Category: media

“Trailers in 17 categories ranging from “Best Action” to “Best Romance” to “Trashiest” to “Most Original” will compete for prizes in an irreverent ceremony that recognizes a familiar, yet obscure, corner of Hollywood: movie previews.”

More than 300 talk radio hosts gathered in New York over the weekend “for the annual New Media Seminar, sponsored by Talkers magazine, to debate how much the FCC’s new vigilance threatens their First Amendment rights. Michael Harrison, the conference organizer, argued that there is no clear line between the sexual innuendo of a Howard Stern and the political speech of a Rush Limbaugh. The legally reckless FCC crackdown poses a deadly threat to the entire radio broadcasting industry.”

“Tense relations between Disney and Miramax are complicating a deal to find a distributor for Michael Moore’s anti-Bush documentary movie “Fahrenheit 9/11,” which is still without American representation two days after winning the Palme d’Or at the Cannes International Film Festival.”

Shrek 2 took in $105 million its opening weekend. “The opening for “Shrek 2” broke or flirted with breaking a number of box-office records. The film’s weekend gross was second all-time only to “Spider-Man,” which earned $114.8 million in a single weekend in 2002. On Saturday “Shrek 2” broke the record for single-day ticket sales with $44.8 million. And if the preliminary numbers hold, the movie is expected to break the mark for biggest five-day opening, surpassing “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,” which brought in $124.1 during its first five days in theaters last December.”

The situation comedy is in decline. “Amid the hoopla of last week’s presentations to advertisers of the broadcast networks’ prime-time lineups for the fall, it became strikingly clear that the network situation comedy was in as bad a state as it has been in more than 20 years.”

The movie Troy took in $46 million in its opening weekend. But that about qualifies it as a flop. “Industry statistics show that box office receipts typically fall 40 per cent between a movie’s first and second weekends. That means that unless interest in Troy picks up substantially over the next few weeks, the movie — which reportedly cost $185-million to produce, before marketing costs — will be a money-loser. Which is why studios dedicate millions of dollars to promote movies months in advance to get as many people as possible into cinemas during that first weekend.”

“At meetings last week in Arlington, Va., a vision of NPR’s strategic plans for the future was presented to 100 local station managers from around the country. So far, the unexpected funding has allowed NPR to give an unusual bonus to its 700-member staff (roughly 1 percent of each employee’s annual salary), return $2.4 million to member stations to offset rising expenses, and plan for a flurry of hires. The interest income alone will pay for 45 additional reporters over the next three years.”

“Increasingly, more independent movies are adopting models of grass-roots marketing. Unable to compete with the multimillion-dollar advertising budgets of studio blockbusters, small movies are instead targeting localized niche audiences as a way to gain traction. That platform allows a film to open small and then potentially build momentum through word of mouth, just as “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” did two years ago by initially making a splash in the Greek-American community. That movie went on to become the most profitable romantic comedy in history.”

The major American TV networks released their new fall schedules this week, and from all outward appearances, it’s business as usual. But the fact is, business as usual has been a disaster lately, and the networks are scrambling for viewership in a TV landscape now focused on cable networks and niche programming. So why do all the new programs look the same as the old ones that haven’t been working?

This summer’s big Hollywood disaster flick is The Day After Tomorrow, in which all the dire predictions scientists have been making about the consequences of global warming come true – over the course of about three days. Environmental groups have been latching on to the film in the hope that the sight of New York City encased permanently in ice will spark the public’s interest in the real-life issue of climate change, but some observers point out that a film clearly based on junk science is more likely to spark a backlash against the global warming alarmists than to cause the public to rally to their side.