The Morning Fix: ‘New Moon,’ ‘Blind Side’ flatten the competition. Redbox says it is friend, not foe. Bravo’s big decision on party crashers. Paramount’s marketing challenges for ‘Up in the Air’
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After the coffee. Before the return to work.
‘Blind Side’ delivers a big hit. Despite opening opposite ‘New Moon,’ Warner Bros. drama ‘The Blind Side’ continues to be surprisingly strong. The movie came in second during the holiday weekend but actually built on its opening-weekend performance with $40.1 million, a rare feat. Overall, the Thanksgiving weekend was huge for Hollywood with ticket sales in North America of $275 million, and ‘New Moon’ was again in the top spot. Not everyone was smiling, though. Disney’s formulaic ‘Old Dogs’ had no bite. Analysis from the Los Angeles Times, Variety and the Hollywood Reporter.
Comcast’s Universal plans. No deal yet for cable giant Comcast Corp. to take control of General Electric Co.’s NBC Universal, but if it does happen, odds are the movie studio will become something of a lab for experiments on new delivery systems. The New York Times takes a look at how Comcast may use the studio to test new methods of video-on-demand for movies and what it might mean for the industry.
Don’t blame us! Redbox President Mitch Lowe tells the Wall Street Journal that Hollywood is using the video-kiosk operator as a scapegoat for the movie industry’s woes. ‘You should be looking for creative new markets to sell your product to,’ he says.
Bravo’s big decision. The couple who wormed their way into President Obama’s first state dinner last week -- Michaele and Tareq Salahi -- were being filmed for an upcoming D.C. version of the Bravo network’s reality show ‘Real Housewives.’ Now the cable channel will have to decide whether to reward them for crashing a party (and showing some major flaws in security at the event) or drop them as the backlash against the fame-seeking pair grows. The Wrap’s Joe Adalian says Bravo needs to send a message that ‘it’s not acceptable’ to break the rules in order to get on TV.
Cameron’s bet. Director James Cameron has a pretty good track record, but that’s not stopping a lot of industry folks from wondering whether the 3-D ‘Avatar’ will be a hit or miss. The Daily Beast’s Kim Masters looks at the movie and what it means for Cameron, 3-D technology and 20th Century Fox.
The future is now.Advertising Age offers a lengthy take on how technology is going to alter the TV landscape. Although we all know we’ll be getting our content across lots of platforms, the question is, who will get the money and will there be enough to keep the business going.
Lachlan goes Hollywood. Lachlan Murdoch, oldest son of News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch, is part of a venture bidding on the entertainment publications owned by Nielsen, including the Hollywood Reporter and Billboard. The deal, according to the Financial Times, is for about $70 million. News of Lachlan Murdoch’s involvement in the deal was first reported by PaidContent. Still waiting for a story in the Hollywood Reporter about all this.
Inside the Los Angeles Times: ‘Up in the Air,’ Jason Reitman’s new film starring George Clooney as a man who spends his life in airplanes when he’s not firing people, is getting a lot of critical buzz but is not without marketing challenges. Claudia Eller on how Paramount looks to promote what it hopes will be its Oscar contender.
-- Joe Flint
