Category: media

“In 2007, China’s number of Internet users shot up 53% from the 137 million counted at the end of 2006. At the end of June, that number stood at 162 million. About 16% of the Chinese population now has access to the Internet.”

“The head of the Motion Picture Association of America said on Saturday a recent labor contract between major studios and film and TV directors offers a template for deals with striking writers and other guilds.”

It’s now official — the foreign box office posted a 10% increase for 2007, finishing with $9.52 billion for the Big Six studios.

Writers Guild of America leaders plan to meet as early as Monday with News Corp. President Peter Chernin and possibly other studio chiefs, reviving talks that fell apart early last month.

“They got jurisdiction over all but the most low-end Internet production. They got a toehold in Internet streaming that could prove lucrative for popular skeins. And most significantly, they made a big leap on an issue that’s been a sore spot for decades for directors and writers by securing a residual formula for paid downloads based on distributors’ gross.”

“The accord would appear to send a none-too-subtle message to striking screenwriters: This is not the time to get hung up on new media.”

“Writers Guild enthusiasm for the new deal was no doubt tempered by memories of the ’80s, when it followed the Directors Guild’s lead in negotiating, badly as it turned out, with the studios on what became lucrative home-video and DVD markets.”

The provincial government of Quebec has acquired a controlling financial stake in Alliance Films, a large Canadian distribution firm. Alliance controls a huge library of Canadian movies, and Quebec takes over the firm from a private equity company which had owned 51% of the company since last summer.

Does this year’s Sundance lineup suggest an American crisis of identity? “In a pre-election year of uncertainty, a failing economy and an apparently interminable war, the national mood is uneasy. American navel-gazing has rarely been deeper or more intense.”

The writers’ strike could turn out to be a boon to filmmakers hoping to peddle their work to major studios at the Sundance Festival this month. “Studio specialty divisions and a slew of relatively new distribution companies will be looking for movies to fill their threatened schedules for later this year and 2009. And that could drive up prices for the undiscovered gem even more.”