Category: media

“Not a single animated feature was released in the U.S. in 1984, and the five released in 1985 sold less than $50 million worth of tickets combined. How healthy are animated movies today? Well, in 2004, the top five animated films sold more than $1.1 billion worth of tickets in the U.S. and Canada. The three films nominated for Best Animated Feature that year outgrossed the five live-action nominees, $858.6 million to $401.5 million.”

Bollywood certainly has its formula. The movies typically are “kitschy, megawatt musicals with lavish song-and-dance sequences largely disconnected from the plot. In a three-hour film – it could even be a grisly thriller – there may be as many as 10 songs with leading men and women strutting their stuff in settings as diverse as idyllic mountain meadows and grimy city streets. And every time the music starts, the storyline comes to a halt as the hero and heroine dance in gaudy attires that change with dizzying frequency.” Now some Indian directors are experimenting to change the formula…

Video clips sampled, made and circulated on the net are hot. “These things are becoming ground zero for pop culture. It’s no longer the moment on the Jon Stewart show, it’s ‘Did you watch the viral video of the moment on the Jon Stewart show?’ “

“TV dramas have become South Korea’s hottest export since cell phones, female golfers and kimchi. The Korean craze, which also includes music and film, has swept through Japan, China, the Philippines, Singapore and most of Asia and is now making its way across the United States.”

“This past week the National Association of Theater Owners (NATO) pondered blocking cellphone signals as a way to improve the cinema experience. The idea was a hot topic in the nation’s gambling capital this past week when theater owners from coast to coast met to preview the summer lineups from movie studios and trade tips on combating falling movie theater attendance. The 6,000-strong membership of NATO voted to authorize its board to look into changing federal laws that currently prevent them from using cellphone-jamming equipment in theaters.”

People are watching more sitcoms on TV these days. But they’re not watching the new shows. Indeed, new sitcoms have bombed this season, while viewers stick with the classics of the past 30 years. “The viewers say we’re not going to tolerate mediocrity any more because we’ve got the classics and there’s a lot of competition out there.”

Movie reviewing is a tough beat, writes Geoff Pevere. “You can fill newspapers with page upon page of global atrocities, injustices and outrages and expect very little by way of indignant outrage expressed by your readers. But suggest they might have been wrong about loving Star Wars? For this you bring down the wrath of the heavens.”

UK movie fans will soon be able to buy and download movies online. “Fans will pay £19.99 for a DVD of their chosen film plus two digital copies to keep indefinitely – one for their home computer and one for a portable device. Universal said it could ‘completely revolutionise’ how people watch movies. However users will not be able to burn copies of the films to DVD themselves and the files will be compatible only with PCs and Windows software.”

For the first time, TV is available anywhere you have access to your cellphone. In fact, TV is about to be anywhere and everywhere, period…

As Hollywood continues to puzzle over the mystery of the shrinking multiplex audience, private “film clubs” are gaining traction in some cities across the country. “Organizers of film clubs — cliques in which film lovers can bond over movies in a more controlled environment than the neighborhood multiplex — say their associations are growing in popularity. It’s particularly so with those who prefer their film fare served up with respect, and minus the endless commercials, chatter and crying babies.”