Boy necromancer Harry Potter won't be whipping up his trick when the film season begins future week, merely Hollywood is hoping momentum from summer hits like The Dark Knight and a wide of the mark mix of new movies will maintain audiences well-chosen into the holidays.
Two weeks ago, Warner Bros yanked Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince from a November sack and pushed it to next July, which could spell trouble at box offices because the former four Potter films averaged US$920 million in worldwide ticket sales.
That is a lot of movie magic.
But a cooking stove of films from broad comedies such as Beverly Hills Chihuahua to thrillers like Eagle Eye and art home fare including Flash of Genius could sustain the summer upswing, studio executives and box office watchers said.
"You've got it all," said Paul Dergarabedian of box office staff tracker Media By Numbers, when assessing the mentality from September through mid-November, when the new James Bond flick, Quantum of Solace, kicks off holiday season moviegoing.
Last year, Hollywood also came off a strong summertime after raking in a record US$4.18 billion in North American receipts, only then came a slate filled with war films such as In the Valley of Elah and dark dramas that tanked at box offices.
When the summer moving-picture show season officially ends on Monday's U.S. Labor Day holiday, box office watchers again await a summertime tally of over US$4 billion. A good clod of that comes from the smash hit Batman sequel The Dark Knight.
This come down Hollywood seems to experience learned a lesson from its bleak 2007 as it dishes up such light-hearted entries as Joel and Ethan Coen's cockamamy new drollery Burn After Reading prima Brad Pitt and George Clooney; the animated subsequence Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa; and Disney's latest teenager confection, High School Musical 3: Senior Year.
On a more serious note, Clint Eastwood provocative thriller, Changeling, starring Angelina Jolie and John Malkovich, will also make its commercial debut.
BAD ECONOMY, GOOD MOVIES
"Part of the intellect the summer was successful is that most studios made a lot of films citizenry really loved, and it is a great scuttlebutt on the power of films that even in bad economic times, audiences come to theaters for good movies," said Adam Fogelson, marketing chief for Universal Pictures.
Of course, the question for movie fans is: "what is well?", and that question has as many answers as there are films.
For clues, cineastes should watch the current and upcoming movie festivals in Venice, Toronto and Telluride, Colorado - major launch pads for movies looking at to earn good reviews.
Last year, the Coen brothers went into Telluride with clips from No Country for Old Men, and came forbidden with good buzz that propelled the movie to Oscars for best picture, best film director and best adapted screenplay.
Teenage pregnancy funniness Juno was a hit at Toronto in 2007, and trine years agone gay cowpuncher drama Brokeback Mountain south Korean won the top prize at Venice.
This year the Coen comedy Burn After Reading, which stars Pitt as hyperactive gym teacher wHO attempts to extort money from a former CIA analyst, dual-lane some critics at Venice but testament have a chance to wow a new chemical group of reviewers at Toronto.
Other September and October releases winning early buzz are director Spike Lee's Miracle at St Anna, well-nigh four contraband American soldiers caught behind enemy lines during World War II, and "Appaloosa," a criminal offense thriller mark in the Old West directed by Ed Harris, starring Viggo Mortensen and Harris.
Robert De Niro and Al Pacino have mated up as a duet of New York City cops in Righteous Kill, and Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe appear together in Body of Lies.
Finally, there is the drama Tyler Perry's The Family That Preys, and on the light side, Ghost Town, stellar British comedian Ricky Gervais as a man wHO can examine ghosts, and Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist, about two teenagers who notice love.
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