Category Archives: Jack_Poessiger
New Jack City: Apple Store – Love It Or (Eventually) Leave It
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"ARMY OF FANS FINDS WORKING IN APPLE STORES A LETDOWN" Sunday’s New York Times front page shouted.
Quite an intro to a 2-1/2 page cover story.
The crux of the paper’s findings:
About 30,000 of Apple’s 43,000 employees work in the company’s 327 glitzy global stores that gross more money per square foot than any other U.S. retailer.
Many of its associates are huge fans of the company’s superior products. Like Jordan Golson of the Salem, NH store who sold about $750,000 worth of computers and related accessories during a three month stretch last year.
You’d think Golson was rolling in commissions, right?
Wrong!
He was taking down a measly $11.25 an hour or about 25 grand a year.
New Jack City: ‘BRAVE’-You Can’t Keep A Good Pixar Adventure Down
The movie industry kept a close watch on Pixar this weekend…
Would the animation studio continue its flawless streak or would its 13th production be the first to not only fail to open in first place at the boxoffice but bomb altogether?
Well, the results are in and Pixar’s winning streak remains unbroken!
BRAVE’s estimated opening weekend domestic ticket sales were $66.7 million and its audience’s CinemaScore an "A" rating. The demos were 57% female and 43% male.
Jack Goes Confidential: ‘BRAVE’ Keeps Pixar’s Winning Streak Alive
Ancient Scotland has been the setting for many past adventures in movies…
And now it becomes Pixar‘s location for that studio’s 13th production.
Thirteenth? Will it be cursed?
No way, unless you count what the witch does to the Queen in this movie.
The story of BRAVE is a simple one with a red-headed and strong willed Princess Merida (voiced by Kelly McDonald) doing her own thing in the kingdom where her archery skills don’t exactly endear her to the male community.
New Jack City: Hollywood Figures It Out…from Kansas City
If I told you Hollywood’s major studios turn to Kansas City for information and insights about their latest movies you’d probably think I was nuts…
Well they do, and I’m not!
THE BOX OFFICE ANALYST, LLC here performs important services that only a handful of similar companies provide—worldwide. Think of it as an analytical think tank that its movie making clients draw to shepherd their movies through the jigsaw puzzle of film distribution.
New Jack City: Hollywood’s ‘Bible’ Slams Sandler’s TragiComedy
The showbiz rag VARIETY is still considered by the movie Industry as the Hollywood’s bible…
And it went out of its way Thursday to slam Adam Sandler‘s latest cinematic offering. The trade topped its review of THAT’S MY BOY with the following headline:
"Adam Sandler’s raunchiest star vehicle in years is a work of relentless vulgarity and staggering moral idiocy. All in all, it could have been worse."
Jack Goes Confidential: ‘Rock Of Ages’-Don’t Stop Believing
When it comes to movie musicals, ROCK OF AGES is terrific…
It ranks right up there with past Broadway-to-screen adaptations like GREASE, HAIRSPRAY and MAMMA-MIA.
But let me be perfectly honest, there’ll be two camps of moviegoers. Those who’ll love it and the group that’ll hate it. No inbetweeners, no way!
For the record, our advance screening audience fell into the first category.
Like the above mentioned past hits, ROCK OF AGES storyline is a simple one. It’s 1987 as small town Oklahoma girl Julianne Hough meets city boy Diego Boneta while pursuing their Hollywood dreams on the Sunset Strip. Along the way they fall into the world of the Bourbon Room, a rock club allegedly based on the legendary Whisky A Go Go.
New Jack City: Annoying Questions, Greetings, Buzzwords That Piss Jack Off
Let’s start by not even including the obviously annoying, pretend question; How Are You?
Does the inquirer really freaking care? Course not. Next time you get hit with that one, tell ’em ‘Terrible’ and watch ’em squirm.
Then start unloading further with, "WHY? Do I look sickly or something?"
Maybe he’ll think twice next time before ever asking the most overused, insincere question known to man.
Here’s an annoying greeting I got recently at a local Office Depot: "What brings you here today?"
Hey, I could’ve been a smartass and said something like, "My lawnmower blades need sharpening." Because frankly, having to tell some dude I need paper clips seems so lame.
Jack Goes Confidential: ‘Prometheus’ Asks Questions, Holds Answers For (Possible) Sequel?
ALIEN and BLADE RUNNER director Ridley Scott has returned to the genre he helped define.
Welcome to 2093 on board the spaceship PROMETHEUS and its team of explorers in search of the origins of mankind on earth. Where are we from? How did we get here?
After all, big things have small beginnings. And to create, you must first destroy.
And so we take an extraordinary journey to the darkest corners of the universe.
PROMETHEUS is speculative science-fiction.
Some would suggest it to be the ‘prequel’ to ALIEN. But is it?
New Jack City: Alamo Drafthouse, ‘I Paid $10 to See a Movie, Not to Watch Your Cell Phone Light’
Allow me to throw in my two cents worth in on ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE CINEMAS’ entry into the Kansas City movie market via its upcoming takeover of downtown’s AMC MAINSTREET…
One of my biggest beefs with inconsiderate moviegoers is their use of cell phones—yes actually talking on them during a show. That and texting while I’m trying to watch a movie – which is just as bad.
That glowing screen in a dark auditorium is annoying as hell.
So hats off to Tim League, the CEO of the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema chain for implementing the strictest No Talking-No Texting at the movies policy in the country.
Putting himself in a theater guests position League said it best when he recently told an interviewer, "At the Alamo Drafthouse, we have a simple rule. If you talk or text during a movie, we kick you out."
Jack Goes Confidential: Queen Theron Kicks Ass For ‘Fountain Of Youth’
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This sure isn’t your parents’ fairytale anymore!
Universal’s SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN is a darker, edgier re-imagination of the classic fairytale.
Another historical rewrite. Except this time it’s served up as an epic action-adventure—yet still rated PG-13 to make it accessible to wide audiences.
We all know the story.
Here evil, age-defying queen Charlize Theron is taking over the kingdom in a brutal way while thriving for eternal life and beauty.
"You cannot defeat me, I’ve lived too many lives," she says.
New Jack City: Memorial Day, a Celebration of Pricey Foods & Mattresses
Inquiring minds want to know…
Why all the huge crowds this past holiday weekend at Whole Foods Market with its hefty pricing when we’re supposed to be in such a fragile economy? Evidently the state of the union doesn’t apply to upscale shoppers or someone neglected to let them in on the recession.
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Why can’t Kansas grocery operators convince Topeka that we shoppers would prefer to make our beer and wine purchases at the same time—and place—where we’re shopping for food items?
Just like it’s done on the Missouri side of the state line!
Jack Goes Confidential: Will Smith Rewrites History. Josh Brolin Nails a Young Tommy Lee Jones
It’s been a decade since MEN IN BLACK 2 hit the big screen in 2002…
To say it was underwhelming is putting it mildly. Gone was the fun, freshness and funny interplay between Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones that we all loved in the 1997 original.
So has director Barry Sonnenfeld learned his lesson from the first sequel?
The answer: Sort of.
New Jack City: What’s In The Cards For AMC Entertainment Kansas City’s Heritage Company?
Sometimes these international buyouts of U.S. companies don’t quite go as expected…
Different customs and practices by the foreign buyer can bring eventual frustration and downright bitterness to the company being bought out. Remember Daimler-Benz and Chrysler?
Current American management may feel that they’re still in charge, but often times they’re really not. And that can be a hard pill to swallow.
Think I’m kidding?
New Jack City: The Legacy of Former Mayor Kay Barnes Killer KC Car Rental Taxes
Everything’s UP to date in Kansas City—Missouri, that is…
Especially when it comes to the renting of a car. K.C.’s total car rental costs exceed those of major cities like Washington, D.C., Phoenix, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Charlotte, Atlanta, Denver, Dallas—even Los Angeles.
According to the annual national "Per Diem" survey of the nation’s top 100 markets conducted by BUSINESS TRAVEL NEWS, K.C. ranks as the ninth most expensive city in the U.S. to rent a car. St. Louis by comparison comes in at # 56.
Why so high?
Jack Goes Confidential: ‘Battleship’ Turns Naval Exercise into Oceanic Transformers
The Hasbro toy empire has done well for itself…
To date they’ve brought, among others, TRANSFORMERS and G.I. JOE to the big screen and both franchises were hugely successful.
So why quit now?
Hasbro’s latest transformation is the overly-long board game, alien invasion spectacle BATTLESHIP. Think of it as a ‘Transformers’ of sorts on the high seas.
"Let’s see if we can buy the world another day!"
Jack Goes Confidential: ‘The Dictator’ In Loving Memory Of Kim Jong-Il
What can I say about Sacha Baron Cohen that hasn’t been said a million times before?
You either love him or hate him. He’s the master of unstaged and unscripted ambush, confrontational comedy. And naturally, most of it’s pretty offensive by today’s PC standards.
The old DA ALI G SHOW followed by BORAT: CULTURAL LEARNINGS OF AMERICA FOR MAKE BENEFIT GLORIOUS NATION OF KAZAKHAN and BRUNO certainly are proof of his obsession and his success.
But with THE DICTATOR Cohen ventures into uncharted territory.
Namely, scripted comedy using real actors. In this case Ben Kingsley and Anna Faris and a storyline of a tiny nation’s dictator who risks his life to ensure that democracy would never come to the country he so lovingly oppressed.
New Jack City: Movies on the Silver Screen Still the Best Bet
No matter how you slice or dice it, movie theaters continue to be the least expensive out-of-home entertainment…
And for the record the five year U.S. screen count—from 2007 through 2011—has risen from 38,803 to 39,718. That’s an increase of 2.35%.
Here are some interesting stats courtesy of the National Association of Theater Owners—N.A.T.O. for short.
Since 1981, ticket prices have increased, on average, less than the rate of inflation. Forty years ago the average 1971 ticket price was $1.65. In 2011 dollars that ticket would cost $9.16.
Jack Goes Confidential: ‘DARK SHADOWS’ Serves Up Retro Weirdness
Never having been a fan of ABC’s old TV soaper my expectations of Tim Burton‘s movie adaptation were at best "in-check."
And guess what DARK SHADOWS the movie pretty well delivered on those expectations. Not more. Maybe even a little less.
Twisting the shows storyline just a bit, Warner Brothers’ big screen adaptation maintains the basic plot of Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp) who in 1752, along with his family, set sail for America where he became quite the heartbreaker.
But when he broke the wrong woman’s heart—she got even!
She also happened to be a jealous witch who cursed him, destroyed his family, turned him into a vampire and buried Barnabas alive chained to his coffin.
Now move up to 1972 where Barnabas is freshly dug up by an ill-fated construction crew and resurrected in Collinwood only to find his old family’s descendants in ruins. There’s disco, microwaves, Chevy’s—even The Carpenters performing on television for this vampire fish-out-of-water to face.
New Jack City: AMC Theatres Selling Out to China?
The New York Times is reporting that one of China’s most prominent theater operators may have its eyes set on Kansas City based AMC ENTERTAINMENT.
The newspaper claims that according to sources briefed on the discussions, that China’s WANDA GROUP is in talks to buy part or all of AMC.
The WANDA GROUP is a Chinese conglomerate whose portfolio includes commercial properties, luxury hotels, department stores, film production and distribution.
New Jack City: ‘AVENGERS’ Shatters Records as New Premiere Weekend Champ!
Walt Disney‘s been dead some 45 years…
However this weekend he’s probably having a heavenly party up there somewhere with St. Peter and the gang. Matter of fact, I’ll bet they’re spiking the holy water for the occasion.
Why all the celebrating?
The company he founded with his brother (and a mouse) has just generated the biggest grossing movie opening weekend in the history of the Industry!
MARVEL’s-THE AVENGERS has sold an estimated $200.3 million in tickets domestically during its first three days out of the box.
