Geneva Convention

By Phil Contrino

For a couple of days in May, the quiet, rural state of Wisconsin gets a taste of Hollywood as industry professionals descend upon the picturesque Geneva Resort for the Geneva Convention.

You can feel the excitement in the air walking through the resort. The summer movie season is in full swing and there is a lot to celebrate. Paramount's Iron Man is rapidly approaching the $200 million mark and the next couple weeks will see the opening of such juggernauts as The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Sex and the City: The Movie (which will be playing for Geneva attendees tonight at the excellent Showboat Theatre).

Yet one of the many opening day festivities was centered around celebrating 2007's biggest box office success: Spiderman 3. Boxoffice publisher Peter Cane presented the Boxoffice Blue Ribbon Award to Executive Vice President and General Sales Manager for Sony, David Garel. The award is given to the studio with the highest grossing film of the year, an honor Sony earned by pushing Spiderman 3 to a monster gross of $890.9 million worldwide.

I was able to catch up with Garel after the presentation to ask him about a potential Spiderman 4 as well as the latest Will Smith flick, Hancock.

Video Content Filmed & Edited by Tom Knudsen