Making a hit movie on a budget is as hard as Hollywood makes it look. "We're in a business where the solution is almost always to write a check," said Joe Drake, the departing co-chief operating officer of Lionsgate, the studio behind "The Hunger Games." "The Hunger Games" opens Friday, tracking toward an opening weekend ticket take of perhaps more than $100 million. The movie, about a future dystopia that pits teens in televised fights to the death, cost around $80 million to make. That amount...

"You're a Wizard, Harry," Hagrid told the young, confused boy. "I'm a what?" he responded, perplexed after a lifetime spent downtrodden at the hands of his aunt and uncle. The boy had never heard of such magic, had never seen giants or dragons, or dreamed of a life at Hogwarts. Oh, how far we've come. As the final chapter of the Harry Potter saga, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2," prepares to touch down in theaters on Friday, fans and marketers have spent as much time on wizarding...