Viacom Inc.'s (NYSE: VIA) Paramount studios, which has scored big at the box office with "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" and "Iron Man," and Time Warner Inc.'s (NYSE: TWX) Warner Bros, which is behind "Speed Racer," can't win them all. For example, take "The Love Guru" and "Get Smart," which open this weekend.

Reviews for Paramount's "The Love Guru, which stars Mike Myers, are not just scathing, they are acidic. A.O. Scott of the New York Times said, "To say that the movie is not funny is merely to affirm the obvious... No, `The Love Guru' is downright antifunny, an experience that makes you wonder if you will ever laugh again." At the Los Angeles Times, Jan Stewart argued that the movie was filled with "low blows and elephantine misfires." Mike LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle is slightly kinder saying, "There are whole sections when watching the movie is like being locked in the mind of a 10-year-old boy."

Critics weren't much kinder to Warner Bros.' "Get Smart," a remake of the popular TV comedy from the 1960s. Newsweek's David Ansen dismissed it as distressingly generic, comments echoed by Claudia Puig of USA Today. To be sure, the movie has its fans, including Roger Ebert, who said Steve Carrell makes an "infectious Maxwell Smart."

MAJOR PAPERS:

• Steven Spielberg and his DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc (NYSE: DWA) partners are close to signing a deal with India's Reliance ADA Group for between $500M and $600M that would provide financing to the company as it prepares to leave Viacom Inc's (NYSE: VIA) Paramount Pictures this year, the Wall Street Journal reported. DreamWorks will seek to obtain an additional $500M in debt financing to make about six new films a year.
• The Wall Street Journal also reported that at an investor update yesterday, The Hershey Company (NYSE: HSY) CEO David West said the chocolate-bar maker would boost spending on marketing about 20% this year and next, and slightly increased the company's long-term annual sales targets. West offered little detail on how Hershey will address its reliance on the U.S. market for revenue.

OTHER PAPERS:

• The Economic Times reported that India's Maneesh Pharmaceuticals, a mid-sized company, bought a 51% stake in U.S.-based Synovics Pharmaceuticals Inc (OTC: SYVC). The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
• The Economic Times also reported that General Electric Company's (NYSE: GE) GE Money Financial Services, which was seeking a parter for its personal and home loan portfolios, may have called off the process after it was unable to get the right valuation.
• Bob Nardelli, the chairman and CEO of Chrysler LLC, sent a memo to employees warning them of worsening U.S. sales, the Detroit News reported. The e-mail did not indicate the auto maker would look to soon further cut production or lay off staff, a person familiar with the matter said.

What is harder to get than good Lakers play-off tickets? An invite to the pre-release cast and crew screening of the new Iron Man movie!!

Last night I had the privilege of being one of the first to see Iron Man, the first film produced by Marvel Entertainment Inc. (NYSE: MVL), not one of the major studios. Although it wears the Paramount Pictures label and Paramount will be distributing the film, this one is Marvel all the way.

My colleague Steven Mallas reported last month about Marvel's super earnings report and come this Monday when the weekend box office tallies are in, I expect Iron Man to be at the top of the charts. In other words, IRON MAN WILL BE HUGE!

Although the cost of production and promotion reportedly shot past $200 million, I can tell you that they got it all on the screen. So much so that I write with excitement for movie enthusiasts (me), baby-boomer fans of Marvel comics (me again) and my two sons who accompanied me last night (me, them), and I want to add an exclamation point to every sentence!

In April 1912, the RMS Titanic, a luxury passenger liner billed as unsinkable, took its maiden voyage and was felled by an iceberg. Lifeboats were scarce, and more than 1,500 passengers perished in the icy seas of the North Atlantic. The tragic irony of the surrounding circumstances are fit for a movie ... but we'll get to that later.

A Christie's auction in New York City last week featured memorabilia from the ill-fated voyage, including a lengthy handwritten description of the ordeal, penned by a 16-year-old survivor. The account, which mentions witnessing the "most terrible shrieks and groans from the helpless and doomed" from her perch in a lifeboat, attracted $16,800. The auction featured 18 lots in total, including telegrams, letters, and deck logs. In all, the products fetched $193,140. An original list of the first-class passengers aboard the ship fetched $48,000, surpassing pre-sale estimates.

Sunday night, flipping through cable stations, I came across James Cameron's epic blockbuster tribute to the sunken ship, which was released by News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) 20th Century Fox and Viacom's (NYSE: VIA) Paramount Pictures almost 10 years ago. It remains the highest-grossing film of all time, with worldwide box office receipts of over $1.8 billion.

I'll admit, with mild sheepishness, that I was among the throng of Titanic devotees that took multiple trips to the theater (my count was five) to follow the story of Jack and Rose. While it's a rare moment that I pull out my DVD to spend more than 3 hours in anticipation of a teary finale, it's still a good movie, made great through the performances of Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet before they were superstars.

Beth Gaston Moon is an analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.

Viacom (NYSE: VIA) subsidiary Paramount Pictures, which recently distributed the hit Will Ferrell comedy Blades of Glory, followed the premiere with a private gathering for the cast and crew. The event cost the studio about $50,000, or roughly one-tenth of what an average premiere party might run.

A studio executive told The New York Times that "There has been a cultural shift in Hollywood where the size of a party doesn't show how much you believe in a movie anymore ... a party is not going to sell movie tickets."

With shareholders and corporate partners eager to trim costs, the nation's movie studios are reportedly scaling back the high-cost hubbub that accompanies a movie's big-screen release. Some production firms are forgoing the lavish after-premiere parties, while others are scrapping the red-carpet premiere concept entirely, preferring to host laidback industry screenings.

Marketing costs among the major studios crested in 2003 but have steadily been paring back. Last year, costs dropped 4.4% to $34.5 million. This move helped offset the 3.4% increase in the average price of a film, which hit $65.8 million, according to the Times.

That trend is expected to continue, so those of you in the red-carpet business might be seeing a decline in sales. Same is true for purveyors of top-shelf champagne and caviar.

Beth Gaston Moon is an analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.

Last year I previewed the big-budget summer movies, giving you a look at ten interesting films that were on the docket for the summer of 2006. This year I'm back with an even longer list (bloated like these films' budgets) of 15 movies you may want to escape to -- or possibly run screaming from.

Of these fifteen movies, Spiderman 3 and ten others are sequels, which in itself indicates something about the state of the industry (And I didn't even include Rush Hour 3 in this list, because, honestly, who wants to see that?). Two of the remaining four movies, Transformers and The Simpsons, are based on animated television shows, leaving only two original ideas in the whole lot -- Knocked Up and Ratatouille. Please, don't shoot the messenger.

Anyway, here is the list, chronologically, of the movies that Hollywood's brain-trust believes you will shell out your cash to see in the air-conditioned darkness of your local movie-house, along with my opinion of how they'll fare. The first on the list, Spider-Man 3, is already out in Asia, but will not be released here until May. All release dates below are for the U.S.

5/04 - Spider-Man 3, Sony Corp's (NYSE: SNE) Sony Pictures
Being the first blockbuster of the summer almost guarantees a successful open, and the popularity of the franchise seals that guarantee. One problem, however, is that "success" measured by any normal means won't be enough, as this movie had an estimated budget of $258M.

5/11 - 28 Weeks Later, News Corp's (NYSE: NWS) 20th Century Fox
The highlight of the horror/zombie genre for the summer, this follows the surprise success of Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later, which reinvented the zombie film with faster zombies and smarter characters.

5/18 - Shrek the Third, Viacom's (NYSE: VIA) Paramount Pictures
One of the only cartoon franchises that has held its own against Pixar (Ice Age being the other), the draw of this fairytale romp is that while kids love the story, there are enough winks at the adult audience to make parents happy to take them.

5/25 - Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS)
Money in the bank for Disney, and since it was shot simultaneous with the second Pirates installment, it wasn't even as expensive to make as this summer's other budget hog, Spider-Man 3.

This post is written as part of AOL Money & Finance's Best & Worst 2006. If you think that Tom Cruise makes too much money, cast your vote.

Long-considered one of the big guns in Hollywood, Golden Globe Award-winning actor and producer Tom Cruise is the only actor to have six consecutive $100 million plus blockbusters to his credit.

His acting career began when he was sidelined from the high-school wrestling team by an injury and he auditioned for and won a role in the school production of Guys and Dolls. He became a star after dancing in his underwear in the 1983 film Risky Business, for which he reportedly earned a measly $75,000. After 1986's Top Gun put Cruise in the six-figure salary range, he earned his first Razzie Award nomination for 1988's Cocktail. Critically acclaimed Rain Man, Days of Thunder, and A Few Good Men followed. In 1996 he starred in and produced Mission Impossible, the first in the blockbuster franchise, and earned an Academy Award nomination for his role in Jerry Maguire. Later blockbusters include Minority Report, The Last Samurai, and War of the Worlds (which reportedly earned him $70 million plus a percentage of the profits, as well as more Razzie nominations).

But in recent years his personal life has begun to attract more attention than his film roles, notably Cruise's very public advocacy of Scientology and anti-psychiatry statements, coupled with the tabloid speculation about his romantic relationships. In May 2005, during an interview on the Oprah Winfrey Show, Cruise unexpectedly leaped onto the couch to profess his love for Katie Holmes, an incident that was voted #1 of 2005's Most Surprising Television Moments on a countdown on E!. Economic damage due to Cruise's controversial public behavior and views was cited as one reason for the end of the 14-year relationship between Cruise's production company and Paramount Pictures.

AOL Video has added Viacom's Paramount Pictures to its growing list of content that is downloadable at AOL Video. Full-length movies and TV shows from Viacom's network and from the studios of Paramount Pictures will start emerging from the AOL Video site soon.

I see this as a very nice addition to a growing online video outlet that AOL, a division of Timer Warner, Inc. (NYSE: TWX) needs to keep visible in the face of competition from Google, Inc.'s (NASDAQ:GOOG), YouTube, Apple Computer's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iTunes and possibly Microsoft Corp.'s (NASDAQ:MSFT) Zune store soon -- and that's just the start.

AOL Video, which debuted to the world in August, includes content from Twentieth Century Fox Film, Sony Pictures, Universal Studios and Warner Bros. Studios -- and now, Paramount Pictures.

AOL Video users can download and watch video content that ranges in price from $10 to $20, and AOL Video customers also have the option of streaming free video directly from the site in addition to downloading "to-own" video content that becomes the property of the customer once paid for and downloaded.

Paramount Picture's recent decision to cut loose Tom Cruise may be just the opening salvo in an upcoming battle between Hollywood studios and high-priced, high maintenance celebs. While overall movie receipt totals for this summer were up, the increase was driven by higher ticket prices, not increased attendance. Moviegoers are increasingly likely to be videoviewers instead. More than 1 million viewers have downloaded the video clip of a young man mixing Diet Coke with a mint and spewing the resulting concoction out of his mouth. Even more odd, 400,000 viewers have downloaded a clip of rabbits munching on vegetation.

Memo to viewers: GET LIVES! Seeing this image on the wall, AOL's strategy to become a premier video viewing destination begins to make a great deal of sense.

Movie production costs continue to skyrocket, with no assurance that money spent on production will be recouped at the theatres. By contrast, the number of no or low-cost video and video clips grows exponentially every week. As well, hundreds of hours of TV programming and thousands of movie titles are added to an increasing number of video-on-demand channels. With its recent purchase of GameDaily, Userplane and Truevo, AOL Video is moving to capture audience eyeballs. AOL also concluded a deal to distribute movie titles from 20th Century Fox, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Universal Pictures and Warner Brothers Home Entertainment Group.

Currently, AOL's business model allows viewers to access some ad-supported TV programming on demand free of charge. AOL plans to charge $9.99-$19.99 per movie download. For this fee, howwver, viewers will NOT own the movie. Purchasers may not burn the movie onto a DVD, though the movie may be played repeatedly over a period of days on several different Windows-supported devices. It remains to be seen whether consumers wil pay this fee for short-term ownership only.