Between 2002 and 2011, companies spent a whopping $2.5 billion on Super Bowl advertising; this year, a 30-second commercial cost an average of $3.5 million. But what do you get for all that cash. In the case of these eight major advertisers, not as much as they'd hoped.
The buck stops here at Redbox. Renting a DVD from one of the disc-spewing kiosks will now set you back $1.20 a night, up from the round $1 price point that Redbox parent Coinstar has promoted for years. It's the wrong move at the wrong time, and the sad clincher is that it's not even necessary.
Warner Bros. finally had enough of Sheen's antics. The producers figured that the show's star -- who was reportedly paid nearly $2 million an episode --- was no longer worth the considerable trouble he created. Still, the move is a financial risk.
"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1" had the most successful opening of the series so far, bringing in $125 million in U.S. box office sales last weekend. That gives the Warner Bros. title the sixth-most successful U.S. movie launch ever.
After filmmakers last week threatened to shoot "The Hobbit" films elsewhere, New Zealand has come up with $25 million in incentives to keep production in the country. The prequels to the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, which also was filmed in New Zealand, will start filming early next year.
CNN anchor Anderson Cooper is set to get his own syndicated daytime talk show, a program that will address "social issues, trends and events, pop culture and celebrity, human interest stories and populist news," whatever that means.
Unintentional hilarity is usually not a good thing in a corporate earnings call, but when your results are as strong as those reported Wednesday by Time Warner, you can afford to have a sense of humor.
