`Princess and the Frog' hops to No. 1 with $25M

Hello all,

Take note towards the end of this article .... With nearly three weeks left in the year, 2009 domestic revenues already have set a new record of $9.79 billion, surpassing the previous high of $9.68 billion in 2007,......... etc



Jean-Luc Martin

By DAVID GERMAIN, AP Movie Writer David Germain,

LOS ANGELES – "The Princess and the Frog" earned a big wet kiss from family audiences as the animated musical leaped to No. 1 with $25 million in its first weekend of nationwide release, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The Disney musical is the studio's first hand-drawn animated tale in five years, a contrast to the computer-animated films that now dominate the cartoon world.

"I've always believed that when you start with great storytelling, then the format aside doesn't mean anything," said Chuck Viane, head of distribution for Disney.

The movie also is a return to Disney's reinvention of classic fairy tales, offering a 1920s New Orleans twist on the Brothers Grimm story "The Frog Prince," following the adventures of a young woman turned into a frog by a kiss from an amphibian.

Despite its No. 1 finish, "The Princess and the Frog" drew modest crowds compared to many big animated tales, which can open with two or three times as much business. Those films typically open during the busy summer season, though, and Disney is counting on the long shelf life that many films manage during the holidays.

"The Princess and the Frog" took over at No. 1 from the inspiring sports tale "The Blind Side," which slipped to second-place with $15.5 million. Released by Warner Bros., "The Blind Side" raised its total to $150.2 million.

A surprise box-office sensation, "The Blind Side" is on its way to a domestic total of about $230 million, said Dan Fellman, Warner Bros. head of distribution.

"The Blind Side" chronicles the real-life story of Baltimore Ravens rookie lineman Michael Oher, who had been a homeless teen taken in by a wealthy couple (Sandra Bullock and Tim McGraw).

"It's the heartland that's pulling the strings of the movie," Fellman said. "While it's performing well everywhere, the response in smaller marketplaces and Christian communities has been outstanding."

The film opened the same weekend as "The Twilight Saga: New Moon," but with only a fraction of that movie's blockbuster business. Audience word-of-mouth has kept crowds coming for "The Blind Side," while "New Moon" has waned to the No. 4 spot with an $8 million weekend, raising its domestic haul to $267.4 million.

Warner Bros. also had the No. 3 film with a $9.1 million debut for another inspirational sports drama, Clint Eastwood's Nelson Mandela saga "Invictus," featuring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon. Freeman stars as the South African leader, who uses an underdog World Cup run by the country's rugby team to help unite the racially divided nation.

Though it had a modest start, "Invictus" debuted in the range of Eastwood's sober drama's "Mystic River" and "Million Dollar Baby" in their first weekends of wide release. Eastwood's films draw older audiences and tend to have a long life at the box office, Fellman said.

"The Lord of the Rings" creator Peter Jackson had a strong opening in limited release for "The Lovely Bones," which pulled in $116,000 in three theaters.

The Paramount Pictures release features Saoirse Ronan, Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz and Stanley Tucci in an adaptation of Alice Sebold's best-seller about a murdered girl looking back on her grieving family from the afterlife.

The Weinstein Co. drama "A Single Man" also started well with $216,328 in nine theaters. The film stars Colin Firth as a gay academic in the early 1960s who's planning to end his life amid grief over his lover's death.

Hollywood is poised for a big finish to its record box-office year, with James Cameron's science-fiction epic "Avatar" opening Friday, followed Christmas week by the family comedy "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel," Robert Downey Jr.'s action tale "Sherlock Holmes" and the nationwide expansion of George Clooney's comedy "Up in the Air."

With nearly three weeks left in the year, 2009 domestic revenues already have set a new record of $9.79 billion, surpassing the previous high of $9.68 billion in 2007, according to Paul Dergarabedian, Hollywood.com box-office analyst.

Domestic grosses should top $10 billion for the first time within the next 10 days or so. Dergarabedian estimates that Hollywood will finish the year with $10.5 billion domestically.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "The Princess and the Frog," $25 million.

2. "The Blind Side," $15.5 million.

3. "Invictus," $9.1 million.

4. "The Twilight Saga: New Moon," $8 million.

5. "Disney's a Christmas Carol," $6.9 million.

6. "Brothers," $5 million.

7. "2012," $4.4 million.

8. "Old Dogs," $4.39 million.

9. "Armored," $3.5 million.

10. "Ninja Assassin," $2.7 million.

New AFM buyers swarm, sellers drop off - More acquisitions execs to sift through less product

Hello all,

Personally I have always felt that there was/is to much sub-standard product in the market which drives the market value down for all products. Change is happening and we are all trying to keep up with that change.

Have a great week

Jean-Luc Martin

Line-Producer / UPM



The upcoming American Film Market could see a surprising spike in buyers, while sales stands and the number of films screening are on a downward trend.

In the run-up to the market, AFM managing director Jonathan Wolf reports that the number of accreditation requests for new buyer companies has doubled. "More than 80 new companies in the last three months have asked to come to the AFM for the first time," he reports. "We've never had that many companies asking to be accredited as new buyers. And it's from all over -- from more than 30 countries."

Normally, AFM sees about 40 new buying companies. (Last year, individual buyers reached 1,527 from about 671 companies.)

Wolf suspects that many of these acquisitions execs will be seeking product for TV and homevid platforms. "It's less likely for people to pop up on the scene for theatrical than homevideo."

AFM puts buyers through a strict vetting process before they're granted access to the mart. "If a company wants to get accredited as a buyer, it has to name IFTA member companies that it's done business with," the market topper ensures. "Then we confirm that."

Wolf also didn't expect the number of films screening to be as high as it is this year -- 445. "Next year, I think we'll see that number at 410 or 420," he predicts. When the market's supply and demand was in sync, Wolf says, AFM unspooled about 400 films.

On the sales side, AFM has seen a reduction of about 29 companies as of Oct. 20. That's a drop of 7% over last year. The dip was anticipated, says Wolf. "There was a bubble in filmmaking, and we're now contracting back to equilibrium.

"We were not excited about the AFM growth," Wolf admits, noting that it meant pricing went soft. "We are not going to build a business model around a bigger AFM. It was like a life raft -- someone had to be pushed out."

So this year, it means that the sales-floor creep into Le Merigot hotel will subside a tad. Market stands will be spread across Le Merigot's first floor and half of the second, in addition to the main AFM space at the Loews hotel. At the height of the boom years, in 2004, the Loews filled up and three full floors of Le Merigot were needed for sales stands.

"We're still above those levels of five to six years ago," Wolf adds. "The thing about the AFM is that we've never had huge tectonic shifts in one year. It's always been gradual."

Paranormal movie succeeds with abnormal online marketing

Hello,
I am sure everyone has heard about the marketing behind Paranormal ...  Every project needs to find its strategy. 
Jean-Luc Martin



Cnet
I once asked a happy couple I knew why they loved horror movies. "It's exciting to be scared," the wife explained. So I suggested three large henchmen would be arriving shortly with all sorts of farming implements in order to slice them both into small, but even pieces. They didn't seem to find that exciting at all.

Still, people seem so able to divorce their fantasies from their realities that one should not be agog that "Paranormal Activity," a movie whose sole purpose seems to be to part your nervous system from the solar system, is a success.

However, one might offer a little agogness to the socially networked marketing methods that helped it along its way.



You see, the makers of this movie, which CNN reports cost around $11,000 to produce, didn't bother making something you might describe as a conventional trailer. Instead, they made a little clip largely about how defibrillators were inadequate during test screenings in college towns.

The initial victims seem to have enjoyed leaping out of their vintage Levi's so much that they began to Twitter about the experience. And that gave the movie studio some online marketing ideas.

Originally, the movie fell into the lap of Dreamworks (part of Paramount Pictures) after its success at the 2008 Slamdance Festival (which is, I believe, an event where a lot of people get drunk and frighten each other with fire extinguishers).

After seeing the startling amount of word-of-mouth buzz the movie was getting, it seems that Paramount's first inclination was to pat writer/director Oren Peli on his head and bottom and reshoot it with, you know, famous and expensive people. However, Steven Spielberg suggested this might not be necessary since the movie was already resonating with early viewers. Hence, after a little editing and the addition of a new and, guess what, scarier ending, they organized some midnight college town screenings.

Once the college town tweeters began to champion its cause, Paramount launched ParanormalMovie.com, a cheery little site that encouraged thrill-seekers to threaten their local movie theater owners with phantasms, limb severance, and immolation if they did not agree to screen "Paranormal Activity".

OK, I might be slightly exaggerating about the limb severance and immolation. But, with the same kind of dexterity employed by British Prime Minster Tony Blair when, upon the death of Princess Diana, he described her as "the People's Princess," this lovely little film became the People's Movie.

ParanormalMovie.com claims that it received more than 1 million demands from moviegoers, which is why "Paranormal Activity" is, according to the site, "the first-ever movie release demanded by you." (This is obvious nonsense as I and several of my friends and former amorous consorts demanded another idiotic Nicolas Cage "searching for treasure" movie and it appeared almost before we had finished speaking.)

Still, CNN reported that the online buzz created such a haunting atmosphere that "Paranormal Activity" frightened $7.1 million out of the public's pockets last weekend, while only gracing some 200 theaters.

So a movie that enjoys innovations such as inviting you to tweet your scream appears set to swamp your screens with its happy happenings. The Paranormal folks are equal opportunity social networkers, of course. You can also express your screams on Facebook at Facebook.com/paranormalacitivity.

Paramount's Josh Greenstein offered CNN some fun marketing speak to describe the online groundswell that was, well, very cheap: "When people saw the movie, they loved it so much and there is such a slow build of terror that you have to sit through to experience the full effect of the movie, so we changed the marketing techniques in advertising and online to make it more experiential."

Should you choose to partake of this slow build of terror, please be warned of the effect it might have on you. As Facebook screamer Phil Osher declared: "had to crawl into bed with my friend."

If the potential of this behavior doesn't put you off, please let me know how it was. As I would rather remove my body hair with a chisel than watch this no doubt highly enjoyable movie.

'Paranormal Activity' has not-so-normal rollout -- Studio is expanding horror pic while 'Saw VI' hits theaters

Hollywood Reporter
Paramount appears committed to an abnormally aggressive expansion of its suddenly hot "Paranormal Activity."

Betting heavily on fan fervor for the microbudgeted ghost story, the studio is expected to send "Paranormal Activity" into a boxoffice buzz saw on Oct. 23. That's when Lionsgate will release its horror sequel "Saw VI," and Par will broaden "Paranormal Activity" to 2,000 playdates.

Promoted largely via viral marketing, "Paranormal Activity" posted an otherworldly $7.9 million from 160 playdates last weekend. The inexpensive Slamdance film fest acquisition totes a $9.1 million cume including prior midnight-only engagements.

Par will expand the film to roughly 800 engagements on Friday and appears on track for the teen millions this weekend. But the distributor hopes to get "Paranormal Activity" more than 2,000 runs this month, and the early word has Par feverishly seeking exhib commitments for a week from Friday.

The situation has some recalling the out-of-nowhere theatrical surge of another Little Horror Pic That Could -- 1999's "The Blair Witch Project."

Whether Par can mimic Artisan Entertainment's $140 million-plus domestic success with "Blair Witch" remains to be seen. But as with that film, there is a wide array of opinion on the ideal distribution strategy for "Paranormal Activity."

Par is playing its cards close to the vest. But the studio appears to be splitting the baby by avoiding an immediate expansion into wide release, while committing to as wide an expansion as possible in two weeks.

An immediate wide release might have prevented the inevitable backlash from critics and others, though to date reviews have been largely positive. It also would avoid an overlap with the "Saw" sequel, whose prerelease tracking suggests the Lionsgate pic will bow as big as its franchise predecessors.

But even the coming weekend features an unfortunate audience overlap with Sony Screen Gems' horror thriller "The Stepfather," though "Paranormal Activity" carries an R rating and "Stepfather" is rated PG-13. The session will likely be topped by Warner Bros.' PG-rated fantasy "Where the Wild Things Are," and Overture also will unspool Jamie Foxx starrer "Law Abiding Citizen" in wide release.

"Everybody has an opinion on what they should be doing," a distribution exec at a rival studio said Tuesday. "But there's no question that it's a nice problem to have for Paramount."

The future of focus group testing ----- Biometric feedback measures viewers' physical reactions to TV shows

Hello all ... this is focus groups on steroids!

Jean-Luc Martin

Traditional methods of evaluating a pilot or movie trailer have relied on focus groups expressing opinions by chatting, filling out questionnaires, pushing buttons or adjusting dials. But that’s all so 20th century.

Today, the options include a few of the space-age variety, like determining not just what people say they think, but how they subconsciously feel.

Innerscope Research was birthed just three years ago, but the company has already found various entertainment and advertising clients for its biometric research, which employs eye-tracking technology as well as EKG monitors to gauge subconscious response along four key criteria: heart rate, breathing, moisture levels (or sweat) and movement.

"It’s very hard for people to accurately reflect their internal world," says Innerscope CEO Carl Marci, noting that 75% of brain processing "is below conscious awareness."

A neuroscientist by training, Marci co-founded the Boston-based company with Brian Levine in 2006. Yet in that short time they have notched a number of entertainment clients looking to augment traditional research, including Fox, NBC and Discovery, along with a growing number of advertisers.

According to Marci, self-reporting is limited -- good at measuring extremes, but not so great in the middle. Biometrics thus provides a diagnostic tool, able to pinpoint physical reactions to specific moments that the viewer might not even realize.

Eager to see how this worked, I squeezed into the very slimming test vest at the Warner Bros. Media Lab, a state-of-the-art facility that the studio launched in 2008. The process included connecting three EKG nodes to my bare torso and a device to my hand to identify sweat levels. (The aforementioned nodes are good for testing, by the way, but bad for chest hair.)

As I watched programming on a computer screen, the researchers could monitor my reactions -- including eye movement -- in real time from an adjoining room. Moreover, this approach lets them test not just TV but online, print and radio, which is part of a multiplatform study that Innerscope is currently mounting.

The readout looked like a lot of squiggly lines to me, but Marci could see spikes that came at specific moments within the ads and programming snippets (including the "Dexter" trailer) viewed. Over the course of a longer screening -- say, a pilot -- the vest would also capture whether the test subject became fidgety, or when their gaze wandered.

Inasmuch as producers are still leery about the idea of bored tourists in Las Vegas deciding the fate of their pilots, Warner Bros. stressed that they were analyzing areas such as product integration and advertising interaction within programs, not specific beats in the shows themselves. Marci, however, noted that others have employed Innerscope’s testing to gather such data, which depending on the genre can provide "very specific examples and directions on how to change it."

"It’s a fine line you walk when you start to bring new technologies and new methods into the creative process," says Bruce K. Rosenblum, Warner Bros.’ exec VP of media research. "The purpose of what we’re trying to do is create a toolbox."

Innerscope’s findings have included the revelation that people exhibit emotional responses as they fast-forward through commercial pods, meaning that ads are still registering to those viewing via TiVo or another digital video recorder. The company can also pinpoint whether a movie trailer, say, is generating the sort of "emotional engagement" that marketers hope to achieve.

As "Total Recall"-ish as this might sound, the explosion of new avenues for consuming media has placed the need for accurate ratings -- and a more granular grasp of audience responses -- among the more pressing issues facing the industry. Those rapidly shifting dynamics require that research explore more elaborate (and potentially more intrusive) approaches in an effort to keep pace.

"This allows our clients to see what their audience is seeing and feeling, not what they say they’re seeing and feeling," Marci explains.

Marci did note that my biometric chart didn’t reveal the kind of wide fluctuations seen in some test subjects, suggesting a possible numbing based on the amount of programming that I regularly view.

Even so, after all these years of trying to externalize and articulate feelings about watching television, it’s nice to know that something -- hell, anything -- can still rock my "internal world."

Indies still looking for Internet equation - Filmmakers consider sites like Netflix, iTunes

Hello Producers,

I am working on several projects that require specific marketing strategies and I have been keeping track of all the usual trends and updates of which I try to share with others. Of course some are proprietary but others are common knowledge and require hours of work if not days and months to implement. BUT .. distribution is the reason for everything because that means money back to the producers and/or eyeballs. I found this article which is quite honestly common knowledge but still good information .. take a read and have a wonderful weekend.

Jean-Luc Martin

Producer, Line Producer, UPM

If only more indie filmmakers could sell as many Internet downloads as "Helvetica," the future of indie distribution might look more promising. Gary Hustwit's documentary about the ubiquitous font has taken in a six-figure sum from its showing on iTunes at $9.99 per download.

But while more success stories are starting to be seen, the indie download business is still having problems gaining traction. The power of the Internet was supposed to level the playing field on which independent filmmakers and studios compete for audiences. So what happened?

A decade after the dot-com boom, when the Web promised to make any piece of content globally accessible to any interested viewer, a dominant online destination for indie film has failed to emerge -- though many have tried.

Earlier this year, San Francisco-based Caachi quietly shut down, and world cinema purveyor Jaman let go most of its staff. Two of the first sites to try to connect cinephiles with streaming and downloadable indie films, GreenCine and Intertainer, have since exited that business.

And while Hulu.com, a site geared to mainstream TV and movie content, is reaching more than six million unique visitors a month, SnagFilms, a site dedicated to independent documentaries like "The Future of Food," is barely reaching 100,000, according to the Internet traffic-monitoring service Compete.com.

One thing the Internet has clearly changed, observes distribution consultant Adam Chapnick, is access to an audience. "But having easy access to the global audience doesn't get anyone to see your movie," he says. A solid marketing strategy, whether traditional or digital, is still essential.

But distributor Freyr Thor, of Vanguard Cinema says, "Just because these specialty indie platforms haven't succeeded, that doesn't mean one cannot succeed. There's a patience factor and a money factor that have been missing."

One of the newest contenders is the Auteurs, a Palo Alto-based site featuring films by Luis Bunuel, Roman Polanski, and Wong Kar-wai, launched in late 2008.

Other indie film sites that haven't succeeded "were not social enough," says Efe Cakarel, Auteurs CEO. "Our members not only can watch films online, but also discuss the latest films with their friends on Facebook and Twitter and meet others who share their taste in film."

But distributors, producers and indie directors today say that most of their Internet revenues comes from two places: the DVD rental service Netflix, which offers an online streaming service to its members, and Apple's iTunes. A few mention YouTube, Amazon.com and Massachusetts-based EZTakes as other online outlets with good revenue potential -- with the emphasis on "potential."

Brooklyn-based helmer Hustwit says that iTunes has generated the lion's share of digital income for his 2007 doc "Helvetica," which has been on iTunes' top-10 list of most popular docs for more than a year. Eric Lemasters, senior vice president of digital at E1Entertainment (formerly Koch Entertainment), says that tech-oriented docs like "Welcome to Macintosh" have done well on iTunes, but that iTunes and Netflix are close competitors. Vanguard, which handles digital distribution of titles like "Factory Girl" and "Raising Daylight," generates more money on a per-title basis from Netflix than from iTunes, Thor says.

Filmmakers complain that independent films can be difficult to find on iTunes. "Their navigation is just bad," helmer Joe Swanberg says. And Thor says that Apple has rejected all of the subtitled foreign films he has submitted for inclusion. (The service currently carries fewer than 30 foreign films.)

But while Apple offers a fairly straightforward 70/30 revenue split with most rights-holders (Apple keeps 30% of rentals and sales), Netflix's streaming terms are different. The site pays a flat annual fee to make a film available on its "Watch Instantly" streaming service, whether five people or five thousand choose to view it over that period.

Distributors say the annual fee for online streaming varies, depending on how popular Netflix predicts a title will be; part of that calculus is based on how many of Netflix's 10 million members have added the title to the list of DVDs they plan to rent. But the annual license fee, says Thor, has in general been rising over the three years his company has been working with Netflix.

Swanberg, director of the 2009 microbudget drama "Alexander the Last," says that San Francisco distributor Heretic Films had been offering some of his earlier films to Caachi -- but both the distributor and Caachi went out of business.

Swanberg says that although his own films aren't yet available on Netflix's streaming service, it's his preferred method of watching movies at home. He uses a set-top box from Roku to watch the digitally delivered content on his television.

YouTube is considering adding paid movie rentals to its ad-supported site, but documentary filmmaker Hunter Weeks says that wasn't offered to him as an option when "10 Yards," his 2008 doc about fantasy football leagues, started streaming on the site in its entirety last month. He expects to make "a couple grand" from YouTube's "partner program," which shares some advertising revenue with content creators. Weeks' doc quickly racked up 100,000 views after it was featured on YouTube's homepage.

Producer Ted Hope ("Adventureland," "The Savages") anticipates independent filmmakers who are willing to tinker with traditional release windows "absolutely could gain an advantage" in the online world. "I think we'll start to see more folks coming out of Sundance and other festivals trying new models, to make their films available in different digital formats when they're at the height of their media attention, rather than nine or 10 months later," he says.

Director Cory McAbee, who is showing his sci-fi Western "Stingray Sam" at festivals and limited-run engagements, says he hasn't felt resistance from festivals or other venues, despite the fact he is simultaneously selling the film in digital form on his website.

Vanguard's Thor is hopeful that "a true independent digital cinematheque" will emerge at some point. But "you need three things to make it happen: a long-term vision, an easy-to-use interface, and money," he says.

And those three stars have not yet aligned.

Internet influences film audiences - Study breaks down filmgoing habits

Hello All,

Below you will find a must read! Enjoy!

Jean-Luc


If marketing mavens want to reach younger moviegoers when promoting their films, they need to embrace social networks or risk being ignored.

That was the overall message of Moviegoers 2010, the first report on moviegoing habits produced by Stradella Road, the entertainment marketing firm founded by former New Line Web guru Gordon Paddison that hopes to assist film marketers in determining how to reach consumers over the next decade.

The study found that teens and twentysomethings are especially focused on being able to customize entertainment and are quick to share their opinions with others digitally -- especially as usage of the Internet, mobile devices and DVRs has become more widespread. An estimated 94% of all moviegoers are now online.

The younger demo is especially key in spreading word of mouth, with 73% of moviegoers surveyed having profiles on social networking sites.

It's a point that's been made a number of times as sites like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter have grown in popularity. But the study is one of the few to break down specific age groups and how they consume movies and the marketing messages leading up to their releases.

    * Teens (age 13-17) are "all about sharing information and group thinking," the report said, with social networking a critical communication tool. They go to movies in large groups and are heavily influenced by their friends' opinions. They also prefer texting over having phone conversations. More than 70% also surf the Web and text while watching TV, and 67% of them socialize with friends online.

    * Twentysomethings (age 18-29) "are digital natives that have grown up with technology" and are more likely to go online for movie info and to share what they think about movies via social networks (58% socialize with friends online). They use the Internet to find any kind of information and place a high value on online consumer reviews and sites that aggregate reviews.

    * Auds in their 30s are time-constrained, with parenthood dominating their decisions. They split their moviegoing trips between their children and their spouses. They "spend the highest number of hours online and rep the highest use of technology (Internet, broadband access, DVR ownership and cell phone)." They also view the most recorded TV and skip the most ads via their DVRs.

    * Those in their 40s embrace traditional media like magazines and newspapers, with moviegoing dominated by special family occasions and influenced by teens.

    * And fiftysomethings avoid crowds, prefer matinees and "skip ads because they think there are too many commercials on TV."

Given the increased influence of websites on which consumers buy movie tickets, AOL, Facebook, Fandango, Google, Microsoft, MovieTickets.com and Yahoo were enlisted to supply data for the study.

Study was conducted by surveying 1,547 moderate-to-heavy moviegoers over eight days in July, with an additional 2,305 questioned by phone or online during July. Nielsen NRG managed the research fieldwork.

Although many moviegoers are going online to get info on upcoming releases, TV still dominates as the leading tool to generate awareness for films, with 73% of those surveyed saying they first heard about a movie by watching a 30-second spot. In-theater trailers were close behind with 70%, followed by word of mouth (46%) and the Internet (44%).

Most films are now considered critic-proof, especially among the younger set, with 84% of moviegoers saying, "When they make up their mind to see a movie, it doesn't matter what the critics say about it."

It may depend on who's giving them the thumbs up or down, however.

Of those surveyed, 75% said they trust a friend's opinion more than a movie critic; 80% said they were more likely to see a movie after hearing a positive review from other moviegoers, while only 67% said a thumbs up from a professional critic had the same weight.

Yet only 40% said negative reviews from their peers would dissuade them from seeing a movie, while an even lower 28% would be kept from theaters because of a critic's opinion, meaning that at the end of the day, negative word of mouth doesn't have as much influence.

While 62% now get their reviews online, only auds over 50 rely on newspaper reviews.

The results hardly give Hollywood anything to worry about. The box office is so far up this year and looks like it will be strong for years to come despite the current recession, the study said.

That is mainly because 79% of those questioned said, "Going to the movies is a good escape from everyday life."

Europe distributes first feature via satellite - 'La vida loca' to be digitally delivered to theaters

 It is happening ... and technology will keep changing and growing!

   - side note ... what is up with the Hollywood Reporters data management for articles... what a mess!

 Jean-Luc Martin


Christian Poveda’s documentary "La vida loca" will become one of the first feature films commercially distributed in Europe by satellite when it opens in France on Sept. 30. It’s a sign that digital distribution is finally open for business in Europe, according to Arts Alliance Media topper Howard Kiedaisch. "It’s here; it’s real."

Arts Alliance and Arqiva Satellite & Media handled the technical side of delivering "La vida loca" for Gallic distributor Cine Classics.

Digital cinema rollout in Europe has been slow compared with the U.S., with the region only now approaching 2,000 screens. Digital delivery has lagged even more. So far, exhibitors have been happy to receive digital prints on hard drives and to get alternative content via consumer satellite systems. Professional satellite systems capable of handling encrypted digital feature prints are less common, limiting commercial distribution opportunities. "People are hesitant to put in the equipment until they see there is the possibility of delivery," Kiedaisch says.

Talk of using broadband has also been a distraction. "It’s very difficult, particularly in Europe, to guarantee that you’re going to have a thick broadband pipe into a cinema.

"La vida loca" was beamed to 19 theaters belonging to the CGR Cinemas multiplex chain as a JPEG 2000 digital cinema package.

Exploring street gangs in El Salvador, the pic may sound like alt content, but it has considerable local buzz following the helmer’s murder in El Salvador this month. The size of the booking and CGR’s d-cinema commitment made satellite distribution an attractive option.

Online ad spending to grow to 15% 2010 to see increase from 13%

I feel that online marketing is the 45% -60% of the future for all film makers and that includes the studios. This is an opportunity .. "no kidding" for indie film makers. Small article i found interesting.

Jean-Luc Martin


In another sign that marketers are devoting more of their ad dollars to the Internet, online advertising is expected to account for 15% of global ad spending in 2010, up from 13% this year, according to media buying agency GroupM.

In a new study covering 36 countries, the firm says it expects nearly $65 billion to be spent globally in online ads next year. Online ads made up 3.1% of global ad buys in 2001.

In the U.S., digital ads will grab 17% of total spending next year, or $24.5 billion, compared to 15.4% this year and 13.9% in 2008.

Many of those dollars will come in the form of search, video and mobile ads, while display ads will decline as supply has run ahead of demand. Display ads will account for 34% of online marketing buys in 2010, while search will rep 43%.

"Today, search remains a key driver of digital marketing as advertisers compete to capture a disproportionate share that search behavior represents," said Rob Norman, CEO of GroupM Interaction.

Spending on mobile ads will reach 6%, or $3.3 billion, up from $2.4 billion in 2008.

Movie Studios See a Threat in Growth of Redbox

Hello All,

Before going to Blockbuster I always pass by Vons and check out the small little kiosk and see what their selections. Rent a movie for 1.09 is a bargain. and what I like is the customer service from the customer. Several times folks have let others go in front of them because they could not find the movie they wanted to rent and I have done the same. People actually talk to each other and give recommendations.

Next will be a jump drive insertion into a machine.

Have a great day

Jean-Luc Martin
Producer, Line-Producer, UPM


A Redbox kiosk at a Walgreens in Villa Park, Ill. The company and its rivals have 19 percent of the DVD rental market.

LOS ANGELES — In 1982, just as the VHS tape was taking off, a “Star Wars” buff named Mitch Lowe had a radical idea. What about building a vending machine that could rent movies? He called his invention Video Droid.
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Related
Digital Domain: When the Price Is Right, the Future Can Wait (July 12, 2009)
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Peter Wynn Thompson for The New York Times

Mitch Lowe, the president of Redbox. The company started with 12 machines in 2004 and expects to have 22,000 by December.
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Damian Dovarganes/Associated Press

Redbox says it processes about 80 transactions a second on Friday nights, and low overhead allows a fee of $1 a day, and tax.

It failed. People were not yet comfortable using credit cards for casual transactions, the tapes broke easily and the technology involved with manipulating their bulk proved too expensive.

But Mr. Lowe did not give up, and his moment seems to have finally come.

Mr. Lowe, 56, is now the president of Redbox, a fast-growing company in Illinois that rents movies for $1 a day via kiosks. By December, there will be 22,000 Redbox machines in spots like supermarkets, Wal-Mart Stores and fast-food restaurants.

Redbox’s growth — it started with 12 kiosks in 2004 and now processes about 80 transactions a second on Friday nights — has Hollywood’s blood boiling. Furious about a potential cannibalization of DVD sales and a broader price devaluation of their product, three studios (20th Century Fox, Warner Brothers and Universal) are refusing to sell DVDs to Redbox until at least 28 days after they arrive in stores.

Redbox is suing them on antitrust grounds. Leery of waging their own battles, two other studios, Sony Pictures and Paramount Pictures, have signed distribution deals with the vending company. Walt Disney permits third-party distributors to sell to Redbox but has so far shunned a direct relationship.

Redbox and its vending rivals now have 19 percent of the rental market, compared with 36 percent for rent-by-mail services (Netflix) and 45 percent for traditional stores, according to the NPD Group, a market research company. NPD estimates that vending will grow to a 30 percent share by the end of next year, at the expense of traditional stores.

Studios, aware that consumers are unlikely to pity their plight and muzzled by the lawsuits, are keeping quiet. Fox, Universal, Warner and Disney each declined to comment for this article. But Hollywood’s powerful public relations machinery is in motion behind the scenes to connect the news media with a group that is equally threatened by Redbox but much more relatable: mom and pop rental store owners.

“These machines are to the video industry what the Internet was to the music business — disaster,” said Ted Engen, president of the Video Buyers Group, a trade organization for 1,700 local rental stores.

Mr. Engen is enlisting lawmakers to attack Redbox for renting R-rated movies to underage viewers — the machines simply ask customers to confirm that they are 18 or older by pressing a button — and trying to rally the Screen Actors Guild and other unions.

“It’s going to kill the industry,” said Gary Cook, business manager for UA Local 78, which represents studio plumbers.

Mr. Lowe, meanwhile, is portraying the studios as greedy giants scheming to trample the little guy. “Don’t let a few movie studios prevent you from seeing the latest DVDs for an affordable price,” reads a headline on a new Redbox Web site, savelowcostdvds.com.

Redbox, formerly owned by McDonald’s and now part of Coinstar, is only the biggest of a host of DVD vending companies. DVDPlay, whose kiosks are also red, has been aggressive in California, while MovieCube is big in Canada.

Blockbuster is scrambling to introduce its own rental kiosks. There are now about 500 Blockbuster Express machines, and plans call for 2,500 more by the end of the year; the company expects to open 7,000 in 2010, a spokesman said.

The kiosk boom is fed by several consumer and business currents, all related to the recession.

For starters, the dismal economy has made people think twice about buying DVDs, especially as the likes of Redbox have made renting easier. Consumers are also tiring of the clutter: The average American household with a DVD player now has a library of 70 DVDs, according to Adams Media Research.

Over all, DVD sales are down 13.5 percent for the first half of 2009 compared to the first half of 2008, according to the Digital Entertainment Group, a trade organization. Studios say some new titles are selling 25 percent fewer copies than expected. Rental revenue is up about 8 percent over the same period, according to the group.

Retailers, struggling to keep people shopping, have realized that having a DVD kiosk in a store creates foot traffic, making it easier for companies like Redbox to sign wide-ranging installation agreements. Some partners, like Walgreens, have offered discounts that essentially make rentals free.

Redbox is also getting a hand because of Hollywood’s troubles. Analysts say Sony and Paramount signed agreements with the company in part because their home entertainment units are under pressure to meet financial targets, set before the DVD decline.

Sony’s five-year deal is worth about $460 million in DVD sales to Redbox. Paramount’s deal starts with a four-month test; if the studio decides Redbox represents a net gain to its home entertainment business, it can extend its relationship for five years and a guaranteed $575 million.

Paramount’s deal involves revenue-sharing, a rarity for Redbox. The kiosk operator primarily follows the mom and pop model: it seeks to buy discs wholesale and makes a profit with repeat rentals. (Revenue-sharing deals typically allow a rental store to buy discs for half the wholesale cost or less.) Redbox can price rentals at $1 and still make money because its machines eliminate so much overhead.

The $1 price is not the main issue for the studios, although they do not like that, either; it is the timing. New DVDs sell for about $25. Video-on-demand services price them at about $5. Multiday rentals of new titles cost $4.99 at Blockbuster.

Now there is a $1 option at the same time. That could put downward pressure on the industry’s price structure.

“Anyone whose business involves selling movies should be enormously concerned,” said Richard Greenfield, an analyst at Pali Research.

Analysts also see a threat to studios in Redbox’s practice of selling about half of its DVDs into the used market (after renting them about 15 times at an average of $2 a transaction). By signing deals with Redbox, Paramount and Sony got the kiosk operator to agree to destroy their discs rather than resell them.

“Our position is that this is a strong consumer trend, and we figured out a way to minimize the negative aspects and maximize the positive ones,” said David Bishop, president of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

Rob Moore, vice chairman of Paramount Pictures, said, “This trial gives us access to information that will allow us to make an informed decision about Redbox’s impact on our home entertainment business.”

Mr. Lowe dismissed worries about the cannibalization of sales. He cited internal research indicating that 20 percent of Redbox’s volume is additive — people who did not previously buy or rent DVDs — and that partners like Wal-Mart have had only a 1 percent decline in sales after Redbox machines have been installed at their entrances.

The kiosks hold about 500 DVDs and focus on new mainstream releases.

Customers follow a series of touch-screen prompts to use the kiosks, which vend from slots on the side. Once a selection is made, the customer swipes a credit card through the reader. The card is charged a dollar (and tax) for each DVD rented; the charges for additional days, if any, are added when discs are returned. The charge for lost DVDs is $25.

“If you make renting affordable and fun, people are going to watch a whole lot more movies than they did before,” Mr. Lowe said.

Summer sets box office record: 2009 is highest-grossing summer ever

It's not even Labor Day weekend yet, but 2009 has already become the highest-grossing summer ever at the domestic box office.

Through Sunday, summer B.O. revs were $4.17 billion, compared to $4.16 billion for summer 2007, the previous record holder for best summer sesh.

The Labor Day weekend should add another $100 million or more to the total tally, meaning the summer would be up at least 3% in grosses over 2007.

Three tentpoles lead the pack of top domestic performers: Paramount's "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" ($399.4 million), Warner Bros.' "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" ($294.3 million) and Disney/Pixar's "Up" ($289.6 million).

Pics performing significantly better than expected include Warners' comedy "The Hangover," which has run up $270.2 million in domestic ticket sales, by far the best gross for an R-rated comedy. Pic places No. 4 on the top 10 summer chart.

Auds were also in love with Disney's Sandra Bullock-Ryan Reynolds romantic comedy "The Proposal," which earned $160.2 million to become the highest-grossing summer romantic comedy of all time. Film is No. 9 on the summer domestic roster.

Several franchises got an infusion of fresh blood: Paramount's "Star Trek" grossed $256.7 million to come in fifth for the season, while Twentieth Century Fox's "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" grossed $179 million to rank No. 7.

Fox also took spots No. 6 and No. 8 with "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" ($193.3 million) and "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian" ($176.5 million).

Sony's sequel "Angels and Demons" rounds out the top 10 list at $133.4 million, although Paramount's "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" will likely overtake "Angels."

"G.I. Joe's" domestic cume through Sunday was $132.2 million after grossing $7.7 million for the weekend, its fourth sesh.

Avatar the movie, pre-sales marketing strategy

The Movie Avatar (http://www2.avatarmovie.com/) is selling tickets four months in advance! Of course it is a studio tent pole film and has a huge gaming audience behind it. I wonder if this marketing tool will work.

• It will create some hype.
• This pre-sale will encourage people to feel special, in the know, and spread the word.
• By selling tickets 4 months in advance they can pay back their P&A loans faster and have either a new P&A loan closer to the release or see their ROI faster
• Gives the studio a better idea of how many screens to open in. If they presale 2000 screens then they could schedule more prior to release if the numbers are right and spend P&A wisely

• Could too much buzz this early kill the film?
• How could indie films capitalize on this logic?
  

All the best,

Jean-Luc Martin
Producer, Line-Producer-UPM
info@jeanlucm.com


'Avatar' tickets already on sale
James Cameron pic hits theaters Dec. 18

James Cameron's "Avatar" won't reach movie theaters for almost four months, but tickets for the much-hyped sci-fi actioner are already on sale.

Touted as a potentially watershed release -- displaying the creative possibilities both of 3D cinema and motion-capture production techniques -- "Avatar" is scheduled for a global bow on Dec. 18. Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment is co-producing with distributor Fox, which has been stoking exhibitors' appetite for the release through screenings of extended clip reels from the film.

On Friday, the studio staged public screenings of a special 16-minute "Avatar" trailer at 100 Imax theaters. Now, AMC has decided to sell tickets to the movie's opening-day midnight performances.

Online ticketers MovieTickets.com and Fandango on Friday began ringing up sales of "Avatar" performances at more than 75 AMC locations, most of them Imax 3D venues.

"Tickets being put on sale for a film four months in advance is unheard of," MovieTickets exec vp Joel Cohen said. "The fact that tickets have already been sold really speaks to the tremendous buzz the film has already created and the power of James Cameron at the box office."

"Avatar" is Cameron's first dramatic feature since 1997's "Titanic," which is still the highest-grossing film of all time.

"Audiences are hungry for fresh fare with original storytelling," Fandango spokesman Harry Medved said. "And with 'Avatar,' you have no idea where the story is going to go."

Sales of the midnight tickets were said to be "healthy."

It was unclear if any other exhibs will follow AMC's lead in offering early advance ticketing on "Avatar." After all, the studio has yet to hammer out film rental terms with circuits -- though that didn't stop the nation's second-biggest circuit from suggesting the early ticketing.

"AMC came up with the idea," Fox senior vp distribution Chris Aronson said. "They said that if all these people are going to come to our theater to see 16 minutes of a film that doesn't open until December, let's give them an opportunity to buy tickets to the first performances of the show itself."

As a practical matter, no one can offer anything but tickets for the first midnight performances, as nobody knows what the final running time will be once Cameron finishes editing "Avatar."

"Avatar" is likely to tote a running time of between 2 1/2 and 3 hours.

Independent Filmmakers Distribute on Their Own

LOS ANGELES — Quentin Tarantino never had to go through this.

New York Times

When “The Age of Stupid,” a climate change movie, “opens” across the United States in September, it will play on some 400 screens in a one-night event, with a video performance by Thom Yorke of Radiohead, all paid for by the filmmakers themselves and their backers. In Britain, meanwhile, the film has been showing via an Internet service that lets anyone pay to license a copy, set up a screening and keep the profit.

The glory days of independent film, when hot young directors like Steven Soderbergh and Mr. Tarantino had studio executives tangled in fierce bidding wars at Sundance and other celebrity-studded festivals, are now barely a speck in the rearview mirror. And something new, something much odder, has taken their place.

Here is how it used to work: aspiring filmmakers playing the cool auteur in hopes of attracting the eye of a Hollywood power broker.

Here is the new way: filmmakers doing it themselves — paying for their own distribution, marketing films through social networking sites and Twitter blasts, putting their work up free on the Web to build a reputation, cozying up to concierges at luxury hotels in film festival cities to get them to whisper into the right ears.

The economic slowdown and tight credit have squeezed the entertainment industry along with everybody else, resulting in significantly fewer big-studio films in the pipeline and an even tougher road for smaller-budget independent projects. Independent distribution companies are much less likely to pull out the checkbook while many of the big studios have all but gotten out of the indie film business.

“It’s not like the audience for these movies has completely disappeared,” said Cynthia Swartz, a partner in the publicity company 42 West, which has been supplementing its mainstream business by helping filmmakers find ways to connect with an audience. “It’s just a matter of finding them.”

Sometimes, the odd approach actually works.

“Anvil! The Story of Anvil,” a documentary about a Canadian metal band, turned into the do-it-yourself equivalent of a smash hit when it stretched a three-screen opening in April into a four-month run, still under way, on more than 150 screens around the country.

“I paid for everything, I took a second mortgage on my house,” said Sacha Gervasi, the film’s director.

Mr. Gervasi, whose studio writing credits include “The Terminal,” directed by Steven Spielberg, nearly three years ago, began filming “Anvil!” with his own money in hopes of attracting a conventional distributor. The movie played well at Sundance in 2008, but offers were low.

So Mr. Gervasi put up more money — his total cost was in “the upper hundred thousands,” he said — to distribute the film through a company called Abramorama, while selling the DVD and television rights to VH1.

The aging rockers of Anvil have shown up at theaters to play for audiences. Famous fans like Courtney Love were soon chattering online about the film. And an army of “virtual street teamers” — Internet advocates who flood social networks with admiring comments, sometimes for a fee, sometimes not — were recruited by a Web consultant, Sarah Lewitinn, who usually works the music scene.

The idea behind this sort of guerrilla release is to accumulate just enough at the box office to prime the pump for DVD sales and return the filmmaker’s investment, maybe even with a little profit. “Anvil!” has earned roughly $1 million worldwide at the box office so far, its producer, Rebecca Yeldham, said.

Finding even relatively small amounts of money to make and market a film is, of course, no small trick. “The Age of Stupid” raised a production budget of about £450,000 (about $748,000) from 228 shareholders, and is soliciting a bit more to continue its release, Franny Armstrong, its director, said.

“Money has simply vanished,” said Mark Urman, an independent-film veteran, speaking of the financial drought that has pushed producers and directors into shouldering risks that only a few years ago were carried by a more robust field of distributors.

Many of those distributors have either disappeared or severely tightened their operations, including Warner Independent Pictures, Picturehouse, New Line Cinema, Miramax, the Weinstein Company, Paramount Classics and its successor, Paramount Vantage.

Typically, the distributors have paid money upfront for rights to release films. That helped the producers recover what they had already spent on production, but it often left the distributor with most or all of the profit.

Mr. Urman’s own position as president for distribution at Senator Entertainment evaporated this year when financing fell through for a slate of films. So he started a new company, Paladin, to support filmmakers willing to finance their own releases.

In September, Paladin is expected to help the filmmaker Steve Jacobs and his fellow producers release “Disgrace,” a drama with John Malkovich that is based on a novel by the Nobel laureate J. M. Coetzee.

The film won a critics prize at the Toronto International Film Festival last year, but no attractive distribution offers. One key to releasing it without a Miramax, said Mr. Urman, is to minimize expensive advertising in newspapers or on television and play directly to a friendly audience — in this case through extensive promotional tie-ins with Mr. Coetzee’s publishers.

“Everyone still dreams there’s going to be a conventional sale to a major studio,” said Kevin Iwashina, once an independent-film specialist with the Creative Artists Agency and now a partner at IP Advisors, a film sales and finance consulting company. But, he said, smart producers and directors are figuring out how to tap the value in projects on their own.

Some big companies will still be on the hunt in Toronto this year, where the annual festival is scheduled to begin Sept. 10.

“We’ll be there in full force,” said Nancy Utley, a president of Fox Searchlight Pictures, which last year acquired rights to “Slumdog Millionaire” and “The Wrestler,” both screened in Toronto.

“It’s a great opportunity for us,” said Robert G. Friedman, a chairman of Summit Entertainment, which acquired “The Hurt Locker,” directed by Kathryn Bigelow. The film was offered in Toronto last year and has already been mentioned widely as an Oscar contender.

But some filmmakers and producers pointed toward the festival have already started working for themselves, rather than waiting for the few remaining, and ever fussier, buyers to swoop in.

In fact, the next-wave Tarantinos are in Canada already — coddling not prospective buyers, but concierges, who just might steer people to promotional parties and screenings.

“These guys have figured it out,” Barry Avrich, a member of the festival’s governing board, said of the do-it-yourself crowd. “They’re into all the cool hotels, to get the concierges thinking about them.”

Hollywood summer school: Biz tries to learn lessons amid season of changes

Hey Guys,

Very interesting article in Variety! This helps to understand the Studios methods.

Jean-Luc Martin

This summer is on track to equal, and maybe even surpass, the B.O. record. To date, tallies are running even with last year's summer numbers at $3.6 billion. And it could eclipse the record-breaking $4.3 billion earned in summer 2008.a

So in theory, studio executives have plenty to learn by studying what worked this summer -- and what didn't.

But, in fact, Hollywood has tried some daring experiments with the summer formula this year and the results are inconclusive.

There were whopping successes and embarrassing failures, and execs are scratching their heads to figure out why some succeeded and others didn't.

There are plenty of questions to be raised from these numbers.

• Does a May bow assure longer playing times?

  A few years ago, the studios opened three blockbuster titles in May: The third editions of "Spider-Man," "Pirates" and "Shrek," all had great bows, followed by long shelf lives. This year, the studios opened five pics in May and early June: Fox's "Wolverine,"Paramount's "Star Trek," Sony's "Angels and Demons," Warner Bros.' "Terminator Salvation" and Fox's "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian."

  They ended up cannibalizing each other, depressing overall results. Each had strong opening weekends, but sustained big drops in the following week as audiences went for the next big opener. It's called "leaving money on the table."

  Studios wanted to get out of the way of "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," opening June 24, but was the strategy worth it?

  More than one option

  • (Film) Spider-Man
  • (Tv) Spider-Man
    Man - Nicholas Hammond, E W Swackhamer
  • (Tv) Spider-Man
    Man - Series Information, Seasons, Credits, Awards
  • (Tv) Amazing Spider-Man
  • (Tv) Spider-Man
    Man - Series Information, Seasons, Credits, Awards
  More than one option

  • (Film) Pirates
  • (Film) Pyrates
  • (Tv) Pirates
• Is it a good idea to counterprogram?

  Over the past few years, the studios abandoned their tactic of filling the season with pics targeted at fanboys. But "The Devil Wears Prada" and "Mamma Mia!" showing the benefits of wooing other demos.

  The fear now is that there is too much demo-specific fare, with the possibility that they are undercutting each other's longevity.

  This month alone offers plenty of fodder for doubt. Sony's female-skewing "The Ugly Truth" opened July 24, followed by the studio's "Julie and Julia" Aug. 7, followed by WB-New Line's "The Time Traveler's Wife" Aug. 14.

  It's not just females with so many choices this month. Studios are also giving guys plenty of testosterone-driven fare: Paramount opened "G.I. Joe: The Rise of the Cobra" on Aug. 7, followed by Sony's "District 9" Aug. 14 and the Weinstein Co.'s "Inglourious Basterds" on Aug. 21.

• Do stars matter?

  Par's "Transformers 2," and "Star Trek," Disney-Pixar's "Up," and Warner Bros.' "The Hangover" represent four of the top five summer films so far, but none is a star vehicle. Conversely, the Eddie Murphy Par comedy "Imagine That," Will Ferrell's U pic "Land of the Lost" and the Jack Black-Michael Cera Sony starrer "Year One" were sold on star power, but it wasn't enough.

  To a lesser extent, marquee names didn't seem to aid the John Travolta-Denzel Washington "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3," from Sony. Its domestic cume is $65 million and $27.3 million overseas.

  But, star wattage did help Universal's Johnny Depp gangster pic "Public Enemies." The film has grossed $95.5 million domestically and $63.5 million overseas.

  More than one option

  • (Tv) Land of the Lost
    Series Information, Seasons, Credits, Awards
  • (Tv) Land of the Lost
    Series Information, Seasons, Credits, Awards
  More than one option

  • (Tv) Imagine That
  • (Tv) Out of the Box
  • (Film) NowhereLand
  More than one option

  • (Film) Female Jungle
  • (Film) The Hangover
  More than one option

  • (Film) Up
    Robert McLane, Russ Meyer
  • (Film) Up
  More than one option

  • (Person) Eddie Murphy
    Voice, Director, Song
  • (Person) Eddie Murphy
  • (Person) Eddie Murphy
    Carpenter, Construction
• Do critics matter?

  Many media pundits derided Par for not screening "G.I. Joe" for critics (a few online reviewers were shown the film). The studio said it had nothing to gain, since it's not a reviewer-friendly type of film. It opened to a tidy $54.7 million. "Transformers 2" received some of worst reviews of the year, but it's become 2009's top-grossing film, with north of $819.4 million worldwide.

  At the same time, glowing reviews for "Star Trek" and "Up" appeared to bring in auds who might otherwise not have seen those films. And raves have helped smaller films like Fox Searchlight's "500 Days of Summer."

  More than one option

  • (Tv) G.I. Joe
  • (Film) G.I. Joe
• Do the old box office formulas work?

  A few years ago, distribution execs could calculate weekend grosses based on Friday's numbers. But with word of mouth via Twitter, Facebook and texting, a film can tumble more steeply than ever from Friday to Saturday, making it ever harder to come up with accurate weekend estimates.

  Sacha Baron Cohen's U comedy "Bruno" fell a debilitating 39% from Friday to Saturday, as an example.

• Has audience taste changed on Iraq war pics, or was it the movies?

  When a flurry of 2007 Iraq-themed pics stumbled, analysts declared audiences didn't want to see the war on the bigscreen. Either tastes have changed or they just didn't want to see those movies. One of the specialty-level successes of the summer has been the $9 million for Summit Entertainment's "The Hurt Locker," the Kathryn Bigelow film about a U.S. bomb-diffusing team in Baghdad.

THE TRUISMS

Aside from the questions, this summer provided confirmation for some long-held beliefs.

• Mega-grosses are great, but it all comes down to profitability.

  "G.I. Joe" got off to a good start, but it will need to do a lot more biz to break even. The pic, co-financed by Spyglass, cost $175 million to produce, plus the expenses of a worldwide marketing campaign.

• B.O. gets a boost from 3-D.

  The overperformance of "Up" and Fox's "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" proved how much the upcharge for a ticket to a stereoscopic 3-D pic can bump up box office revenues, both domestically and overseas. Studios estimate that 3-D grosses make up as much as 50% of the gross, even though 3-D screens represent only a fraction of the total theater count.

  "Up" is the second-highest grossing title of the summer at the domestic B.O., grossing $287.4 million through Aug. 9. "Dawn of the Dinosaurs" has grossed a massive $576.4 million internationally. Disney's"G-Force" had a surprisingly strong bow, with $67 million domestically so far, as it begins to open overseas.

• Overseas is invaluable.

  Sony's "Angels and Demons" reaped $233 million domestic, $349 million overseas. "Terminator" found salvation overseas, with $124 million domestic, $237 overseas.

• Seasonal shifts are sometimes possible.

  Though the first two "Ice Age" pics opened in March, Fox bowed "Dawn of the Dinosaurs" in July. The pic has grossed $187.9 million domestically and became top grossing animated film of all time overseas, surpassing "Finding Nemo" ($524.9 million).

  While the first "Narnia" film had whopping numbers when it bowed in winter 2005, the second "Narnia" film, "Prince Caspian," saw a big dropoff by opening in summer 2008. So studios fretted whether franchises can switch their lucky opening dates.

  Fox likely left money on the table by opening "Night at the Museum 2" in the summer, in a crowded scene. But the fact is, it did make money,

  "Harry Potter" proved a few years ago that a durable franchise will draw audiences whenever it bows. Last year, fans raised a ruckus when Warners pushed the release of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" from Thanksgiving to July 15. But all was forgiven after the film opened to a record-breaking grosses. To date, it has cleared $273.4 million domestically and $542.2 million for a worldwide tally of $817.4 million.

• The marketing should reflect the pic.

  U's Adam Sandler starrer "Funny People," directed by Judd Apatow, is both a comedy and a drama, but the campaign played down the latter. Moviegoers quickly spotted the difference, something that may have hurt the movie's Friday opener vs. Saturday performance.

  U also ran into trouble with "Land of the Lost." In the campaign, the movie seemed to mirror the 1970s TV show, but in truth, the pic wasn't a family title. Film's domestic cume is $43.4 million.

  More than one option

  • (Person) Adam Sandler
    Song, Song Performer, Executive Producer
  • (Person) Adam Sandler

THE REBUTTALS

Though some adages were re-proven, a couple were refuted this summer.

• Midrange pics are dead. That "truism" popped up a few years ago, but summer saw sizeable returns for such titles as Disney's romantic comedy "The Proposal" ($154.7 million), which managed to beat out last year's "Sex and the City's" gross ($152.6 million).

  Box office returns for Warner's "The Hangover" are downright astounding: The R-rated comedy has cumed north of $263.4 domestically.

  That's a better showing than summer pics "Star Trek" ($255.3 million/Paramount), "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" ($187.9 million/20th Century Fox) and "Terminator: Salvation" ($124.7 million/Warners).

• Fanboys are dangerous. A month before "Wolverine's" release, a pirated copy of the film was leaked on the Web. Fox didn't know how much the film's grosses would be hurt, but the losses seemed to be minimized when fanboys around the world decried the piracy and websites like Ain't It Cool News made good on its promise that no reviews of the Web version would be posted.