Michael Speier and Ian Mohr, of Variety, had front row seats:
Spiritual uplift and commerce were the themes of the day as MPAA honcho Dan Glickman and National Assn. of Theater Owners John Fithian kicked off ShoWest with Tuesday's keynote address.
The morning session started with a prayer -- followed by Jerry Bruckheimer.
The entire crowd at the Theater des Arts at the Paris stood up as a spiritual "coach" offered thanks to God for such things as "the high marks exhibitors have received, and for enforcing the ratings system. May we have an only uplifting positive impact."
The sermon was followed by a short welcome from Hollywood's master of bombast, Bruckheimer.
Then Glickman and Fithian took their shots at those naysayers -- media, mainly -- who said the movie business is in freefall.
Touting 2006 numbers that were released last week -- domestic box office was up 5.5%, international box office up 11% -- Glickman used the oft-paraphrased quote that "reports of our death have been greatly exaggerated." He went on to tout the sequel-heavy summer as one that will be potentially record-setting -- highlighting "Spider-Man 3," "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" and the next "Harry Potter."
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"My prediction is that 2007 will be even bigger than 2006," Glickman said...
The big draw of the morning was a 12-minute presentation of "Ratatouille," Pixar's summer hopeful that mixes French ambiance with the story of a rat who wants to be a chef. Pic, voiced by Patton Oswalt and Peter O'Toole, opens June 29.
Director Brad Bird began the clip by taking a tongue-in-cheek jab at sequel-mania.
"I feel a little bit out of place here," he said. "So I thought of selling it as 'Ratatouille I' ... the prequel to the sequel."
The clip got a great reception, as did a short trailer for the new "Pirates," which is being released on May 25...
And then, the 2 men turned to more serious issues like piracy, the NC-17, and DVD release windows
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