Numbers Numbers Numbers

I can't quite share the box office obsession that most of the web indulges in. What's on any given screen is way more interesting than how many people are staring at it. But sometimes it's fun to see the info, especially a whole bunch of it at once.

Anyway. This infographic had so many details, I thought I'd share...


Via: Online MBA

I used to love the sidebars in Premiere and Entertainment Weekly that covered things like this back when they made things called magazines on something called... what's that word again... paper!

The number I find most depressing* here is the number of screens versus the number of theaters. I'd do anything to have the giant screens back. Mr. Theater Owners, Tear Down Those Walls! Bring the big screens back. The constant inflation of ticket prices is bad enough, so the screens need to be worth it. Notice in that chart how cheap it is to see movies and then compare that to other entertainments. Done? Now, notice how much more likely people are to indulge in the cheaper entertainment. This is surely why so many people actually have television as their only form of entertainment. Very cheap. It is possible to price yourself out of relevancy. Broadway did that long ago. Must the movies be next?

* I amend: The 'Michael Bay as Hollywood's top earner' factoid takes that prize.

My Sister's Keeper and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

<-- One day Katey and I will upgrade with a greenscreen and a better mic (one day!) so I've visualized a greenscreen effect here. I've added magic Transformers symbols behind us... just for fun. I feel like I need magical decoding symbols to understand the Transformers phenomenon. What do millions upon millions upon millions of people see in Michael Bay's "films"? In less than one week's time it's already the #3 movie of the year and will easily slaughter the numbers for the beautiful Up and the entertaining Star Trek. *sniffle*

2009 Top Ten (thus far)

1. Up $250 and climbing
   
2. Star Trek $246 and winding down
   
3. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen $200 in just five days
   
4. Monsters vs. Aliens $195
   
5. The Hangover $183 and climbing
   
6. X-Men Origins: Wolverine $177
7. Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian $163 and winding down
   
8. Fast and Furious $155
   
9. Paul Blart: Mall Cop $146
   
10. Taken $144
    

Michael Bay is truly a god of carnage. Unfortunately the cinema is his target. I feel like someone should block my access to box office sites. In this case, ignorance might be bliss and it's cheaper than anti-depressants.

Ah, but I exaggerate for effect. I didn't actually see the giant robots so I'm just assuming that it's as terrible and its success as disheartening as the hilariously hateful reviews indicate. Katey did see it and she despairs at me herein. We also review My Sister's Keeper, Cameron Diaz's cancer weepie. It's a total grumpfest on the vodcast today.

Linkboy

The Big Picture on idiotic soundbites this week. Michael Bay's is a real dumbass doozy
Pictures for Sad Children "a famous person has died"
StinkyLulu Supporting Actress Smackdown 1983
my internet is where... has fallen in hate with Leonardo DiCaprio
Erik Lundegaard charts out the Best Picture Box Office problem... we've been talking about this for a long time. It's a beast of a problem and quite complicated... though the simplest explanation is that the moviegoing public is no longer interested in dramas (preferring just about any other genre) and Oscar still loves dramas most of all.


/Film Steven Spielberg, Oldboy and a complicated lawsuit
Thompson on Hollywood The Hurt Locker. Could the movie and its director Kathryn Bigelow factor into the Oscar race?
In Contention "the more the merrier?" Oscar's new inclusivity. I hadn't even thought of the voting block problem. Yikes. I'm going to have nightmares

I Don't Care if You Think I'm Link

This Recording "in which it's really human of you to listen to all my bullshit" ... fun piece on 80s teen movies and geeky romance
i09 has the twitter feeds you must follow. The 'Michael Bay' excerpt is priceless
Big Picture negative / mixed reviews of W.
NYT I love this chart on Presidential Physique. Does Obama's slender frame work against or for him?
Trading Faces has a good solid piece on the most recent Presidential debate
Boy Culture delivers the most detailed review of Madonna's Sticky & Sweet you'll find. Even though it's very personal I agree with so much of it I'm not going to write a word about the tour. Plus, well: film blog (mostly) ... I'm trying to stay on topic ;)
Lazy Evil Eye Theater "the only thing more terrifying than the last 12 words of this post are the first 206!" -Piper is having so much witty fun with his rechristened blog!
Out1 Film Journal James doesn't believe in multiple film festival posts. He's going to tell you everything in one NYFF post that rivals Che in length
Coming Soon The Oscars are going to allow film commercials this year. WHAT? Why am I so averse to change with my Oscars?
Out in Hollywood Queen Latifah's latest 'I don't care if you think i'm gay' proclamation
Playbill Liza Minelli is returning to Broadway. "And the My World Goes Round"...
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Josh & Kate @ the Beach

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JA from MNPP here. While doing research for my post at MNPP this morning in honor of Josh Hartnett's 30th birthday today (research = looking at pretty pictures of a pretty man), I stumbled upon an entire series of promo shots of Mr. Hartnett and Kate Beckinsale for Michael Bay's homage-to-shiny-people-and-the-shiny-bombs-that-blow-them-up Pearl Harbor, and couldn't resist taking my opportunity while at the helm of TFE to dedicate a post to it. I mean... if there's one thing The Film Experience lacks, it's attention paid to Pearl Harbor, otherwise known as "The Thinking-Person's Titanic."

Wow, typing out that sentence made me throw up in my mouth a little.

In all honesty, there have been a few times that I've stumbled across PH on television and found myself drawn into its swirl of pretty commercial surfaces. I find it's more entertaining if you pretend it's really a love story between Hartnett and Ben Affleck. Also, you should be very, very drunk.

Time capsule: I would choose 2001 as the one of these to do, wouldn't I? Well, that happened. In entertainment, at the tail-end of the year Peter Jackson would introduce us to Middle Earth and Chris Columbus would take us inside Hogwarts for the first time. In music, Beyonce & Co. introduced the word "bootylicious" into the vernacular, while Christina Aguilera & Co. dressed like crazed Muppets who'd devoured a cosmetics counter in the "Lady Marmalade" video.
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