Hey guys...
Status One Update
We started our new adventure of In Theaters - Box Office reviews back in January and I think four months is long enough to see that it just ain't working. For whatever reasons (with the exception of a very few), our readers like media reviews much more than they like box office reviews.
THIS MAKES SENSE!
If you think about it, our readers are in fact home theater enthusiasts. For the most part they come here interested in things to do with their "home" theater so that they can watch movies at "home" and not the commercial cinemas. Granted, people go out to watch movies, but they are not coming here to find out about those movies... they are coming here to discuss "home" theater and "media" would be more in line with what they would be interested in here.
If you look through our reviews, the ones that have any hope of drawing a lot of attention are the new releases on media, be it Blu-ray or DVD. None of the box office review views have broke 500, not even Avatar that was several months ago. Yes, if we reach way back to a couple of box office reviews that were non-paid reviews (Star Trek posted in 6/09 and Watchman posted in 3/09) those have broke 500. It took a long time for those to get where they are. Avatar will probably break it, but it could be several more months.
I truly appreciate you guys giving it a go. I do not fault you or your reviews... it is the nature of our forum that creates less interest in these type of reviews.
Therefore, beginning May 1, 2010, we will cease all In Theaters - Box Office reviews. You can review them if you like, in any format you desire, in the General Discussion and Reviews: Movies | TV Shows | Hollywood forum, however, there will be no payment made for those.
Status Two Update
When we started the paid review process some couple of years ago, I agreed to allow re-releases on Blu-ray to be reviewed, but only if they were big hits. However, it seems we have been pulling any and every ole re-release off the shelves for reviews. I am seeing a LOT of movies that simply were not that big of a hit. Yes, they may have been "good" movies, but many of these are not even in the IMDB Top 250. If you look through these, they hardly break 300 views. We lose money on these. For us to justify paying for a review, it needs to at least break 500 reviews... then we still lose money, but at least we are headed in the right direction. We are definitely getting a better viewership because we are reviewing more movies, but we are definitely wasting a lot of re-releases that we should not be reviewing. There have only been a couple of really good re-releases, LOTR being one of those, but look at where it sits on the IMDB list... all three in the top 30... one at number 11.
Therefore, beginning May 1, 2010, we will cease all re-release reviews unless they are big... and I mean BIG hits. I am not even sure if there are any left to be re-released, but if it ain't in the IMDB top 50, I doubt we will consider it. If it is, we still need to think long and hard about whether it will be worthy of a review.
Status Three Update
We want more "NEW" Blu-ray and DVD movie reviews. Those are the ones that will bring in more viewers for us and hopefully get us to a point where we can start paying you guys more for these reviews. We would like for all reviews to be posted within 5-10 days of their release date (unless you guys think this is simply too unreasonable). If we wait too long then we miss a lot of potential viewers who go to where the reviews are released on or before the actual release date. If we are able to get the review copy from the studios early, I don't see why we can't have the reviews posted at the same time or sooner than other review sites.
I hope all this makes sense. I am certainly open to suggestions for improvements, but it has to be within reason if we are going to continue to pay for reviews. We have spent quite a bit and just simply are not seeing the returns. I firmly believe all of you are top notch reviewers and I am certainly glad we have a crew that does as well as you do with your reviews. This does not go without our appreciation for everything you guys do to try to help our site. We truly thank you for your contribution and can only hope that you understand our view point. We have to do things reasonably and wisely.
Status One Update
We started our new adventure of In Theaters - Box Office reviews back in January and I think four months is long enough to see that it just ain't working. For whatever reasons (with the exception of a very few), our readers like media reviews much more than they like box office reviews.
THIS MAKES SENSE!
If you think about it, our readers are in fact home theater enthusiasts. For the most part they come here interested in things to do with their "home" theater so that they can watch movies at "home" and not the commercial cinemas. Granted, people go out to watch movies, but they are not coming here to find out about those movies... they are coming here to discuss "home" theater and "media" would be more in line with what they would be interested in here.
If you look through our reviews, the ones that have any hope of drawing a lot of attention are the new releases on media, be it Blu-ray or DVD. None of the box office review views have broke 500, not even Avatar that was several months ago. Yes, if we reach way back to a couple of box office reviews that were non-paid reviews (Star Trek posted in 6/09 and Watchman posted in 3/09) those have broke 500. It took a long time for those to get where they are. Avatar will probably break it, but it could be several more months.
I truly appreciate you guys giving it a go. I do not fault you or your reviews... it is the nature of our forum that creates less interest in these type of reviews.
Therefore, beginning May 1, 2010, we will cease all In Theaters - Box Office reviews. You can review them if you like, in any format you desire, in the General Discussion and Reviews: Movies | TV Shows | Hollywood forum, however, there will be no payment made for those.
Status Two Update
When we started the paid review process some couple of years ago, I agreed to allow re-releases on Blu-ray to be reviewed, but only if they were big hits. However, it seems we have been pulling any and every ole re-release off the shelves for reviews. I am seeing a LOT of movies that simply were not that big of a hit. Yes, they may have been "good" movies, but many of these are not even in the IMDB Top 250. If you look through these, they hardly break 300 views. We lose money on these. For us to justify paying for a review, it needs to at least break 500 reviews... then we still lose money, but at least we are headed in the right direction. We are definitely getting a better viewership because we are reviewing more movies, but we are definitely wasting a lot of re-releases that we should not be reviewing. There have only been a couple of really good re-releases, LOTR being one of those, but look at where it sits on the IMDB list... all three in the top 30... one at number 11.
Therefore, beginning May 1, 2010, we will cease all re-release reviews unless they are big... and I mean BIG hits. I am not even sure if there are any left to be re-released, but if it ain't in the IMDB top 50, I doubt we will consider it. If it is, we still need to think long and hard about whether it will be worthy of a review.
Status Three Update
We want more "NEW" Blu-ray and DVD movie reviews. Those are the ones that will bring in more viewers for us and hopefully get us to a point where we can start paying you guys more for these reviews. We would like for all reviews to be posted within 5-10 days of their release date (unless you guys think this is simply too unreasonable). If we wait too long then we miss a lot of potential viewers who go to where the reviews are released on or before the actual release date. If we are able to get the review copy from the studios early, I don't see why we can't have the reviews posted at the same time or sooner than other review sites.
I hope all this makes sense. I am certainly open to suggestions for improvements, but it has to be within reason if we are going to continue to pay for reviews. We have spent quite a bit and just simply are not seeing the returns. I firmly believe all of you are top notch reviewers and I am certainly glad we have a crew that does as well as you do with your reviews. This does not go without our appreciation for everything you guys do to try to help our site. We truly thank you for your contribution and can only hope that you understand our view point. We have to do things reasonably and wisely.