Category: media

“Italian movies have suffered an 8% drop in grosses at the home box office to a 24% market share worth $136 million, reversing an upward trend that had seen local pics reap solid returns with Italo auds over the past three years.” In the same period, “Hollywood has upped its share of the Italian movie market by more than 7% during the first half of this year to a hefty 65% of grosses worth a whopping $292 million.”

“The prize for converts will be a pilgrimage to a holy site of their chosen religion — Mecca for Muslims, the Vatican for Christians, Jerusalem for Jews and Tibet for Buddhists. But religious authorities in Muslim but secular Turkey are not amused by the twist on the popular reality game show format and the Religious Affairs Directorate is refusing to provide an imam for the show.”

Little people are calling on the Federal Communications Commission to ban the use of the word “midget” on broadcast TV.

“This is the great promise of YouTube: Your video can soar in popularity through sheer word-of mouth–or rather, click-of-mouth–until eventually people are making T-shirts about it. No one ever said this was going to happen for everyone. So, what are your chances of achieving YouTube stardom?”

“The scoops, and subsequent red-framed ‘exclusives’ about Jackson’s tangled personal and professional affairs, have brought not only massive attention to the site but also a journalistic reassessment as well. The question is: Did TMZ just get lucky with its Jackson coverage — a right-place, right-time lightning strike — or has TMZ built a smarter new-media organization that could teach the rest of the pack how to get it done?”

Will anyone be fighting over any of today’s crop of movie songs 60 years from now? “Lose Yourself” — Eminem’s Best Original Song winner of 2002 — should be so lucky.

“Universal has acquired the movie rights to Asteroids, the bleeping, blooping 1979 video game in which crude line drawings were used to represent rocket ships and gigantic space rocks. Before the motion picture industry sinks millions of dollars into the project, we’ll save it the trouble by imagining how Asteroids would be made into a film by directors like …” (Be sure to check out the reader comments.)

“New York City has exhausted its budget for tax incentives for film and TV productions as of Tuesday, city officials announced…. ‘New York City’s “Made in NY” tax credit for qualified film and television production — the only one of its kind administered by a city in the U.S. — has reached its full allocation of $192.5 million and funds are no longer available for new applications,’ the NYC Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting said.”

“[S]upport for public service campaigns is usually stronger during economic downturns because media companies often prefer to run classy-looking, altruistic ads to fill space and time rather than sell that inventory to dodgy marketers whose ads may be cheesy, misleading or deceptive.” In 2008, particularly in the fourth quarter, the number of public service ads rose significantly over 2007 — and the trend is continuing.

“In the series [on the Bravo cable network], 13 contestants will compete for a gallery exhibition, a cash prize and a sponsored national tour. The artists will create works in the fields of sculpture, painting, photography, industrial design and more. Their completed works will be judged by a panel of art world figures including gallerists, collectors, curators, critics and fellow artists. The finalists’ work will be featured in a nationwide museum tour.”