“Hancock” wins July 4th box-office race
Sony Pictures‘ superhero movie “Hancock” sparked the box office fireworks over this Independence Day weekend in the United States, breaking the 100-million-dollar sale mark in its first week of release, preliminary figures released Sunday showed.
The Will Smith action film about a down-on-his-luck superhero, opened on Tuesday before the Fourth of July holiday, will take in estimated 107.3 million dollars in North America by the close of business Sunday night, according to box office tracking firm Media By Numbers.
Meanwhile, “Hancock” easily bested Disney-Pixar animation feature “Wall-E” for the weekend-only crown, taking in about 66 million dollars over the three-day period.
Last week’s box office leader “Wall-E” is expected to sell impressive 33.4 million dollars this weekend, bringing a two-week total of 128.1 million dollars for the animated robot romance. Continue Reading…
“Spider-Man 4″ Targeted for May 2011
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Spider-man producer Laura Zisken says the studio is aiming for a May 2011 release date for the fourth Spider-man movie.
In remarks Thursday to theater owners from California and Nevada, Ziskin added that the screenplay is not finished yet, but that she and Sony Pictures were hopeful Spider-Man 4 could be ready in three years’ time.
The first three movies comprise one of the most successful franchises in modern Hollywood history, grossing a combined $2.5 billion worldwide. Neither star Tobey Maguire nor director Sam Raimi is yet committed to work on the next installment. But Sony has paid Marvel to renew its rights.
Paramount, DreamWorks Rip Up HD DVD Release List
In a further sign that Sony Corp.’s Blu-ray has won the high-definition format war, Paramount Pictures home entertainment unit said Feb. 29 that it will release its last HD DVD titles on March 4.
The company intends to switch to Blu-ray after it offers “Things We Lost in the Fire” and “Into the Wild” in HD DVD.
Paramount said it is in the process of determining its Blu-ray release schedule. Universal Studios said earlier in February that it was shifting its focus to Sony’s Blu-ray standard.
That announcement came after Toshiba Corp. said it would no longer develop, make or market players and recorders in HD DVD, the standard it invented.
Blu-ray won another key battle last month when Warner Bros. Entertainment chose it as the exclusive format for its releases.
Other Blu-ray backers are Sony Pictures, Walt Disney Co. and News Corp.’s Twentieth Century Fox.
Paramount is a division of Viacom Inc.
Source: Soundfood.net
Warner Bros Splits ‘Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins’ Rights With Sony
Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group has acquired the international distribution rights to Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins, the upcoming next installment of a planned new trilogy featuring Christian Bale (John Connor) and Sam Worthington (new character Marcus) with McG as director.The Hollywood Reporter says that the deal inked with the film’s producers, Victor Kubicek and Derek Anderson of the Halcyon Co., hands Sony’s worldwide acquisitions group arm all foreign distribution rights except for Korea and some Middle East countries. Warner Bros. is handling U.S. and Canadian distribution rights for the film, set to bow in first-half 2009. Production is scheduled to begin in the spring in New Mexico.
Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins will hit theaters May 22, 2009.
