The Hot Blog Archive for November, 2006
The Trouble With Stats
Fandango has very cleverly started sending out weekly press blasts on their numbers for the upcoming weekend with the notion that it tells us something about the box office to come.
Of course, in weeks like this one, it also shows how little can be extrapolated from raw statistics.
Clearly, Happy Feet is not going to do half the business of Casino Royale. So I think it is fair to say that people taking kids to the movies are either not doing online ticketing much or are bringing more people, making the overall fee more than they want to spend in excess of the ticket prices. At $1.50 per ticket, that’s just under a 20% surcharge.
The statistical value of a “fandango poll” is zilch, as it is limited to people who not only use the site, but are wiling to participated… or worse, anxious to participate.
Moreover, Fandango does not sell tickets to every theater in the country. So, for instance, if a movie is booked into Mann, Pacific. or AMC… no Fandango sales. And if a film leans towards those chains (amongst others), fuggedaboudit.
So for Happy Feet this weekend, 28 theaters are playing it within 20 miles of me… 7 are selling tix on Fandango and 21 are not. Casino Royale is on 25… 7 selling on Fandango, 18 not.
Inconclusive at best, no?
The press release follows after the jump…
I wonder…
Do any of you pay any attention to these giveaways we do all the time???
The Evil Of Oscar Prognostication
The Onion’s AV Club has a discussion between Noel Murray and Scott Tobias entitled, “Crosstalk: Are Oscar Prognosticators Evil?”
To me, it is overblown meta chat. Prognostication is a niche within a niche. And it is not really the story about the ever expanding Oscar coverage, which is what I think really irks most people. Whenever I read something like this, whether published or as a comment on the blog, it’s funny how it always seems to come around to, “Why pick this film and not this film?” In other words, “here are my picks… all these alleged experts are wrong.” And indeed, we all will be on many calls.
But Oscar is big business and coverage of the business of Oscar is no different than coverage of, say, the Home Entertainment business
20 Weeks To Dreamgirls
Dreamgirls landed in Beverly Hills (and across the country) last night
84 Comments »UPDATED – Letter To The Academy?
Updated 12am – Today, the very limited release of Letters From Iwo Jima on December 20 will be announced by Warner Bros. Critics and guild screenings will start almost immediately.
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As I indicated back in October, the discussion about whether Letters From Iwo Jima shuold move into December heated up right after Flags of Our Fathers failed to take flight in mid-October. The first complication was, as it is now, that Warner Bros is releasing Iwo Jima while DreamAmount released Flags.
However, the complication of the complication was that The Departed took off for Warners just around the same time that Flags went limp. And now, it is a consensus pick to be a Best Picture nominee. On top of that, Warners had the highly touted The Good German and the commercial, but Ed Zwick/Leo/Djimon Oscar qualified Blood Diamond to push.
And with all of that, the studio was also pulling as many ad dollars out of the market as possible while a restructuring in marketing, still under Dawn Taubin and with Debbie Miller continuing to rise, is also going on quietly.
Clint made the call to shove Letters From Iwo Jima into December
Thread…. Bond Thread
As Bond is breaking out this week, I figured it might be a good idea to give y’all someplace to spout off on the topic.
Here are my comments…
The Wackiest Promotional Giveaway Of The Year?
Do you want to go to Baltimore to see a penguin???? It’s not even crab season!
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MOVIN 93.9 FM INVITES YOU TO STRUT YOUR STUFF FOR A CHANCE TO WIN A TRIP TO
THE BALTIMORE ZOO
THURSDAY, NOVEMBURRR 16
Please join MOVIN 93.9 FM at THE ARCLIGHT HOLLYWOOD for a special HAPPY FEET dance contest for the chance to win a Grand Prize for four to Baltimore to go to The Maryland Zoo and have a private meeting with baby penguins, Mumble & Gloria.
Additional prizes to include 20 free dance lessons at The Edge Performing Arts Center.
WHEN: Thursday, November 16, 2006
Crew Arrivals: 5:00PM
Contest: 5:30 PM
UPDATED – The Oscar Doc Picture Emerges (slowly)
It’s that Oscar 12 Short list time again… we’re up to 10..
Blindsight
Deliver Us from Evil
The Ground Truth
An Inconvenient Truth
Iraq In Fragments
Jesus Camp
Shut Up & Sing
An Unreasonable Man
The War Tapes
Added 9:44p – The Trials Of Daryl Hunt
Wednesday Morning Adds – Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore?
Jonestown: The Life and Death of People
Why A (Talking) Duck?
There has been a raft of pieces about all the talking animal movies out there. (Today
11 Comments »Monday, Monday…
I t is a boooooring day in Hollyrock. Anyone got anything?
63 Comments »Crouching Film Fest, Hidden Pop Quiz
I just got back from closing night at AFI and while I don’t have time right now to write a review, I did come up with this pop quiz.
The Curse of the Golden Flower is Zhang Yimou
Archie Bunker Goes To The Oscars
I try to stay out of the Jeff Wells business. There are many reasons for me to stay away from him, his work, and his head space.
But today, he wrote something so bothersome to me that I feel I must post it, as avoiding it would be a personal act, since I would post it if anyone else of Jeff’s stature wrote it. I will let you read it and decide for yourselves:
For the first ten days of the run of Dreamgirls (i.e., Friday, 12.15 to Sunday, 12.24), which is strictly a New York and L.A. thing, interested parties will be charged $25 a ticket on a reserved-seat basis. The high-prestige movies used to open in New York and L.A. on a reserved-seat “roadshow” basis back in the late ’50s and ’60s. Still…$50 bucks for two people plus popcorn and whatnot?
Methinks they’re looking to attract the “bling” crowd with this bucks-up, all-black musical — they know the blings like to flash the cash and parade around and whatnot, so they’ll leap at the chance to see Dreamgirls on this basis because of the ostentatious “statement” factor.
The blings have taken over the bar at the rear of the Beverly Wilshire. Weekends there are like New Year’s Eve in Dubai…gangstas and ho’s…guys with socks on their head or Iranians with shaved heads pulling up to the valet in $75,000 rich-asshole sports cars. The Beverly Wilshire used to have a touch of class…no longer.
“This bucks-up, all-black musical”… “gangstas and ho’s…guys with socks on their head” What the fuck?!?!
I suppose one could rationalize that
Sunday Estimates by Klady
Weekend (estimates) November 10 – 12, 2006
Title | Distributor | Gross (average) | % change | Theaters | Cume
Borat | Fox | 28.6 (11,130) | 8% | 2566 | 67.4
The Santa Clause 3 | BV | 16.9 (4,890) | -13% | 3458 | 41.1
Flushed Away | Par | 16.7 (4,510) | -11% | 3707 | 39.9
Stranger Than Fiction | Sony | 14.2 (6,280) | new | 2264 | 14.2
Saw III | Lions Gate | 6.5 (2,170) | -56% | 3013 | 69.8
Babel | Par Vantage | 5.5 (4,420) | 502% | 1251 | 7.4
The Departed | WB | 5.1 (2,310) | -34% | 2210 | 109.6
The Prestige | BV | 4.7 (2,090) | -38% | 2236 | 46
The Return | Focus | 4.7 (2,360) | new | 1986 | 4.7
A Good Year | Fox | 3.8 (1,850) | new | 2066 | 3.8
Flags of Our Fathers | Par | 2.8 (1,440) | -36% | 1963 | 31
The Queen | Miramax | 2.6 (5,430) | -10% | 484 | 13.8
Harsh Times | MGM | 1.8 (1,910) | new | 956 | 1.8
Man of the Year | Uni | 1.6 (1,000) | -57% | 1568 | 36.5
Open Season | Sony | 1.3 (1,180) | -55% | 1122 | 83.4
Flicka | Fox | 1.2 (990) | -55% | 1235 | 19.5
Marie Antoinette | Sony | 1.2 (1,670) | -47% | 705 | 14.9
The Guardian | BV | .75 (1,200) | -54% | 626 | 53.5
Facing the Giants | IDP | .67 (1,850) | -4% | 363 | 8.2
Running with Scissors | Sony | .61 (1,230) | -58% | 497 | 6.4
One Night with the King | Gener8Xion | .57 (1,290) | -47% | 440 | 12.7
Also debuting/expanding
Night of the Living Dead 3D | Midnight | .21 (1,060) | new | 200 | 0.21
Volver | Sony Classics | .17 (33,340) | -16% | 5 | 0.46
Copying Beethoven | MGM | 73,600 (2,830) | new | 26 | 0.07
Shut Up & Sing | Weinstein Co. | 67,300 (6,120) | -11% | 11 | 0.24
Come Early Morning | IDP | 49,400 (2,250) | new | 22 | 0.05
Fur | Picturehouse | 31,200 (7,800) | new | 4 | 0.03
Iraq in Fragments | Typecast | 23,400 (3,610) | new | 7 | 0.02
F*ck | Thinkfilm | 5,600 (2,800) | new | 2 | 0.01
"Now they're making millions but have only paid us 15 lei [around
The Borat lawsuit situation is real… but it has nothing to do with morality.
The headline of this entry is from a Daily Mail story about the people of Glod, where, apparently, SBC, Larry Charles & Co shot the Kazakh sequences of Borat. Of course, I took the comment out of context. The whole quote is: