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When the phrase “live entertainment” is used in a word association game, most people aren’t likely to jump up and down screaming rebroadcast or replay.  The phrase also isn’t likely to conjure thoughts of a big screen unless one is part of the staging.   For most people, “Live Entertainment” is, well, … live. It’s the energy of a packed house, the buzz of the crowd.  It’s Broadway.  It’s concert halls and small clubs.  It’s the spectacle of a show revealed second by second. Sony is hoping in the right settings, with the right context, that “live factor” won’t be so important; that replays will catch on.  

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The Superhero business is booming.  Marvel Entertainments first self produced movie, Iron Man, dominated the weekend box office earning an estimated $201m in global receipts in its debut.  At the same time, on Wall Street, the company didn’t fare badly either.  Marvel posted better a better than expected quarter and raised 2008 guidance. These numbers are only a small part of a bigger story.

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Apple announced this morning (press release) they will be getting select videos on iTunes the same day the films are released on DVD.  That news is getting the headlines, and deservedly so, it’s a big story and coup for Steve Jobs and team, but there’s a bigger story locked within the soundbytes.  It’s a story about Hollywood and a modernizing movie industry.   It’s a coming of age film.  It’s a story about distribution technology and profit margins, about the old guard accepting and embracing the new.  If there were a trailer to watch, the voice over would talk about throwing stones through the leaded glass of old traditions.  It might close: “Broken Windows, coming soon to the Internet theater nearest you.”

The “windows” in reference are release windows, the prescribed time gaps between which films are aired over different media.  Click to Read More

In efforts to turn around the long struggling company, Blockbuster, under the leadership of Jim Keyes, has gotten experimental.   They’ve been testing rental kiosks, exploring cellular downloads, and evaluating concept stores.  They’ve added managerial transparency.  The company has even gone public with an ill received interest in acquiring Circuit City to create a new hybrid rental retail chain.   Now, in the latest move from Keyes’ Frankenstein lab, Blockbuster is reportedly eyeing TV distribution too.

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After the compensation information revealed in Friday’s proxy filings, Monday morning coffee talk and water cooler conversations might well have been peppered with gossip about hefty executive pay packages at Viacom in 2007. Instead, an oddly timed Sunday announcement marrying Paramount, MGM and Lions Gate in joint venture to launch a cable TV channel of their own played the trump card.  The bigger headline than pay: New Channel coming 2009, news at 11.

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As part of an effort to fix an ailing business, Blockbuster scaled back their big spending marketing campaign to compete with Netflix mail order DVD rental service.  The first order of business for Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes was to fix the stores.  Now rumors suggest Blockbuster is gearing up to fight Netflix again only this time the battlefront is different.   In the new frontier, instead of targeting mail-order, Blockbuster is reportedly aiming for the digital landscape.

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It’s game on for Paramount.  The movie studio has plans to jump into gaming and has formed a division within their interactive department to fund the development (and publication) of gaming titles, according to Variety.

The game studio, about which information remains slight, will be largely run by Matt Candler who previously worked at Grind Games and Activision.  His title will be VP of Interactive Development.

Sandi Isaacs, Paramount’s VP of interactive and mobile content told Variety that the studio will look to invest in all types of games from casual and mobile on up to possible console games.

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