Roger Ebert

I do not have a need “all the time” to take myself away from the oppressive facts of my life, however oppressive they may be, in order to go somewhere where I have control. I need to stay here and take control. Right now, for example, I cannot speak, but I am writing this. You lose some, you win some.
-Roger Ebert

Almost three years after losing his voice to thyroid cancer, Roger Ebert has debuted his new, electronic voice today on the Oprah Winfrey show. Many have commented that the quality and similarity to his original voice are impressive. But what’s more impressive is how he has maintained his status as one of the country’s most respected movie critics without the use of his voice. With the aid of tools like Twitter and his site on the Chicago Sun Times he’s maintained the profile and quality of writing he’s known for.

The below chart is a rough estimate of traffic to Roger Ebert’s site created by Quantcast. Note that the data being collected begins in April 0f 2007, 4 months before making his loss of speech public.

While there are some dips during health related inactivity, site traffic remains relatively high. His story is inspirational because it’s such a great reminder that the internet can not only include but cater to people traditionally left out of the conversation.

How to Avoid Spoilers

The first episode of the last season of Lost aired last night and every single second of analyzed information is already available, in one form or another, on the internet. One of those unfortunate pieces of collateral brought on by the internet, the dreaded spoiler isn’t a new thing, but definitely more of risk than in the past.

By the time I saw the entire Star Wars trilogy in 1985, I already knew most of the juicy bits. The misquote, “Luke, I am your father” (it’s actually “No, I am your father”) was already part of the vernacular; appearing in sketch comedy routines, movies and re-enacted during recess. The closest equivalent right now is probably The Sixth Sense, whose spoiling has become more locked into popular culture more than the actual movie. The argument could be made that these movies are good even if you already know the important plot points, but there’s no replacing a good twist.

Sites exist for people seeking spoilers. Below is a chart (via Compete.com)that tracks visitors to The Movie Spoiler (http://www.themoviespoiler.com/), a site that’s exactly what it sounds like.

The spike in July is likely due to the release of the latest Harry Potter movie.

In a way, I feel sorry for people a year, 5 years, 20 years from now who are going to watch Lost for the first time. Much like Star Wars, Lost is in the cultural zeitgeist and the major twists, most likely including the ending, will be too. It will be unavoidable. But as anyone who deals with researching the blogosphere will tell you, most sites deal with a variety of topics. TV reviews can show up in personal blogs, culture blogs, parenting blogs, religious blogs, etc. Spoilers are out there and they don’t just reveal themselves to people who are looking for them. They’re out there, hiding within your favorite foodie blog or developer network, waiting to ruin everything.

So how do you avoid spoilers? Never, ever go on the internet.

This is a Grown Man Writing About New Moon

I know there are vampires. And a werewolf, I think. In the trailer the kid turns wolfman in broad daylight, which is suspicious. Other than that, I know what everyone else knows; New Moon made more money its opening weekend than any movie. Ever.

Movies like this, set in the realm of fantasy, horror and science fiction tend to do poorly. But when they catch on, their success is unavoidable. Themed fast food meals, graphic novel versions, SNL spoofs, clothes, jewelry; all of these things are created for the fans but not by the fans. They keep momentum going and milk every last cent out of a movie that’s already breaking records. But do they drive tickets sales? Do they motivate people to see this movie not once, but over and over again? Because while New Moon themed merchandise seems to be popping up every day, the real story might be happening elsewhere.

People are talking about New Moon. They’re talking about it on Twitter, Facebook, forums and fan pages. The blogosphere is certainly no exception. The below graph, provided by Blogpulse, illustrates what percentage of the 124,486,831 registered blogs discussed “movies” in the last month. It also shows what percentage of those blogs mentioned New Moon and The Blind Side, a movie that opened the same weekend (November 20^th)

Leading up to November 20th, the topic of New Moon rises steadily to the point of being mentioned almost as much as the general topic of movies. The Blind Side, which is hardly discussed at all leading up to November 20th, is mentioned close to 1/20^th as much as New Moon.

According to Box Office Mojo [1], New Moon’s opening weekend gross was $104,700,000 compared to The Blind Side’s $34,510,000. While The Blind Side’s earnings are high, they’re only about 1/4^th of New Moon’s.

There is no reason to suspect that there is a direct correlation between the volume of discussions leading up to an opening weekend and that weekend’s gross earnings. However, the possibility that online fan discussions are driving ticket sales can not be ignored. It is important to note that New Moon is part of a larger story, the Twilight franchise and The Blind Side is most likely a self contained film. A quick look at the list of highest grossing weekends for individual movies [2] reveals that all of the top 35 movies are either remakes or part of a franchise. New Moon is the second of four movies in the Twilight franchise, so it might make sense for Summit Entertainment, the studio responsible for the Twilight films, to focus a little less on merchandising and traditional marketing and little more on keeping the conversation going. The third film, Eclipse, is set to be released in about 7 months. It’s unlikely that Twilight’s diehard fans are going to stop talking about New Moon, but more causal ones might.

[2] http://boxofficemojo.com/alltime/weekends/