Apparently, Hollywood DOESN'T Need Charity

The sky is falling! The sky is falling! That's what we hear whenever a movie season like the summer or fall or the entire movie year doesn't gross more and bring in more tickets than the year before, as if movies are expected to keep increasing in sales until they're making $100 billion a year at the box office. (Never mind that movies bring in a ton more cash than ever before thanks to overseas box office and DVD sales. What would you rather have: a movie box office of $10 billion and $5 billion on VHS or a box office of $9 billion and a DVD gross of $20 billion? That's almost exactly what's happened and still people foolishly complain.) But this summer's box office was ahead of last summer so no studio head is gonna have to pass the hat. But the LA Times does a breakdown on one of the big flops, "Miami Vice," and says Universal is now hoping the sci-fi thriller "Children of Men" starring Clive Owen can prove a big hit by opening on Dec 25 and maybe getting awards mojo. The Hollywood Reporter raves and Variety is mixed on it. But they better be doing a platform release: this is not Christmas Day fare. And even if it's good, it hardly looks like a box office behemoth.