Angelina Jolie is kaput

[kiaer.ts]

Hi Ted,

Funny you mentioned that, I'm watching the series. I'm up to part 10. It's excellent.

I'm reading books on ancient history and then watching movies. It's a good way to learn, but obviously you have to be careful.

-Neil Parille

Careful of what? Stewed mushrooms and fresh figs?

[Neil Parille]

The historical accuracy of the movies. For example 300 was a joke.

-Neil Parille

[BaalChatzaf]

I doubt this film will ever be made. I think it would have to be too long.

-Neil Parille

I have four words for you.

I, Clau-Di-Us

That is spelled CLAVDIVS.

Ba'al Chatzaf

[kiaer.ts]

I doubt this film will ever be made. I think it would have to be too long.

-Neil Parille

I have four words for you.

I, Clau-Di-Us

That is spelled CLAVDIVS.

Ba'al Chatzaf

No, that is spelled tee aitch ay tee.

And κλαυδιος wrote his history in Greek.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Michael, Out of curiosity, to help me understand where google gets revenue, how much money would they get paid per 1000 impressions? Just a ballpark figure if there is such a thing.

David,

There is no ballpark figure that is easy to find. It depends on the keyword and several other factors like quality score. As regards quality score, the more relevant a keyword is to the site it links to, and the higher the click-through rate you achieve overall in all your Adwords campaigns means you will have a higher quality score and will pay less per click than a competitor.

I looked in my Adwords account and researched the keyword "Ayn Rand." Here are Google's figures:

Cost per click is $2.21 in Google's Keyword tool.

According to Google's Traffic Estimator, you will pay $0.53 - $0.79 per click for an ad triggered by this keyword if your daily budget is $20 and you put a low ceiling on your bid (say, "at a maximum CPC of $3.47"). It will only generate approximately 8-14 clicks a day.

If you leave the ceiling high (say $10) to guarantee you will get your ad placed high and if your daily budget is $100, you could pay $1.77 - $2.24 per click, but an ad triggered by this keyword will still only generate approximately 8-14 clicks a day.

Note: This is what Google's tool returned. Google often provides inaccurate data on purpose to outsmart spammers, but still gives ballpark figures to the general public.

As to getting the average CPM, the only way I know how to do that is set up a PPC campaign, then check the Campaign Summary in your Adwords account. There you can find a column that will give this figure. I didn't do that for "Ayn Rand" because I didn't feel like setting up an entire campaign just to find that out. (I bet you could get it for under a dollar, though.)

Business-wise, I would not pay 2 bucks a click for "Ayn Rand" because the products you can sell as an affiliate would not cover the price. If I had a more expensive product like memorabilia or a lecture course costing a couple of a hundred dollars, I would alter the keyword with a modifier or make it "long-tail" to reflect the high-end product. In addition to getting traffic targeted to my purpose (and not just people interested in "Ayn Rand" in general), my Adwords cost will be drastically lower per click.

Michael

[algernonsidney]

Hollywood is not willing to produce an Atlas Shrugged movie. Yet, it will produce an epic about Che Guevara.

[BaalChatzaf]

Hollywood is not willing to produce an Atlas Shrugged movie. Yet, it will produce an epic about Che Guevara.

The Movie People produce and distribute what sells.

Capitalism 101

Ba'al Chatzaf

Edited January 27, 2009 by BaalChatzaf

[Chris Grieb]

Baal; One of the problems is that I suspect that some of these movies don't make money. In the early 80th I happened to see the movie "Daniel" which is based on "The Book of Daniel" by E L Doctorow. The theater I saw it at had less than ten people in it. I don't think these left wing movies do that well.

I'm open to contrary evidence.

I don't think the previous movie about Che did so well.

[Reidy]

You're right. Politically preachy movies usually fail. One of the big stories in the business in the last few years has been the long string of bombs that attacked the Iraq war. Conservatives had high hopes a few months ago for a comedy by the makers of Airplane, and it disappeared quickly too. Clooney's movie about Murrow and McCarthy is one exception that comes to mind; China Syndrome, Jane Fonday's anti-nuclear story about 25 years ago is another. She also starred in the long-forgotten Rollover at about the same time. A couple of releases in the 70s attributed the Kennedy assasination to a cabal of industrialists. One was The Parallax View. Never heard of it? QED. Crichton's Rising Sun was about a Japanese conspiracy to buy up the United States. I don't know how well the novel sold, but the movie went nowhere.

Those anti-Iraq movies, which kept on coming long after consumers had declared that they weren't buying, are good counter-examples to the notion that moviemakers care only about money and will do what they have to do to make it.

Do you have any numbers on how the Guevara movie is doing?

Edited January 27, 2009 by Reidy

[Chris Grieb]

A quick look at IMDB had no figures for the latest movie about Che Guevara. IMDB only shows the top ten money making films and it is not among them. If anyone can find more information I would like to see it.

I also looked at Variety's website and for the past week they showed a figure of a little over $164, 000 as a total gross in the US. The Che movie seems to continue in the great tradition of left wing films.

Edited January 27, 2009 by Chris Grieb

[Brant Gaede]

You're right. Politically preachy movies usually fail. One of the big stories in the business in the last few years has been the long string of bombs that attacked the Iraq war. Conservatives had high hopes a few months ago for a comedy by the makers of Airplane, and it disappeared quickly too. Clooney's movie about Murrow and McCarthy is one exception that comes to mind; China Syndrome, Jane Fonday's anti-nuclear story about 25 years ago is another. She also starred in the long-forgotten Rollover at about the same time. A couple of releases in the 70s attributed the Kennedy assasination to a cabal of industrialists. One was The Parallax View. Never heard of it? QED. Crichton's Rising Sun was about a Japanese conspiracy to buy up the United States. I don't know how well the novel sold, but the movie went nowhere.

Those anti-Iraq movies, which kept on coming long after consumers had declared that they weren't buying, are good counter-examples to the notion that moviemakers care only about money and will do what they have to do to make it.

Do you have any numbers on how the Guevara movie is doing?

The China Syndrome was theatrically released in March, 1979. I saw it while visiting Los Angeles. Coincidentally the Three-Mile Island reactor incident happened shortly thereafter in Pennsylvania.

-Brant