WILL BULLY CONTROVERSY SHAKE UP MPAA RATINGS SYSTEM?

The controversy over The Weinstein Bros.’ Bully could “turn out to be a pivotal chapter in the battle to overhaul the Motion Picture Assn. of America’s ratings system,” Los Angeles Times columnist Patrick Goldstein wrote today (Thursday). Goldstein noted that although John Fithian, head of the National Association of Theatre Owners, had warned that theaters […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: BULLY

The Weinstein Co.’s Bully is garnering some of the strongest reviews of the year, with several critics stepping out of their roles as appraisers and becoming advocates for it — many of them condemning the Motion Picture Association of America for its decision to slap the film with an R-rating because of language. (The Weinstein […]

NEW SERVICE ALLOWS USERS TO CAPTURE STREAMED MOVIES

Movie studios, struggling to stay one step ahead of technology in order to keep their home-video units from being crushed, now have a new worry — an online service that allows viewers to use their computers as a DVR — to record streaming video onto their hardware to play back later. Thus, movies streamed on, […]

JUDGE SHUTS DOWN ZEDIVA MOVIE-RENTAL WEBSITE

A federal judge has issued a permanent injunction that effectively shuts down Zediva.com, an online movie-rental service that streamed one DVD at a time to individual subscribers. At the same time he ordered Zediva to pay a $1.8-million fine to the Motion Picture Association of America, which had sued the website for copyright infringement. Dan […]

PIRATE PARTY A SURPRISE WINNER IN BERLIN

The Motion Picture Association of America was no doubt left reeling by results of Sunday’s elections in Berlin that saw Germany’s Pirate Party win 8.9 percent of the vote to take 15 seats in the Berlin house of representatives. In an interview with the New York Times, Christoph Bieber, a professor of political science at […]

NEW ONLINE RENTAL SERVICE HIT BY MPAA LAWSUIT

The motion picture industry has acted quickly to shut down a new movie rental service called Zediva, which was launched last month. Here’s how it works: A customer pays a fee to rent a DVD player and a movie, and Zediva then plays the movie for the customer. While playing it to one customer, the […]

NEW MPAA CHIEF DELIVERS UNITY SPEECH TO EXHIBITORS

In a speech to the National Association of Theater Owners that was undoubtedly greeted with numerous silent “amens,” the newly appointed chief of the Motion Picture Association of America, Christopher Dodd, declared, “I want all of you gathered here this morning to know that as the new CEO and Chairman of the MPAA, I passionately […]

EX-SENATOR DODD TO HEAD MPAA

After a year-long search and months-long negotiations, the Motion Picture Association of America has named former U.S. Senator Thomas Dodd its CEO. The 66-year-old Dodd, who served in the U.S. Congress for more than half his life — three terms as a Connecticut congressman; five terms as the state’s senator — succeeds two other Washington […]

TICKET SALES SOAR OVERSEAS — BUT NOT IN U.S.

While theater attendance in North America was down and ticket sales were flat in North America in 2010, elsewhere the box office soared to record heights, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) said in a report on Wednesday. In its annual Theatrical Market Statistics Report for 2010, the MPAA said that the international box […]

WSJ: SEARCH FOR NEW MPAA CHIEF “COMPLICATED”

The search for a new head of the Motion Picture Association of America has been complicated by the fact that the major studios are now controlled by conglomerates whose executives must also approve the selection, the Wall Street Journal observed today (Thursday). Although former Senator Chris Dodd is the current favorite to take the post […]

Next Page »