This post is part of AOL Money & Finance's Best & Worst in Money 2008 feature.

Well, 2008 has come and gone. If you were looking to be entertained over the past 12 months, you had a lot of choices. From Batman's battle with the maniacal Joker to Hannah Montana singing her little heart out in 3-D, there was something for everyone. Let's look at five of the hottest properties that made their way into the heart of the cultural mindshare in '08.

Up first is The Dark Knight, the second iteration of director Christopher Nolan's new vision of the Caped Crusader. That movie killed at the box office, and Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) could not have been happier. Knight scored almost $1 billion at the global box office. More than half that number was captured in the domestic marketplace. There's no question that the movie mesmerized the collective intellect of the audience. There's also no question that Heath Ledger, who tragically passed away earlier in the year, impressed everyone with his portrayal of the chaotic and cruel Joker villain. I, however, do have a question. Is it just me, or was Knight not as awesome a film as the hype makes it out to be? I saw it, thought it was okay. I don't know, I'm just not sure that this new entry in the cinematic Batman mythos would have brought in as many bucks if the notoriety of Ledger's death wasn't attached to these particular reels of celluloid. To be honest, I didn't think Ledger did that unique of a job. And I thought The Joker's voice was annoying, almost sounding like Sam Raimi -- did anyone else happen to think that? Maybe it's just me. Nevertheless, I salute the success of Knight and respect the project for the impact it had on theaters 'round the world.

Continue reading Best & Worst in Money 2008: Hottest in entertainment

Best & Worst in Money 2008: Hottest in entertainment originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 06 Dec 2008 10:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Time Warner's (NYSE: TWX) The Dark Knight is in the fight of its life. According to Boxofficemojo, it has a slim lead over General Electric's (NYSE: GE) The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor at the domestic box office. The Batman flick is estimated to have taken in roughly $43.8 million, while the Mummy movie has about $42.5 million to its credit right. That's just too close to call. There is one thing for certain, however. Knight will approach $500 million in total box-office grosses since its cume currently stands at a little under $400 million. Awesome, indeed, although I think the movie will start to exhaust itself before it can gets to $500 million. We'll see if I'm correct on that count.

Moving on, we see that Sony's (NYSE: SNE) Step Brothers, GE's Mamma Mia!, and Time Warner's Journey to the Center of the Earth came in third, fourth, and fifth, respectively, over the weekend. Disney (NYSE: DIS), unfortunately, suffered an utter embarrassment with its new film project Swing Vote, starring Kevin Costner. The movie came in sixth place and only managed about $6 million. I've got to say that I don't blame Disney on this one. Concept and timing seemed solid to me, and it had a decent enough advertising campaign. However, I didn't like the performance of Disney's studio operations in the latest quarter, so it is too bad that this film couldn't have swung one out of the park.

Time Warner is really doing great with Knight, but I'm sure it's frustrating for shareholders to know that one hit film won't necessarily rally the stock for this big media conglomerate. It should drive studio and licensing profits down the line, however, so investors will at least notice that. I must admit that I thought the Mummy sequel was going to bomb over the weekend. Didn't seem as exciting as the first two. But GE's Universal division scored and seems to be having a decent summer at the multiplex, releasing hits such as Wanted, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, and the aforementioned Mamma Mia! Will Mummy will see a big drop next weekend? I fear it might. For now, it remains Batman's nemesis.

Disclosure: I own Disney and GE; positions can change at any time.

How high will 'The Dark Knight's' box office go? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 04 Aug 2008 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

• Time Warner -- through its Warner Brothers and DC Comics subsidiaries are profiting most directly.
• Comcast Corporation (NYSE: CMCSA) partnered with Warner Bros. to offer "behind-the-scenes footage, trailers, and mini movies on demand"
• Verizon Communications, Inc. (NYSE: VZ) and Nokia Corporation (NYSE: NOK) collaborated in creating the Nokia6205 The Dark Knight Edition. Seeking Alpha reports that "This batphone targets superfans, with bat wallpaper, voice tones, screensavers, and the film's trailer pre-loaded."

Continue reading How to profit from the Dark Knight Industrial Complex

How to profit from the Dark Knight Industrial Complex originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 21 Jul 2008 18:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) bombed earlier in the summer with a movie called Speed Racer. If you said you didn't see that one, I wouldn't be surprised. However, in the interest of cosmic balance, the media company scored with its new Batman flick, The Dark Knight. And when I say scored, I mean it. The film is estimated to have taken in about $155 million over the past three-day weekend at domestic theaters, according to Boxofficemojo. If this estimate holds, then it represents record business. Spider-Man 3 currently holds the three-day record of $151.1 million.

Mamma Mia!, distributed by General Electric's (NYSE: GE) Universal didn't come close to the Bat. It came in second with around $27 million. Hancock from Sony (NYSE: SNE) was third with $14 million, and it will be crossing the $200 million mark in about a week or so. Time Warner's Journey to the Center of the Earth was fourth, while Universal's Hellboy II: The Golden Army was fifth. That film took a steep 70% drop compared to its debut-weekend performance. I didn't think it would fall that far, but I suppose the Batman juggernaut left it no choice but to step aside. It took in a weak $10 million for the weekend.

Continue reading Time Warner and 'The Dark Knight' rule the box office

Time Warner and 'The Dark Knight' rule the box office originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 21 Jul 2008 08:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

There will be five superheroes competing for the attention of weekend moviegoers come Friday. There's Marvel Entertainment Inc. (NYSE: MVL)'s duo Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk, Sony Corporation (NYSE: SNE)'s Hancock, General Electric Corporation (NYSE: GE)'s Hellboy (distributed by GE's Universal), and Time Warner, Inc (NYSE: TWX)'s Dark Knight. So, who's going to be the ultimate crime fighter?

I'll tell you which one prevails: Time Warner and its new Batman film, The Dark Knight, has the weekend all locked up. This is set in stone. The Hulk and Iron Man are pretty much done, Hellboy isn't a powerful enough brand name, and Hancock didn't deliver the big numbers I thought it was capable of during its debut weekend (since then, however, the movie has held up well, I have to admit). But you can bet that Dark Knight hits $100 million this weekend. Can you feel the buzz surrounding this blockbuster in the wings? I can. Several reviews I've read were full of cinematic worship for this new entry in the franchise, with special praise reserved for the late Heath Ledger and his portrayal of the fiendish nightmare known as The Joker. There's a decent marketing campaign behind the project, including promotion of the availability of IMAX (NASDAQ: IMAX) screenings. If there ever seemed a movie fit for Imax, this is it. Yeah, Dark Knight can't lose, it can only win big.

Of course, what about Time Warner's stock? It could certainly use a superhero right now, as it has been hovering in recent times not above Gotham City (although that would probably be treacherous enough) but above 52-week-low City. I can't say that a big opening weekend definitely won't move the stock a little just due to the excitement factor, but I wouldn't buy the company ahead of the film (I also wouldn't gamble with IMAX either). Time Warner simply is too large to be affected significantly by one movie. If you consider Time Warner at all, it would be for fundamentals and valuation (I think the company is cheap here, although with this market, I'd rather get it cheaper). Enjoy the movie first, think about the stock later...

Disclosure: I own GE and Marvel; positions can change at any time.

How big will Time Warner's 'Dark Knight' be? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 17 Jul 2008 16:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

5/2 - Iron Man, Viacom (NYSE: VIA)'s Paramount Pictures

Continue reading 'Iron Man' vs. 'Indy': Preview of potential summer blockbusters

'Iron Man' vs. 'Indy': Preview of potential summer blockbusters originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 03 May 2008 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Arnold may not be back, but that doesn't mean a franchise can't move forward on its own.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Sony (NYSE: SNE) and Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) stand to see some nice revenue generation for their studio segments in 2009 via a new sequel in the Terminator franchise, to be called Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins. Sony will take international distribution chores, while Time Warner will handle the domestic side of things.

As a fan of the Terminator series, I can tell you that it will be great to see another entry. And it will also be exciting to see if the brand can be carried by someone else other than Arnold Schwarzenegger. In fact, Christian Bale is set to play John Connor, the future rebel who battles Skynet and its evil cyborg army.

Continue reading A new 'Terminator' means money in the bank for Sony, Time Warner

A new 'Terminator' means money in the bank for Sony, Time Warner originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 26 Feb 2008 15:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Local Best Buy (BBY) employs tacky marketing in wake of Heath Ledger death originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 23 Jan 2008 15:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

To make matters a bit odder, there is no film preview, only a few voice-overs and a black screen video with a bat emblem crumbling and turning into light. At least there is a brief narration of Michael Caine (as Alfred), if that is the sort of thing fans are looking for. Maybe that's all the hype Warner Bros. wants to or is willing to give, as the movie is presently being filmed. CNN also has a video demo of a scene filmed in Chicago showing the old Brach's Candy factory being blown up. But other than a humdinger of a blow-up, it's hard to tell what the scene is.

As for the lineup: Christian Bale returns as Batman and Bruce Wayne, Maggie Gyllenhaal replaces Katie Holmes as Rachel (since Katie has been abducted by aliens), and Heath Ledger is playing The Joker. Hopefully, The Joker won't tell Batman, "I wish I could quit you!" This cast seems a bit odd, but since Batman Begins turned out pretty well, it's going to be hard not to give this one the benefit of the doubt.

Continue reading Batman, The Dark Knight: A summer 2008 hit for Time Warner (TWX)?

Batman, The Dark Knight: A summer 2008 hit for Time Warner (TWX)? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 06 Sep 2007 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Time Warner Inc.'s (NYSE: TWX) Warner Bros. Entertainment division revealed the look of actor Heath Ledger as the Joker in The Dark Knight, the upcoming sequel to 2005's Batman Begins, last week on one of three new websites designed to promote the film: www.ibelieveinharveydenttoo.com. The image has since been removed from the site and a disclaimer reads "Page not found" but if you highlight the page you can read several hundred "ha ha's," with displaced letters throughout the text reading "see you in December."

The sequel planned for release in the United States in July 2008, follows the $372 million blockbuster Batman Begins, which showed a young Bruce Wayne struggling to deal with his parents murder and vowing to clean-up Gotham City as Batman. In The Dark Knight, Batman will purportedly continue his fight to clean-up Gotham while the Joker, his comic book arch-nemesis, comes into the picture and causes more chaos. If this image and its grotesque indications are any sign, the new film is going to follow the first nicely and add more to the realistic tones set down by director Christopher Nolan and writer David S. Goyer. Fans and summer blockbuster viewers will have to wait another fourteen months to see though.

Time Warner, which closed at $21.56 yesterday, will have a hard road in those months to sell this new Joker to kids and families like it has sold products for every Batman film since 1989, which featured Jack Nicholson as the Joker. While this new incarnation is showing no sign of being connected to Nicholson's portrayal, it seems hard to determine how or if Time Warner will even attempt to market the character. Certainly a Heath Ledger Joker action figure will be produced, but who will purchase it? Kids (the parents for the kids), or the fans and collectors that jump on the dark nature of the acting, character, and ultimately film.

Revealed image indicates 'Dark Knight' indeed originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 24 May 2007 11:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Somewhere in the deep dark attics of Time Warner, Superman has been waiting. He's been gathering star dust, or whatever it is that superheroes gather when they lie in attics so long. Up until last year, he was stored right next to Batman -- until he, you know, Begined with the $200 million, eighth-highest-grossing movie of 2005.

It was about time Superman answered the call and swooped down to save Time Warner from its no-big-movie-having self, says Rick Munarriz for the Motley Fool. The company has no top-10 movies this year, despite big hopes with action block-wanna-be-busters V for Vendetta, Firewall, and Poseidon.

That will certainly change with Superman Returns, says Munarriz, and he doesn't even much care if the movie doesn't make back its $260 million production budget. If people love it (and they will!), "it can turn the spigot for more cost-effective sequels in the coming years. This is about more than just one film or one Halloween season with a few more trick-or-treating Superman kiddies than in years past. It's about making a statement."

I, for one, hope Superman can save Time Warner -- if only for the fun I'll have writing headlines about it. [Photo opendoorexit]

Time Warner rescued by Superman? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 28 Jun 2006 18:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.