• 20
  million the number of people who use Netflix, which has only been around about 12 years
• 24
  million the number of people who use Comcast, which has been around over 40 years

• $9M the amount Netflix paid studios for streaming films in the second quarter of last year
• $66M the amount Netflix spent on acquiring movies for its streaming service this past quarter
• $116M the amount the company paid to movie studios for in the first six months of 2010 source

• » A win-win relationship? While the relationship clearly favors the film studios at this point, the success of Netflix’s streaming model has proven fruitful, especially since it hasn’t come at a higher cost to the consumer. While Netflix has pushed more money into streaming distribution, they’ve had to put less into their DVD budgets, meaning that money is shifting from one platform to another. Oh, and it helps that they’ve nailed streaming movies better than anyone else. (Hat tip to Jeff Greco for finding this.)

• 3-D is a waste of a perfectly good dimension. Hollywood’s current crazy stampede toward it is suicidal. It adds nothing essential to the moviegoing experience.
• Film critic and all-around awesome person Roger Ebert • Talking about the craze towards three-dimensional films started by “Avatar” and continued with pretty much every major hit movie so far this year. His argument? It makes you sick, and you don’t really need it to tell a great story. “A great film completely engages our imaginations,” he writes. “What would ‘Fargo’ gain in 3-D? ‘Precious’? ‘Casablanca’?” source

• $32.4
  million the amount chick flick “Dear John,” which is getting savaged by critics, earned in its debut
• $23.6
  million the amount “Avatar” made in its eighth weekend, which is still pretty solid eight weeks in source

• nine number of nominations for “Avatar,” the James Cameron megahit that’s already in record territory
• nine number of nominations for “The Hurt Locker,” the war film directed by his ex-wife, Kathryn Bigelow

Other major nominees

• eight nominations for Quentin Tarantino’s Nazi-killin’ “Inglorious Basterds”
• six nominations for “Up In The Air,” the George Clooney airline flick
• six nominations for “Precious,” including one for the usually-funny Mo’Nique

Best Picture changes

• This year is a weird year for the Best Picture nominees. Rather than the usual five nominations, the Academy has switched to ten, widening the field to the point that the types of movies that never get nominated somehow did this time around, including:

• pixar “Up” got a nomination, finally validating the consistent levels of commendation the 3D animators get.
• sci-fi “District 9” got four nominations, including one for Best Picture – not bad for a director’s first movie.
• popular “The Blind Side,” which had garnered praise for Sandra Bullock’s performance, got one too. Wow. Surprising.

Who got burned this time?

• » The well-reviewed Jeff Bridges/Maggie Gyllenhaal flick “Crazy Heart” got nominations for the stars (and for best song – we called it!), but not for Best Picture.
• » Tom Ford’s “A Single Man” got just one nomination (for Colin Firth’s performance), despite the crazy level of arthouse hype it got. The Coen Brothers’ “A Serious Man,” however, did get a Best Picture nomination, which (despite their recent Best Picture win) is somewhat surprising.
• » “The Lovely Bones” scored just one acting nomination – that’s to be expected, as it wasn’t a critical hit – but it didn’t get anything for its fairly solid visual effects, which really sold the film. Peter Jackson did produce “District 9,” however. source

• $28.3 million box office take for “The Final Destination,” which topped the box office this weekend and is the series’ best opening source

• $37.6 million the box-office tally “Inglourious Basterds” drew this weekend source

• Anything is better with Mario. Including killing Nazis. Er, goombas.source

• Marilyn Chambers, who you either know from old-school boxes of Ivory Snow or from your dad’s old-school porn collection.

• Harry Kalas, whose voice you either know because you’re a Phillies fan or you watch classic NFL documentaries on television.

• Mark “The Bird” Fidrych, who you either know because you’re a baseball fan from the ’70s or like random sports trivia.