Twitter is being used to predict the future box office takings of films courtesy of researchers at Hewlett Packard. They have studied 3 million tweets about 25 different movies, including Avatar. (is there no privacy??) Apparently the rate at which messages are produced can be used to forecast box office visits before opening. The faster people tweet about a film, the more likely they are to go and see it. They say its “tapping into collective intelligence” and word of mouth builds audience. Their analysis predicted that the zombie film “The Crazies” would take $16.8 in its first weekend and it actually took $16.06m. The forecast for “Dear John” was $30.7 and it took $30.5.

These guys have developed algorithms to analyse tweets in the run-up to a film launch measuring the rate at which they were produced….”Get a life” springs to mind.

Avatar which actually took $232.2m on opening weekend, will showing in Hotels using Acentic systems.

We have just come out of the noughties, so what is this decade called? The teenies? The booming teens…. (let’s be positive) the twenty tens?

Whatever. There is much to look forward to: We have the football World Cup, always good for anyone’s business, the Winter Olympics, the Ryder Cup, Andy Murray is going to win his first major and Scotland will win the six nations. You don’t get much more positive than that to me.

There are some great films to look forward too as well. Wall Street 2 (as mentioned in a previous blog), Up in the Air with George Clooney, Robin Hood with Russell Crowe (yawn!), the final books of Harry Potter and Gulliver’s Travels with Billy Connolly….yeehaaa.

It’s at this time of year that I, and I suppose many other managers in my position, need to galvanize our teams and launch them into the new year with confidence, optimism and a sense of fun. My first award of the year and “Cool Friend of Acentic” goes to Emily Somers. Emily works for the Glove division of Medline and created, choreographed and directed the attached film, which was created to promote awareness for breast cancer in a hospital in Portland, Oregon. When the site gets a million hits, Medline will give a large contribution to the hospital and free mammograms to the community.

To persuade everyday people do extraordinary things is inspiring. I invite you to do the Pink Glove Dance and be inspired.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEdVfyt-mLw

Well, James Cameron’s Avatar is arriving in Cinemas across the world on December 18th. (He’s the guy that brought us Terminator, Alien, True Lies and Titanic to name but a few). This is the biggest 3D film so far. I tried to read the synopsis but gave up…

“Since humans are unable to breath the air on Pandora, they have created genetically-bred human-Navi hybrids known as Avatars. They are living breathing bodies controlled by a human “driver” through a technology that links the drivers mind to the Avators body…!! Is it me!? I think I will need more than special glasses…

The list of 3D films is growing. Virtually all Dreamworks animations will now be in 3D, and George Lucas is remastering Star Wars in 3D. I am told that the new 3D format does not give you headaches (which is comforting). They are shot in two frames, one for the left eye and one for the right (probably lost on me as I’ve been virtually blind in my left eye from birth). The projector buffers the left and right streams and projects them in alternation…apparently. Cinemas need to install a special screen and digital projectors after which there won’t be much saving on Euro 100k, but current showings are commanding a ticket price of about double the norm.

So, it all sounds a bit far away from being mainstream and certainly a long way away from being a hotel room experience. I, however, am more looking forward to Wall street 2 which will be in hotels in mid 2010 (Filmbank). It is 20 years since Gordon Gecko was imprisoned for his actions…? and the film begins with Michael Douglas being released from the Pen to find Shia LaBeouf  (Transformers) engaged to his estranged daughter. The film rebuilds Gecko’s financial career in a mid 2008 banking environment, so full of “Hedge fund managers”, “bad banks” and “bailouts”.

I can’t wait!

Through the years of the successful hotel iTV industry much has been said, in haste, about the worth of the industry’s considered investment in film content for hotel guest rooms. We, at Acentic, maintain our position that it is imperative that we provide the highest quality studio releases continuously, month after month, despite the enormous hard work and costs. Sophisticated hotel guests demand it.

Latest release cinematic programming and digital TV quality is a service and a right for the luxury hotel guest. This is why, Acentic has recently increased our uptake of cinematic releases from our dear friends at Filmbank from 36, to 48 cinema titles per territory, per annum. In addition to our variety of content in (Yoga, Bonsai, relaxation, etc.).

Whilst many of your guests may do the Boulevard or Broadway, it is essential that hotels give their guests freedom of choice.

What event is happening this week where you can see Quentin Tarantino’s new movie? It’s the same place that was featured on the HBO show, Entourage, when the boys screened their movie there; it will be the place that screens Heath Ledger’s very last film and this week it will host all of Hollywood’s elite?  The answer is: Cannes Film Festival, one of the oldest, most influential and prestigious film festivals in the world. This year Acentic will be there! Well, we’ll be there with our digital TV system in the hotels of Cannes showing a new trailer area on the hotel’s TV system to coincide with the festival.

Acentic’s all new Welcome Page now includes a dedicated movie trailer area. Acting as the ‘default’ page on the iTV platform, this page is enabled the minute the guests are checked into their room, meaning that as soon as they step into their bedroom, they know exactly what great movies are playing in the hotel.

It’s good for the hotel because the Welcome Page is a great platform to support the hotels branding and brings with it the additional dynamic of playing movie trailers helping to increase revenue. It’s also good for the guest because they need to stay on top of what films are out there if they’re going to be rubbing elbows with Francis Ford Coppola and Brad Pitt.

Cannes visitors (whether they are launching a film, career or reputation or just visiting in the hopes of running into celebrities) can relax in their room and check out the trailers for new films that are available to watch on demand.

Pornography is a subjective term which doesn’t in anyway reflect more specific content than sex. It seems to be any depiction of sex, in fact, to which the person using the word objects to and finds disapproving.  I much prefer the genre adult entertainment, or AE to save ink.

Because AE is often available in hotel rooms, I am regularly asked if the current explosion in technology and content, plus the X and Y generations, will lead to the demise of such content?

Alas...it's unlikely.

At the dawn of every new media, it has been AE that has grown quickest and often to be the largest. From early cave paintings of 40,000 years ago, to the printing press, to TV and DVD and, of course, the Internet - AE has proliferated. It does appear to go on and on. The most recent research published by XBIZ research shows that the industry showed substantial growth in 2008 and 70% of adult businesses were expecting moderate to substantial growth in 2009.

The current economic correction may slow things down a little whilst the AE industry awaits a new wave on which to ride...3D perhaps??