Cinefantastique Online

Variety has an article surveying the success stories of this summer’s independent films releases. The basic conclusion is that the big-budget Hollywood blockbusters fared so well that, outside of Michael Moore’s documentary SICKO, the only films that fared well were in the horror genre, namely 1408 and HALLOWEEN, both from The Weinstein Company. Of course, both of those titles were distributed through a deal with MGM, which is (or at least used to be) a major Hollywood company, so this does push the definition of “independent” just a little. Other art house fare performed less well, such as Fox Searchlight’s SUNSHINE, which earned $3.5-million.