It turns out Shrek Forever After will not go down as the movie to break the $20 IMAX ticket barrier, because the AMC ticket pricing was a mistake and corrected soon after media reports circulated about the sign of the apocalypse. [More]
movies
People Are Paying $20 To See A Shrek Movie
By 5.21.10
The WSJ reports that for the first time, tickets to a movie have reached the $20 threshold. People are apparently paying $20 per adult ticket to see the IMAX version of “Shrek Forever After.” [More]
7 Ways DVDs Still Dominate Blu-ray
By 5.20.10
I’m an admitted Blu-ray whore and adore the format for its glorious picture and sound, but there are nagging shortcomings of the newfangled HD format that prevent me from prosthelytizing its virtues to all who will listen. [More]
Lawsuit-Happy Producer Tells Boycotter He's A 'Stupid Moron' Whose Kids Hopefully Get Arrested
By 5.19.10
BoingBoing relays an entertaining name-calling tirade from Hurt Locker producer Nicolas Chartier, who responds with a vengeance to a writer who told him he’d boycott his company Voltage Picture’s films because it’s suing people who illegally downloaded the film. [More]
Paramount Recalls Saving Private Ryan Blu-ray, Sending Out Replacements
By 5.13.10
For once, a recall that doesn’t tell you a product was trying to trap your babies in crib rails, sicken your children with lead paint, catch your car on fire or poison you via over-the-counter medicine. Paramount announced the Saving Private Ryan Blu-ray that came out last week has some audio-syncing problems, so the studio issued a recall and will send out replacement discs, High-Def Digest reports. [More]
Are Pay-Per-View Hotel Movies Pointless In 2010?
By 5.12.10
LodgeNet provides pay-per-view movie services to hotels, and the company’s latest financial filing shows nearly a 10% drop in revenue in the first quarter of 2010 compared to the same period a year ago. (And that’s after a 19% drop in revenue from 2008 to 2009.) Travelers seem to be wising up to the high prices of hotel pay-per-view and are resorting to other ways to stay entertained. Now if only our laptops and smartphones could contain a mini-bar compartment. [More]
Studios Want To Send New Blockbusters Straight To Your Living Room
By 5.10.10
Movie theater owners had better hope this 3D thing keeps raging because theater owners have taken a step that might devastate the cineplex scene. The MPAA says the FCC has given it the thumbs up to pretty much put any movies it likes on demand before they’re out on home video. [More]
Netflix Won't Accept My Credit Card Because Of Security Code Glitch
By 5.5.10
Chuck thought he’d get his mom a Mother’s Day gift that would keep on giving — a Netflix subscription. But the site denied his card and he called customer service, which still couldn’t take his money, attributing the denial to a problem with the 3-digit CID code on the back of the card. [More]
The 10 Worst Movie Product Placements
By 4.30.10
PopEater sifted through movie history to name the 10 most blatant examples of pathetic product placement sellouts. [More]
Save Earth, Nothing Else By Buying Avatar At Walmart
By 4.27.10
Anthony spotted this less-than-amazing sale at Walmart for the eco-conscious epic Avatar. Those who held out when the movie was priced $19.96 now get to pay only $19.96. [More]
What To Do When A Company Pulls Your Fair Use Video From YouTube
By 4.26.10
Last week Constantin Films got YouTube to pull almost all the Angry Hitler parody clips by using the website’s Content ID tracking system. The process is automatic, and YouTube immediately takes down a video once it’s been tagged. However, that also means you can use this system in reverse to get your clips back up, at least for as long as you’re in dispute with the copyright holder. Whether you do this or not will depend on how willing you are to risk a potential lawsuit later on. [More]
The Woman In Charge Of Making Sure You Are Not Offended By Movie Posters
By 4.23.10
The NYT takes us behind the scenes of the endless nitpicking that goes on before a movie poster can be shown to the easily-offended public. Meet Marilyn Gordon. She is in charge of a team whose goal is to make sure you, the public, are not offended. [More]
Blu-ray Not Only Here To Stay, But To Dominate
By 4.8.10
Bad news for those of you who were hoping Blu-ray would become a passing fad that vanished like Betamax, LaserDisc and HD DVD. The high-definition format only continues to pick up steam as giant HDTVs continue to infiltrate households and people decide plain ‘ol DVDs are no longer good enough. High-Def Digest, which admittedly has a horse in the race, reports the Blu-ray format is thriving. [More]
The Movie You're Watching Was Co-Written By Ad Men
By 4.6.10
In an age of skyrocketing budgets, movie studios are looking for any edge they can to make sure they cover their costs. According to the New York Times, those fears have led to partnerships with advertisers that develop at the concept stage, and advertisers have a hand in forming the plot of the film. [More]
Postal Service's Saturday Cuts Will Hurt Netflix
By 3.31.10
Ethan Epstein of Slate’s The Big Money draws the natural conclusion that the USPS’s plans to stop Saturday service won’t work out so well for rent-by-mail companies such as Netflix. [More]
Netflix Changes Movie Page Setup, Users Freak Out
By 3.11.10
Have you noticed Netflix’s new movie information page? A lot of other people have. The new, cleaner layout rearranges the user interface a bit, and removes social features from movie pages–you can’t see which of your friends have watched, rated, or reviewed that particular movie. Is this a good move, or a terrible one? [More]
Man Complains About Cellphone Talker At Movie Theater, Gets Stabbed In Neck With Meat Thermometer
By 3.10.10
This might make you think twice about asking someone to shush the next time you’re at the movies. According to police, a man in Lancaster, CA, recently made such a request to some fellow moviegoers, who retaliated by stabbing him in the neck… With a meat thermometer. [More]
Will You Wear A $600 Disney Dress Based On One Of Its Movies? How About In 5 Years?
By 3.8.10
The future of Disney merchandising will hit a lot more demographics than the mostly kid-oriented stuff of today, if Disney has any say over it. Disney has already angered theater chains by shortening the theatrical release window on its new movie-like product Alice in Wonderland, cutting into theaters’ profit models in order to bump up the DVD release date. But CNBC notes that it’s also launching the “most wide-ranging array of consumer products ever” for a Disney flick–and that includes thousand dollar necklaces, nail polish, and dresses that cost as much as $600. [More]
