Action Comedy TV: Showrunner Matt Nix 
SAG National Board Approves Joint Bargaining … 
BBC Drama Unfreezes Development Money; … 
Lionsgate Board Rejects Icahn's $6/Share 
Is Betting On Box Office Good For Films? 
Marvel Still Looking For Captain America 
'Sopranos' Creator To Film Rock Drama 
LIVE-SNARKING THE 82ND OSCARS... 
'ALICE' IS A MONSTER! $116.3M Blows Past … 
Oscar Not-So-Thriller: Diller Mogul Picnic 
'Precious' Sweeps 25th Indie Spirit Awards 
Howard Stern Won't Be Next 'Idol' Judge 
Justin Theroux Readying 'Zoolander 2' For … 
Mickey Rourke Wooed For Two Big Roles, … 
CBS Reups Les Moonves Through 2015 
Saudi Arabian royal family member Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who owns 95% of Kingdom Holding Company which is News Corp's 2nd biggest shareholder, appeared this week on Charlie Rose. To prepare for the chat with Rupe, Alwaleed saw Avatar and heard some interesting numbers about the pic from Murdoch. Here's more:
"Fox business now is beginning to improve. More importantly is the Avatar movie. I had to see it before I meet Mr. Murdoch [because] if i didn't see it he'd be upset. So I saw it, first [time] ever I see a sci-fi movie."
At this point Charlie Rose asks if he liked the film. "I like the fact that people like it, and it's going to gross $2 billion, and add $400 million to the bottom line of News Corp. One movie only. Imagine that. Shocking. I'm really happy for these results. Whether I like it or not, I'll keep it between me and Mr. Murdoch."
Loading ...
Looks more like the star of Weekend at Bernie’s than a Prince. Nice glasses. That’s oil money right there, folks.
His interview on Charlie Rose is worth watching
http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/10825
“Worst is over”. Now waiting to see what type of recovery we have.
I can’t imagine Rupert has any problem at all with the left-leaning, bleeding heart liberal story lining his pockets. Some things transcend ideals. Like money.
Funny, though, I thought I read somewhere it wasn’t going to turn a profit…
Whiskey?
Spin time.
This completely refutes what some continue to say about Avatar not being very profitable for the studio– one poster in particular who I will not dignify by naming. On a side note, it’s pretty disturbing to read about who is News Corps second largest shareholder in light of yesterday’s unprecedented supreme court decision to allow corporations to spend freely on influencing US elections with no monetary limits. As for Prince Alwaleed, he seems like a little bit of an ass.
Good. Now tell his ass to get Conan over to Fox.
LOL!!! He couldn’t even say that he liked it!!!
Borat goes hipster
Prince Talal is the guy whose check was torn up on TV by Rudy Guiliani for the restrictions that America “apologize” after 9/11. He’s also suing Citi for some investments he made that turned up dead. So his acumen is not exactly that of say, Warren Buffett’s. Prince Talal is partnering with News Corp on a ME media venture. No doubt Murdoch blew smoke in his ears about AVATAR.
I don’t doubt that AVATAR will at least come close to grossing $2 billion, but gross != profits.
First the movie itself probably cost all told around $500 million to make and publicize in the US, about another $300 million worldwide publicity, marketing, and assistance. Its my guess seeing how News Corp is cash flow focused (they are highly leveraged and have to make big debt payments every quarter, they just wrote down their Dow Jones purchase about $1 billion) that they took less than the usual cut from box office gross, in return for theaters making the considerable investment in 3-D technology (which is not cheap, IIRC somewhere around $1 million per theater in this economic climate). I don’t think they made cash-assistance payments to theaters to switch to 3-D, and in this climate I don’t see theater chains, themselves HIGHLY LEVERAGED, even ABLE to take out loans to install 3-D IMAX systems.
Regal Entertainment is BB- rated by Standard & Poor, because of poor cash flow (6X Debt to EBITDA) coupled by high debts. All those leveraged take-overs just hammered these theater chains which have dealt with declining attendance over several years. Their balance sheets look awful (check out their stock prices over the past few years). I don’t see Regal being able to go out and get loans to go 3-D IMAX, they likely had to do it with internal cash flow.
If AVATAR earnings for News Corp is in the annual report or SEC filings, as an audited number, it made money for sure and likely a lot of it. If AVATAR’s box office is NOT reported, be sure its cash flow negative.
My best guess? Makes money (slightly) on DVD/Blu-Ray and TV sales long term, but not much.
Where are the AVATAR 2 sequels, the filming dates, screen writer(s) hired, release dates, etc? Where are the me-too projects? The sheer COST of this movie seems to make Studios think twice. But we will know next Q when News releases it’s SEC quarterly filings.
Here we go again.
*face palm*
LOL… I actually can’t work out if you are for real… the things you say are sooo dumb, you have to just be a troll.
$300m outside America for marketing…. that’s the annual budget for a big multinational… and on one film for four weeks… douche.
Also Fox laid off most the risk, see http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=atMQxdF2u6WM&pos=15
And yet again you whine about a lack of a sequel or screenwriters being hired (despite Cameron writing all his screenplays – dickhead). Let me make it clear, *if* there is an Avatar sequel it will start when Cameron decides it starts and picks up the phone, then every studio will come running; he’s not Michael ‘Hack’ Bay.
Cameron and his producer already hinted at sequels. Give the man some time to write it for god sakes! He’s still out there promoting and winning awards at awards shows. Trust me there is zero chance there won’t be sequels.
Also, your math is way off. If you don’t think they are rolling in the dough with this movie your insane.
Cameron and his producer already hinted at sequels. Give the man some time to write it for god sakes! He’s still out there promoting and winning awards at awards shows. Trust me there is zero chance there won’t be sequels.
Also, your math is way off. If you don’t think they are rolling in the dough with this movie your insane!
You are as brain dead as anyone ever. 300 Million in worldwide publicity? You are a fool of the first order. Why post?
I told you before; I’ll tell you again, you dumb dumb man; your figures are way way off. It’s in the black. It’s made more than 100% profit for Fox and the two partners. You might hate it, but it’s the way it is. It’ll make back a ton more on DVD/BRD.
As for the sequels: Cameron makes them on his own time. He writes his own material, he makes those decisions. Are you even IN this business? How could you not know this stuff? You’re like a kid field stripping a rifle with his asscheeks.
Get a clue.
Tea
More B.S. from whiskey.
You don’t know how much the movie cost to produce and market, you’re just making it up, or as you so boldy admitted, just guessing. You don’t know how Fox and News Corp cash flow system is structured, you just once again guess and freely admit it.
So what makes you think that anyone should take any of the rest of the drivel you spout up on the basis of these guesses and others, seriously?
You predicted that Avatar would fail at the box office (based on more faulty idiotic guessing) and you were wrong. You predicted that it would not make any profit despite its Box Office gross, and now that the figures and the math is getting more and more grim for you, you begrudgingly admit that it will make some money.
So let me summarize for you.You’re a joke.
ALL OF YOUR PREDICTIONS THUS FAR ABOUT THIS MOVIE HAVE COME WRONG!
So spare us more of your nonsense. Please.
So now you’re smarter than Rupert Murdoch, eh? Does your arrogance know no limits?
While you’re sitting around pulling numbers out of your ass, Murduch is busy running his multi-billion dollar empire. If I were betting man, I’d bet on Murdoch, not some internet loser with an ideological axe to grind.
It’s also obvious that you know very little about the film industry; your points have been consistently rebuked by dozens of other posters.
So how much longer will you persist in this nonsense? Enough already. Go back from whence you came, Drudge troll.
One last question (just to get a sense of how your mind works on other topics): moon landing – real or fake?
Eat me, douchebag.
whiskey,
Please, for the love of God, stop embarrassing yourself.
Such a tragedy a great movie had to make so much money for the WORST and most ethically bankrupt media company in the world. I find it highly ironic that they put out a movie like Avatar considering their agenda of conservative domination.
I wonder if James Cameron has any private thoughts on this…
Cam,
That’s the joke, my friend.
These people would sell they mothers into slavery to increase profits.
There is no such thing as political agenda for these people.
You think Rush didn’t pop some Oxy pills and order some hookers when Obama got elected? He loved it. It’s great for business.
Like Religion,Politics,and Nationalism- it’s all a smoke screen that stops the uninformed folks from making a buck.
No doubt money is the driving motivation here–but don’t kid yourself Murdoch has a VERY strong ideological perspective, his perspective just happens to be very profitable.
I had no idea until today that he was so heavily in bed with a Saudi trust fund kid. Disgusting–but not shocking at all. It’s sad that this is the sort of behavior I expect out of this company.
So, in your opinion, was AlWaleed pulling the strings of SCOTUS when they handed that Citizens United decision down last week ?
yes, his private thoughts are “show me the money” and “can you believe people actually care about the ‘message,’ I mean look at that CGI”
Avatar was a fluke — the audiences we steal money from are stoopid.
We need to greenlight more remakes. More pre-branded material. Where’s the sequel to the remake of THE TAKING OF PELHAM 123? It’s all about pre-existing source material. Much safer.
Because if I’ve learned one thing in this business it’s that if it hasn’t already been done before it makes no sense to me. I like to copy or reverse engineer intellectual property. Starting from scratch is dumb. I mean, why cook dinner yourself when you can eat at a restaurant?
I love you Whiskey. You’re a complete idiot but I love you.
No one can make up numbers (and continually change them) like you.
You’re definitely my favorite thing of 2010.
whiskey should come with a disclaimer: read for entertainment purposes only. LOL
I don’t think Cameron minded benig distributed by them. He had so many investors that it wasn’t just hinging on News Corp.
RemakeRay-
You had me laughing pretty hard on your comment. Well done, sir. It even made it FUNNIER due to the fact that today they announced a remake of Planet of the Apes (that was recently done by Tim Burton) is still in the works.
@ Whiskey
Wait where are you pulling this 800 million total to make Avatar from? This is the first time I’ve heard these numbers. From my understanding Avatar cost approximately 300 million to make and 150-200 million to market. Marketing includes worldwide costs. Next thing we know people are going to say it cost a billion to make this movie. Sorry but Avatar will gross more than 2.2 billion worldwide when all is said and done. It’s not going to have to wait for DVD sales to turn a profit.
@whiskey…
That’s the most I’ve ever seen somebody write, and say absolutely nothing at the same time. Your “figures” are way off. Stop pretending to know what you’re talking about. The only ones who know whether or not its made money are 20th Cent. Fox and James Cameron. By the way, the sequels for Avatar are already planned by Cameron, but you know it takes a lot of work…you know…to plan and make something of that magnitude…
Wow…….shocking, he’s being a bit evasive, but he’s so honest about it and he’s only about money, apologetically. It’s refreshing no matter how vile I think that is as a artist, to find one of the money guys not pretending to be one of my kind, that’s where we run into trouble. So I guess everything worked out for everyone on Avatar.
Not this again Whiskey. Seriously man. The movie made profit. The end.
I never thought a Borat quote would ever pop into my head again but the first thing I thought of when this guy’s photo showed up on Deadline was… “Eeees niiiiice!”. These trust fund kids (or as they call them in some countries – princes) can’t stay away from showbiz and turning their families into millionaires from billionaires (see Edgar Bronfman Jr.). Rupert, if he did say that, was just blowing smoke up Alwaleed bin Talal’s a$$. Btw – I wonder if these types all use the same photographer.
If only we were an energy independent country…
Am I the only one astounded to learn that, at the end of the day, the frothing-mouthed Fox News is bank rolled by a Saudi Prince?
Glen Beck’s paycheck written right-to-left in arabic?
Wow!
You all are wrong!
i have the most recent and official numbers from the most reliable sources
Actual Avatar budget was:
$500 million budget
$300 million advertising and distribution Domestic
$300 million advertising and distribution Worldwide
$500 million inventing 3D cameras
$100 million coffee and cigaretes
$70 million BigMacs and fries
$100 million petrol
$100 million electricity and gas
$90 million water
total $2,060 billion
so far Avatar have earned tiny 1.685 billion
but this unadjusted for inflation only.. SO THOSE MONEY DOESNT COUNTS>
adjusted for inflation Avatar made only 400 million
SO to reach break even point (which is $4 Billion for Avatar) it needs another 3.700 billion
James Cameron devastated and 20th FOX bancrupt!
p.s. im really good at maths and know everything about Box-office
@Whiskey, go shoot yourself in the head (if you’ve got one). And what about Cameron’s 3d camera, I read on filmz.Ru that it was worth $19 million creating.
For all of you saying Murdoch was just blowing smoke up this guy’s ass with the $400 million profit figure one of two things is true:
1) you are right and Murdoch commited a felony by violating SEC rules governing statements to shareholders (and thru the princes’s statement, the public)regrding revenue and profit estimates from a company officer (by law such statements must be truthful and estimates reasonable based on actual figures); thus exposing himself and his company to huge potential criminal and civil liabilty for no real reason or possible gain; or
2) You have no clue what you are talking about and Avatar is indeed hugely profitable.
Although I have not seen the movie Extraordinary Measures (and I will this weekend now that I know it is for adults) I take issue with your column that points out a higher percentage of people over 50 viewing this picture. What, please tell, is so wrong with people over 50 wanting to see this film? I am much over 50 and very tired of seeing film clips of upcoming films basically aimed at the crotchs of 15 year old boys! And these are main-stream films. In case anyone has forgotten, we will all live long enough to be over 50 years of age if we are lucky. My arguement is with the film industry that is forgetting a very large and growing segment of the population who are turned off by these youth-oriented pictures. It is very simple – produce films for adults or you won’t get my money.