Monthly Archives: August 2014

by

Opening weekend

I never understood how the success of a movie during the opening weekend came to be such a key selling point. Surely the second weekend is a much better measure? During the first weekend there is not much in the way of word of mouth: friends have not had time to convince friends that they should shell out a large-ish chunk of their life savings for a movie ticket.
The only thing that the opening weekend measures is the success of the marketing of the film.

I’m not denying that that’s important, given the commercial nature of the film industry, I’m just saying that the opening weekend figures should not be reported to the general public with the prominence that they get now. We don’t all rush out to a particular restaurant because a marketing report noted an increase in patronage following the erection of a billboard. So why should the movie marketers get a free ride?

by

Encore Presentation

I hate when a TV station re-runs a program and calls it an “encore presentation”. An encore is when one goes to a concert and the band is so fantastically excellent that when they finish the audience begs them to come back and play more songs. It is not an exact repeat of a TV show that was aired just hours or days before because the TV station has spent a lot of money on it and is desperate to scrounge up some viewers so they can trumpet the show as a success to the advertising companies even if it means just repeating the same thing ad nauseum until people eventually watch it by mistake because there’s nothing else on.
Calling it “encore” also bugs me because it implies that people actually want to watch the show again, which is patently false: the people who really wanted to see it already watched/torrented/taped it. We all know it’s hard,  with multiple digital channels and 24 hours to fill on each one. I’m just asking for a little honesty. Just call it what it really is: a re-run.