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SF-LOVERS Digest V6 #17 [message #5229] Sat, 28 July 2012 00:10
Anonymous
Karma:
Originally posted by: utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!sf-lovers
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.8042
Posted: Sat Jul 17 13:13:34 1982
Received: Sun Jul 18 04:41:19 1982

>From JPM@Mit-Ai Sat Jul 17 12:57:32 1982

SF-LOVERS Digest        Saturday, 17 Jul 1982      Volume 6 : Issue 17

Today's Topics:
                       SF Books - Bestsellers,
     SF Movies - Poltergeist & Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan &
      The Sword and the Sorcerer & The Thing & TRON & Revenues,
                Random Topics - Movies and Video Games
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 16 Jul 1982 0228-PDT
From: Jim McGrath 
Subject: Science Fiction books which are Best Sellers (hardcover)

                    Best Selling Books (Hardcover)
                   c. 1982 N.Y. Times News Service

    The listings below are based on computer-processed sales figures
from 1,600 bookstores in every region of the United States.

                                                     This Last  Weeks
                                                     Week Week On List

THE PARSIFAL MOSAIC, by Robert Ludlum.                  1    1    18
(Random House, $15.95.)  Through many exploits
and hairbreadth escapes, Michael Havelock saves
the world from nuclear extinction.

THE ONE TREE, by Stephen R. Donaldson.                  5    6    12
(Ballantine-Del Rey, $14.50.) Book Two in the
science fiction series, ''The Second Chronicles
of Thomas Covenant.''

TWICE SHY, by Dick Francis. (Putnam's $13.95.)          7   13    14
A greedy gang at large in the world of horse
racing and computer programming.

FRIDAY, by Robert A. Heinlein. (Holt,                   8   12     4
Rinehart & Winston, $14.95) Adventures on Earth
of an artificial person, a creature of genetic
engineering, in the service of a Boss in outer space.

FOR SPECIAL SERVICES, by John Gardner                   9    7     9
(Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, $9.95) James Bond
against his old enemy SPECTRE.

------------------------------

Date: 16 Jul 1982 0227-PDT
From: Jim McGrath 
Subject: Science Fiction books which are Best Sellers (paperback)


                    Best Selling Books (Paperback)
                   c. 1982 N.Y. Times News Service

MASS MARKET
    Mass-market paperbacks are softcover books sold at newsstands, 
variety stores and supermarkets, as well as in bookstores. This 
listing is based on computer-processed reports from bookstores and 
representative wholesalers with more than 40,000 outlets across the 
United States.

    3. E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, by William Kotzwinkle. (Berkley, 
$2.95.) Novelization of the current film.
    4. STAR TREK: The Wrath of Khan, by Vonda N. McIntyre. (Pocket, 
$2.50.) Novelization of the current space-adventure film.
    9. LICENSE RENEWED, by John Gardner. (Berkley, $2.95) James Bond 
against a mad nuclear physicist: fiction.
    13. THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST, by Robert Heinlein. (Fawcett, $3.95)
A journey through alternate universes: science fiction.

TRADE
    Trade paperbacks are softcover book usually sold in bookstores 
and at an average prices higher than mass-market paperbacks. This 
listing is based on computer-processed reports from 1,600 bookstores 
in every region of the United States.

    13. GOD EMPEROR OF DUNE, by Frank Herbert. (Berkley, $6.95.)
Fourth novel in the series about the planet Dune.

------------------------------

Date: 10 Jul 1982 0125-PDT
From: Jim McGrath 
Subject: Capsule Reviews

    Poltergeist. Producer Steven Spielberg delivers the thriller that 
the ''Amityville Horror'' dreamed of being. It begins in a comfortable
American suburb, where a happy family is subjected to a series of
weird events that lead up to terrifying spirits taking total
possession of their house. The special effects are impeccable and the
story well done. With Craig T. Nelson, Jobeth Williams, Beatrice
Straight, Dominque Dunne, Oliver Robins and Heather O'Rourke. Rated
PG. 3 stars.
    Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan - The movie they should have made 
the first time. While it doesn't slight the special effects of the 
earlier edition, the emphasis is back where it belongs - on quality of
character, and twists and turns of plot. The issues - love, loyalty,
innocence, aging, reason and emotion - are both timely and timeless.
With Ricardo Montalban, William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest
Kelly, Paul Winfield and newcomer Kirstie Alley. Rated PG.  3 1/2
stars.
    The Sword and the Sorcerer - Another medieval swashbuckler that 
looks great but lacks real characters for the audience to care about.
Still, Kathleen Beller makes an intelligent heroine, and the makeup is
triumphantly good. Rated R. 2 1/2 stars.
    The Thing. John Carpenter's new thriller is about a group of 
scientists that sets out for the Antarctic to gather data about the 
region, but instead is confronted by a ''thing'' that threatens the 
existence of mankind. Kurt Russell stars. Rated R. 2 1/2 stars.
    Tron. Jeff Bridges plays Flynn, a video game virtuoso, who
suspects ENCOM, a huge communications conglomerate for which he works,
of stealing some of his video game programs. With Bruce Boxleitner, 
David Warner, Barnard Hughes and Cindy Morgan. Rated PG. 4 stars.

------------------------------

Date: 15 Jul 1982 1427-PDT
From: Robert Amsler 
Subject: 11 Top-Grossing Films (week ending June 30) (source: Variety)

Ranks:  Last-week  =>This week
   Film Name (Rank Change + = up 1, - = down 1)
     Total to Date
        Weeks on Chart

1 => 1.  E T - The Extra-Terrestrial       $17,701,678 ( 3 weeks)
5 => 2.  Firefox (+++)                     $ 5,570,778 ( 2 weeks)
2 => 3.  Rocky III (-)                     $21,383,598 ( 5 weeks)
4 => 4.  Poltergeist                       $11,868,727 ( 4 weeks)
     5.  Blade Runner                      $ 2,056,200 ( 1 week)
3 => 6.  Star Trek II-Wrath of Khan (---)  $14,255,809 ( 4 weeks)
6 => 7.  Annie (-)                         $ 5,755,672 ( 6 weeks)
     8.  The Thing                         $ 1,253,900 ( 1 week)
8 => 9.  Author Author (-)                 $ 1,635,872 ( 2 weeks)
9 =>10.  Bambi (-)                         $ 3,623,784 (14 weeks)
    11.  Megaforce                         $   598,400 ( 1 week)

------------------------------

Date: 10 Jul 1982 0125-PDT
From: Jim McGrath 
Subject: Summer Movies

                          By ALJEAN HARMETZ
                   c. 1982 N.Y. Times News Service

    HOLLYWOOD - The summer is not half-over, but it is already
apparent which movie will be the summer's big box-office winner. To
the accompaniment of Fourth of July firecrackers, Steven Spielberg's 
fantasy about a lonely visitor from outer space, ''E.T. - the 
Extra-Terrestrial,'' has overtaken the third installment of Sylvester 
Stallone's saga about a boxer, ''Rocky III.''
    After 39 days in theaters, United Artists' ''Rocky III'' has
earned $72.5 million. After 25 days, Universal's ''E.T.'' has earned
$87 million. Of this, $17,254,946 million was taken in during the
Fourth of July weekend, the largest four-day gross in Hollywood
history.
    ''We have broken a record every day since we established the
opening 10-day record against 'Superman II' two weeks ago,'' Gordon 
Armstrong, vice president for advertising at Universal, said. ''We'll 
be over $100 million by next Saturday.''
    Paramount's ''Star Trek II - the Wrath of Khan'' is in third
place, with nearly $58 million in 32 days. Universal's ''Conan the 
Barbarian,'' with $39 million, and M-G-M- U.A.'s ''Poltergeist,'' with
$37.5 million, are essentially in a tie for fourth.
    A lot of things can happen down the backstretch, and those
positions will not necessarily stay the same for the rest of the race.
''Conan,'' which opened in the middle of May, has taken in as much 
money as it is likely to make, and ''Poltergeist'' is still earning 
several million dollars a week.
    In the long run, what counts is what Hollywood calls ''legs'' -
the ability to attract audiences week after week. Last July, Orion's 
''Arthur'' opened weakly, but the movie began to build and was still 
playing successfully at Christmas. Columbia's ''Annie'' has seemed a 
disappointment because it cost $42 million and was the center of a 
barrage of articles predicting immediate and gigantic box-office 
success, which it did not have. But ''Annie'' has earned $25.5 
million, its audience is not falling away, and it may well end up the 
summer in fourth or fifth place.
    Some of the losers are also obvious. ''The Thing,'' ''Grease II,''
''Hanky Panky,'' ''Megaforce'' and ''Author! Author!'' are among them.
''The Sword and the Sorcerer'' is not. ''The Sword and the Sorcerer,''
a low-budget independent movie from Group 1 Films, has surprisingly
earned nearly $28 million.
    Most of the movies for which the major studios had the highest
hopes have already opened. If a studio expects a film to be a
blockbuster, it will put it in theaters in June to give it as much
summer playing time as possible.
    There are exceptions, and Disney's ''TRON'' is one. ''TRON,''
which takes place inside a computer and is, thus, the first movie to 
compete directly with the video games that have siphoned off much of 
Hollywood's teen-age audience, was simply not finished in time.  
''TRON'' will open Friday.
    Universal's film version of ''The Best Little Whorehouse in
Texas'' also was not finished in time to open in June; it will have
its premiere July 16.
    Neither ''TRON'' nor ''The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas'' is a 
guaranteed success, of course - simply movies that Disney and 
Universal think have a chance of being blockbusters.
    ''When you make a commitment to release a film far far in advance,
who knows what the tone of the marketplace is going to be?'' David 
Weitzner, executive vice president of advertising at Universal, asked.
''Who knew the audience would take a squishy little person from outer
space to its heart?''
    Universal is distributing ''E.T.'' and ''The Thing.'' Weitzner
might have added, ''Who could have guessed the audience would recoil
from the gruesome 'Thing' when it had been fascinated by the gruesome 
'Alien'?''
    And there is bound to be one unexpected major-studio success from 
among the July and August movies to match ''The Sword and the 
Sorcerer.'' Perhaps Randal Kleiser's ''Summer Lovers'' will equal his 
''Blue Lagoon'' of two summers ago, or ''Young Doctors in Love,'' a 
spoof of soap operas starring soap-opera actors, will bring the 
immense soap-opera audience into theaters.
    ''But one thing is certain,'' Irv Ivers, vice president of
marketing at 20th Century-Fox, said, ''there's a new wave of movies
coming.''

------------------------------

Date: 10 Jul 1982 0125-PDT
From: Jim McGrath 
Subject: Movies and Video Games

                          By ALJEAN HARMETZ
                   c. 1982 N.Y. Times News Service

    HOLLYWOOD - Hollywood is cashing in on the video game boom.
    In 1981, game cartridges that can be plugged into home television
sets and coin-operated arcade games were an $8 billion business, while
audiences paid less than $3 billion at U.S. movie theater box offices.
In the last few weeks, nearly every movie studio has announced a joint
venture or new division meant to siphon off some of those impressive
video game revenues.
    Each studio is aiming its laser guns and space ships down a
different path, but all share at least one goal - replacing games
titled ''Pac-Man,'' '' Defender,'' ''Berzerk'' and ''Frogger'' with
games called ''Jaws,'' ''9 to 5,'' ''Star Wars'' and ''Star Trek.''
    Currently, the home video games that sell best are home versions
of successful arcade games. The studios believe that a presold movie
title - like ''The Empire Strikes Back'' or ''King Kong'' - will be
equally enticing to the consumer.
    All the studios will be starting a long way behind Warner
Communications Inc., parent of the movie-producing Warner Bros. Inc.
Revenues for Warner Communication's Atari, which has more than 75
percent of the home video game market, jumped from $238 million in
1979 to more than $1.2 billion in 1981.
    None of the other studios are planning to create hardware to
compete with Mattel Inc.'s Intellivision or Atari's home video game.
The failure of the RCA Corporation's videodisk system to appeal to
large numbers of buyers has made movie studios cautious about leaping
into new kinds of hardware. But most of them intend to do more than
just license their movies to the new medium.
    In the simplest studio involvement, Lucasfilm has licensed
''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' to Atari for a chase-through-the-jungle
home video game and licensed ''The Empire Strikes Back'' to Parker
Brothers for a home video game based on the battle on the ice planet
in that movie.
    Walt Disney Productions has gone one step beyond and orchestrated
the licensing of ''TRON,'' a movie about a deadly battle inside a
computer, so that the Bally arcade game will be available when the
movie is released July 9. More than 800 machines have already been
shipped, and promotional contests are being held in the Bally
Manufacturing Corporation's Aladdin's Castle arcades, with national
finals to be held in New York early in July to coincide with the
release of the movie. The home versions of ''TRON'' - ''Maze-a-TRON''
and ''TRON Deadly DISCS'' - will be marketed by Mattel's Intellivision
in the fall.
    The Paramount Pictures Corp. is moving considerably further into
the video game business. Paramount, a division of Gulf and Western
Industries, owns Sega, one of the leading manufacturers of arcade
games. Sega was transferred from G.&W.'s manufacturing division to
Paramount last December. Through Sega, Paramount is moving into the
home video game business both as a producer and a distributor.
    Sega is the designer and distributor of the newest No. 1 arcade
game, ''Zaxxon,'' a devilishly difficult, almost three-
 dimensional attack game. Paramount has spent $150,000 to create
a 30-second commercial for ''Zaxxon,'' the first television commercial
urging audiences into an arcade to play a game. There is a second,
equally important reason for the commercial. Paramount intends to
build Sega into a brand name - to make a star of Sega for the home
video game market.
    ''We're lucky we have the No. 1 arcade game to lead our
introduction,'' said Barry Diller, chairman of Paramount. ''It's just
like the No. 1 movie. You don't have it for a long time but it's great
to have at the particular moment you are entering a field.''
    Home video game cartridges, which sell from $22 to $35, have
traditionally been marketed through toy stores. The 20th Century-Fox
Film Corp. will be relying primarily on mass merchandisers such as the
K Mart Corp., while Paramount is currently setting up distribution in
the record and video stores that sell cassettes of its movies.
    Since it takes a minimum of six months after licensing to create
the programmable chip for a home game, the first ''Star Trek'' game
will not be available until 1983. In order to enter the market
immediately, Sega has formed a joint venture with Coleco Industries
and will begin shipping the home version of the successful arcade game
''Donkey Kong'' early in July.
    And 20th Century-Fox is also preparing to ship home video games
this summer. According to Joseph LaBonte, president of Fox, a unit,
Fox Video Games, will ship four games in late July that are compatible
only with Atari game units. Unlike Paramount, Fox does not own an
electronic game manufacturer and will not manufacture arcade games,
although it will license its movies to arcade manufacturers.
    Fox has formed a joint venture with Sirius, a large manufacturer
of computer games. None of the first few games will be based on
movies, but later offerings are now being developed from
''Megaforce,'' ''9 to 5'' and ''Porky's.''
    Lucasfilm is entering the video game field in a somewhat different
fashion. In a joint venture with Atari, Lucasfilm will be using its
expertise in digital sound and computer graphics to create and program
both arcade and home games, which Atari will then market.
    Everyone agrees that the home video game market will have
explosive growth. Game machines are now hooked up to television sets
in just eight million American homes, less than 10 percent of the
total.

------------------------------

End of SF-LOVERS Digest
***********************


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