Category: media

“2011 was the second-straight year that domestic attendance declined sharply, and audiences generally have been shrinking since 2002, when admissions hit a modern high of 1.6 billion.”

“Average opening weekend ticket sales have stayed fairly constant over the last decade, when adjusted for inflation. Avid moviegoers excited to see a new picture as soon as possible (think “Twihards” or “Harry Potter” fanatics) still flock to theaters as eagerly as ever in the first few days of release. It’s the more casual audiences, the type of people who read reviews and wait to hear what their friends say, that are becoming increasingly difficult to lure to the multiplex.”

“The first Tintin adventure … forwent the plodding, pane-by-pane mises-en-scène of most early comics in favor of an urgent montage and forward-driving plot. … The Tintin books helped to create the style of the modern blockbuster, and, even now, bridge the gap between a literary audience and a cinematic one.”

“It’s hard to imagine where Hollywood would be if no one was willing to take a gamble on what are often complicated creative partnerships.”

Fast Five, The Hangover Part II and Thor were the year’s most pirated movies, topping a list that contained some surprising differences from the most popular movies at the box office.

“Many more digital players will command the attention of studios and consumers in 2012, from would-be Netflix rivals to those sporting entirely different business models and aiming to deliver TV programs and movies to every screen in U.S. homes.”

“While it might be premature to claim that there is a second New Wave of western Balkan cinema … it can be said that a large group of talented young filmmakers from the region are making an impact on the international film circuit.” Foreign productions are filming in the region as well, and there is growing cooperation among film professionals in the formerly warring republics.

“Against a full slate of repeats on the big four broadcast networks, the Spanish-language network Univision emerged as the highest-rated channel in the 18-to-49-year-old demographic on Monday night, according to Nielsen data.”

Online screenings at which filmmakers host live chats and answer questions “are the latest effort by the movie industry to try to follow viewers online as the traditional movie business struggles.”

“The eyes of anthropomorphized cars are the headlights, not the windshield. And there’s no exceptions here. Having a cartoon car with the eyes in the windshield is wrong, just wrong. And that includes you, too, Pixar.”