Category: media

“Blockbuster, with $6 billion in annual revenue, still dominates the movie-rental industry, but lately that business has been shrinking faster than Lindsay Lohan’s waistline. As DVDs have replaced VHS tapes, more Americans have shifted to buying movies instead of renting them—and most don’t buy them at Blockbuster. In 2003 U.S. movie rentals were an $8.2 billion business, but by 2009 that will shrink to $6.3 billion.” So what to do?

There are “small but troubling signs are emerging that the DVD market’s growth could be trailing off faster than Hollywood expected. On June 30, Pixar Animation Studios (PIXR ) cut its earnings-per-share estimate for the second quarter to 10 cents from 15 cents, due to slower-than-expected DVD sales of its blockbuster The Incredibles. The stock of Dreamworks Animation (DWA ) dropped sharply in mid-May, after the studio reported that returns of its own blockbuster Shrek 2 left sales 5 million short of its forecasts. Major retailers have noticed that DVD sales have been softer than anticipated recently, too.”

“For each hour of television watched per day before age 3, a child’s reading comprehension and short-term memory scores fell at age 6 and 7. But for older children, every hour of television led to slightly better performance sounding out and pronouncing words. Since 1999, the American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended no television for children 2 and younger, including educational shows. For older children, the academy suggests no more than one to two hours a day of “quality” television.”

The Da Vinci Code has sold more than 25 million copies. Perhaps that’s one reason the Vatican has lashed out at the book. And now that production has started on the Tom Hanks movie, the Vatican’s mood is even darker…

How to make a blockbuster movie hit out of Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code” and not offend Catholics? “Controlling that controversy will be the key for Columbia in protecting its investment. That’s why its team of PR experts are sending the message that it will be an enjoyable “popcorn” fiction. The filmmakers are distancing themselves from Dan Brown’s much-vaunted “research” into a private sect that has supposedly kept a 2,000-year-old secret that would undermine traditional Christianity.”

Media retailer HMV has announced it’s ending sales of VHS tapes in its stores. “VHS videos, which accounted for 6 per cent of the retailer’s turnover a year ago, now make up only 2 per cent of its sales as consumers throw away their old video recorders in favour of the newer technology.”

You’re a big star and you don’t like the line you’ve been asked to say in a movie. What do you do? Call in your own “personal writer”. More and more stars are working with their own writers on the set. “While these kind of personal writers may be well-known inside Hollywood, they often toil in public obscurity. Don’t shed any tears, though. Even without screen credit, top rewrite artists can bank more than $250,000 a week for script revisions and frequently can stay on a movie for months at a time.”

“Entertainment conglomerates and arts-grant bureaucrats still hold the strings to attractively fat purses. But their power is being tempered by the reach of the Internet and the resourcefulness of creative minds paired with cheap, versatile tools.”

Hollywood is drawn to China as a new production center. “Drawn by China’s fast-growing economy, inexpensive film production sites and its increasingly popular martial arts and feature films – most notably “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” in 2000 – Western studios are stepping up their presence here and looking to eventually turn China into a major film production base.”

Next generation TV sets promise some serious geek bling – and 3D. “Ordinary TV sets deliver 500 lines of resolution. Most high-definition screens reach 1,050. The HD3D hits 1,280 lines and counting – which means better picture quality than that of any TV available today, all in a convincing impression of the third dimension. And here’s the seriously trippy part about the new screen, which Deep Light plans to introduce at next winter’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas: multiple “blades” of video enable one screen to show different programs to different viewers, at the same time.”