It may have been Fourth of July in the United States, but Hollywood found the most reasons to celebrate overseas as Fox's "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" opened to a huge $148 million during its first five days in 101 foreign countries.
Ticket sales were more muted domestically, as July 4 falling on a Saturday depressed grosses around the country. "Ice Age" ended up in a tie for first place over the weekend in the U.S. and Canada with "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," as both films earned a studio-estimated $42.5 million. In the five days since it opened Wednesday, "Ice Age" grossed $67.5 million, compared with $65 million for "Transformers."
Universal's "Public Enemies" opened to $26.2 million for the weekend and $41 million since debuting Wednesday.
Both new pictures had decent launches domestically, especially taking into account Saturday, when many people attended picnics and fireworks instead of movie theaters.
Still, "Dawn of the Dinosaurs," which cost about $90 million to produce, earned less in five days than its predecessor, "Ice Age: The Meltdown," did in its first three days in March 2006. Given that 39% of the new film's theaters featured 3-D screens, where ticket prices are often $2 to $3 higher, on top of general inflation over the last three years, that indicates a noticeable decline in audience interest.
Fox doesn't need to worry as much about the domestic performance of "Ice Age" after its fantastic start overseas -- the sixth-biggest ever, not accounting for ticket price inflation. The film broke records for the biggest openings in 16 countries, including Mexico, Brazil and Russia. With $215.5 million worth of worldwide ticket sales, the animated feature is already in excellent financial shape. That's good news because "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" opens around the globe in a week and a half and probably will dominate the family audience thereafter.
The start for "Public Enemies," which cost a little over $100 million to produce, is in line with other Michael
Mann-directed pictures like "Collateral" and "Miami Vice." To end up a success,
it will have to follow the path of the former movie, which was
propelled by positive buzz and star Tom Cruise to gross $101 million,
as opposed to the latter, which ultimately earned only $67 million.
Reviews for "Public Enemies" were generally, but not uniformly, positive. One good sign for Universal is that despite the film's R rating and Mann's traditional appeal to adult males, the audience tilted only slightly toward males and was even between those over and under 25. That's in large part thanks to the appeal of star Johnny Depp.
The film also opened in five foreign markets -- Britain, Mexico, Denmark, Greece and Serbia-Montenegro -- where it earned a decent $5.3 million.
"Transformers" took in $55 million from international markets this weekend, bringing its worldwide total gross to an outstanding $591.4 million. Paramount's second film based on Hasbro's 1980s toy line is already the biggest movie of the year, after playing for just 12 days in the U.S. and most foreign markets.
Here are the top 10 movies at the domestic box office, according to studio estimates and Hollywood.com:
"Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" and "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" topped the box office together this weekend as July 4 falling on a Saturday dealt a major blow to movie ticket sales.
Both Paramount's Michael Bay-directed event film and Fox's animated sequel earned a studio-estimated $42.5 million this weekend. Over the five days since "Ice Age" started on Wednesday, however, Fox's animated feature had a slight advantage with $67.5 million compared to $65 million.
"Transformers," which cost almost $200 million to produce, has now grossed a jaw droppping $293.5 million in the U.S. and Canada in its first 12 days. On Friday it passed "Up" to become the most successful film so far this year at the box office.
"Ice Age's" started was decided mixed, as it earned about the same in five days as the last film in the series earned in three, despite significantly higher ticket prices at the 39% of its theaters where the film played in 3-D. Animated films have generally experienced mild drops at the box office, but Fox's movie, which cost around $90 million to produce, has the disadvantage of Warner Bros.' family-focused "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" hitting theaters in just a week and a half.
Universal's "Public Enemies" had a so-so start as well, selling $26.1 million worth of tickets over the weekend and $41 million since it debuted Wednesday. That's almost exactly in line with the launches of the last two Michael Mann-directed movies, "Miami Vice" in 2006 and "Collateral" in 2004. Those films had very different fates thanks to divergent audience buzz, however, as "Collateral" went on to gross $101 million after its $24.7 million opening weekend, while "Vice" made only $63.5 million after starting with $25.7 million.
It remains to be seen whether "Enemies," which cost a little over $100 million to make, will benefit from generally positive reviews and the appeal of star Johnny Depp to follow the path of "Collateral" and prove a solid box office performer.
Every movie took a significant hit on Saturday July 4, as the holiday kept many away from theaters and grosses for the top three pictures fell between 33% and 40% from Friday. Traditionally they stay even or rise a bit.
Unless more people hit theaters in the coming weeks to make up for missing films they wanted to see on Saturday, however, that will turn out to be lost money for the studios.
--Ben Fritz
Photo: "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen." Credit: Paramount Pictures. "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs." Credit: Blue Sky Studios.
It's looking like neither prehistoric animals nor John Dillinger will be able take down the "Transformers."
Paramount's big-budget event picture declined 51% on Friday from the same day last week, a relatively small amount for a film with such a massive opening, and sold $17.8 million worth of tickets domestically, according to studio estimates.
"Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs," which opened Wednesday, came in just a bit behind with $17 million on Friday. Because most Americans were off work Friday, families could have attended matinees just as easily as on a typical Saturday, meaning there's no reason the third film in the series from animation studio Blue Sky couldn't have come in at No. 1 if it were going to win the weekend.
Universal's Michael Mann-directed gangster drama "Public Enemies" was a respectable No. 3 with $10.1 million.
The big question for the industry remains how depressed ticket sales will be today with most Americans celebrating the Fourth of July on a Saturday, traditionally the most busy moviegoing day of the week. According to the Weather Channel, there could be thunderstorms in parts of the Midwest, Southeast and New England, which may be Hollywood's best shot at keeping audiences away from picnics and fireworks and in multiplexes.
Without a surprisingly strong Saturday, however, "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" probably will gross close to $50 million for the weekend, while "Ice Age" will end up in the low 40s and "Public Enemies" closer to $30 million. The five-day gross for the latter two films since they opened Wednesday would then be about $70 million and $43 million, respectively -- decent but far from fantastic starts.
The most impressive performance continues to be that of "Transformers." Given its huge $109-million opening weekend, a drop of about 50% would indicate that interest in the film remains very strong and it's on track to ultimately gross well over $400 million domestically, not to mention its impressive foreign earnings.
"Revenge of the Fallen" pulled ahead of "Up" on Friday to become the No. 1 movie at the domestic box office this year, with total ticket sales of $268.7 million. By Sunday it probably will be very close to, and possibly over, $300 million.
-- Ben Fritz
Photo: Johnny Depp in "Public Enemies." Credit: Peter Mountain / Universal Studios
After the coffee. Before figuring out how to turn a three-day weekend into a four-day weekend.
No `Escape" yet. The Weinstein Co.'s animated "Escape from Planet Earth" has been hit with production delays due to creative issues. For the small artsy production company, this is becoming a trend. The Los Angeles Times.
Going after Google. It's official, the Justice Dept. is reviewing Google's deal to settle a suit filed by the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers to determine if it violates anti-trust regulations, reports The New York Times.
Hulu gets a passport. Hulu, the online video site that screens TV shows and movies and is owned by News Corp. and NBC Universal and soon Disney, is looking to launch in the U.K. this fall, reports Variety. Hulu, the article says, is offering ownership stakes in return for access to content.
Pay to Play. A Washington Post plan to host events that would bring together lobbyists, government officials and reporters for a fee blew up in the paper's face and has been scrapped. Broken by the website Politicio, the story caused outrage among the editorial staff. Of course, legendary Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee held these sorts of parties all the time, the only difference is he wasn't charging anyone money for access.
The last celebrity. Wall Street Journal Wonderland columnist Dan Henninger on why Michael Jackson takes the notion of celebrity with him.
Rest in Peace. Veteran TV reporter and all around good guy Steve Brennan died of cancer Wednesday. An institution at The Hollywood Reporter, Brennan was best known for coverage of the syndication and international beats as well as his charming Irish accent. The Hollywood Reporter.
In today's Los Angeles Times: Concert promoter AEG may still make money on its Michael Jackson deal through rehearsal footage, insurance and souvenir sales. Radio stations are upping the ante in their fight against the Performance Rights Act. James Rainey on sound bite media and Michael Jackson.
Add "Escape From Planet Earth" to The Weinstein Co.'s growing list of headaches.
The computer-animated 3-D stereoscopic movie, which was announced in 2006, has been beset with script problems and won't be ready for release until January 2011, at the earliest. The story about a group of aliens plotting to escape from Area 51, the secret Nevada location famous for visiting non-earthling tourists, "Escape" was previously targeted for a 2010 release.
While the studio has had some recent critical success with "The Reader," which took home an Oscar for lead actress for Kate Winslet, the company's annual output of releases has been minimal. "Escape From Planet Earth" is the latest Weinstein Co. film that has been delayed for various reasons, including most recently "All Good Things." Other Weinstein Co. films that have had their release dates pushed back over the last 18 months include "Youth in Revolt," "The Road," "Shanghai" and "Piranha 3D."
Last month, the studio headed by brothers Harvey and Bob Weinstein retained financial consulting firm Miller Buckfire & Co. to restructure its debt and raise funds.
In the case of "Escape From Planet Earth," the problems are creative. Production, which is not expected to resume until August or early fall, was halted because of script issues, said several people involved in the production. The film is being written by Tony Leech and Cory Edwards, the writing team behind "Hoodwinked!," The Weinstein Co.'s 2006 hit release that took in $110 million worldwide. Leech is also directing the movie.
But Leech has not been satisfied with his script and has worked through several rewrites. Most of the movie's 150 animators were sent packing fromthe Vancouver production facility until the creative issues could be resolved.
The delays are already taking a financial toll on Rainmaker Entertainment Inc., the Canadian-based animation company behind "Escape From Planet Earth." One of the largest producers of CG animation, Rainmaker attributed its 31% decline in animation revenues in the first quarter of this year to the production delays on "Escape From Planet Earth."
"The production schedule is being sorted out," said Warren Franklin, Rainmaker's chief executive officer in an interview. He said the delays due to the reworked story are "very normal for an animated film" and that the film is "gearing up" for a 2011 release during the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend.
Although the film is behind schedule and actors have not yet been cast to provide voices, several people involved in the production contend the delays will not jack up the cost of the movie. The Weinstein Co., according to two people close to the production, has already invested close to $20 million into "Escape From Planet Earth" and is not expected to dig deeper into its wallet to finish the project. The Weinstein Co. declined to discuss specific details regarding the financing of the the film.
In a statement, Tom Ortenberg, president of theatrical films for The Weinstein Co., said the movie is on budget and added that "to have had an independent, animated feature like 'Escape From Planet Earth' ready for a 2010 release was very ambitious."
-- Joe Flint and Richard Verrier
Photo: Harvey Weinstein. Credit: Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images.
Nobody's sure yet about July 4, but July 1 sure was kind to this weekend's two new movies.
Fox's "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" and Universal's "Public Enemies" both got a healthy head start on the weekend Wednesday, grossing $13.75 million and $8.2 million, respectively, in ticket sales, according to initial studio reports.
The two movies' stronger-than-expected first-day performances provided a boost to expectations, previously based on pre-release audience surveys only, for their grosses through Sunday. "Ice Age," which had looked likely to sell about $60 million worth of tickets, could now do $65 million or $70 million. "Public Enemies" has a very good shot at earning more than $40 million, whereas industry executives previously thought it would gross $35 million.
Even with a good start, however, neither picture looks like a smash hit yet. The second "Ice Age" opened to $68 million on a three-day weekend in 2006. That's about as much as "Dawn of the Dinosaurs," which cost $90 million to produce, looks likely to make in five days, despite rising ticket prices and a surcharge at the theaters where the film is playing in 3-D.
"Public Enemies," which earned largely positive reviews, will still need a long life at the box office beyond its opening to turn a profit on its production budget, which was, according to a source close to the film, a bit over $100 million.
Also still very much in the mix this weekend is Paramount's "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," which grossed $10.9 million on Wednesday and will likely be in a tight competition with "Ice Age" to be No. 1 at the box office this weekend. It already has grossed a massive $239 million in the U.S. and Canada and is sure to become the No. 1 film of the year by the weekend.
Executives throughout Hollywood will be closely watching the weather on Saturday, which is typically the busiest movie-going day of the week. The more rain there is on July 4, the more likely it is audiences will forget about barbecues and fireworks and head to the local multiplex, boosting receipts for all three films.
-- Ben Fritz
Photo: "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs." Credit: Blue Sky Studios
After the coffee. Before checking if the Yankees won again (they did).
It's cash and carry for Chase. Rupert Murdoch spared no expense to lure
Chase Carey back to News Corp. to be deputy chairman and
president/chief operating officer. Carey's first year alone includes a
$10 million signing bonus and the potential to earn north of $40
million. Oh and he can use the jet for vacations. The Los Angeles Times.
Slingbox founder to DirecTV? PaidContent's Staci Kramer reports that Slinbox co-founder Blake Krikorian is a candidate for the top job at satellite broadcaster DirecTV, which has been vacant since Chase Carey opted to rejoin News Corp.
Mel gets a raise. Sirius XM Satellite CEO Mel Karmazin, who guided the Sirius-XM merger and subsequent loan from John Malone's Liberty Media has been given a raise and more stock options. The Wall Street Journal.
They're rivals at the bank too. Angelina Jolie and Jenifer Aniston don't just have a man in common The two are also in battle to be the best paid actresses in Hollywood with Jolie again walking away with the big prize, according to Forbes.
Upfront action.Broadcasting & Cable reports that NBC and media buyer Group M have wrapped up a big upfront deal.
More `Moneyball' play-by-play. You'd think Sony's decision to pull the plug on `Moneyball' was the first time a movie ever got killed just before shooting was set to start. Today The New York Times weighs in with its take on what happened behind the scenes.
Long overdue. Facebook is overhauling its complex privacy settings to make it easier for users of the social networking site to decide who sees what on their profile pages and elsewhere. Facebook, The Wall Street Journal reports, said the new changes will not affect what data the company shares with advertisers.
Sharpen those teeth! The success of "Twilight" and "True Blood" have made vampire fashion hot. “The vampire is the new James Dean,” Julie Plec, the writer and executive producer of CW's fall series “The Vampire Diaries,” told The New York Times.
In today's Los Angeles Times: Marketing "Bruno" is a whole different ball game from marketing "Borat," reports John Horn.
California may be teetering on financial collapse and about to pay its bills with IOUs, but that doesn't appear to be discouraging filmmakers and producers from seeking film tax credits from the state.
The California Film Commission said it received 56 applications for the tax credits on Monday, the first day companies could apply. The tax credits were adopted earlier this year by the state Legislature in an effort to keep movie and television production from migrating to other states.
"We got a great response,'' said Amy Lemisch, director of the California Film Commission, the state agency that is administering the program. Applicants included movies of the week to low-budget features, cable series and studio films, she said. "We got a little of everything."
The commission will review the applications over the next 20 days and send out "credit allocation letters" to those who qualify. Because of the interest, the commission has devised a lottery system to determine which applications will be reviewed first. The tax credits won't take effect until 2011.
To compete with cheaper locales, the Legislature this year agreed to allocate $500 million in film tax credits over a five-year period. Producers can obtain a tax credit totaling 20% to 25% of "qualified production expenses." There are a number of restrictions: Only feature films that cost $75 million or less are eligible. The program also is limited to new basic cable TV series, movies of the week or miniseries and existing TV series that move back to California.
If you're dining with Chase Carey, he can afford to pick up the tab.
According to just filed documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Carey received a $10 million signing bonus to rejoin News Corp. as deputy chairman and chief operating officer. That's on top of his annual base salary of $8.1 million per year over the next five years.
Carey, the filing says, is also eligible for a performance based bonuses that could hit as much as $25 million annually. His bonus for his first year back, which started today, will be no less than $5 million. Carey's bonus will be performance based and determined by News Corp.'s year-over-year increase in adjusted earnings per share
If Carey resigns "without good reason" he will get at least two years salary and some of his bonus money. If Carey is terminated within the next 12 months, he walks with $10 million in cash.
The jet is also ready for Mr. Carey. His deal calls for use of a corporate or charter jet for business and pleasure. He also gets a car allowance.
On the downside, he's not getting paid any extra to be on News Corp.'s board of directors.
As for outgoing COO Peter Chernin, final details of his new six-year deal have not been hammered. However, he too gets to keep using the corporate jet and gets a car and use of the screening room.
-- Joe Flint
Photo: Chase Carey by Matthew Staver/Bloomberg News
After the coffee. Before putting the rent check in the mail.
Getting together in the backroom. Viacom's Paramount Pictures is in talks with both Sony and News Corp.'s 20th Century Fox to merge backroom operations of their home entertainment units -- primarily production and distribution of DVDs. Talks come at a time when DVD business is has tailed off dramatically for the studios. Coverage from The Financial Times and The Los Angeles Times.
But don't chuck those DVDs yet. Netflix chief Reed Hastings thinks the DVD biz still has some life in it. He tells USA Today he still sees DVDs as a "growth product."
Clooney leaves Burbank for Culver City. George Clooney's Smokehouse Productions is moving from Warner Bros. to Sony, according to The New York Times. The move ends the actor's long association with the studio going back to he "ER" days.
Here come's the bride. Cablevision's programming arm Rainbow is launching a channel devoted to weddings and all that goes into making them happen, says Broadcasting and Cable. The channel will be a spin-off of We, which already has several shows about walking the aisle.
Syfy or Sci-Fi? The rebranding of the Sci Fi Channel to Syfy still has a ways to go, says The Wrap.
Boys of summer on the couch. This has nothing to do with entertainment but makes for good reading. More athletes are being treated for anxiety with three baseball players on the disabled list for it this season alone. The Wall Street Journal.
July 4 is typically one of the most lucrative long weekends of the year for the movie business, since it brings an extra day off at a time when theaters are full of big-budget summer event pictures. But with the holiday falling on a Saturday this year, many in Hollywood are worried that ticket sales could suffer if people are outdoors barbecuing on the busiest moviegoing day of the week.
To put it another way, studios are praying for thunderstorms this weekend across the nation.
Barring bad weather on Saturday, however, box-office watchers aren't expecting a fireworks opening for Fox's "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" or Universal's "Public Enemies," both of which start tomorrow in hopes of generating extra business before Saturday.
The third film in Fox's series from its Blue Sky animation studio is looking at five-day ticket sales around $60 million, based on pre-release tracking. Although that's decent given the movie's approximately $90-million cost, it's significantly less than the $67 million that the second "Ice Age" film opened to on a three-day weekend in March of 2006. The slow Saturday will play a role in that, but "Dawn of the Dinosaurs" will also benefit from higher ticket prices for the significant number of theaters where it will play in 3-D. It's Fox's first film to utilize the technology.
A softer start for "Ice Age" will only be compounded by the fact that two weeks after it debuts, much of the family audience will defect to "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince."
"Dawn of the Dinosaurs" has better prospects internationally, however, where it is opening simultaneously in 93 countries. The second "Ice Age" movie earned more than twice as much from foreign markets as it did in the U.S. and Canada -- $457 million compared with $195 million.
It will almost certainly do better at the box office than Universal's "Public Enemies." In a year when many R-rated dramas have performed poorly, the Michael Mann drama starring Johnny Depp is looking at a five-day gross around $35 million. Given a budget that one source close to the production said is a bit over $100 million, the movie will need strong word of mouth to turn into a success. Mann's last film, 2006's "Miami Vice," earned less than triple its opening gross by the end of its run, but 2004's "Collateral" generated better buzz and ultimately earned more than four times what it took in on its first weekend.
Initial reviews are largely positive. Times critic Kenneth Turan called it "an impressive film" that "may not give you a ton to hang on to emotionally, but the beauty and skill of the filmmaking keep you tightly in its grasp."
Despite its serious subject matter, "Public Enemies" is tracking as well with audiences under 25 as over, a good sign for Universal. Men are indicating more interest in the film than women in polling.
The box-office winner this weekend will most likely be "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen." Movies with huge $100-million-plus openings typically drop dramatically on their second weekends. But with very positive audience reactions, Paramount's big-budget event picture might end up dropping around 50%, which would put it just over $50 million.
"Ice Age" has a shot at topping "Revenge of the Fallen," but it will likely gross under $50 million for the three-day weekend and come up a bit short. "Public Enemies" will gross closer to $25 million Friday through Sunday.
As of Monday, "Transformers" has grossed a massive $214.9 million. By this weekend it will surpass "Star Trek" and "Up" to become the year's biggest movie at the domestic box office.
-- Ben Fritz
Photos: "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs." Credit: Blue Sky Studios. Johnny Depp in "Public Enemies." Credit: Peter Mountain, Universal Studios.
Paramount Pictures is in talks with at least two of its competitors to merge some elements of its home video backroom operations, people briefed on the negotiations said.
While negotiations are in a very preliminary stage, the Viacom-owned studio has initiated discussions with Sony Pictures and 20th Century Fox to combine the production, distribution and administrative elements of their DVD businesses, these people said. The talks are not limited to those studios and could expand to other studios, with Universal being a leading candidate.
People close to the talks stressed that any potential combination would be about saving costs, not about sharing revenue. The studios would not combine marketing or promotion of home entertainment.
There is precedent: Universal and Paramount formed a joint venture years ago called CIC to handle video distribution in international markets.
These talks come at a time when major retailers, including Wal-Mart and Best Buy, are reducing the amount of space they dedicate to carrying DVDs. First quarter DVD sales fell 14% in the first quarter of this year, compared to 2008, according to DEG: The Digital Entertainment Group, a non-profit trade group.
News of the talks was first reported by The Financial Times.
George Clooney is ending his long association with Warner Bros. to join Sony Pictures in an exclusive two-year production deal.
The deal, which is wrapping up, comes when studios are trying to spend less. This month, Sony pulled the plug on "Moneyball," a movie about the business of baseball directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring Brad Pitt.
"While we've been trimming production deals overall for the last few years, we see real value in opening our doors to producers with their critical and commercial track record and artistic point of view," said Amy Pascal, co-chairman, Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Clooney's Smokehouse Pictures has been based at Warner Bros. for three
years and has six films in development at the studio. Clooney has
been associated with Warner Bros. for almost 20 years, going back to his television days when he was cast by then-studio TV chief Leslie Moonves to star
in "ER."
Gossip columnist Roger Friedman wants more than $5 million in lost wages and damages from Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. for firing him after he reviewed the company's "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" based on a pirated copy of the movie.
In a suit filed in New York State Supreme Court on Monday, Friedman says he was fired from his $250,000-a-year job (no, that's not a typo) as a columnist and contributor to Fox News illegally. He reiterates his interesting claim that the copy he viewed online ended up there only because Murdoch, the chairman of News Corp., had inadvertently allowed his own copy of the movie to appear on the Internet and that he was fired to cover that up.
The suit outlines in detail Friedman's take on the events of early April that led to his firing. He says he viewed "Wolverine" online and wrote a column about the film. He claims he sent an e-mail to a Fox News lawyer about watching the film online and didn't get a response. The article went up on the Fox News website on April 2, and less than 48 hours later it was taken down. Friedman says that he went to his editor, Refet Kaplan, to ask why and that Kaplan replied, "Rupert Murdoch ordered it taken down."
Usually if the chairman of the company wants something taken down, that's a bad sign. But Kaplan, the suit says, told Friedman on April 3 that he had talked to Fox News Chief Executive Roger Ailes and not to worry.
That apparently was bad advice. The next day, when the storm showed no signs of abating, Kaplan, according to the suit, told Friedman, "Ailes has got to get with Murdoch." Later that day, Friedman was fired and both News Corp. and 20th Century Fox issued damning statements about Friedman and piracy. Friedman says that John Moody, one of Ailes' top lieutenants at Fox News, told him to keep quiet and that on Monday, April 6, there would be a meeting that could "repair the situation."
Friedman, who has hired legal guns Joseph Johnson and Martin Garbus of Eaton & Van Winkle, wants $180,000 that he says is still owed to him on his contract and $5 million in damages. Friedman hasn't dropped off the face of the Earth since being canned by Fox News. He's blogging for the Hollywood Reporter and appeared today on NBC's "Today" show to discuss Michael Jackson.
A Fox News spokeswoman said the network had not been served with the lawsuit yet.
— Joe Flint
Photo: Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch. Credit: Peter Morgan/Reuters
The world's most notorious website for illegal music and movie downloading is going legit.
The Pirate Bay, a Sweden-based website that's one of the most popular sources for Internet piracy, has agreed to be acquired by Global Gaming Factory, a Swedish operator of Internet cafes, for $7.8 million.
Hans Pandeya, CEO of Global Gaming Factory, said he intends to cooperate with studios and record labels to turn Pirate Bay into a copyright-friendly business.
"We're a publicly listed company, so whatever we take over has to be legal," he explained. "To be legal, you have to have content providers who are paid. That's what we want."
Convincing Pirate Bay's reported 20 million users accustomed to getting content for free into paying customers will an extremely difficult task, but Pandeya said he plans to make an enticing offer.
"To compete with free file sharing, you have to beat it," he said. "What's better than zero? Well, that's paying somebody $1."
Global Gaming Factory plans to pay Pirate Bay users to let their computers be part of a worldwide peer-to-peer system that can transmit data for Internet service providers like AT&T and Comcast. Theoretically, it could vastly reduce the bandwidth costs of ISPs, which are struggling to keep up with the rapidly growing amount of traffic moving through the 'Net, much of it because of illegal piracy.
Participating computer owners could use the money deposited into their account to buy and download songs, TV shows or movies.
Users are sure to be skeptical, especially since the founders of Pirate Bay not only flouted copyright laws but publicly derided them on numerous occasions. Peter Sunde, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Fredrik Neij and Carl Lundstrom were convicted in April of facilitating copyright violations and ordered to pay plaintiffs, including Fox, Warner Bros. and EMI, $3.6 million.
The men have refused to pay the fine while they appeal. They won't be joining Global Gaming Factory, which is acquiring the Pirate Bay domain name only. They recently started work on a YouTube-like video sharing site called VideoBay that is currently in an early testing phase.
Pandeya said his company plans to run the site with technology it has acquired from a Swedish software company called Peerialism for $13 million.
Several other ventures that enabled illegal file sharing and attempted to transform into legitimate downloading business, including BitTorrent and Napster, haven't had much success. However, none of them paid users for participating in a file sharing network.
The deal will be voted on by GGF's shareholders in late July or early August. If it's approved, Pandeya said Pirate Bay will immediately seek to halt illegal downloading and start working with legitimate content providers.
Update (12:12 PM): As noted on BoingBoing, one of Pirate Bay's founders said on the site's blog that the proceeds from the sale will be used for "projects about freedom of speech, freedom of information and the openess of the [Internet]."
-- Ben Fritz
For more on whether Pirate Bay's attempt to go legit will prove attractive to big media companies and consumers, see the story in Wednesday's Times.
Photo: Pirate Bay supporters rally in Sweden in April after four of the site's founders are convicted of copyright infringement. Credit: Fredrik Persson, AFP/Getty Images.
Supreme Court likes its DVR. The Supreme Court gave a green light to Cablevision's new remote storage digital video recorder, which programmers argued was similar to video-on-demand and hence should require compensation. The Los Angeles Times notes that the new DVR could be yet another blow to television advertising.
Hit the brakes! Fox is trying to put the stop on the budget for Tony Scott's "Unstoppable," Variety's Mike Fleming and The Hollywood Reporter say. This comes just weeks after Sony decided it didn't want to make "Moneyball" because of cost and fear of little return.
Back to work! "Law & Order: SVU" stars Chris Meloni and Mariska Hargitay have signed new deals two stay with the show for two more years. Variety says they got small raises but not profit participation.
Career advice. Blogger Marshall Fine offers Zack Galifianakis, the breakout star of "The Hangover" some advice on his next movie. In a nutshell, whatever Jack Black does, do the opposite. Too Many Channels? The Wall Street Journal's Martin Peers thinks there are too many cable networks that the industry base carriage of channels on ratings performance. That, he argues, would lower costs to consumers and thin the ranks. Sure, but good luck getting either programmers or distributors to do anything that would lower costs to consumers.
Souvenirs. Lots of people who held tickets to the Michael Jackson concerts in London would rather hold onto the ticket for the show that never was then get a refund," reports The Wrap. Can you say eBay?
In today's Los Angeles Times: Disney will expand its Hong Kong theme park. Quincy Jones on Michael Jackson. "Transformers" Ramon Rodriguez is rising fast.
Is the local drought in feature production coming to an end? Maybe not, but the latest data for on-location filming provides at least a glimmer of hope. Filming for on-location movie production in L.A. edged up 15% last week over the same week a year ago, when studios were winding down their filming in anticipation of a possible walkout by members of the Screen Actors Guild. Among the movies that began filming last week is "Cats & Dogs 2," a sequel to the Warner Bros. animal comedy. Still, in a grim reminder of the recession's toll, shoots for television shows and commercials fell 50% and 48%, respectively, below year-ago levels, according to the latest data from FilmL.A. Inc. See the chart below.
The high court likes their digital video recorders.
The Supreme Court cleared the way for Cablevision Systems Corp., a New York-based cable operator with more than 3 million subscribers, to deploy so-called remote storage DVRs. Unlike current DVRs, which record programs on a device in a customer's home, remote storage DVRs record them in a central location.
As of March, the penetration of DVRs in the United States was 30%, according to Nielsen. Because storing shows on a central server is so inexpensive compared with deploying devices, the ruling clears the way for Cablevision and other distrubutors to offer the service to consumers at very low or no cost.
The move is a blow to Hollywood, which had fought the technology all the way to the Supreme Court. Fox, NBC Universal, Paramount, CBS, Disney and other programmers argued that because Cablevision transmits recorded programs to consumers over its cable lines, the remote storage DVRs actually constitute a new on-demand service for which they should pay licensing fees.
Of course, what this is really about is advertising. Television executives are very worried about the ease with which consumers can skip advertisements while watching recorded programs via DVRs.
The justices declined to hear arguments from programmers, in effect validating a 2008 federal appeals court ruling in favor of New York-based cable operator Cablevision's plans to deploy its remote storage DVRs.
"We are of course disappointed by the Court's decision not to hear this case but understand that the Court can only hear a limited number of cases each year," Daniel Mandil, chief of legal affairs and intellectual property protection for the Motion Picture Assn. of America, said in a statement. The MPAA has led the court case on behalf of the networks and studios. "We will continue to do what is necessary to protect the legal rights of our members with regard to their content and look forward to the continued development of the law in this area in future cases," he added.
Many DVR providers, including TiVo, have started working with the networks to develop new ways to serve advertising to consumers who are watching recorded shows.
"This is a tremendous victory and it opens up the possibility of offering a DVR experience to all of our digital cable customers," Cablevision Chief Operating Officer Tom Rutledge said in a statement. "At the same time, we are mindful of the potential implications for ad-skipping and the concerns this has raised in the programming community. We believe there are ways to take this victory and work with programmers to give our consumers what they want — full DVR functionality through existing digital set-top boxes — and at the same time deliver real benefits to advertisers."
Michael Bay's "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" barely missed breaking the 5-day box-office record held by "The Dark Knight," according to final figures released Monday morning. A year ago, filmmaker Chris Nolan's Batman sequel grossed $203.8 million in its first five days. Bay's "Transformers" sequel sold $200.1 million since its pre-dawn debut just past midnight early Wednesday, Paramount said.
The movie is clearly polarizing audiences. For all the tickets the film has sold, readers reacted passionately -- and mostly negatively -- to a Monday article about Bay and his box-office track record, saying the movie was gratuitous and poorly made.
Here's the start of the story that made them so upset:
Director Michael Bay has never been a critics' favorite, but the thrashing he received for “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” was the worst of his eight-film career. Reviewers ridiculed the new sequel about battling robots as "beyond bad" (Rolling Stone), "bewildering" and "sloppy" (the Village Voice) and "a great grinding garbage disposal of a movie" (the Detroit News).
The early notices were so uniformly disapproving that after Bay's traditional opening-night dinner party at Beverly Hills' Mr. Chow, the 44-year-old director wondered aloud to executives at distributor Paramount Pictures about the possible impact of the drubbing.
He needn't have worried: Rarely have critics been more disconnected from what audiences want and love.
Since it arrived early Wednesday just past midnight, "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" sold more tickets in its first five days -- an estimated $201.2 million -- than any other movie in Hollywood history except one: last year's "The Dark Knight" (which grossed $203.8 million in its first five days and went on to earn $533.3 million at the domestic box office). By the end of this week, "Transformers" likely will surpass "Up" and "Star Trek" to become this summer's most-attended release.
"I think they reviewed the wrong movie. They just don't understand the movie and its audience. It's silly fun," Bay said over the weekend of the many "Transformers" critical detractors. "I am convinced that they are born with the anti-fun gene. The reviews are just so vicious. A lot of them are more personal than anything else."
After the coffee. Before figuring out how much to spend on Comic-Con.
Transforming Paramount. The huge success of "Transformers" has given Paramount Chairman Brad Grey something to smile about. He tells The Los Angeles Times that "one of the mandates when I came to Paramount was to build franchises, and I think this summer we've accomplished what we set out to do," Meanwhile the successes of the summer -- "The Hangover," "Up" and "Transformers" -- is bad news for A-list actors, reports LA Times scribe Claudia Eller.
A monopoly? Google? Really?The New York Times delves into Google's latest efforts to convince Washington and the world that it isn't too powerful. Leading the fight for the search giant is a former a Justice Dept. lawyer who says, "competition is a click away."
ITV job search. Elisabeth Murdoch is on the wish list of Britain's ITV to become its new CEO. Murdoch's BFF Ben Silverman has also been rumored as a candidate for that job although NBC Universal keeps saying Silverman isn't going anywhere.The Telegraph.
Other than that, things are looking up. More than $2 billion dollars in ad revenue could disappear from the television industry over the next four years as digital video recorders and the growth of online continue to take their toll. The Financial Times. (registration required)
Comic-Con! The networks and studios are coming out in force at Comic-Con, reports Variety and The Hollywood Reporter. Warner Bros. alone will be hyping 11 shows at the comic book festival. While all this has made the convention a huge promotional platform, has it also lost some of its geek chic?
Wimbledon online. NBC and ESPN have been streaming Wimbledon live online. PaidContent tells you what they're doing and how it works.
Less is more. New York Times columnist David Carr weighs in on the expanded Oscars and makes the case that fewer awards overall, not best picture nominees, is what is needed.
In today's LA Times: Michael Bay's latest "Transformers" is critics proof. The BET Awards turned into a celebration of Michael Jackson and likely drew its best ratings.
