WHICH COST MORE — TIMES SQUARE BILLBOARDS OR SUPER BOWL ADS?

Following a report in Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal that billboards in New York’s Times Square can cost advertisers as much as $3.6 million a year, Advertising Age has chimed in by comparing those rates to those charged for a 30-second Super Bowl ad, largely thought to be the most expensive ad buys of all. AdAge […]

WITH DOLLAR UP, EUROPEAN FILM BUYERS WARY OF BUYING U.S. MOVIES

The steady rise of the dollar against the euro represents a two-edged sword for U.S. film studios, Daily Variety observed today (Monday) in a report preceding the opening of this year’s American Film Market in Santa Monica, CA on Oct. 31. With the dollar climbing 10 percent against the euro this year alone and 20 […]

U.K. POST-HACKING INQUIRY BECOMING A COSTLY AFFAIR

In its first three months, the Leveson inquiry, set up by the British Parliament to look into journalistic ethics in the wake of the News of the World telephone hacking scandal, has cost U.K. taxpayers $1.34 million, according to figures posted on the inquiry’s website Wednesday. By far the lion’s share of that amount — […]

FIGHTING TABLOIDS EXPENSIVE, CELEBRITIES SAY

Several British celebrities appearing today (Monday) before the Leveson inquiry into the ethics of the media described the enormous legal costs involved in trying to protect themselves against reporters who invade their privacy. TV comedian Steve Coogan noted that newspapers were insured against lawsuits but that their victims had to gamble huge sums in hopes […]

PRODUCERS WON’T TURN OFF BROADWAY SUPERMAN

Costs continue to mount for Broadway’s Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, with the production’s budget soaring towards that of a blockbuster Hollywood movie — with only one theater to recoup the investment. Published reports are now estimating that $70-75 million has already been poured into the troubled production, which has been plagued by accidents, cost […]