Monsters vs. Aliens Scores in 3-D Adding Bull Fuel to Movie Stocks

Monsters vs. Aliens met expectations with an opening weekend gross of $58.2 million. The box office also benefitted from a surprisingly strong opening for The Haunting in Connecticut. With these two films driving the weekend, the two week slump is over as the weekend was up 52.5% for the top 12 films according to BoxOfficeMojo.com. […]

Trrying to Explain the Rally

In trying to explain the rally in the face of nothing but sensational negative news, I have tried to stress that all it takes is signs of stabilization in the economy and less negative sentiment to turn things around. A few weeks ago I was joking that if CNBC ran a headline that said “Guaranteed […]

Monsters vs. Aliens Sets Up Two Way Trading in DWA

The next film from Dreamworks Animation (DWA) arrives in theaters on Friday. Monsters. vs. Aliens will easily be the #1 film this weekend and will drive the box office to very positive comparisons But for investors the more pertinent questions are whether the film has a strong enough opening to drive DWA shares higher or […]

CETV Sells 31% Stake to Time Warner Dramatically Improving Risk-Reward Trade-Off

Central European Media Enterprises (CETV), one of my long-time favorite stocks which I stupidly rode all the way down, soared on Monday following the announcement that it was selling a 31% stake to Time Warner (TWX) at a 20% premium to Friday’s close. Apparently, I was not the only who believed that CETV had sunk […]

Box Office Cooling Won’t Last Much Longer

The box office continued its cooling trend as the weekend was down 1.5% for the top 12 films according to BoxOfficeMojo.com. This marks the second consecutive down weekend following almost three months of positive comparisons. Year-to-date, the box office is now up 9.9%, well off its peak growth, but still a very good comparison that […]

Disney Scraps Hong Kong Park Expansion to Shift Focus to Shanghai?

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Disney (DIS) is putting expansion of its Hong Kong theme park on hold and laying off the employees involved in developing the expansion plans. The Hong Kong Park has been a disappointment almost from the day the gates opened. DIS owns it in partnership with the Hong Kong […]

Dollar Weakness is Bullish

My friend and fellow money manager, Scott Rothbort, noted on SeekingAlpha.com that euro strength is bullish. I think he is right. The euro is over $1.21 today, the highest since mid-February. The euro is also at a multi-month high vs. the yen. A chart of the euro/USD looks an awful lot like the S&P 500 […]

The Backdoor Way to Play DirecTV

In February, following release of DirecTV’s (DTV) 4Q08 results, I wrote several favorable comments about DTV on RealMoney.com. I followed up by publishing the following commentary which discusses Liberty Media Entertainment (LMDIA) as an attractive backdoor play to purchase DTV at a substantial discount. With SeekingAlpha.com publishing an article from Bullish Bankers discussing Liberty Media […]

Box Office Winning Streak Ends

For the first time since late December the weekend box office fell on a year-over-year basis. Weekend receipts for the top 12 films were $89.2 million according to BoxOfficeMojo.com, a drop of 15.8% from a year ago. The box office is still up 12% this year, a better than expected performance. Next week provides another […]

Why Would a Senior Google Exec Leave for AOL?

Time Warner (TWX) has hired one of Google’s most senior executives to run AOL. Tim Armstrong was a member of Google’s Operating Committee and President of Americas Operations. Armstrong also has a background in traditional media including developing internet properties at traditional media companies. Armstrong is undoubtedly totally loaded due to his 8 plus years […]