Endless summer everywhere
Our nephew keeps going on about the latest adventures of "Chelovek-Pauk," which is what the preposterous $300 million production and marketing budget for "Spiderman 3" will get you.
The annual flotilla of summer crap has arrived right on time, and thanks to the way the movie industry has evolved, Russia gets "Shrek 3" and the next installment of the tired "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise at right about the same time as everyone else. Last month The Economist wrote about this trend, noting it is an effort to fight piracy and blunt poor word of mouth on the Internet. I understand the first part: I remember in summer 2005 seeing several guys working at a DVD market here watching "War of the Worlds" the very day it came out in the U.S.
The article points out that of course summer movies are dumb and derivative, but the economics are insane. For a long time the movies had decent openings and lingered for a few weeks. Now, they have huge openings and vanish the next week. Such a flash in the pan attitude can't be good for anyone.
The annual flotilla of summer crap has arrived right on time, and thanks to the way the movie industry has evolved, Russia gets "Shrek 3" and the next installment of the tired "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise at right about the same time as everyone else. Last month The Economist wrote about this trend, noting it is an effort to fight piracy and blunt poor word of mouth on the Internet. I understand the first part: I remember in summer 2005 seeing several guys working at a DVD market here watching "War of the Worlds" the very day it came out in the U.S.
The article points out that of course summer movies are dumb and derivative, but the economics are insane. For a long time the movies had decent openings and lingered for a few weeks. Now, they have huge openings and vanish the next week. Such a flash in the pan attitude can't be good for anyone.
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