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
Iron Man 2 Brief Updates: Dr. Pepper Commercial, Extended Stark Expo Clip, and Two New Photos April 12, 2010April 12, 2010A couple of new videos, a commercial and an extended clip, as well as two new photos have come online for Iron Man 2. Check them out after the break. Read More
Viral Video Round Up: The Avengers, Batman, Game Of Thrones, And More! March 17, 2013The Internet is full of videos related to movies, whether they be fan made, studio made, or somewhere in between. We regularly bring you the best, most interesting, or just plain weirdest, and today we do it again. Check out the latest viral videos after the break. Read More
District 9: Prawns Get Revenge “At Some Point” November 3, 2009November 3, 2009It looks like our most talked about film is still going strong in theaters. The DVD and Blu-ray may be going on sale in December, but it has still managed to exceed expectations by breaking the $200 million barrier! This weekend it was annnounced that the film, which was made… Read More