3.95 billion of 2004.

This is hilarious. A few hours after director Michael Bay declared "No Blu-Ray, No 'Transformers' 2!" (and nearly gave poor Paramount boss Brad Grey a panic attack), he has backtracked. By the way, to answer all your questions about my personal views, I honestly don't care which format takes over; I just want ONE format to win already. And the funniest email I've received these past few days has to be this: "The most upsetting part of your story is the possibility that the future of home entertainment might hinge in any way on what Michael Bay says or does. Horrifying, even." As for my own opinion, now I understand why his 'The Island' sucked so bad. Anyway, here's what the helmer just posted on his "Shoot For The Edit" website. Interesting how quickly and easily he became a new convert to HD DVD:

"Last night at dinner I was having dinner with three Blu-ray owners. They were pissed about no Transformers Blu-ray, and I drank the Kool-Aid hook, line and sinker. So at 1:30 in the morning I posted -- nothing good ever comes out of early AM posts, mind you -- I over reacted. I heard where Paramount is coming from and the future of HD and players that will be close to the $200 mark which is the magic number. I like what I heard.

As a director, I'm all about people seeing films in the best quality possible, and I saw and heard firsthand people upset about a corporate decision.

So today I saw 300 on HD, it rocks!

So I think I might be back on to do Transformers 2!"

And here's what Bay posted earlier today in an online outburst thought to be the first time a director has openly criticized a studio for its choice of high-def formats:

"I want people to see my movies in the best formats possible. For them to deny people who have Blu-ray sucks! They were progressive by having two formats. No Transformers 2 for me!"

1. Michael Bay Says To Paramount: No Blu-Ray, No 'Transformers' Sequel!
2. Desperation Move & Cash Grab? Or Bloodier Blu-ray/HD-DVD Format War?
3. 'Transformers' Michael Bay Lays On Blame

UPDATE: Michael Bay Changes Mind

There's more fallout today from yesterday's announcement that Paramount has gone from supporting both Blu-ray and HD DVD formats to just the losing high-def format HD. An obviously vexed Michael Bay wrote in a forum posting on his "Shoot for the Edit" website that he will not make a Transformers sequel because of it. "I want people to see my movies in the best formats possible. For them to deny people who have Blu-ray sucks! They were progressive by having two formats. No Transformers 2 for me!" Bay's outburst is thought to be the first time a director has openly criticised a studio for its choice of high-def formats. And this'll come as a surprise to the studio bosses who have been salivating over the brand new franchise. My question to Paramount is: was the $50 million I reported for the deal really worth it?

Meanwhile, I hear that Paramount's decision could also cause problems with Steven Spielberg and George Lucas over the Indiana Jones franchise. I've got more clarification about the helmer's format fence-sitting position which was highlighted in that one line notation yesterday. Spielberg's Paramount movies like Saving Private Ryan and War of the Worlds are not included in that studio's HD DVD deal. Nor will the director give permission to Universal to include his titles (like Jaws, E.T., and Jurassic Park) in that studio's long-time exclusive support of the HD DVD format. Spielberg, in fact, is so touchy on this format-choosing subject that, back in February, the so-called HD DVD Promotions Group issued and then retracted a "coming soon" list of several of his titles, tacking on this abject apology. People around the director keep emphasizing that Spielberg is a "big supporter" of Blu-ray, even if Universal and now Paramount don't. The only Spielberg pic in the high-def pipeline on either format is Sony's fall release in Blu-ray of Close Encounters Of The Third Kind timed to its 30th anniversary. Specifically for Close Encounters Blu-ray, Spielberg approved the new high-def transfer, recorded a new intro and OKed a storyboard comparison.

See my previous: Desperation Move & Cash Grab? Or Bloodier Blu-ray/HD-DVD War?

Sony's Superbad had a better than expected Sunday so the official weekend total is now $33 mil, not just $31 mil. "We had an exceptional hold, one of the best I have ever seen, and it looks like we will be only down about 2% off of Saturday's number." See my previous: 'Superbad' Trounces Competition & Helps Summer 2007 For Record