In Technorati Media’s “State of the Blogosphere 2011” report it is noted that the number one influencer of bloggers, whether professionals or hobbyists, is other blogs. Over 60% of all bloggers surveyed say they look to other blogs to find topics and subjects to write about. All the copy-cat posts on the same news story or subject have led some to criticize the blogosphere as nothing more than an echo chamber of people all writing about the same ideas in the same way.
Such an effect was demonstrated over the past two days with a news story about the decline of movie ticket prices. I first saw the story posted yesterday on The Wrap followed shortly after by one published on the Hollywood Reporter‘s website. They stated the National Association of Theatre Owners had announced the average ticket price for the third quarter of 2011 had dropped to USD $7.94. That’s lower than the second quarter’s record setting USD $8.06, but higher than the USD $7.86 price of 2011′s first quarter.
The publications “attributed” the price drop to having fewer 3D releases in the quarter, in comparison to the higher number of titles released in the second quarter. Both stories were short and practically carbon copies of one another leading me to believe they must have been citing a press release of some sort.
I waited for NATO’s press release to arrive via email for confirmation of the news, though nothing ever arrived. So, I went to the press release section of the organizations website, but found nothing had been published since October 14th.
Read More »
Popularity: 1% [?]
“Release the Kraken,” Liam Neeson’s Zeus commands in the WB’s “Clash of the Titans” re-make, but Hollywood should be more concerned that the film itself might release a backlash against the 3D format. There are several indicators that point to a perfect storm brewing against what has come to be regarded as the cinema industry’s digital savior.
Amongst Hollywood filmmakers there has been unusually vociferous attacks against Warner Bros.’ decision to go for a rushed eight-week conversion of “Clash of the Titans” to 3D. The conversion is a true test for Prime Focus whose technology is unproven on such large scale projects. Fresh off the global success of “Avatar” James Cameron weighed in against “slapdash conversion” in a recent BBC article that re-hashed Mike Fleming’s more in-depth Deadline article, where Cameron said that after the success of his award-winning epic:
“Now, you’ve got people quickly converting movies from 2D to 3D, which is not what we did. They’re expecting the same result, when in fact they will probably work against the adoption of 3D because they’ll be putting out an inferior product.”
Micheal Bay threw more fuel on the fire in a Deadline post and even appeared to take a direct swipe at Prime Focus, an Indian based post-production company that has been doing the bulk of the work on “Clash of the Titans’” conversion from 2D-to-3D :
“I’m used to having the A-team working on my films, and I’m going to hand it over to the D-team, have it shipped to India and hope for the best? This conversion process is always going to be inferior to shooting in real 3D. Studios might be willing to sacrifice the look and use the gimmick to make $3 more a ticket, but I’m not. “Avatar” took four years. You can’t just sh*t out a 3D movie. I’m saying, the jury is still out.”
Read More »
Popularity: 49% [?]
Sooner or later it was bound to happen. After all, 3D movies have topped the North American box office for nine out of 13 weeks this year. And 3D films like “Avatar” and “Alice In Wonderland” have generated record breaking grosses, far beyond industry expectations. With more and more moviegoers showing up for 3D content, it should come as no surprise that at some point the public, not to mention the media, was going to start noticing the extra USD $3 they were forced to pay for the latest multi-dimensional blockbuster. In fact, after this past week the industry may begin to face some consumer backlash at the 3D surcharge, especially since a handful of large U.S. theatre chains raised 3D and 3D Imax ticket prices as much as 26% in some locations.
We’ll get to a few reasons as to why exhibitors might be raising ticket prices during an economic recession and what it might mean for the industry as a whole before the end of this post, but first lets go over the history of this recent increase.
Lauren A.E. Shuker and Ethan Smith of the Wall Street Journal were the first to report the price hikes on Wednesday, causing a rash of similar news stories to surface by Friday. The original source of the news about price increases came from a research report released on Wednesday by Richard Greenfield, a media analyst for BTIG, an institutional brokerage and financial services company.
Mr. Greenfield surveyed 10 random theatres in major cities throughout the U.S. and found that on average 2D adult ticket prices rose 4.1% (USD $0.42), 3D non-Imax adult ticket prices increased 8.3% (USD $1.13) and 3D Imax adult tickets were up 9.9% (USD $1.50). Most of the new prices, which varied by theatre took affect on Friday, just in time for the release of Dreamworks Animation’s “How To Train Your Dragon”. Read More »
Popularity: 41% [?]
In Technorati Media’s “State of the Blogosphere 2011” report it is noted that the number one influencer of bloggers, whether professionals or hobbyists, is other blogs. Over 60% of all bloggers surveyed say they look to other blogs to find topics and subjects to write about. All the copy-cat posts on the same news story or subject have led some to criticize the blogosphere as nothing more than an echo chamber of people all writing about the same ideas in the same way.
Entries RSS
