Musing About Movies

This is a writing blog, not a movie blog, but I've always wondered why some movies--movies with the same stars in them--do well and some don't. For instance, Old School and Wedding Crashers cleaned up at the boxoffice but The Internship is struggling to compete.

Movies are just stories told with images and sound while books are stories told solely through language. At some level, a story's a story. All things being equal, we'd like to sell our stories, our books, as widely as possible, so understanding what readers/viewers like couldn't hurt.

If that's possible.

Google: Can Predict Box Office With 94% Accuracy

The finding that Google can predict box office with 94% accuracy indicates to me that, most of the time, the decision whether to see a movie is made solely based on marketing rather than word of mouth. That is, it's made before anyone sees the movie.

I wouldn't be surprised if it is similar in the book world. Readers want a book in a certain genre, or by a certain author, or one that's like another book.

I've been using Box Office Mojo to track movie stats; how much a movie was made for, how much it grossed, and so on. It looks like The Internship, the latest movie by comedy duo Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson, is going to be lucky to break even.

Why?

Is it the subject matter? Was the subject matter of Vaughn's earlier movies, Old School and Wedding Crashers more primal? These earlier movies were about life transitions, marriage, death. But, in a way, so is The Internship. The movie explores the lives of two guys displaced by technology, two guys who are struggling to succeed in a rapidly changing world that deems them obsolete.

Well, when I put it like that, the movie seems a bit depressing! (grin)

What do you think is the biggest determinant of whether someone will see a movie or read a book?

Photo credit: "București #23" by Thomas Leuthard under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.

Nook Readers And Tablets: Barnes & Noble Lowers Prices

Barnes & Noble has lowered the price of their eReaders and tablets.

7-inch Nook Color: $150 -- 20 dollars lower
7-inch Nook Tablet: (8gb) $180 -- 20 dollars lower
7-inch Nook Tablet: (16gb) $200 -- 50 dollars lower

To see Barnes & Noble's selection of eReaders and tablets, click here: Nook

To read more about the price cuts and what they might mean, click here: (PCWorld) Barnes & Noble Cuts Nook Prices.

Before jumping at the chance to buy an eReader it's worth looking at the new tablets that are out, and are soon to come out.

Google’s new tablet is in the same class as Barnes & Noble’s Nook Tablet and the Kindle Fire. The difference for the Nexus 7 is that it’s a full-featured tablet and not just a low-priced reader designed primarily for content consumption. The Fire and Nook, on the other hand, are all about consuming content since they come up short on standard tablet specs such as cameras, Bluetooth, and GPS. The Nexus 7 is also missing a few features such as a rear-facing camera and a wireless broadband option. Nevertheless, spec-for-spec Google’s 7-inch tablet blows away the Fire and Nook Tablet.

Not only does the Nexus 7 offer better specs, but at launch Google’s tablet was priced the same as the Nook Tablet: $199 for the 8GB version and $259 for the 16GB model. Also, around the time of the Nexus 7 release, debut of a Kindle Fire 2 is expected -- so it’s no surprise that Barnes & Noble decided to cut its tablet prices.

Good reading!

Other articles you might like:
- Amanda Hocking's Unusual Writing Schedule
- What To Write About: Fiction That Sells

Photo credit: Unknown

Google fined for refusing to reveal bloggers' identities

Google Brazil had $141,000 US frozen from its bank account for, first, refusing to remove three anonymous blogs accusing the mayor of Brazil of corruption and embezzlement and, second, for refusing to pay the fine the court levied against them.

Go Google!

After the news broke recently of Google's true name policy many, myself included, starting looking at Google differently, they were no longer the good guys. In fact, one or two bloggers used the word "evil" to describe their actions. What Google did here though, protecting dissident bloggers, was a great thing.

Perhaps Google is a bit like most of us, neither good nor bad, evil or a saint.

Read more about this story here: Google fined in Brazil for refusing to reveal bloggers’ identities

Google Plus Widget

A few days ago I was invited into the Google Plus beta. I was so excited, not much writing got done that day! There was, and is, a lot to learn but I'm enjoying it. Facebook never worked for me, probably because I have very diverse groups of friends.

Today I went looking for a Google+ widget but it wasn't easy to find one. "Ah!" I thought. "This is a topic for a blog post!"

The widget is called Google Plus Widget and if you'd like to add me (does that sound desperate? lol) here's a link.

If you scroll down this page a bit and look on the right margin you'll see what the widget looks like on my page. It was too big at first so I made the background transparent.

It was very easy to add the widget to my site. If anyone has trouble let me know and I'll do a blog post that steps through it.