Canadians' entertainment spending on the rise
Canadian spending on entertainment outside the home is increasing faster than other household spending, according to a study by Statistics Canada.
The consumer market for movies, spectator sports, performing arts and visits to heritage institutions expanded from $2.3 billion in 1998 to $3.2 billion in 2003, an increase of 41 per cent, the federal agency reported on Tuesday.
Average household spending over the same period rose 19 per cent. But entertainment spending remains a low fraction of overall spending, about 0.5 per cent.
On average, Canadian families spent $273 on these entertainment services annually in 2003. The report was based on data from Statistics Canada's Survey of Household Spending from 1998 and 2003.
About 40 per cent of the money went to movies, 31 per cent on performing arts and 17 per cent on sports events.
The biggest increase came in spending on sports events. The average rose 44 per cent over the five years, mainly because of higher ticket prices for spectator sports.
Spending on performing arts was highest in Ontario and Quebec, the provinces with the largest number of dance and theatre companies, and lowest in the Maritimes, where there are fewer opportunities to see the performing arts.
The biggest spenders overall on entertainment were in Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta, where average family income is highest. Couples with children spent the most.
Residents of Ontario and Alberta were the most avid movie-goers in 2003, spending about $120 per household, compared with households in Saskatchewan that spent just $62 each at the cinema.
Fraser & Weisz Return For "Mummy 3"
It's confirmed, Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz will return for another Mummy thrill-ride on the big-screen.
FreezeDriedMovies.com reports the news comes from Oded Fehr (who played Ardeth Bay in the previous two films), during an interview for his latest film, Resident Evil: Extinction.
While it was previously thought the plot for the new movie would be set in modern times, recent reports have the film set during the 1940's, years after events from The Mummy Returns.
A new character has being added for the latest chapter, to play the now-grown son of O'Connell and Evelyn (Fraser & Weisz), who apparently gets most of the action scenes with the new 'Mummy', in the form of a Chinese Emperor known as Qin Shihuang.
Rowling: Some characters won't survive
LONDON (AP) — Author J.K. Rowling said two characters will die in the last installment of her boy wizard series, and she hinted Harry Potter might not survive either.
"I have never been tempted to kill him off before the final because I've always planned seven books, and I want to finish on seven books," Rowling said on Monday's Richard and Judy television show.
"I can completely understand, however, the mentality of an author who thinks, 'Well, I'm gonna kill them off because that means there can be no non-author written sequels. So it will end with me, and after I'm dead and gone they won't be able to bring back the character.'"
Rowling declined to commit herself about Harry, saying she doesn't want to receive hate mail.
"The last book is not finished. But I'm well into it now. I wrote the final chapter in something like 1990, so I've known exactly how the series is going to end," she said.
Some characters might die, but the blockbuster movie franchise lives on. Warner Bros. Pictures has announced that the fifth installment will be released in U.S. theaters, including IMAX screens, on July 13, 2007.
In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, directed by David Yates, the teenage Harry continues to battle the evil Lord Voldemort (again played by Ralph Fiennes) and his followers. Daniel Radcliffe is returning as the title character, and Emma Watson and Rupert Grint reprise their roles as Hermione and Ron. Oscar-nominated actress Imelda Staunton plays the malicious, frumpy Professor Dolores Umbridge, who tortures Harry.
Rowling said people are sometimes shocked to hear that she wrote the end of book before she had a publisher for the first book in the series.
"The final chapter is hidden away, although it's now changed very slightly. One character got a reprieve. But I have to say two die that I didn't intend to die," she said. "A price has to be paid. We are dealing with pure evil here. They don't target extras do they? They go for the main characters. Well, I do."
Rowling is the richest woman in Britain — wealthier than even the queen — with a fortune estimated by Forbes magazine last year at more than $1 billion.
Whatever she writes next, Rowling is sure of one thing: It won't be as successful as Harry Potter.
"I don't think I'm ever going to have anything like Harry again. You just get one like Harry."
Tori Amos boxes up hits, rarities for "A Piano"
NEW YORK (Billboard) - Tori Amos will be the subject of the five-disc boxed set "A Piano," which will be housed in a piano-inspired package.
Due September 26 via Rhino, the 86-track compendium rounds up material from Amos' studio albums, alternate mixes from the time period and new mixes recently supervised by Amos.
The track list runs in chronological order, with liner notes penned by Amos. Among the songs appearing on "A Piano" for the first time are the unedited single version of "Crucify," an alternate mix of "Walk to Dublin" and the studio outtakes "Not David Bowie," "Dolphin Song" and "Zero Point."
The fifth disc includes a "demo medley" of several tracks plus the "Cherokee Edition" of "Home on the Range." Amos has just begun work on her new studio album in Cornwall, England. It will be the follow-up to 2005's "The Beekeeper."