Friday, April 16, 2010

Place Your Bets

If you think that what Hollywood needs is more suits, this is the plan for you.

Government regulators have approved the creation of a new commodities market that would trade on the projected revenues of movies; even though every one in the movie business has come out against it and part of the financial regulation bill currently working through the Senate would ban it.

Commodities trading has always seemed a little shady to me, but then applying that to a good that doesn't really follow supply and demand definitely sounds like a terrible idea.

The backers of this idea say it'll reduce risk and encourage investment in smaller, independent films, but to me this sounds like the opposite is more likely. where it would lead to more "safe" bland summer blockbuster-type films to help guarantee the projected outcomes. But then again maybe I don't understand it.

I'm sure that even though studios could potentially make a lot of money on such trading, they know that movies are a risky enough venture as it is and would rather keep things the way they are.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Didn't any tell you it's not polite to double dip?

With M. Night Shyamalan's live action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender hitting theatres in July, Nickelodeon/Paramount is doing what any studio would do: fill the shelves with DVDs to tie-in to the release.

I should point out that I don't actually know what's different from the previous release. I knew this set has 7 discs and the other only had 6. it sound like that extra disc has a new documentary.This new set also contains a book full of designs and artwork.

The price is really good. $26.99 for a 20 episode TV series. isn't too bad, especially with all the goodies. The Original Book 1 box set cost $40.

But as much as I loved the show (and am rather dreading the movie) I can't see myself drop over $25 bucks on something I already own.

And for me this would actually be a triple dip. Nickelodeon first released Avatar1 in single disc releases that I had to sell once they were doing box sets.

So if you've never bought any Airbender DVDs, now's the chance to get the best deal on them.

And you want to make five bucks, I'll totally buy that book off of you.



1If there's one thing I begrudge James Cameron's movie for it's that I can't mention the cartoon without saying the full name or saying "Not that Avatar, the other one."