Tag Archives: movies

Ke$ha, a Los Angeles based singer, moved 610,069 downloads of her first single “Tik Tok” in a week placing her at the number 2 spot for one week downloads ever with Flo Rida’s “Right Round” at number one in one week sales (with Ke$ha as an uncredited singer). That number is remarkably similar to the number of times New Moon was illegally downloaded online during it’s first week of release (610,000). That number pales in comparison to the first week illegal downloads for Avatar which came close to one million illegal downloads.

Illegal online downloads during the theater run doesn’t appear to have much of an impact on the box office numbers, the challenge for the movie industry comes when the films are released to DVD/Blu-Ray. With Netflix and other cost effective (or illegal and free) options for watching movies, it’s become harder and harder to sell DVD/Blu-Ray discs. According to the Wall Street Journal, 2009 was the first year since 2002 that ticket sales out did DVD/Blu-Ray sales, challenging the existing business model of the movie industry. The music industry faced a similar challenge with the appearance of digital downloads but they were able to recover from the disaster that Napster could have been after a little resistance. The did lead to the near death of the compact disc.

The movie industry isn’t quite there. With new release digital movie downloads costing up to the monthly membership at Netflix (and I mean the good membership with 3 movies at a time), what is the movie industry to do in 2010 to turn that around? SmartMoney recently released a list of things not to buy in 2010 and along with newspaper subscriptions, new college text books and CDs was DVDs. Perhaps it’s time the industry lower the cost of a digital download and move the home release date closer to the theatrical release date. This will allow for two money making opportunities for the industry and allow for the movie watcher to choose the type of experience they want and trump the massive amount of illegal downloads. Of course, with Avatar passing $1 billion dollars at the box office, the need for change is not as immediate but as the quality and availability of downloads become a bit easier for the non-techie, that may shift quickly.

We did survive the death of the VHS, I think we can make it through the next shift.

In the spirit of the weekend (in that it is a weekend), I thought I’d share a little tidbit I just ran across in the LA Times.

As of August 13,  Ghostbusters is viewable for free, in its entirety, on YouTube. In a deal with Sony, YouTube is displaying the movie in the Sony Crackle player. The move is to help celebrate the 25th anniversary of the original movie.  You can view the film through August 20. As they put it on the YouTube blog,

But don’t take this opportunity for granted. You only have seven days to watch the movie before it ceases any and all supernatural activity and returns forthwith to its place of origin — or to the nearest convenient parallel dimension. So we’re challenging you, the YouTube community, to get out there and watch it, comment on it, and share it with your friends.

And in case you’re too young to have seen the original, or just need a refresher, here’s a trailer for your enjoyment:

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Cheers!

Tweet Michelle @writetechnology, send her technology news at michelle[at]writetech[dot]net, visit her wine blog when you’re thirsty, and drop by her day job.

by Michelle Lentz

I should probably preface this post with something: I’m addicted to Disney. Not Hannah Montana / Jonas Bros Disney, but Pixar / Disney Animiated Classics type of thing. Pop Disney’s animated Robin Hood into the DVD player, and I’m content.

We recently purchased a Sony PS3 – games for my husband and a Blu-Ray player for me. The first Blu-Ray movie I purchased was Disney/Pixar’s Cars. Not only was it an incredibly pretty viewing experience, I had a blast with the special features that were enabled via Blu-Ray technology.

Disney thinks everyone should get on the Blu-Ray bandwagon. Apparently consumers as a whole see no reason to pay $30 for a Blu-Ray movie and upwards of $250 for a player when their current $45 DVD player works just fine and DVD movies can be as low as $5 at some points.

This makes a lot of sense to me. Our TV (as well as the PS3) upconverts, so we are still using our old region-free DVD player in addition to the PlayStation. Our old movies look pretty spectacular. Because my husband and I are both movie buffs, we have countless movies, very few of which I plan to replace with more expensive Blu-Ray discs.

According to the NY Times, Disney is now releasing 5 of its classic movies on Blu-Ray in special “platinum” editions, to help encourage Blu-Ray adoption: Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Beauty and the Beast, Fantasia, and Fantasia 2000. The special features sound fairly nifty.

All the DVDs will include unusual features geared toward a generation that embraces interactivity and social networking. Viewers can watch a movie in tandem with friends in other locations, while they chat using a laptop or cellphone (the comments appear on the screen).

Viewers will also be able to compete against others around the world at trivia or send what Disney is calling movie mail, video images of themselves that appear within the context of the movie.

I’m trying to remember how I adapted my music so many years ago. My albums are all in storage, and many of them, I’ve replaced with digital versions. Until recently, I’ve always had a CD player that also had a cassette deck, although I gradually stopped listening to the tunes on tapes. I don’t believe I ever replaced them. However, most of my CDs have been ripped or replaced by digital music at this point.

Are you planning to adopt blu-ray? Will be you replacing or just adding to your collection?

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