For all the hand-wringing about the decline of the movie industry, 2013 was actually a pretty good year for movies. In fact, by one measure, it was actually the best year for movies. Ever. In cinema history.

The gross domestic box office take for last year was the highest ever, beating a record set just one year earlier.

Variety reports that as of this past Sunday, the total gross tally for 2013 was $10.836 billion. By now, it’s likely that that figure has crossed the $11 billion mark — making 2013 the first year to do so. The previous record, set in 2012, was $10.837 billion.

Yep, film…

With the LEGO movie coming up, I thought maybe I could slip this in here as related. Just go with me on this, okay?

LEGO usually does such a good job with their ads, and this is one of the better ones even. So many ads these days either sell with sex, or with stupidity, or crazy gimmicks, or flashy lack of substance. Not LEGO. Now, I admit that I may be partial, prejudiced. I loved my LEGOs (yes, I know LEGO says you aren’t supposed to make that word plural, but I’m going to anyway) when I was growing up. LEGOs are awesome. My kids have LEGOs but they are not into them as much as me, and…

The movies of 2013 were great and we’re all anxiously anticipating 2015, but let’s not overlook 2014. While the upcoming calendar isn’t packed as full of blockbusters that make film fans salivate, 2014 has some pretty awesome looking movies from several of the best filmmakers in the world. It has its share of massive franchise films too and while maybe they’re not Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Terminator or Batman fighting Superman, I’ll take Christopher Nolan, Paul Thomas Anderson, Cameron Crowe, Wes Anderson, the Wachowksis and David Fincher any day.

Below, read my top ten anticipated films…

Top ten film lists are hard. I started this article with the intent of making a top ten list. I failed. Every single film on this list deserves to be in my top ten. But, there are twenty. What to do? Hey, maybe I just won’t be boxed into the mold of a top ten (or maybe I don’t have the discipline to trim my list, whatever). Maybe I’ll write a top twenty list instead. So that’s what I’m doing.

One item of disclosure however. I have not seen all the films that there were to see this year. Some of the films I didn’t get to see were films I wanted of almost felt I needed to. Some were not. But I…

Can you believe it’s been ten years since “X-Men 2” hit theaters? To say that the cinematic comic book landscape has changed dramatically in that time would be a massive understatement. We’re now in the era of world building, and as we detailed yesterday, pretty much every studio is attempting to construct massive, linking universes for their comic properties, because bigger may not mean better, but it does generally equals lots more cash. And right in the mix isBryan Singer who, though he still has yet to deliver “X-Men: Days Of Future Past,” is already starting to percolate ideas for the…

After already reaping notice for his performance in “Her,” Joaquin Phoenix could be working with Warner Bros. again on the studio’s biggest property.

Sources tell Variety that the studio wants the Oscar-nominated actor for a role in the upcoming untitled Batman-Superman pic. However, it’s very early in the process and even if Warners offers Phoenix a role, it’s not clear he would accept as the actor has steered clear of big-budget pics in the past few years, leaning towards movies with a more prestige feel.

I’d turn it down if I were him. I wouldn’t want to attach myself to the sequel of…

Ricky Gervais has been set to reprise his role as Dr. McPhee in Night At The Museum 3, which Shawn Levy is directing from the  script written by Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant and David Guion and Michael Handelman for Fox. Ben Stiller is reprising his lead role, and Gervais is back as his boss. Robin Williams also is returning as Teddy Roosevelt in a film Fox has slotted for Christmas 2014.

I quite enjoyed both installments in The Night At the Museum franchise thus far. I have no idea where they can go from here but I’m quite looking forward to it and hope I’m not disappointed. Part…

Ever since the release of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, a conflict has brewed between the author’s estate and Warner Bros., New Line, and Jackson, both over the creative content of the movie and the financial distribution. Years and years of dispute suggest that the future of Middle-earth movies is bleak. 

Like many quarrels in Hollywood, the Tolkien/Warner Bros. spat can be narrowed down to an argument about money. Part of the author’s estate’s contract with the film studio said that a percentage of the profits from any adaptation of Tolkien’s work would go back to them, and it became a…

Talk about performing with a gun to your head. That appears to be exactly what Elijah Wood has to do in Grand Piano. It appears to be headed straight to VOD, but maybe that shouldn’t fool us because it looks like there might be something here worth watching. The story: Elijah wood plays a famous concert pianist who returns from a hiatus only to find his life threatened while on stage. And if he plays one wrong note, the assassin (John Cusack) will kill him and his wife.

The trouble is, even the best pianist in the world makes a mistake or two here or there. You may never know it, but they… Read The Rest