Despite the massive influx of 3D films, summer movie attendance has fallen to its lowest level since 1997.
On the other hand, however, 3D, IMAX and standard ticket price hikes have all led to record revenue for the studios and theater chains.
Tickets sold from May through Labor Day are expected to drop 2.6 percent to 552 million, almost as low as 1997’s 540.3 million tickets sold.
“The movies just didn’t excite people the way they needed to,” says Paul Dergarabedian, president of Hollywood.com Box-Office. “When you raise prices and perceive that quality goes down, you have a major problem.”
Revenue will set a record at $4.35 billion, a 2.4 percent jump from last year. The average ticket price will increase 5.1 percent from $7.50 to $7.88, thanks mainly to 3D and IMAX showings which cost $3 more, on average.
Result for: Mov
Following in the footsteps of the Droid X, which was rooted within a week of launch, the XDA Dev team has announced they have rooted the Motorola Droid 2, just 14 days after its launch.
The initial rooting method is not easy, however, and will require decent background with ADB.
For more info on ADB, check here: ABD Wiki page.
After the device is rooted, users can then install custom ROMs, as well as have access to Superuser controls.
For now, there are not custom recovery images for the Droid 2, so installing a custom ROM is impossible.
Says a XDA Dev member: “This is needed to install custom ROMs, which as of now, there are none. That means you won’t be able to install any third-party Android ROMs on your rooted Droid 2. [Yes], they will be on their way at some point, but right now, the main appeal to rooting the Droid 2 right now is to use root-only applications, and remove the bloatware that Verizon has thrown on the device.”
If you are interested, you can view the full instructions here: Root the Moto Droid 2
Result for: Mov
EMI Music has just purchased Digital Stores Limited, a company which provides online stores for artists including The Beatles, Queen & Oasis.
The acquisition is a logical one for EMI, which is in need of revenue streams outside of physical and online music sales. Although the business has been improving since the 2007 purchase by private equity firm Terra Firma, they still lost more than 600 million euros last year.
It also dovetails nicely with the recent trend of labels signing artists to 360 deals. These deals give the label a cut of everything from merchandise to tour revenue, and are becoming an increasingly important part of the modern music business.
Owning a company like Digital Stores also has a lot of potential for selling services to artists not otherwise affilliated with EMI. Both artists on other major labels and those who wouldn’t be signing with any major become potential revenue sources.
If they manage it well, this could be a key part of EMI’s transformation from a traditional label to an all around music marketing and artist services company. Of course any of the major labels could have done that already.
The stumbling block has never been capability. What they’ve lacked has been the will to change. As long as executives are fixated on preserving a dead business model that will remain a problem.
This purchase seems like a good move, but the follow through will determine just how successful it is.
