Does Netflix Makes Money? Sure, But Not As Much As You'd Expect.

On the digital planet, we're all used to see big numbers and big figures. We rarely see the real numbers behind the success stories. It's all kept hidden.

I just stumbled across this Netflix report. We all know Netflix has millions of paid subscribers, and they make billions in revenues. But how about the operation expenses? Right now, Netflix is not even convering their share of bandwidth usage across content distribution servers, but let's take a look at their current (2014) numbers.

• $3.4 billion revenues, 62.3% of the total, from domestic streaming business.
• $1.3 billion revenues, 23.8% of the total, from international streaming .
• $765 million revenues, 13.9% of the total, from domestic DVD business.
  

Of the $5.5 billion of Netflix total revenues in 2014, $3.8 billion represent the cost of revenue. Say, the operation expenses.

This results in $1.7 billion of gross profit and a gross margin of 31.8%. Netflix spent $607 million, $472 million, and $270 million on marketing, technology and development, and general and administrative expenses respectively.

This results in $403 million of operating profit and an operating margin of 7.3%. After interest and other expenses and taxes, Netflix had a net profit of $267 million and a net margin of 4.8%.

That's $267 million profit, it sure ain't bad.
But it's out of a revenue of $5.5 billion.

Read more detailed infos right here:
http://revenuesandprofits.com/how-netflix-makes-money/

Digital Costs Threaten To Exceed Benefits By 2019.

Now this is interesting.

Zurich Insurance Group predicts that by 2019, it will become more expensive to protect ourselves from the digital world than the benefits we get from it.

Goes like, you'd pay a weekly $500 transportation fee to get to a job paying you $400/week.

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Report on Zurich Insurance Group.

Tarantino Doesn't Like Streaming. At All.

I totally understand his point.
And I'm with him on this.

Being both a streaming TV channel and a passionate film collector, I can only witness from backstage all the damages Netflix is doing to the industry. But that's not the point here.

I definitely love VHS tapes as well! You know what: in my opinion some films are even better on VHS than they are on DVD. They look more natural, more vivid, with their sheer imperfections. Life is not perfect. It never was meant to be.

"I am not excited about streaming at all. I like something hard and tangible in my hand. And I can't watch a movie on a laptop. I don't use Netflix at all." - Quentin Tarantino

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/quentin-tarantino-refuses-to-use-netflix-still-records-films-from-tv-to-vhs-cassette-a6669006.html

Halloween: The Rebirth Of Michael Myers (2015)

You know me by now, I'm a sucker for fan films!

Though I am stuck with some limitations when it comes to show them on Black Flag TV, there are plenty available on personal websites or on Youtube!

Take a look at this awesome 11 minutes piece by Brandon Jarrett Lawrence and Tower 10 Productions!

The Rebirth Of Michael Myers

NASA Announces A Major Mars Discovery!!

Mars mysteries revealed? I can't wait for Monday, when NASA will make an important announcement about Mars. Maybe we will find out that we all come from there?

NASA press report reads:

"NASA will detail a major science finding from the agency’s ongoing exploration of Mars during a news briefing at 11:30 a.m. EDT on Monday, Sept. 28 at the James Webb Auditorium at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The event will be broadcast live on NASA Television and the agency's website.
News conference participants will be:

• Jim Green, director of planetary science at NASA Headquarters
• Michael Meyer, lead scientist for the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters
• Lujendra Ojha of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta
• Mary Beth Wilhelm of NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California and the Georgia Institute of Technology
• Alfred McEwen, principal investigator for the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) at the University of Arizona in Tucson

A brief question-and-answer session will take place during the event with reporters on site and by phone. Members of the public also can ask questions during the briefing using #AskNASA."

Watch the event live via NASA TV, streaming right here:

Looking for "New York Nights" (1983)

Folks, I'm searching for this old 80s flick, New York Nights (1983). Nothing to do with horror, except - maybe - that it's probably the film that inspired Roger Corman for his line of soft-core TV movies from the early 90s.

Anyways, New York Nights is one of those obscure piece from the 80s that felt into oblivion. It never had a DVD release (as far as I know) and occasionally we stumble across some excessively worn former rental VHS up on Ebay.

Starring Corinne Alphen and George Ayer (who passed away not long after.) Also a young Willem Dafoe is in it, and the film feature some music by Rod Stewart.

Don't ask me why I want it. Maybe nostalgia, maybe because it deals with struggling artists in the Big Apple, or maybe just because it's hard to find. Chances are this film is dramatically outdated. I recall I liked it when it came out, but never had the chance to see it again in decades...

Got a good copy of this? Contact me!

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New York Nights on IMDB

Are You The Internet? Neither Am I, I'm Not A Borg.

Just a short rant this morning.

We see more and more posts and news headlines stating "The Internet Says..." or "The Internet Reacts To..." and that deeply annoys me.

No one speaks in my name, especially "The Internet". Don't refer to me as "The Internet" simply because I'm part of it.

The internet is not a Borg. Individual users have a conscience of their own.

If thousands of users bash Nickelback, don't refer to them as "The Internet". There are billions of other users who might like Nickelback, or simply don't care at all.

Next time you use "The internet" in your news headlines, don't include me.

Pacific Rim 2 Halted Indefinitely.

Now I'm pissed... Universal announced that Pacific Rim 2 is put on hold indefinitely. The talk is that it may never been made either. I was so looking forard to that one!

Apparently it's a question of money. Though the first one brought in some good money (at least with international releases), producers aren't quite sure the second installment would do as well.

The thing is, Pacific Rim is a hard piece to market and advertise. It's not dinosaurs you can sell a lot of toys and merch, it's not a Transformers franchise or a space opera with an infinite lineup of characters and derivative products. Marketing is everything, and advertising budget is usually the same as the production budget.

Rule of thumb, a film that has a production budget of 100 million$ must reach a box office of 500 million$ BEFORE it starts making a profit. And these guys are after a 'true' profit, something that's worth their while, not just a handful of millions. Under that perspective, it's not surprising that Universal has some concerns about Pacific Rim 2. I still knock some wood they'll make it happen.

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Most people think that if a film that costed 70 million$ to produce had a box office of 100 million$, it made a profit of 30 million$. That's totally wrong! Here's a very basic math (NOTE: these numbers are NOT Pacific Rim, just some industry averages):

• Given a film with a production budget of 70 million$
• Marketing / advertising roughly the same as production budget, 70 million$
• Total film release cost: 140 million$
  

Let's say box office is 400 million$. Box office is split between the theater, the distributor and the producers. Let's round it to 33% shares, it comes down to 133 million$ for each party.

Now, from the producer's share, this one must take away licensing fees if there are copyrighted characters, if it's based on a best-seller book, pay royalties to the actor names or music composers, and so on... The list can be pretty long. All these fees are small fractions, but the total of these fees can be significant.

So if people only look at how much the film has cost (70 million$) and the box office number (400 million$), it's easy to think the film made a lot of money. But the fact is the film may have been a catastrophe.

Great news for The Mist fans out there!

Wow this made my day!
Dimension Television and The Weinstein Company announced that they’ll produce a TV series based on Stephen King’s The Mist!

Frank Darabont’s film was already awesome, now let’s see what writer Christian Torpe will come up with. I’ve always been a fan of King’s Novel and I had some concerns when they announced a film version in 2007. I wasn’t disappointed, so I’m already looking forward to the TV series...

Very little information has emerged, but the production is confirmed.
Deadline article can be found here:
http://deadline.com/2015/09/mist-tv-series-dimension-films-christian-torpe-stephen-king-1201530407/

Steampunk Iron Man by Yoshikaze Matsushita

Awesome sculpture by japanese artist Yoshikaze Matsushita!
We need this steampunk Iron Man on film, and I mean NOW...





And it lights up too!!



More work from Yoshikaze on his Facebook page. Check it out!

Yoshikaze Matsushita
http://www.facebook.com/yoshikaze.matsushita

Bigger TV screens to watch movies that get worse every year!

There's amazing TV technology today, TV screens are getting bigger and bigger, and (somewhat) more affordable than ever.

Sadly, we're increasingly very limited in good movies to watch on them. With bigger screens we're presented spectacular CGI and sometimes breathtaking photography, sadly the films are generally boring. Watching movies is no longer about enjoying a good film. It's about enjoying a tech gadget, and that's a big difference.

As far as I'm concerned, a good film will be as great on a 15" screen than it is on a large 55"!

Sv

Report on TV screens, on Statista:
http://www.statista.com/chart/3780/tv-screen-size/

Decent traffic on my sites. Ads available at 1¢ / day!

There's a fairly decent traffic on my website, since I pretty much cut ties with social medias. 

No more Facebook pages - since I closed them almost two years ago, I saw a dramatic increase in the visits to my own web presence. An average of 3000 page views/day lately.

Should anyone want to take advantage of the banner ads available on my site, you can throw in your bids via Project Wonderful.

Since ads are sold via bids, prices are dynamically adjusted and you can bid as little as 0$. Bidding 0$ means if there are no paid advertiser at that time, your ad runs for free. That's very much like Ebay auctions. The more you bid for an ad, the better chances you have your banners displayed.

Want to reach an audience of comic books lovers, heavy metal fans, sci-fi and horror movies lovers, give me a shout!

sv

Millenium Falcon Drones Are Here!

You know you want it. Assuming you're a Star Wars fan too...!

OK I'm off to the store. #Geek

Forget about drones, this new remote control Millennium Falcon is even cooler! #ForceFriday pic.twitter.com/kkrj9YiLhZ

— Indigo Chapters (@chaptersindigo) September 3, 2015

Nicolas Cage Is Back: Pay The Ghost

OK, I've always liked Nicolas Cage - especially when cast in suspense and creepy movies. From 8mm to Face Off, I'm in.

The only exception was Ghost Rider though. You know what I mean.

I also love ghost movies, so obviously I'm looking forward to this one... I must say the movie poster sucks, but the film itself looks promising. Let's see!

Pay The Ghost, in theaters September 25th.

Pure Awesomeness: Slayer And Dany Trejo Repentless Behind The Scene

This is beyond wicked!

Rolling Stone just made public this great behind the scene segment on the filming of Slayer's Repentless music video, filmed in an L.A. Prison.
Rock on!!