Monthly Archives: March 2012

MGM Studios

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by Kendra Williams

TRF 235

MGM Studios

History

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayers, also known as MGM for short, is a film studio that distributes as well as produces motion pictures. The film company owns the largest collection of modern films to date of about 1,400 films. MGM, based in Culver City, California, was the result of the merger between three film companies in 1924: Metro Pictures Corporation, Goldwyn Pictures, and Louis B. Mayer Productions. The company had a thirty year string of success from it’s founding in 1924 to 1954. Throughout this time period MGM produced an Academy Award nominated film every year.

MGM studios changed their logo nine times since its founding in 1924

January 10th MGM studios and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment released “BOND 50” which contains all 22 James Bond films on Blu-ray. This is the first time all 22 films were released altogether in honor of the 50th anniversary. James Bond is the longest running and most profitable series in film history. Click this link to see MGM History.

As of February 6th MGM is on the way to closing off their debt after the company went bankrupt about a year ago. MGM made a deal where they are receiving $500 million revolving credit from numerous banks including JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, City National Bank, and Deutsche. Fortunately this deal allows for the company to continue producing with their film and television business. The company’s Co-Chairman and Chief Executive Officers have mentioned they are grateful for the amount of confidence the financial community has in them. Additionally, MGM also made an agreement with the Tele Munchen Group, (TMG), in which TMG now has exclusive TV rights to motion pictures and TV shows to air in Europe for five years.

Since March 5th MGM partnered with Sony Pictures Entertainment to co-finance as well as distribute a remake of the 1987 film Robocop, to be released in August of 2013. Both the two companies have different rolls in the production; MGM is in charge of theatrical distribution and production responsibilities. Around mid March MGM announced that the popular movie Hoosiers is being released on Blu-ray on June 5th for the 25th anniversary of the movie.

As of March 13th the HISTORY network ordered its first scripted drama series entitled Vikings from MGM studios. The full season of Vikings is to appear on the network in 2013. Vikings is an Irish/Canadian co-production to be filmed in Ireland and Northern Europe. Vikings is about historical figure Ragnar Lothbrok and his family as they live among the Viking culture. The MGM president of Television Group and Digital commented, “We are thrilled to be able to bring HISTORY their first scripted series […] We look forward to using MGM’s global reach to introduce Vikings around the world.”

It was announced on April 2nd that Jennifer Sharp was appointed senior vice president of New Platforms. Under her new title she will focus on business opportunities that use MGM’s new television and theatrical content. Among those working closely with her are Roma Khanna and MGM’s Chief Operating Officer, Kevin Schapiro. Prior to this current position Sharp has been Group Product Manager of Books at Amazon.com, as well as Vice President of Business Development for Conduit Ltd, a technology company.

A big step for MGM was made during the middle of April, when MGM made a deal that allowed more than 600 of its titles to be rented on YouTube and Google Play in the United States and Canada. This deal has made it easier for YouTube and Google Play subscribers to watch MGM films instantly.

 

Sources

History retrieved from: http://www.mgm.com/corporate/index.html

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer image retrieved from: http://spacegypsies.com/media/2010/12/mgm.jpg

Jan 10th; Feb 6th; March 5th; April 2: retrieved from: http://www.mgm.com/news/

MArch 13th retrieved from: http://www.iftn.ie/production/production_news/?act1=record&only=1&aid=73&rid=4284679&tpl=archnewshome&force=1

Gannett Broadcasting

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Gannett Broadcasting, 7950 Jones Branch Drive, McLean, VA 22107, United States, Phone: 703-854-6760, Fax: 703-854-2005 http://www.gannett.com/

Gannett Broadcasting is a subsidiary of Gannett Company Inc., an international media and marketing solutions company. Gannett Co. Inc. is involved in digital, mobile, broadcast and print media. Gannett engages over 100 million every month through its network. Gannett Broadcasting owns and operates several local broadcasting stations. The company is based out of McLean, Virginia. Gannett Co. Inc.  runs 23 television stations in 17 United States markets. Gannett publishes 82 daily U.S. newspapers and more than 600 magazines. One of Gannett Co.’s British subsidiaries, Newsquest, operates 17 daily paid-for titles, and over 200 weekly print publications. [1]

History

Frank Gannett founded Gannett Co. Inc. in 1923 in Rochester, NY. Gannett Co. Inc. was an expansion of a newspaper business he had previously started in Elmira, New York in 1906. Gannett expanded his company by purchasing small independent newspapers and developing them into one large chain. By 1979 the chain he created had reached 79 newspapers. Gannett’s oldest newspaper in circulation is the Star-Gazette (Elmira, NY). The company moved to its current headquarters in 2001.

On Mar 7, 2011 Gannett introduced a new logo for the company, which replaced a stylized “G” logo that had been in use since the 1970s. The new logo features the company’s full name along with the slogan “It’s all within reach.”[2]

Financial Information

 

 

 

 

 

Gannett Co. Inc. stock (GCI) has seen a 1.39 percent drop over the past year. It has a market value of $3,319,655,490. The company has 236,949,00 outstanding shares. The estimated annual EPS (Dec-12) is 2.18. The quarterly EPS (Jun-12) is 0.53. The 52wk Range for GCI is 8.28-16.26. [3]

 

Assets

Print Media

  • USA Today of McLean, VA
  • The Arizona Republic of Phoenix, AZ
  • Detroit Free Press
  • The Indianapolis Star
  • The Courier-Journal
  • The Cincinnati Enquirer
  • The Tennessean
  • Democrat and Chronicle
  • Asbury Park Press
  • The Des Moines Register
  • The News Journal of Wilmington, DE
  • The Journal News of White Plains, NY

Broadcast Media

  • WBIR-TV (Knoxville, Tennessee)
  • WXIA-TV and WATL (Atlanta, GA)
  • WUSA (Washington, DC)
  • KPNX (Phoenix, AZ)
  • WTSP (Tampa, FL)
  • KARE (Minneapolis, MN
  • KUSA-TV and KTVD (Denver, CO)
  • WKYC-TV (Cleveland, OH)
  • KXTV (Sacramento, CA)
  • KSDK (St. Louis, MO)
  • WZZM-TV (Grand Rapids, MI)
  • WFMY-TV (Greensboro, NC)
  • WJXX and WTLV (Jacksonville, FL)
  • WGRZ-TV (Buffalo, NY)
  • KTHV-TV (Little Rock, AK)
  • WLTX (Columbia, SC)
  • WMAZ-TV (Macon, GA)
  • WCSH-TV (Portland, ME)
  • WLBZ-TV (Bangor, ME)

Digital Assets

Directors

The key executives for the company are David Lougee, President; Craig A. Dubow, Chairman of Gannett Co.; Dodie Cantrell-Bickley, President of Jacksonville Stations and General Manager of Jacksonville Stations; Ken Tonning, President of WTSP-TV and General Manager of WTSP-TV; Steve Carter, President of WCSH-TV and General Manager of WCSH-TV. [4]

Recent News

On February 22, 2012, Gannett issued a press release stating that an investor meeting was held which presented a growth strategy and cash flow-funded capital program. The company expects to return over $1.3 billion to shareholders by the year 2015.  The President and Chief Executive Officer Gracia Martore stated,
“Gannett is once again playing offense, poised for growth and value creation, our Board and management have designed a strategy that leverages our deep-rooted consumer and marketer relationships in 100-plus local communities, or what we call our hometown advantage, with our mainstream brand recognition and our strong balance sheet and cash flow. Our differentiators are critical to our success, and we are confident this new strategy will return Gannett to a path of profitable and sustainable revenue growth, and deliver value for all of our stakeholders.”[5]

Gannett Broadcasting announced on April 17, 2012 that 15 of its local stations won 31 regional 2012 Edward R. Murrow Awards. These awards recognize outstanding achievements in electronic journalism. The Edward R. Murrow Awards are sponsored by the Radio Television Digital News Association. The winners of the awards were: KARE-TV in Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN (eight awards); WGRZ-TV in Buffalo, NY (two awards); KTHV-TV in Little Rock, AR (one award); KUSA-TV in Denver, CO (five awards); WBIR-TV in Knoxville, TN (three awards); WXIA-TV in Atlanta, GA (two awards); KSDK-TV in St. Louis, MO (two awards); WUSA-TV in Washington DC (one award); WTSP-TV in Tampa-St. Petersburg, FL (one award); KPNX-TV in Phoenix, AZ (one award); WKYC-TV in Cleveland, OH (one award); WZZM-TV in Grand Rapids-Kalamazoo-Battle Creek, MI (one award); WTLV/WJXX in Jacksonville, FL (one award); WCSH-TV in Portland, ME (one award); WMAZ-TV in Macon, GA (one award).[6]

On April 23, 2012, Jeremy Gaines was appointed to lead corporate communications for Gannett Co. Gaines will play a key role in helping Gannett implement its strategic growth plan. As Vice President of Communcations, Gaines will  be instrumental in explaining Gannett’s future and how the company plans to stay successful. Gaines’ responsibilities will include leading internal and external communications for the entire Gannett Co. and he will serve as the communications advisor to the senior management team. The Chief Marketing Office, Maryam Banikarim stated, “Gannett is staking out a leadership position in a fast-transforming industry, and we will benefit enormously from having Jeremy guide our communication efforts. He is a strategic leader and his deep experience in the industry, strong relationships with the media and ability to tell a story will be a major asset as we grow and transform Gannett. We are thrilled to have Jeremy lead the team.” [7]

Gannett Co. Inc. issued a press release on May 1, 2012, stating that shareholders had re-elected Chairman, Majorie Magner; President and CEO CEO, Gracia C. Martore; John E. Cody; Howard D. Elias; Arthur H. Harper; John Jeffry Louis; Scott K. McCune; Duncan M. McFarland; Susan Ness; and Neal Shapiro to the Board of Directors. The directors will serve one-year terms, which will end at Gannett’s annual meeting in 2013. The Board of Directors also declared a regular quarterly dividend of 20 cents per share. CEO Gacia Martore issued a statement about the financial amendments stating, “We have an ongoing commitment to return increasing amounts of capital to our shareholders and this dividend reaffirms the Board of Directors’ and management’s confidence in our capital allocation strategy, while also reflecting our current strength and strong belief in Gannett’s future prospects.” [8]

Warner Bros. Pictures

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by Jeff Cucinell

Warner Brothers Logo, Image courtesy of Warner Brothers

  1. War With Digital Sharing
  2. The Good and the Bad in Distribution 
  3.  Big Blockbuster Releases 
  4. Movies on Deck
  5. Warner Brothers Kryptonite: Latest News

1. War with Digital Sharing

2012 has already seen its fair share of copyright infringement cases. Copyrights and online piracy have been the major issue in the entertainment industry, from the outcry against SOPA, to the takedown of Megaupload.  Warner Brothers Pictures has been in a battle of its own against a website called Hotfile. As a file locker site, Hotfile.com is one of the world’s most popular websites due to its easy one click file sharing.

Last year, the MPAA filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against the website, claiming Hotfile to be very similar to Megaupload in violating copyright agreements(1). But Hotfile fired back earlier this year by filing a law suit against Warner Bros. for distributing incorrect takedown statements. The studio uses anti-piracy technology that sends out notices to websites that do not follow intellectual property policy. Hotfile states that Warner Bros. Pictures should be held accountable for sending out takedowns without justification. The website says that the studio has sent out close to 800 wrongful takedown messages, just a small percentage of what the studio sends out each day(1).

The battle has been heating up in court as Warner argues that the lawsuit filed by Hotfile should be dismissed on several grounds. One of these grounds is the lack of evidence the website can present, showing that Warner Brothers had subjective knowledge that the notices had errors. The studio has acknowledged that the system has made some mistakes in sending out incorrect takedowns, but not enough to cause damage to Hotfile.com(2).

Both lawsuits are still being deliberated.

2. The Good and the Bad in Distribution 

The early parts of 2012 have also provided both successes and struggles for Warner Brothers Pictures’ distribution channels.

As for the good news, Warner Bros. is staying up-to date on the digital conversion platform, by joining 4 other major studios and teaming up with Walmart’s new “disc-to-digital” service. Costumers can convert SD, HD or Blu-ray discs to digital files, across devices via Walmart’s streaming service called Vudu. The fee for the conversion is $2 and upgrading discs to HD will cost $5(3).

An ad for Walmart's new disc to digital service. Image courtesy of Walmart

The bad news for the Warner Bros. distribution department is that it finds itself tied up in a legal battle with the German production company MHF. The company states that Warner Bros. distributed the movies The Whole Ten Yards, The In-Laws and Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever without a proper license(4).  The deal with Warner Bros. stems from the bankruptcy of Franchise Pictures, the former distribution channel that the movies were originally given too. When Franchise went under in 2004, Warner Brothers took the rights to distribution for the movies.

The studio is alleged to have copyright infringed and breached the contract. The studio responded with a statement.

“MHF’s lawsuit comes years too late. At its core, the lawsuit complains about a transfer of rights in three motion pictures that occurred in 2006 during the Franchise Pictures bankruptcy. MHF had notice of that transfer at the time, and several opportunities to object, but failed to do so and the bankruptcy court approved the transfer,”(4).

The case is still being deliberated.

 3. Big Blockbuster Releases 

Some big time releases have also brought in great revenue for the studio early in 2012.

“Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows” which was released on December 16th, 2011, has brought in $529 million in the global box office as of, March 20th.  An estimated $186.7 million of that revenue has been said to be on the domestic side and $342.3 million internationally(5). The film opened at number 1 and spent 6 weeks in the top 10 in the U.S box office. The film also brought a lot of excitement to the Warner Brothers lot and the studio is ecstatic with the outcome:

The movie poster for Sherlock Holmes. Image Courtesy of Warner Bros.

“The movie is a great adventure–complete with action, humor and great characters. Congratulations to the filmmakers and cast, who were truly our partners in bringing Sherlock Holmes back to an enthusiastic worldwide audience.” –  Sue Kroll, Warner Brothers President, Worldwide Marketing (5).

Also, Warner Bros. released Project X on March 2 which received immediate success in the box office. According to Box Office Mojo, as of April 26th the movie has brought in over $54 million nationally and over $87 million worldwide(6). Project X, a film about a group of unpopular high school students who want to become known for throwing the biggest party ever, is causing problems in the state of California. Police have been seeing many copycat cases as teens have been occupying vacant million dollar homes and throwing uncontrolled parties that mimic the movie(7).

4. Movies on Deck

Warner Bros. has also made some exciting announcements about films that will premiere in 2013.

Legendary Pictures and Warner have agreed that the third installment of the Hangover franchise will hit theaters May 24th, 2013.  The studios have announced that the 3 main characters played by Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis will be returning in the movie. The first and second parts of the series grossed $467.5 million and $581.5 million worldwide respectively(8). The Hollywood Reporter has also reported that the 3rd movie is likely to take place in Los Angeles, and will break the formula that was created in the first two films.

The stars of The Hangover 3. From left to right: Helms, Cooper and Galifanakis are all getting paid at least 15 million dollars for their parts. Courtesy of Warner Bros.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Along with the Hangover, Warner Bros. has also announced that it is joining forces with famed director Brian Helgeland for the movie 42, in honor of the late great, Jackie Robinson. The movie will be released on April 12th, 2013, just in time for the 66th anniversary of Jackie Robinson day(9).  Chadwick Boseman, who played Floyd Little in the movie The Express, has been signed to play Robinson and Harrison Ford will play the man who signed Robinson, Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey. Helgeland, director of LA Confidential, wrote the original screenplay and has assembled a team of academy award winners around him to produce the film(9).  The location for production is Chattanooga, Tennessee, where Engel Stadium will double as Ebbets field, the home of the former Brooklyn Dodgers.

5. Warner Brothers Kryptonite: Latest News

The studio finds itself in a messy legal battle with Superman creator Jerry Siegel’s estate, as the two parties are fighting for the rights of the Superman franchise. The battle has been ongoing since 2008 but just on March 23rd, the studio filed a 117 page court brief arguing why they should hold the exclusive rights to the superhero(10).

The original cover of Action Comics' Superman. Now the creator and Warner Brothers are in a legal battle over copyrights. Image courtesy of Action Comics.

The case, which is being heard by the  9th Circuit Court of Appeals, is regarding a copyright termination notice that was deemed partially valid in a 2008 hearing in California. The notice said that the Siegel estate had the rights to the first edition of comics that originally told Superman’s story(10). The issue of the notice means that the Siegel estate owns the copyrights to the costume, the name Clark Kent and the original story. Since the works that followed were deemed “works for hire,” Warner Bros. holds the rights to Lex Luther and Kryptonite. The case will determine how far the studio can go in creating new Superman films and related works(10).

References

(1)  How Warner Bros. Is Fighting Charges It Abuses the Copyright Takedown Process http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/warner-brothers-hotfile-mpaa-lawsuit-295666

(2) Hotfile, Warner Bros. Copyright Fight Heats Up http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/169697/hotfile-warner-bros-copyright-fight-heats-up.html

(3)  Walmart unveils ‘disc-to-digital’: Five studios on board for in-store DVD conversion http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/sns-201203131442reedbusivarietynvr1118051401mar13,0,2716664.story

(4) Warner Bros. Sued for Allegedly Distributing Movies Without License http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/warner-bros-sued-distributing-movies-whole-ten-yards-303299

(5) “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows” Bests Its Predecessor, Nabbing Global Tally of $529 Million and Counting http://www.marketwatch.com/story/sherlock-holmes-a-game-of-shadows-bests-its-predecessor-nabbing-global-tally-of-529-million-and-counting-2012-03-20

(6) Project X http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=projectx2011.htm

(7) Project X’ Parties Busted in California Mansions http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/04/project-x-parties-busted-in-california-mansions/

(8) Todd Phillips Says Third ‘Hangover’ Will Be the Last http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/todd-phillips-hangover-3-bradley-cooper-303424

(9) Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures Put 42 On Deck For April 12, 2013; Stars Harrison Ford http://wearemoviegeeks.com/2012/04/warner-bros-pictures-and-legendary-pictures-put-42-on-deck-for-april-12-2013-stars-harrison-ford/

(10) Superman’s WB Future at Stake as Appeals Court Battle Begins http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/superman-warner-bros-future-court-battle-304263