the buzz log
The March Madness of "Twilight"
March Madness erupts Friday midnight. No, not the hoops kind: We're talking about the midnight March 20 DVD release of "Twilight."
Invitations to release parties at retailers have been free-flowing in the Buzz. Also big: suggestions on how to throw a party of one's own. (Shopping list: body shimmer for that healthy vampiric glow).
A quickie primer for cave-dwellers: "Twilight" centers on teen Bella Swan, who moves to a tiny, damp Northwestern town to live with dad. The girl-meets-vampire romance unfolded over four books, patterned after literary classics ("Pride and Prejudice," "Wuthering Heights," "Romeo and Juliet," "Midsummer's Night Dream"). The 2008 movie starred relative unknown Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart (strong acting cred in flicks like "Panic Room" and "Into the Wild"). For more, see Vanity Fair's huge December spread on the phenom.
Numbers like $35.7 million (opening day box office) and $190 million and counting (U.S. take so far) give a hint to the “Twilight” film phenom. And yes, "Twilight" is saving the economy and a convention is in the works. Witness how the the madness has mutated on the Web:
- People (read: 82% female) have been combing the 'Net looking for "twilight pics," taking "twilight quizzes," watching the "twilight new moon trailer," checking for deleted scenes, searching for the soundtrack, playing "twilight games" and getting waaay into the "twilight fanfiction."
- The movie came out in November, and the title has squatted in the top 200 terms on Yahoo! pretty much since then. In the past 7 days, the teen goth romance has been more popular than “The Watchmen.”
- Pattinson, even before he admitted to being discomfited by hot scenes in a non-"Twilight" project, has reigned as most-searched male—bigger than Chris Brown, President Obama, and the Jonas Brothers. (Yes, Stewart gets some Web love, although only a fourth of her co-star)
So, where might brooding boys want to go on the prowl for goth-struck girls at this Friday's witching hour? Well, nearly every state in the union has been be all atwitter about the DVD, but the top five states intensely leading the "Twilight" have been Utah, New Mexico, Kentucky, West Virginia, Oklahoma. Yes, Utah: Author Stephenie Meyer, a Mormon, attended Brigham in the Beehive State. Happy hunting.
Filed under: Movies, Literature, Celebrities, Books, DVD
We Like to Watch
The movie industry is turning from DVDs toward Internet content. Wisely, Tivo and Netflix have teamed up to stream movies directly to your TV. So easy! So instant! We may never leave the couch again, much less the house.
Tivo is the service that lets viewers record and watch programs on their own schedule. Netflix is the online movie rental company. Together, they will entertain the pants off of us, we predict.
Although details of the deal are still on the down-low, it sounds like it will go something like this: You're home one night and you've sent back all your Netflix movie rentals. There's nothing on TV, the kids are bouncing off the walls, and you cannot, will not watch "Nemo" for the zillionth time. Going out for dinner and a movie (not to mention hiring a babysitter) has become the cash equivalent of a week's salary. If you're still employed.
What's left? Subscribers of Tivo who are also members of Netflix can order movies or TV shows online for free — which will be automatically added to your Tivo lineup, conveniently accessible from your remote. The choices of TV episodes and movies are practically endless, with 12,000 selections ready to go. This is all part of a move to compete with services like Apple's iTunes, which offer similar options online.
The partnership will be available in early December. That's right, saving your sanity, and your wallet, one TV at a time.
Filed under: TV, Technology, DVD
Studying the Classics
Searches on America's favorite Zip Code are making a comeback. Could it be the long-awaited release of the first season of "Beverly Hills 90210" on DVD? The sideburns and receding hairlines of the '90s oldest high schoolers are back in style and Buzz on "90210" was up 46% yesterday.
The years since the halcyon days of the Peach Pit haven't been kind to the stars of "90210." Dylan and Brandon aren't exactly hunks anymore, and Donna Martin has graduated to a life of lurid tabloid headlines. We checked searches on the actors of West Beverly and found an unlikely number one...
While it was tough to top "90210" as a guilty pleasure, "Melrose Place" managed to drown the competition in a sea of soapy suds. Also out now on DVD, season one of "Melrose" offers little hint of the campy and bitchy drama the show would become in its later years.
Most of the credit for the show's eventual success is laid at the beautiful feet of diva-licious Heather Locklear. The blonde bombshell who played the awesomely bad Amanda appropriately ranks at the top of our Search survey of Melrose's biggest stars...
Shows Worth Waiting For
To gauge the popularity of certain hit shows, we can always rely on the Buzz to offer up a different angle. We know which shows are the hottest in Search, but how can we tell if a show truly has a rabid fan base?
An intriguing way to check on the relative heat of hit shows is by checking the pent-up demand for a show's release on DVD. With that in mind, we screened searches on "release dates" for DVD box sets of TV favorites to see which shows had consumers salivating.
Here are the top 12 TV on DVD release date searches right now, along with the date the box set is supposed to hit store shelves...
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top movers
| Rank | Subject | 1-Day Move |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ford 400 | Breakout! |
| 2 | Indonesia Ferry | Breakout! |
| 3 | Jordan Chandler | 3481% |
| 4 | Evan Chandler | 2322% |
| 5 | American Music Awards | 1841% |
| 6 | John F. Kennedy | 1529% |
| 7 | Turkey Stuffing Recipes | 1361% |
| 8 | Liam Hemsworth | 1172% |
| 9 | Lou Dobbs | 1142% |
| 10 | Hendrick Motorsports | 888% |
top leaders
| Rank | Subject | Move | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Black Friday | +340 | 1290 |
| 2 | NFL | +489 | 670 |
| 3 | Jennifer Lopez | +451 | 515 |
| 4 | New Moon | -67 | 250 |
| 5 | American Music Awards | +236 | 249 |
| 6 | UFC | -36 | 239 |
| 7 | Miley Cyrus | +66 | 169 |
| 8 | Hulu | -11 | 154 |
what's the buzz?
A subject's buzz score is the percentage of Yahoo! users searching for that subject on a given day, multiplied by a constant to make the number easier to read. Weekly leaders are the subjects with the greatest average buzz score for a given week.
For more detailed information, visit our FAQ.