Apple’s latest Quicktime update 7.4.1 did work for me. I was also getting the message “After Effects error: opening movie – you do not have permission to open this file (-54)” after 10 minutes of rendering, but after updating to version 7.4.1 I can now render my entire movie and no errors after the 10 minute mark.
I am working on an iMac with Leopard installed. I would suggest those who have downgraded to version 7.3 to stick with their setup until they see more feedback about 7.4.1. For those who haven’t downgraded and are stuck at 7.4, I would definitely recommend trying the latest upgrade before they downgrade.