Nicki Minaj Earns No. 1 Movie With 'The Other Woman'

Contact Us

Jason Kempin, Getty Images

The Queen Barb is on top. Nicki Minaj‘s newest film, ‘The Other Woman,’ grabbed the No. 1 spot at the box office this weekend, bringing in $24.7 million dollars in the U.S., bumping ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ from its seat.

This is Minaj’s first role in a major Hollywood film and since it grabbed the top position, it’s likely that bigger parts are just around the corner. In a recent interview with MTV News, the 31-year-old rapper said she’s currently going on auditions. She’s in search of a role that’s specifically crafted for her, unlike ‘The Other Woman,’ which was written before she accepted the part.

As some might already know, the curvy Queens, N.Y., beauty attended LaGuardia High School, which focuses on music and the performance arts, so being in front of the camera and memorizing lines is nothing new for her.

But will her entry through Hollywood’s doors be as smooth as her entry into hip-hop? Because let’s face it, she pretty much single-handedly brought the female voice in rap back to prominence, so if anyone is capable of making a big splash in the film industry, it’s definitely Minaj.

Being on top isn’t anything new for the entertainer. In 2012, she starred as the voice of a woolly mammoth in the animated movie ‘Ice Age: Continental Drift.’ The film opened $46 million that year.

On the music front, Young Money’s first lady is preparing her third album, ‘The Pink Print,’ for release this year.

It appears that you already have an account created within our VIP network of sites on . To keep your points and personal information safe, we need to verify that it's really you. To activate your account, please confirm your password. When you have confirmed your password, you will be able to log in through Facebook on both sites.

Enter your password Forgot your password?

*Please note that your points, prizes and activities will not be shared between programs within our VIP network.

It appears that you already have an account on this site associated with . To connect your existing account with your Facebook account, just click on the account activation button below. You will maintain your existing profile and VIP program points. After you do this, you will be able to always log in to http://theboombox.com/ using your Facebook account.

*Please note that your points, prizes and activities will not be shared between programs within our VIP network.

Register on The Boombox quickly by logging in with your Facebook account. It's just as secure, and no password to remember!

View the original article here

First Look at the Need for Speed Movie

DreamWorks has released the first two official images from their big screen version of the EA video game Need for Speed, neither of which actually feature cars.

Breaking Bad's Aaron Paul leads the cast, which includes Michael Keaton, Dominic Cooper, Imogen Poots, Kid Cudi, and future Fifty Shades of Grey star Dakota Johnson.

''Dominic is kind of the antagonist of the film,'' Paul explains to Entertainment Weekly. ''Dakota is my character's ex, and now Dominic's character is the new guy she's seeing.'"

Here's the official plot synopsis: "Need for Speed marks an exciting return to the great car culture films of the 1960s and ’70s, tapping into what makes the American myth of the open road so appealing. The story chronicles a near-impossible cross-country journey for our heroes—one that begins as a mission for revenge, but proves to be one of redemption."

Need for Speed, directed by Act of Valor's Scott Waugh, opens March 14, 2014.

VUDU Movie Streaming Service User Data Stolen

Vudu, a popular on-demand HD video streaming app that enables users to watch their favorite TVs and movies online as well as on Android tablets, Roku, Xbox 360 and PS3, experienced a break-in at its Santa Clara offices.

In addition to other objects of value, criminals made off with hardrives, which Vudu employees concluded had user data— names, email addresses, phone numbers, addresses, account activity and the last four digits of credit card numbers.

It's important to note that the drives did NOT contain full credit card numbers, as we do not store that information," Vudu CTO Prasanna Ganesan wrote in the email to users.

The break-in affected users who directly use the Vudu site or app only — users who have accessed media via other websites on Vudu are unaffected by the break-in. Ganesan says that all of the passwords on the harddrives were encrypted, but users should still be vigilant "given the circumstances" of the theft.

Vudu has already expired and reset the passwords of compromised users, and has advised everyone to be cautious about suspicious emails or phone calls from Vudu or other companies. In addition, Vudu is offering a year's worth of fraud and identity protection service AllClear ID in case anything does happen, with additional enrollment steps.

Got questions? Vudu has set up a FAQ to answer pertinent questions.

What do you think about Vudu's break-in? Let us know in the comments.

Lauren Hockenson is a tech reporter and 8-bit enthusiast who dreams of being a wizard. She can be found on MyIGN at lhockenson or on Twitter at @lhockenson.

Bits Blog: Making Movie Magic More Efficient

DreamWorks Animation The character Eep basks in a rare taste of life outside her family cave.

“The Croods” is a caveman movie from DreamWorks Animation that comes out March 22. The subject may be paleolithic, but the technology approach may well be cutting edge.

“Croods” is a digital product of about 250 billion pixels, with high-definition sound that, along with the images and story, is designed to maximize emotional manipulation of the audience. It is the end point of a process involving hundreds of artists and engineers working in a closely organized system that DreamWorks has been working on for years.

Making a movie with a half-million digital files, containing things like hair waving in the wind or cliffs crumbling into dust, took several years of planning, writing and drawing. It also meant searching for efficiency in the face of escalating costs. Since 2006, DreamWorks Animation has released more than a dozen movies costing at least $130 million. “We’re hoping to reduce that expense while adding more to the experience,” says Lincoln Wallen, the chief technical officer at DreamWorks Animation. “A modern digital environment, whatever the business, has to be distributed and agile.”

While each film needs its own uniquely realized look, the company also keeps a digital catalog of every table, flame and character, so parts might be modified or retouched in a future film. More important savings come by rethinking how things are made. In 2009’s “Monsters Versus Aliens,” the relatively simple-looking destruction of a spaceship used 4 terabytes of data about pixels. In “Croods,” the same amount creates a far more detailed and longer destruction of a mountainside.

Instead of a straightforward pixel stash, DreamWorks hired a former quantum chemist and a former specialist in fluid dynamics to create a series of mathematical instructions about how different parts of the image should affect their neighbors once motion commences. That way the same amount of data is creating a more complex outcome.

The company has also worked to tighten the relationships between artists trying out different angles, through custom software that changes the angle of a character with the touch of a pen. Elsewhere, Wall Street trading software has been adapted to speed communication of changes in digital files among different groups of artists. A dancer wearing a special body suit generates an image of her as a cartoon character that many artists can look at together, and figure out how a scene should be structured.

“Siloed systems are too brittle,” says Mr. Wallen. “The key is a knowledge and management of all the interrelationships.” He and others at DreamWorks are now considered proficient enough at managing these big cloud systems that Intel and Hewlett-Packard, suppliers of much of DreamWorks’ technology, have them speaking to customers in such seemingly unrelated fields as energy and finance.

Viewed as a manufacturing process, what DreamWorks is doing is also a little like the old Six Sigma idea, practiced by General Electric and others, that problems are most easily fixed when they are approached as early as possible. There is also a “just in time” digital customization plan in the works, Mr. Wallen says, to shift the final product so characters’ facial reactions mimic those of, say, a Chinese person when the movie is playing in China. In both cases, the idea is to make high-cost enchantment more efficient.

State of the Art: Imagining Ho-Hum C.E.S. as an Action Movie - State of the Art

I mean, think about it: Apple, Google, Microsoft and Facebook don’t even attend C.E.S.; they’d rather make their product announcements on their own schedules without being locked into this every-January thing. It’s still a big show, bigger than ever this year, with 3,200 exhibits and 150,000 attendees, but I wonder why people bother. Whose product announcement will get any press at all when it’s buried by 3,199 others?

C.E.S.’s organizers publish a daily magazine during the show that profiles new products announced there. Here are some actual examples: “Braven Expands Bluetooth Speaker Line.” “Armpocket Unveils Smartphone Cases.” “Bits Ltd. Expands Line of Surge Protectors.”

So if you want an exciting column from me, the thrills won’t come from the news of new products at C.E.S. I’ll have to spice things up another way. See what you think of this.

As he plummets toward the Nevada desert, two deafening sounds assail Daxton Blackthorne’s eardrums — the wind rushing past his ears at terminal velocity, and a deafening explosion over his head. Fumbling for his parachute cord, he’s blasted by the searing heat from the fireball that, until seconds ago, was his Cessna Citation.

For now, though, his concern isn’t the air-to-air missile that has just dispatched his jet, courtesy of the Bora Boran Mafia on his tail. It isn’t even the fact that Daxton Blackthorne is all that stands between them and the collapse of American democracy.

It’s finding a good place to land.

There! Squinting in the blinding sun, he spots an enormous chain of low-slung buildings, stretching through the bustling downtown like a sleeping cobra: the Las Vegas Convention Center.

He hits the roof of the South Hall hard — too hard. Keeping low, he scuttles across the gravel to a ventilation shaft and emerges, moments later, in a blasting cacophony of color, sound and electronics.

He hears the crash of boots behind him as his pursuers explode from the same shaft. Got to move, Daxton thinks. Detaching his ’chute, he darts among the booths, dodging clumps of buyers, reporters and electronics executives.

He weaves among the exhibits, barely noting their wares. External battery packs for phones. Car chargers for phones. Screen protectors for phones. Cases for phones.

What is this place? he thinks, pulse pounding.

Booth after booth. GPS units. Tablets. Earbuds. Bluetooth speakers. Phone cases. Row after row of Chinese manufacturers he’s never heard of. Like this one, Huawei, selling the world’s largest Android phone — the thin, shiny Ascend Mate, with a 6.1-inch screen. That’d be like talking into a cutting board, he thinks.

He bursts into the Central Hall, and the sensory overload is immediate; he pauses, gasping, to take it in. TV screens. Thousands. Screens bigger than a man. Screens stacked up to the distant ceiling. Screens brighter and louder than explosives in the morning. Sharp, Sony, Samsung, LG, Toshiba, Panasonic. The bombardment is almost as lethal as the one that took down his Cessna.

Here are OLED screens, with incredibly black blacks, vivid colors and razor-thin bodies; this LG model is only 0.16 inches thick. Panasonic and Sony each claim “the world’s largest OLED screen” — 56-inch prototypes.

Footsteps pound behind him. Too late to run. He’ll blend in. He merges into a throng of eager showgoers.

“Three-D may have been a flop,” a rep is saying. “But this year, the industry is back with an irresistible offering: 4K television. Ultra HD, we call it. You thought HDTV was sharp? Now imagine: four times as many pixels. Stunning picture quality, in stunning screen sizes.”

Daxton figures you’d have to sit pretty darned close to see any difference between HDTV and 4KTV. But never mind that — out of the corner of his eye, Daxton spots the black uniforms of his pursuers, fanning through the crowd. Play along, he thinks. “Excuse me,” he shouts in a faux French accent. “What is there to watch in 4K?”

“Unfortunately, 4K video requires too much data for today’s cable, satellite, broadcast, Blu-ray, or Internet streaming,” is the reply. “But at Sony, we’re leading the way! If you buy our 84-inch 4K television for $25,000, we’ll lend you a hard drive with 10 Sony movies on it — in gorgeous 4K.”

Daxton can think of better uses for $25,000; a jetpack would come in handy right about now. He dives into the crowd. Must. Find. Disguise.

A crowd wearing headsets is gathered before a Samsung TV. That’ll do. He grabs one; it covers both his eyes and his ears.

“You’re seeing a prototype of Samsung’s OLED dual-view technology,” the spokesman says. “This TV can display two 3-D video sources simultaneously, or four regular ones. Imagine: Your children can be playing Xbox while you watch the Super Bowl!” Daxton moves the switch on the earpiece; sure enough, the TV’s image changes accordingly, along with the audio from the tiny earpiece speakers.

But angry shouts in Tahitian are closing in. He bolts through an archipelago of audio booths, hawking celebrity headphones bearing the names of the rapper 50 Cent, the heavy-metal band Motorhead, the runner Usain Bolt, the N.F.L. quarterback Tim Tebow and the TV reality star Snooki. When did Snooki become an audiophile? he wonders.

By the time he storms into the North Hall, his lungs are screaming. He stands, panting, in a broader area populated by gleaming, polished automobiles. Here are Ford and General Motors, announcing new developer programs, open platforms for new apps that will run on their cars’ computer screens. Ford’s Sync AppLink bans games and video apps, for safety reasons. Good thinking, Daxton thinks. Wouldn’t want distracted driving.

Here are Audi and Lexus, announcing self-driving cars. Glancing at the video loop, he notes that the Audi prototype can, at this point, drive itself only through specially equipped parking garages, like the one set up at the Mandarin Oriental for a demonstration.

But on the Lexus stage, he spots something much more enticing: a car, festooned with sensors, that can actually drive itself on regular roads, much like Google’s fleet of 12 autonomous cars.

“California and Nevada have both made self-driving cars legal, with certain restrictions,” the executive on stage says. “And this Lexus LS safety-research vehicle is a pioneer. The 360-degree laser on the roof detects objects up to 230 feet away; the front camera knows if the traffic light is red or green. Side cameras, GPS and radar enhance what could someday be a safe, efficient, road-aware vehicle.”

There’s a burst of commotion from Daxton’s near right. It’s them. He vaults onto the stage. “Love the idea of self-driving cars,” Daxton tells the presenter. “But right now, I need a car I can drive myself.”

A saber blade shatters the air next to his ear. With a burst of adrenaline, he dives through the open window of the Lexus. His assailants push through the crowd and clamber after him, but he’s already powered on the car. Huddling low, he guns the engine and shifts into gear.

As a hail of bullets shatters the rear window, the Lexus arcs off the stage, plows through seven rotating shelves of phone cases, and, in a cloud of plaster and twisted beams, erupts through the wall of the convention center.

With a wry smile, Daxton adjusts his rear-view mirror just in time to see the knot of black-suited Bora Borans shaking their fists in the distance.

He brushes some safety glass off his shoulder, slips on sunglasses, and leans back into the leather seat.

“Now that’s what I call an exciting show,” he says, grinning, and he swings onto the open road for home.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: January 18, 2013

The State of the Art column on Thursday, about the range of wares on  display at the Consumer Electronics Show, misspelled the name of a Chinese electronics manufacturer at the show. The company is Huawei, not Huwei.

Gadgetwise Blog: App Smart Extra: More Movie Times

This week’s App Smart column was about apps that can help you find your way to the right movie theater to see the film you want to see at a time you want to see it.

The Flixster app.

Luckily there are a huge number of different apps that say they can help you find where to see a movie. One of the most popular is the Flixster app, free on both iOS and Android. Like its rival Fandango it tries to do almost everything to help you decide which movie to see and then to get you to a theater. This app can also sell you tickets to see movies at participating theaters, and packs in review data from Rotten Tomatoes. As a couple of bonus features it also lets you manage your Netflix queue and there’s an option to stream and download some full-length movies to your device.

Despite Flixster’s complex functionality, this app somehow still manages to preserve a relatively simple design. The app has also been regularly updated to keep it running smoothly and showing relevant data  –  most recently just a few weeks ago.

Also worth remembering is the fact that Apple is one of the better places online to find new movie trailers, and that for some time now Apple has offered the chance to find movie showtimes and theater info via its trailers Web page. Since this page is accessible by smartphone Web browser it may be just as useful as a dedicated movie showtimes app. Plus it comes with Apple’s clear and simple design.

The Landmark Theaters app.

You can also search the app stores for an app that matches your favorite movie theater company, as many of these maintain their own apps. Landmark, which shows a lot of indie films, has its own free app. Some of these companies are also country-specific, and may be the best place to find local data when touring. Visiting Britain., for example, you could check out the Odeon app (free on iTunes), which even includes times for this brand’s famous Leicester Square cinema. UCI’s free iOS app would probably serve you well if you’re in Italy, and so on.

Extra Quick Call

With the arrival of its new operating system Windows 8, Microsoft has updated its free Smartglass app with a list of new features. The app’s designed to work as a second screen companion to your Xbox 360, showing data on your games and TV shows and also letting you control your Xbox. The app is one of the earliest Windows 8 apps out there.

Assassin's Creed Movie Finds Studio

The Assassin’s Creed film moved a step closer to becoming a reality today, with Ubisoft teaming up with film studio New Regency to make the forthcoming video game adaptation, which is set to star Michael Fassbender.

According to Deadline, New Regency will finance and distribute the movie, while the Ubisoft Motion Picture division “will have strong creative input as the project moves into the script stage.”

“This is the perfect intersection of what we have been trying to do, and that is to work with top quality talent like Michael Fassbender,” explained Regency CEO Brad Weston. “We see this as our first big commercial action franchise property. Fassbender just did 12 Years A Slave with us, and he is as good an actor as there is right now. The storyline we are pursuing has a great narrative and because Ubisoft’s games are so character and story driven, Assassin’s Creed lends itself perfectly to our goal to re-brand Regency as a filmmaker driven company.”

“Ubisoft chose to partner with New Regency because they are a talent- and filmmaker-driven company, with the same independent and creative mindset that we have at Ubisoft Motion Pictures,” UMP CEO Jean-Julien Baronnet added. “Bringing aboard New Regency’s renowned production and distribution expertise while maintaining our own creative and financial flexibility ensures that Assassin’s Creed will be a high-quality film that respects the lore and fans of the video game franchise.”

And according to Variety, in addition to preserving elements of the game that make up its DNA – like the design of its characters and historical elements – Ubisoft hopes to tie the release of a film in with a new game launch.

Chris Tilly is the Entertainment Editor for IGN in the UK and is hoping that this will be the video game adaptation that doesn't suck. He can be found on both Twitter and MyIGN.

Zombieland Director Revs Up Spy Hunter Movie

Zombieland and Gangster Squad director Ruben Fleischer will direct and exec produce Warner Bros.' film version of the classic Midway video game Spy Hunter.

The news comes as WB Interactive recently announced that Spy Hunter will hit PlayStation Vita and Nintendo 3DS on October 9th.

Vulture reminds us that the project has been set-up at Warners since 2010 where Chad St. John had been hired to script an adaptation of Spy Hunter for producers Dan Lin and Roy Lee.

Spy Hunter languished in development hell for years when it was at Universal, where directors such as Paul W.S. Anderson and John Woo were involved at different points and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson was attached to star.

The classic arcade driving game follows super-spy Alex Decker who, in his tricked-out G-6155 CIA Prototype Interceptor, must hunt down rogue agents and destroy as many enemy vehicles as possible while avoiding civilian casualties.

Larry David's HBO Movie Lands a Slew of Talent

Back in August during the TCA press tour, it was announced that Larry David was working on a new feature film for HBO, with Michael Keaton and Jon Hamm attached to co-star. Since then, that's about all we'd heard on the subject -- until now.

The movie, now titled Clear History, will also include Bill Hader, Danny McBride, Philip Baker Hall, Kate Hudson, Eva Mendes, Amy Ryan, as well as David's Curb Your Enthusiasm co-star, J.B. Smoove.

The Hollywood Reporter describes the film, which centers on Nathan Flomm (David), a former marketing executive who loses his fortune and is publicly humiliated following a petty argument with his boss (Hamm). Ten years later, Nathan's reputation is in shambles, and he now lives on a small island off the coast of Massachusetts under the alias Rolly DaVore. However, when his former boss shows up to renovate his summer mansion, Nathan sees the perfect opportunity to seek his revenge.

Hader will play Rags, the henchman to a local quarry owner (Hall) who agrees to help Nathan settle the old debt, with Keaton as the eccentric quarry operator. Hudson is taking on the role of Hamm's character's wife. McBride will play the best-buddy role to Nathan. Mendes is on board as an island local who takes an off-handed suggestion from Nathan a bit too seriously; Smoove is set to play her ex-boyfriend. Ryan will portray Nathan's ex-girlfriend, who's hiding an explicit secret.

Greg Mottola (Superbad, The Newsroom) will direct the pic from a screenplay that David co-wrote with Alec Berg, David Mandel and Jeff Schaffer.

Max Nicholson is a writer for IGN, and he desperately seeks your approval. Show him some love on Twitter and IGN.

B*LL*CKS: The 12 Most Eye-Watering Movie Castrations

BEWARE OF NUT-BUSTING SPOILERS AHEAD

Ouch. This week we not only sat (uncomfortably) through Lawless’ de-conkering but also Dredd’s bloody-mouthed wang worrying. These though are just the latest entrants in cinema’s most wince-inducing club: the cinematic castration – the ultimate in emasculation, humiliation and total pain. So in celebration of its newest dis-membered members, get ready to cross those legs for the best in lost manhood, occasional female empowerment but mostly bloody, spurting amateur sex surgery. Let’s turn that Y into an X, shall we?

Finding themselves up against a literally cut-throat copper, those bootleggin’ Bondurant boys aim to cut something a little lower on the anatomy. Tracking down the guys who earlier attempted to adjust Bane’s vocal chords, the Bondurants take a straight razor to the terror-etched henchmen’s undercarriages and deliver them to their nemesis. Revenge is a dish best served in a bloody tissue.

“I take away his weapon,” says Hartigan. “Both of them.” The second is definitely the more painful for lil’ Roark Jr, as the determined detective proceeds to violently disarm the Yellow Bastard’s man-pistol for the second time in 90 minutes, clenching away his clackers in a gooey marshmallowy mustard-coloured splodge. All in all, that’s two – or is that four? – for the price of one.

Hack Filmmakers (Cannibal Holocaust, 1980)

Well, that’s a hornets’ nest well-and-truly stirred up. The lost, isolated Yanomamö tribe – angered by the devious documentarians’ not-strictly-observing techniques – reap a bloody, about-to-be-banned revenge: they begin by hacking rapist cameraman Mark into more edible pieces, starting very graphically with his telescopic lens. This one’s a near-tie with a similar ‘restless natives’ moment in its equally grotty cousin, Cannibal Ferox.

Swearing Revenge (Hostel II, 2007)

Language! Beth goes from being victim to fully-fledged Elite Hunting customer at the flash of a cussword, butchering her potty-mouthed torturer’s torpid turkey with one swift hack and then feeding it to the bloodhounds. If my folks had shown me this instead of just threatening to wash my mouth out with soap, my swear-jar wouldn’t be quite so full.

Cock Block (The Street Fighter, 1974)

Sonny Chiba, ‘the greatest actor working in martial arts movies today’ as Clarence Worley would have it, has a ball – two of them – when his double-hard mercenary Tsurigi leaps through A window and gets hands on with the guy trying to rape heiress Sarai. I understand this technique is called Jeet Plums Do.

Memories Are Made Of These (In The Realm Of The Senses, 1976)

For a movie famed for its unsimulated sex – based on real events – this really is a leg crosser, and puts you off boiled eggs to boot. Having helped kill her married lover with ‘a Hutchence’, the obsessed Abe slices off his old boy and writes a farewell message in his chest with the blood. Next time you’re keen on a memento, maybe a picture would work better?

Rubbered Out (Killer Condom, 1996)

More Troma than trauma, it’s no surprise that Lloyd Kaufman helped distribute this utterly bizarre German schlocker about a gay cop, his tranny bf and a carnivorous condom that puts a real dampener on safe sex. Our favourite bit? When the killer jimmy runs away with its latest meal still in its transparant, er, digestive tract. “That’s a cock!” someone shrieks. Yes. Yes it is.

A Quick One Off The Wrist (I Spit On Your Grave, 1978)

Johnny really did have it coming. Not just because he’s a scumbag, sadistic gang-rapist – though, let’s face it, that’s more than enough in its own right – but also partly because he’s stupid enough to let himself be stripped, led to a bath and given a hand-shandy by a knife-wielding lady who holds an entirely justified murder-boner for him; later, she just holds a boner. See also: Last House On The Left. Or don’t, because it’s a bit shonky.

Abominable Actions (Night Of The Demon, 1980)

You really shouldn’t pee on the grass. In this legendary video nasty, a passing biker is stopped mid-flow when Bigfoot yanks his chain clean off. What makes this scene even more impressive is not its utter craposity but that it’s told in very specific flashback by someone who wasn’t actually there.

A Little Off The Top, Sir? (The Holy Mountain, 1973)

LSD, scissors and castration do not mix. Alejandro Jodorowsky’s surreal movie of dense symbolism is already pretty wang happy before we get to the castration dream sequence (the member is later put in a room filled with similarly severed choppers). Jodorowsky later alleged that the scissor-wielder was so loaded with hallucinogens that the scene nearly played out for real. “And cut…”

Better than pepper spay. Creepy rat-bag rapist Tobey gets caught in our Venus’ fly-trap when he tries to aggressively take advantage of a half-unconscious Dawn. However, our heroine has a case of Vagina Dentata, which is Latin for “Argh, help me Jesus, she’s bitten my penis off with her fanny-gnashers.”

Your Move, Creep (RoboCop, 1987)

A hostage-holding wannabe rapist finds out that ‘the new guy in town’ has a much better aim than his more human counterparts; RoboCop just fires a bullet through the victim’s skirt – the empty space between her legs – and catches the scumbag hair-enthusiast standing behind her right in his junk. We can’t confirm whether it’s a solid sever but it’s safe to say that this perp won’t be achieving 45° anytime soon.

Tom Hawker edited cult movie mag Hotdog and has seen Cannibal Holocaust at least one more time than is strictly necessary. He's seen it twice.

Digital Domain: Movie Screens, Small to Big to Small Again - Digital Domain

The earliest motion-picture viewing was a solitary experience. One looked through a peephole at the top of a Kinetoscope, a waist-high cabinet in which a light illuminated the frames of a continuous film loop. A magnifying lens was attached to the peephole, but the images remained tiny. That means the first cinematographers didn’t have much to work with.

When projection arrived, movie images could be made life-size in a theater, then larger than life, on a big screen accompanied by big sound. Taking in a movie became not just an immersive experience, but also a social one, with members of the audience sitting in the dark together, laughing, crying and shrieking.

Today, we’ve reached the acme of technical sophistication — and have come nearly full circle. Movie watching is, again, a solitary experience, involving small images on a laptop, a tablet and, tinier still, a cellphone. The convenience is wonderful, of course, but it comes at a price: the loss of the immersive cinematic experience.

Americans will pay to watch 3.4 billion movies online this year, IHS Screen Digest estimates. That’s much more than double the number for 2010.

It’s impossible to say exactly how many of those movies will be viewed on which portable devices. A spokesman for Netflix, the leader in streaming older movie titles, declined to share details about streaming device destinations.

We do know that the newest movie titles, including the most visually spectacular, are available through Apple or Google for inexpensive rental on the small screen. (Apple made movie rentals available for phones starting in 2008, and Netflix introduced a smartphone app in 2010). Cellphone owners can rent “Hugo,” the 2012 Academy Award winner for cinematography, for $3.99 and watch it on a screen whose size is not much larger than the image seen through the Kinetoscope’s peephole.

When an online movie is viewed at home on a giant flat screen and heard through an expensive sound system, the sensory experience surely exceeds what might be had at a rundown multiplex on a bad day. But movies viewed on mobile devices aren’t going to give the brain’s sensorium much stimulation.

“It’s a sensual experience when you go to a theater, if there’s sharp projection and six-track sound,” says John Belton, a professor of English and film at Rutgers University. “That is a very different experience than watching on an iPad” or on other portable devices.

Professor Belton points out that the first projected images in theaters were not all that large. In a movie palace that might hold 5,000 people, an early screen might have been only 15 feet wide. But the images became larger around the time that sound arrived in the 1930s.

Then, in the 1950s, as Hollywood found itself competing against television, it used special lenses to create movies for screens of expanded width. Marilyn Monroe’s body, in languorous repose, would stretch across screens as wide as 64 feet. This was an intentional shift, Professor Belton says, to “an image that overwhelms the spectator,” part of Hollywood’s campaign “to show the limitations of television.” Later, Hollywood reversed course and began selling to television, though that meant cropping its wide-screen pictures so they would fit on a small screen.

The most glorious attempt to fully engage the theater spectator’s senses was Cinerama, introduced in 1952. Filmed with three cameras outfitted with wide-angle lenses, it used three wide screens, put together in a sumptuous near-semicircle of 146 degrees.

“This gives you a ‘first-person’ experience,” says Thomas Hauerslev, editor of the Web site In70mm. “You see what you’d see if you were sitting where the camera is.” He says IMAX “is not a first-person experience — it’s just big.”

Each frame in Cinerama is 50 percent taller than a regular frame, providing more detail. This makes the cinematic illusion “extremely realistic,” Mr. Hauerslev says.

Cinerama was costly both to film and to exhibit, and its commercial life was short. It was used only for travelogues, except in 1962, when the only two story-centered features were released: “How the West Was Won” and “The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm.” The Cinerama name was transferred to a smaller format, and then that format, too, was abandoned.

Cinerama was the high-water mark in sensory immersion. Yesterday’s Kinetoscopes and today’s smartphone screens, the low-water marks.

“If you look at the great Hollywood classics in the 1930s and 1940s, you’ll see many wide master shots and sparing use of close-ups,” says John Bailey, a cinematographer with more than 60 feature credits who serves on the executive board of the American Society of Cinematographers. “But with the advent of TV and now also with smaller screens, we’re seeing more close-ups.”

The problem, he says, is that “if you use close-ups immoderately, then when you need to make a more dramatic point, you have no other option but to use extreme close-ups.”

“The best camera,” the old saying goes, “is the one you have with you,” and a similar thought is apparently held by increasing numbers of movie viewers, happy with the screen they always have with them. And movie producers, just as they have in the past, will probably keep adapting, changing movies themselves so that they look better on a tiny screen.

“You can say it’s ‘watching a movie,’ ” says Professor Belton of viewing on mobile devices. “But it’s not cinema.”

Randall Stross is an author based in Silicon Valley and a professor of business at San Jose State University. E-mail: stross@nytimes.com.