REPORT: UNIVERSAL’S MEYER TO BE “KICKED UPSTAIRS”

Comcast plans to replace Universal chief Ron Meyer with DreamWorks’ Stacey Snider after the Olympics, the New York Post reported today (Wednesday), citing unnamed sources. The newspaper said that Snider, who is friendly with Comcast chief Brian Roberts, has been “actively working to get the job.” It noted that its source believes that Disney, which […]

DISNEY WITHOLDING JOHN CARTER DISCS FROM NETFLIX, RED BOX

Last February, the Walt Disney Co. quietly changed its policy of making DVD releases available to Redbox and Netflix on the same day that they went on sale in stores, but, unlike Universal and 20th Century Fox, it did not offer the two principal rental companies deep discounts on the DVDs in return for accepting […]

MEN IN BLACK 3 A HUGE OVERSEAS HIT

The overseas audience’s love affair with Will Smith appeared undiminished as Men in Black 3 took in more abroad in its second week than it did domestically in its first. The Sony film added $79.1 million to its foreign gross, which now stands at $275.4 million. Today’s (Monday) Hollywood Reporter noted that in Germany, it […]

SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN IS THE FAIREST OF THEM ALL

Snow White and the Huntsman dwarfed everything else at the box office over the weekend, taking in an estimated $56.3 million, well ahead of industry forecasts. The result will no doubt come as considerable relief for Universal executives, who saw their last release, Battleship, sink out of the dock three weekends ago. Winding up in […]

UNIVERSAL SHOWS LOVE TO U.K.’S LOVEFILM

Amazon’s LoveFilm, which is competing against Netflix in the U.K. to provide low-cost movie rentals online, announced today (Wednesday) that it has struck an exclusive deal with Universal Pictures for dozens of films for its streaming service. The films won’t be available until at least a year after they hit theaters, but subscribers to streaming […]

NETFLIX FACING NEW CHALLENGE FROM COMCAST

As if Netflix didn’t have enough problems on its hands, it learned on Tuesday that Comcast, the nation’s largest cable service, plans to launch its own streaming service, offering, like Netflix, mostly TV reruns and older movies. The name for the service — Xfinity Streampix — may not roll off the tongue as easily as […]

COMCAST EXEC FORECASTS REVIVAL OF NBC, UNIVERSAL

If it weren’t for its NFL telecasts, NBC would rank dead last among the major networks. Among the six major film studios, its corporate sibling Universal Pictures ranks fifth. But all that apparently hasn’t discouraged its controlling owner, Comcast Corp., whose CFO and vice chairman, Michael Angelakis, told a media conference Thursday that his company […]

GOODBYE, $60 MOVIE RENTALS; WE HARDLY KNEW YE

Bowing to pressure from theater owners, Universal has scrapped plans for a test of Premium Video on Demand (PVOD) that would have made its upcoming Tower Heist available for a $60 rental fee in two markets, Atlanta and Portland OR, three weeks after it hit theaters. Two large exhibitors, Cinemark and National Amusements had threatened […]

FAST FIVE DEBUTS AT NO. 1 ON DVD SALES CHART

Universal’s Fast Five raced ahead of the competition, debuting in first place on Nielsen VideoScan First Alert’s DVD sales chart for last week. (The chart does not provide actual sales figures.) Hot on its heels, however, was Disney’s re-release of The Lion King: Diamond Edition, which was still being shown in theaters (in 3D) last […]

YOU TUBE MOVIES JUMP ACROSS THE POND

YouTube, which launched an online movie rental service in the U.S. and Canada in May, has expanded it to include the U.K., Britain’s Guardian newspaper reported today (Monday). According to the newspaper, the Google-owned website has sighed “U.K.-specific” deals with Sony, Warner Bros., Universal and Lionsgate. The article did not indicate how the deals are […]

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