Welcome back to Movieline Attractions, your regular guide everything new, noteworthy and wand-wielding at the movies. This week, let's just keep it short: You're going to commit enough time watching the latest Harry Potter adventure without having to read ad nauseum about its looming box-office supremacy. Though there are alternatives, believe it or not.
WHAT'S NEW: I've said just about all I can about Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and I'm not sure if you'd want to hear much more anyway. You know it's great (even for non-Potter fans, for whom I can vouch if only because I'm one of them), you know it's heavy and Oscar-caliber, and you know it's you know it's going to make a fortune whether you buy a ticket or you don't. The sixth film in the series is strikingly mature despite its PG rating, both of which will pad its opening gross on 4,300 screens; it will be missing that IMAX bump, however, until Transformers 2 clears some space at the end of the month. Whatever -- Warner Bros. can wait, especially with a weekend total I'd put around $96.5 million and a five-day total close to $177 million.
Of course you have plenty of holdovers to choose from if Potter's spell doesn't quite work on you (sorry, L.A. -- just one more week until you can see Humpday!). They might actually be your best bet; the art house looks kind of hit-or-miss this week. Shane Meadows's acclaimed drama Somers Town landed in New York on Wednesday, while in L.A., the Maya Indie Film Series commandeers the Nuart with the Andy Garcia drug drama The Line, the Mexican horror-mystery Bajo la Sal, and three other films by up-and-coming Latino directors. Boaz Yakin's psychosexual Nazi-victim family drama (maybe Adam Brody can put it better?) Death in Love finds its way to screens on both coasts, as does the Mischa Barton love-triangle indie Homecoming. Lori Petty's feature directing debut The Poker House bows in Santa Monica and Des Moines (where it's set), while the rock-poster doc Died Young Stayed Pretty and the German WWII drama A Woman in Berlin both open on one screen in NYC.
OSCAR QUALIFYING WATCH: As mentioned last week, expect more of these surreptitious theatrical runs in the lead-up to Oscar's Aug. 31 documentary-qualifying deadline. If you live in New York or Southern Caifornia and have any off-season interest in NBA superstar LeBron James, the feature-length profile More Than A Game (right) is screening for a week at Manhattan's Coliseum Cinemas and the Laemmle Claremont 5. The climate-change alert The Age of Stupid is also in theaters for one week only at IFC Center in Greenwich Village and the Laemmle Town Center in Encino. Game has a release forthcoming in October through Lionsgate, but this is your only shot at Stupid before awards season, for what it's worth to you doc completists out there.
THE BIG LOSER: After flailing in March with the 162-minute version, Warner Bros. is releasing Zack Snyder's three-hours-plus Watchmen: The Director's Cut in a handful of theaters to build buzz for next week's DVD release. Talk about a loss-leader.
THE UNDERDOG: More on this a little later today, but (500) Days of Summer is pretty much everything you've heard: a rom-com for guys, a near-perfect blend of tone, taste, spirit, wit and sensitivity. Don't let the Zooey Deschanel man-child love-interest factor fool you -- this is an intelligent dramedy for adults, and Fox Searchlight being Fox Searchlight, they'll get their audience.
FOR SHUT-INS: Another light week on the new DVD shelf, but at least it's quality. Again, let's keep it short: Michael Sucsy's extraordinary Grey Gardens is out now, as are Mad Men: Season Two (go ahead -- get angry at January Jones's Emmy snub all over again) and The State: The Complete Series.