The domestic box-office estimates for the July 4th holiday weekend are in. According to Boxofficemojo, at the time of this writing, the results are too close to call. Both Viacom's (NYSE: VIA) Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and News Corp.'s (NASDAQ: NWS) Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs are credited with the same amount of money: $42.5 million. Boxofficemojo is giving Dinosaurs the edge for now and calling it the top movie, presumably because the per-theater average for the computer cartoon is slightly higher.

I previously discussed News Corp.'s strong opening with Dinosaurs, but unfortunately, I'm not so sure the movie lived up to it. When the second Ice Age was released back in 2006, it scored $68 million in its three-day debut weekend. Dinosaurs didn't do as well, but let's take into account the film's Wednesday opening, and tally up the gross for the five-day period, since some of the excitement that might have been reserved for the weekend could have been spread over the mid-week showings. Even by that standard, as of the current estimate, Dinosaurs has taken in a little less than the second Ice Age.

Continue reading Were News Corp.'s 'Ice Age' sequel and GE's 'Public Enemies' disappointments?

Were News Corp.'s 'Ice Age' sequel and GE's 'Public Enemies' disappointments? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 06 Jul 2009 09:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Jordan Stein over at Minyanville wrote a great piece about how the economy is causing a little bit of deflation for the salaries of Hollywood stars. As an example, Stein pointed out how Disney (NYSE: DIS) doesn't want to go overboard in terms of compensating Nicolas Cage for his services in the next National Treasure feature. That's a popular franchise, and Cage is arguably a key to its success. But guess what? Doesn't matter, because money is tight, and Hollywood managements need to inject some sanity into negotiations.

Which, of course, has always been the problem. There's never been any sanity when it comes to negotiations in Tinsel Town. Stars are overpaid, and they take too much of the gross dollars generated by celluloid assets. If we were talking about private studios, I wouldn't mind. But I own shares of Disney and believe that overpaid talent is one reason why the stock hasn't done much over a decade.

However, I'm not so sure that things are changing that much in Hollywood. If you read the entire article that Stein referenced, you'll note that it implies that individuals such as Will Smith and Johnny Depp aren't seeing reductions in their compensation packages. It might be great that Mickey Rourke may have been offered only $250,000 by Marvel (NYSE: MVL) for an opportunity to be in the Iron Man sequel, but unless bigger stars see reductions in their bottom lines, then the system cannot truly change.

Continue reading Is the economy hurting Hollywood paychecks?

Is the economy hurting Hollywood paychecks? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 24 Jan 2009 15:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

This post is part of our feature on Money Winners of 2008. See all 20.

Johnny Depp is one quirky thespian. Whether he's playing a Gothic mutant with scissors for hands, a sadistic throat-slitting barber, or one wacked-out pirate who sounds a lot like a drunken guitarist from one of the greatest rock 'n roll bands of all time, Depp works overtime to extract as much weirdness from a part as he conceivably can so he can present a compelling performance to paying audiences at the local multiplex. And he gets paid pretty well for his services.

In fact, he's set to earn multiple millions of dollars to appear in a fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie. That's right, if you thought Disney (NYSE: DIS) was thinking of stopping at the third one (like maybe it should), then you turned out to be wrong. It's difficult to say exactly how much Depp will make from the next Pirates adventure. The Movie Blog claims that the number is as high as $75 million. I've read other reports that confirm this figure, but I've also read speculation that the value relates more to the potential of his earnings power in terms of gross participation, merchandise, etc. In other words, it might be reasonable to assume that Depp will earn as high as $75 million if Pirates 4 is a huge box-office hit on the level of its predecessors. He may, however, receive a lesser amount upfront. I believe the latter to most likely be the case based on the way Hollywood works. We unfortunately will never know the specific details because the SEC does not require public media companies to report talent compensation (in my opinion, they should). No matter what, though, he'll be grossing a lot of bucks when he returns as Captain Jack Sparrow.

Continue reading Money winners of 2008: Johnny Depp, once and future pirate captain

Money winners of 2008: Johnny Depp, once and future pirate captain originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 13 Dec 2008 12:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

As "Spider-Man 3" breaks box office records, its studio Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE) is about to hit milestone that's not worth celebrating.

The Japanese conglomerate may report its worst quarterly loss in four years tomorrow because of lackluster sales of the PlayStation 3, according to Bloomberg News. The company's movie division, of course, is a bright spot for Chief Executive Howard Stringer.

But before investors' spidey senses start tingling, some reality is in order.

For one thing, "Spider-Man 3" was an extremely expensive film to make. Media reports say it was the costliest film in the history of Hollywood. Radar magazine pegs the price tag at $500 million, Sony says the figure is closer to $270 million.

Everyone agrees that it rewrote the rulebook in Hollywood.

Continue reading Sony falters as Spider-Man 3 soars

Sony falters as Spider-Man 3 soars originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 15 May 2007 13:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

It's only cremated remains but I like it: Keith Richards snorts father originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 04 Apr 2007 14:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.