blog.benschumacher.com

Apparently text messages, instant messaging and email are to blame for the poor performance of "blockbuster" movies this summer:

No, the executives are not blaming such bombs as The Hulk, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle or Gigli on poor quality, lack of originality, or general failure to entertain. There's absolutely nothing new about that.

The problem, they say, is teenagers who instant message their friends with their verdict on new films - sometimes while they are still in the cinema watching - and so scuppering carefully crafted marketing campaigns designed to lure audiences out to a big movie on its opening weekend.

"In the old days, there used to be a term, 'buying your gross,' " Rick Sands, chief operating officer at Miramax, told the Los Angeles Times. "You could buy your gross for the weekend and overcome bad word of mouth, because it took time to filter out into the general audience."

from Texting blamed for summer movie flops

The way I see this, its something like: technology 1, Hollywood 0. Sort of giving a little bit of the control back to the consumer.

Found an interesting article on the Washington Post via Tom Tomorrow's Weblog:

The Bush administration intends to side with a Senate Republican attempt to freeze a disputed regulatory proposal meant to strengthen the nation's aging power transmission system, which was blamed in last week's massive blackout, a senior administration official said yesterday.

from Bush to Back Delay Of Power Grid Plan

So, for those of us in the western United States who missed the big blackout last week, it looks like the Bush administration is planning to leave the door open for those events to happen again. You know... I bet if we all pull together, we can have an even bigger blackout! I'm glad to know that Bush is on our side.