Business World

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Apr 15, 1998

Weathering success ATLANTA (Cox) -- Even as James Cameron's Oscar-winning picture loses its four-month hold on the number-one spot at the box office, its continued popularity is posing a unique problem to movie theaters: Their Titanic prints are starting to look as scruffy as the third-class passengers depicted in the film.

"There really is no precedent for it. Normally, we don't have to deal with films running four months," said Phil Zacheretti, a spokesman for Knoxville-based Regal Cinemas, a chain with theaters in Palm Beach County. Compounding the problem is the industrywide switch to a new, polyster-based film about a year ago. It makes prints tougher to tear -- the main obstacle projectionists face -- but easier to scratch. "After 10 weeks, the film is not going to look as it should," Zacheretti said. But there's the rub. With Titanic fever starting to wane -- the movie slipped to number three this past weekend, behind City of Angels and Lost in Space -- there's speculation that Paramount, the studio that produced it, is hesitant to order new prints. Blaise Noto, a Paramount spokesman, said that "we try to accommodate the theaters as best as we can," but he acknowledged that moviegoers may have to face some wear and tear. "Seventeen weeks is a long time," he said of Titanic's run. Sustaining success ROSARITO, Mexico (AP) -- Undeveloped beaches, scenic surf and succulent lobster once defined this popular tourist spot in Baja California. That was before the Titanic docked here. Now, there are Titanic burgers, Titanic seafood and a Titanic glass and screen shop with faux portholes on its storefront. And don't forget the Titanic museum. James Cameron, the writer-director of Hollywood's most expensive film, searched worldwide for the perfect location to sink his 775- foot model of the ill-fated ship that sunk 86 years ago on Tuesday. He chose Rosarito, about 50 miles south of San Diego, because of its uncluttered view of the Pacific. Now, the 80,000 residents of this poor, coastal town hope the Titanic will be their ship of fame and fortune, attracting future films and tourists. "In the future, Titanic will mean more confidence to invest, if (20th Century) Fox invested and filmed a great movie like this one," said Mayor Hugo Torres Chabert, who wants to diversify his town's summer economy and lessen its reliance on surfers, daytrippers and retirees. The set was constructed on 40 acres of seaside land three miles south of Rosarito's hotel-restaurant strip. A good portion of space was dedicated to a 17 million-gallon pool, which remains for future films. When shooting over six months in 1996 and 1997, the production pumped more than $15 million into the economy, Rosarito officials estimate. Actors and production crews filled 350 hotel rooms and 300 private rental houses in the area's off-season, from October to February. Work was created for 100 locals as carpenters, welders and extras, most of whom doubled their weekly incomes working on the film. Quick out of the box OKLAHOMA CITY (JR) -- Kirk Humphreys, who became Oklahoma City major on Tuesday, is already joining the luncheon speaker circuit. He will be the keynote speaker at the 1998 JCPenney Golden Rule Awards luncheon at 11:30 a.m. April 22 at the Cowboy hall of Fame. JCPenney will present Golden Rule awards to five individuals or groups for voluntary service and a $1,000 contribution to each winner's nonprofit agency. A $500 contribution to a nonprofit agency and a $500 scholarship will be presented to the youth winner. Ten finalists also will be recognized with a $250 contribution for their nonprofit agency. Call Connie Motsinger, Golden Rule coordinator, at 631-6611, extension 207, for reservations. If two blades are good... NEW YORK (AP) -- Gillette on Tuesday introduced the first three- bladed razor and plans to push its sales past its top-selling Sensor line with a $300 million promotional campaign. In late July or early August, consumers will start seeing ads for the Mach3 razor in a pricey campaign aimed at persuading men to pay 35 percent more for blades. The new razor has rubber fins, more blades, a patented extra- thin edge and ear-numbing ads designed to link it with the sound- barrier breaking jets after which it is named. The razor's spring-mounted blades are more perpendicular to the face, which Gillette says allows the blades to glide more smoothly. A razor and two cartridges will sell for up to $6.99 and a package of replacement cartridges will cost about $6.79 -- about 35 percent more than the cost of its current line of blades. The 95-year-old company has ambitious plans to capture 20 to 30 percent of the razor market, which would eclipse Gillette's own top- selling Sensor line in consumer penetration as well as price. The nation's biggest razor maker has already spent more than $750 in research and manufacturing retooling to prepare for its launch of the product. Long distance to local NEW YORK (Bloomberg) -- Sprint plans to expand its local phone businesses by building new networks in cities through partnerships with smaller local phone companies. In a presentation at the Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Third Annual Global Telecom Conference in New York, Sprint President and Chief Operating Officer Ronald LeMay said the company has networks in 16 cities today and plans to add 20 more by the year's end. The Sprint executive said the networks will be built by competitive local exchange carriers, or CLECs, to Sprint's specifications. Those partnerships will give the No. 3 U.S. long- distance company a broader-reaching local service to sell to its long-distance customers. Fallin foresees future SHAWNEE (JR) -- Lt. Gov. Mary Fallin will present a public lecture at 8 p.m. April 23 at St. Gregory's University on Oklahoma's economic development future. Fallin is the first speaker in the 1998 SGU Classic Management Lecture Series. Admission to the lecture is free. For more information, call 878-5343. Circle June 25 REDMOND, Wash. (AP) -- Windows 98, the latest upgrade to Microsoft's operating system for personal computers, will be released June 25, the company announced Tuesday. Rob Bennett, group product manager for Windows 98, estimated the upgrade will sell for $109; the version for computers that do not have the Windows 95 operating system will cost an additional $100. Another buckles in SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) -- Silicon Graphics will use Intel's chips in its computers and spin off part of its own chip subsidiary as part of a broad recovery strategy. The agreement with Intel will allow SGI to offer its own high-end graphics technology on machines using Intel chips. The computers will run on both SGI's Unix-based operating system and Microsoft's popular Windows NT. Silicon Graphics, based in Mountain View, Calif., had been expected to adopt Intel processors, which have become standard in the industry with a huge variety of software applications. But Rick Belluzzo, SGI's new chairman and chief executive, said his company wasn't simply becoming part of the "Wintel" platform, the industry name for the dominant combination of Windows software and Intel chips. "It's really quite the contrary. We are taking the Intel architecture and building around that," he said. The new standard? WASHINGTON (AP) -- Three high-tech communications companies will offer an ultra-fast data pipeline and some of the needed network equipment as part of a $500 million contribution toward developing the next generation of the Internet. The revolutionary network -- so fast it will transmit the contents of the 30-volume Encyclopedia Brittanica in one second -- will make possible new ways of using computers, from long-distance learning to allowing a specialist in another city to look at real-time images of a beating heart and make a diagnosis. It would take about 27 hours to transmit the 30 volumes of encyclopedias over a conventional 28.8-kilobit modem. Also Tuesday, Vice President Al Gore announced a $50 million investment in Internet-related projects by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the central research and development organization for the Defense Department. The existing Internet grew from investments by the agency during the 1960s. For the new project, Qwest Communications International offered use of its high-speed fiber-optic network, which runs from Los Angeles to New York. The administration put the market value of Qwest's offer at $500 million over three years. The other two companies, Cisco Systems and Northern Telecom, are offering network equipment, such as routers and switches. Is anything tamperproof? BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) -- It was a challenge a trio of computer students and professionals could not resist: proving "tamperproof" digital cellular phones are actually vulnerable. After about six hours of work, two graduate students at the University of California at Berkeley and a computer cryptologist were able to "clone" the phone, allowing them to make unauthorized calls from another phone. "Given the state of the security of other cellular phone systems, I wasn't terribly, terribly surprised," said Ian Goldberg, one of the students. The three looked at the project as a challenge. Still, the amount of time and effort it took to clone the codes makes the digital phone security much more difficult to circumvent than analog cellular phones, which are easily breached. The three cracked the codes guarding a Global System for Mobile Communications phone. The GSM digital standard is the most widely used in the world, with more than 79 million phones in use. The standard is used primarily in Europe. Goldberg and Wagner were part of a group that announced last year they had cracked the weaker encryption codes used by the U.S. cellular system. Turmoil at Cousteau BOSTON (NYT) -- Jacques Cousteau's leathery face was known to millions of people around the world. But by the time Cousteau died last year, at the age of 87, the Cousteau Society's fortunes had started to fade. With his widow Francine Cousteau in control, the society is preoccupied with family feuds and a dispute over Cousteau's estate, while fending off allegations of exorbitant salaries, commingling of funds on either side of the Atlantic, and conflicts of interest. The society, to which 67,000 U.S. donors gave $4.6 million in 1996, is running a deficit, revenues and membership are declining, and its expeditions and film production are lagging. Critics say the organization is muddying Costeau's legacy, and fading as a force in the world environmental movement. Cousteau kept a high profile in America. But his widow has laid off employees and closed offices in the United States, except for an outpost in Virginia. "It's fair to say that there has been an interregnum, a lull" since Cousteau's death, says Lee Steiner, 75, Cousteau's former attorney and a member of the society's board. "He was our leader. But now we're gearing up for more projects, we're doing pretty well." Yet critics say the society has lost sight of its purpose. "The real issue is that the Cousteau Society is still raising millions of dollars a year from the American public," says John Englander, the scuba diving entrepreneur who was fired as the society's CEO after Cousteau's funeral service in Paris. "The question is: What is it being used for? Ten years ago, the money was supporting expeditions, scientists, people who were creating these incredible documentaries. It's not doing any of that now. I feel bad that they're soliciting money in the memory of a wonderful man. It's important that the money not be squandered."