The Avengers has just found a place among the all-time five highest-grossing movies in America as the still-mounting domestic box-office total passed $460 million. The Hunger Games currently sits at number 14 on that all-time list with a domestic take of $391 million. Of course, those numbers don't include international box office, which in The Avengers' case already brings the grand total to well over $1 billion. And don't forget DVD sales, theme park tie-ins, and a hundred other sources of revenue. The profit on on a hit movie of this size is very hard to estimate, though some people try.

But these successes have been balanced by two gargantuan failures in 2012. Both John Carter and the just-opened Battleship were made with budgets in the same astonishing $200 million range as The Avengers, but tanked at the box office. Widely accepted estimates say that John Carter and Battleship will each lose around $150 million when all is said and done. John Carter's failure was so painful, it led directly to the resignation of Disney CEO Rich Ross last month. And according to multiple stories out today, Battleship creator NBCUniversal is now in the position of saying it's "standing by" its executive team, which is not what you want to hear on the radio when you're stuck in L.A. traffic on the way to work at Universal.

Universal's latest blockbuster, the surprisingly dark-looking Snow White and the Huntsman, has a budget estimated at $175 million. It arrives in theaters next Friday, June 1st. There are going to be some sleepless nights happening in Hollywood over Memorial Day weekend.

Chinese conglomerate The Wanda Group has agreed to buy AMC Entertainment, the second-largest chain of movie theaters in America, for a reported $2.6 billion. AMC currently has 5,034 screens in 346 theaters in the U.S. and Canada. South Louisiana AMC theaters include the Clearview, Elmwood, Westbank, Hammond, and Houma multiplexes.

According to a story in today's edition of The New York Times, the acquisition will make Wanda—which currently owns 86 theaters—the largest theater group in the world. Unspecified American movie executives reportedly told the Times that Wanda "might eventually use newly acquired American theaters to help pry open an export market for Chinese-made films." Current owners of AMC Entertainment include investment fund J.P. Morgan Partners and Bain Capital.

There's something for every imaginable taste opening on local screens today.

THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL
This lightweight but enjoyable diversion by director John Madden (Shakespeare in Love) follows the adventures of a group of seniors who decide to spend their golden years in India. Judy Dench, Maggie Smith, and Tom Wilkinson star in a film that gives the older set a well-deserved chance to strut its stuff. Wide Release.

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British comedian Sasha Baron Cohen certainly has a knack for his own brand of uniquely confrontational satire. His ability to draw laughs from interactions with real people on TV and in films like Borat (which appears, at least, to feature some real people) also helped Cohen pull off publicity stunts at the Oscars and elsewhere to promote his first conventionally scripted movie, The Dictator. The only problem with making an almost-traditional Hollywood comedy is that eventually you have to deliver the goods. With its whisper-thin story and unmemorable characters, The Dictator’s only shot was to hit big on the laughs. There are moments funny just for their audacity—Cohen’s Saddam-inspired Admiral General Aladeen plays a first-person-shooter video game set at the Israeli compound of the ’72 Munich Olympics, for example. But if you’ve seen the trailer, you’ve pretty much seen the highlight reel.

According to multiple first-hand reports coming out of the Cannes Film Festival in France, New Orleans director Benh Zeitlin's Beasts of the Southern Wild received a rare and lengthy standing ovation after it's official screening at the Festival this morning. The film, which won the grand jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, is part of the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes, which was established in 1998 to recognize young talent and encourage daring new works. Winners of the Prize Un Certain Regard receive a large grant to aid with distribution of a winning film in France. More on this extraordinary film soon.

What's the best film we've seen so far this month? (And we've seen a bunch because it's summer movie season, after all.) A Brief History of John Baldessari, which stuffs the life and work of "the godfather of conceptual art" into a fitting six-minute whirlwind of words, images, and Tom Waits. Commissioned by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and released on YouTube this week, the film gets to the essence of a man who "cremated" everything he'd ever made in 1970 and still has the ashes in a book-shaped bronze urn. Trust us, there's no better way to start your Thursday:

The summer movie season starts in early May, but the Hollywood studios spend much of the year jockeying for position as to which specific weekend each blockbuster will open. So generally speaking, it's one major release (plus a few smaller ones) every Friday from here on out until September. Today's mega-movie is:

DARK SHADOWS
Thee were no local press screenings for this, the eighth collaboration between director Tim Burton and star Johnny Depp. But the trailer has us yearning for Edward Scissorhands. Wide release.

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