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H’wood Saturates Super Bowl Sans Film Ads
Just three film commercials ran in yesterday’s Super Bowl, which is U.S. TV’s most expensive advertisement, though Hollywood celebrities and brands were omnipresent. Those pricey in-game spots were for “Thunderbolts,” “How to Train Your Dragon” (screen grab above) and “M3gan: 2.0,” out of about 60 total spots. The usual range is four to 10 in-game movie commercials, which this year cost $6 million-$8 million. In what has been a growing trend over the past decade, video streaming commercials that include…
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Database Navigates Cinemas for Indie Films
A startup of well-connected cinema executives is beta testing a database to enable indie films to crack theatrical release. The Fithian Group is providing distribution services to navigate cinema, starting…
Netflix Keeps Original Movies Flowing
Netflix’s large slate of original movies serves as a big marketing lever. The world’s leading streamer with more than 301 million subscribers globally (90 million in U.S./Canada) unveiled its slate…
Classic Monsters Enjoy Film Revival
Remakes, sequels and re-imagings of classic monster movies dribble to cinema and TV screens, but that small but steady flow is now a torrent. Five sizable films are hitting cinema…
Arty-Film Website Letterboxd Blossoms
An influential social-media website for arthouse aficionados, Letterboxd, is hitting its stride, reaching 17 million active members with accounts at end of last year. “In 2024, those members wrote 96.4…
F-Bombs, Family Films Save 2024 Cinema
R-rated, restricted-audience films and gooey all-family films propped up domestic cinema boxoffice in 2024. “Venturing into R-rated territory for the first time paid off in spades as Disney and Marvel’s…
Epic PR Clash ‘Ends With Us’
A nasty harassment lawsuit and public Hollywood public relations war erupted between the stars of sleeper hit “It Ends With Us.” Blake Lively asserts that her co-star/director Justin Baldoni (both…
Website Anchors Indiana Jones Vid Game
A major video game built around the “Indiana Jones” movies aims to cash in as licensed merchandise and keep the film franchise alive in hearts of consumers. Video game “Indiana…
New Films Exploit Expiring Copyrights
Multiple “Popeye” movies are sailing to cinema, TV and video-game screens as the property’s foundation copyright expires. Expect this to be a trend as intellectual property (IP) created during the…
Disney Star Ignites Political Storm
A Walt Disney Studios star imperils the marketplace reception of a reported $270 million film by taking a strong anti-Trump stand. It’s the worst nightmare of every film distributor, having…