Betting On Box Office Opening Weekends Approved Dan Koelsch, June 15, 2010 Want to make some serious money predicting box office opening weekend results? Now you can, at via stock exchange. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission approved a contract with the new Trend Exchange that allow traders to bet on a movie’s opening weekend gross. While a new revenue stream is always nice, there could be some serious downside to this. There has been a lot of opposition to betting on future box-office receipts within the film industry, most prominently from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), as it could actually hurt box office performance. This could also have a serious affect on the viral trends of new releases. Anyone with a stake in the exchange could manipulate word of mouth and other viral marketing of films if they had enough influence. As the L.A. Times writes:In a follow-up interview, [Bart] Chilton [a dissenting commissioner] added that he was particularly concerned about the ability of studios to manipulate the price of a future through marketing and other decisions, which he said was very different from existing futures contracts related to agriculture and other products. I would imagine this would bring a lot more pressure for hyped films to perform well, which only seems to make matters worse for a fickle industry. I don’t have a business degree, so some of the details on this fly over my head, but this is obviously a hotly debated issue. What do you think? News Viral News Box OfficeTrend ExchangeWeekend Box Office
Warner Bros. Sends Out “Wonder Twins” Movie Poster As Viral For “Entourage”? November 14, 2013November 14, 2013A few weeks ago, it was announced that the Mark Wahlberg-produced HBO series, Entourage, was getting a movie which would pick up after the series finale. Today, Midtown Comics in New York received a poster teasing a Wonder Twins movie starring Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher. Is it a hoax… Read More
Fan Trailer Tries To Pass Itself Off as “Tron 3” Trailer April 25, 2011April 26, 2011Our friend Anton has posted some Tron 3 previews in the past on his YouTube channel, and he was recently sent what is supposedly a new one. The submitter claims it’s test footage for Comic-Con 2011, but despite the professional quality, it looks to clearly be a fan trailer. Take… Read More
ARGs & Campaigns Game Of Thrones Coming To Theaters For IMAX Run January 14, 2015Time to scale The Wall on the big screen as HBO’s campaign for the next season of the hit fantasy show includes screening episodes of season four in select theaters in IMAX. While the show isn’t shot in the format, it will be digitally remastered for the IMAX run in… Read More