By HOWARD SCHWARTZ
OKAY!! FIB FEST TIME AGAIN. The last one this century. Hmmmmm! The ’99 NAB Convention in Las Vegas will be the last one this century.
The big difference at this year’s NAB will be that there is virtually no difference from last year’s NAB. I mean there will be more of the same stuff with a lot of refinements but it seems that the posturing is still going to take place and very few big decisions will have been made. This will be a show of last gasps for some manufacturers and a first showplace for a lot of moneyed newcomers.
You’ll even see stuff that you need but can’t get, and stuff that you don’t need but it’s such a good deal that you may. Don’t do it!!!
Worst of all, you’ll see stuff that you currently own and or use in its next generation, but it’s not compatible downward.
So. What will the buzz be this year? Y2K? HDTV? DTV? DVD? I called and asked a number of people who have gone to the NAB in the past and the buzz seems to be: "I’m staying at the Bellagio!" You know, the hotel that is so over the top that it has millions of dollars of artwork but no pay per view in the room so that you must go downstairs to gamble or eat. Where you think that you are in Venice or some other Italian resort like Lake Como without the charm, but you can have your hometown newspaper delivered every morning with your Starbucks Coffee.
Let us not forget that this is the time of year that Las Vegas jacks up the prices because they know WE are in town. Rooms in the dumpy places are $125 a night. I have been receiving solicitations from a credit card company that just one or two weeks before the NAB Convention offered rooms at the elite hotels for as little as $65 a night.
Actually the Bellagio can cost up to many thousands a day for a suite. The rates vary a lot. I have talked to people who are staying there, and just like they talk about the varied prices they paid for very expensive pieces of equipment, so too do the Bellagio prices vary. "Hey, Phil. How’s your new Frabbbum Digital Rebatz?" "I killed them on the price, they virtually gave it to me, and it’s being delivered Third Quarter ’00!" Sez Phil (Oh! Oh?). Similarly, it’s funny when you ask where people are staying, not how much they are paying. The responses included:
"I got a deal at the Bellagio."
"We made reservations last year and got the Bellagio for $325."
"I got a group rate for $235 for 4 rooms."
"My travel agent got me on a package for $195."
"My sister-in-law’s mother’s cousin knows Steve Wynn’s housekeeper and I got IT for $95.00 a night."
The best one is, "I WAS COMPED."
Here are some, not all, of "Howie’s 1999 NAB Ruminations."
1. It’s hard to get a starting time on a golf course even if it’s 40 miles from the Strip. Call me if you have an opening for Tuesday a.m. (very important).
2. All of your hometown restaurants that you rarely go to but will pay extra to go to in Las Vegas are all booked. The Palm, Spago, Drae’s, Aureole, Le Cirque, Emerile’s, Napa, Circo, and so on.
3. Your clients have called to tell you that they are going to the show this year with a competitor of yours and ask YOU what they should look at.
4. A consumer survey in Joel Brinkley’s column in the New York Times the other day said that people are not interested in buying a very expensive TV, UNLESS they can also use it for their computer. (Cupped Hands, "Are you listening boys and girls?")
5. Should I go to the Sands Convention Center first? (That’s where the cool stuff really is but zero parking.)
6. How many industry meetings can I miss? Just because we are all there doesn’t mean we have time for all that stuff.
7. Do I bring clothes (a suit) to make me look prosperous and in a buying mood, or casual clothes (golf) to make me look prosperous and in a tire-kicking mood?
8. Do I even bother to bring MY checkbook?
9. Is Sony going to be on the main floor or do we have to waste half the day finding a cab and traveling only to be held captive?
10. Do I have to look at the DVD stuff?
11. Should I change my name to ".com"? (Wall Street Journal last week said all companies with .com in their name doubled in value in the last 12 months.)
12. I gotta find some stuff to buy just so that I can say that I bought some really neat stuff.
13. I can stay on my diet at the show during the day because the food will suck one more time.
14. Remember to bring lots of business cards so that I won’t have to carry any of the "FREE" literature and other stuff I can’t live without home on the plane,
15. Make reservations at the Bellagio for next year.
So long ’til next time. If there is a next time. Say "Hi!" if you see me.
“Smile 2” Tops Weekend Box Office; “Anora” Glitters In Limited Release
Horror movies topped the domestic box office charts and an Oscar contender got off to a sparkling start this weekend. "Smile 2," in its first weekend, and "Terrifier 3" in its second proved to be the big draws for general movie audiences in North America, while the Palme d'Or winner"Anora" got the best per-theater average in over a year.
"Smile 2" was the big newcomer, taking first place with a better than expected $23 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. Parker Finn returned to write and direct the sequel to the supernatural horror "Smile," his debut. Originally intended for streaming, Paramount pivoted and sent the movie to theaters in the fall of 2022. "Smile" became a sleeper hit at the box office, earning some $217 million against a $17 million budget.
The sequel, starring Naomi Scott as a pop star, was rewarded with a bit of a bigger budget, and a theatrical commitment from the start. Playing on 3,619 screens, it opened slightly higher than the first's $22 million.
Second place went to Universal and DreamWorks Animation's "The Wild Robot" in its fourth weekend with $10.1 million, bumping it past $100 million in North America. Family films often have long lives in theaters, particularly ones as well reviewed as "The Wild Robot," and some have speculated that it got a bump this weekend from teenagers buying tickets for the PG-rated family film and then sneaking into "Terrifier 3," which is not rated, instead. Either way, Damien Leone's demon clown movie, which cost only $2 million to produce, is doing more than fine with legitimate ticket buyers. It added an estimated $9.3 million, bringing its total to $36.2 million.
"Rumors like that are PR gold," said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. "There's... Read More