The sale of DVDs is going the way of the PC -- both have seen their market share dwindling. In a world of instant information, streaming videos are replacing DVDs. Last year, DVD sales fell by 43% to $7.8 billion from $13.7 billion in 2006, The Wall Street Journal reported.

There is another accompanying trend that reinforces streaming videos. Customers are spending more time online. Add the multiplier of time spent on social networks and it's streaming video hands down.

Continue reading Facebook Invades Netflix and RedBox's Turf

Facebook Invades Netflix and RedBox's Turf originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 09 Mar 2011 10:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

It was a busy weekend at the box office. The Memorial Day holiday period is a time when studios try to set a good financial tone for their summer slates.

And it looks like News Corp. (NASDAQ: NWS) is the winner. The media company's Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian project, starring Ben Stiller, grossed an estimated $53 million at domestic multiplexes over the past three days according to Boxofficemojo. That was a good performance. The first Night at the Museum took in $30 million in its first three days of release back in Christmas 2006.

I was surprised that News Corp. came out on top. Did anyone out there think that Terminator Salvation, from Time Warner (NYSE: TWX), wouldn't be number one?

Continue reading Did 'Termintaor Salvation' need Arnold Schwarzenegger?

Did 'Termintaor Salvation' need Arnold Schwarzenegger? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 25 May 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Released last July, The Dark Knight -- the second installment in director Christopher Nolan's latest adaptation of the Batman mythology -- continues to score box-office dollars. Distributed by Warner Brothers, a subsidiary of Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX), the movie crossed the $1 billion mark late Friday, joining an elite quartet to pass this high-water mark.

Leading the list of top all-time box office grosses are Titanic ($1.84B), Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ($1.12B), and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest ($1.07B).

More than half of Dark Knight's box-office dough ($533.1 million, to be specific) was earned domestically, while $468 million was collected from overseas theaters. Movie-watchers were driven to the theaters in droves due to stellar reviews, positive reaction to its predecessor (Batman Begins) and the shocking and premature death of costar Heath Ledger, who died last January.

Continue reading 'Dark Knight' box-office receipts top $1 billion

'Dark Knight' box-office receipts top $1 billion originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 22 Feb 2009 11:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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.

According to Boxofficemojo.com, the fight for top dog at the domestic multiplex is a close one. Both Bangkok Dangerous, from Lions Gate Entertainment (NYSE: LGF), and Tropic Thunder, from Viacom (NYSE: VIA), have almost the same statistic. Bangkok is estimated to have taken in $7.8 million, while Thunder has approximately $7.5 million to its credit. It will be interesting to see who ultimately takes the honors, but I can tell you that from my perspective, it wasn't a great weekend for Lions Gate shareholders.

The reason I say this is because I thought Nicolas Cage would have brought in more moviegoers. The marketing campaign seemed to predict an opening of well over $10 million. Heck, I would have preferred $20 million considering that the budget on the picture has been reported to be about $45 million. But I must remember that we are no longer in the competitive, fast marketplace of summer. The month of September is certainly more mellow, although that doesn't mean that it can't have a breakout hit.

Sony (NYSE: SNE) came in third with House Bunny, and Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) continues to add to its Dark Knight treasure chest at position number four. Batman now has over $512 million to his domestic credit. Imagine all the upgrades to the Batcave that such an amount of money could finance!

Continue reading 'Bangkok Dangerous' roars over the weekend for Lions Gate

'Bangkok Dangerous' roars over the weekend for Lions Gate originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 08 Sep 2008 10:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Well, it's happened. Time Warner's (NYSE: TWX) The Dark Knight reached $500 million. According to Boxofficemojo.com, the blockbuster's total tally stands at roughly $504 million as of this writing. Shareholders in the famous media company should be pretty darn happy, especially considering that the DVD will certainly be a big hit during the holiday season.

Yet, I have to wonder if there is a dark side to this monumental achievement. I mean, you do have to ask yourself whether Time Warner could possibly produce a follow-up to Knight. The success of the current flick means that all the Comic-Con geeks out there are going to demand a storyline that blows the pants off Knight. Who knows if that's possible (and I should point out that I, for one, wasn't impressed with Knight, and thought that the hype generated by it was irrational).

And if Time Warner isn't able to please its core audience, could it manage to convince mainstream audiences that the film is worth a shot? A movie doesn't reach $500 million with just the core demographic, of course. When people see big numbers flowing in from the first couple weekends, and subsequently hear about fans seeing a project multiple times, it instills interest in these other demographics, ones that are outside the target audience. This is how a phenomenon is made. And I think repeating such a feat represents a difficulty of the highest order.

Continue reading The Dark Knight's success could mean trouble for the next Batman movie

The Dark Knight's success could mean trouble for the next Batman movie originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 02 Sep 2008 13:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

According to Boxofficemojo.com, last weekend's top film, Viacom's (NYSE: VIA) Tropic Thunder, retained its number-one status over the past three days. It is estimated to have grossed $16 million at domestic theaters as of this writing. Of course, things could change, since the film currently in second place, Sony's (NYSE: SNE) The House Bunny, is only about a million dollars behind the Ben Stiller comedy. I have a feeling, though, that Thunder will keep its top spot. It seems to have some decent momentum behind it.

Death Race, released by General Electric's (NYSE: GE) Universal, came in third with about $12 million. Not too exciting of a debut. This is the kind of the film that ideally should have come out at the beginning of the summer box-office season. Since I haven't seen it, I can't say whether it would have been appropriate to have released it at that time (i.e., maybe it didn't come out that great and needed to be dumped in the latter days of August).

Dropping two places to number four is everybody's favorite superhero these days, Time Warner's (NYSE: TWX) The Dark Knight. The movie has roughly $489 million in total to its credit. It won't reach the heights of Titanic, but it will pass $500 million. Not too shabby for the Bat. I'm sure the studio division at Time Warner is working overdrive right now to construct a competent, cohesive marketing campaign to ensure that the home-video release adequately takes advantage of the incredible theatrical success that Knight has generated. They really have a big property on their hands with this one.

Continue reading 'The Dark Knight' drops as 'Tropic Thunder' stays on top

'The Dark Knight' drops as 'Tropic Thunder' stays on top originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 25 Aug 2008 10:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Time Warner's (NYSE: TWX) The Dark Knight will not rest. According to Boxofficemojo, the superhero flick finished in first place yet again over the weekend. It grossed an estimated $26 million at domestic theaters. Sony's (NYSE: SNE) Pineapple Express put forth a valiant effort to beat the Bat, but it came up a little short. That film came in second with roughly $22 million for the three-day weekend. It debuted on Wednesday, and its total gross to date is around $40 million. Sony was smart in opening it early so that it might gain some positive word of mouth for the weekend. Any movie going up against Dark Knight needs whatever assist it can get. Seth Rogen and Judd Apatow are becoming quite the Hollywood kings of R-rated youth-targeted comedies, and Pineapple Express will only serve to further cement their dominion in Tinsel Town.

Coming in third was The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, distributed by General Electric's (NYSE: GE) Universal. The fantasy flick took in $16 million and its total tally stands at $70 million. An okay performance, but nothing special. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 from Time Warner was in fourth place with a $10.7 million take. That wasn't too good for a film that I thought had a lot of buzz, but the budget on the project isn't too steep at under $30 million, so maybe this one will do all right. Sony's Step Brothers took hold of fifth position. Disney (NYSE: DIS) continues to do horribly with its bomb Swing Vote. It dropped to ninth place.

So Time Warner's studio division will have the success of The Dark Knight to look forward to in future quarters as the movie, which now has over $440 million to its credit, progresses through home video and other ancillary channels. Disney will not have anything to look forward to from Swing Vote. And here's something else for Time Warner: Star Wars: The Clone Wars opens August 15. Time Warner will bring the cartoon to the silver screen ahead of the animated TV series that is set to debut later on. I think Clone Wars will surprise everyone by doing better than expected. The merchandise from Hasbro (NYSE: HAS) is out in the marketplace now pushing George Lucas' new chapter in his famous franchise. May the Force be with the multiplex.

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

'The Dark Knight' continues its heroic box-office performance originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 11 Aug 2008 11:11:00 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 (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.

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.

Viacom's (NYSE: VIA) Paramount studios had a pretty kickin' year at the multiplex in 2007. According to Boxofficemojo.com, Paramount came out on top in terms of market share at 15.5%. It distributed some great hits -- Transformers, the DreamWorks Animation (NYSE: DWA) films Shrek the Third and Bee Movie, Will Ferrel's Blades of Glory comedy, and Eddie Murphy's Norbit. Viacom's movie business seems to be doing better. According to the latest 10Q for the reporting period ending September 30, 2007, operating income for the filmed-entertainment segment was $71.7 million versus a loss of nearly $8 million in the previous year's comparable quarter (the nine-month period still showed a loss). So, Paramount needs to keep the momentum going this year. How will it top the power of last summer's blockbuster Transformers? With a little swashbuckling help from Indiana Jones, of course!

To get things started, the media company sent out a press release alerting fans of fast-paced adventure that the first teaser trailer for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull will be released on February 14 during ABC's Good Morning America program and in theaters across the globe. For those of us who've been waiting with a will of patience that was oftentimes as excruciating and as taxing as sitting through yet another news item about Britney Spears' latest mental breakdown, this is one heck of a Valentine, although I do hate teaser trailers (they are, after all, such a tease!).

Will the new Indy flick be a big hit this summer? I think it will be, although it isn't an absolute given, since a lot of the younger demos probably find the Raiders aesthetic a bit antiquated these days; plus, there will be stiff competition from Disney's (NYSE: DIS) new Pixar cartoon Wall-E, Time Warner's (NYSE: TWX) The Dark Knight, and Marvel's (NYSE: MVL) Incredible Hulk project. Still, we're talking about George Lucas and Steven Spielberg here, and they still retain a lot of cultural pull with all demographics. Viacom and Paramount will probably be happy with the results from Crystal Skull come the summer , although I think it's safe to assume that Lucas and Spielberg will be taking a large portion of the grosses. Nevertheless, Viacom is in on the action, and I'm sure it wouldn't want it any other way.

Disclosure: I own shares in Disney and Marvel.

Indiana Jones could deliver big profits for Viacom (VIA) originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 12 Feb 2008 13:30:00 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.