Peter Kafka

Recent Posts by Peter Kafka

Barnes & Noble Loves Mommy Porn!

The second quarter of the year is supposed to be a slow one for booksellers, but not this year: Barnes & Noble says its comparable bookstore sales jumped 4.6 percent. Strip out Nook sales, and the number improves to 7.6 percent.

Some of that bump occurred because B&N’s onetime rival, Borders, went out of business last year.

The rest of it? “Strong sales of the ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ series,” the company says. See? It’s not just you — everyone’s reading this stuff.

Meanwhile, B&N says its Nook business posted flat sales for the quarter, but saw losses increase from $51 million to $57 million. It still plans to create a new Nook subsidiary with $300 million in funding from Microsoft.

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Nobody was excited about paying top dollar for a movie about WikiLeaks. A film about the origins of Pets.com would have done better.

— Gitesh Pandya of BoxOfficeGuru.com comments on the dreadful opening weekend box office numbers for “The Fifth Estate.”