Coinstar (CSTR - option chain) shares rose Wednesday after the company announced that it has extended its revenue sharing license agreement between Paramount Home Entertainment and Redbox Automated Retail, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Coinstar. If you think that the stock won't fall by too much in the coming months, then now could be a good time to look at a bullish hedged trade on CSTR.

CSTR opened Wednesday at $53.50. In morning trading, the stock hit a low of $52.30 and a high of $54.76. As of 12:15, CSTR was trading at $53.17 up 0.67 (1.3%). The chart for CSTR looks bearish.

Continue reading Coinstar's Redbox Extends Deal with Paramount

Coinstar's Redbox Extends Deal with Paramount originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 16 Jun 2010 13:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Coinstar (CSTR) to put Paramount films in Redbox kiosks

Coinstar (CSTR) to put Paramount films in Redbox kiosks originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 26 Aug 2009 12:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

This movie-making model is right up my alley. I've written extensively about how Tinsel Town has gotten out of control when it comes to budgets and marketing expenses. Movies simply don't need to cost as much as they do. And projects give away way too many concessions in terms of cash-flow participation. Big stars tend to receive percentages of the gross that are too significant, in my opinion.

Continue reading New studio's business plan should be a lesson to media conglomerates

New studio's business plan should be a lesson to media conglomerates originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Viacom (NYSE: VIA), a media business that competes with Disney (NYSE: DIS), Time Warner (NYSE: TWX), News Corp. (NYSE: NWS), General Electric's (NYSE: GE) NBC Universal, and Sony (NYSE: SNE), doesn't have a lot to brag about in its third quarter. Revenue went up only 4%. Adjusted earnings fell 15% to $0.55, beating expecations by a penny. But I doubt that's much comfort in this particular case, considering that operating income at the company's media networks division dipped 4%, and an operating loss was reported for the studio division due to difficult comparisons (i.e., Transformers helped the year-ago quarter).

Like clockwork, Executive Chairman Sumner Redstone praised Viacom's content and fully supported CEO Philippe Dauman. Maybe Redstone should take a strong look at Viacom and sit the CEO down and have a serious discussion with him about the realities of entertainment programming. Right now, MTV is suffering from ratings challenges. Dauman has to step up his game in this regard.

I mean, come on, MTV is a powerful brand with the youth, and he needs to lean on the folks running it to work harder and become more innovative and creative. I will say that I liked that the earnings release mentioned a desire to engage better cost controls at its studio division. Paramount definitely needs to lower overhead expenses. Hollywood likes to spend money; shareholders most certainly do not. So I think Redstone should aggressively make this clear to Dauman.

Continue reading Viacom beats in Q3, but the numbers are weak

Viacom beats in Q3, but the numbers are weak originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 04 Nov 2008 08:43:00 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.

Film financing fascinates me. There's so much involved; determining the risk associated with a particular project (on some level, this is impossible to do, since you can't predict how the public will react to a cinematic concept), figuring out how much exposure to the film industry a studio and/or equity entity should have, trying to eliminate the potential to be blinded by the alluring glamor that an association with a Hollywood investment by necessity implies -- believe me, there's a lot of complicated financial and social politics going on when one puts together a deal.

So, the following article from Reuters caught my attention. It concerned Viacom's (NYSE: VIA) movie asset Paramount. The article states that Paramount is having something of a tough time lining up funds from investors for its next slate, and that it might be looking to set up about $400 million.

The problem is, hedge funds and other investors haven't profited as much as they expected to from their piece of the action in the movie business. Therefore, they could be reticent going forward in terms of supplying studios with monies to produce celluloid entertainment. This is very understandable in my opinion; the movie business is hit-or-miss, and evaluating a project's ability to secure a return is about as easy as receiving a compliment from Simon Cowell. The Reuters piece implies that deal structures will have to change, which is something I've discussed previously -- I definitely think movies could be cheaper if the powers that be would just get their acts together.

Continue reading Will Paramount be willing to take on more risk?

Will Paramount be willing to take on more risk? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 11 Apr 2008 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

All movie studios want to find their own Lord of the Rings/Harry Potter franchise. Disney (NYSE: DIS), for example, seems to be headed on the right track with its Narnia brand. Viacom (NYSE: VIA) made a solid effort this past weekend by releasing The Spiderwick Chronicles to the mass multiplex marketplace -- unfortunately, things didn't turn out so well, at least as I'm seeing it.

According to Boxofficemojo, Spiderwick is in a battle with Disney's Step Up 2 the Streets for second place. The latter is right now estimated to have grossed $19.7 million for the three-day weekend of February 15 through February 17; the former has just over $19 million to its credit. So, Spiderwick could exit its current third-place showing and move up in the rankings, but it won't catch up to the big winner, News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) Jumper. I'll tell you, I had no idea this one was going to "jump" -- what a horrible, horrible pun, huh? -- to the top of the box office charts this weekend with a $27 million take.

Final numbers will be coming later today, and we'll get a better indication of how all the movies did once Monday's holiday figures are added; also, the second weekend is always the ultimate tell. But, as of now, I don't think Viacom's Spiderwick fantasy -- which is distributed by Paramount and is co-branded with Nickelodeon Movies -- will approach the economic prestige of Time Warner's (NYSE: TWX) Potter property. Better luck next time.

Disclosure: I own shares in Disney.

'Spiderwick Chronicles' not such a great fantasy for Viacom originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 18 Feb 2008 14:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Viacom (NYSE: VIA)'s Paramount unit will launch the next version of its popular Jackass film series online. On December 19, Jackass 2.5 will be offered free at the Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI) website only for streaming -- users will not be able to download the film. Starting a week later, the DVD-version will go on sale.

The project will be supported by advertising, and according to The Wall Street Journal, "Blockbuster paid a guarantee of around $2 million to Paramount for exclusive rights to Jackass 2.5."

The entire model represents a threat to the traditional movie revenue model. Theater owners, who are still powerful distributors for feature content, are likely to be upset. And what about the airline version of the movie, or the one that would run on HBO? Those may simply be unavailable.

But as the number of broadband homes rises and the number of people who grew up with a PC increases, the opportunity to launch video content outside of traditional channels will increase. Whether that will put studios at war with their traditional distribution outlets remains to be seen, but a series of battles is likely.

And you'd need a new Oscar category: "Best Film Released Online."

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

'Jackass 2.5' to debut online, in challenge to film industry originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 13 Dec 2007 09:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading 'Transformers' and 'Shrek' flex muscles: A review of the summer blockbusters

'Transformers' and 'Shrek' flex muscles: A review of the summer blockbusters originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 25 Sep 2007 17:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Is Transformers worthy of a franchise? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 09 Jul 2007 18:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Evan Almighty's arc just sank

Evan Almighty's arc just sank originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 25 Jun 2007 19:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Blockbuster backs Blu-Ray originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 18 Jun 2007 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading 'Spiderman 3', everything '3': Preview of potential summer blockbusters

'Spiderman 3', everything '3': Preview of potential summer blockbusters originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 30 Apr 2007 21:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Viacom Inc. (NYSE:VIA) Chairman Sumner Redstone was recently bragging about his company's Paramount film studios to the press like a proud parent. It also underscores why he doesn't need Tom Cruise.

The company's "Dreamgirls" film has snagged eight Academy Awards nominations, "Babel" is nominated for "Best Picture" and "Norbit" now has the top spot at the box office. Plus, the studio has promising features such as "Transformers" and a new Indiana Jones film in the pipeline.

Redstone makes the point to the Hollywood Reporter that Hollywood continues to overpay "the talent." "Because it is not the talent that makes the movie, it is the script," he said. "'The play's the thing,' as someone once said. And if you have a great script, the talent rushes to appear in it and at not too heavy a price."

He's right of course and so was Shakespeare.

High-priced actors will appear in a low-budget film if they like the script. They will also appear in bad, big-budget films for a big pay check. Fans will only put up with their favorite stars appearing in bad movies for so long before that actor's brand is tarnished. That's why Redstone was smart to end Paramount's deal with Cruise.

Paramount's rebound will help Viacom's bottom line, particularly when these movies come out in DVDs.

Since he's interested in good scripts, I wonder if I should mail Redstone my coming-of-age comedy about an aspiring hip-hop star from the mean streets of Scarsdale. Does anybody have his email address?

Redstone was smart to ditch Tom Cruise originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 14 Feb 2007 08:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

After watching the music industry suffer from illegal digital piracy, the film studios are taking extra precautions to avoid the same fate. As a result, Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is coming under pressure from some of Hollywood's biggest studios to rework the operating environment of its iTunes platform.

The studios, including Universal, 20th Century Fox, Paramount and Warner Bros, are enthusiastic about following Disney by offering their content via iTunes, but remain concerned about the platform's ability to prevent piracy.

Rightfully so when one considers that the average cost of a major studio release nowadays is approaching $100 million. The movie studios feel they have a lot more at stake than their (sister) record labels. One movie executive said, "We're very willing to do a deal but we're keen to get some concessions from Apple that will account for the differences between the value of music and television content and feature film content."

With the development and announcement of iTV, it is even more important for Apple to demonstrate that it can protect more than just copyrighted music. If it succeeds in placating the film industry, consumers might just plan to replace their DVD player with Apple's iTV player.

Movie studios pressure Apple originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 29 Nov 2006 09:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Paramount Picture's recent decision to cut loose Tom Cruise may be just the opening salvo in an upcoming battle between Hollywood studios and high-priced, high maintenance celebs. While overall movie receipt totals for this summer were up, the increase was driven by higher ticket prices, not increased attendance. Moviegoers are increasingly likely to be videoviewers instead. More than 1 million viewers have downloaded the video clip of a young man mixing Diet Coke with a mint and spewing the resulting concoction out of his mouth. Even more odd, 400,000 viewers have downloaded a clip of rabbits munching on vegetation.

Memo to viewers: GET LIVES! Seeing this image on the wall, AOL's strategy to become a premier video viewing destination begins to make a great deal of sense.

Movie production costs continue to skyrocket, with no assurance that money spent on production will be recouped at the theatres. By contrast, the number of no or low-cost video and video clips grows exponentially every week. As well, hundreds of hours of TV programming and thousands of movie titles are added to an increasing number of video-on-demand channels. With its recent purchase of GameDaily, Userplane and Truevo, AOL Video is moving to capture audience eyeballs. AOL also concluded a deal to distribute movie titles from 20th Century Fox, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Universal Pictures and Warner Brothers Home Entertainment Group.

Currently, AOL's business model allows viewers to access some ad-supported TV programming on demand free of charge. AOL plans to charge $9.99-$19.99 per movie download. For this fee, howwver, viewers will NOT own the movie. Purchasers may not burn the movie onto a DVD, though the movie may be played repeatedly over a period of days on several different Windows-supported devices. It remains to be seen whether consumers wil pay this fee for short-term ownership only.

TWX: E-lebrities to Replace Celebrities originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 25 Aug 2006 13:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.