(NewsUSA) – There’s no business like show business, so goes the saying, and Hollywood understands just how true that is.

In fact, the world of media is converging, as actors and actresses aspire to be rock stars, and rock starts seek to be in the movies.

Since a great deal of money can be made by cross marketing, Seven Arts Entertainment, Inc. has acquired Big Jake Music, an indie music label based in New York.

For the Los Angeles-based independent motion picture production and distribution company, the acquisition was simply the next logical step, according to Peter Hoffman, CEO of Seven Arts.

“Major record labels have signficantly higher overhead and record production costs than independent labels,” said Hoffman. “By combining our efforts, both Seven Arts and Big Jake can focus on increasing revenue share and profits in our respective areas of expertise.”

Currently, Seven Arts has produced 18 films and acquired 25 others, with its most recent endeavor a large-budget film titled “Neuromancer.” With its latest purchase of Big Jake Music, the company believes it has now fully rounded out its business model.

According to industry sources, integrating several media of entertainment has been around for several years and is certainly the wave of the future.

To this end, it appears likely that entertainment companies will continue to expand to other markets through acquisitions and alliances with what some might consider unlikely bed fellows.

Indeed, with the explosion of cable networks, digital distribution for music, movie and television content, and the existence of countless niches, it would seem that entertainment companies would be remiss if they didn’t take advantage of this potentially lucrative revenue stream.

“Through digital distribution, we can distribute movies and music directly to our fans and customers,” said Hoffman.

For more information, visit www.7artspictures.com and www.bigjakemusic.com.

(NewsUSA) – The film industry has the ability to adapt like no other, weaving social media and viral videos into marketing campaigns with ease and — more importantly — success by way of dollar signs.

Most of Hollywood’s social media marketing is meant to promote new films, new trailers and create overall hype, but viral media can go beyond that. Paramount Studio used Facebook and Eventful to determine what specific cities had an interest in “Paranormal Activity.” The horror flick had a budget of less than $15,000, yet it grossed more than $150 million in theaters because potential fans requested enough local screenings for it to be widely released.

Social media is viral in nature, and the added use of sites like YouTube and Reddit just means videos and clips infect more viewers.

“You can target interest, advertise new releases and start an Internet buzz to increase ticket sales. Disney, Pixar and Twentieth Century Fox have used viral video campaigns for ‘Toy Story 3′ and ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes.’ The ‘Ape With AK-47′ YouTube video was a part of a promotional series for the new film featuring ‘real apes.’ It got over 20 million views! Now talk about starting an online conversation,” says Peter Hoffman, CEO of Seven Arts Entertainment, another studio highlighting its latest release on Facebook.

Actresses Sheena Lee and Simona Fusco, from the hit-comedy, “The Pool Boys,” turned-up the heat on Facebook when they did an online Q&A session just before Valentine’s Day. Fans got to ask questions and the ladies answered in real-time and invited their fans to join in the conversation.

The chat session is in advance of the upcoming release of “The Pool Boys” on HBO this spring. The actresses created their own YouTube video clips of them hanging by their pool and on the way to the gym, and had so much fun. In fact, lucky winners who joined the chat and answered trivia questions about “The Pool Boys” won autographed DVDs of the movie, courtesy of Seven Arts Entertainment, Entertainment One, and RGM. Look for the video clips on www.youtube.com/7artspictures and learn more about the movie at www.thepoolboysmovie.com.

“The Pool Boys” is available on Blu-Ray and DVD. To see examples of viral videos in two separate marketing efforts, check out YouTube’s “Lots-o’-Huggin’ Bear Commercial (circa 1983)” or “Ape With AK-47.”

The horror tale “30 Days of Night” had three days of box-office bite.The Sony fright flick, with Josh Hartnett leading Alaskans against ravenous vampires that turn up for the prolonged winter darkness, debuted as the weekend’s No. 1 movie and took in $16 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

Audiences continued to choose merriment over misery. The latest crop of sober Academy Awards hopefuls — among them Ben Affleck’s “Gone Baby Gone,” Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal’s “Rendition” and Halle Berry and Benicio Del Toro’s “Things We Lost in the Fire” — debuted with so-so to dismal numbers.

Whether it’s the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, deadly news out of Pakistan and Myanmar or Friday’s stock market tumble, moviegoers seem disinterested in more bad news at theaters with films about child-kidnapping, torture, widowhood and heroin addiction.

“Fall is the season of the serious movie, and it seems like audiences in a way are resisting the serious movies,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers.

Here are estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released today.

1. “30 Days of Night,” $16 million.

2. “Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married?” $12.1 million.

3. “The Game Plan,” $8.1 million.

4. “Michael Clayton,” $7.1 million.

5. “Gone Baby Gone,” $6 million.

6. “The Comebacks,” $5.85 million.

7. “We Own the Night,” $5.5 million.

8. “Tim Burton’s the Nightmare Before Christmas,” $5.1 million.

9. “Rendition,” $4.2 million.

10. “The Heartbreak Kid,” $3.9 million.

Source: News & Observer

We know you know Raleigh, but what about Sir Walter?The adventurer portrayed in the new movie “Elizabeth: The Golden Age” is a handsome, rapscallion pirate-hunk, the kind of guy who causes heaving breasts and jealous rage.

Some of this can be credited to the casting of actor Clive Owen, for whom modern-day women swoon. But most of it is owed to Sir Walter himself, a manly man if there ever was one. And it’s not as though Hollywood had to embellish.

“He was known to be extravagant in both his dress and his conduct,” said Jeanne Marie Warzeski, curator of Colonial and antebellum history at the N.C. Museum of History.

The state legislature thought enough of Walt to name the city after him in 1792, to honor his sponsorship of the Roanoke Colony. The surname then lost some of its swashbucklingness in subsequent years, as Sir Walter Raleigh became better-known as a Chevy dealership, and the non-hunk Andy Griffith played Walter in productions of “The Lost Colony” in the 1950s.

All of which got us thinking: If Sir Walter was adored by women and admired by men in the 1500s, how does his namesake city reflect this well-deserved reputation today?

Sir Walter…

was stylish. The man was partial to poofy trunk hose.

Raleigh…

is home to people who revel in using their garden hoses, but only when such use is not restricted, of course.

Sir Walter…

was desirable. Just ask Queen Elizabeth and the women in her court.

Read More: News & Observer

‘We Own the Night” is in an unfortunate position.This movie about crime and family and honor and trust and betrayal and death comes out exactly a year after Martin Scorsese’s Oscar-winning, universally acclaimed “The Departed” — that other film about crime and family and honor and trust and betrayal and death.

Can’t you just hear people instantly dismissing this movie as Scorsese lite whenever they see the ads on TV? (“Oh man, they even got Marky Mark to star in this movie! They’re so ripping off ‘Departed’!”)

But “Night” isn’t Scorsese lite — it’s actually Lumet lite.

The third film from writer-director James Gray (“The Yards”), “Night” seems to spend most of its time visibly giving props to the ’70s Noo Yawk cinema Sidney Lumet excelled at. (Its first scene even begins with that disco staple, Blondie’s “Heart of Glass.”)

Even though it is set in 1988, this story of two brothers dealing with criminal activity is quintessential Me Decade-era retro-grime. This is funny, considering that Lumet is about to drop a film, “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead,” also about two brothers dealing with criminal activity, which is to hit theaters later this month.

“Yards” stars Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg serve as the two brothers front-and-center in this piece. Phoenix is Bobby Green, a New York nightclub manager who has the hot connections and the even hotter girlfriend (Eva Mendes). He’s also considered the black sheep of the family by his big brother (Wahlberg) and father (Robert Duvall), both NYPD cops.

When the big bro targets a drug-running Russian mobster by raiding Bobby’s club, the mobster in turn seeks to take him down, putting him in the hospital. This forces Bobby to cooperate with the police and show that family ties still bind.

“Night” is mostly passable pulp that’s highlighted by a couple of tensely shot sequences (a sting operation gone awry, an insane car chase that makes the climactic car chase from Tarantino’s “Death Proof” section in “Grindhouse” look played out) and Phoenix’s perpetually on-edge performance.

Read On: News & Observer

With hundreds of television channels to choose from today, it’s hard to imagine a program truly capturing the attention of the nation. Yes, there are moments from the tragic (Sept. 11, 2001) to the ridiculous (O.J. in the white Bronco) that rivet us, and the Super Bowl has become a national religious service for the country’s secular denomination. But when it comes to scripted shows, even the most hyped ones reach only slices of the population.But from Jan. 23 through Jan. 30, 1977, the nation collectively turned its eyes to a 12-hour miniseries called “Roots.” The drama, based on the book by Alex Haley, traced several generations of a slave family, beginning with Kunta Kinte, a young West African man kidnapped by slave traders and shipped to America. Now, in connection with the show’s 30th anniversary, Warner Home Video has released “Roots: The Complete Collection” ($119.98), which includes “Roots: 30th Anniversary Edition” plus the sequels, “Roots: The Next Generations” and “Roots: The Gift” (a Christmas-themed movie). “Roots: The Next Generations” is also available by itself ($59.98).

Previous miniseries such as “Rich Man, Poor Man” (1976) were successful but ran over several weeks. So it was a ratings gamble for ABC to schedule “Roots” on eight consecutive nights, particularly considering its frank depiction of slavery and the fact that the black characters were the story’s heroes and the white characters its villains. The gamble paid off beyond anyone’s most optimistic hopes. “Roots” earned higher ratings than any entertainment program before it, averaging a 44.9 rating and a 66 audience share. The final night’s single-episode ratings record wasn’t broken until 1983, with the finale of “M-A-S-H.”

The show had an impact far beyond mere numbers, though. For a while at least, it made race and racial history a topic of conversation in America. More than 200 colleges and universities developed courses around it. Genealogy became a fast-growing hobby as Americans decided that they, too, wanted to know the story of their families.

Among the collection’s extras are featurettes (“The Struggle to Make Roots,” “Connecting With the Past”) and an interview with Haley by British journalist David Frost. Also included is the informative documentary “Crossing Over: How Roots Captivated an Entire Nation” and “Roots: One Year Later,” a program from 1978 that, while a tad self-congratulatory, is nonetheless interesting.

Read More: News & Observer

The critically acclaimed Western “3:10 to Yuma” took in $14.1 million, Friday through Sunday, to become the weekend’s top box office draw, according to studio estimates.This weekend’s top 12 films took in 22.5 percent more than last year’s post-Labor Day crop, making the ninth straight weekend the box office has exceeded 2006 results.

Westerns, once a Hollywood staple, are a tough sell these days. The last critically acclaimed Western was 1992′s “Unforgiven.”

The documentary about the Apollo space program, “In the Shadow of the Moon,” did well in limited release. The movie, from ThinkFilm, took in $41,200 in four theaters for a per-screen average of $10,300.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters:

1. “3:10 to Yuma,” $14.1 million.

2. “Halloween,” $10 million.

3. “Superbad,” $8 million.

Read More: News & Observer