DISNEY HAS A GREAT QUARTER — EXCEPT FOR ABC

Overall, Disney had a spectacular second quarter with net income soaring 32 percent. But conspicuously absent from the celebration was the company’s ABC television network, which finished the quarter dead last among the key 18-49 age group. Not only did the company take a hit from lower ratings — and a commensurate drop in ad […]

DISNEY’S PLAN TO TRADEMARK MEXICAN HOLIDAY IS MUERTO

The Walt Disney Co. has apparently decided it’s not a good idea to try to trademark the name of a Mexican holiday. On Tuesday it was reported that Disney had filed 10 applications for trademarks of the name Dia de los Muertos, a holiday that reportedly has its roots more than 2,000 years into Aztec […]

HOW SUPER WILL IRON MAN 3 BE AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE?

Iron Man 3 opens in North America this weekend after already taking in $308 million overseas. With that kind of momentum, analysts say, the Disney/Marvel sequel could very well take in close to $200 million domestically and may even beat the $207 million benchmark set by The Avengers over the same weekend a year ago. […]

LUCASFILM LOOKING TO SET DOWN IN CHINA

Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy is the latest top U.S. studio executive to make the pilgrimage to China to discuss ways in which the burgeoning Chinese film industry and Hollywood can cooperate to their mutual benefit. At a Beijing symposium, Kennedy noted that China’s film industry is developing faster than any other outside the U.S. and […]

DISNEY PROFITS DIP — BUT NOT AS BADLY AS EXPECTED

The Walt Disney Co. on Tuesday reported a 6-percent dip in profits to $1.38 billion for its first quarter, down from $1.46 billion during the year-ago period. Analysts had predicted a somewhat steeper decline. Disney blamed it principally on lower revenue from home-video titles and on $321 million in charges related to a lawsuit brought […]

DANCING WITH THE STARS TRIPS IN RATINGS, MAY BE CUT BACK

ABC may be considering cutting back Dancing with the Stars to one series per year beginning in the spring (a new DWTS season is slated to begin on March 18), the New York Post reported today (Friday), citing an unnamed production source. Despite the fact that last week’s season finale drew 16.7 million viewers, making […]

DISNEY CLAIMS U.K. COMPANY IS KNOCKING OFF ITS TITLES

Disney has demanded that a British production company, Brightspark Production Ltd., stop selling DVDs with covers that may mislead consumers to believe that they are buying Disney productions. Some consumers have complained that the films inside the DVD boxes bear little relation to the cover artwork. Among Brightspark’s titles: Braver, similar to Disney’s Brave; Tangled […]

BRAVE — A HIT OR A MISS FOR PIXAR AND DISNEY?

There is such a Midas image about Pixar in the Hollywood business community that even when one of its films takes in $66.7 million — as Brave did in its opening weekend– the result is greeted with disappointment. The Hollywood Reporter cited a note to clients from Doug Creutz of Cowen & Co., who wrote, […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: BRAVE

Pixar’s latest entry, Brave, is not receiving the unanimous praise from critics that the studio’s early entries did, but it is not receiving the slams that Cars 2 did, and the criticism that it does encounter is not particularly brutal. For example, Joe Morgenstern in the Wall Street Journal finds it “enjoyable, consistently beautiful, fairly […]

NEW MILEAGE FOR DISNEY’S CARS

Disney/Pixar’s Cars 2, was widely regarded as a disappointment, both critically and financially, when it was released last year. But it now appears that Disney is going to get additional mileage out of the franchise that could turn it into a big moneymaker yet — thanks to its revamped California Adventure theme park adjoining Disneyland […]

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