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Woe Is Wal-Mart

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Mr Incredible thinks iTunes is a good dealThe idea of true, pure, unfettered video-on-demand has been a movie industry chimera since the dawn of time. What if, executives say teasingly to their audiences, we gave you everything in our catalogs whenever you want it? You would never leave the couch.

Never mind that that studios don’t necessarily even know what they own. Video-on-demand, as imagined by consumers, requires unlimited bandwidth, unlimited storage, and unlimited time. I think we’d settle for wide selection at reasonable prices. First, of course, we need to get the households of America wired and networked for downloadable video. Total downloadable domination isn’t technically feasible yet, so why are the studios so terrified of angering Wal-Mart?

Let’s face facts. DVD sales are declining. Internet usage is up. Shelf space in bricks-and-mortar stores is limited. Hard drive space is cheap and easily expandable. Not everyone has access to a Wal-Mart. Not everyone has a broadband connection. [Read more…] about Woe Is Wal-Mart

Hollywood’s True Long Tail

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In a weird sort of sleight of hand, media analysts reviewing Chris Anderson’s The Long Tail focus on the example of Netflix as both embodiment of the theory and refutation of the impact of long tail revenues. As the Wall Street Journal noted:

The currently popular notion that hits are becoming less important due to the vast reach of cyberspace would strike most Hollywood executives as preposterous. For good or bad, moguls make the opposite assumption. They can be forgiven for doing so; after just three weeks of release, the Pirates of the Caribbean sequel is already Hollywood’s all-time 11th biggest grosser, and No. 63 when adjusted for inflation.

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It’s Not A Pirate’s Life For Them

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On Monday, the Los Angeles Times ran a story that made every classicist’s blood run cold: Disney is revamping — again — the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. This time, forget about exorcising lusty pirates. Now it’s all about making the ride, sigh, more like the movie. Yeah, wrapped up in politically correct phrases about updating the ride is the key message: more Johnny Depp. It’s a bit like back-handed convergence.

You know, I can almost support this kind of modernization. I mean, regular park visitors deserve a little surprise, even though regular park visitors thrive on the familiarity of the rides. But just like misguided attempt to rewrite pirate history — yeah, sure, the pirates invaded the town and chased the wenches because they were hungry — this smacks of corporate decision-making instead of end-user love and care. The storyline has changed and the pirates’ booty has more, sigh, bling.

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