CINEMA SCUTTLEBUTT

F/U To APRIL MOOLA REPORT

The Moola Report's featured entertainment stock for April (published on 4/20/11) was Dolby Labs (DLB).  In the Report I suggested Dolby, given its built-in royalty and licensing revenue stream, was well suited for a marriage or takeover.  Low and behold! In the May 2nd issue of Barron's Weekly, Kopin Tan (whose weekly The Trader has been a mainstay in Barron's for some years) scribed an analysis on Dolby.  The piece ended, "If it weren't still controlled by founder Ray Dolby and his family through special voting rights, the company would be roundly talked up as a sweet takeover target - loudly and clearly."    Hmmm, could Barron's be perusing The Moola?

TAKING THE "SUPER" OUT OF HERO

Will this summer's roster of films be too crowded with Superheros? Is Hollywood going too deep into the comic world and making superheros out of also-rans and second benchers that never had wide comic readership or, in some cases, no (should I say it) super powers.

Does the Green Hornet, Priest, Super 8, Trollhunter, Green Lantern, and Capitan America have boxoffice juice?  Or is the summer slate too heavily loaded with hero-types. Not to mention real superheros: Thor, X-Men, Transformers, and Conan that will fill screens this Super Summer.  Thor came out second best only to Fast Five (no heros in this flix, super or otherwise, just ex-cons, bad cops, and wrestlers) in B.O. draw.  Not too shabby for the Nordic god, but will super fatigue manifest as the dog days of summer set in?  Hopefully No! And the 18-34 male demo comes through in super attendance fashion - but you never know.  Now, if I only had super physic powers -------.

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little .........

With a plus $50 million B.O. take, Insidious - a horror story about parents battling for the very soul of their comatose child -  cost a mere $1 million to produce, and is, so far, 2011's sleeper hit.  FilmDistrict, the movie's distributor, says word-of-mouth and good pre-release marketing were positive factors to the film's huge success.  Look for a sequel. 

Best and Happy Movie Going
Jim Lavorato