Via “Financial Times” alerts:

“Toy Story 3″ is set to become Walt Disney Co.’s (DIS) largest-grossing animated film after generating $630.2 million in its first month in theaters, the Financial Times reported Sunday on its website, without directly citing sources.

The film yet to screen in about half of the world’s movie markets, the report said.

It said the film was set to debut in the U.K. Monday, and would be released in Spain, Germany and Scandinavia in the coming month.

That doesn’t surprise me.  “Toy Story 3″ is a great movie which was highly anticipated.

As I mentioned a few weeks ago via Facebook, AMC was determined to get rid of the Kerasotes Five Buck Club from the get-go.  They sent out a “survey” about the Five Buck Club and mentioned their alternative “Program X” for $5 movies.  Coming from a marketing & business background it was clear to me that AMC already had their mind made up on what to do regardless of the outcome of the survey (which they quickly shut down because they said that they had enough responses).

While the number crunchers probably sat down and came up with this grand plan, they failed to realize that there’s a reason people waited for movies to go to the Five Buck Club…because they don’t want to pay $10 (or more in 3D or IMAX) to see a movie that will be out in stores in a few months.  If people really want to see a movie then the price doesn’t come into play and they’d see it opening weekend anyway (and BTW, all morning movies at Kerasotes were $5 as well, even for new movies).

Anyway, what this means for me is that AMC won’t be getting as much money out of my pocket because most of my theater visiting opportunities come during their new Premium Pricing Club viewings.  But never fear, we still have second run movies and maybe Regal or another theater chain will see AMC’s folly and seize the opportunity.

BURBANK, Calif., Jan 12, 2010 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment (WDSHE) announces the return of seven movie favorites to the Disney vault on January 30, 2010. Treasured by families, fans and coveted by collectors, the exciting, limited-time releases that return to the vault include multiple animated classics and live-action favorites.

• Sleeping Beauty (Two-Disc Platinum Edition) on DVD
• Sleeping Beauty (Two-Disc Platinum Edition + Standard DVD and BD Live) [Blu-ray]
• The Jungle Book (40th Anniversary Platinum Edition) (animated) on DVD
• The Jungle Book 2 (Special Edition) (animated) on DVD
• 101 Dalmatians (Two-Disc Platinum Edition) (animated) on DVD
• 101 Dalmatians 2: Patch’s London Adventure – Special Edition (animated) on DVD
• 101 Dalmatians (live-action) on DVD
• 102 Dalmatians (live action) on DVD

There’s an abundance of Halloween & Christmas Blu-Ray releases out today.

Blu-Ray Movie Highlights

• A Charlie Brown Christmas – A classic everyone should own. I hope they cleaned it up a bit from the DVD version though.
• Horton Hears a Who! – The cartoon version.
• How the Grinch Stole Christmas – The cartoon version and another must own. Ditto on the cleaning up from the DVD.
• Home Alone 2: Lost in New York – Good movie & soundtrack, though I like the first one better.
• Miracle on 34th Street (1947) – Classic Christmas movie!
• Miracle on 34th Street (1994) – A remake that is just as good as the original. I still remember seeing this on in the theater.
• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs – And yet another classic. This is one you must buy before it goes back into the Disney Vault.
• Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory – Though not as good as Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, it’s a good movie that always creeped me out as a kid.
• Wolf
• Year One

Blu-Ray Television

• Bones: Season 4
  
• The Absolute Best of Ghost Hunters

Other Blu-Ray Releases

• Audition
• Celestial Railroad
• China Circus on Ice
• Contact
• Dinosaurs Alive!
• Ghost Ship
• Imagine That
• Kenny G: An Evening of Rhythm & Romance
• Kurt Cobain: About A Son
• Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
• My Life in Ruins
• Not Forgotten
• Offspring
• Paradox of the Andes
• Red Dwarf: Back to Earth
• Rob Thomas: Something to Be Tour- Live at Red Rocks
• Seventh Moon
• The Children
• The National Parks: America’s Best Idea
• The Number 23 – Creepy Jim Carrey movie. Not for the kids!
• The Thaw
• Trick ‘r Treat
• Wolf / Dracula / Frankenstein Trilogy

Fellow Blu-Ray Video buffs, here are the new releases for today.

Blu-Ray Movie Highlights

• Labyrinth- I’m afraid that this may be more of David Bowie than most of us care to see
• Monsters vs. Aliens – A must have for kids and adults.
• Snakes on a Plane – Why?!?!?! Seriously?
• The Dark Crystal – Very strange from Jim Henson
• The Wizard of Oz – A Classic, buy it!

Blu-Ray Television

• How I Met Your Mother: Season Four
• The Unit: Season Four
• The Universe: Collector’s Edition Megaset
• The Universe: The Complete Season Three

Other Blu-Ray Releases

• Away We Go
• Billy Jack
• Burst Angel: Box Set & OVA
• Facing the Giants
• Fireproof
• Gala Concert: 300 Years of St. Petersburg
• Glenn Gould: Hereafter
• HD Moods: Trains
• Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
• Lies & Illusions
• Management
• National Geographic Ultimate High Definition Collection
• Puccini: Edgar
• Romeo & Juliet
• Secrets of the Cross
• Stravinsky: The Rake’s Progress
• Superman/Batman: Public Enemies
• Tchaikovsky: Sleeping Beauty
• The Girlfriend Experience
• The New York Ripper
• The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
• Twin Spirits: Sting performs Schumann
• UFC: Ultimate Knockouts 7
• Yellowstone: Battle for Life

I’ve been looking at High Definition (HDTV) channel lineups for here in Indianapolis and am kind of disappointed.

Here’s what Comcast (my only cable choice) offers:

1. A&E HD
2. Cinemax HDTV East
3. ESPN 2 HD
4. ESPN HD
5. FSN Midwest HD
6. HBO HDTV East
7. HD Theater
8. MHD
9. National Geographic HD
10. Showtime East (HDTV)
11. Showtime HDTV East
12. Starz HDTV
13. Starz HDTV East
14. TNT HD
15. Universal HD
16. Versus/Golf HD
17. WFYI (PBS)
18. WISH (CBS)
19. WRTV (ABC)
20. WTHR (NBC)
21. WTTV-4 (WB)
22. WXIN (FOX)

And from the list above, I wouldn’t get any of the “premium” channels and I can only see myself watching local channels (which I can get in HD over the air) and the sports channels.  But the sports channels are enough to tear me a bit…the main reasons I’d buy an HDTV are for sports and movies.

I don’t really want to get satellite TV because I’ve never met anyone who hasn’t had issues with it. “Oh, it’s windy.” Or “Oh, it’s snowing/raining.” Or “Oh, the suns out today.”  Or, “Oh, Jupiter is in the way.” Or, “Oh, it’s Tuesday.”  Seriously, who hasn’t heard this from people?  As much as I might complain about Comcast prices and service, outages aren’t that common of an occurrence (it does happen though).

AT&T’s U-verse (which I’ve heard good things about and has an amazing HD lineup), isn’t available in my area (not surprising since I can’t even get a decent DSL connection…which is crazy since I live inside Indianapolis city limits in a large neighborhood and very close to many businesses).  I’d probably opt for that if it were an option.

I’ve been reading up on HDTV for a while and with the Februaury 2009 “switch”, it’s time to get on board, so I’m curious as to what any “early adopters” out there have experienced and would suggest.  In my looking over the past few moths, it is very clear that HDTVs have made an amazing stride in both quality and price drop.

So with that, I ask:

• What are your experiences?
• What are you doing for your TV viewing?
• What about Blu-Ray players?
  • Sony PlayStation 3 vs. Stand Alone Players
• What about HDTVs?
  • LCD, DLP or Plasma?  (I personally like the LCDs for the picture and price.)
• What about DVRs?

I’m not a big fan of award shows in general since I’m not into watching the rich-and-famous sipping champagne in fancy clothing while slapping each other on the rears and high-fiving each other on their “accomplishments” for the year…but more importantly I’m not sure where they come up with the nominees and how they select the winners AND why there seem to be so many of these things. And which of the awards is “better” to receive?

But even the one hour, non-star-laced presentation this evening could not capture my attention as they lost me when they kept talking about shows and movies I’d never even heard of (apparently this is because I have no idea what’s on the “pay” cable channels).

Anyway, here’s the list of Golden Globe winners for this year. If it were up to me Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and Pushing Daisies would have swept the awards, but at least Sweeney won a few. And of the short animation list, Ratatouille was the best of the bunch (even though I did like The Simpsons Movie).