AFP – A year-old program granting movie studios tax breaks for filming in California has saved jobs and should yield two billion dollars in direct spending, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said.
AP – British Sky Broadcasting’s profit nearly quadrupled in its fourth quarter, the satellite broadcaster said Thursday as it announced an exclusive deal to carry new Home Box Office programming in the U.K.
AFP – Quentin Tarantino shot his movie about wartime France in Germany to save money but now directors like Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese are returning to glamorous Paris thanks to generous tax breaks.
AP – Imax Corp. said Wednesday it has signed a deal to add eight more of its jumbo-screen movie theaters in China.
AP – Toy maker Hasbro Inc.’s second-quarter profit rose 11 percent as falling spending outpaced the drop in sales of Transformers and G.I. Joe toys, which had new movie tie-ins last year.
AP – THE RESULTS: Toymaker Mattel Inc.’s second-quarter net income more than doubled, boosted by strong sales of Barbie, Hot Wheels and “Toy Story 3″ toys.
AP – A filmmaker who went to Nicaragua to make a documentary said Thursday he became an undercover operative for a Texas law firm that was suing Dole Foods on behalf of purported banana plantation workers who claim they were left sterile by pesticide exposure.
AP – Canadian giant-screen movie company Imax Corp. said Wednesday its remastered gross box office sales grew 37 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier.
NewsFactor – In a move to better position itself against cable television, Netflix on Tuesday announced a long-term agreement with Relativity Media that lets subscribers stream newly released DVDs during the pay-TV window. Until now, these new movies were only available to Relativity’s partners for broadcast on premium TV channels.
AP – Police say the owner of a movie theater chain has been cited for animal neglect after he allegedly left his dog in a car in Arizona for more than three hours.
AP – Police say the owner of a movie theater chain has been cited for animal neglect in Arizona after he allegedly left his dog in a car for more than three hours.
AFP – A French Internet billionaire, a patron of the arts and a flamboyant banker won control of Le Monde newspaper on Monday despite President Nicolas Sarkozy’s bid to stop them.
AP – Imax Corp. and Walt Disney Studios said Wednesday that they have agreed on a deal to release three more 3D movies to Imax theaters next year.
AFP – France’s troubled Le Monde newspaper on Monday announced two firm takeover offers, one including France Telecom subsidiary Orange, the second from a consortium led by Pierre Berge, ex-partner of late fashion designer Yves Saint-Laurent.
Reuters – Liberty Media Corp, the media conglomerate controlled by mogul John Malone, said on Sunday it plans to spin-off two of its units — investment arm Liberty Capital and pay TV and Hollywood studio unit Liberty Starz .
AP – NEW BOX-OFFICE TRADING OK’D: Federal regulators have allowed a new online exchange to proceed to trade future box-office receipts for movies. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission voted 3-2.
Look for two new contributors at Now Smell This this month. First, Alyssa H (many of you know her from Perfume Smellin’ Things) will kick off (and explain) her ‘Out of the Bottle’ series tomorrow. Next week, our new book reviewer, Cheryl K, will weigh in on Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster by Dana Thomas.
I am moving at my usual snail’s pace…
AP – The chief test pilot for Boeing’s 787 jetliner program is becoming a movie star.
AP – Federal regulators have postponed for one week a decision on whether to allow a new online exchange to proceed to trade future box office receipts for movies.
All of you who have taken the time to create a gravatar at gravatar.com have a new option: you can now create a public profile associated with your gravatar.1 Public profiles can include any information you want: your email address, links to your website(s), your accounts on various social media services, whatever. This should be handy for those of you who’d like to be able to share more personal information with other readers…
AP – Imax Corp. said Thursday it struck a deal to install two more of its jump screens with Chinese movie theater operator Stellar Investment Co.
AP – Imax Corp.’s second-quarter results may come in below current Wall Street expectations because of disappointing box office results, a Morgan Joseph analyst said Wednesday.
AP – Imax Corp. said it will open 15 to 25 new theaters next year as part of an expanded joint venture with movie theater chain AMC Entertainment Inc.
AP – Shares of movie theater operators dropped Tuesday after a disappointing holiday weekend at the box office.
Reuters – Kenneth Starr, an investment adviser to celebrities and other wealthy New Yorkers, was coaxed from a darkened suit closet by U.S. agents at his apartment on Thursday to face charges of running a fraud of at least $30 million, prosecutors said.