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So, alas, as much as the old abnormality might benefit from moving money away from blockbusters and toward more low-budget films, Hollywood itself is unlikely to give the idea a green light.

The problem with small movies is that they get a correspondingly small distribution fee, the main source of their profits.

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In the case of most films with a theater gross of less than $150 million, these costs consume the entire amount of the rental payments from theaters-so a film may claim to have made millions of dollars when it has really made nothing (though it may receive further revenues, over time, from DVDs, airline showing, video streaming and TV sales). (China pays as little as 20%.) Even then, from the share that the distributor receives in rentals it must pay out the costs of worldwide advertising, local taxes, prints of the film, custom clearances, dubbing and re-editing for local audiences. From that gross revenue, the theaters pay the distributor a 'rental' charge that varies between 30% and 50% of the revenue amount. The $117 million that 'Marigold Hotel' supposedly 'made' isn't what the film or its distributor (Fox Searchlight) earned it is the gross revenues of the theaters. Obst knows from reading her own distribution reports, such numbers are grossly misleading. She also proposes her own happy ending: Studios could cut down on their budgets for franchises, use Internet marketing and make their profits on droves of low-budget, dialogue-driven movies, such as 'The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,' which, she says, 'has made over $117 million worldwide and cost only $10 million pre-Oscars, without any prior awareness and marketing outside of word of mouth.' This sounds hopeful, but is it? Obst points out, the problem with such international franchise movies is that they consume studios' limited budgets, largely crowding out the dialogue-driven movies that she and her colleagues want to make. James Gianopulos, a top executive at Fox, tells her that the studio will go on forever cloning sequels to the animated feature 'Ice Age.' He explains that the crucial foreign audience is familiar with-and likes-the 'Ice Age' characters, giving the franchise the vital virtue of, as Hollywood calls it, 'preawareness.' As Ms. She is still on a first-name basis with the key players in Hollywood's 'old abnormal,' and they tell many of their own horror stories. Obst, the author of the best seller 'Hello, He Lied' (1996) and producer of a such films as 'Flashdance,' 'The Fisher King' and 'Sleepless in Seattle,' is well positioned to report on the decline and fall of what she sardonically terms 'the old abnormal'-the period between 19 when she and her colleagues made original, dialogue-driven films.

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Lucidly explains in 'Sleepless in Hollywood,' her fascinating memoir-primer on the movie industry, the current business model is bad news for producers who want to make more creative movies. Blockbusters are most easily found in sequel-friendly action features (e.g., 'The Fast and the Furious'), comic-book-based movies ('X-Men,' 'Iron Man') and animated features ('Toy Story,' 'Ice Age'). For this system to work, the studios need international blockbusters in the multiplexes that can serve as locomotives to pull their licensing packages through Asia, Europe and South America.