Category: media

“I hate it when they say, ‘Follow me on Twitter,’ as if we’re interested in every little thing they have to say,” one 17-year-old explained. “It’s just an adult thing. Our music teacher kept saying that she would put stuff up for us to follow on Twitter until one day she said, ‘OK, who’s following me on Twitter?’ And no one raised their hand.”

The “original two-and-half-hour cut was barely screened beyond the gala premiere. … Distributors both in and out of the country hacked the movie to more audience-friendly lengths, and the intended Metropolis was lost to time.” Until an enterprising film historian in Buenos Aires made a find.

“Antonio Banderas will star in Pedro Almodóvar’s next film, marking one of the most anticipated film reunions in Spanish cinema more than 20 years after the actor starred in Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down.” The suspense film, which begins shooting this summer, is titled La piel que habito (“The Skin I Live In”).

“Waves between four and 10 metres high crashed into the Promenade des Anglais in Nice and the Croisette in Cannes yesterday afternoon, overturning cars and battering seafront restaurants.” The town’s mayor “said the cost of the damage would run into millions of euros.”

“The National Assn. of Theatre Owners reported Tuesday that the average ticket price in the first quarter was $7.95, up 8% from $7.35 in the same period last year. That’s the largest year-over-year increase since the association started tracking quarterly ticket price data in 2001.”

“There turns out to be an enormous gap between how people say they watch television and how they actually do. … Although it is easier than ever to watch programmes at a time and on a device of one’s choosing, and people expect to be able to do so, nearly all TV is nonetheless watched live on a television set.”

Breakup of the failing CanWest empire will result in a reordering of the country’s media. Some critics aren’t sure the new configuration is viable.

“Figures from January to March 2010 showed people watched, on average, four hours and 18 minutes daily, up from three hours, 56 minutes in 2009. Two-thirds of those hours were spent watching commercial channels, it said.”

“Already, between 10 and 15 million homes — out of 100 million homes in the US — do not subscribe to any kind of cable or satellite TV, usually because none is available in the area. But those numbers could nearly double in the next year for several reasons — but mostly because of money, according to the study. The average monthly cable and satellite bill is $71, according to reports. And costs are going up an average five percent a year.”

“The network’s entertainment division, which once made as much $800 million in a year, is now on the wrong side of the ledger — probably to the tune of about $300 million, according to some analyst projections.”