How will the Oscar nominations affect the box office on a weekend when there are four new movies in wide release and a handful of strong holdovers? That’s the big question as we go into this first official weekend of the silly season. Last Tuesday’s ballyhooed announcement of this year’s Academy Awards contenders stands to boost the business of several long-running releases. Before getting a Best Picture nod, Martin Scorsese’s The Departed had basically run its course in theaters, earning $121. Read More...
Tonight the Great Pumpkin will rise again, Charlie Brown fans. ABC will air the annual Halloween special It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown at 8 p.m. ET for the first of two showings this month. While this evening’s version of the special is abridged at 30 minutes long, ABC will air the full-length, hour-long broadcast on Sunday, Oct. 27 at 8 p.m. ET, plus the You’re Not Elected, Charlie Brown bonus cartoon. Read More...
After producing Animal House in 1978 — an experience that only reinforced his desire to direct — 31-year-old Ivan Reitman gave himself a five-month window to conceive and shoot his own movie. He started with a simple premise — a crazy summer camp — but not much else in terms of Hollywood support or financing. (The budget was less than a million dollars.) But he thought he had an ace in the hole in Bill Murray, the then-27-year-old who was just emerging as one of the new faces on Saturday Night Live. Read More...
