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Sony Pictures has just launched Stage 6 Films, "a label that will acquire and produce films for theatrical and straight-to-DVD release." The Variety announcement reports that Stage 6 will focus mostly on the DVD market, and on films budgeted at $1 to $10 million dollars. They've got a lot of movies on the horizon, with some pretty big stars involved. Conspiracy is an action flick starring Val "Iceman" Kilmer, Gary "Lumbergh" Cole, and Jennifer "Hot" Esposito. Thomas Jane is acting in and directing Dark Country (hope it's not a punisher!). The Stone House is a horror film starring Shane West and JK "Schillinger" Simmons. The Lodger stars Alfred Molina, whom I always picture in his underwear singing "Sister Christian." And Felon brings us even more Kilmer thrills, with Stephen Dorff and Harold Perrineau in tow.

And you know when you're talking direct-to-DVD, you're talking about some really random sequels. Stage 6 has announced a prequel (a prequel?) to this year's pretty cool horror flick Vacancy. There will also be a second Starship Troopers sequel -- Starship Troopers: Marauder, with Casper "Van Dien" Van Dien, Boris Kodjoe, and Jolene Blalock. Wesley Snipes will star in a sequel to the absolutely terrible action movie The Art of War, which I will refer to as The Art of War 2: Seriously? And Center Stage 2 will capitalize on the public's love of melodramatic teen dance dramas. I must confess a special place in my heart for the original Stage, because it led to a memorable high school back seat rendezvous. Put that quote on your poster, Sony! "Stage 6 will also continue to leverage our vast library of studio films, as we have done with Daddy Day Camp and the I Know What You Did Last Summer franchise," threatens a Stage 6 executive.

The third film by Julie Taymor, Across the Universe (339 screens), has racked up an intriguing mixture of reviews. Some have ecstatically called the film a rousing success, and Anne Thompson, writing in Variety, has compared Taymor to Orson Welles! Other reviews have called the film an unmitigated disaster of proportions similar to the infamous flop Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978), which also re-imagines several Beatles numbers and incorporates them into an ill-advised movie musical. Myself, I rated the film somewhere in the middle. I thought it had a handful of truly inspired moments, a few truly awful moments (apologies to Eddie Izzard), and a great number of numbingly routine ones. (It reminded me too much of a play, not a movie.)

Writing in the New York Times a few years back, A.O. Scott mourned the absence of total disasters in the movies. A lack of disasters meant that people weren't really putting themselves on the line, and by turns, that safeguard also results in a lack of real masterworks. Pauline Kael once wrote a review of Bernardo Bertolucci's 1900 entitled "Hail, Folly." She praised "huge, visionary epics" of "mad" directors, like D.W. Griffith's Intolerance, Erich von Stroheim's Greed, Abel Gance's Napoleon, Sergei Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible trilogy (left unfinished after Part II), and Francis Ford Coppola's then as-yet-unfinished Apocalypse Now. "The calamity of movie history is not the follies that get made, but the follies that don't get made," she said.

The Bourne Ultimatum pulled in some righteous bucks this past weekend, setting a record for an August release, and contributing to this being the highest grossing August weekend ever. I'll pass on using any lame jokes like "Bourne again" or "Bourne to be wild," not because I'm above that, mind you, but because I've already used them all. The Simpsons Movie dropped to number two, pulling in $25 million (mmmmm, box office). Incidentally, Hairspray missed being in the top five by, well, a hair, with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix taking in just a few hundred thousand more than the musical. The numbers look like this:

1. The Bourne Ultimatum: $69,283,690
2. The Simpsons Movie: $25,110,873
3. Underdog: $11,585,121
4. I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry: $10,626,345
5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: $9,522,220

As we work our way into August, the flow of potential mega-blockbusters has ebbed. I wouldn't say any of this week's new releases have been hotly anticipated, though Rush Hour 3 seems to be the obvious big boy, and I'm personally looking forward to Stardust. Here's what's coming out this week:

Daddy Day Camp
What's It All About: In this sequel to Daddy Day Care, Cuba Gooding, Jr. takes over the roll originally played by Eddie Murphy, and now he's launching a day camp. Zany, huh?
Why It Might Do Well: I guess there's always a market for a good puke gag.
Why It Might Not Do Well: Who's Your Caddy didn't do so well with a plot reminiscent of Caddyshack, and this one has visions of Meatballs dancing in my head.
Number of Theaters: 2,200
Prediction: $6 million

Rush Hour 3
What's It All About: Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan mix it up for a third time, officially making this buddy cop franchise a trilogy, taking the action and (hopefully) laughs to the mean streets of Paris.
Why It Might Do Well: The original Rush Hour had a $33 million dollar opening weekend, with its first sequel opening with $67.4 million. Also, Jackie Chan can be pretty amazing to watch.
Why It Might Not Do Well: It's been six years since Rush Hour 2; does the public still care?
Number of Theaters: 3,000
Prediction: $51 million

Skinwalkers
What's It All About: Warring werewolf clans fight over a half human half werewolf boy who holds the key to their species' fate.
Why It Might Do Well: It's definitely a good thing when a film helps demonstrate that torture porn isn't the only kind of horror out there.
Why It Might Not Do Well: While I have a soft spot for the sub-genre, good werewolf films are hard to come by, and the trailer didn't wow me.
Number of Theaters: 650
Prediction: $4 million

Stardust
What's It All About: Based on a book by renowned fantasy writer Neil Gaiman, Stardust is the tale of a young man who sets out into a fantasy realm to retrieve a fallen star for his beloved, only to find that the star is in fact a beautiful young woman.
Why It Might Do Well: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is beginning to run out of box office steam, so this looks like a good choice for fantasy buffs, and a cast that includes Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Claire Danes can't hurt.
Why It Might Not Do Well: I honestly can't think of a reason for this movie flopping.
Number of Theaters: 2,300
Prediction: $22 million

The writing is on the wall for this coming weekend's box office returns, and that's where I'm getting this week's prediction. It was spray-painted on the back wall of a Denny's and I took it as a sign:
1. Rush Hour 3
2. The Bourne Ultimatum
3. Stardust
4. The Simpsons Movie
5. Underdog

Last Week's Prediction Rankings:
1. Tangoeco: 16
2. Bubba8193: 13
3. Josh: 11
3. Opp-Neg: 11
3. El Borracho: 11
3. Curt: 11
3. Ness 265: 11
3. Anna07: 11
3. Dustin: 11
4. SupDugs: 10
4. Gordy: 10
5. Joe: 9
5. Marc: 9
5. Evan: 9
5. Greg: 9
5. Ray: 9
6. jasonsmusicpage: 6

Please post your prediction for the top five films in the comments section below before 5:00 PM on Saturday. One point for every top five movie correctly named, two points for every correct placement, and one extra point for the top movie. Come on, it'll be fun.