A cut of concessions was likely out of the question. Studios are still taking 60% of ticket prices from theaters, meaning the only viable means of making money for a theater owner is concessions. That's the reason popcorn is 8 bucks.

OW! OW! Something is biting me in the ass! OW! OW!

I have the affliction where I can't remember people's names. I forget what it is called...

Microsoft purchased Minecraft in Sept 2014. At the time, the game had sold 60 million copies worldwide across all platforms. By February 2017, the game had sold 121 million copies, doubling the number since the acquisition, and making it the best-selling PC game of all time (2nd best across all platforms). That's why Notch got the promotion.

You don't, but 90% of phones sold are sold by an ISP as part of a subsidized contract-based deal. Hey, pay 900 dollars for that phone at Best Buy with no contract, or get it from us for only 360 (with a 3 year contract)!

Maybe, never saw the need for an Apple TV myself. PS4 does everything it can do, including with HDR, Netflix, Prime, etc. plus many things it cannot, like games (obviously), but also bluray, DVD, and VR. With only 100 dollars difference in the price, it was no competition.

Yep, XB1 for me. More expensive than AppleTV, but games!

Interesting. Am in Canada, and I think Prime is great. Recent shows I have watched; Bosch, Mr. Robot, American Gods, Night Manager, Man in High Castle, and Preacher. All great shows, and none looked CATRS.

My kids love Youtube. When they were younger, they would watch stuff like the video of the duck and the lemonade stand. As soon as one got popular, more would show up along the same lines, often with swear words, death of the main character, or sexual acts. I am all for parody, but the knock-offs were clearly made by teenagers who thought it was hilarious that young children would think it was a new cartoon of their favourite character only to see them impaled by a pole. As a result, no more youtube until they were teenagers. Youtube, it's about time.

Agree, and worth noting that the extras on many DVDs / BRs are worth getting hold of the disc. Unfortunately, Hollywood really started going with the "Making Of mandatory participation" route where the stars all say, "he's the most brilliant director", "she's an amazing actor, one-of-a-kind", "I was so honoured to work with so-and-so", etc. Lots of fluff. But hidden in there are some real gems. Using your Blade Runner example, the 5-disc Collector's Edition has some incredible stuff on it, including a 30-min documentary just explaining how the 5 different cuts came into existence. Great stuff, and not available via streaming.

No, they didn't. Don't forget that studios get about 50% of the domestic box office receipts, and only about one-third of foreign receipts. Advertising and marketing are not counted in the costs to make a movie, those are on top of the stated price and usually range to at least 75% of the original budget. Take King Arthur from your list. 39 million US means only 19.5 mil in revenue for the studio domestically, 107 million foreign means only 36 more. That totals 55.5 million without including marketing costs. Since the production costs were 175 million, the marketing costs were likely in the 100 mil range. The studio therefore spent 275 million on this project, but only recouped 55. That is a massive loss. The other films in your list may have fared a little better, but not by much. Even Transformers didn't do very well if you run the numbers. 130 mil / 2 = 65 mil domestic, + 473 / 3 = 157 mil foreign, for a total take of 222 mil. The production cost was 217 mil, and 150 mil spent on marketing. That means 367 mil total spent on that film, but an actual loss of 145 mil. Some of these films will continue to recover costs for years in media sales, rentals, pay-per-view, etc., but they are very unlikely ever to turn a profit.

I know, I know, man the barricades! But annoying nonetheless...

Man, look at the hate for Notes on /. It's almost like someone said "I love Nickelback" and the groupthink was,"oh wait, to be cool, you have to hate Nickelback". Well, I for one love Notes. My company is wedded to it, with thousands of NSFs built over the years, it would take decades to replace that with Outlook/SharePoint. I used to work on Outlook, and I hated it. It crashed all the time, unread marks never worked consistently, and people who used to it seemed to think that one crash a day was normal, something you had to put up with.

"No one wants digital music players" when they had one model available, the 64 MB Sony Network Walkman which forced you to convert your MP3s to ATRAC. All that for a cool 700 bucks!

True. But the Brothers may surprise you. The additional stories in the Animatrix were all well done, there is no reason to think they can't create another intriguing plot line in a new major motion picture. And I would much prefer Hollywood make money using original thinkers like the Wachowskis than turning out dreck such as Charlie's Angels 2 or Mr. and Mrs. Smith.