CONVERGENCE Indies routinely using CGI, now realistic low budget option

Superman’s tache and Armie Hammer’s crotch - is movie CGI getting out of hand? https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/nov/30/supermans-tache-and-armie-hammers-crotch-is-movie-cgi-getting-out-of-hand?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Blogger

AMAZON IP FRANCHISE LoTR $1bn series $250m just for rights

Right at the end of this article there's speculation that Harry Potter could dwarf even this, the first $1bn TV series with a $1bn deal just for the rights alone, not the production cost!

The role of IP and franchises couldn't be any clearer - it remains absolutely the dominant model, with TV spin-offs now clearly a key part of this high stakes media game, as exemplified by the Marvel Cinematic Universe being closely tied to multiple TV series, which even get their own Avengers/Justice League type variants.

Amazon's $1bn bet on Lord of the Rings shows scale of its TV ambition https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/nov/21/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-tv-netflix-disney-apple?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Blogger

HOME CINEMA Half UK homes with 4K TV by 2021

3D TV has been and gone, an expensive fad that revealed simply that people don't feel comfortable sat with 3D glasses at home.

4K TV is the latest home cinema leap (VR being the other big trend), and it seems the UK is a trailblazer in 4K penetration, expected to reach 50%+ of UK households by just 2021.

Convergence is a key factor - it's as much games consoles, the updated current PS4 and Xbox One consoles both offer 4K output and incorporate new Blu-ray models for movies too:

The home cinema market is in the midst of a revolution: according to analysis firm IHS Markit, by the end of 2017, 3.7m UK households will own a 4K TV, rising to 12m by 2021. This would account for almost half of all TV-owning households in the UK, yet the first Xbox One was designed only for full high definition – screens with a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels.

Xbox One X review: a perfect pitch to a demanding demographic https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/nov/19/xbox-one-x-upgrade-console-video-games-gadget?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Blogger

BIG FIVE Fox selling to Disney have 40pc of 11bn US market

Another megamerger is cleared in June 2018 and boosts the hopes of NBCU owner to trump Disney's bid for Fox...
AT&T $85.4bn takeover of Time Warner approved by judge in blow to Trump

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/jun/12/att-time-warner-takeover-approved-trump?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard

The story continues! Comcast are launching a new bid, all cash as Murdoch rejected it on the basis of complications with shares (and possible monopoly issues). Disney's inexorable rise not confirmed yet... Comcast prepares to top Disney’s $52bn bid for 21st Century Fox

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/may/23/comcast-prepares-to-top-disney-52bn-bid-for-21st-century-fox?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard

Further update - the Comcast (NBCU owner, with Universal having a 9% share of the US market v a combined Fox/Disney 45% on latest figures) counterbid had been rejected by Lachlan Murdoch, but I'd suspect shareholders are likely to demand Disney improves it's bid, and try to spark a bidding war. The Murdochs can see a chance for continuing power through the 'merger' as they would become the single biggest Disney shareholders, so it could be quite a battle.
And Comcast is proceeding with its counterbid for Sky, which Murdoch(s!) has already bid for (the remaining 61% of shares).
Comcast are offering CASH NOT SHARES, so the Murdochs would be incredibly wealthy but stripped of most of their media empire...

An update from my earlier blog... The Disney deal had been announced, subject to FCC (US government media regulator) agreeing, so it is now the big 5 with Disney's new dominance almost certain to spark off another merger to compete.

The business or economics term for this is consolidation. Media academics don't view this process as benign, neutral, not an issue. Chomsky and Herrman's propoganda model includes 'concentration of ownership' in its 'five filters', ways in which radical or counter-hegemonic content are removed from mainstream mass media.

This Disney giant isn't going to be producing politically driven fare like This is England (or even '71 ... or how's about She's a Chinese?!).

Economist Anita Elberse's book Blockbusters is looking more and more like the industry bible.

Rupert Murdoch set to sell off 21st Century Fox assets to Disney

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/dec/13/rupert-murdoch-set-to-sell-off-21st-century-fox-assets-to-disney?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard

I'd read last week about rumours of ole Rupe (Murdoch, the 'Dirty Digger' and inspiration for the Bind villain in Tomorrow Never Dies) selling up his Fox film and TV studios to Disney.

Now I see fresh reports are exciting stock markets over Comcast getting involved - the owner of NBC-Universal.

Is an already narrow range of dominant companies about to shrink further?

Comcast reportedly targeting 21st Century Fox for acquisition https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/nov/16/comcast-reportedly-courting-21st-century-fox?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Blogger

Remarkable - just a day or so later I stumbled on news of Warner being involved in a mega-merger, the focus this time on TV, with AT&T bringing it's dominant DirecTV satellite provider to the home of HBO, CNN and more. If eventually allowed after legal appeal, I wonder if Warners will follow Disney in removing their content from the likes of Netflix in favour of their own subscription channel (which they could offer in a bundle to existing subscribers)?

DISTRIBUTION STARS Indie straight-to-DVD until actor hits big

Tricky one to put into a short post title...
Useful examples here of how Indie movies lacking the star power to gain theatrical distribution, so restricted to straight-to-DVD (or just VOD in some cases) release ... until a then unknown cast member becomes a star. Then these cinematic horrors (as far as the newly shiny star and their agents/lawyers are concerned) find themselves plastered all over posters and trailers for (sometimes) a much belated cinema run or at least the DVD cover or VOD artwork.

There are several big names listed in this article, but there are many who aren't keen to recall their cinematic debut. For a certain Johnny Depp it was getting eviscerated in the original Elm Street. A certain rom-com flop veteran and star of 1000s of gossip mag covers, whose hair seems to be her greatest talent, made her bow in the fantastically silly slasher Leprechaun... (name revealed in tags when I get round to it!)

Brie Larson’s Basmati Blues and other lost movies A-listers wish had stayed buried https://www.theguardian.com/film/shortcuts/2017/nov/15/brie-larsons-basmati-blues-and-other-lost-movies-a-listers-wish-had-stayed-buried?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Blogger

DISTRIBUTION Jedi Disney demands 65% box office

Incredible greed and arrogance from the big six behemoth, which probably means most non-multiplex cinemas simply can't show The Last Jedi. Disney are demanding 65% of ticket revenue AND the movie must play in the biggest hall for five weeks ... or they'll demand 70%!

It's not the first time Disney have messed cinemas around - they had to back down from a reduced cinema release window for Alice in Wonderland.

This is what happens with concentration of ownership (one of Chomsky and Herrman's five filters in their propaganda model by the way), which is why anti-trust laws once forced Hollywood to split up its vertically integrated studios (before deregulation commenced under Reagan in 1980).

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/star-wars-the-last-jedi-tickets-where-to-buy-cinemas-us-refusing-to-show-trailer-a8033371.html

Disney ends blackout of LA Times after boycott from media outlets

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/nov/07/disney-los-angeles-times-media-boycott?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard