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Film Industry Update #1 Neither Smurf Nor Wizard Could Save Summer Movie Attendance By: Ivonnie Dulce [|New York Times Article] media type="youtube" key="7H7JhK6UVUk" height="274" width="447" align="center"

The idea of a ‘summer blockbuster’ was foreign to Hollywood before the summer of 1975 because summer was considered the ‘off-season’ for the movie industry. On June 20, 1975 Steven Spielberg released "Jaws" to the American public and it changed the film industry forever. After the release of the film, Hollywood realized the potential in targeting the younger demographic and the success of releasing a film in the summer.

According to the //New York Times// article, “Neither Smurf Nor Wizard Could Save Summer Movie Attendance,” this summer was a record low for attendance of movies starting from the first weekend of May to Labor Day (which usually accounts for 40% of their annual profits). As Brooks Barnes puts it, “Hollywood has now experienced four consecutive summers of eroding attendance, a cause for alarm for both studios and the publicly traded theater chains.” Although summer movie sales in the United States have plummeted, international ticket sales have greatly increased. The biggest surprise in Hollywood economics this summer was the success of “The Help.” The target audience of the movie was aimed towards adults and the movie still holds the top of the box office every weekend- are adults the new audience Hollywood should be targeting?

Eastwood's "J. Edgar" is Destined for Success By: Morgan Denno  [|Entertainment Weekly]

The Oscar buzz has already surrounded Clint Eastwood's star-studded biopic, "J. Edgar". The amazing cast includes Leonardo Dicaprio as an unruly FBI director and Armie Hammer as his love interest. If it's at all possible to distract audiences from the Dicaprio/Hammer love scene, the well-rounded supporting cast includes Judi Dench, Naomi Watts and Ed Westwick. "J. Edgar's" script was written by Dustin Lance Black who won an Academy Award in 2009 for "Milk" starring Sean Penn. With a select-theaters release date of November 11th, the film will make its first appearance at the American Film Institute Festival on November 3rd as the opening night movie. The late start in the festival circuit may have something to do with the late production start back in February. The film didn't premiere at an earlier date simply because it hadn't been edited in it's entirety and Warner Brothers has yet to release the much anticipated trailer. Last years AFI Fest premiered "The Fighter", which went on to capture 7 Oscar's, so it's seems safe to say that Eastwood's upcoming film has a definite shot at earning a few awards come Oscar night.

Choosing Cinematheque Over Cineplex By: Alisa Hemmesch  [|New York Times Article]



A way to track the history of films comes from analyzing the various types of cinemas. Depending on its style, a cinema can create an entirely new understanding of a film than a traditional cinema would. Recently, New Yorkers have been requesting the re-emergence of small sites to recreate cinemas that resemble old French cine clubs. These "microcinemas", a term coined for the intimate environment it creates, show films not shown anywhere else and create an experience that tie the audience more directly to the film. The three main microcinemas in New York are nonprofit and rely mostly on social media and email blasts. Microcinemas are just one of many ways a viewer can engross him or herself into a film differently than the traditional movie theatre. There are now theaters that offer dinner and a movie options, and even some that provide full service bars! The viewer can gain an entirely different and new experience from a film simply from the type of theatre they go to, New York's microcinemas just being one of the many types.

Dish Network May Offer Streaming Movies By: Andrea Jimenez [|Bloomberg Video]

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In this new digital age of convenience for the public and competition between suppliers we see a lot of corporation convergence. Dish network has just announced their convergence with blockbuster, a direct threat and rival to Netflix. Netflix is losing subscribers with their new subscription fee increase and might lose more now that Dish Network bought blockbuster and will start streaming movies. Netflix is also at a loss after STARZ broke negotiations with Netflix and is now working with Dish Network. According to Bloomberg's Alex Sherman, Dish has also made a bid to buy Hulu. Whether dish uses the flat fee or tiered-pricing/cable model for streaming movies will determine the impact on Netflix. Dish still has not announced whether they will use a flat fee or the cable model but according to Paul Kedrosky, author of the Infectious Greed blog and a Bloomberg contributing editor, Dish will most likely opt for the tiered pricing model. Most content providers want to stay away from the flat rate pricing model, which is why STARZ no longer wants to work with Netflix.

Museum of Modern Art to honor Almodovar By: Colleen Bordon [|Variety Article]  The New York's Museum of Modern Art will be honoring Pedro Almodovar in the annual Film Benefit this coming November. The cocktails-and-dinner event will raise funds for the expansion of the museum's film collection. Almodovar will give a presentation accompanied by his Co-Chairs, Antonio Banderas and Penelope Cruz. His latest feature, "The Skin I Live In" will screen as part of the New York Film Festival.

Mel Gibson Takes on Judah Maccabee By: Lola Smith [|The Hollywood Reporter] Mel Gibson is no stranger to controversy, especially when it comes to his film choices. As most of us remember, when "The Passion of the Christ" came out, there was an uproar from the Jewish community claiming the film was blatantly blaming Jews for the death of Jesus and that Mr. Gibson was an Anti-Semitic. Gibson refuted all these claims, but we all know what happened next: He got pulled over for a DUI and notoriously started yelling out Anti-Semitic slurs. Five years later, Mel is under fire again. In what seems to be a complete twist of irony, Gibson is teaming up with Joe Eszterhas and Warner Bros. to make a big screen adaptation of the life of Judah Maccabee, who happens to be a Jewish icon. He's already getting slammed by Jewish leaders and celebrities via Twitter so it'll be interesting to see if this film ever gets made. However, the last time he made a controversial film, it made over 600 million worldwide. Mel Gibson may be crazy, but he definitely ain't stupid.