Category: media

“Though initially lauded as a way to bring those accustomed to watching movies at home back to theaters, there’s some evidence that the ticket premium charged for 3-D films has started to alienate the audience.”

“The entire phenomenon of director’s cuts and definitive director’s cuts and restored cuts and expanded cuts and alternate cuts has gotten out of hand and needs to stop. Recuts are irksome. They’re hit-and-miss, and they’re fueled by such idiosyncratic agendas that it’s hard to state that they’re always a bad or a good idea.”

“Sixty-two percent of viewers across the country interviewed in a poll conducted for the nation’s largest cable company, Comcast Corp., said they have used time-shifting technology. Six in 10 people said they owned a digital video recorder.”

“Introduced in the spring of last year, 4Shbab, which means ‘for youth’ in Arabic, broadcasts music videos, variety shows … news and even a reality program called Your Voice Is Heard – which might as well be called ‘Who Wants to be an Islamic Pop Star?'”

“At 68 years old, Archie is suddenly looking awfully spry. His new zest for life is the work of new management at Archie Comics. The team is aggressively trying to take the tried, true and previously lethargic Archie family of characters …and transform them into global brands in comics, film, apparel and more.”

“The median age for viewers at those networks and CBS is now 51. The broadcasters’ audience has aged at twice the rate of the general population during the past two decades, according to a new report. It’s a quiet trend with a real impact on the way they do business.”

“Online streaming might have been considered more a necessary annoyance than an actual business with revenue and profit. But with the stroke of a pen, Netflix has upped the ante so significantly that movie studios have no doubt begun to ratchet up expectations for licensing fees they can charge going forward.”

“The third instalment of the Walt Disney/Pixar franchise raked in $920 million US in global sales as of Friday, outpacing Paramount/DreamWork’s Shrek 2, which took in $919.8 million US in 2004 when it came out.”

“While the salary for a lead has been $150,000 to $200,000 per episode in recent years, most deals for stars of new series were between $75,000 and $125,000. “No one broke the bank on anything this year,” says one former studio head.”

Matt Zoller Seitz: ” It could let us experience movie storytelling – and movies, period – in a new way. It might even give rise to a new art form, one that’s related to its ancestor, cinema, but that takes off in new directions and does things we can’t even imagine yet.”