Milton Keynes residents, hoping for discount movie tickets at a no-frills theatre, are out of luck: Easycinema has shut its doors. 
The brainchild of Easyjet founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou, Easycinema was one of several businesses to follow the Easyjet model - no luxuries, but low low prices. Other splinter businesses include rental cars, busses and hotels.
Easycinema was [...]

Box Office Weekly #017 (MP3 - 14.3MB - 27 min)
In today’s show …Howard Stern fans can worry about something else… X Men are better than Albino Monks … and in my commentary, I take a walk on the sucky side of TV. All this and a Blunt rejection, today on Box Office Weekly.
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As I ragged on the network’s fall schedules last week I may have given the impression that I thought they were bad ideas. Certainly not. Not if you’re grading on the curve, anyway. The shows listed below are, as far as I have seen, much much worse and they all aired. For every one of [...]

The Sofia Coppola backlash has begun! Stand back!
Coppola’s MARIE-ANTOINETTE, which premiered this week at Cannes, was roundly booed by the audience of film writers and critics. As the Guardian puts it, “while some of the audience…clearly enjoyed it, many did not.” Oh the British and their fabled understatement. Coppola herself has professed disappointment.
Sofia Coppola’s films [...]

DA VINCI CODE Breaks BO Records Worldwide
Hidden among the movies many puzzles: a text which promises “great rewards if you can get the church to tell people not to see you.”
HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL Breaks DVD Records
Have I mentioned that my friend Pete Barsocchini wrote High School Musical? Hey Pete, when’s the sequel?
Hasbro Shelves Plans for “Pussycat [...]

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Regarding my post about Big Brother a very disgusted viewer in England muses in the comments section about what could the entertainment value be in a show like this? I can’t speak for the viewer, because I don’t watch the damn thing.
From a programmer’s standpoint BIG BROTHER seems like the first step towards the ultimate [...]

For the week of May 15-21… continuing to disprove my theories, sweeps has almost no effect on the iron-clad lock of top ten shows, with only one exception. Numbers are RATING/HOUSEHOLD(MILLIONS)

AMERICAN IDOL-TUESDAY FOX ** 16.6/28331
AMERICAN IDOL-WEDNESDAY FOX ** 16.6/27667
CSI CBS ** 15.8 /25401
DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES ABC ** 15.0/24233
GREY’S ANATOMY SP 2-5/15(S) ABC ** 14.2/22499
HOUSE FOX ** 13.6/22377
WITHOUT A TRACE CBS ** 13.0/19814
WILL GRACE NBC ** 11.7/18433
CSI: MIAMI CBS ** 11.6/17504
E.R. NBC ** 10.7/16560

As you can see, WILL AND GRACE made it back into the top ten [...]

BIG BROTHER 7, which airs on England’s Channel 4, is having a little spot of trouble with one of the flatmates. Specifically Shahbaz Chauhdry, who has walked out of the house and therefore off the show, after erratic and moody behavior. Said Chauhdry, “I came here to die on this programme.” An edited version of [...]

Box Office Weekly #016 (MP3 - 8.20 MB - 24 min)
In today’s show: Advertising’s tentacles find another way into your brain… Janet Jackson’s nipple becomes ten times more dangerous… and in my commentary, we look at the fall schedule and notice how much is looks like this year’s schedule. All this and Abba’s worst nightmare, [...]