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Movies

This famous 1980 bronze statue by A. Thomas Schomberg was recently on exhibit inside the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

‘Rocky’ Is the Story of an Underdog, Created by an Underdog, That Has Spawned Box-Office Champions for Half a Century

Sylvester Stallone was a struggling actor when he was inspired by a real boxing match to write the film that became a legend. This year, the origin story of the franchise turns 50.

Mel Brooks starred in High Anxiety (1977), a satirical comedy of Alfred Hitchcock's filmography.

What Are Mel Brooks’ Favorite Movies? To Celebrate His 100th Birthday, the Comedy Legend Picks 20 Films to Screen Across Los Angeles

The eclectic program spans decades and genres, offering glimpses into Brooks’ comedic influences, personal history and enduring love of film

Closed since 2020, the Cinerama Dome is set to reopen in early 2028. 

Hollywood’s Iconic Cinerama Dome, One of the World’s Most Famous Movie Theaters, Is Set to Reopen in Early 2028

Shuttered since the Covid-19 pandemic, the Los Angeles landmark is being revived as more Americans buy tickets to see movies in theaters

Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber and severed hand set a new record. 

Luke Skywalker’s Lightsaber and Severed Hand From Famed Darth Vader Duel Sold For a Record $3.75 Million at Auction

The item, which became the most-valued on-screen Star Wars prop ever sold at auction, was born from cast-off parts from a camera shop

Odysseus and Polyphemus, Arnold Böcklin, 1896

Was There Ever an Original Version of ‘The Odyssey,’ and Do We Need to Worry About What Homer Would Think?

The earliest surviving fragments of the epic poem—the subject of Christopher Nolan’s latest Hollywood blockbuster—date back more than 2,000 years. But oral storytelling about a hero named Odysseus is much older

A 1488 edition of the Odyssey, photographed by Naomi Wenger

The ‘Odyssey,’ One of the World’s Oldest Stories, Gets a Modern Spin With A.I.-Generated Audiobook Narration by the Voice Clone of an Oscar Winner

Meanwhile, other actors are pushing back against the use of artificial intelligence in creative projects, including through a new “human consent” registry tool

The indomitable Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story (1995). The film made history as the first feature-length, 3D-rendered film produced entirely with computer animation.

America at 250: The Revolutionary Spark

Five Advances That Helped Turn a Night Out at the Movies Into the All-Enveloping Experience It Has Become

The power of film is often in its ability to feel larger than life. Movie makers have been developing ways to accentuate that aspect for more than a century

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America at 250: The Revolutionary Spark

Every Generation of Teenagers Redefines Pop Culture Through Its Favorite Music, Fads, Movies and Trends

When new government policies allowed kids more time to grown up, the teenager was born. And every decade or so, they’ve changed the ways they entertain themselves … and everyone else

Director Steven Spielberg on the set of Disclosure Day, his latest UFO-inspired film

What’s Behind Steven Spielberg’s Lifelong Obsession With Flying Saucers and Extraterrestrial Visitors?

Half a century after “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” the director returns to the subject of UFOs with “Disclosure Day.” His science fiction films are informed by his fascination with alien encounters in American suburbia

Later in his career, Harpo made appearances on television, always in character. 

A Rare Recording of Harpo Marx Speaking Publicly Was Mislabeled in an Archive for Decades. Now You Can Listen to the ‘Silent’ Comedian Yourself

The comedian of the stage and big screen thrilled millions of Americans without ever speaking a word, leaving many to wonder what his voice sounded like

Robinson Theater, Richmond, Virginia, 2013. Opened 1937, architect Edward Francis Sinnott Sr., original seating capacity 597.

In a Plea to Preserve Them, One Photographer Has Captured 1,200 American Movie Theaters and Counting

For more than 40 years, Benita VanWinkle has photographed vintage movie houses in all 50 states

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Smithsonian Magazine Presents: America at 250—The Revolutionary Spark

Celebrating the visionary insights & darling innovators that forged a nation.

The Leonora Carrington exhibition at the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris

No Mere Muse, This Influential Surrealist Artist and Feminist Gets Her Due in a New Biopic and Art Exhibitions

Leonora Carrington’s life and work are celebrated with the new film “Leonora in the Morning Light.” Meanwhile, an exhibition at the Freud Museum showcases for the first time artwork she created inside a psychiatric hospital

Brendan Fraser (left) as Dwight D. Eisenhower and Andrew Scott (right) as James Stagg in Pressure, a new WWII drama about the weather forecast for D-Day

Based on a True Story

One Weather Forecast Changed the Course of WWII. Here’s the Real Story Behind ‘Pressure,’ a Drama About the Meteorologist Who Convinced the Allies to Delay D-Day

A new movie starring Andrew Scott and Brendan Fraser dramatizes the tense 72 hours before the Allied invasion of Normandy, revealing how meteorology helped determine Operation Overlord’s success

More than 5,000 photographs, including these polaroids, from the archives of Mel Brooks will be donated to the National Comedy Center.

No Joke, Ahead of His 100th Birthday, Mel Brooks Donates His Hilarious Archive to the National Comedy Center

Thousands of notes, storyboards, early scripts and photographs belonging to the “2,000-year-old man” and EGOT winner will join material from Lucille Ball, Joan Rivers and George Carlin

Monroe in the 1952 film Don’t Bother to Knock

Marilyn Monroe Collections Assembled for Her 100th Birthday Cut Through Hollywood Glamour to Reveal the Star’s Human Side

A selection of the movie star’s clothing, jewelry and dark, personal letters will be auctioned for the big anniversary of her birth

The Critics Corner, Ernie Barnes, 2007, will be on display when the museum opens. 

The Creator of ‘Star Wars’ Loves Art That Tells a Story. Peek at the Collection of George Lucas’ New Museum Before It Opens This Fall

Adventure, comics, childhood, love and everyday life are among the dozens of themes that will guide the curation of the new Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles

The new Smart Cinema theater collects biometric data to track in-the-moment reactions to on-screen action.

Why Do We Love Movies? This New ‘Smart’ Movie Theater Tracks Viewers’ Brain Waves and Heart Rates to Find Out

Researchers at the University of Bristol are studying the appeal of the cinema-watching experience by turning one theater into a biometric laboratory

A still from “Gugusse and the Automaton” showing the magician and his robot, Pierrot

A Rare 1897 Film Discovered in an Old Trunk in Michigan Features the First On-Screen Appearance of a Robot

Filmmaker Georges Méliès employed some of his signature special effects techniques to create comedy in “Gugusse and the Automaton”

A visitor gazes at a statue of a giant short-faced bear. At around 11 feet tall, the Ice Age animal was the largest carnivorous mammal ever to roam North America.

250 Places to Celebrate America

The La Brea Tar Pits Have Been Sucking in Visitors for Millennia. Paleontologists Are Still Finding Out What Lies Within the Ooze

In Los Angeles, scientists are delighted to decode one of the richest fossil records on Earth

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