Corporations are designed to do one thing, and one thing only: to increase the value of its stock.
I would like to make a small change, if I may:
Publicly traded Corporations are designed to do one thing, and one thing only: to increase the value of its stock.
There are plenty of privately-held companies that live up to the very human ideals of their much more specific ownership. To them, making a profit (or increasing shareholder value) is important only to the extent that it lets them continue with their philanthropy, business experiment, or just plain screwing around and getting paid.
I had the tilde key break on my PowerBook laptop, called into Apple's helpdesk, and had a brand new keyboard shipped out to me (no need to return the old keyboard), which arrived the *next* day.
The chick on the phone even joked with me about what I could do with the old keyboard once I got the new one.
Unfortunately, any big company is going to have good people and bad people--I've heard a lot of bad about Apple's tech support, particularly with fixes and turnaround times--but overall I've been impressed by the service that I personally have received.
To answer why you saw a Harry Potter trailer before MI - it's because it was spliced on. No tie in with Disney, no permission from Disney, nothing. It was because the projectionist either made the decision himself or was told to put it on there. No other reason.
Exactly what I said. The Harry Potter ad was tacked on at the theater, but the Star Wars ad is attached to the film itself. From Star Wars Today: Fans to get first look at Attack of the Clones through exclusive trailer only on Monsters, Inc
Where I saw it, there was something like 4 or 5 trailers (I know, because I anticipated each one to be the Star Wars teaser), then there was the little happy Century Theaters clip, then there was an ad for Disney's Return to Neverland (Peter Pan II) and the Star Wars teaser. I imagine both of those were on the reel when it got to the theater, which doesn't necessarily break a "no two trailers" rule since the Star Wars clip was so dang short. =)
I figured that since Monsters was backed by Disney and Harry Potter by AOL/TimeWarner, I wouldn't be seeing a trailer.
...
Then, [just as] I was beginning to think that the rumors were false, the LucasFilm logo popped up
If I'm not mistaken, theaters will throw their own ads on before the movie (which would be the Harry Potter ad before the theater ad) and then others are directly attached to the film itself (i.e. SW:AOTC). In the first case, your theater is probably going to be showing Harry Potter, and in the second case Lucasfilm/Pixar have strong historical ties (enough to get Disney to help advertise a Fox movie, obviously).
Slashdot Mirror
I would like to make a small change, if I may:
Publicly traded Corporations are designed to do one thing, and one thing only: to increase the value of its stock.
There are plenty of privately-held companies that live up to the very human ideals of their much more specific ownership. To them, making a profit (or increasing shareholder value) is important only to the extent that it lets them continue with their philanthropy, business experiment, or just plain screwing around and getting paid.
I had the tilde key break on my PowerBook laptop, called into Apple's helpdesk, and had a brand new keyboard shipped out to me (no need to return the old keyboard), which arrived the *next* day.
The chick on the phone even joked with me about what I could do with the old keyboard once I got the new one.
Unfortunately, any big company is going to have good people and bad people--I've heard a lot of bad about Apple's tech support, particularly with fixes and turnaround times--but overall I've been impressed by the service that I personally have received.
Where I saw it, there was something like 4 or 5 trailers (I know, because I anticipated each one to be the Star Wars teaser), then there was the little happy Century Theaters clip, then there was an ad for Disney's Return to Neverland (Peter Pan II) and the Star Wars teaser. I imagine both of those were on the reel when it got to the theater, which doesn't necessarily break a "no two trailers" rule since the Star Wars clip was so dang short. =)