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The Morning Fix: Where’d all the fanboys go? Hulu’s IPO a reach? HBO not shaking over Netflix.

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After the coffee. Before realizing we’re almost in the dog days of August.

Will Wall Street embrace a Hulu IPO? Word that Hulu, the video-sharing site owned by Disney, NBC Universal, News Corp. and private equity firm Providence Equity, wants to launch an initial public offering is raising a lot of questions about whether the timing is right. It appears that Providence Equity may be pushing the move as a means to get out. In the meantime, it remains unclear how Hulu’s pay plans will be embraced by its audience. Also, as more programmers try to take control of their online destinies, will Hulu really be able to become the one-stop shop for TV content online, or will there never be such a place? A look at Hulu’s plans and reaction from the New York Post, Wall Street Journal, Hollywood Reporter and Los Angeles Times.

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Did the fanboys get lost on the way to the multiplex? Universal’s ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ had the buzz, but it didn’t get the box office in its opening weekend. The movie, based on a graphic-novel series and starring Michael Cera as a teen who has to battle his girlfriend’s exes, took in only $10.6 million. Of course, once again the debate is going about whether films based on comic books or graphic novels that are not Batman or Spider-Man can translate into big bucks. Marc Platt, a producer of the movie told the Los Angeles Times that the first weekend was ‘disappointing’ but added that ‘the film’s financial story cannot be written after one weekend ‘but in weeks and months and years.’ Let me throw something out there. As adorable as Michael Cera is, he seems to be playing the same role in every movie. He needs to do something different, and casting directors need to find a new lovable geek. More on why Scott Pilgrim didn’t save the box office from the Los Angeles Times and Hollywood Reporter.

HBO shrugs off Netflix. All the talk last week about Netflix striking a deal to stream movies soon after they appear on the new pay-TV channel Epix is supposed to be a direct blow at HBO. Only problem is someone forgot to tell the Time Warner behemoth that. HBO says it’s not interested in a deal with Netflix nor does it feel threatened by Netflix. The network has some crazy idea that it makes sense to keep the online rights to the content it spends so much on to itself instead of throwing that content all over the Web and let its value be diluted. ‘There is value in exclusivity,” HBO Co-President Eric Kessler told Bloomberg.

Apple versus Google on the small screen. With search giant Google getting ready to spring Google TV on the world this fall, Apple is looking to beef up its own foundering Apple TV. Both companies want supremacy in connecting the Internet to the TV. USA Today looks at the turf battle and whether the rest of us want one more box next to our television.

Rupert gets revenge for Obama causing L.A. traffic jams. News Corp., the media conglomerate headed by Rupert Murdoch, gave $1 million to the Republican Governors Assn., according to Politico, the D.C. website that tracks Capitol Hill. A News Corp. spokesman told Politico that the company is in lock step with the association’s ‘pro-business agenda.’

Inside the Los Angeles Times: Patrick Goldstein on Hollywood’s aging business model. Officials of CKX, parent of ‘American Idol’ producer 19 Entertainment tells potential suitors to show them the money. Developer Hal Katersky, whose no stranger to controversy, has big plans for Hollywood.

-- Joe Flint
It can’t all be Hollywood. Follow me on Twitter for all your Redskins news: Twitter.com/JBFlint

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