Corona | Coming Attractions

Coming Attractions FAQ (last updated November 21, 2010)

Are you the same Coming Attractions that I remember from before?

Yes. It's the same website and same idea: keeping track of all the news, rumors, gossip and scoops about movies that are in production. Patrick Sauriol, the creator of Coming Attractions, is still the owner, operator and the guy that writes 99.9% of what you're reading (including this FAQ).

What's Corona Productions?

It's the name of the company that owns Coming Attractions. Don't read anything into the name, it sounded OK and Patrick thought having a logo of a sun's corona during an eclipse would look cool.

So what should I call the site? "Corona"? "Coming Attractions"?

It's up to you. People were calling the site by both names, and that's why when the site was relaunched in 2008 Patrick decided to use both Corona and Coming Attractions in the site's new URL: CoronaComingAttractions.com.

Didn't you sell the site off?

No. In 2004 Coming Attractions signed a deal where Patrick wrote for another website and wrote stories for them. That deal ended in 2006 but the Coming Attractions site didn't return back online until 2008. Read more about what happened on the About Us page.

So why did you sign the deal with that other company?

For a number of reasons: no need to worry about expensive bandwidth, to work as part of a team, to gain experience writing as a paid News Editor for a major movie magazine. But it just wasn't the same thing.

Is there anything different about the new Coming Attractions versus the old one?

1. It's a wholly new site with a redesigned search engine and movie database user interface.
2. The old CA used to only provide movie database pages while CA 2.0 also has news articles more like popular blog posts.
3. Registered users can vote on what they think of the current buzz of a movie (called the HypeMeter); sign up to receive email alerts when they subscribe to a movie database page; and leave comments in news articles, scoops and the forums.
4. In addition to having the latest movie information we also now cover news for television, DVD, video games, show business/industry, celebrities, cool pop culture and reviews.

Hang on... what's a HypeMeter?

The new Coming Attractions keeps track of how many times each day a unique visitor looks at a movie database listing. Registered users can also assign a value, from 0 to 100, on what they think of a movie's current hype (called the HypeMeter). They can also change their HypeMeter score for a movie at any time, reflecting what they think of the latest casting news or a new trailer. By keeping track of all the visits to a movie page within 24 hours, how many scoops and news stories there are for that movie, how many people have left a hype score and what the average number is, the Coming Attractions site is able to create a daily HypeMeter score for every movie. These daily HypeMeter scores are plotted on a HypeLine which shows the progress of a movie through its development up to opening date and beyond. A movie's HypeMeter can range from 0.00 to 10.00.

Another way of looking at it: a HypeMeter shows you what people are thinking of the latest buzz for a movie. The lower the HypeMeter score, the colder the image and the less that people are hyped up to see that movie. The HypeLine is the bigger view of how big or little the hype is for the movie.  The HypeLine is an aggregate of all the daily individual HypeMeter scores, the number of daily page views for that movie page and how often that movie page gets updated. The more traffic, more stories and better HypeLine scores, the quicker that the HypeMeter will run up to 10.

And don't forget: registered users can change their score for a movie's HypeMeter at any time. Don't like it that the studio is asking for script rewrites from a new writer? Did that second trailer make the movie look better? Change your HypeMeter score, and when you see the movie you can always change your vote again.

Register as a user now!

What about all the old CA movie pages and scoops? Will you be adding them to the new CA?

Yes. Some have already made the transition and many more are still yet to come. There were over 3,000 films listed on the old Coming Attractions from 1995 to 2004, and it's taking some time to try and move that much content over while still making sure that all the breaking news of the day gets written about and posted on the site.

Can I still submit scoops?

Absolutely. There's a "Submit Scoop" button at the top right of the navigation. Simply select the movie that you want to send a scoop in, write it up and send it away. If you don't see the movie title that you want to send your scoop about, just mention what the movie is in your scoop and we'll take care of the rest.

What if I want to email you a scoop or contact you?

You have two choices: use the Contact Us page or send us an email at scoop@coronacomingattractions or feedback@coronacomingattractions.com.

Can I be anonymous if I want to send you a scoop?

Absolutely. You can use a pseudonym or remain anonymous. We took a lot of pride in breaking many scoops back in the day and we kept our sources' identities a secret. We would keep your identity a secret.

When did the site first launch?

In April 1995. Coming Attractions was the first website devoted to providing updates about movies in development. Back in 1999 the site was nominated for a Webby award for Best Film Website in 1999 and Patrick was picked and photographed in Vanity Fair's Hollywood 1998 issue. The site has also been mentioned and talked about by Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Wired, People, The Toronto Star, The Vancouver Sun, Premiere and other media outlets.

What are some of the biggest scoops that Coming Attractions ever broke?

Even though a lot of people thought they couldn't be real, CA was the first in the world to show the sets of Stanley Kubrick's final movie, Eyes Wide Shut. We were chosen by Sony Pictures to be the first media outlet to show the Spider-Man costume. And Coming Attractions broke a casting story about Star Wars Episode II that Lucasfilm denied was real. Six weeks later, they "announced" the news as if no one knew about it.

Can I write for you?

Ask again when we have a budget for writers. Patrick is a firm believer that a business should be able to pay people that work for it. Right now there are a lot of movie websites that aren't making enough money to pay a writing team.

If you want to help Coming Attractions, spread the word about the site or a story that you read here through your social media network, email, other forums or in real life. The more fans that Coming Attractions has, the more the site can keep growing and expanding.

And by the way, whether you remember us from our early days or you're here for the first time, thank you for stopping by and visiting Coming Attractions!