Almost all big movies now open on 2, 000 or more screens, hoping to recover a massive chunk of the budget in the first week of release.

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As the lights went down one last time, Ebert would have loved it if all those people sitting in the dark and hoping for the best understood that his approach to movies was big enough, openhearted enough to embrace far more than the movies he'd loved all his life.

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We all preferred thoughtful European films and art-house movies to the big moneymakers.

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The Big Lebowski is considered one of the most quotable movies of all time.

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Given all the machinations Hollywood executives go through to ensure their movies turn in a big opening week, it's no wonder most of the major studios avoided the third weekend in May like a black hole.

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