Category: media

“With Hollywood-sized budgets (sci-fi shooter Halo 4 was built on a budget of $100 million and made $220 million on the first day of its release) to throw behind writing, graphics, testing, and even psychological expertise to maximize fun, critics–including many parents–say that video games hold the attention all too well. “

Clips from and commentary on Mighty Joe Young (1949), Jason and the Argonauts (1963), First Men in the Moon (1964), One Million Years B.C. (Raquel Welch carried off by a pterodactyl, 1966), and Clash of the Titans (1981).

“Total box-office revenue in the 27 countries of the European Union topped last year’s record figure to set a new high-water mark. This was despite a slight drop in overall attendance, with 933.3 million tickets sold across the EU last year, 2.2 percent fewer than in 2011.”

“It’s not just that this model of MTV largely went away, or that getting most of your music listening through the radio faded. It’s that the entire idea of ephemeral availability — that you would have to sit and wait for something to be played for you, and that at other times you had to do without it — is simply not how people expect to digest much of anything anymore.”

“A memo obtained by Gawker shows that the CIA actively, and apparently successfully, pressured Mark Boal to remove scenes that made them look bad from the Zero Dark Thirty script.”

The days when the principles of “public service” and “civic duty” – the essence of Wade Rowland’s context for CBC’s role – mattered in Canada are over. There is outright hostility to them and to everything the CBC’s role as a public broadcaster encapsulates.

Peter Sagal: “There was a temptation, when we first started doing the show … it was very competitive, and somewhat serious. … And it was unpleasant! We made a really conscious decision not to give a flying fig if the quiz was serious or if you won anything. I really do trace the success of our show to that decision: Nobody cares who wins or loses.”

“The same kind of numbers analysis that has reshaped areas like politics and online marketing is increasingly being used by the entertainment industry.”

“Movie theaters, think some, are the next frontier for the previously ears-only experience of radio. It’s a frontier with no shortage of obstacles, and new enough that more are still being discovered–but the the Wait Wait team is guessing that the rewards can be worth it.”

“With just 34 foreign imports allowed to compete for China’s rapidly expanding cinema market in any given year, … drastic acts of appeasement are becoming commonplace.”