Kings Theatre in Brooklyn Set to Reopen

An estimated $95 million is being invested to bring back a long time Brooklyn gem. The Kings Theater, a hot attraction in the 1920s, is being being re-opened sometime in February 2015. The former Loews movie theater is now finding a new use as a performing arts center in hopes to stimulate development in its neighborhood. 

Located at 1027 Flatbush avenue Brooklyn, NY the theater would bring a much needed boost to the community as it provides opportunities for kids to stray away from bad alternative life decisions and it provides potential for tourist attractions, which may stimulate the small businesses in the area, or re-locate them assuming bigger companies get involved. 

Former Brooklyn borough President, Marty Markowitz, expects people will love how they renovated the inside. He believes that this theater will be "Brooklyn's Beacon and Apollo theater in one". Speaking of Apollo theater, Diana Ross would be performing in February, too (Feb 3 to be precise).

Buy or Sell?

Being a child of Brooklyn, I have walked past the theater a few times in my life and I can say I most definitely didn't think much of it, but I know I wasn't a fan of abandoned areas. It was dead, like a lot of other attractions in NY. It was almost too commonplace in Brooklyn, and I'm certain I'm not alone on this, especially many years ago (just look at Williamsburg at the turn of the century). Its good to see a resurgence in investments with the theater and within the community; I buy it. I just hope it doesn't lead to more people being crowded out of their neighborhoods as it may attract wealthier people to the area.

How Sony can capitalize after pulling 'The Interview'

I don't fully understand a lot of what's going on behind the scenes at Sony Pictures, but I know things got serious (and I mean really serious) over the past few weeks. Just recently, news dropped that they decided to pull the plug on showing their upcoming movie The Interview, starring James Franco (@JamesFrancoTV) and Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen). The reason is tied to what the movie is about and threats of terrorist activity. From those threats, the movie theaters backed out, and from there Sony ultimately backed out too. 

But instead of getting into what the movie is about, you can just read the synopsis here while I get to the delicious economic opportunity that Sony Pictures has in front of them!

What we know

Just a few weeks back, news broke that Sony Pictures had been hacked by a group of hackers instructed by the North Korean government (or at least that's what we think), leaking important documents, e-mails, salaries, etc. What was leaked ended up circulating the web and was a cause for a wide variety of serious discussion, but whether you believe the media had a right to circulate it or not, the damage was already done.

The company is left dealing with a PR nightmare along with capital-related setbacks, adjusting their fixed and variable costs by replacing hardware and hiring personnel to help them fix their net security issue. On top of that, their workers are filing lawsuits, charging the company with failing to protect their privacy. And all of this happened prior to canceling the release of The Interview. Talk about adding salt to the wound. 

Why Sony is able to capitalize: scarcity and national identity

But if you were to ask me if I thought they can bounce back from all this, I would give you an enthusiastic yes, and the reason boils down to narrative, value and scarcity. Usually, economic value is measured by the most someone is willing to give up in other goods and services in order to obtain a good, service, or state of the world. In the movie business, with a fixed price set for movie goers, their value is more or less measured in the amount of visits to the theater.

Despite this financial hit for pulling the movie, Sony can still earn a sizable profit on the interview because the movie has picked up a lot more buzz than was initially created before the scandal. For one, you can think of it hypothetically. After Sony decided not to show it, the movie did all of a sudden became a scarce commodity, which naturally generates more demand for any product. And it helps Sony that the movie is not really circulating online, but this is just half the point I'm trying to make. Furthermore, you can think about it symbolically, where the hackers (whether under North Korea or not) ended up turning a silly comedy (that I wasn't going to bother watching before all of this) into a must-see movie, at least for Americans.

Following the terrorist threats and the Sony decision, other studios followed suit. According to engaget, Paramount Pictures decided to pull screenings of Team America: World Police (a 10-year film which featured a North Korean dictator as the villain) and film studio New Regency (co-owned by Fox and Warner Bros.) canceled its plans to produce a film adaptation of the graphic novel Pyongyang. 

In a country that takes pride in freedom of expression, you can imagine why these series of decisions were frustrating for the average American to see. Even though Sony's move is inherently a smart one when you consider a terrorist threat in the mix, the conventional wisdom sees it as more about a shot to the national narrative and the outcry is, in part, about repairing that identity. 

In growing numbers, Americans are expressing their support to have The Interview distributed to the public (however that happens) because watching it became a concern of national identity, and what better better response would their be than to show it as a way to fix uphold that nation identity and stick it to the enemy? This is the audience The Interview has going for it, and Sony would be smart to take ownership of distributing it while its still hard to find online.

Suggestion for Sony: Pull a Beyoncé

There are many different ways Sony can distribute The Interview. While they are weighing their options, I hope one of the considerations is to release it theaters unnounced. Remember back in 2013 when Beyoncé surprised the world when she released her visual album, "Beyoncé", unannounced? That album spent its first three weeks at No. 1 with sold 1.43 million copies sold in just 4 weeks alone. The Interview might not make Guardians of the Galaxy type of money, but the popularity should catapult its revenue intake beyond its expected box office numbers. It would be a shock, and a good one that might find itself within the top 5 or 6 box office movies for a large number of weeks (especially if the movie is a good film). One downside to showing it in theaters is the possibility that a lot of people wont show up because they don't want to take any risks. 

On the other hand, the possibility of showing it online is always there too, but there is also the risk of exposing it online leakage, and those who probably wouldn't mind seeing it in theaters have no incentive to bother since they can see it for free. 

But in the end, with whatever they want to do, I think they need to do it as soon as possible while the movie is still relevant and there is little competition. 

Related links/articles:

• Everything That’s Happened in the Sony Leak Scandal
• Should Sony Pictures Pull ‘The Interview’?
• Celebrities React To Sony Canceling 'The Interview' Release
• Snapchat CEO 'devastated' at Sony leak, but were tech sites right to report it? Open thread
• North Korea Behind Sony Hack: U.S. Officials
• White House calls Sony hack a ‘serious national security matter’
• Sony Leaked Emails Depict Ryan Gosling, George Clooney, Leo DiCaprio: Sought-After, Apologetic and ‘Despicable’
• After 'Utter Devastation' of Sony Hack, Experts Ask: Who's Next?
• No 'Interview'...on any platform
• Sony's Amy Pascal likely to be fired over leaked emails that exposed cruel and racially tinged comments
• Why North Korea's Sony hack made 'The Interview' required viewing
• Graphic novel Pyongyang's film killed because of Sony hacks

Michael Keaton Just Proved Once And For All That He’s Batman

"There are other batmen, but there’s only one goddamn Batman."

 Source (or click on the picture).

Are we "Purge" enabled?

When you look over the course of human history, you will find that we have also done a lot of horrendous things to one another. That is not to say we have done no good, but we are not blameless on anything we do, no matter how small or large the consequence of our actions. A couple of extreme examples need not any proper introduction, just a few key words (Rwanda, Crusades, Nanjing, Pol Pot, etc). Perhaps the most famous one is to think about is the holocaust, where approximately 17 million people were killed. No one who hasn't been under those conditions (or in any of the other events) can truly imagine the what it is like to...

To read the rest of this piece, click here.

How a Sinister Six Movie can redeem the Amazing Spider-man Franchise

There is a difference between a movie doing bad and a movie being bad. Sometimes they are one in the same, though (Jack and Jill [2011], Catwoman [2004], etc). But in this special case, we have a movie that did very well in the box office yet failed to capture the hearts and minds of many viewers.

The Amazing Spider-man 2 (TASM2) was a lot of things, from very good visual film to a very bad character development film. It was quite possibly the most hyped movie coming into 2014 with an unbelievable number of movie trailers. I was afraid the trailers would show me too much of the movie plot, when what actually transpired was worse: the movie didn't even live up to the trailers. The tone was all over the place, it did not seem like there was just one director taking calling the shots about the artistic direction (SONY I'm pointing the finger at you), and the lack of pivotal character developments was just the finishing touches to a movie that was rather hindered by its glaring inconsistencies, despite its great upsides. And despite all of this ASM2 still racked in $706,342,322 the world box office, covering its $200 million production costs. That means (from a producer's point of view) that an Amazing Spider-man 3 film is definitely coming, despite the franchise's critics.

But from the point of view of the fan, one ought to be concerned. Looking at the mistakes made in TASM2, one has to think if this is even worth it anymore just from a story-line perspective. A lot of people liked this movie, but I think a lot more people were angry or disappointed with the overall product (like seriously, wheres the director's cut already). A 7.3 overall on Imdb (as of 7-27-14) but this movie had way more potential than a 7.3. Those movie trailers were more than a 7.3!

Sony had future plans to make an ASM3 and Sinister Six movie sometime in the near future, but looking at how TASM2 was received by the fans, it seems that Sony is switching its gears. They are changing the release dates, placing Sinister Six to precede the ASM3, as opposed to the order before, and they are pushing TASM3 release date down a year to 2018.

Here's the big challenge that I think Sony is facing: How do you redeem a franchise that took a rather significant blow to it's authenticity? 

Before I give my two cents I want to just warn you that there will be spoilers. So in the name of courtesy, SPOILER ALERT BELOW.

The ASM2 felt like a part one of two movies or something. The character development with Harry and Electro was just rushed and hardly believable in some respects, Norman Ozborn dies off-screen, Electro's rise ended fairly quickly, Rhino was just pushed into the movie like SONY has characters to waste (here you goo!), the tone was dark and then not so dark, and at the end of all of this TASM2 ended up disappointing primarily because it was overcrowded and confusing.

So what can a Sinister Six movie actually do to correct that? 

1. Make the movie revolve around Harry. Every good movie has a strong main character, and for the Sinister Six movie to make waves, I think it would be best in this case to revolve the group around Harry. It makes sense since a deeper character development was neglected in TASM2. With Dane Dehan as the primary star, the movie can explore Harry as a more 3-dimensional character. Even better, make him think he is the good guy. We can love him or love to hate him, but it is important that we understand him, especially for upcoming movies going forward.
2. Leave NYC. I think that a Sinister Six movie would do better if they leave NYC and come back towards the end. They might not leave NYC, and that is fine, but Id like to see them in a different environment so we don't have to ask where is spider-man when all of this is happening. Plus if the Sinister Six team up outside of NYC, that can make for a great ending, being that they know they must defeat Spider-man but that is just a thought.
3. Make the Gentleman the true "villain." He has been pulling the strings all this time, might as well ride with him till the end, no? I think his real loyalties are with Norman Ozborn, so to see him work with Harry just to for Harry to realize he was being used would be great, even for a band of six villains. That's what he started to do with Ozcorp in TASM2 when he raided in with Electro and eventually took the Goblin outfit.
4. Give a better reason to hate Spider-man. TASM2 was weak in character development with Harry partly because he simply began to hate Spiderman because he looks at Spiderman as a selfish jerk, and to find that it was Peter just made him angry (or did it make him happy? Because he didn't seem conflicted that it was Peter). Anways, a better reason to hate Spiderman is need. Maybe bring a master plan of some sort and realizing Spider-man will ruin that plan? I don't know, but anything better than what we got in TASM2.
5. Make Peter (or Spider-man) cameo. Not really in need of a discussion for this one.  
6. Expand Felicia Hardy's role. Of all the characters brought up in the ever so crowded ASM2, one of the pleasant surprises (perhaps the only pleasant surprise) was Felcia Hardy (aka Black Cat), and she can become a love interest for Harry before somehow going solo. Depending on how she is written, she could want to destroy Ozcorp or Harry. 
7. Bring Electro back. Electricity doesn't die. It goes somewhere else. If Electro is truly dead, after that short tenure, then I think that further ruins TASM2 because of all the hype he recieved. He may not come back, but it makes more sense if he did. Plus, if he comes back (lets say towards the end) then the write has to worry about Harry coming across 4 more people.
8. Hint that Norman is alive. I want to know who truly bought that Norman Osborn is dead? My anticipation to see a showdown with him and Spidey is what really what keeps me excited about this franchise. He died off-screen. No important character dies off-screen like the way he did. Not to mention there was a particular deleted scene you might have learned about. 
9. (Optional) Introduce the symbiote. If a Venom movie is really coming, plant the seeds in this movie, not TASM3. If no Venom movie, forget it.

The Amazing Spider-man franchise took a big step backwards with the ASM2. Many people are already calling for Spider-man to go back to Marvel (not that it really matters in this situation) and that is reflective of the people Sony put in charge to manage this franchise. These guys are not Kevin Feige and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, even though those guys are pretty much in a league of their own. Even FOX took a big step forward by redeeming most of the X-Men franchise (yes, this needed redemption) with X-Men: Days of Future Past.

It is no secret Sony needs to step up its game, whether it be new management, new plan or whatever. They have no choice but to (and shouldn't have to be redeeming it), but I am confident that they can do that. I think it can really start with the Sinister Six.