Mr. Marty Shindler

GLG News^SM Analyses by Marty Shindler(?)

3D Naysayers have faded away

April 6, 2009

Analysis of: 'Monsters vs. Aliens' in 3-D: Taking filmmaking to another dimension | www.latimes.com

Even though the average box office for 3D movies is 2 – 3 times the 2D version, failure to gain the necessary new digital and 3D theaters could result in fewer 3D movies being made and in turn could cause a continued drop in home entertainment revenues. This must be solved in the next 3 – 6 months in order to have an adequate base of theaters for the numerous projects that ar

Will 3D be the savior for IMAX?

December 7, 2007

Analysis of:IMAX makes screen play | www.variety.com

Lots of us considered IMAX down and out in recent years as the institutional theater market (museums, etc.) began to dry up and as IMAX and others failed to provide sufficient appropriate content to the commercial theater circuits to which the Company was selling systems. Now with 3D being one of the very HOT topics in Hollywood and due to the success of two opening weekends of Beowulf in Imax 3D, the time may be right for Imax.

But Will It Add More Subs and More Revenue?

September 27, 2007

Analysis of:DirecTV Expands HD Channels | www.twice.com

DirecTV has added 21 new HD Channels to their existing tier of 31 toward a goal of 100 by year end. This is great news for their subscribers and for those who understand and appreciate the big difference that viewing in HD can make. However, the question becomes whether this will add a significant number of new subscribers and/or cause existing customers to upgrade their service to the HD or premium packages. A Best Buy study released earlier this week notes that education is still required to insure that owners of HD TVs fully understand the need to add an HD service to their existing accounts from DirecTV, Dish, their local cable companies or even the nascent video delivery services from the telcos. The study released by Best Buy this week states that only 19% of HDTV owners indicate they fully understand HD. See http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/650274/ for more information on the study.

Will VOD Come In Under The Radar As The Next Gen Technology?

September 20, 2007

Analysis of:Time Warner Cable to Top 1B VOD Streams in 2007 | www.homemediamagazine.com

While the format wars in the next generation DVD systems continue to confuse customers clearly indicating that there is not going to be an obvious winner for some time, if at all, VOD may be sneaking under the radar. This is still a very nascent business. The studios in making their content available to Time Warner Cable and their counterparts for VOD, also must face the most important implication of all, angering some of their biggest customers, namely Wal Mart that accounts for ~ 40% of total home video sales. When Target, Best Buy, Amazon and a few others are added in, the total is well in excess of 50%.   And in allowing the cable companies to experiment with a day and date release on DVD and VOD, they must be careful not to shorten that time frame from theatrical release too much or they risk angering their other very large customers, the major exhibitors. In this arena, Regal, AMC and Cinemark comprise some 16 – 17,000 of the 39,000 screens in North America.

The Latest Skirmish

September 7, 2007

Analysis of:Toshiba Reaffirms HD Market Lead | www.homemediamagazine.com

I can hardly wait until tomorrow to find out what is the next news release in the next generation DVD format battle. The stats are nice in this nascent industry, but it is still lying with statistics, so to speak. Earlier this week, there was a story that Sony was in the lead and today this article appeared, stating that Toshiba is in the lead. This represents the latest salvo in the format war.

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