Archive for January, 2008

TOKYO — Boosted by strong sales in its key electronics and game division, Sony reported a 10% rise in sales and a 25% jump in net income for the third quarter, ending on Dec. 31.

In the game division, sales rose 31% to $5.1 billion — a new quarterly record — while operating income grew to $113 million, compared with a loss of $509 million reported last quarter. In the quarter, PlayStation 3 consoles sold 4.9 million units, while PS3 software moved 26 million units. In the holiday period, from October to the end of December, inventory fell 26% giving profits a lift.

Sony is “still losing money on each unit sold, but we are continually reducing the loss and hope to reach the break-even sometime next year,” Sony CFO Nobuyuki Oneda said at a Thursday press conference. For the fourth quarter, however, Oneda sees a slowdown in inventory reduction. “It might be difficult to make a profit (in games) for the next quarter.”

Total PS3 sales for the fiscal year, ending in March, are now expected to reach 9.5 million units, down from the original forecast of 11 million. Read the rest of this entry »

Gil Cates, the producer of this year’s 80th Annual Academy Awards telecast, has appealed to the Writers Guild of America not to picket the ceremonies. In an interview with the Associated Press, Cates said that the Oscars will take place, strike or no strike, but that he has prepared a “contingency” production that he “would prefer not to do” just in case, featuring “history and packages of film and concepts.” He was not more specific. “This show, in my view, is really above politics,” he told A.P. “It is wrong to treat the show as anything other than a gift from all the people who work in this business, really, to the exceptional talent and the community and the country.” Besides, he noted, the writers have already agreed not to picket next month’s Grammy or Image awards. “It’s hard for me to believe that they would picket a show that really honors their own.” Although the writers have not responded directly to Cates’s comments, they have previously noted that the Oscars telecast traditionally draws the second-largest audience of the year, producing tens of millions of dollars in advertising revenue, and is also a promotional vehicle for movies from the studios that the writers are striking.

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CBS and TiVo have formed a research partnership in which the TV network will use TiVo’s Stop//Watch service data to help it determine how to best structure its commercial pods going forward and how it can use interstitials to keep viewers, both live and time-shifted audiences, involved during commercial breaks.

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I didn’t think he could do it, but the Donald did it. I’ve been a fan of The Apprentice since its first season, but I threw in the towel with last season’s lackluster gimmicky Los Angeles version of this unreality show.

But I started watching again this season as the celebrity (although far from A List celebs) started playing the game donating winnings to their favorite charities. Although my favorite Gene Simmons (of KISS fame) committed Apprenticide before my very eyes, only Lost will keep me from watching it as it airs.

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Universal Pictures wanted to promote the final film in the Bourne trilogy, “The Bourne Ultimatum,” in a way that was relevant to the film’s theme. The tale involves an intriguing game of cat and mouse as the U.S. government attempts to track down an errant special agent.

Armed and dangerous: A ‘Street Wars’ assassin.

Universal’s solution was a street-game concept that would engage consumers. “Street Wars” is an “assassination” game that was started in 2004 by two city workers in New York. It has run independently in cities throughout the world, and Universal linked up with the company to create a Bourne-themed version in the U.K. Wannabe assassins accepted three-week missions during which they used water guns to try to squirt assigned targets before being tracked down by the people assigned to them.

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Fox is expected to take in a total of $225 million in advertising revenue on Super Bowl Sunday, according to sources familiar with the situation. Sources explained that this will include the network’s four-hour, pre-game show; Super Bowl game telecast; and hour-long episode of its hit drama, House, which leads out of the game. In addition, the Fox owned-and-operated TV stations are expected to take in about $35 million in ad revenue locally for the similar schedule of programming, bringing the total take to $260 million.

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HOLLYWOOD - Contingency plans for the Oscars have been announced in case organizers are forced to cancel the lavish ceremony due to the ongoing Hollywood writers strike.

The walkouts by members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) have crippled the film and television industry since November and led to the cancellation of red carpet events including the Golden Globes and the People’s Choice Awards earlier this month.

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PARIS — A massive publicity campaign, a star-studded cast and a huge number of prints seem to have paid off for “Asterix at the Olympic Games” in Gaul.Bowing on a record-breaking 1,078 screens nationwide, the first-day admissions for the Pathe picture stood at 464,248 and a gross of more than $4.1 million.

Expectations are sky high for the third installment in the live-action Asterix franchise.

The second pic in the franchise, 2002’s “Asterix and Obelix: Mission Cleopatra,” saw first-day admissions of 629,148 from 900 screens. The pic eventually was watched by more than 14.5 million and earned a cume of $74.1 million in France.

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BERLIN — Universal Pictures is set to become the second major to set up a local-language production arm in Germany following a similar move earlier this month by Sony Pictures Entertainment.David Linde, Universal co-chairman, told local trade magazine Blickpunkt: Film that the studio was creating a local feature film production unit in Berlin.

As Universal expands globally, Germany is one of the countries in focus, Linde said, adding that the studio was “beginning to invest a lot of money in production outside the U.S.”

Linde is expected to unveil the studio’s German strategy, and the person who will oversee the new production office, during the Berlin Film Festival, which kicks off Feb. 7.

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LOS ANGELES - An Oscars contingency plan that would include history, film clips and out-of-the-ordinary concepts for the awards show is in the works, academy president Sid Ganis told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

With the writers strike dragging dangerously close to the Feb. 24 telecast, the film academy is planning two Oscar shows: “The show we would love to do and … a show that we would prefer not to do,” Ganis said.
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