Category: media

“Hollywood, slower than almost any other industry to market to baby boomers, may be getting a glimpse of its graying future. While the percentage of moviegoers in the older population remains relatively small, the actual number of older moviegoers is growing explosively — up 67 percent since 1995.”

“Florists, caterers, limo drivers, valet parking attendants, hair stylists and other vendors and service providers to Hollywood are reporting a strong uptick in business, providing clear signs that the Oscar economy is staging a comeback.”

“It’s no secret that awards for best acting often go to those who do the most acting – thus the Oscar love for stars who play crazy, sick, disabled, foreign, or trashy. … What’s rarely acknowledged is how such a grandiose performance would be unbearable without a straight man to balance things out, to maintain a baseline of identifiable reality.”

“Among her many singular contributions, the femme fatale enabled a cut-the-crap directness between men and women that’s virtually extinct in contemporary American cinema, not only in romantic comedies but in dramas as well, both of which thrive on miscommunication between the sexes. … By the early 1950s, the femme fatale all but disappeared from the big screen, displaced by the politely swooning housewives of Douglas Sirk and, later, empowered ass-kickers like Faye Dunaway in Bonnie and Clyde.”

“The theatrical market statistics report, which the MPAA conducts annually, found that though ticket sales in the U.S. and Canada remained unchanged at $10.6 billion, international revenue jumped 13% between 2010 and 2009.”

“During the past five years technology has enabled rookie directors to hone their skills via FinalCut Pro, digital-video cameras and other state-of-the-art effects tools from a young age, prompting budget-cautious studios to salivate over what they can put on screen for a price.”

An upcoming exhibit at Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills “features two films, Endless Idaho and My Own Private River, created by Franco using dailies and other footage that Van Sant shot for his 1991 movie My Own Private Idaho.“

“America is the only major democracy in the West to rely almost entirely on commercial media to comprehensively inform its citizens.” And studies show that the general public in other industrialized democracies (with much better-funded and widely-watched public broadcasters) is far more informed on public issues. Should the US develop a BBC-style system? (Could anyone get a license fee through Congress?)

“The golden age of television, often said to be the 70s or 80s, is really happening now.”

“CBS Corp. has cut a deal with Netflix to give its customers access to classic TV including Star Trek, Cheers, Twin Peaks and Family Ties … along with the various other movies and television product Netflix offers for streaming, at prices that start at $7.99 per month.”