Searching for sleeper hits among summer sequels

May 25, 2007 In other words -- no superstars, no directors with blockbuster credits, no high profile producers and no brand name source material like best-selling novels. The marketplace has changed tremendously since 1989 and not only is there much more product competing for moviegoers' time and money now, but there's no certainty that any small film is going to be able to drum up the kind of business that would entitle it to be called a sleeper. [...] far, of course, we've seen spectacular presummer ticket sales for the third Spidey and Shrek episodes, both of which exceeded the wildest opening weekend dreams their distributors say they could have had for them.

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