Pixar's Motto: Going From Suck to Nonsuck (Fast Company)

In a world that is obsessed with preventing errors and perfection, perhaps it's ironic that despite 11 straight blockbuster movies, Pixar cofounder and President Ed Catmull describes Pixar's creative process as "going from suck to nonsuck."

That's because Catmull and Pixar's directors think it's better to fix problems than to prevent errors. "My strategy has always been: be wrong as fast as we can," says Andrew Stanton, Director of Finding Nemo and WALL-E, "Which basically means, we're gonna screw up, let's just admit that. Let's not be afraid of that." We can all work this way more often.

If only all directors / bosses / colleagues / people were so understanding. If only we reminded ourselves of this more often. Imagine....

Read the full article here.

The Vanity Fair 100 | The New Establishment 2010 (Vanity Fair)

This year Vanity Fair anoints [Mark Zuckerberg} as our new Caesar. He rules from the imperial capital of Palo Alto, California, the Rome of our nascent millennium. In this, the 16th annual ranking of the 100 most influential people of the Information Age, V.F. has also heaped some new honors on that other prince of Palo Alto, Steve Jobs, now that his Apple is worth even more than those great conquerors Google and Microsoft.

I can't say I'm surprised to see Zuckerberg and Jobs at the top of the list, However, if I had my druthers, their order would be reversed - I love Apple and am just lukewarm on Facebook - but since this isn't my list, who am I to argue? To whet your whistle, here's where just a few of the many industry's folks landed on the list:

# 4 - Rupert Murdoch - News Corp.
#12 - Brad Bird, Pete Docter, John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton - Pixar/Disney
#20 - Johnny Depp
#29 - Jon Stewart
#55 - Ryan Murphy
#75 - Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt
#81 - Seth MacFarlane
#92 - Harvey & Bob Weinstein
#93 - Nikki Finke

See the full list here.

Summer movie wrap-up (The A.V. Club)

No quotes on this one, since it's an audio clip - three of the entertainment folks at A.V. Club chat about the movies big movies they liked best from the summer (Toy Story 3, Inception, Scott Pilgrim) and those they thought were disappointing, or as Tasha Robinson calls one, "a great big ball of suck." They also cover art-house films. A nice little roundtable.
Read the full article here.

Toy Story 3 Box Office: Great But Not That Great (Time)

And yet — considering the popularity of the Toy Story brand, and that a film greeted by critical hosannas and an enraptured A rating from CinemaScore's poll of exiting moviegoers — the TS3 total was a bit less than fabulous. ...Whatever TS3's official three-day gross, it will have sold fewer tickets than the older films, since ticket prices have risen and the Pixar picture earned 60% of its take from the more expensive 3-D venues. ...
Further, the film's $37 million earnings on Saturday were $4 million below its Friday gross. Animated features usually accelerate the second day, with parents taking their kids to a Saturday matinee, and the first 10 Pixar films averaged a sturdy 26% jump from opening day to the one after.

An interesting counterview to all of the "Biggest Box Office Ever!" articles saturating every other news source.
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Pixar, with TOY STORY 3, shows increasing reliance on sequels (LA Times)

On Friday, Pixar debuts the highly-anticipated third chapter of its popular "Toy Story" saga, to be followed in the next two years by new installments of "Cars" and "Monsters, Inc." Pixar won't have another original movie until 2012, when "Brave," about a young Scottish girl of royal blood who dreams of becoming a champion archer, arrives in theaters.

Read the full article here.