• 1. Why pay anything? Many theaters offer free family film screenings on weekday mornings.
• 2. Keep an eye out for movie ticket coupons at grocery stores.

  Safeway's "Flicks for Free" promotion offers two free movie passes to shoppers who buy $40 worth of products from participating brands such as Coca-Cola and General Mills in one transaction.

  Perfect for that rowdy Soda & Cereal party you've been planning!

• 3. Seek out a drive-in. If you can find one, you'll be rewarded with $6 tickets.
• 4. Ditch the theater chains. Independents may take an extra few weeks to get the summer blockbusters, but the tickets can be 70% cheaper.
• 5. Sign up for reward programs. Unlike frequent flier miles, theaters aren't depreciating their rewards programs.

  AMC MovieWatcher Rewards offers coupons for a free small popcorn each week, plus two points per ticket purchased. After you've earned 30, you'll get a free ticket. The Regal Crown Club awards one point per $1 spent. Rack up 120 points and redeem them for a free ticket.

• 6. Buy in bulk with your friends. AMC sells blocks of 50 tickets at $6 apiece. The tickets don't expire, but they can't be redeemed until two weeks after a film debuts.
• 7. Don't go on Friday or Saturday night. Instantly halve the cost of tickets by checking out a matinee.
• 8. Skip online reservation sites. Save the $1.50 and spend a few minutes waiting on line.
• 9. Be careful with the concessions. Theaters make their profits on popcorn, so if you need to buy, buy big and share with your friends. Even better, buy your snacks at a convenience store for a fraction of the price.

• 9 Ways to Save on Movie Tickets [Smart Money]

  (Photo: Getty)

Police said the couple used the business to prey on the misfortune of people who came to get cards read.

"Tracy Tan would convince the customers that they had a curse on them, and that she was the only one who could fix their problems," police said in a news release.

"During this 'counseling,' she would charge her victims thousands of dollars for her services and products, which provided them with a false sense of hope."

"2 Naperville-area tarot card readers accused of 'curse' fraud" [Chicago Tribune] (Thanks to Tim, who wrote, "Yeah, the ultimate blame the customer story. Enjoy.")
(Photo: xurble)

Prices will range from $9.95 to $19.95 plus shipping, which puts it in line with retail DVD prices but certainly not any cheaper, especially with shipping fees currently undisclosed. Still, the on-demand aspect brings ordering online that much closer to the retail experience—we wonder why Amazon hasn't considered a similar offering by combining its Unbox content with shrink-wrapped DVDs, especially since Unbox now streams directly to Tivo.

"Cablevision, Popcorn offer instant-gratification DVDs" [Reuters]
(Illustration: Getty)

EA resorted to online distribution in South Korea in part to combat rampant piracy, which BusinessWeek claims drove sales down from 250,000 in 2002 to only 10,000 in 2006. The new online version of FIFA soccer has been raking in an average of $1 million per month, "almost twice what it earned in its peak year of retail sales in 2002," and is harder to pirate.

One analyst has this choice description of the business model:

It is like giving every little girl a Barbie doll that is naked and hoping she will accessorize. While you can still play with a naked Barbie, it is not as much fun as dressing her up.

"EA Leaps into Free Video Games" [BusinessWeek]

What's particularly nice about the service is Last.fm has arranged to pay artists directly every time a song is streamed, and independent artists are treated as equals to those stuck under big labels.

We already have licenses with the various royalty collection societies, but now unsigned artists can put their music on Last.fm and be paid directly for every song played. This helps to level the playing-field—now you can make music, upload it to Last.fm and earn money for each play. If you make music, you can sign up to participate for free.

We're not printing money to pay for this—but the business model is simple enough: we are paying artists and labels a share of advertising revenue from the website.

20th Century Fox Walt Disney Lionsgate Warner Bros Sony     - MGM/UA     - Columbia TriStar New Line & Fine Line		Paramount NBC Universal

So the future is tilting more and more toward Sony's Blu-ray format, it seems. Honestly, though, will anyone be buying movies on discs by the time this is all settled?

[8:14pm 1/4/08: Updated to include more studios pointed out in the comments below.]

In that case, reviewers got the word out to unwary parents fairly well—pretty much every review hinted that viewers should make sure they understood the content before seeing the movie. But shouldn't studios be more honest in representing the content of their films?

In this case, those lines from Riley made the movie seem funnier than it was, the president's line made the dramatic stakes seem higher than they were, and the scenes at the Lincoln Memorial made the historical conspiracy seem more ingenious than it was (historical clues hidden right under our noses!). I can say with confidence that some of those elements played a part in my wanting to see the movie.
Rearranging scenes in the trailer is one thing. But what about this business of putting stuff in the trailer — a *lot* of stuff — that isn't in the movie at all? If they can get away with "National Treasure"-style misrepresentation, what's to stop other moviemakers from putting special effects, witty lines, exotic locales and hot-looking actors into *their* trailers, just to get us to go to a movie that doesn't have any of those things?

• Awesome Flight Attendants: Fuse Southwest's spirit, Virgin Atlantic's British accent, and Singapore Airlines' uniforms, and you have chipper, upbeat flight attendants that can make the most daunting flights feel welcoming.
• Decent In-Flight Entertainment: Take a page from JetBlue and Virgin America and cram a TV into the back of every seat. If on-the-go entertainment can sate a cadre of screaming kids chucked in a minivan, why not provide the same artificial calm to stressed travelers?
• Delicious Food: Seriously airlines, $5 for animal crackers? Every airline fails in-flight food service, but the long-haul carriers come the closest to getting it right.
• Luxuriously Large Seats: Airlines bring a trench warfare mindset to the fight for seat inches. Thankfully, airplane makers listened to consumers and are designing wider planes to give passengers extra-wide, extra-comfortable seats.
• Friendly Websites: Fuse power with simplicity. Airline websites should empower consumers with most of the same tools available to customer service representatives.
• Valuable Frequent Flier Programs: Stop neutering your frequent flier programs! Once designed to engender customer loyalty, the constant depreciation of frequent flier programs now reminds consumers that they come second to the corporate ledger.
• Amazing Customer Service: The dream airline is one we wouldn't write about, except to praise. One that defers to its passengers, anticipates their needs, and honors its commitments.

Flight of fancy: Fly the airline of your dreams [The USA Today]
(Photo: Skrewtape)

This also opens the possibility that movie-download services from companies like Netflix and Blockbuster may be able to offer a way to purchase and create your own DVD hard copy. However, it's likely that in order to do this, you'd need to purchase special software and/or equipment and/or supplies—and since "studios are not likely to discount DVDs," we're curious to see whether they'll come up with competitive price structures (compared to Amazon, for instance) or choke off yet another possible revenue stream.

"Walgreen sees movie-burning DVD kiosks at stores" [Reuters]
(Photo: randomthoughts)

The idea, Ms. Cabral says, is to "reach people at teachable moments in their lives" by finding multiple ways to get educational messaging out in the public space.

"Too many kids are graduating high school, for example, not knowing what a budget is, how to balance a checkbook, what a credit card is, what an interest rate is, or how compound interest works... If the treasury tries to do this by itself, it will not be successful, but if you do this in partnership with all the other segments of society, you're likely to be very successful and in the end the public and the entire country is better off."

"Financial education from soap operas?" [Marketplace] (thanks to Granolaheadesq!)

RELATED
mymoney.gov [U.S. Treasury]
(Photo: Getty)

The husband and wife team behind the "musical on a mission" have cited the books "Nickel and Dimed" and "Selling Women Short" as sources, but it might just be better to read the books, based on reactions to the show, which include descriptions like "ham-handed satire" and "bland and witless."

As far as effective agitprop goes, it looks like South Park still holds the award for most entertaining spin on the pleasures and dangers of the super-mega-corporation. Or, as one review puts it, "Bad art never helped anyone's cause."

Resources:
"Selling Women Short" at Amazon
"Nickel and Dimed" at Amazon
walmartopia.com

"Attention, Shoppers: Anguish in Aisle 4" [New York Times]
"Creators Of 'Walmartopia' Discuss Show's Success" [ny1.com (video)]
"Walmartopia" [Theatermania.com]

(Photo: Carol Rosegg)

PricewaterhouseCooperss released the data in its annual "Global Entertainment and Media Outlook" report covering 2007 through 2011, which outlines expected growth in the entertainment, film, music, and video game industries, among others.

The information not only reflects the gaming industry's strong trajectory but also serves as a painful reminder that the music industry continues to suffer.

Report: Video game spending to surpass music spending this year [Ars Technica]
(Photo: cryptolife)

Valenti was a special assistant and confidant to President Lyndon Johnson when he was lured to Hollywood in 1966 by movie moguls Lew Wasserman and Arthur Krim. A lifelong film lover, he once cited the 1966 film ''A Man for All Seasons'' as his all-time favorite.

When he took over as president of the Motion Picture Association of America, Valenti was caught between Hollywood's outdated system of self-censorship and the liberal cultural explosion taking place in America.

Valenti abolished the industry's restrictive Hays code, which prohibited explicit violence and frank treatment of sex, and in 1968 oversaw creation of today's letter-based ratings system.

''While I believe that every director, studio has the right to make the movies they want to make, everybody else has a right not to watch it,'' Valenti told The Associated Press shortly before his retirement in 2004. ''All we do is give advance cautionary warnings and say this is what we think is in this movie.''

In the years since Valenti designed the system very little about it has changed. A new rating, PG-13, was added in the mid-80s. "X" was changed to NC-17 in the 90s. An NC-17 rating all but ensures a film will not receive wide distribution, a fact that has been the focus of much of the debate surrounding the system.

Valenti was 85. —MEGHANN MARCO

Film Lobbyist Valenti Dies At 85 [NYT]

Since September, United has loosened its restrictions on what types of movies can be shown on jets equipped with overhead screens, which all passengers can see. When the airline played "Little Miss Sunshine" in the fall, an R movie with some ear-curling rants by Alan Arkin, "We got a tremendous amount of positive feedback," Kovick said.

"We've found out that what customers want to see is not just the blockbusters but also good films they haven't had a chance to see yet," he said. "We're not afraid to look at some movies that our competitors wouldn't."

How many times have you had a conversation with someone where you 've announced, "Lady in the Water was the worst movie I have ever seen!" only to be met with confused stares and had to explain, "Oh I didn't mean to see it, I saw it on an airplane. It was an accident." —MEGHANN MARCO

Airlines add edgier movies, TV options [Denver Post]
(Photo: JohnKit)

"Do you blog, have lots of firends at your MySpace page, and love music?" asked the ad at entertainmentcareers.net.

Epic Records, a subsidiary of Sony BMG, "is looking for skilled, motivated interns to promote artists on social networking sites like MySpace, Purevolume, Facebook and others."

The ad has since been pulled after getting sniped by "What's Online" in the New York Times on Feb. 18th, 2005, but we've got it here, thanks to the magic of Google cache.

In return for selling out and buying in, you get college credit and a tick point for your resume, which should be very useful should you be seeking a job in the future requiring little to no integrity, like marketing. Perhaps we should send this posting to our winner of today's most pathetic barter?