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MSNBC.Com Runs Anti-leno Item
12 hours ago
Now even MSNBC.com, whose corporate sibling, NBC, made the decision to broadcast The Jay Leno Show at 10:00 p.m. each night, has joined the media outlets criticizing that decision. In an article that appeared on the site Monday, veteran Canadian TV newspaper critic Bill Brioux, now a regular columnist for MSNBC.com, observed that Leno's press coverage keeps deteriorating. He cited numerous devastating reports in such publications as Broadcasting & Cable, MediaWeek, Advertising Age, and the New York Times. Brioux also cited earlier remarks by NBC executives that the Leno show can turn a profit even with a 1.5 rating among the 18-49 demo. "But the numbers have dipped below even that low threshold," he noted. Brioux quoted Marc Berman, who tracks ratings for MediaWeek as saying, "It's an enormous flop." »
Lions Gate Roars Back
12 hours ago
Lions Gate, which earlier this year was squarely in the sights of corporate raider Carl Icahn after reporting a series of quarterly losses, continued to roar back in its latest quarter. The entertainment company, based in Canada and California, swung to a $31.7 million net profit in the quarter compared with a net loss of $51.8 million during the comparable quarter a year ago. While the company reported a substantial downturn in its cinema and home entertainment businesses, it was easily offset by solid performances from its TV units, which grew 30 percent thanks to the popularity of such shows as Weeds, Mad Men, and Crash. TV syndication and international TV sales also soared during the quarter. Going forward, the company is likely to reap huge rewards from Precious, which had a record-breaking opening in limited release over the weekend and is listed high on the list of most critics as an Oscar contender. Lions Gate purchased the movie at Sundance for just $5.5 million. »
“Christmas” Comes Too Early For Some
13 hours ago
Moviegoers were even more Scroogelike at the box office over the weekend than originally estimated as ticket sales fell more than 16 percent from the comparable weekend a year ago. Final figures put the take for Disney's A Christmas Carol at $30.1 million, a figure somewhat inflated by 3D premium pricing at more than 2,000 screens and nearly 200 IMAX sites. Even so, it was nearly $1 million less than the studio's estimates on Sunday. Three other movies opened wide over the weekend. Producing the strongest showing was the George Clooney romp The Men Who Stare at Goats, which drew a decent $12.7 million. It came in slightly ahead of the horror movie The Fourth Kind, which took in $12.2 million. But The Box collapsed with just $7.6 million. Opening in limited release, Precious took in $1.87 million in just 18 theaters -- and produced a per-theater record for any film opening in more than six theaters. Veteran box-office tracker Paul Dergarabedian described the per-theater result -- $104,025 -- as "massive, unbelievable." »
“Capitalism” Not So Lovely For Liberty Media
13 hours ago
Liberty Media acknowledged Monday that its decision to bring Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story to the screen via its Overture Films studio turned out to be not the best capital investment. In its quarterly report, Liberty noted that its Liberty Capital unit, which runs Overture (oddly, not its Liberty Entertainment unit), posted a 22-percent drop in revenue and cited the Moore documentary as one of two disappointing releases that dragged down its income. (The other was the sci-fi flick Pandorum.) The film, which was released in September, grossed just $13.7 million. Word that Liberty had agreed to back the Moore film originally raised eyebrows since it in effect paired the liberal Moore with the staunchly libertarian John Malone, the head of Liberty. But it was said that the two saw eye-to-eye on most aspects of the financial crisis. (Overture has seen a boost in its current quarter from Law Abiding Citizen and The Men Who Stare at Goats.) Aside from Overture, most of Liberty's other businesses showed a small improvement in the quarter or were flat. Nevertheless, shares in the company fell 6 percent on Monday. Merrill Lynch analyst Jessica Reif Cohen attributed the fall "to investors' expectation of even faster U.S. growth." »
Heads Continue To Fall At Disney
13 hours ago
Like a replay of Alice in Wonderland in which the Queen orders, "Off with their heads!" top executives of the Walt Disney Company continue to fall. Mark Zoradi, head of Disney's motion pictures group, is the latest to be forced out, following the ouster of longtime Disney Studios Chairman Dick Cook in September and Miramax chief Daniel Battsek in October. Only last weekend Zoradi was awarded the Louis B. Mayer's leader of the year award in the motion picture business from the UCLA Anderson School of Management. But some industry observers have observed that Disney chief Robert Iger regarded him and the other ousted executives as being too wedded to the past and therefore too reticent to launch bold initiatives -- like closing the window between theatrical and DVD releases. »
Sony Pushing Electronic Movie Downloads
13 hours ago
Sony said Monday that it plans to offer Disney/Pixar's animated hit Up for purchase on its PlayStation Network beginning today (Tuesday), the day the movie is released on DVD and Blu-ray. The movie is priced at $14.99 for standard definition and $19.99 for high-definition. (Newer PlayStation models are capable of playing Blu-ray discs.) Sony also said that it will offer some 80 Disney feature films for sale in coming days, two-thirds of them in both standard- and high-definition versions. In a separate announcement, Sony Electronics said that owners of its Bravia HDTV sets and Blu-ray Disc players will be able to watch its Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs beginning Dec. 8, a month before the DVD and Blu-ray releases hit store shelves. Sony is the first company to utilize its Internet-enabled TVs and other networked devices to stream feature films directly to consumers' televisions prior to availability on DVD or Blu-ray," said Hiro Kawano, Svp for Sony Electronics' home division business. However, the price for the advance rental will be steep -- $24.99 for a 24-hour period. However, it said, anyone buying a new Bravia TV set or a Sony Blu-ray player between now and January 4 will receive a 24-hour rental of the film for free. »
“Carol” Has A Dickens Of A Time
9 November 2009 12:16 PM, PST
Moviegoers were about as tight-fisted at the box office over the weekend as Ebenezer Scrooge was at the grindstone in his day. The top film, Disney's A Christmas Carol, which stars Jim Carrey as Scrooge and the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future, opened with an estimated $31 million, far below analysts' expectations of about $40-45 million -- and less than half what Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa earned when it opened with $63.1 million during the comparable weekend a year ago. But while most critics called the performance of the movie disappointing, particularly for a movie that was said to have cost close to $200 million, others pointed out that it took in more than Robert Zemeckis's previous motion-capture animation films, including The Polar Express, which opened with $23 million, and Beowulf, with $28 million. Besides, Disney apparently intends to milk it for another seven weekends before Christmas. "You know you're in for a marathon rather than a dash," Chuck Viane, Disney's president of domestic theatrical distribution, told Reuters. Slipping to second place was the Michael Jackson concert documentary This Is It, which dropped a moderate 39.7 percent to $14 million. (It continued to perform strongly overseas, however.) The comedy The Men Who Stare at Goats opened in third place with a better-than-expected $13.3 million. Another new film, The Fourth Kind, followed with $12.5 million. Rounding out the top five was Paranormal Activity, which fell 48 percent to $8.6 million. Nevertheless, the $15,000 film's total gross has now risen to $97 million, putting it on track to pass the $100-million mark before next weekend. Meanwhile the critically praised Precious opened in just 18 theaters with $1.8 million -- or a staggering $100,000 per theater. »
Movie Reviews: The Box
9 November 2009 12:15 PM, PST
How much you're likely to enjoy The Box, which opened at the box office in sixth place with $7.9 million over the weekend, may well depend on how well you are able to cope with preposterous story lines. Indeed, that word -- "preposterous" -- cropped up in many, if not most, of the reviews of the film. In her mixed review, Manohla Dargis in the New York Times regarded The Box as "a serious work that insists on its own seriousness even when it edges toward the preposterous." However, Claudia Puig in USA Today wrote that "director Richard Kelly has fashioned a preposterous tale that lacks the wit that made his Donnie Darko a cult classic." Elizabeth Weitzman in the New York Daily News scoffed at the movie's "preposterous special effects." But Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times, while acknowledging that "preposterous" is "one of my favorite adjectives," nevertheless went on to write, "If you make a preposterous movie that isn't boring, I count that as some kind of a triumph." He concluded: "This movie kept me involved and intrigued, and for that I'm grateful. I'm beginning to wonder whether, in some situations, absurdity might not be a strength." But "boring" was indeed the operative term for several critics. "Have you ever actually tried watching paint dry? A sloth walk? Grass grow?" asked Betsy Sharkey in the Los Angeles Times. "You can have all the 'thrills' with none of the chills courtesy of The Box." »
Wal-mart Sets Off DVD Price War
9 November 2009 12:14 PM, PST
Wal-Mart touched off a DVD price war on Friday when it announced a special pre-release price of $10 for many soon-to-be-released titles, including Terminator: Salvation, Angels & Demons, Julie & Julia, and Star Trek. Target quickly followed suit, adding such blockbusters as Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, G Force, and Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. Amazon then joined the fray, and Best Buy was expected to do so as early as today (Monday). Each of the retailers cautioned that the $10 deals were only available via their websites for advance purchases and only until the DVDs are officially released. »
Attendance, Sales Fall At American Film Market
9 November 2009 12:12 PM, PST
The contraction of the independent movie business was evident in Santa Monica over the weekend where the number of filmmakers who have managed to survive the economic downturn and continue to display their wares at the American Film Market seemed woefully sparse. Several panelists appearing at a conference session on the future of independent filmmaking noted that many traditional sources of funding have vanished and that several banks, facing their own crises over the collapsed real-estate market, have pulled out of entertainment financing altogether. Various reports observed that the prevalence of horror flicks -- particularly those featuring vampires -- at the Afm seemed more flagrant than ever. (In addition to numerous Twilight knock-offs, one of the films in search of a buyer was Girlfriend, co-produced by and starring Jackson Rathbone, who co-stars in the Twilight movies.) The Hollywood Reporter summed up its rundown of the top vampire movies on display at the Afm by remarking, "There's plenty for buyers to sink their teeth into." »
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