OK, it is now official. Hollywood is in a steep slide down a slippery slope courtesy of its fondness for big-budget tent pole movies. Well, that is one way of reading the recent report by Benjamin Swinburne, Morgan Stanley's chief analyst for film and broadcasting. Due...
Harvey Weinstein having a fight with the Motion Picture Association of America about a movie's rating is not exactly an uncommon event. Heck, it wasn't that long ago that he was duking it out with them over their bizarre R rating for The King's Speech....
Will Rogers once observed, "This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer." Thanks to Senate Bill 1933/H.R. 3606 (Reinvigorating the Capital Markets for Emerging Growth Companies), some indie filmmakers are feeling as if...
For all practical purposes, Phase One of the digital revolution is complete. Commercial film production is in the process of going all digital. Commercial film exhibition will do the same by the end of 2013. Likewise, streamed and VoD release is surpassing DVD rental and...
The traditional relationship between American movies and the foreign market has entered a murky stage. The long standing rule is that American movies (OK, mainly Hollywood flicks) would dominate the foreign market. Movies made by other countries were either "art films" or cheaply made knock-offs...
Some people can't stand the word "reboot." For example, my wife has restricted the word's usage to only its computer application (and even then in limited amounts). I only use it when I really want to annoy people. Then I go reboot crazy. So obviously I...
This is the magical week when everyone is supposed to be writing about the Oscars. But the urge to guess who will win is somewhat muted by the sheer predictably of the process (for example, if The Artist is nominated in a category, it will probably...
Sometimes a single photo says it all. For example, what better way to sum up the sorry state of mainstream Hollywood than in the recent snapshot of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone yakking it up from their hospitable beds in pre-op. They're action movie stars,...
Osama bin Laden is not yet dead. OK, he's dead, but now he's one of the undead. He and his undead terrorist zombie hoard are sweeping across Afghanistan in the movie Osombie, an odd cross between The Hurt Locker and Night of the Living Dead. The...
Who goes to the movies anymore? The question has practically become rhetorical as numerous critics, bloggers, entertainment reporters and the usual cranky suspects have loudly proclaimed that they haven't gone to a theater in the last fifty years. OK, maybe not fifty years but you...