Category: Movies

The Twitter Effect: Not to blame for sinking bad Hollywood movies?

Whenever I talk to teenagers, they laugh uproariously at the all-too-popular media fancy that they’re tweeting away, voicing their firmly held likes and dislikes in 140 characters. Not so, they always say. Why use Twitter when you can simply text your friends, as kids do nearly 24 hours a day? In fact, when I spent a day with a bunch of high-schoolers who made up this year’s Summer Movie Posse, they said they didn’t know anyone their age who used Twitter…

https://latimesblogs.latimes.com/the_big_picture/2010/07/the-twitter-effect-not-to-blame-for-bad-hollywood-movies.html

Inception proves good sci-fi movies can make money. More please!

This past weekend was an interesting study in box-office expectations and Hollywood conventional wisdom. A fantasy called The Sorcerer’s Apprentice-an empty, brain-shutting-down, CGI-heavy spectacle based on an existing title, more or less aimed at kids but sort of advertised to attract older viewers as well (and ultimately appealing to neither)-bombed loudly and badly at the box office, earning only around $24 million since opening last Wednesday.

By contrast, director Christopher Nolan’s Inception-a daring, challenging, cerebral science fiction thriller with an original premise, ties to no previously existing brands and a solidly adult approach-earned just over $60 million over the weekend, hitting the high end of nearly every industry estimate for the film…

https://blastr.com/2010/07/inception-proves-good-sci.php

Obama to Sign Financial Reform — Including Movie Futures Trading Ban — on Wednesday

President Obama is now set to sign the Wall Street reform legislation on Wednesday. The legislation passed by Congress last week includes a ban on trading of movie box office futures…

https://www.thewrap.com/movies/column-post/obama-sign-financial-reform-including-movie-futures-trading-ban-wednesday-19352

Despite big crew, ‘Kid’ was like shooting student movie

…The re-imagining of the 1984 action comedy “The Karate Kid,” opening Friday via Columbia Pictures. Shooting in China, director Harald Zwart (“Pink Panther 2”) had a crew of 560 people, almost none of whom spoke English, but managed to shoot as if he were making a small film…

…”When we went to those temples where we had to go up with a gondola that holds two people at a time, it would have taken a day to transport the whole crew up there. So we just went, ‘Let’s go handheld.’ ”

Jackie and Will pitched in carrying equipment, Zwart said, and “it was almost like doing a student movie — just with these huge movie stars. And that was just amazing to me.”…

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/features/columns/filmmaker-focus/e3icd5f9626039b502c48c32a9aff1529d3

Screenwriters find work is dwindling

…This week the Writers Guild of America, West reported that while earnings for screenwriters have bounced back to pre-strike levels, there is a lot less work going around: employment has fallen 11% in the last three years, with 226 fewer screenwriters working in 2009 than 2006, the year before the 100-day walkout and the lowest level in at least six years…

https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ct-writers-20100703,0,1718766.story

2010 Mid Year Report: Specialty Box Office On a Roll

…At this point last year, the top five specialty releases – “Sunshine Cleaning,” “Away We Go,” “The Class,” “The Brothers Bloom” and “Two Lovers” – had grossed roughly $26.5 million combined. This year, the top five – “The Ghost Writer,” “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo,” “Babies,” “The Last Station” and “City Island” – has taken in $45.2 million…

https://www.indiewire.com/article/2010_mid_year_report_specialty_box_office_winners_and_losers/

Feds shut down nine websites in movie piracy crackdown

The sites had made pirated versions of ‘Toy Story 3’ and ‘Iron Man 2’ available within hours of their release in theaters. The crackdown is part of a renewed effort to curb film and TV piracy online.

Adding some swashbuckling to its tough talk on fighting piracy, the federal government on Wednesday seized several websites that had offered downloads of pirated movies such as “Toy Story 3” and “Iron Man 2” within hours of their release in theaters.

Federal authorities announced that they had seized domain names from nine websites engaged in the “criminal theft of American movies and television.” The websites include TVShack.net, PlanetMoviez.com, ThePirateCity.org and Ninjavideo.net. Combined, the sites drew 6.7 million visitors a month, authorities said…

https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ct-piracy-20100701,0,2871905.story