It looks like warring factions inside SAG have found some common ground vs the AMPTP. Finally, all the SAG board agrees that allowing SAG sanctioned, non-Union production and no residuals for certain so called new media production is a bad idea for actors. Daily Variety reporter and AMPTP fanboy, Dave McNary lays it all out [...]

Rank Title Weekend Gross 1 The Dark Knight (2008) $75.6M $314M 2 Step Brothers (2008) $30M $30M 3 Mamma Mia! (2008) $17.9M $62.7M 4 The X-Files: I Want to Believe (2008) $10.2M $10.2M 5 Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008) $9.41M $60.2M 6 Hancock (2008) $8.2M $206M 7 WALL·E (2008) $6.35M $195M 8 [...]

One of the best reviewed films of the year had a stunning opening this weekend with an estimated take in excess of $155 million while playing on 4,366 screens. Apparently that wasn’t enough screens because the weekend was a virtual sellout and HOLLYWOOD REPORTER published a report of tickets selling on Ebay for around $50. [...]

In what is being termed a ‘sidebar’ meeting, an off the record meeting with an unspecified agenda, the AMPTP has agreed to meet with SAG negotiators today to discuss the current contract stalemate. AMPTP insists that the offer on the table is in fact their ‘last best final’ offer and that there will be no [...]

In a sign of serious progress at the SAG negotiations, the guild and the majors have agreed to extend bargaining on a new feature-primetime deal until next Tuesday. The SAG talks had been scheduled to conclude Friday after three weeks of no major moves by either side but the guild’s willingness to scale back one [...]

…SAG’s negotiations with the majors will become much more serious after a week of laying the groundwork at meetings at the AMPTP headquarters in Encino…. …But it’s believed that much of the focus is on new-media compensation — which dominated the negotiations on DGA and WGA contracts earlier this year. Though the congloms have indicated [...]