Movie theaters face a lot of problems but competition from premium VOD probably won’t be one of them, Moody’s Investors Service says in an industry report today. The debt rating company says that studios probably will continue to wait more than four months before offering new films to cable and satellite VOD “because it is in their economic interest to do so.”…
https://www.deadline.com/2011/07/report-premium-vod-likely-to-fizzle-as-movie-industry-regroups/
Motion designer Patrick Clair tells the story of Stuxnet, “a Microsoft Windows computer worm discovered in July 2010 that targets industrial software and equipment.” Unlike many viruses and worms, Stuxnet was designed with a specific target – Siemens Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems – and left any other systems unharmed. Stuxnet could then increase pressure in nuclear reactors and turn off oil pipelines, all the while showing monitors everything was fine…
https://flowingdata.com/2011/06/28/anatomy-of-a-computer-virus-explained/
Walt Disney Studios plans to cut as much as 5% of its worldwide workforce as early as next week, according to people with knowledge of the situation who requested anonymity because they had not been authorized to discuss the matter.
The movie studio would eliminate up to 250 jobs from its staff of about 5,000 people globally, the sources said. Several Disney insiders say the bulk of the cuts will be in Burbank…
Has the 3-D boom already gone bust? It’s starting to look that way – at least for American moviegoers – even as Hollywood prepares to release a glut of the gimmicky pictures.
“Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” sold just 47 percent of its North American tickets in 3-D. Ripples of fear spread across Hollywood last week after “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,” which cost Walt Disney Studios an estimated $400 million to make and market, did poor 3-D business in North America. While event movies have typically done 60 percent of their business in 3-D, “Stranger Tides” sold just 47 percent in 3-D. “The American consumer is rejecting 3-D,” Richard Greenfield, an analyst at the financial services company BTIG, wrote of the “Stranger Tides” results.
One movie does not make a trend, but the Memorial Day weekend did not give studio chiefs much comfort in the 3-D department. “Kung Fu Panda 2,” a Paramount Pictures release of a DreamWorks Animation film, sold $53.8 million in tickets from Thursday to Sunday, a soft total, and 3-D was 45 percent of the business, according to Paramount.
Consumer rebellion over high 3-D ticket prices plays a role, and the novelty of putting on the funny glasses is wearing off, analysts say…
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/30/business/media/30panda.html?_r=1&ref=arts
A St. Louis federal judge has ruled that “The Hangover 2” can be released on schedule this week despite a tattoo artist’s lawsuit over the inclusion of a Mike Tyson-style tattoo on the face of Ed Helms’ character.
But the tattoo artist is claiming victory because the judge said he had a strong likelihood of ultimately winning his copyright claim against Warner Bros.
Pete Salsich, an attorney for artist S. Victor Whitmill, said U.S. District Court Judge Catherine D. Perry declined his motion to prevent the release of the film this weekend because innocent third parties — theater owners — would be harmed.
But Salsich said the judge agreed in open court that the copyright claim was strong, saying, “Most of the defendant’s arguments against this are just silly. Of course tattoos can be copyrighted.”…
https://www.thewrap.com/movies/article/hangover-2-can-be-released-tyson-tattoo-judge-says-27658
Next month marks the 30th anniversary of “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and we’ll be looking back on that sparkling film with special features. Monday, an exclusive excerpt from “The True Adventures of the World’s Greatest Stuntman,” the just-published memoir by Vic Armstrong, the stunt coordinator and stunt double who Martin Scorsese has called “a legend in the film world.” Armstrong has portrayed James Bond, Superman and Flash Gordon – at least when the action was underway – but his signature screen success came while wearing a fedora in three Indiana Jones films…
The 1902 short by Georges Melies underwent a vivid restoration just in time for Cannes…
https://theenvelope.latimes.com/la-et-cannes-moon-20110520,0,7135018.story
No major cable operator hates paying broadcasters for the right to retransmit their free over-the-air programming more than Cablevision. Last year, it allowed ABC and Fox stations to go dark on Cablevision systems while trying to hammer out payment deals. So it’s interesting to see the three-point plan that Cablevision submitted to the FCC today to ensure that subscribers aren’t deprived from seeing the Oscars or the World Series while companies work out their differences.
First, it wants regulators to prevent broadcasters from packaging their services in a way that would require pay TV services to carry cable channels they don’t want in order to land programming from a must-have network such as ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC. Second, if the cable operator can’t strike a deal with a network’s local station, then Cablevision wants the freedom to cut deals that would enable it to import signals from out-of-market network affiliates. And, third, Cablevision wants to be able to publicize the fees that broadcasters want….
Now if we consumers could get only the programming we want…
https://www.deadline.com/2011/05/cablevision-tells-fcc-let-us-carry-just-the-tv-networks-we-want/
…Of all entertainment sectors, only social networking sites have retained their value in the eyes of consumers over the past year.
In contrast, customers are turning to the movie and television industries for entertainment less and less frequently…
Speaking at the EG8 technology forum in Paris, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said that TV, music and books are the next “media experiences” that will be revolutionized by social media. “I hope we can play a part in enabling those new companies to get built, and companies that are out there producing this great content to become more social,”…
https://www.lostremote.com/2011/05/25/facebooks-zuckerberg-tv-is-next-social-frontier/