'Da Vinci Code' steps away from the pack of same old, same olds

The big movie story of 2005 was the yearlong slump in audience attendance, which ended up being a drop of between 5 and 7 percent: not as disastrous as seemed possible midyear, maybe, but still the biggest decline in 20 years. Yet, if Hollywood is running scared, you certainly wouldn't know it from the sheer volume of product it has lined up for 2006. During the next 12 months, more feature films are scheduled to play theatrical dates in Seattle than there are days of the year. [More]