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

BIG HOLLYWOOD WIN: Congressional Ban On Movie Futures Trading Becomes Reality

The MPAA interim CEO/president Bob Pisano weighed in this morning about the late night congressional vote to leave a ban on box office futures in the financial reform bill…

https://www.deadline.com/2010/06/big-hollywood-win-congressional-ban-on-movie-futures-trading-becoming-a-reality/

First review says Inception is too smart to succeed

…Inception … will be called many things, starting with James Bond Meets The Matrix. You can feel the vibe of Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner in it, and Nolan’s own Memento and The Dark Knight. But Inception glows with a blue-flame intensity all its own. Nolan creates a dream world that he wants us to fill with our own secrets. I can’t think of a better goal for any filmmaker. Of course, trusting the intelligence of the audience can cost Nolan at the box office…

https://scifiwire.com/2010/06/first-review-says-incepti.php

The best secret Nazis on the moon movie trailer you’ll ever see

…Iron Sky is on the forefront of a new wave of indie movies, where the filmmakers are in direct contact with the audience even before the movie is out, using the power of communities in both creating the movie and also to a degree in funding it…

https://scifiwire.com/2010/06/the-best-secret-nazis-on.php

The End Of Viral

…Asked what the current industry “threshold” is for a corporate video to be deemed “viral,” Feed Co.’s Josh Warner responded that it might be time to retire the term altogether.

“Viral is a myth,” he told an attendee at OMMA Social in New York. “I’m over viral completely and utterly.”

Instead of planning for a viral result, Warner said he tells Feed Co.’s clients to “dig deep to get quality engagements.”

“You can go out and pound views through a [media] buy,” he said, adding that ultimately that will just get you a paid media campaign. He even suggested that a popular industry viral video chart should be re-branded as a “paid media chart,” because most of the campaigns on top of it are actually paid media campaigns, not naturally occurring viral upticks…

https://www.mediapost.com/blogs/raw/?p=2968

3D’s diminishing box office returns

‘Toy Story’ is third opener to sell fewer tix in the format

The 3D crunch is hitting the domestic summer box office, as this weekend’s boffo opener “Toy Story 3” marks the third consecutive 3D opening — and 3D toon — to earn a lower percentage of its gross from 3D venues than previous such offerings…

The beginning of the end?

https://www.variety.com/article/VR1118020899.html?categoryid=13&cs=1