Can Wii prolong winning streak?
SEATTLE — As it raced past rivals to become the hottest new video-game console, some analysts predicted that Nintendo Co.'s Wii was little more than a fad.
Try telling that to Geoff Allen, who hasn't grown sick of playing the Wii after almost five months. He, his wife and his father all are hooked on "Wii Sports."
"Within minutes, I can have fun," said Allen, a 36-year-old technology entrepreneur from Potomac Falls, Va. "I don't have to spend hours crawling through dungeons and learning all the complex button combos to become proficient. I love the Wii. It makes me happy."
U.S. consumers have snapped up 2.5 million Wii consoles since they hit the market in November. It's a sharp turnaround since the last round of the console wars, when its GameCube got wiped out by Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 2 and Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox.
But Nintendo isn't taking its initial success for granted. At an event here last week, it unveiled a series of games, such as "Mario Strikers Charged" and "Big Brain Academy," aimed at keeping a wide range of players interested, not just teenage boys and traditional video-game enthusiasts. The Osaka, Japan-based company also is relying on girls, women and older players to continue its growth.
Some analysts think the novelty may wear off and, when it does, consumers will stop buying new games for the Wii. The difference between the Wii's graphics and those of its rivals, the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, also may become more noticeable as developers create new games that take advantage of the more powerful consoles' processing power.
"Its appeal is primarily to casual gamers, and there's a serious question about how long casual gamers will stay engaged with the platform," said Van Baker, a consumer technologies analyst with Gartner Inc., which is headquartered in Stamford, Conn. "It wouldn't be surprising to see them lose interest after a relatively short amount of time."
So far, demand is outstripping supply. Stores are selling out of the Wii within hours of getting them. Sales of the Wii are so hot, the Japanese company is widely expected to increase its annual sales forecast of 14 million units for its current fiscal year.
It helps that the Wii is $249, compared to the PS3 at $599 and the Xbox 360, priced from $299 to $479, depending on the features. Last month, U.S. consumers bought 360,000 Wii systems, versus 174,000 Xbox 360s and 82,000 PlayStation 3s, according to NPD Group.
Reginald Fils-Aime, president and chief operating officer for Nintendo's North American division, said at the press event last week that Nintendo in April had taken the No. 1 spot for sales of consoles, games and hand-held game devices, with its DS portable player. The last company to accomplish that feat, he said, was Nintendo itself — in the 1980s. "We have become a viral and cultural phenomenon," Fils-Aime said.
To bring in more casual gamers who don't have the time or patience to learn their way around a 16-button controller like the PS3, Nintendo developed a novel remote that uses a motion sensor to let players use their arm movements to control the action on the screen. For example, to swing a club in "Super Swing Golf," players swing the controller.
That's what hooked Allen and his family. When he showed the games to his 63-year-old father, Allen had to pull him away from the TV screen. "He was so into it, he forgot he was playing a video game," Allen said.
The controller, Allen explained, makes games such as the Wii version of tennis much more intuitive to play.
"If I want a cross court shot, I start low and rotate my forearm, and I get a nice cross-court spinning shot, just like real tennis," he said. "I don't have to learn anything new."
That ease, combined with realistic physics, has led the Wii to pop up in some unexpected places. The Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital in Edmonton, Canada, uses the Wii to help physical therapy patients improve movement and balance. Norwegian Cruise Line, which caters to seniors, has purchased the system for all of its ships.
The Wii's popularity has made it an attractive system for game publishers, whose ability to crank out fresh games for the device is vital to keeping consumers interested. It also generally costs less to create games for Wii than for the Sony and Microsoft systems, especially since it shares technology with its predecessor, the GameCube.
Wii games can cost anywhere from $1 million to $7 million and take less than a year to make, whereas a typical PS3 and Xbox 360 game can cost more than $20 million and take more than a year to produce because of the complexity and high-level graphics involved in those consoles.
"The console with the greatest momentum now is the Wii," said Brian Farrell, chief executive of THQ Inc., the Calabasas-based game publisher. "The controller is highly innovative. The price point is attractive. The demographics are broad. And the cost to develop games on the system is relatively low. There's a lot to like about the Wii."
Developers also like the Wii because it frees them to focus less on making games look visually beautiful and more on just making them fun to play.
"Coding for the PS3 and the 360 is a daunting challenge," said Kevin Ray, chief technology officer for Majesco Entertainment Co., a game publisher in Edison, N.J., that found the Wii business model so attractive that last year it decided to make games exclusively for that console. "With the Wii, we can afford to get creative and develop something really fun and bizarre."
Nintendo's in-house games studio plans to release its own stable of titles later this year, such as "Metroid Prime 3: Corruption" and "Super Mario Galaxy."
While this coming holiday season is shaping up to be a blockbuster one for Nintendo, some analysts question whether the Wii has enough steam to last longer. The sophisticated hardware for PS3 and Xbox 360 is expected to keep those consoles relevant for another decade.
"The Wii in a couple of years is going to look like old technology with low resolution, slow performance," Baker said. "People may not be accepting of that."
But 31% of Wii owners surveyed in March by Frank N. Magid Associates, a media consulting firm, said they expected to play the Wii more often a year from now, compared to 21% of Xbox 360 owners.
"We don't see it fading," said Mike Vorhaus, a managing director with the Sherman Oaks firm. He credits the success to families who play together, as well as singles who get together for Wii parties.
That's what Nintendo is banking on. While the Xbox 360 and the PS3 are played primarily by young men, the Wii is played on average by more people in each household. That means Nintendo has a good shot at selling more games per console than its rivals, said George Harrison, Nintendo of America's senior vice president of marketing.
"Before, it was the teenage boy playing by himself," Harrison said. "Now, the whole family is playing."
Big Studios Hate Woody Allen
Woody Allen is one of the most eccentric and arguably the greatest filmmaker in the history of Hollywood. The New York obsessed neurotic has been nominated for an astounding twenty-one Academy Awards. Fourteen of those honors came in the screenwriting category. His 1977 masterwork Annie Hall is one of the greatest films I have ever seen and still sets the bar for the entire romantic comedy genre. After a lull of mediocre films in the early ‘aughts, Allen stormed back with his brilliant 2005 release Match Point. So why the hell won’t anyone buy his new film?
According to Teletext through Film Stalker, none of the big studios have shown interest in purchasing the quirky helmer’s new film. Cassandra’s Dream, which stars Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell, centers on the relationship of two brothers who turn to crime after a girlfriend pits the two against each other. I’d pay to see this movie right now!
It’s really a shame to see a cinematic legend struggle at the end of his career. It’s true that most of his films are set on an elevated intellectual level, alienating a large portion of American audiences, but he still has a rabid, cult following. For some reason, I don’t really think this bothers Woody to much, though; after all, he was the one that said, “If you’re not failing now and again, it’s a sign that you’re not doing anything very innovative.”
The Police Return To The Stage With Vancouver Warm-Up
The Police played their first concert in more than 20 years last night (May 27) in front of a fan club-only audience at Vancouver's GM Place, rocking through a 21-song, 125-minute set that went heavy on hits from the band's early 1980s heyday. The show opened with "Message in a Bottle" and closed with the spirited early hit "Next to You."
The group officially begins its mammoth reunion tour tonight at the same arena, with support from Fiction Plane. The trek is expected to last through the end of the year and will likely finish as the top ticket seller of 2007, according to estimates by Billboard.
Among the oddities that appeared in the warm-up show set list were "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic," which was rarely played live during the band's first incarnation, and a medley of "Voices Inside My Head" and "When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What's Still Around," which was first tested out during a February press conference in Los Angeles.
Here is the Police's May 27, 2007, set list:
"Message in a Bottle"
"Synchronicity II"
"Don't Stand So Close to Me"
"Voices Inside My Head"/"When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What's Still Around"
"Spirits in the Material World"
"Driven to Tears"
"Walking on the Moon"
"Truth Hits Everybody"
"Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic"
"Wrapped Around Your Finger"
"The Bed's Too Big Without You"
"Murder by Numbers"
"De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da"
"Invisible Sun"
"Walking in Your Footsteps"
"Can't Stand Losing You"
"Roxanne"
"King of Pain"
"So Lonely"
"Every Breath You Take"
"Next to You"
Early summer movies underperform at box office
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Moviegoers are not following the script written for them by the Hollywood studios. In a sign that big-budget sequels may be losing their allure, North American ticket sales for the first three big films of the lucrative summer season have not kept pace with their respective predecessors.
The numbers for "Spider-Man 3," "Shrek the Third" and "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" are still impressive, and the studios do not seem too worried. For the most part, they blamed increased competition, although -- apart from the big three -- there is little else of significance playing in theaters.
The third film in Walt Disney Co.'s "Pirates" trilogy led the Memorial Day holiday weekend with four-day sales of $156 million, setting a record for the busy period, the studio said on Monday. The previous record of $123 million was set last year by "X-Men: The Last Stand."
The Friday-to-Monday haul for "Pirates" was boosted by estimated sales of $14 million from Thursday-night previews, drawing moviegoers who likely would have seen the film at some other time during the weekend. Disney's inclusion of the Thursday tally raised eyebrows at other studios.
If the Monday and Thursday figures are stripped out, the traditional three-day sum of $115 million pales against the then-record $135.6 million start of last year's "Pirates" installment, "Dead Man's Chest," as well as those of "Spider-Man 3" ($151 million) and Shrek the Third ($122 million).
OVERSEAS STRENGTH
Mark Zoradi, president of Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Marketing and Distribution, said he was "as pleased as could be" about the opening, given the tough competition.
On a worldwide basis, the film has earned $401 million, with hefty contributions from the likes of Britain ($26 million), Korea ($18 million) and Germany ($16.8 million).
The first film, 2003's "The Curse of the Black Pearl," finished with $653 million worldwide, while "Dead Man's Chest" topped out at $1.1 billion.
Meanwhile, the previous weekend's champion, "Shrek the Third" has earned $219 million in North America after 11 days. By contrast, "Shrek 2," released at the same time in 2004, had earned $260 million through the Memorial Day holiday. (The earlier film opened two days earlier, however.)
The latest installment in DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc's family comedy series earned $69.1 million during the four-day weekend, the studio said. But the three-day portion of $53 million represented a hefty 56 percent slide from its first weekend.
Anne Globe, head of marketing at DreamWorks Animation, said she was "very happy" with the new film's performance, and comparisons with "Shrek 2" were invalid because of the tougher competition.
Sony Corp's "Spider-Man 3" was third for the weekend with four-day sales of $18 million, driving its total to $307.6 million. "Spider-Man 2," also released in 2004, had earned about $328 million in that time.
"It's really hard to complain about $307 million," said Rory Bruer, president of domestic theatrical distribution at Sony's Columbia Pictures unit. "Ultimately, we're going to be fine."
According to industry analyst boxofficemojo.com, "Spider-Man 3" took 24 days to hit $300 million, two days slower than 2004's "Spider-Man 2" and five days slower than 2002's "Spider-Man."
But on a worldwide basis, the new film is on track to beat the $821 million total of "Spider-Man" later this week, said Columbia. "Spider-Man 2," despite a stronger start, finished with $784 million worldwide.
Romanian film wins top Cannes prize
CANNES, France -- A modest film from a humble filmmaker put Romania on top of the world yesterday at the 60th anniversary Cannes Film Festival.
Cristian Mungiu's drama 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days -- the story of how two female university students deal with an illegal abortionist who wants to exploit them sexually -- won the Palme d'Or as best film.
The surprise triumph by the 39-year-old Romanian, who won with only his third feature film, pushed aside higher profile films from established directors.
That list included the Coen Brothers' No Country for Old Men, David Fincher's Zodiac, Wong Kar Wai's My Blueberry Nights, Gus Van Sant's Paranoid Park, Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof, Bela Tarr's The Man From London, James Gray's We Own the Night, Emir Kusturica's Promise Me This and Alexander Sokurov's Alexandra.
Former Palme d'Or winners such as the Coens, Tarantino and Kusturica got nothing this time around from the nine-member, star-studded jury headed by British filmmaker Stephen Frears.
That was shocking in the case of the Coens because their macho stars, Javier Bardem and Tommy Lee Jones, were thought to be contenders for best actor and the film itself was thought to be in the running for the Palme d'Or.
Another humble filmmaker, Japan's Naomi Kawase, took the second prize, or the Grand Prix, for her contemplative human drama Mogari No Mori (The Mourning Forest).
One former Palme d'or winner Van Sant, meanwhile, took home the made-up third prize, the Prix du 60th Anniversaire, for Paranoid Park. "It had very humble beginnings," the gracious Van Sant said of his project, the story of a Portland skateboarder who accidentally kills a security guard and covers up the incident.
Two other films shared the Prix du Jury, which essentially put them in a tie for fourth. One was Mexican director Carlos Reygadas' Silent Light. The other was the enormously popular animated film Persepolis from Franco-Iranian director Marjane Satrapi and French filmmaker Vincent Paronnaud. Satrapi essentially told her own story of growing up in the politically volatile Iran and emigrating to France.
The best actor prize went to a Russian, Konstantin Lavronenko, who played the role of the father who returns to his birthplace with his young family in The Banishment, a film that hardly anyone had been talking about.
The best actress prize went to a Korean, Jeon Do-Yeon, who played a distraught widow whose son is kidnapped in Secret Sunshine. It is another performance that few outsiders had been talking about before the jury made its decision.
An American -- colourful painter-filmmaker Julian Schnabel -- won the best director prize for making a French-language drama about the triumph of the human spirit.
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is the true-life story of a French socialite who, by blinking his eye for an interpreter, writes a book about his anguish after a stroke totally paralyses his body.
A sweetly excited Schnabel, rambling through a monologue, finally said: "In my wildest dreams, I never thought that I would be here because, basically, I am just a movie fan. I never thought I would become a movie director."
The best screenplay prize went to Turkish writer-director Fatih Akin, who quickly issued thanks for his award. Then he made a declaration to his countrymen, who are about to vote on whether to maintain a secular state: "I have one message for Turkey. All is one; united we stand; divided we fall."
The Palme d'Or for short films -- which was selected by a separate jury -- went to Watching It Rain from Mexico's Elisa Miller. Special mentions went to New Zealand's Mark Albiston for Run, and Singapore's Anthony Chen for Ah Ma.
In the Un Certain Regard section, a parallel group of official selections, the top prize coincidentally went to another Romanian film.
Yet another jury handed the Prix Un Certain Regard Cristian Nemescu's California Dreamin' (Endless).
The Camera d'Or, a coveted prize for first-time directors with films in any of the official programs, went to Meduzot, co-directors Elgar Keret and Shira Geffen's entry in the International Critics Week.
"I haven't worn a suit since my bar mitzvah," Keret quipped. Anton Corbun's Control earned a special mention in this category.
Actor Charles Nelson Reilly dies at 76
LOS ANGELES - Charles Nelson Reilly, the Tony Award winner who later became known for his ribald appearances on the "Tonight Show" and various game shows, has died. He was 76.
Reilly died Friday in Los Angeles of complications from pneumonia, his partner, Patrick Hughes, told the New York Times.
Reilly began his career in New York City, taking acting classes at a studio with Steve McQueen, Geraldine Page and Hal Holbrook. In 1962, he appeared on Broadway as Bud Frump in the original Broadway production of "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying." The role won Reilly a Tony Award.
He was nominated for a Tony again for playing Cornelius in "Hello, Dolly!" In 1997 he received another nomination for directing Julie Harris and Charles Durning in a revival of "The Gin Game."
After moving to Hollywood in 1960s he appeared as the nervous Claymore Gregg on TV's "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" and as a featured guest on "The Dean Martin Show."
He gained fame by becoming what he described as a "game show fixture" in the 1970s and 80s. He was a regular on programs like "Match Game" and "Hollywood Squares," often wearing giant glasses and colorful suits with ascots.
His larger-than-life persona and affinity for double-entendres also landed him on the "Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson more than 95 times.
Reilly ruefully admitted his wild game show appearances adversely affected his acting career. "You can't do anything else once you do game shows," he told The Advocate, the national gay magazine, in 2001. "You have no career."
His final work was an autobiographical one-man show, "Save It for the Stage: The Life of Reilly," about his family life growing up in the Bronx. The title grew out of the fact that when he would act out as a child, his mother would often admonish him to "save it for the stage."
The stage show was made into the 2006 feature film called "The Life of Reilly."
Reilly's openly gay television persona was ahead of its time, and sometimes stood in his way. He recalled a network executive telling him "they don't let queers on television."
Hughes, his only immediate survivor, said Reilly had been ill for more than a year.
No memorial plans had been announced.