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by Michael SellersIt’s very hectic here at NATPE and very informative. The MovieBank team has been attending seminars and having some very interesting meetings with people and internet studios who are interesting to our digital development strategies at MovieBank.Here are links to some of the companies we’ve been meeting with and talking to. We will continue to be alert to all possibilities and will update shortly.VuzeBroadband EnterprisesLividMediaEnticentPermission TVDigital FountainInteractive TV Alliance
by Michael D. SellersI’m at NATPE (National Association of Television Program Executives) with a small team from MovieBank and Quantum in Las Vegas for the next two days. This is a very useful and important conference which this year, more than in the past when it has been more focused on traditional television programming for the major studios, is focused on new media and internet studios as it relates to content production and dissemination. There are seminars and presentations going on all day every day and so we’re trying to be as alert as we can to all the possibilities. It’s a terrific opportunity to keep climbing up the learning curve as we get to the final stages of our pre-launch period for WeEarth. I will blog as best I can ‘on the fly’ and add more when I get back to Los Angeles on Friday.In the meantime, here is a link to the NATPE OFFICIAL SITE.(posted by iPhone)
This just in from Scott Mansfield at Monterey Media:Hi Michael –We just received word on Wal-mart’s new release planner and Eye of the Dolphin will be on New release until at least February 11th. This is good newsScottScott MansfieldManaging Partnermonterey media inc. / monterey videoMDS COMMENT: When a DVD comes out WalMart carries it as a “new release” for at least one week and sometimes longer. This amounts to the equivalent of an extension in a theatrical run. After the “New Release” phase the title will normally remain on the shelves but will not be displayed as prominently. This is modest good news and indicates that it’s selling well enough to justify occupying the “New Release” shelf space.
by Michael Sellers
Well, like just about everybody else, I’ve been following the netbuzz about Cloverfield and wondering whether this would launch the film (think “300″) or kill it (“Snakes on a Plane”). So I lined up with wife and a couple of 17 year old guinea pigs in tow and went to see it yesterday – DLP version at a packed house theater in beautiful downtown Burbank.More…..I was thinking about it not just as a film-goer or a film-maker, but also in a more entrepreneurial way, trying to be alert to what this new approach to film narrative could mean for MovieBank and Quantum as the studios and the indies try to grapple with this.First, some visceral notes. By now there’s a ton of talk about the vertigo-inducing chaky camera. For the record, the two 17 year olds quit eating their popcorn about 10 minutes into the movie and my wife says she would have walked out except it was cold outside and she was in short sleeves, so she soldiered on rather than walking home. Also, a few people walked out and at the end of the show a gaggle of AMC employees and customers were gathered around somebody who had either passed out, thrown up, or both. Read the rest of this entry »
by Michael D. Sellers A month or so ago I blogged that the studios were excited and all of us involved with MovieBank and Quantum should keep an eye on “Cloverfield”, the JJ Abrams (“Lost”) produced $30M monster flick which boasts no stars and is shot as if what the audience is seeing is raw footage from a dead teen’s video cam. It’s had huge internet buzz. Well, it opened yesterday. Here’s the result, in a report from iFilm:
Paramount’s 2008 is off to a spectacular start. The J.J. Abrams-produced Cloverfield has delivered a monster opening day of an estimated $18.25M, and it will easily coast to both the All-Time January 3-Day record and the All-Time 4-Day MLK weekend record. The Friday number is a tough call because there’s no clear answer about where Paramount will add Thursday post-midnight sneak preview business. That means that there’s a slightly larger margin of error in my Early Friday Estimate than usual.There will almost certainly be a dip in business Friday-to-Saturday, maybe as much as 15%. Even with that sort of “front-loading,” this $25M-budgeted internet-driven phenomenon will likely reach a staggering 3-day of $48M, easily becoming the best January opening ever. By Monday night, fueled by the MLK school holiday, Cloverfield should set a new record for the long weekend with an estimated $52M.Paramount isn’t the only studio celebrating this weekend. Fox’s 27 Dresses, starring Katherine Heigl (Grey’s Anatomy, Knocked Up), has far exceeded industry expectations by “walking down the aisle” with $8.65M on opening day, which should translate to a $26M 3-day and a 4-day long weekend of approximately $30.7M. That will make this tepidly-reviewed romantic comedy the all-time 7th-biggest January opening and the all-time #4 MLK weekend 4-day opening.ALL-TIME TOP 10 MARTIN LUTHER KING 4-DAY WEEKENDS1. Cloverfield – $52M (estimate)2. Black Hawk Down – $33.6M3. Along Came Polly – $32.4M4. 27 Dresses – $30.7M (estimate)5. Coach Carter – $29.1M6. Save the Last Dance – $27.5M7. Stomp the Yard – $25.8M8. Snow Dogs – $23.7M9. Kangaroo Jack – $21.8M10. Racing Stripes – $18.8MALL-TIME TOP 10 JANUARY 3-DAY WEEKENDS1. Cloverfield – $48M (estimate)2. Star Wars – Special Edition – $35.9M3. Black Hawk Down – $28.6M4. Big Momma’s House 2 – $27.73M5. Along Came Polly – $27.72M6. Underworld: Evolution – $26.85M7. 27 Dresses – $26M (estimate)8. Coach Carter – $24.18M9. White Noise – $24.11M10. Save the Last Dance – $23.4MAfter the 2 new major releases, The Bucket List (Warner Bros) is 3rd, both for the day, with $4.08M, and, for the 4-day, with an expected $16.96M. Juno (Fox Searchlight) continues to excel during awards season. The quirky little comedy added another $3.03M on Friday. And it appears to be headed for an $11.66M 4-day, putting the Oscar-worthy film’s cume at over $86M by Tuesday morning. Sony holdover First Sunday rounds out the Friday top 5 with $2.33M. The Ice Cube/Tracey Morgan comedy should reach $9.35M for the 4-day holiday weekend.The new company Overture has disappointed with its first release Mad Money. With a cast that includes Oscar winner Diane Keaton, Oscar nominee Queen Latifah and the increasingly-creepy Katie Holmes, the caper/heist comedy managed only $2.25M on Friday, and it’ll stumble to a an estimated $8.2M 4-day, only #7 for the period.
by Michael D. SellersIf you’ve been reading here for awhile, you know that a longrange major studios type project of MovieBank and Quantum (i.e. one that’s not going to happen right away) is “Moscow Rules” based on experiences I had in Moscow in 1985-86. Some months back I came across a French language web page which had a nice summation of the history of Moscow Station and in particular had an interesting page on 1985-86. I submitted a comment on that page and recently the author, Cyril Beligtas, who was alert and got back in touch with me. Turns out he’s a Russian emigre law student at the Sorbonne who has been researching this for a few years and probably at this point is one of the world’s top authorities. He’s agreed to provide me with good quality copies of the photos and other stuff from his site, and also help in other ways. The other day he sent me a pic of myself that I hadn’t seen before — a KGB photo taken just as Consular Officer Stuart Parker was given authorization to take me out of Lubyanka and back to the Embassy. Here’s the picture — what a babyfaced kid I was!
Anyway, here is a link to the English auto-translated version of the website: Moscow Station History 1985-86. Don’t be put off by the “fractured English” …. it’s an auto-translation so it’s not perfect but it’s good enough so that you can understand it.And here is the link to the original French language version of the page. There is also a photo gallery of Moscow Rules photos over on the right column of this blog.
by Michael D. Sellers Here it is. We knew this was coming. It’s unclear yet whether this is a breakthrough opportunity or a threat to us here at MovieBAnk, but whatever it is — it’s news and it gives a big boost to internet downloads as a concept whose time has come. Apple’s entry, and its deals with all the major studios, is very signifcant. We’ll be analyzing and have some comments soon. Hang on …. By Eliot Van Buskirk 01.15.08 | 3:30 PM WiredApple CEO Steve Jobs announces the new iTunes movie rental service.Apple is about to turn the movie rentals business on its ear.The new iTunes movie rentals service, announced Tuesday by Apple CEO Steve Jobs during his Macworld Expo keynote, is powered by deals with all the major film studios and stands to reinvent the way people rent and watch movies, analysts say.”They really nailed it,” Jupiter Research Vice President and Research Director Michael Gartenberg said of Apple’s move into movie rentals. “This is going to be extremely disruptive, doing for movies what the iTunes music store did for music.”The new service will let anyone with iTunes or an iPod rent DVD-quality movies with stereo sound for $3 ($4 for new releases). HD movies with 5.1-channel sound cost a dollar more. The “completely reinvented” Apple TV — sporting an upgraded user interface at a lower price — allows viewers to place orders from their couches. Unlike Amazon Unbox, which doesn’t allow movies to play until they are totally downloaded (generally taking a matter of hours), Apple’s new service allows movies to begin just seconds after an order is placed.Gartenberg said he sees Apple’s online movie distribution plan as a likely success due to the ease and flexibility of Apple’s content/hardware ecosystem, as well as Jobs’ ability to strike deals with the movie industry where other manufacturers have failed.Jobs changed the music business forever when he unveiled the iTunes Store in 2003, and he hopes to do the same for movies. This is a massive market: The Digital Entertainment Group says rentals and sales of DVD discs in the United States totaled $23.4 billion in 2007. As movie rentals and sales migrate online, the stakes are high. Someone will win big, and that winner could be Apple, despite some stiff competition.Apple says it plans to add more than 1,000 films by next month; the company will likely continue scrambling to increase its catalog. Apple’s ability to add films quickly will be crucial to its success in this area, because when people decide they want to see something, they’ll search for it where they know it is available — not where it might possibly be in stock.If you’re a consumer, are you thinking about buying HD-DVD or Blu-ray, or are you thinking of going through iTunes, renting the stuff you want and linking with the rest of the iTunes ecosystem?” Gartenberg said. ” Over the longer term, this is going to be very important.”With iTunes movie rentals, customers can view rented movies on their iPod, iPhone, computer or television, and the service can be used without a computer, since Apple TV can now download videos on its own. Once a title has been downloaded, the renter has up to 30 days to watch it. Movies expire 24 hours after being played for the first time.In order for consumers to add another box to their entertainment systems — even a box as nicely designed as the upgraded Apple TV – they need one that combines the convenience of on-demand cable with the breadth of Netflix. Jobs, who has run out of charm as far as certain record labels are concerned, will need to keep the movie studios on board long enough for the Apple TV to catch on. Certainly, 1,000 titles from all the major studios — including 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros., Paramount, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Lionsgate and New Line Cinema — is a great start.Even though the studios have granted Apple the wide, deep licensing it needs to succeed, Jobs won’t be able to dominate online movies the way he has music. The iTunes music store launched into a vacuum; no other e-tailer had previously succeeded in signing deals with all the major labels. But these days, movies are distributed online not only by Amazon Unbox, Netflix and Movielink, but by massive cable companies and retail giants.
by Michael Sellers, MovieBankIf you haven’t heard of “Juno” yet — you will soon. The studios got lucky with this one and indies like MovieBank and Quantum need to take note. It’s a wonderful indie comedy-drama directed by Jason Reitman and released by Fox Searchlight on December 7. It had wonderful buzz from festivals and reviews going into its release, and it did $8,000 plus per screen when it opened. Since then it has grown steadily and it’ now at $70M and going strong. It’s hard to say where it will end up but it shows signs of being the “Holy Grail”…maybe not “Big Fat Greek Wedding” but close. I saw it on Sunday and given all the indie universe hype, I was expecting to be a little disappointed. I wasn’t. Aside from being entertaining, edgy/funny, and very humanistic … it also has a nice freshness to it, a feeling that it’s not a movie you’ve seen before. (By contrast, I felt that WAITRESS, the other indie hit of 2007, had a completely ‘been there, done that’ feel to it. And WAITRESS didn’t do anywhere near the numbers that Juno is doing.) Anyway — I do recommend that you go see Juno if you can. And even if you don’t — remember the name Ellen Page. She’s definitely going to be a star.Obviously when I watch something like this I’m not just enjoying the film….I’m trying to learn something. I’ve also been studying the marketing campaign and I’m going to reprint an aritcle here that reprises the marketing and comments on it. I think the marketing was good but at the end of the day the film sells itself. It just has that “it” factor, that spark that makes people love it. Alchemy. But the marketing could have ruined it and it didn’t do that — and it probably helped.Movie Marketing Madness: JunoPosted on December 5th, 2007 by ChrisI honestly don’t know how to start this column without diving into the meat of the column itself. I could start with a description – a high school girl (Ellen Page) gets pregnant after having sex with her best guy friend (Michael Cera) and decides to give the baby to a couple looking to adopt – but that would only get me, well, that far.If I start talking about how the movie has been critically lauded since, roughly, the day it first hit the festival circuit then I’m going to wind up sounding like I’m repeating myself, which I don’t want to do.So I’ll just say let’s look at how Fox Searchlight is trying to sell a movie that’s been widely regarded for many months now as one of the year’s best, a serious contender for awards season and generally just a good, solid movie featuring some truly original talent.
The PostersThe first teaser poster that was released didn’t show much while at the same time showing the main driving force of the movie. It simply contained a striped shirt under which was a swollen, pregnant belly. The movie’s title treatment appeared stretched across that shirt along with a copy point reminder that the movie was “Due this holiday season.”As a teaser this poster worked really well. The audience was appropriately teased as to the movie’s plot and told when they could expect the movie. By the time the poster first appeared the critical buzz was already in full swing so this poster served to reinforce the movie’s brand identity in the minds of that audience while also selling it as a dry comedy to the unfamiliar public.The later theatrical poster I did not think worked as well as the teaser. The striped orange theme was retained but this time was shunted to the background. In the foreground now stood Page and Cera, each in their signature outfits from the movie. Page was looking directly at the audience, as is often the case on movie posters. So that was fine. But Cera’s image was obviously lifted from the film, with him looking off, kind of down and to the side.That kind of thing might seem like a minor point to make about an otherwise just-fine poster, but it’s that kind of graphical disconnect that can – and did – take me right out of my experience of looking at the poster.
TrailersFor domestic audiences the movie only had one real trailer. But what a trailer it was.By the time it debuted in August I was already familiar with the movie and its general plot. I had read a number of stories about the sharp, intelligent, funny writing and the rest of the critical adoration for the flick. So I was prepared to be underwhelmed.I wasn’t.The trailer takes the viewer through the movie’s story more or less chronologically. It starts off with Juno finding out she’s pregnant (with Rainn Wilson from “The Office” offering up some of the year’s most memorable movie quotes) and then goes from there. She tells her parents, she meets the couple hoping to adopt the baby, all with little character moments from the supporting cast thrown in for good measure. If this trailer doesn’t charm you with the way these characters are portrayed I don’t know what to do for you. The dialogue combined with completely effortless acting from Jennifer Garner, J.K. Simmons and Allison Janney is just great.The trailer is paced perfectly to allow you to enjoy these moments before moving on to the next one. By highlighting the dialogue and the performances and making them the vessel through which the story is told I think the studio will effectively be able to snare audiences that are looking for low-key quality movies.Here is the link to the trailer on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0SKf0K3bxgOnlineI’ll start out this review of the Juno official website in the same way that I did last week for the site for The Savages. Being that it comes from Fox Searchlight the site’s bottom half is loaded with links to videos featuring the movie’s cast and crew, links to various blogs and MySpace pages as well as to news stories and blog posts about the movie. Read the rest of this entry »
