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SUNDAY AM: Disney / Pixar's Ratatouille cooked up a winning recipe as America's No. 1 movie, opening big with $47.2 mil this weekend from a bountiful 3,940 theaters. 
Surprisingly, it performed equally well on Friday as it did Saturday featuring the famed kiddie matinees. But Remy The Rat's debut is still well below the last Disney / Pixar toon Cars, which opened in 2006 to $60 mil and earned less than 2003's Finding Nemo ($70 mil) and 2004's The Incredibles ($70 mil). (Plus, Ratatouille can't merchandise itself like the other toons -- not with a rat as the main character.) I hear the incredibly well reviewed film (95% "fresh" reviews at Rotten Tomatoes) played right across the board. And, while Los Angelenos are used to applause as the credits roll, there are anecdotal reports of lotsa clapping across the country. The rodent should have great legs over Fourth Of July week. No. 2 went to Fox's action-packed Live Free Or Die Hard starring Bruce Willis which opened back on Wednesday also to good reviews. It made $33.1 mil this weekend from 3,408 venues. That's more than good considering how the adult action movie marketplace is so jammed with high-profile summer product right now. Exit polls showed the audience was fairly evenly divided between males and females. (In comparison, the previous three Die Hards skewed more towards men.) Fox insiders are calling these exit polls for their stunt-filled fourquel the best since Speed. Its 5-day total is now $48.1 mil for this latest in the John McClane franchise. (Previous: Does Bruce Die Hard Or Get Ratatouille'd?)
The other big opening this weekend was from The Weinstein Co: Michael Moore's documentary Sicko did a bigger than expected $4.4 mil this weekend from only 441 theaters, good enough for 9th place. That's a healthy start for the controversial but well-reviewed pic (91% fresh reviews). Love him or hate him, the Oscar-winning director stage-managed a PR blitz around his movie starting with the Cannes Film Festival back in May. For instance, on Thursday, Moore was barred from making a scheduled TV interview with CNBC on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange where he and a group of nurses intended to call for Wall Street investors and Main Street consumers to divest themselves of HMO, health insurance, and drug company stocks. Free publicity also came from the Bush administration who went after Moore ... Read More »
FRIDAY AM: Yes, it's the start of another nailbiter for gross receipts this summer weekend as blockbusters bust a move in movie theaters. Right now my box office gurus are saying the totals for both films by Sunday look neck-and-neck: between $40 million to $45 million. Naturally, Fox especially is trying to lower 5-day expectations for Live Free Or Die Hard by projecting high $30s (as in millions) since its adult action marketplace is so jammed with high-profile product right now. Disney / Pixar's Ratatouille debuting today also faces a lot of existing family fare yet still managed to score a bountiful 3,940 theaters. And Disney tells me that its toon's tracking has "gotten stronger every day." So ... Will Remy the Rat die hard? Will Bruce Willis get French fried? It's always tough to know what a pic will do from Friday through Sunday when it opens on the Wednesday before. That's the case with Fox's Die Hard 4, which took in $9.1 million Wednesday and $5.9 mil Thursday from 3,408 theaters. While that wasn't anywhere near a record -- only 27th for top single day grosses on a Wednesday -- the studio's exit polls are through the roof for the over the top stunt-filled pic. "Only film that delivers on the hype this summer," is a popular response, and Fox insiders are calling these exit polls the best they've seen since Speed. "These exit polls indicate for the first time this summer that audiences are satisfied and not feeling ripped off," a Fox insider explained to me. The studio knows it won't break daily or weekend records, but could play for a long time. Even the film reviewers have gone ga-ga for the flying cars, huge fireballs, collapsing freeways, and other implausible stunts culminating when a car takes out a helicopter: 
Interestingly, before its debut, the pic had been tracking good but not great, especially doing well with older men and older females who knew the John McClane character well. So I'm told the studio set out to "educate" the under-25 crowd on who was this wise-cracking yippee-ki-yay yelling hero since it had been so long between sequels (back to 1995 when Bruce was still married to Demi). Then again, the Yahoo trailer 
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According to a translated German newspaper article published today, Germany's widely reported opposition to UA's movie-in-the-works Valkyrie filming at military sites has less to do with its star Cruise's being a "dangerous" Scientologist and more to do with fuss and bother. Turns out the building that is now a memorial to the "July Plot" conspirators who tried to assassinate Hitler also houses part of the German Ministry of Defense. The main hurdle to a film permit, according to the people in charge of German government buildings, is that the lights and cables and camera teams could disrupt Defense Ministry work. But if an arrangement ensures that filming doesn't interfere, a permit should be no problem. 
So those earlier reports appear wrong that the movie has been barred because Tom is a Scientologist. In fact, the Defense Ministry, which only leases the building, does not have the right to grant or reject filming permits. Nevertheless, the German government doesn't recognize Scientology as a religion but instead criticizes it as a dangerous cult. Articles 4 and 5 of the German constitution protect freedom of faith and creed and expression. The question still remains how cooperative the country will be to Tom and his UA movie. (FYI, to clarify, UA did not issue a press release on this. Today's information was from a translated German newspaper article." 
who belong to the union 
since its editorial integrity is dependent on an owner committed to journalistic independence. (In other words, that's not Rupert Murdoch.) And second, they want their absence to remind Dow Jones management how uncool it is to award golden parachutes to 135 top executives while seeking to eviscerate employees’ health benefits and impose salary adjustments that amount to a pay cut. Dow Jones is currently in contract negotiations with its primary union, Independent Association of Publishers' Employees, a local of the Newspaper Guild. Even to the point of beseeching other buyers, the union is fighting Murdoch's Dow Jones purchase which sadly seems inevitable now. Wait til the WSJ reporters read Murdoch's new Time magazine 
EXCLUSIVE: I just confirmed that Sicko documentary creator Michael Moore was barred from making a scheduled media appearance inside the New York Stock Exchange today. His publicist says it was because he and a group of nurses intended to call for Wall Street investors and Main Street consumers to divest themselves of HMO, health insurance, and drug company stocks. The Oscar-winner and representatives of the California Nurses Association were slated to do a series of interviews with financial media outlets from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange this afternoon. CNBC was featuring Moore's appearance during its closing bell show. Now, Moore is scrambling to talk to reporters on the streets outside the Exchange building. I'm very surprised that the NYSE would interfere like this, especially given that these "on the floor" media interviews are commonplace. A Sicko rep accused the Exchange of trying to "limit or control the flow of information to American investors". Given that his newest project (following Fahrenheit 9/11 and Bowling for Columbine) officially opens around the country Friday, this is yet another twist and turn in what has turned into a long PR campaign orchestrated by The Weinstein Co pic. But it's also incredible how everyone from the Bush administration (see my previous 
I'm also told that, last Thursday, a special non-public screening of Sicko was held for a "Who's Who" of Wall Street investment firms. "They contacted us and asked for it," Sicko's publicist tells me. "They specifically wanted to see it to determine what kind of potential impact it could have on the market if shareholders and consumers see the movie and react against these companies by literally voting with their pocketbook. Or if it serves as a catalyst for legislative change in Washington DC or state capitols." Among the attendees, I'm told, were Credit Suisse First Boston, Bear Stearns and Goldman Sachs (which raised TWC's 
Screenwriter/director Zak Penn (wrote and helmed Incident at Loch Ness, co-writer of X-Men: The Last Stand) has left Endeavor for CAA. 
"It's turning into a mess," one insider told me. There are two big sticking points: Will Ed remain part of ICM management? And what will he get paid? One proposal on the table is that Limato stay as an eminence gris and rep as usual his clients (including Denzel Washington, Mel Gibson, Richard Gere, Steve Martin, Liam Neeson, Billy Crystal) but relinquish his management role as co-president with Chris Silbermann. 
Relations are still good between Limato and chairman Jeff Berg, but there is indeed tension between Limato and Silbermann who came to ICM as an outsider in the Broder Kurland 
Ugh, the lamebrains who ask me for Hollywood info. The latest is the magazine 02138 -- described as "devoted to, but not affiliated with, Harvard" -- that's compiling a supposed list of 100 Influential Harvard Grads including infotainment. But the mag seems totally clueless about Hollywood players, much less which ones were Harvard alums. (Especially when most wear the school crest virtually around their necks.) My advice? Don't read this issue. It'll be laughable. But if you want to be included, contact the mag directly and keep me out of it. I'm a Wellesley woman. 
I'm told Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner have completed that $500 million production financing arranged by Merrill Lynch for United Artists. (This had been in the works for months and months.) There should be an announcement before the end of June. As I first 
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