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Movie Reviews: (500) Days Of Summer
20 July 2009 12:33 PM, PDT
In the handful of cities where it was launched this weekend, (500) Days of Summer far outshone the latest Harry Potter movie both in terms of cash receipts (it took in nearly twice as much as Harry on a per-theater basis) and in critical praise. Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times greeted it with a rare four-star review, writing that it's the rare romantic comedy that does not play by "the Hollywood rules," thereby causing audiences to "perk up" as they realize that "anything could happen." Indeed, A.O. Scott in the New York Times described it as "a fairly pointed response to the sorry state of romantic comedy in Hollywood, which runs the gamut from gauzily implausible fantasy to blatant and fatuous dishonesty, with an occasional detour into raunchy humor." This "winsome, accessible movie," he observed, "has a novelty and a measure of bravery working in its favor." Claudia Puig in USA Today raved: "It's hard to imagine a more delightful, witty, well-acted and inventive comedy hitting screens this year." Joe Neumaier in the New York Daily News described it as "the rare romantic comedy that feels like real life."
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Warner Bros. Passes $1-Billion Mark
20 July 2009 12:26 PM, PDT
The latest Harry Potter sequel has given Warner Bros. its seventh No. 1 hit of the year and has pushed the studio's domestic gross past the $1-billion mark, it said Sunday. The success of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince comes on the heels of the studio's surprising good luck with The Hangover, which, with more than $235 million in ticket sales as of this weekend, has become the highest-grossing R-rated comedy domestically in history. In a news release on Sunday, Warner Bros. said that it is the only studio ever to earn $1 billion annually for nine consecutive years.
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