July 9-10, 2013
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Netflix has forged a new deal with DreamWorks Animation to bring in tons of new children’s programming to the streaming video service, the companies announced today.

Last month, Netflix decided not to renew a backlog of very popular kids shows from Nickelodeon (such as Blue’s Clues, Dora the Explorer, and others), which many of the company’s monthly subscribers didn’t like. However, the move to import fresh content from DreamWorks is likely one way Netflix is keeping those subscribers (and their children) happy. And with rivals like Amazon and Hulu already stepping up their game when it comes to children’s programming, Netflix definitely doesn’t want to be left out.

This isn’t the first time Netflix and DreamWorks have teamed up, either. The companies are also working on producing the Netflix original children’s show Turbo: F.A.S.T, as VentureBeat reported back in February.

The multiyear licensing deal will bring over 300 hours of original programming to Netflix before it is available anywhere else. DreamWorks said the new programming will likely be spin-offs from its hit movie, like Shrek, Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda, and How to Train Your Dragon as well as characters from DreamWork’s Classic Media Library collection. Additionally, Netflix will also gain exclusive streaming rights for The Croods, Turbo, and Mr. Peabody and Sherman.

The new DreamWorks content is expected to hit Netflix some time in 2014, according to the companies.

July 9-10, 2013
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Upload your script, choose some backgrounds, and magically create a professional-looking storyboard of your movie. Or the graphic novel version of your text-based anything.

Amazon Studios released Storyteller today to allow writers and filmmakers to quickly, easily, and cheaply storyboard their scripts. I’ve tried it, and while the service is still in beta, it’s surprisingly good.

And it can be used for much, much more than just scripts.

“We’ve found that many writers want to see their story up on its feet in visual form but find it harder than it should be to create a storyboard,” Roy Price, Amazon’s director of Studios said in a statement. “Storyteller provides a digital backlot, acting troupe, prop department, and assistant editor — everything you need to bring your story to life.”

You start by uploading a script to Amazon Studios — or by playing with one that’s already there. Then simply page through the script paragraph by paragraph. Storyteller will try to match up characters, props, and background with the words in each chunk of text, and it does a surprisingly good job. In the script I tried, there were some scenes on a ranch, and Storyteller found some backgrounds with a farmhouse, horse corral, and mountains. For other indoor scenes, Storyteller supplied an in-house view.

Source: John Koetsier

You can choose shot framing

But if you don’t like what Storyteller gives, you can choose from its library, or even upload your own custom background or characters. Currently, the software has a library of thousands of props, characters, and backgrounds, Amazon says, and that is probably increasing all the time.

I think this could be useful for a lot of people in situations far beyond movies and scripts.

You need a visual story? Storyteller can help. You want to create a quick overview of your long, in-depth essay or paper? Storyteller can help. You want to make your business report come to life? Storyteller would be an interesting way to create a graphic novel approach to communicating the dry facts.

The obvious question, of course, is: Why is Amazon creating a storyboarding tool?

Amazon is pushing into original film and TV shows, and the company believes this is one way to essentially crowdsource new content from the grassroots up. Anyone, Amazon says, can upload a script, and it will be read by someone, and if it’s optioned, they’ll be notified within 45 days. And, if you choose to make your script public, you’ll also get feedback from the Amazon Studios community.

Source: John Koetsier

Storyteller allows you to select characters … or customize them

Just last week, the company said in its release, “Amazon Studios greenlit its first-ever original series, including comedies Alpha House and Betas, and kids series Annebots, Creative Galaxy, and Tumbleaf.”

They’re original to Amazon, and will premiere on Prime Instant Video in 2013 and 2014.

Who knows — perhaps your script will too.

Image credits: Amazon, John Koetsier

July 9-10, 2013
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Vudu, the digital Ultraviolet movie retail and rental store service owned by Walmart, is releasing a full version of its disc-to-digital software today, which is now available on Macs.

The disc-to-digital program basically allows you to spend a small fee to grab the digital version of the DVD or Bluray movie you purchased from retail stores. Initially, this was only offered to those that purchased a movie from Walmart, but that stipulation was lifted back in January, thus boosting the appeal for people who like to avoid the country’s largest mega-retail store. The pricing on the full version of Vudu’s software remains the same, with standard definition digital conversions at $2 per movie and $5 for high-definition.

It’s worth noting that when converting a Bluray, you’ll only need to spend $2 to grab the movie in HD. However, Mac users will have to spring for the $5 option to get HD version of their DVDs  since it doesn’t have a disc drive capable of reading Bluray discs.

Still, Vudu’s offer should be plenty appealing to movie buffs that want to watch their past purchases on the go. The disc-to-digital service is cheaper (in the majority of cases) than buying a standalone digital version of a movie, and the process is much less painless than converting your movies to digital formats on your own. Vudu’s player is available across lots of set-top boxes, iOS, and Android.

To kick off the full version of the desktop software, Vudu is giving away the first conversion for free and 50 percent off when you convert 10 or more movies.

Via Engadget

Makes some sense, no?

So the ratings site checked all the credits on the all-time top 500 movies. And then checked where those actors, directors, and producers went to school to learn their trade.

The result?

A ranked list of the top 25 film schools in the world — or, at least, the English-speaking world:

1. New York University (208 credits)
2. University of Southern California (186 credits)
3. University of California – Los Angeles (165 credits)
4. Yale University (110 credits)
5. Julliard School (106 credits)
6. Columbia University (100 credits)
7. Harvard University (90 credits)
8. Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (86 credits)
9. Fiorello H. Laguardia High School of Music & Art (64 credits)
10. American Academy of Dramatic Arts (51 credits)
11. London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (51 credits)
12. Stanford University (50 credits)
13. HB Studio (49 credits)
14. Northwestern University (47 credits)
15. The Actors Studio (44 credits)
16. Brown University (43 credits)
17. University of Texas – Austin (40 credits)
18. Central School of Speech and Drama (39 credits)
19. Cornell University (39 credits)
20. Guildhall School of Music and Drama (38 credits)
21. University of California – Berkeley (38 credits)
22. California Institute of the Arts (38 credits)
23. University of Michigan (37 credits)
24. Beverly Hills High School (36 credits)
25. Boston University (35 credits)

Using publicly available data on movie quality was critical, according to Ranker data scientist Ravi Iyer. Ranker used data from Freebase, DBPedia, IMDB, and its own rankings in order to arrive at a list of quality movies from which the source data was gathered.

Otherwise, of course, movie-mill film companies that produce reams of B-quality films would skew the rankings.

When the company mashed the data, it turns out that even though USC produced the most film credits by graduates overall, NYU produces more credits on the top 500 movies. Interestingly, some high schools made the list, such as New York’s Fiorello H. Laguardia High School, at number nine, and L.A.’s Beverly Hills High School, at number 24.

It’s perhaps not exactly big data, with 500 movies and perhaps 100-250 contributors to each, but it is a big data approach to solving a problem.

photo credit: silkolive via photopin cc

July 9-10, 2013
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The creators of streaming music service Rdio have finally launched their take on digital video through a new service called Vdio.

But fans of Rdio’s model (unlimited access to all the music you can stream for $10 per month) will be disappointed: Vdio is similar to Rdio only in name. It’s really just another online video store.

The site, which officially launched today, sells customers movies and TV shows a la carte. Right now the service is in beta testing and only available to paying Rdio subscribers, who get a free $25 credit to buy videos. The service’s library appears to be pretty broad with content from all the major film studios and TV Networks, including Disney, Fox, Warner Bros., Universal, NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, and many popular cable channels. (Sorry, Game of Thrones fans, no HBO to speak of, although GigaOM is reporting that Vdio hopes to add that content in the future.)

Customers will buy access to each video through Vdio’s platform, which is available via web browsers and an iPad app. Presumably more devices will follow as the service grows and opens up to the public. It doesn’t look like there’s an offline viewing mode either, which means you’ll need to have a reliable Internet connection. You can only make purchases through the Vdio website, not the app — which makes sense considering that Apple takes a 30 percent cut on all in-app purchases.

Basically, Vdio is directly competing with Apple’s iTunes store, Walmart’s Vudu, Flixster, and Amazon’s video store (not counting the Prime service). That may be a bit of a disappointment for people who were hoping the Rdio folks would go for a subscription-based route.

While there are already a slew of dominant players in the digital video store world, there’s always room for more choices. Vdio is trying to win consumers over with the same sort of content recommendation features that it uses for Rdio, which includes your previous content consumption activity as well as the activity of your friends and family members.

Vdio will tentatively open to the public later this summer, with plans to launch in other countries like Canada as well.

July 9-10, 2013
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The movie studios certainly get an A for thinking outside the box, or at least Warner Brothers does. the studio’s online archive site, Warner Archive, has just launched a new streaming service that gives people access to old movies and TV shows from its large library of content.

The move is interesting because it’s basically taking the opposite stance from Warner’s primary business of creating new original content, yet it isn’t taking away from the lucrative business of selling rights to that old content to third-party services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu.

The new service is offering a free two-week trial, but normally charges $10 per month for access to its content library, which includes stuff like the old ’50s Superman show, the original Jericho, Tarzan, and loads of other stuff you’re likely only to find in the $1 bin of DVDs at Walmart. Right now, the service is only supported by one TV streaming set-top box, the Roku, but it does offer 1080p quality video on some movies.

The price is definitely more than you’d pay for most of the other streaming services ($8 per month), but it does offer content that caters to a very specific audience. Also, Warner has all this content just laying around, so it makes sense to do something with it.

Image via Warner Bros.

July 9-10, 2013
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Redbox Instant, the streaming-movie joint venture between Redbox owner Coinstar and Verizon, is now available to the general public.

The public launch ends a three-month closed testing period for the service that saw “hundreds of thousands” of interested people sign up, CEO Shawn Strickland told GigaOM today. He also said many of those that joined Redbox Instant’s free trial stuck around to become paying customers.

The service, which launched into beta back in January at the Consumer Electronics Show, will start at $6 per month for access to a “free” catalog of over 4,500 streaming movies. For another $2 per month, users will get four Redbox credits to rent movies from the physical DVD kiosks. Those credits expire at the end of every month, so the most you’ll ever be able to watch under the plan is four physical movies.

Originally, the service was thought to directly compete with the likes of Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Instant Video, but this may not be the case. Redbox Instant will focus on newer movies and cater to customers who still value physical DVD rentals, and could fill in the gaps that Netflix can’t cover, according to Strickland.

Do you plan on signing up for Redbox Instant? Let us know why, or why not, in the comment section below.

Photo via Sean Ludwig/VentureBeat

July 9-10, 2013
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The latest Kickstarter darling comes from an unlikely source: teen television.

After years of rumors and waiting, fans of the detective series Veronica Mars got their wish today with the launch of a Kickstarter to revive the series as a film. Fans ended up raising $1 million on the crowdfunding site in around four hours, beating out the previous record-holder, the PC game Planescape: Torment, by two hours.

Veronica Mars starred Kristen Bell as a teenage detective who solved mysteries far outside the scope of a typical high school student. Think Dashiell Hammett meets The O.C. The show ran for three seasons, but fans have been clamoring for more ever since it was taken off the air.

By reaching $1 million, the project is now halfway toward completing its $2 million goal. Warner Bros. still owns the rights to the series, but creator Rob Thomas notes that the studio will come aboard if there’s enough interest from fans.

“Kristen and I met with the Warner Bros. brass, and they agreed to allow us to take this shot,” Thomas wrote on Kickstarter. “They were extremely cool about it, as a matter of fact. Their reaction was, if you can show there’s enough fan interest to warrant a movie, we’re on board. So this is it. This is our shot. I believe it’s the only one we’ve got. It’s nerve-wracking.”

Breaking Kickstarter records so quickly is exactly the sort of fan response Warner Bros. needs (and it didn’t even have to lift a finger!). I’m a huge fan of the show, and I’ve also been covering news about this potential movie for years now, so it’s good to see something really finally begin to take shape. (Full disclosure: I’ve also backed the project with probably more funds than is wise.)

The project’s success also bodes well for the future of film production and distribution. Television producers can now tap directly into their fandom to fund projects, even if they’re still shackled to a huge Hollywood studio when it comes to ownership rights. It’s also a big deal for fans of cult TV shows: We saw Universal revive Firefly for the film Serenity, and Netflix brought back Arrested development from the dead, but now there’s yet another way to bring their beloved shows back to life.

Update: The Veronica Mars movie reached its goal of $2 million in just 10 hours. Needless to say, fans are taking this well.

Hallelujah! It's a green light my friends. I love you all, but particularly the donors among you. #Veronicamars .@IMKristenBell—
Rob Thomas (@RobThomas) March 14, 2013

Production is scheduled to begin this summer, with a release in early 2014.

July 9-10, 2013
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Microsoft has debuted the first film to exclusively be released through its Xbox Live platform today, pushing the console further into the realm of entertainment.

The film itself is called Pulp, a British comedy that centers around a comic book publisher who ends up getting recruited by law enforcement to help bust a crime syndicate. The reason it’s not getting a theatrical release has to do with the lack of promotional budget. And with no “bankable” stars within the movie, it makes it difficult for film studios to justify those costs, too. But that’s what makes the Xbox a perfect platform for Pulp, according to its creators.

Right now the film is only being released in the U.K. on March 4 to those that have both an Xbox 360 as well as a subscription to Xbox Live. However, if sales do well, it could see a release in the U.S., according to BBC News.

The move to premiere exclusive content on Xbox is not very surprising, as Microsoft has been angling the console to become a full-fledged media center. It already has plans to boost the level of original/exclusive content on the platform, which is evident through many of its recent hires as well as a new Los Angeles studio.

Via Beta News

July 9-10, 2013
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Streaming video service Netflix has launched a brand new site that allows you to vote on a new set of “best of” movies and TV shows, which bears a striking resemblance to the Academy Awards/Oscars.

Continuing its tradition of uncommon categories, this new set of Netflix awards — called The Flixies — allows you to pick the best guilty pleasure, best commute shortener, best marathon TV show, best hangover cure, best bromance, best PMS Drama, and (of course) best tantrum tamer. But unlike the Oscars, categories aren’t restricted to just movies, as there are plenty of TV shows included in the mix.

This is obviously a lighthearted way of getting people to think about movies and TV shows as an emotional response to a situation, rather than which show was the best produced — something that, lets face it, most of us don’t really care about as long as we’re entertained.

Anyone can participate in voting, not just the 33 million Netflix Streaming subscribers. The results of said vote will be revealed March 11 by the company, and will include the top three video selections in each category.

Additionally, Netflix is asking people to suggest new categories, either for the service itself or perhaps even the next iteration of “The Flixies.”

July 9-10, 2013
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One giant asset that Amazon has over other rival streaming video services is IMDb, which the company purchased way back in 2008. And now, it’s actually using it to make its Prime Instant Video service more attractive.

Now any movie that’s available for free on Amazon Prime via IMDb’s iOS app will now feature a link to watch that movie on Amazon’s Instant Video iOS app. I tested this on my iPad and watched Thor using the link to Amazon Instant. If you don’t have the Instant Videos app on your tablet or smartphone, you’ll just get a prompt telling you to download it from the app store.

One thing you can’t really do is pull up specific episodes of television shows that are available on Prime Instant Video for free. Researching TV shows while I’m watching them is probably the main reason I consult IMDB these days, and it’s a bit surprising that Amazon didn’t bother building this functionality into the iOS app update. (Alternately, I could see myself rewatching more older episodes of TV shows, too.)

The move could end up pushing more people to Amazon Prime instead of Netflix, or potentially even net Amazon a few more memberships. It’s a bit curious that the company hasn’t pushed out similar links on the website — although you can click through to “purchase” the movie/show.

Via TNW

July 9-10, 2013
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Who doesn’t love a good movie date? They’re easy to arrange, great for meeting new people, and also give couples a simple way to spend time together.

Moviepass, a New York City-based startup that offers an unlimited movie ticket service, noticed that its service is particularly alluring to couples. The company found couples who joined ended up hitting the cinema twice as much, while singles attended 66 percent more often.

The bump in attendance isn’t entirely surprising, as Moviepass caters to movie lovers by letting them view one free movie a day for up to $50 a month (the price depends on the market). But couples surveyed by Moviepass also noted overwhelmingly that the service had a positive impact on their relationship, the company told VentureBeat.

Moviepass is an admittedly expensive service compared to other offerings like Netflix, but with movie ticket prices rocketing upward, it’s useful for anyone who goes to the movies at least four times a month. For couples, that goes doubly so.

One couple, Diana and Stephen Forrer of Myrtle Beach, S.C. (above), told the startup that movies played a fundamental role in their relationship from the beginning. They ended up having their engagement photos at a local movie theater.

“With MoviePass, being able to go [to the movie theater] whenever we want has been great for us! We don’t worry about how much we’re spending when we go, because it’s already paid for, so we can really just relax,” Diana Forrer said in a statement. “In a world where things can be tight and everything’s a big decision, it’s nice to always have a date night we don’t have to worry about. Plus, we love movies!”

An older couple, Gilda and David Ortiz of Miami Beach Florida, also pointed out that Moviepass helped them get used to life as empty nesters.

It may just seem like commonsense, but according to psychotherapist Dr. Brett Kennedy it’s important for couples to take part in simple shared activities like going to the movies.

“Couples who engage in arousing leisure activities are more satisfied in their relationships with one another,” Kennedy said in a statement provided to Moviepass. “To keep a spark in your relationship, it is important you keep “dating” one another and prioritize your time together.   Dinner and a movie should never get old.”

Moviepass has raised $4.7 million so far from True Ventures, AOL Ventures, WME, and others.

July 9-10, 2013
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Google is getting two wacky interns.

Fox released the trailer for its comedy The Internship following two “salesmen whose careers have been torpedoed by the digital world.” Played by Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson, the two set off to Silicon Valley to prove that they are still relevant by landing internships at Google.

The trailer shows scenes from Google’s “campus,” including a clear dry-erase wall (that Vaughn writes on with Sharpie), a self-driving car, a Rubik’s cube competition, and a bunch of smart twentysomethings who have it out for the two “old guys.”

It’s a tale of old-timey institutions being overrun by the newer, younger, digital revolution. At one point, those crazy Google youngsters send Vaughn and Wilson off on an adventure to find “Charles Xavier,” a Stanford professor who is balding and in a wheelchair. It doesn’t end well for the pair.

It goes to show how mainstream Silicon Valley is becoming. It started with The Social Network, which took brought Mark Zuckerberg’s creation of Facebook straight into the heart of Hollywood. And of course, Bravo ran its own reality series about our tech community called Start-Ups: Silicon Valley. Now, we’ve got a focus on Google and its famed working culture of slides, great food, nap rooms, and more.

It’s likely to elicit a reaction from former and present Googlers on how accurately the movie portrays their company, but for now it’s just a funny interpretation of one of Silicon Valley’s most well-known companies.

Check out the trailer and let us know what you think:

The Internship Movie image via YouTube

July 9-10, 2013
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Shareholders were not impressed by the sound of jingling change coming from kiosk operator Coinstar’s pockets for Q4 2012, pushing the company’s stock down nearly 10 percent in after-hours trading.

The company’s “change” was a little light for the quarter, pulling in a profit of $22.9 million ($0.75 per share) on revenue of $564.1 million. That’s a sharp drop compared to the same period last year, which saw a profit of $31.5 million ($1.04 per share) on revenue of $466 million.

During today’s Q4 earnings call, Coinstar CEO Paul Davis attributed the dismal numbers to a handful of big factors, most of which involved higher costs associated with the company’s Redbox movie and game rental kiosks. Davis said Coinstar spent more money on bringing in new content that appeals to its regular customers. There were also higher costs related to swapping out Blockbuster Entertainment kiosks with Redbox kiosks, expansion into Canada, Redbox’s new event ticket service, and its joint venture with Verizon on streaming video subscription service Redbox Instant.

Davis also said the company’s coin sorting Coinstar kiosks, which saw year-over-year revenue stay flat at $74.5 million, should see growth among customers as more kiosks gain integration with PayPal accounts and gift cards for various retail stores.

One interesting piece of information mentioned during the earnings call was an initiative to increase the capacity of each rental kiosk to hold an additional 80 disks (for games, DVDs, and Blu-ray). This means Redbox will be able to offer older rentals for a longer period of time, thus increasing the amount of revenue it can get out of each disk. The new higher capacity Redbox kiosks will roll out nation-wide by the end of 2013, David said.

And while Coinstar is growing Redbox in many ways (foreign markets, ticket sales, streaming video), the company doesn’t anticipate an aggressive push for more kiosks domestically.

“I think its safe to say at this point we are no longer focused on [kiosk] expansion,” David said. “We’ll be concentrating on adding the 500 to 1,000 new kiosks [in 2013] and relocating under performing kiosks to better areas.”

Analysts also weren’t too keen on Coinstar’s guidance of a slower than expected Q1 2012, with estimates of $0.77 – $0.92 per share on revenue of $568 million – $593 million. Davis warned that the first quarter of the year will see 12 notable movie new releases compared to the 24 that debuted in Q1 last year.

Still, David did assure shareholders and analysts that all of Coinstar’s initiatives will slowly push the company’s profits back up to where they need to be by the end of the year.

July 9-10, 2013
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Redbox Instant will soon be available on Xbox Live, making it the first home video game console to receive support for the new streaming video rental service.

Redbox Instant is a joint venture between the Coinstar-owned Redbox and Verizon that the two companies announced last year. The service, which opened for beta testing last month, offer a library of streaming movies online as well as a limited number of DVDs rentals through Redbox kiosks.

Contrary to Xbox’s Major Nelson blog, Redbox Instant support isn’t exclusive to Xbox 360. Redbox tells VentureBeat that it plans to add support for other major consoles (Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Nintendo’s Wii U) in the near future. The service has already announced availability on a variety of devices/platforms, including  iOS, Android, Samsung, LG, and Google TV.

Right now we don’t know when the service will be available to all Xbox Live users, but Redbox Instant beta testers should get a code via email to gain access on the console.

July 9-10, 2013
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MoviePass has launched its subscription service for going to movie theaters for the Android platform, an important step to make sure more consumers can actually use it.

We first wrote about MoviePass when it launched in October, and the service is promising. You pay between $25 and $40 a month so you can see one movie a day at theaters that take MoviePass. So if you regularly see more than three movies a month at the theater, MoviePass wants to be your new friend.

VentureBeat National Editor Devindra Hardawar says that the MoviePass app for the iPhone has worked fairly well for him in New York City, but it is a bit sluggish. His final thoughts: MoviePass still needs to prove that it’s worth the high monthly fee.

Unfortunately, MoviePass is still in beta testing and requires people to sign up for an invite to (hopefully) get access. MoviePass claims to work in “thousands of theaters nationwide,” but we’d check out theaters in your area before buying in.

MoviePass is based in New York City and has raised $4.7 million to date from True Ventures, AOL Ventures, WME, and others.

Check out a few screenshots from MoviePass for Android below:

Girl watching movie alone via Karramba Production/Shutterstock

July 9-10, 2013
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In addition to today’s BlackBerry World event, BlackBerry users are finally getting a chance to buy digital media like those that swear their allegiance to other mobile devices.

The BlackBerry maker formerly known as RIM has added a bunch of music, movies, and television shows to the BlackBerry web store today. The selection pales in comparison to what’s available on iTunes and Amazon Cloud Music stores in terms of music, but that should change over time. The company does have support from all the major entertainment studios, which means you’ll have a decent selection of popular TV shows and movies.

The addition of digital media is a long time coming, and it’s something that BlackBerry needs to catch up with other mobile platforms.

It’s worth noting that the sharing of integrated digital media from the BlackBerry web store is only available for BlackBerry 10 at launch and only in the U.S., U.K., and Canada for now.

Shares went as high as $289, bouncing up from $261 before the release. For the quarter, revenue was up substantially to $21.27 billion, a 22 percent increase from the fourth quarter of 2011, but revenue decreased 45 percent to $97 million.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos largely credited the strong earnings increase to ebooks, which he said is now a multi-billion dollar category for Amazon — and growing at 70 percent annually. Physical books, in contrast, are slowing. While still growing, Bezos said the growth rate is down to 5 percent, which Bezos said is the lowest growth rate in Amazon’s 17 years of existence.

And one which seems likely to reverse into a decline in 2013, given the growth of ebooks and Amazon’s tablet sales.

Amazon said that its tablets have held the top four spots on the retailer’s sales charts ever since they’ve launched, and that its flagship device, the Kindle Fire HD, is the most popular item in the store. While the reality is that there’s a lot a retailer can do to influence what is most popular and what sells well — and Amazon certain has done that, positioning the Kindle Fire HD front and center on its home page even today — the reality is that the Kindle family, with price points from $119 to $299, is a pretty solid entry-level tablet device.

Source: Amazon

Digital sales at Amazon

However, the company still refuses to release actual sales data on the Android-based tablets — although third-party data suggests Kindle market share is growing fast and total device sales were likely between 10 and 12 million as of the end of 2012.

Digital media seems to be the future at Amazon, and the company reported increases in the amount of content available as Prime Instant Video now has 36,000 titles for viewers to choose from, and 23 million movies, TV shows, apps, books, and more in Amazon’s overall catalog. Amazon recently released a new mobile web store for digital music specifically for iPod and iPhone, clearly competing with digital music incumbent Apple.

Those popular Kindles have helped 23 authors who publish on Kindle to sales exceeding 250,000 in 2012 alone, and 500 books published on Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing platform have reached the top 100 Kindle books bestseller list.

Image credit: Jennifer Van Grove

July 9-10, 2013
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Want a taste of the Sundance Film Festival without the cold, crowds, and travel? Sundance is offering a selection of 12 short films on YouTube via its Screen Room channel.

While it’s nice for film fans who won’t be able to make it to the festival, it’s also something that Sundance has been doing for the past two years. Back in 2010, Sundance and YouTube also experimented with offering full films from the festival for rent — with disappointing results.

I’m all for filmmakers exploring new avenues of digital distribution, but it’s a shame that Sundance is simply repeating what it’s done for the past few years. By offering their shorts online, directors are also giving up any hope for Oscar consideration as well. As the LA Times notes, any short that appears online, on TV, or on video before winning a festival prize, or opening in a paid screening at an L.A. theater, gets excluded from the Oscars.

For short film directors, the benefits of opening their work up to a larger online audience likely outweighs awards consideration. There’s also a better chance you’ll actually be able to view these shorts on your TV this year, with YouTube-capable TVs and devices more readily available.

Below, check out descriptions from a few of the shorts being featured (via Slashfilm):

THE APOCALYPSE (dir. Andrew Zuchero): Four uninspired friends try to come up with a terrific idea for how to spend their Saturday afternoon.

ROKEN NIGHT (dir. Guillermo Arriaga): A young woman and her four-year-old daughter drive across desolated hills. Everything looks fine and they seem to enjoy the ride, until an accident sends them into the nightmare of darkness.

CATNIP: EGRESS TO OBLIVION? (dir. Jason Willis): Catnip is all the rage with today’s modern feline, but do we really understand it? This film frankly discusses the facts about this controversial substance.

THE EVENT (dir. Julia Pott): Love and a severed foot at the end of the world.

WHEN THE ZOMBIES COME (dir. Jon Hurst): At a remote hardware store, fans of the walking dead have turned their love of zombies into an obsession, warping the way they see the store and its customers.

July 9-10, 2013
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Time Warner Cable isn’t happy about Netflix’s new “Open Connect” initiative, a separate network ISPs can use to pull data from the streaming video service.

Why? Well, it has something to do with Netflix implying that TWC’s network isn’t good enough to provide 1080p video streams and 3D content. Allow me to explain.

Currently, the Netflix pulls a majority of its data through commercial content delivery networks, which are optimized for a variety of data from multiple sources. The new Open Connect network, which Netflix debuted in June, would optimize the flow of Netflix-only video data through a new network that ISPs can build into their own services. And considering that Netflix accounts for nearly a third of all video streaming in the country, the video service said it makes financial sense to provide its own Open Connect network, just as YouTube has done in the past. Also, Open Connect means lots of customers will stay happy because their Netflix service will be more reliable.

And to get ISPs on board with this change, Netflix said it will only provide 3D content and 1080p high-definition videos (dubbed Super HD) to customers who subscribe to an ISP that uses Netflix’s Open Connect standard. So basically, that means major ISPs not using Open Connect (TWC, Comcast, or FiOS) look like the bad guys, or at the very least, become the reason why you can’t get the highest resolution and 3D movies.

“While they call it ‘Open Connect,’ Netflix is actually closing off access to some of its content while seeking unprecedented preferential treatment from ISPs,” TWC said in a statement to Multichannel News. “We believe it is wrong for Netflix to withhold any content formats from our subscribers and the subscribers of many other ISPs. Time Warner Cable’s network is more than capable of delivering this content to Netflix subscribers today.”

TWC’s standards might be good enough to carry the higher-quality video streams, which require transferring more data than regular video streams, but it isn’t good enough for Netflix. The streaming video company also denies TWC’s claims that it wants special treatment.

“OpenConnect provides Netflix data at no cost to the location the ISP desires and doesn’t seek preferential treatment,” Netflix said in a statement to VentureBeat. “We hope TimeWarner will join the many major ISPs around the world who are participating in Open Connect to reduce costs, better minimize congestion and improve data delivery to enhance the consumer experience.”

Plenty of ISPs have already jumped on the Open Connect bandwagon, including Cablevision, Virgin Media, British Telecom, and Google Fiber. My guess is that TWC and the others will soon jump on board as well, but obviously some of them aren’t happy about it.

Hostage image via val lawless/Shutterstock

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

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While Netflix is a lot of things well, one of them certainly isn’t managing multiple people on a single streaming account. Fortunately, the company is working on a personalized profiles feature that will seemingly make using Netflix with a four-person family much easier.

Right now, if multiple people use the same Netflix account, it messes up the accounts recommendation engine — effectively rendering it useless. For example, if you primarily watch sci-fi TV shows, you could end up seeing recommendations for your wife’s romantic period dramas, or cartoons that are similar to your kid’s favorite children’s movies.

Additionally, I’d imagine managing a queue of videos for multiple people under a single account would prove irritating — especially if anyone plans to watch the same videos. (That means losing your auto-saved place when you stop watching videos, and making video progress bars ineffective).

Gigaom managed to check out the experimental new feature at the 2013 CES, but estimates that it could take up to six months or more before we start to see the feature roll out to the public. But regardless of how long it takes, this could be a huge hit with families or subscribers who constantly have their Netflix account hijacked by girlfriends, roommates, or siblings.

The personalized profiles feature fixes the aforementioned problems by separating viewing activity for each person using the account. Each person also gets to choose a custom avatar for their profile, and label it accordingly (Dad, Mom, Brother, etc.). Gigaom notes that any profiles for children ages 12 and under will automatically fall under Netflix’s “Just for Kids” user interface.

Photo via Gigaom

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

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Netflix has signed a new deal with Warner Bros. that will bring a slew relatively current television shows exclusively to the streaming video service, the streaming video and rental service announced today.

Netflix’s deal with the WB will bring five shows to the service that are currently playing on cable or broadcast channels, including J.J. Abram’s Bad Robot-produced postapocalyptic series Revolution, Western series Longmire, supernatural drama 666 Park Avenue, Sigourney Weaver political drama Political Animals, and crime drama (starring Kevin Bacon) The Following. The shows will become available to Netflix subscribers after the season ends.

The deal will also immediately add three hit TV shows that are off the air: Chuck, The West Wing, and yet another J.J. Abrams produced drama, Fringe. Netflix said more shows could be added to the list of web/streaming exclusives in the future.

The deal is significant because it emables Netflix to continue pumping the service with fresh content, which it’ll need to compete against pay TV competitors like HBO (which itself recently secured an exclusive movie deal with Universal) and other streaming competitors like Amazon Prime Instant Video.

That said, I’d argue that exclusive streaming rights to TV shows is a more lucrative proposition than movies for Netflix. HBO likely uses a combination of name recognition and viewing statistics to determine the best deal for how to spend its money on content. Netflix, on the other hand, reviews how many hours its subscribers log watching particular titles when spending money on content. (And I’m guessing that TV shows get more attention from Netflix subscribers than a crop of newly released movies that rarely get rewatched on a regular basis.)

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Tickets On Sale Now

Sony reached a new deal with streaming video service Epix that will bring the network’s library of movies to both PlayStation 3 and PS Vita, the company announced today via the PlayStation blog.

Epix provides tons of relatively new movies (about 90 days after they release on DVD) like The Avengers, Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol, The Hunger Games, and more. You may remember hearing about Epix when the service signed licensing deals with major streaming video services Netflix and Amazon Prime Instant Video — meaning if you subscribe to either of those services, you already have access to the Epix movie library. And now, anyone who already subscribes to a movie package through their cable or satellite TV service can access it on the PlayStation Network.

This is a good move for Sony’s PlayStation 3 and one that will allow it to remain competitive with Microsoft’s Xbox 360, which currently doesn’t support Epix.

The PS3 Epix app will be available for free via PSN soon with a PS Vita app to follow later in the spring, according to the blog post.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Tickets On Sale Now

It was an exceptionally good year for online movie ticket service Fandango, according to new data released by the Comcast-owned service today.

Fandango saw a 57 percent surge in annual ticket sales for 2012, and a 34 percent increase in monthly visitors to its website and mobile platforms (including 31 million Fandango mobile app downloads). For perspective, the service bring in about 41 million monthly unique visitors, according to Fandango.

The service also said the number of ticket sales purchased through mobile devices increased 171 percent compared to the same period last year,accounting for over 30 percent of total sales.

At least part of Fandango’s huge growth can be attributed to the many big partnerships it forged, including a deal to sell tickets to the nation’s largest movie theater chain, AMC. Fandango also saw a bump thanks to ticket deals with both AOL Moviefone and Yahoo Movies, as The Wrap notes. It also helps that Fandango was the first (and currently only) ticketing service to offer integration with Apple’s voice control technology Siri on iOS 6, as VentureBeat reported back in November.

Fandango said it plans to increase reserved seating options and add additional mobile payment platforms in the future, which should help the service hold its momentum heading into 2013.

Fandango’s announcement is one of many significant announcements for the film industry. Not only are online sales of movie tickets on the rise, so are ticket sales in general. Current estimates show that consumers spent $10.8 billion at the box office in 2012.

Movie tickets photo via M Ishikawa/Shutterstock

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

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Hot on the heels of the top apps on iPhone and iPad, Apple has released the top media sellers on the iTunes formerly just-music store, including the top albums, best blockbuster movies, and top-selling TV shows for 2012.

It turns out that Carly Rae Jepsen’s Call Me Maybe is the top track of 2012, while the 50 Shades empire continues to grow as it takes all three top spots in books. Adele get the nod for top album of 2012 with 21, and The Hunger Games was the best-selling movie of 2012 on iTunes.

Here are all the details:

Music

Best Artists: Frank Ocean, Channel ORANGE
Best Album: Grizzly Bear, Shields
Best Song: Fun. featuring Janelle Monae, We Are Young
Breakthrough Album: The Lumineers, The Lumineers

Top Albums:

1. Adele, 21
2. Taylor Swift, Red
3. Mumford & Sons, Babel
4. One Direction Up All Night
5. Fun., Some Nights
6. Mumford & Sons, Sigh No More
7. The Lumineers, The Lumineers
8. John Mayer, Born and Raised
9. Maroon 5, Overexposed
10. Jason Aldean, Night Train

Top Tracks:

1. Carly Rae Jepsen, Call Me Maybe
2. Gotye, Somebody That I Used to Know
3. Fun. We Are Young
4. Maroon 5, Payphone (feat. Wiz Khalifa)
5. Nicki Minaj, Starships
6. One Direction, What Makes You Beautiful
7. Kelly Clarkson, Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)
8. Fun., Some Nights
9. Flo Rida, Whistle
10. Flo Rida, Wild Ones (feat. Sia)

Movies

Best Blockbuster: The Avengers
Best Director: Moonrise Kingdom, Wes Anderson
Best Discovery: Beasts of the Southern Wild
Best Star-Making Performance: The Hunger Games, Jennifer Lawrence

Best Selling Movies:

1. The Hunger Games
2. 21 Jump Street
3. Moneyball
4. The Avengers
5. Mission: Impossible—Ghost Protocol
6. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1
7. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
8. The Descendants
9. This Means War
10. The Grey

TV Shows

Best Show: Breaking Bad, Season 5
Best Episode: The Weekend, Homeland Season 1
Best Debut: Girls, Season 1
Best Cast: Happy Endings, Season 3

Top Episodes:

1. Seed The Walking Dead, Season 3
2. Live Free or Die Breaking Bad, Season 5
3. Episode 1 Downton Abbey, Season 2
4. Tea Leaves Mad Men, Season 5
5. iGo One Direction iCarly Vol 6
6. Sovereign Sons of Anarchy, Season 5
7. It Happened “That NIght” Pretty LIttle Liars, Season 3
8. Michael Glee, Season 3
9. Welcome to Briarcliff  American Horror Story, Asylum, Season 2
10. Pilot/Ernest Cobb Alcatraz, Season 1

Top Paid Seasons & Season Passes:

1. Downton Abbey, Season 2
2. Walking Dead, Season 3
3. Breaking Bad, Season 5
4. Mad Men, Season 5
5. Homeland, Season 1
6. Sons of Anarchy, Season 4
7. Game of Thrones, Season 1
8. Revenge, Season 1
9. How I Met Your Mother, Season 7
10. Sherlock, Series 2

Books

Best Novel: The Dog Stars, Peter Heller
Best Nonfiction: Behind the Beautiful Forevers, Katherine Boo
Best Young Adult Novel: The Fault in Our Stars, John Green
Best Multi-Touch Books: Fashion, DK Publishing

Top Free Books:

1. The Beatles Yellow Submarine, The Beatles
2. 100 Quotations to make you think!, Wolfgang Riebe
3. The Art of War, Sun Tzu
4. The Time Machine, H.G. Wells
5. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
6. E.O. Wilson’s Life on Earth Morgan Ryan, Gael McGill, Edward O. Wilson
7. Baby Animals, Snapshot Picture Library
8. The Ugly Duckling, Hans Christian Andersen
9. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan €Doyle
10. 101 best jokes, Various Authors

Top Paid Fiction:

1. Fifty Shades of Grey, E L James
2. Fifty Shades Darker, E L James
3. Fifty Shades Freed E L James
4. Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn
5. Bared to You, Sylvia Day
6. The Lucky One, Nicholas Sparks
7. Kill Shot Vince Flynn
8. Reflected in You, Sylvia Day
9. The Innocent David Baldacci
10. The Racketeer John Grisham

Top Paid Nonfiction:

1. No Easy Day, Mark Owen,Kevin Maurer
2. Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson
3. Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand
4. Killing Lincoln, Martin Dugard,Bill O’Reilly
5. American Sniper, Scott Mcewen,Jim DeFelice,Chris Kyle
6. Killing Kennedy, Martin Dugard,Bill O’Reilly
7. Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man, Steve Harvey
8. Wild, Cheryl Strayed
9. The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg
10. Heaven is for Real, Todd Burpo,Lynn Vincent

Top Paid Audiobooks:

1. The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
2. Catching Fire: Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
3. Fifty Shades of Grey: Book One of the Fifty Shades Trilogy, E L James
4. Mockingjay: The Final Book of The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
5. Fifty Shades Darker: Book Two of the Fifty Shades Trilogy, E L James
6. Fifty Shades Freed: Book Three of the Fifty Shades Trilogy, E L James
7. Bossypants, Tina Fey
8. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (Unabridged), Seth Grahame-Smith
9. Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson
10. Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination That Changed America Forever, Martin Dugard,Bill O’Reilly

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Tickets On Sale Now

Months after the debut of its iPad app, Amazon has now released a new version of its Prime Instant Video iOS app that’s been optimized to play on the iPhone.

The app itself serves up hundreds of videos available within Amazon Prime’s streaming video library as well as any rented or purchased videos from Amazon. You can also download those movies or TV shows to watch when you don’t have an Internet connection. It also has plenty of options to manage your personal video watchlist.

What you can’t do with the app is purchase or rent non-Prime videos. To do that you’ll need to visit Amazon’s website, make the purchase, and then head back into the app. Part of this is probably due to Apple’s 30 percent commission fee on all purchases made through an iOS app. Amazon understandably doesn’t want to give Apple a cut of its digital video sales.

The other thing you can’t do with the Amazon Prime Instant Video app is enable the Airplay feature on Apple TV. Basically, that means you cannot watch Amazon Prime videos on your television when playing them from your iPhone. That’s a huge letdown, because it really demonstrates how closed Apple really is when it comes to direct competitors — especially since Apple doesn’t have its own unlimited streaming video subscription service.

The app is available today for free in the App Store, but to access the Prime Instant Video library, you’ll need to have an Amazon Prime membership.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Tickets On Sale Now

Hollywood’s latest blockbuster was filmed by robots. Four giant industrial robots whisked props, lights and even actors around the set in a ballet of split-second precision, as well as doing the camerawork. They call it cinematic automation. “We are taking a movie set and thinking about it like a manufacturing facility,” says Jeff Linnell, co-founder of Bot&Dolly.

Bot&Dolly bought three second-hand industrial robots back in 2008. “I had been wondering for years why people weren’t using them to move cameras around,” says Linnell. He ran a small advertising and video production company in San Francisco and had spent his career doing motion graphics and animation. “The first robot found its way into a Louis Vuitton TV commercial a week later.”

Some time later, Linnell got a call from a major Hollywood studio who were shooting a new movie. “It has a lot of impossible shots which you would not be able to do with traditional wire work and is massively ambitious technically,” explains Linnell. It took a year and a half to write a new control system for the robots which could be used on the set.

Bot & Dolly Reel from Bot & Dolly on Vimeo.

Robots were used in film-making as far back as Star Wars but they were always custom-built and required proprietary software and a highly-specialised operator. In the 1980s the computer conquered Hollywood and movies went digital. Bot&Dolly’s founders felt that everything that could be done on a computer had already been done and that it was time to get film-makers back into the real world. So they took Autodesk’s Maya animation software (the industry standard) and wrote tools to allow non-roboticists like animators to run robots.

“Animators were flying cameras around in the virtual world doing Avatar or whatever but they never had the power to be film-makers,” says Linnell. “Now the same animators can move a camera around, or an actor or a prop. Anyone from Pixar can pick up the tool that they use every day, hit an export button and animate a robot.” Bot&Dolly’s software system controls some standard robots like Scout and Iris which weigh from 6 up to 500 kilograms but users can also control their own robots by adding a new model to the software.

Robots can achieve a level of precision, speed and coordination of movement which cannot be matched by humans. “If you want to move a coffee cup six inches across a table at two meters per second and have it stop on a dime, we want to give you a tool to do that without hiring a developer.” Lights, props, explosions, special effects and even the positions of the actors, can be synchronised to the millisecond and coordinated with sound and playback.

Industrial robots don’t usually work in such close proximity with people so safety was a critical issue, especially when those people are expensive movie stars. The system contains checks and safeguards to ensure the robots are on the programmed flight path and uses laser tripwires, pressure mats and other technology to keep track of the humans. High-risk shots are rehearsed at various speeds, building up to real-time.

Bot&Dolly’s robots have also developed showbiz careers of their own. They have appeared in advertisments for Google and star in a Las Vegas show where they act and play music with the Blue Man group. “People are pretty fascinated by large robots,” muses Linnell. “When they move in a highly coordinated way where all the axes are moving at the same time, the movement is incredibly organic and snake-like. It’s a bit disconcerting and amazing even to myself having watched these things for years now. In a theatrical production, we are trying to give them a sense of character, purposely making them sad or proud or scared. You can convey emotion quite easily.”

George Clooney had better watch out. The next generation of stars may be built, not born.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Tickets On Sale Now

With the newly signed exclusive streaming deal with Disney, people are once again singing the praises of Netflix. But it might be too early to determine whether or not the video service will come out ahead as a result of the deal.

The reaction by shareholders has been mostly positive, with Netflix’s stock seeing a healthy increase of 15 percent yesterday. The stock price is only slightly down today, and Sterne Agee analysts Arvind Bhatia and Brett Strauser believe the market is showing too much enthusiasm for the move.

“From a content perspective, this appears to be a major coup for Netflix. However, without knowledge of the financial terms, we think it would be premature to assume this is a net positive for Netflix,” the analysts wrote in a note yesterday.

As VentureBeat previously reported, Netflix signed two different agreements with Disney. The first of these deals brings lots of recognizable Disney flicks (Dumbo, Alice In Wonderland, and more) to the streaming service effective immediately. We don’t know how much Netflix paid for access to these classics, but my guess is that the price was not cheap.

It’s possible that Netflix will slowly roll out access to classic Disney films over time, with only a large handful of films available on the streaming service at any one time rather than providing access to the entire streaming library. This would be one way to keep its content costs down while still providing value to its streaming subscribers. Of course, we won’t know exactly how Netflix will play it until we’re well into 2013.

We should know more about how much Netflix spent on the old Disney movies in its next quarterly earnings report, but Sterne Agee points out that the company is projected to spend $5 billion in the next five years on content costs ($4.5 billion of that occurring in the next three years.) If the new Disney content fails to have a positive impact on its domestic streaming subscriber growth, traders will likely punishe its stock.

The second deal is an exclusive streaming agreement that gives Netflix the right to play all animated and live-action films with a theatrical release of 2016 and on. That’s a pretty big win for Netflix in the short-term; it has something its competitors won’t have, and it probably doesn’t have to start paying content licensing fees immediately.

At the same time, if those licensing fees are extremely high, it could cause concern among shareholders. Netflix is currently spending its money to aggressively expand into international markets and create its own exclusive content. And until we find out if either of those two strategies ultimately prove successful, it’s hard to determine if the exclusive deal with Disney was an extremely good move for the company.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Tickets On Sale Now

The streaming/DVD rental subscription service from Verizon and Redbox, officially called Redbox Instant by Verizon, is tentatively scheduled to launch before the end of the year, and now we’re finally hearing details about what it’s going to cost.

The service, which may debut Dec. 17, will start at $6 per month for access to a “free” catalog of streaming movies, according to a help/FAQ website uncovered by GigaOM’s Janko Roettgers. For another $2 per month, subscribers will get four Redbox credits to rent movies from the physical DVD kiosks. Those credits expire at the end of every month, so the most you’ll ever be able to watch under the plan is four physical movies.

The streaming catalog is said to be much smaller than what’s offered by Netflix but will contain a selection of newer and/or popular titles, like Rango, Iron Man 2 and Thor, according to GigaOM. That makes sense because Redbox Instant is trying to focus on only videos that are most in demand, rather than a backlog of stuff you can save up in a queue for months and months.

Redbox Instant is also offering a selection of newly released movies as streaming rentals, which start at $0.99 cents. Subscribers will also be able to reserve or rent DVDs online, which they can then pick up at a Redbox kiosk.

The streaming service will initially launch on web browsers and use Microsoft’s Sliverlight, like Netflix. Eventually, according to the help page, Redbox Instant will also be available on iOS devices, Android, Xbox Live, and some Samsung smart TVs and Bluray players.

Depending on how long it takes Redbox and Verizon to roll out support for the service across all of those aforementioned platforms, I can seriously see it surviving alongside Netflix, Amazon Prime Instant Video, and Hulu. You’re essentially getting a more reasonable version of Vudu that’s entirely focused on rentals rather than purchasing digital media. And at $8 per month, you’re likely spending as much as you would with a streaming/DVD combo plan from Netflix, and far less than the Video OnDemand rentals that cable and satellite TV providers offer.

Officially, Redbox isn’t confirming any off this information, but it has removed the help section webpage from public view. We’re reaching out to the company for further comment. I don’t expect to get any new information; however, we’ll update this post with anything we do find out.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Tickets On Sale Now

Apple’s virtual assistant Siri became a bit of a movie buff in iOS 6, thanks to some helpful Rotten Tomatoes integration to display showtime information. And Siri’s getting even better in iOS 6.1 — soon it will be able to purchase your movie tickets, reports 9to5Mac.

Developers currently testing out iOS 6.1 tell the site that Siri accepts commands for buying movie tickets, like “Buy four tickets to Cloud Atlas nearby tonight.” (Seriously, if you like movies, go see Cloud Atlas.) Once Siri pulls up the relevant showing information, you can click a button to buy the tickets, after which you’ll be sent to the Fandango app to complete the purchase. If you don’t have the Fandango app, you’ll be directed to install it.

Currently, Siri is only accepting ticket purchases via Fandango, which leaves out plenty of movie theaters that handle ticketing through Flixster’s app (which also owns Rotten Tomatoes). Since Apple already has a deal with Rotten Tomatoes for movie times though, I suspect Flixster integration is coming along as well.

If Apple does manage to land both online ticketing services, then it could end up being more convenient than going through their respective apps. Currently, you often have to open both the Flixster and Fandango apps to figure out which movie theaters are supported.

Apple says Siri’s movie ticket capabilities will only be available in the U.S. for now.

Top photo: Devindra Hardawar/VentureBeat; Bottom photo: 9to5Mac