Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Viral Videos: 10 Most Viewed Movie Trailers Online, Including "Mega Shark"–But Is Trouble Ahead for Hollywood?

Kara Swisher in News on January 4, 2010 at 3:06 am PT

BoomTown has been struck by the $1 billion-plus haul that tech-heavy “Avatar” brought in over the holidays. Does this mean movies in theaters are holding their own against online incursions? It would seem so, according to box office reports for the year. Tallies for the U.S. alone were up 10 percent to close to $10 billion for 2009. Or is there trouble ahead for Hollywood, since another key revenue stream–DVD sales–is weakening at an even faster pace?

A Preview of Time Warner Earnings: Bummer at AOL, Bummer at Magazines–Just a Bummer

Kara Swisher in News on July 28, 2009 at 9:00 am PT

When Time Warner reports its second -quarter earnings tomorrow morning, before the markets open, most Wall Street analysts are not expecting much from the media giant, as it continues to slog toward a rejiggering of itself. Time Warner–which owns assets like the Warner Bros. movie studio, the AOL online unit, the HBO and Turner cable networks and Time Inc. magazines–is expected to earn 37 cents per share, compared to 72 cents a year ago, according to a poll of analysts from Thomson Reuters. Revenue is expected to be $6.97 billion, down from $11.56 billion in the same quarter last year. This drop is mostly due to the March spinoff of its cable unit, Time Warner Cable. But AOL and its magazine unit are expected to continue to drag on Time Warner’s financial performance.

Here Comes the Summer Movie Geektravaganza: Trek to Demons to Bots to Cyborgs to Potter!

Kara Swisher in News on May 4, 2009 at 12:34 pm PT

With bootleg copies ripped on the Internet or not and with an $87 million opening weekend for “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” it looks like the nerdiest summer movie season ever is off the races. Hollywood, caught in the digital maelstrom, certainly is fine and dandy making bank by co-opting all the techie themes, gadgets and special effects, with a slate of movies over the next months that are like catnip to geeks of all kinds. Including BoomTown, for example, which plans to fork over a lot of dough to pay for all the techtastic entertainment that those old media moguls can dish out before they collapse.

Harry Potter and the Half-True Trailers

Kara Swisher in News on August 13, 2008 at 1:21 am PT

Last week, BoomTown posted on the amazing number of Joker impression videos related to the hit Batman movie, “The Dark Knight,” that were popping up all over the Web. Next up? Well, it seems the honor will be going to Harry Potter knockoffs and tributes, due to the upcoming sixth movie in the series about the boy wizard, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.”