Here's my 2005 Studio Report Card, which offers three grades: first for box-office performance, second for film quality, third for overall.

WARNER BROS.: Marrying A-list filmmakers to scripts that could travel the globe, the studio had a monster year here and overseas, proving that fiscal responsibility can coexist with classy filmmaking. Only three of its 17 releases, notably the latest "Harry Potter" installment, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," were fully financed by the studio; the others were co-productions with various financing partners and private equity funds, enabling Warners to lay off risk but build value in its library. The studio also made a deal with producer Graham King ensuring access to Leonardo DiCaprio and Johnny Depp, two of this era's true stars and magnets for top filmmakers.
Performance: A-plus. Quality: B-plus. Overall: A.

20TH CENTURY FOX: Easily the most entrepreneurial studio in town, Fox's unsentimental approach to movies reflects the tough, opportunistic mind-set of owner Rupert Murdoch. The studio's top executives are savvy (if not always well-loved) pros, famously willing to walk away from any deal that's too rich or too risky. (Perhaps that's why you could spend years on the lot without ever bumping into a first-dollar gross filmmaker.) This year's biggest hits were bankrolled by George Lucas ("Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith") and Regency ("Mr. & Mrs. Smith"). But the studio also had major success with "Fantastic Four" and "Robots," while impressing critics with "Walk the Line" and "The Family Stone," a pair of Fox 2000 films that delivered quality at a modest cost.Performance: A-minus. Quality: B-plus. Overall: A-minus.

DISNEY: As it enters the post-Michael Eisner age, the studio remains as enigmatic as ever, daring enough to make its TV shows available on iPods, so corporately timorous that it locked itself out of the Oscar race by making academy members watch its films on those crazy Cinea DVD players. The studio took a big loss last fall, largely because of poor video sales and Miramax flops, but it has a smash with "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" and several surprise hits, including "The Pacifier," "Flightplan" and "Chicken Little," which made up for such under-performers as "Herbie: Fully Loaded" and "Sky High."Performance: B-plus. Quality: B-minus. Overall: B.DREAMWORKS: The days when this studio was a perennial incubator for Oscar films are over, but it had an impressive year internationally, a feat that no doubt played a big role in its sale to Paramount, which desperately needs to revamp its overseas distribution. "Madagascar" was a hit overseas, with the studio also seeing good global numbers from "The Ring 2," "Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit" and even "The Island," which was written off as a flop here but rebounded overseas, leaving "Just Like Heaven" as the studio's biggest loser.Performance: B-minus. Quality: C-plus. Overall: B-minus.

UNIVERSAL: What could possibly go wrong when you have a slate topped by four films all made by Academy Award winners? Oops! Ron Howard's "Cinderella Man" and Sam Mendes' "Jarhead" were costly duds, while Steven Spielberg's "Munich" desperately needs a best picture nomination to gain box-office traction. That leaves Peter Jackson's "King Kong," a critically lauded epic that has mysteriously failed to do epic business. The rest of the year was not so stellar, with low-budget hits ("The 40 Year-Old Virgin") offset by misses big ("Doom") and small ("Serenity"). Chairman Stacey Snider has kept General Electric's cost-cutters at bay, but with her contract expiring this year, the longer she goes without re-upping the more wonderers will wonder what the future holds.Performance: C-minus. Quality: C-plus. Overall: C.

NEW LINE: Another bumpy post-"Lord of the Rings" year for the studio, which returned to its youth-oriented comedy roots with mixed results. "Wedding Crashers" was the year's biggest and best comedy, and it single-handedly transformed the industry's attitude toward R-rated comedies (expect a gaggle of imitators soon). But aside from "Monster-in-Law," the rest of the slate fizzled, with "Son of the Mask" and "Domino" being costly losers, offset only by a pair of critic favorites, "A History of Violence" and "The New World."
Performance: C-minus. Quality: B-minus. Overall: C.

PARAMOUNT: No one can accuse Brad Grey of undue caution, as the new chairman has boldly overhauled this cobwebby studio, bringing in new executive talent and buying DreamWorks, which could help jump-start movie production at a time when the cupboards are nearly bare. In a year of transition, the studio had several flops, notably "Elizabethtown," mitigated by an Adam Sandler hit ("The Longest Yard") that was followed by the mammoth "War of the Worlds." Grey can only hope the DreamWorks deal will lead to more Spielberg blockbusters to come, though it speaks volumes that Spielberg couldn't even be persuaded to move his office from the Universal back lot to Paramount.
Performance: C-. Quality: C. Overall: C-minus.

MIRAMAX/WEINSTEIN CO.: Harvey Weinstein has been lying low lately, perhaps embarrassed by the last months of his reign at Miramax, which resembled one of those "Everything Must Go!" bankruptcy sales. Nothing was too old or decrepit, including "The Great Raid" and "Mindhunters," two films (shot in 2002!) that stumbled out of the Miramax vaults like zombies from a crypt. Weinstein had one nice hit ("Sin City") and has a couple of classy new films in release from his new company, but even longtime Harvey fans have diminished expectations for his new studio's future.Performance:
D. Quality: C-minus. Overall: D-plus.

SONY: When it comes to ineptitude, this studio belongs right up there with the 1962 Mets (who lost 120 games) and the 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers (who went 0-14). Marketing chief Geoff Ammer got the ax, but he was a sacrificial lamb for an Amy Pascal-led production team that appeared out of touch with reality, consistently misjudging the marketplace ("Bewitched"), failing to exercise any fiscal restraint ("Fun With Dick and Jane") and releasing movies ("Zathura") on dates when they were doomed to fail. To add insult to injury, the Academy Award hopes of its costly "Memoirs of a Geisha" are evaporating, insuring it will be a money loser too.

Performance: D. Quality: D. Overall: D.

Pixar Stock Surges on Deal Rumor

Pixar Stock Surges on Deal Rumor
By Claudia Eller and Richard Verrier, Times Staff Writers


Pixar Animation Studios shares soared to a record high Wednesday amid speculation that the company behind "Finding Nemo" and "The Incredibles" is on the verge of a new deal with — and possibly sale to — longtime partner Walt Disney Co.

The nearly 8% jump in Pixar's stock, to $58.16 a share, comes as Chief Executive Steve Jobs and Disney Chief Executive Robert Iger have been negotiating to extend their companies' long-term distribution pact that ends this summer with the release of Pixar's "Cars."

Mining the minority audience

By Thomas K. Arnold, Special for USA TODAY

Just as the movie studios are reaching out to diverse markets, home-video marketers are aggressively going after black and Latino audiences.
Gospel, with Clifton Powell, arrives Tuesday, a couple of weeks ahead of MLK Jr. Day, Jan. 16.
Screen Gems

The DVD business is 8 years old, and its once-explosive growth is tapering to single digits, so new markets are crucial to the home-viewing business. And minorities are heavy consumers of home entertainment, says Universal's Ken Graffeo.

"According to our research, while Caucasians purchased an average of 8.8 DVDs during the past six months, Latino Americans purchased an average of 13.1 DVDs, and African-Americans purchased an average of 12.8 DVDs during that same time frame," Graffeo says.
At Universal and Warner, executives have created multicultural divisions to market mainstream movies to minorities. Graffeo notes that the Latino market is growing so fast that marketing campaigns are focusing on these consumers.

"Latinos in the United States represent north of $700 billion in (overall) purchasing power," he says. "It is forecast that by 2010, this figure will increase to $1 trillion."
Similarly, he said, "the African-American market currently represents $650 billion in purchasing power and is on track to exceed $850 billion by 2010."

'Faith market' makes its mark

With the emerging success of multicultural markets, faith-oriented movie fans are considered another lucrative niche. 20th Century Fox has a new division that focuses on audiences seeking movies with a message as well as family-friendly fare.
Buoyed by its success in 2004 marketing DVDs of The Passion of the Christ through churches and religious groups, Fox has launched a Web site, www.foxfaith.com.
The site promotes not just religious titles in the Fox catalog such as The Bible but also films and shows that might appeal to the same audience, from The Sound of Music to Strawberry Shortcake videos.

The Passion "certainly gave us our MBA in the faith market," Fox's Steve Feldstein says. "We've created this Web site as a one-stop resource for families and organizations seeking information about quality, all-audience programming."

— Thomas K. Arnold
DVD advertising on networks that cater to minorities, such as Univision and BET, is increasing, as are promotions on radio stations that target these markets.
"We go where the audience is," says 20th Century Fox's Steve Feldstein, whose studio has staged grassroots campaigns in urban markets for the martial arts movie Ong-Bak and Woman, Thou Art Loosed, based on Bishop T.D. Jakes' self-help book.

Gospel, about an R&B singer who returns home after his pastor father falls ill, arrives on DVD today, timed to take advantage of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday on Jan. 16. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is running commercials for Gospel on black cable channels.
For the release Jan. 17 of Sueño, about a Mexican singer who comes to Los Angeles to seek a music career, Sony Pictures is doing radio promotions and DVD giveaways in such key Latino markets as Los Angeles, Miami, Houston, Dallas and San Diego.

Latinos are of particular interest to studios because of the growth of the Latino population in the USA. More DVDs are coming to market with Spanish subtitles and language tracks. "Virtually all our films have them," Fox's Feldstein says.

Independent suppliers such as Ventura Entertainment and Xenon Pictures are releasing on DVD movies and telenovelas (TV soap operas) imported from Mexico, Spain and other Spanish-speaking countries. Buena Vista Home Entertainment creates Spanish-language packaging for its major animated family titles.

One of the most aggressive suppliers targeting Latinos is Ventura Entertainment. Unlike the major studios, which promote mainstream movies to Latino audiences, Ventura's Studio Latino division offers films and programs in Spanish.

Since launching Studio Latino in 2003, "our business has doubled each year, and while we expect the growth to level off as the market begins to mature, we still expect double-digit growth in 2006," says Ventura's Gordon Prend.

New Hot Talent---Sunshinelove.net

See Ashley Crawley, a/k/a Sunshine Love at her hot new web site, www.sunshinelove.net. Check her out and let us know what you think.

Who will be the break out urban movie star of 2006?

Will it be:

1. Terrence Howard?
2. Gabrielle Union?
3. Halle Barry----nothing since the Oscar
4. Boris Kujoe?----Much potential
5. ?

Cruise, irritating? Naw, he's the biggest star ever!

Cruise, irritating? Naw, he's the biggest star ever!
Posted Dec 30th 2005 11:01AM by Martha Fischer

Filed under: Newsstand, Tom Cruise, Lists

Sure, some negative, evil people might find Tom Cruise just the slightest bit irritating, particularly when he does things like, in the immortal words of England's The Guardian, "Bouncing around on Oprah's sofa like a hormonal adolescent." But the REAL fans know that he's just an irrepressible genius who keeps it real, and that's why, in an online poll of about 10,000 participants conducted by Empire magazine, Cruise was voted the "biggest star of all time." In taking the top spot, he beat out such minor figures as Robert De Niro (#2), and Marilyn Monroe (#5), among others. Yeah! Take that, all you Tom haters.
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Urban/Independent Star Power Guide

We are in the process of creating the first Urban/Independent Star Power Guide to rank the top urban and independent actors and actresses and how the movies they appear in perform either at the box office, in festivals or in the DVD market.

We will attempt to rank the top 30 talents according to our own criteria.

Can Hollywood do anything right?

With the Christmas holiday box office rush over, it seems that 2005 will not be the break out year Hollywood was hoping for. Overall the ticket sales are down a reported 5-6% over 2004. Several big budgeted flops: Stealth, The Island, and others caused the exit of Dreamsworks from the independent production business.

The budgets of most "tentpole" movies are now north of $150 million. Factor in another $75 million for worldwide marketing costs and the gross participation of the stars and you can see why the movie business is hurting. What is the cure for the problem? Make lower budgeted films? Not really. The problem is to make better films that people want to see, rather than making remakes. The urban film segment was mostly positive with several theatrical releases going respectable numbers. However, according to our research there was less than 5 "urban" films that had a theatrical release in 2005:

Hustle & Flow
The Gospel
Diary of a Mad Black Woman
Crash
Woman Thou Art Loose

The total box office take for the above five movies was less that $100 million. The production budget of the five is estimated at less than $15 million, i.e., the cost of one A list Hollywood "Star".

The urban segment if developed properly can be a profitable segment for a production company structured for the production of urban films.

Silver Screen Studios, Inc. (OTCBB:SSSU) is one such company structured for the production of urban films. The development of the production infrastructure where costs can be controlled is the key to profitability in the urban market segment.

50 Cent and Carey are going to the wire

50 Cent and Carey are going to the wire



THE CD sales story of the week belongs to "American Idol," but the sales story of the year is the tight race between 50 Cent and Mariah Carey.

With just 10 days left in 2005, it looks as if Carey's dramatic year-end surge will allow her to overtake the New York rapper and capture album-of-the-year sales honors.


50 Cent's "The Massacre" has sold just over 4.8 million copies since early March, Nielsen SoundScan reported Wednesday. Carey's "The Emancipation of Mimi" has sold nearly 4.6 million since it hit stores in April.

But her album is a far hotter item going into the last days of the year. "Mimi" sold 191,000 more copies to rank No. 7 for the week, while "Massacre" sold only 21,000 copies last week to rank No. 127. If 50 Cent's album continues selling at the same pace, Carey would edge past "Massacre" if "Mimi" sells about 260,000 more copies by Dec. 31.

Carey's showing is one of the most dramatic comebacks in pop history. The onetime bestseller was considered so over commercially that EMI paid $30 million to buy out her $80-million contract in 2002. She was then signed by Island Def Jam, which released "Mimi."

Kelly Clarkson's "Breakaway" shapes up as the year's third biggest seller, with sales of 4.1 million through Wednesday. The CD, which was released in January, sold 181,000 copies last week to finish No. 8 on the chart. It was one of three "American Idol"-related packages in the Top 10, evidence of the TV show's hold on the U.S. pop audience.

Carrie Underwood, the country singer who won this year's competition, ranks No. 2 on this week's chart, while runner-up Southern rocker Bo Bice entered at No. 4. Underwood's "Some Hearts" sold 271,000 copies. Bice's "The Real Thing," sold 227,000 copies.

Eminem's greatest-hits package, "Curtain Call," remains No. 1 for the second week after selling 324,000 copies last week. Although the number of digitally downloaded tracks is up dramatically for the year, CD sales are about 569 million — or down 8% from 2004.

Terrence Howard to Leave Jessica Alba, Awake for Island Holiday

Terrence Howard to Leave Jessica Alba, Awake for Island Holiday
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By Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith
Dec 22, 2005

Terrence Howard wraps up his role as a cardio-thoracic surgeon in Harvey Weinstein's thriller "Awake" with Jessica Alba and Hayden Christensen Friday (12/23) -- and then the Golden Globe-nominated film actor plans to "disappear to an island.


ISLAND GETAWAY

"The one thing I've missed this year -- the greatest sacrifice of all -- has been being with my kids. It's going to be great to spend six days together away from everything," says the father of three young'uns with wife Lori.

After New Year's, "I'll go to L.A. and start turning up at shows and events. I'm getting to meet some incredible actors right now," he notes cheerfully. "The morning of the Golden Globes nominations, me and Joaquin exchanged phone calls -- to get a call from him was great," he says of fellow Best Actor nominee ("Walk the Line") Joaquin Phoenix.

Howard's nominated for "Hustle & Flow," and this year has also seen him in "Crash," "Four Brothers," "Lackawanna Blues" and "Get Rich or Die Tryin."' Naturally, he's been the center point of Oscar talk and critics' awards as this year's breakout star for months.

Asked about that, Howard laughs. "Oh, man, I've been at this for 20 years!" And he's been talked about as a breakthrough star before -- with roles in such films as "Mr. Holland's Opus" and "Dead Presidents." He also has been widely quoted saying he made only $9,000 for "Crash" and $12,000 for "Hustle & Flow."

That kind of payday is certainly behind him now. Next on his agenda will be portraying Thurgood Marshall in New Line's "The Crusaders," depicting the future Supreme Court justice during his younger, avenging attorney days, when he was determined to destroy segregation. The film will roll "as soon as everything's ready." It'll be a challenge to play Marshall, but Howard makes it clear, "I like the challenging ones. I like the ones where I could fall. The moment I jump and feel I'm going to fall, I know I'm going to do all I have to do to get there."

Canadian court lifts ban on ‘swingers’ clubs

Canadian court lifts ban on ‘swingers’ clubs
Group sex among consenting adults not a threat to society, it says
Updated: 2:33 p.m. ET Dec. 21, 2005
OTTAWA - Group sex among consenting adults is neither prostitution nor a threat to society, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled on Wednesday as it lifted a ban on so-called “swingers” clubs.

In a ruling that radically changes the way courts determine what poses a threat to the population, the top court threw out the conviction of a Montreal man who ran a club where members could have group sex in a private room behind locked doors.

“Consensual conduct behind code-locked doors can hardly be supposed to jeopardize a society as vigorous and tolerant as Canadian society,” said the opinion of the seven-to-two majority, written by Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin.

Billion-dollar download: Google buys 5% of AOL

Billion-dollar download: Google buys 5% of AOL

Time Warner officially confirmed Tuesday what everyone in the entertainment industry probably already knew: It will sell 5% of America Online to Google for $1 billion. The decision defies the unsolicited advice of shareholder Carl Icahn, who in his noisy proxy battle with TW directors warned against such a deal. Similarly, AOL billionaire founder Steve Case, who engineered AOL's takeover of TW in what many on Wall Street now consider one of the most ill-advised mergers in corporate history, also suggested an alternative for AOL. Case, who recently resigned as a TW director, said he would prefer a complete spinoff of AOL so that it might focus on, among other things, becoming a leading provider of Internet-voice services to compete with offerings from telephone companies. On Wednesday, Time Warner shares lost 16 cents, closing at $17.58. Google also closed $3.41 lower at $426.33.

King Kong disappoints at the box office

Kong disappoints at the box office. Despite a reported $207 million budgets and an estimated $75 million spent to market the ape worldwide, the box office of $50.1 million is a disappointment for the studio. Peter Jackson's LOTR grossed more than $70. million when it opened in 2003.

Was the Ape too long at 3 hours, or is it that the audience just wasn't thrilled enough to cough up the bucks to see a story where the ending is already known?

Oscar watch: Who will get the Oscar for best picture? We will have more on this later this week.

What is the best urban movie of all time?

What is the best urban movie of all times?

Post your comments here.

1. New Jack City
2. The Color Purple
3. Soul Food
4. Waiting to Exhale
5. Roots

Terrance Howard Talks about Hustle and Flow: The lack of the money flowing

Terrence Howard may be on the precipice of superstardom, but critical acclaim for actors, unfortunately, does not always translate into instant millions.
“I only made $12,000 on ‘Hustle & Flow,’” he tells the Hollywood Reporter. “I made $9,000 on ‘Crash.’”
In both of those projects, all of the actors agreed to take lower paychecks to ensure the films would be made. And the sacrifices paid off. The two 2005 films earned a heap of praise, and Howard has gotten a fair amount of awards and nominations for the two roles from critics groups around the country, which puts him in the financial driver’s seat for future films.
This sudden reality seemed completely out of reach for the Chicago native eight years ago. After a steady diet of supporting roles in such films as “Dead Presidents,” “Sunset Park” and “Who’s The Man?” throughout the early-to-mid-‘90s, he gave up on the Hollywood hustle in 1997 and took a carpet cleaning gig in Philadelphia for $7.50 an hour. But the 36-year-old quickly returned with a vengeance, with memorable roles in “The Player’s Club,” “The Best Man” and “Hart’s War.”
Since 2004, Howard has been in five box office hits (“Ray,” “Crash,,” “Hustle & Flow,” “Four Brothers,” “Get Rich or Die Tryin’”) and two television movies that received Emmy attention (ABC’s “Their Eyes Were Watching God” and HBO’s “Lackawanna Blues”).
With plum roles in “Animal” opposite Ving Rhames, the OutKast musical “Idlewild” and the anesthetic awareness film “Awake” on the horizon, Howard says he’s Grateful for the long overdue props and hopes this killer wave of acclaim will allow him to take care of the people close to him – like his father, who spent time in prison after being convicted of manslaughter.
Howard said: “My father said to me in tears, 'I am so sorry to put this on you, son, but you are my retirement plan.’”

Tarantino's New Film: Hostel

http://www.hostelfilm.com/


Check out the trailer from the new film

Panasonic HVX 200 HD

The Panasonic HVX 200 is set to ship on Dec. 31. We are comtemplating ordering one of the cameras to test it out for our next feature film.

Film of the Year

What film will win film of the year? Will it be Broke Back Mountain, the gay cowboy flix from Eng Lee, or will it be the Spielberg, Munich? or will Peter Jackson's King Kong take home the Oscar?

Take tune here as we report as we near the selection date.

New entertainment Blog from 1kooltv.com

Hello everyone we have created a new blog to increase the awareness of our brands.