Category: media

“It’s commonly assumed, both inside and outside of Hollywood, that if a movie doesn’t hit No. 1 at North American ticket wickets in its first weekend, then it’s at best a disappointment and at worst an outright flop. The Monday morning quarterbacking of box-office stats has become so common, even people who don’t go to movies can quote you the numbers for various films, like stockbrokers discussing share prices. Yet box-office figures are so inherently flawed, and so wilfully distorted, as to be almost meaningless.”

It wasn’t so long ago that Hollywood’s favorite movie was the little guy against the bureucrat – the rogue CIA, the power-hungry FBI, even a misbehaving Congress or White House. But that’s all changed. “Big and small screens are awash in portrayals of honorable officials struggling to hold back a menacing tide. “The old, tired and hackneyed representation of us as a bunch of rogue operatives, with everything dark and gloomy and sensational, that doesn’t wash any more.”

Exxon Mobil has spent $230 million in the past 30 years underwriting PBS’ “Masterpiece Theatre”. No more. “The company wants to target its messages in the environmental realms that more closely align with its businesses. It’s a message public broadcasting executives are hearing frequently these days.” Many companies “are saying they simply have no extra pocket change in the down economy for image messages – the only thing that public television’s strict rules allow – that aren’t directly tied to getting consumers to buy a product. That puts PBS, and local stations that air its programming, in an increasingly difficult situation.”

The Australian Film Commission reports that Aussie films earned $41.8 million at the box office last year, representing 4.9 per cent of the total Australian movie market. “The figure is down on both 2001 and 2000 figures, which came in at $63.4 million (7.8 per cent) and $54.2 million (7.9 per cent) respectively.”

As reality TV shows get grosser and more extreme, is there any idea the networks won’t go for? Apparently yes: “We had someone who wanted us to break into the Getty Museum and steal a painting,’ says the creator of such shows as World’s Funniest Hypnotist. Bad ideas like the Getty heist could give a black eye to the whole reality genre, he says, which he believes has a lot of quality entertainment life left in it.”

“The Ontario government has lifted the ban it applied in fall, 2001, on Catherine Breillat’s Fat Girl (A ma soeur!). The government had been facing a court action over the ban that, if heard, would have contested the constitutionality of the Ontario Film Review Board.” Canadian film boards have the legal right to censor or ban films which violate vague decency standards, but in recent years, the power has been exercised rarely, and many Canadians want to do away with the practice entirely.

Was the computer-generated elf Doby in the latest Harry Potter movie based on Russian president Vladimir Putin? “A Russian law firm is reportedly drawing up legal action against the special effects people who dreamt up Dobby, arguing that the ugly but caring elf has been modelled on Mr Putin. The Kremlin and Warner Bros, producer of Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, have declined to comment but the controversy has stirred emotions in Russia.”

Does the Sundance Festival mean anything at the box office? “It’s like lemmings off a cliff. Year after year, we love tracking which films everyone is circling, but are any of these films really going to succeed? I hope so. But that’s the exception, not the rule. Of the 16 films acquired and released out of last year’s exceptionally busy Sundance bazaar, only five broke $1 million at the box office.”

The main American actors’ unions are discussing a merger. The Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists are metting to decide if a combined union would give them more clout. “Shifts in our business dramatically impact SAG and AFTRA’s strength at the negotiating table as well as their ability to protect and improve members’ interests.”

Police in the UK have seized tens of thousands of illegal copies of the latest Lord of the Rings movie. Where did the copies come from? From an Oscar voter. Copies of the film were sent to Oscar judges with strict warnings not to copy them. But the illegal copies include a “for your consideration” Academy Award message that pops up every 15 minutes, indicating it was a judge’s copy. “These direct digital copies were a much better quality than traditional pirated movies, which are usually made using a handheld video camera to record the film during a screening.”