New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is going to do for sugary drinks what he did for smoking early on in his tenure, though movie theaters in the city are ready to take on his honor's plans to keep audiences from slurping too much sugary fizz while sitting in front of a screen. The new regulation, which won the support of NYC's board of health, will ban calorie-soaked sugary drinks such as sodas from being sold in theaters, concession stands, cafeterias and restaurants larger than 16 ounces. The ban comes in the wake of the city's past public health initiatives which outlawed smoking in bars, offices and some public areas. It has also banned trans fats and has forced fast-food restaurants to list calorie counts on their menus.
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"By 2013, film will slip to niche status, shown in only a third of theaters. By 2015, used in a paltry 17 percent of global cinemas, venerable old 35 mm film will be mostly gone." The epic life and death struggle between film and digital rolls on, and in LA Weekly's cover story must-read Gendy Alimurung details the sobering -- and imminent -- sea change in film production and exhibition with insights from figures at every stop on the cinematic food chain: Filmmakers, arthouse/rep theaters, film curators, projectionists, preservationists, and even the cold, lonely (and increasingly studio-blocked) vaults that house the dwindling ranks of cinema's remaining 35mm prints.
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A week after backpedaling from the rumored threat that they'd pull major summer blockbusters (Harry Potter? The Hangover II? NO!!) from theaters to punish studios for committing to early video on demand distribution agreements, the National Association of Theater Owners (NATO) is taking a different tack. Meet NATOs new army of foot soldiers in the debate over VOD: 23 of Hollywood's biggest names, who signed a NATO-backed open letter pleading for the protection of "the movie-going experience."
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