Last week's number-one picture, Star Trek, had to yield to a newcomer this week. Angels & Demons, distributed by Sony (NYSE: SNE), took the top spot this past weekend at domestic theaters, according to Boxofficemojo. The movie is credited with $48 million as of early estimates.

Trek, distributed by Viacom (NYSE: VIA), came in second with $43 million. And I have to say, although I wasn't impressed with the movie's box-office debut, I thought that the second weekend was relatively strong. I expected a better than 50% drop for its sophomore frame. As of current data, Trek only shed roughly 40% of its opening gross. Good job (I still think the opening was weak, though). The film is close to the $150 million mark.

Continue reading Sony's 'Angels & Demons' triumphs over Viacom's 'Star Trek'

Sony's 'Angels & Demons' triumphs over Viacom's 'Star Trek' originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 18 May 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Viacom (NYSE: VIA) came out on top this past weekend with its new Star Trek film. According to early estimates from Boxofficemojo, the picture made roughly $72 million over the three-day period at domestic theaters.

If you include some early screenings, the total is closer to $76 million. Trek beat out such projects as Marvel's (NYSE: MVL) and News Corp.'s (NASDAQ: NWS) X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which came in second place, and Time Warner's (NYSE: TWX) Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, which took spot number three.

Continue reading Beam up more box-office bucks, Scotty!

Beam up more box-office bucks, Scotty! originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 11 May 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

It was a great weekend for comic book fans. First, Saturday was Free Comic Book Day. I hope you were able to celebrate (I did!). Second, Marvel's (NYSE: MVL) X-Men Origins: Wolverine, licensed to and distributed by News Corp. (NASDAQ: NWS), opened on Friday.

As expected, it completely annihilated the competition (I would have said clawed the competition, but I'm sure that pun has already been done to death by now) at the domestic box office over the weekend.

Continue reading Was 'Wolverine's' box office that great?

Was 'Wolverine's' box office that great? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 04 May 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Hasbro (NYSE: HAS), a toymaker that competes with Mattel (NYSE: MAT) and JAKKS Pacific (NASDAQ: JAKK), reported results for the first quarter on Monday. They weren't that spectacular. No big earnings beat here. Net sales were down 6%, even excluding the effect of currency translation. Net income dropped 44% to $0.14 per share. According to this source, that number unfortunately merely met Wall Street expectations.

Of course, I suppose things could have been worse. Hasbro could have missed expectations by a mile. In this kind of economy, we probably should be glad that a company whose products can easily be cut from any discretionary family budget at least was able to keep up with prevailing wisdom.

Continue reading Hasbro meets expectations in tough Q1

Hasbro meets expectations in tough Q1 originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 20 Apr 2009 15:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Marvel (NYSE: MVL) is a great company. It's got a lot of cool characters in its vast comic book portfolio. Spider-Man, Hulk, X-Men, you know them all. And it's a fun stock to both invest in and trade. It's a more direct play on movies than a Disney (NYSE: DIS) or a Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) is. I've made money on Marvel in the past. I don't currently own it, so I was pretty interested when I heard that Wedbush Morgan issued an upgrade this week.

Wedbush Morgan basically said that the market is undervaluing Marvel's potential. It sees a price target of $31. I myself think Marvel will break $30 yet again, but the problem I have is with sentiment. Exactly how will the market react to Marvel's shares this year?

Continue reading Is Marvel worthy of an upgrade?

Is Marvel worthy of an upgrade? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 18 Feb 2009 09:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

First off, both are great companies. No, not every move they make is perfect (example: Marvel still can't properly monetize its Incredible Hulk property with a decent film). But both stocks have held up relatively well, in my opinion, during the financial implosion. Both stocks are also below their respective 52-week high's and above their respective 52-week low's. That's not a bad position to be in (although I should point out that I generally would like to get these two around their 52-week low's). But which stock has the edge?

Well, Marvel's shares have been strong lately. According to the AOL quote at the time of this writing, Marvel is in the green in all time frames (year-to-date, one-month, one-year, etc.). DreamWorks Animation is in the red in a couple spots, but for the most part, it's been performing somewhat similarly to Marvel. I don't really see that much of a difference in terms of strength. Plus, both are arguably essentially equal in terms of valuation (at least in my opinion).

Continue reading DreamWorks Animation versus Marvel Entertainment: Which one is a buy?

DreamWorks Animation versus Marvel Entertainment: Which one is a buy? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 07 Jan 2009 12:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.