The New York Times has an article up on John Carter, which opened this weekend. The headline, “‘Ishtar’ Lands on Mars“, tells you the tack they’re taking. The facts are damning: “cost an estimated $350 million to make and market”, took in just over $30 million this weekend, will require Disney to “take a quarterly write-down of $100 million to $165 million”. Because of its enormous cost and the way ticket sales are split with theaters, analysts say the film […]

When the UltraViolet program was first announced, one of its goals was to give studios a way to sell digital versions of movies direct to customers, without having to use iTunes. The aim of the program is “digital portability”, which they believe will convince customers to buy instead of rent. Not at these prices, it won’t. Paramount opened its direct sales site, ParamountMovies.com. There, more than 60 recent and classic movies are priced from $12.99 – $22.99, depending on age […]

On February 17, Disney will release the newest Studio Ghibli movie: The Secret World of Arrietty. Here’s the trailer: As pointed out, this is based on the classic series of novels that began with The Borrowers by Mary Norton, about a family of little people who live in the walls of houses and live off items “borrowed” from the Big People. It’s a wonderful choice for a cartoon, since animation allows the various-sized characters to interact realistically without a layer […]