Amazon is to make its first foray into the tablet PC market – perhaps heralding the start of the true battle for supremacy and perhaps even the price war that millions have been waiting for. According to several independent industry sources, the company is set to release at least two of a new line of [...]
Metro Goldwyn-Mayer Studios filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy today. The filing would put the famous Hollywood movie studio under the control of Spyglass Entertainment, a film industry company led by Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum. MGM also made special arrangements with billionaire Carl Icahn to garner his support fo the filing. MGM was sold in [...]
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Hollywood (the movie studios, the record labels, etc.) sure does have a knack for causing its own problems. You’ll recall that it’s en vogue to call copyright infringers “pirates,” which is an insult to legitimate pirates like William Kidd and Henry Morgan. Just because you can fire up uTorrent doesn’t mean you can take on a Spanish Armada. But, whatever, it’s simply easier for Hollywood and its acolytes to call you kids “pirates” than it is to have an adult discussion about the subject. The word is nothing but trouble. Using it is akin to calling someone “Hitler” or a “Nazi” in a debate: it’s basically an intellectual shortcut to a ready-made conclusion. Those guys? Bad. Us? We’re good. Or in fancier verbiage: To say that X is a pirate is a metaphoric heuristic, intended to persuade a policymaker that the in-depth analysis can be skipped and the desired result immediately attained… Claims of piracy are rhetorical nonsense. Said by “noted copyright scholar” William Patry. Now, had Hollywood, when the likes of Napster and Kazaa first came out, taken the time to explain the difference between wholesale theft and copyright infringement, rather than rushing to sue everybody, throwing around meaningless terms like “piracy” and “stealing,” well, this is the consequence. Show me one 16-year-old who has a problem with downloading Lady Whatshername and I’ll finish this stupid sentence.
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I love how this is controversial. Sony Pictures (creators of Spider-Man ) chairman Michael Lynton has suggested that movie theaters offer healthy snacks in addition to their usual parade of garbage, and people have reacted with blind rage . How dare you tell me how to live my life, you pinko liberal communist! It’s like, really? What is so terrible about not covering your popcorn with metric tons of liquid “butter”? You would think movie theater owners would go out of their way to make their theaters as welcoming as possible, right? Yes, last year was a record year for Hollywood, but take away Avatar , an outlier if there ever was one, and do the numbers look as hot? Not bloody likely. If I were a theater owner, I’d make it so that I’d have, yes, plenty of garbage (buttered popcorn, soda, etc.) on hand, but I’d also have fruits and vegetables to cater to the Whole Foods crowd. Can you imagine a small movie theater opening up in Park Slope that has arugula as a snack? I’d be a millionaire! A selection of the comments that made me laugh… Hmmmm, watching Terminator 12 eating blueberries. That should pack them in to the theater. I think I’ll wait for the DVD and have my popcorn at home. I hate liberals always telling me how to live my life. *** is he WANTING to kill of cinema?! *** He can have my popcorn when he pries it from my cold dead fingers. *** The sony idiot would make a perfect democrat congressman, one who loves to tell you how to live your life. When will the public quit voting for these morons? *** You might have already guessed it, but Drudge linked this story, too. I’m trying to remember the last time I went to a movie theater, and I’m pretty sure it was to see Casino Royale . I picked a Sunday 11am showing, figuring most of the troublemakers would still be hungover. But no! Who should sit next to me but a rather large woman with two bags of popcorn and a soda! What she eats is her business, obviously, but my God in Heaven she was rattling the bag like she was auditioning for Stomp . 3D cinema may be a draw right now, but the minute I break down and say, “Eh, let’s go see Alice in Wonderland ” and find that the theater is populated by loud, obnoxious people is the moment I walk right out the door. And where is it written that you have to eat at all during a movie? Can’t people sit still for two hours without ingesting 18 bags of Milk Duds? Flickr
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I could have sworn “piracy” was killing the movie industry. Apparently not, when you actually look at the data ! The year 2009 was the single best year in Hollywood history as far as “money” is concerned—if you can find a single decent movie produced by Hollywood last year I’d love to see it—where it made $29.9 billion in ticket sales alone. (Never mind how much Blu-ray and DVD sales will bring in.) So again: if piracy is killing the industry, how do you explain these numbers? Well, we’ll try to explain them. Last year was the year of Avatar — Avatar is 3D, to be exact. A ticket to a 3D showing cost quite a premium, something like $14-$15 (or more!) depending on your location instead of the usual $10ish. That’s pretty much the only explanation. Avatar was to Hollywood what the Wii was to Nintendo for a while there—simply a money-printing machine. Perhaps it speaks to an earlier thesis: you cannot “pirate” the 3D “experience,” so Hollywood should be flying high for a little while.
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Apparently there was some sort of media summit in Abu Dhabi recently, and a big topic of discussion was copyright infringement. (I think we need to reserve the word “piracy” for actual, sea-faring piracy, not kids grabbing the random Sublime song off LimeWire.) Rupert Murdoch called on governments to stop copyright infringers, asking them to punish them as they would shoplifters. I guess Murdoch doesn’t understand the different between theft and copyright infringement. And Ari Emmanuel , Rahm Emmanuel ’s brother (and the inspiration for the Entourage character Ari ), has been lobbying President Obama to implement some sort of three-strikes policy, like they have in France . France! A couple things: one, I’m pretty sure President Obama is a little busy trying to get some sort of healthcare law passed; the concerns of Hollywood bigshots aren’t exactly on his radar right now. Two, we’re beginning to enter the next election cycle, so Congress is going to be on its tippy toes trying not to offend anybody or do much of anything . It’s sorta like laying low come 3pm Friday, so your boss doesn’t saddle you with a last-minute assignment that’ll keep you at the office one longer that you need to be. Congress is busy doing nothing, in other words. As for Murdoch: whatever, dude. I think my government has more important things to do than track down high schoolers who download an episode of 24. At least I hope it does!
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Tonight’s Oscars are as much about technology as they are good movies. Granted, movie-making has always been about embracing new technology—critics complained when movies first appeared, when they added sound, when they added color, etc.—but Avatar can be looked at as nothing more than a glorified tech demo. A win for Avatar tonight is a win for 3D technology , end of. I write this not having seen any of the movies nominated for best picture. This year just seemed sort of “meh.” I did grab the movie Un Prophète , but the odds of me staying away from Napoleon: Total War long enough to closely watch it are pretty much non-existent. (Note: Napoleon: Total War is my Game of the Year so far. Unless Crysis 2 is as good as it looks, and unless Gran Turismo 5 actually comes out this year, which, well, the less said the better, it’ll probably stay that way. Worst constructed sentence ever.) But let’s put it this way: if Avatar was only a plain ol’ 2D movie, would it even have been nominated for the Oscar? Based on what I’ve read, no. So, 3D. It’s going to be the savior of Hollywood , so they say. It makes going to the movie theater a fun experience, and discourages staying at home and watching, say, There Will Be Blood on Blu-ray on your 60-inch plasma. Well, until 3D TVs come down in price, but don’t expect that to happen too soon. Plus, based on what I saw at CES this past January (and having played Battlefield: Bad Company 2 in 3D last week), I’m going to say that your Avatar -like movie-going experiences are going to be unique enough that they’ll continue to be a draw, at least for a little while. Alice in Wonderland , also in 3D, did huge numbers this weekend , so there’s that. But will it win, and should it win? The second point—should it win—is the more contentious question. It’s basically Pocahontas in Space (again, as I understand it), and if I wanted to see a movie that’s sorta based on Pocahontas, I’d see The New World again. (That reminds me to watch The Thin Red Line again soon. Now there’s a competent director .) Will it win? Is Avatar better than Hurt Locker ? I’ve heard mixed things about Kathryn Bigelow’s film: some people love it, and others think it’s just OK. Precious ? Inglorious Basterds ? Neither of those are really the savior of Hollywood—how much money did James Cameron make everybody with his film? Whether or not Avatar wins tonight, 3D technology is here to stay—we’ve already seen how sports networks have begun to embrace it. One thing I do know: come 8pm tonight, I’ll probably be playing Napoleon: Total War and listening to Ron and Fez’s live Oscar coverage (there’s no way in hell I’m going to watch the actual Oscar ceremony) on Sirius XM satellite radio—maybe I’ll even join in on that Twitter party fun? Oh, one more thing: FIFA stinks . That has nothing to do with anything, but whatever.
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Right around the time the world’s financial markets started to collapse, back in 2008, RealNetworks, the folks behind RealPlayer, released RealDVD . It was a short-lived piece of software that made making DVD movie backups fairly painless— too painless for Hollywood, which immediately took RealNetworks to court, claiming all sorts of copyright infringement hokum. That’s all in the past now, for RealNetworks has settled with the six “major” Hollywood studios to the sum of $4.5 million. Ouch. The deal sees RealNetworks, yes, cough up $4.5 million for “costs and fees in connection with the litigation.” Some deal: you bring someone else to court, then make them pay all your bills. RealNetworks will also stop supporting RealDVD, and is in the process of refunding the purchase price to the 2,700 people who bought the thing. The company’s statement is sad: We are pleased to put this litigation behind us. This is another step toward fulfilling our commitment to simplify our company and focus on our core businesses. Until this dispute, Real had always enjoyed a productive working relationship with Hollywood. With this litigation resolved, I hope that in the future we can find mutually beneficial ways to use Real technology to bring Hollywood’s great work to consumers. “Core business”? Hasn’t Flash (and hopefully HTML5 ) made RealVideo irrelevant? I liked RealDVD, if only because it demonstrated quite clearly that Hollywood has no intention of letting you use the items you buy for your own ends. DVDs copied using RealDVD could only be played on that computer where it was ripped. It’s not like I could have borrowed Doug’s copy of Movie , then shared the resulting file with the other guys or anything. The point is, RealDVD is now dead as disco, but RealNetworks may have earned itself a little bit of geek cred in trying to stand up to big, bad Hollywood.
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