Category: media

“Attacks on industry-wide practices are harder than on a single, outlier company, since an outlier exists against a backdrop that shows its possible to do better. In industry-wide cases, it becomes more challenging to prove that there is an adequate supply of qualified and interested candidates to begin with.”

“This year, the industry’s estimated take between Friday and Monday in the U.S. and Canada was $190 million, according to Rentrak. That is the lowest since 2001—particularly bad when considering that average ticket prices have risen 44% over that time, according to the National Association of Theatre Owners.”

“In its 10-years of existence, YouTube has evolved from a playground for kitty videos to a $20 billion visual menagerie. Along the way, it’s also become an incubator for a new type of celebrity — a digital Brat Pack that’s leveraging smartphone stardom to write books, drop albums, design products and break into Hollywood.”

“Charter plans to announce on Tuesday a $55 billion deal for its larger rival and an approximately $10 billion takeover of a smaller competitor, Bright House Networks, people with direct knowledge of the matter said on Monday.”

“Women are not tapped for power jobs in Hollywood. Their numbers trail far behind the percentage of females in executive positions in other heavily male-dominated endeavors, including the military, tech, finance, government, science and engineering. In 2013, 1.9 percent of the directors of Hollywood’s 100 top-grossing films were female, according to a study conducted by USC researcher Stacy L. Smith. In 2011, women held 7.1 percent of U.S. military general and admiral posts, 20 percent of U.S. Senate seats and more than 20 percent of leadership roles at Twitter and Facebook — and both companies now face gender-discrimination lawsuits.”

“‘People can share their artwork on Tumblr and Vimeo and YouTube and DeviantArt,’ she says, ‘and see that it’s actually a thing that a lot of people are interested in, not just men.'”

“The cultures of the companies and Fusion have already clashed. For instance, according to two senior Fusion staff members, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, Disney put the organization on notice that it would not take kindly to coverage that might dent its standing with consumers. The warning came after Fusion published several stories based on documents that hackers stole from Sony.”

Director Jacques Audiard, “who previously made A Prophet and Rust and Bone, said: ‘To receive a prize from the Coen brothers is something pretty exceptional. I’m very touched.'”

Of course it did. And “the top prizes for the main selection will be awarded on Sunday night during the closing ceremony at the Palais des Festivals in Cannes.”

“According to a 2014 study of theatrical market statistics by the Motion Picture Association of America, the number of “frequent moviegoers” in the 60-plus demographic (that is, those who attend the cinema at least once a month) jumped almost 30 percent last year from 2013, to 5.3 million viewers. That is the highest level for the 60-plus demographic since 2010. Over the same period, attendance by frequent moviegoers ages 18 to 24 and 25 to 39 — still the dominant age groups, with annual attendance about 7 million each — continued to slide. But the pickings are sometimes slim for mature audiences looking for characters their age appearing in quality fare.”