Studios, Toy Manufacturers Take Turns Shaking Down Families This Summer

This summer's prolonged barrage of blockbusters with extensive toy tie-ins—Spider-Man 3, Pirates 3, Transformers, etc—provides parents with an unprecedented opportunity to divert an unhealthy chunk of their discretionary income to Hollywood, as any trip to the multiplex must be immediately followed by one to the WalMart toy aisle, lest this generation of savvy youngsters report their miserly guardians to Child Protective Services for their neglect. Today's LAT looks at the competition to see which studio/manufacturer combination can extort the most money from families with their pirate-themed televisions, robot-concealing trucks, or splooge-launching Spider-guns (now with spiral-squirting action!), offering up a brief encounter with a local dad who's losing his battle with the wallet-plundering, merchandising menace: More »

Tony Makes Tonys His Dirty Little Goomar

· Preliminary overnight ratings reveal that The Sopranos finale delivered a big number, stealing viewers from both the Tonys and the NBA finals. [Variety] More »

Audiences May Finally Be Tiring Of Johnny Depp's 'Gay Keith Richards' Impression

In this trying time of unjustly incarcerated heiresses, let us not forget what's truly important: the reporting of this weekend's box office numbers: More »

Tomorrow, Sony Retaliates With A Six-Page Ad About The Unreliability Of Italian Preview-Screening Accounting Practices

Disney has hopefully ended the studio dick-measuring contest over Spider-Man 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest's dueling claims to the record for the biggest worldwide opening (six-day) weekend, splaying its box-office inches across a two-page spread in today's Variety. While the (technically?) triumphant studio's design team was initially going to allow the huge number and curiously tiny #1 WORLDWIDE OPENING OF ALL TIME copy speak for themselves, they couldn't resist surrendering to their cruder instincts with a message taunting their rival and its humbled, slump-shouldered hero. More »

First 'He-Man' Teaser Trailer Released

More »

Breaking! 'Spider-Man' Sequel Absurdly Expensive

Given that the first two Spider-Man movies made Sony about $1.6 billion at the worldwide box office, it probably surprises no one to learn that the studio's relentless pursuit of another huge summer run may have resulted in the third installment becoming The Most! Expensive! Movie! Ever! Made! Still, even if the $350 million number (throw in marketing and promotion and we're at half a billion) passed along in Kim Masters' Radar story on Spider-Man 3's historic, budget-busting run are, is claimed by a flack, a "complete fabrication," the real amount is still big enough to choke even its free-spending producer: More »