Thompson on Hollywood

A New Age of Original Content Needs Script Services: A Guide

Features

Hollywood is allergic to taking risks on the unknown. But not every young adult franchise or fairy tale retelling can be as uber-successful around the world as "Twilight" ($392 million), "The Hunger Games" ($691 million) or "Oz: The Great and Powerful" ($426 million to date). This year's "Beautiful Creatures" grossed $57-million worldwide, and $200-million "Jack the Giant Slayer" mustered a miserable global $158 million.

By Sophia Savage
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April 9, 2013 2:27 PM
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Super Bowl Trailers: Which One Won You Over?

Video

Which Super Bowl spot won you over? While Amy Poehler's Best Buy ad was probably my favorite, which studio made you want to see their film the most? Not the best TV spot, that was probably aerial wonk-fest "Iron Man 3," which looks like an improvement on Two, as it better be. Justin Lin's "Fast & Furious 6" looks like more of same, with the welcome return of Michelle Rodriguez. Troubled Brad Pitt-starrer "World War Z" and Sam Raimi's costly "Oz the Great and Powerful" look over-pixelated to me. Vote below.

By Anne Thompson
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February 4, 2013 2:32 PM
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Super Bowl Movie Ads UPDATE: 'Star Trek,' Lone Ranger,' 'Iron Man 3,' 'World War Z,' 'Oz the Great and Powerful' [VIDEO]

Video

On Super Bowl Sunday (February 3), a spate of new movie ads hit CBS football fans and the web. See the updated spots below. Several studios unveiled Super Bowl spots for their tentpole films.

By Anne Thompson and Beth Hanna
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February 3, 2013 8:45 PM
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MOD (Manufactured on Demand) Moves into Blu-Rays

Features

Hollywood is always looking for new ways and new places to sell its movies. In 1982, Barry Diller, one of the smartest men ever to run a Hollywood studio, told me that the decisions he and the other studio heads were then making about new technologies – basic cable, pay-cable, satellite television. Pay-Per-View, videocassettes and videodiscs – “will dictate the makeup of this industry 20 years from now.”

By Aljean Harmetz
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January 3, 2013 6:26 AM
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Ted Hope Names the Really Bad Things in Indie Film 2012

News

Ted Hope sees that there is a a lot wrong with our culture and that it has a damaging effect on the filmmaking business. He lays out the 24 Really Bad Things In The Indie Film Biz 2012.

By Sophia Savage
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December 27, 2012 3:16 PM
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Adults Crave Original Content while Tentpole Enthusiasm Wanes

Features

The Austin Film Festival's film program director Stephen Jannise argues that "a new demographic is there for the taking"...

By Sophia Savage
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July 5, 2012 4:18 PM
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Rotten Tomatoes' Matt Atchity Takes on Critics and Movie Tastemaking

Reviews

In MediaBistro's recent "So What Do You Do?" interview with Rotten Tomatoes' editor-in-chief Matt Atchity, he weighs in on the state of film criticism, the discrepancy between critics and the public, and the "pitfall" of journalists being too "indie-focused." Come again?

By Sophia Savage
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June 28, 2012 1:08 PM
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Sony and Universal Hawk Summer and Holiday Slates, from 'Spider-Man' and 'Total Recall' to 'Battleship' and 'Bourne'

Box Office

Which of the six studio presentations at CinemaCon were represented by their chairmen? One could argue that the ones who most wanted to be identified with their slates, to OWN them if you will, were the ones who showed up.