The Social Network - The Movie About The Social Website - Facebook

No other item of technology has become as ubiquitous so fast and with so much depth and with a huge amount of market penetration than Facebook. Even with 100 million IPhones exceeding the wildest expectations of Steve Jobs for sales for Apple (they haven't sold that many ...yet). The continued growth is massive.

Consider that also Facebook doesn't have a depth of penetration in countries like India, China, Pakistan and Indonesia. The four largest populated countries in the world.

Want even more unusual? Well, Facebook was released in Feb 2004, and just a minor six years later, we have a film about it.

A Columbia Pictures Release

In 2004 Mark Zuckerberg, along with three friends, Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes created a computer program in their Sophomore year of college to connect and message other college students in Harvard, over a time, this grew to allowing other colleges in the Boston area to connect, then other colleges and universities around the country, and now it is ubiquitous with 500 million active users all over the world as of July 2010.

The film, written and produced by Aaron Sorkin (who funnily enough announced the creation of the movie on his Facebook page) will create the film about Facebook and it will be directed by David Fincher. It follows the creation and rise of the popularity of the internet's premier Social Networking site, from it's initial beginnings through to the controversies of the falling out of Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin over financial concerns (due to the fact of a 600 million dollar lawsuit against Zuckerberg), the issues with privacy concerns of the site (some people have lost jobs over commenting about their place of employment and their bosses have found out about it, or are 'friends of the profile' anyway and have read it) and we will have to wait and see if they show the lawsuits that have appeared over time in regards to intellectual property and theft of code.

The movie is based on the book The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding Of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal written by Ben Mezrich in 2009. No employee or founding members of Facebook were interviewed or involved for the book with the exception of Eduardo Saverin (consultant)

Click here for the Official Website

Trivia - Facebook is blocked intermittently in the following countries, Pakistan, Iran, China, Syria and Vietnam. It gained it's 500 millionth user on the 21st July 2010. If Facebook was a country, it would be the worlds 3rd most populated behind India and China.

Release Dates Worldwide

Canada - 1 October 2010
USA - 1 October 2010
Germany - 7 October 2010
France - 13 October 2010
Denmark - 14 October 2010
UK - 15 October 2010
Finland - 22 October 2010
Sweden - 22 October 2010
Philippines - 27 October 2010
Australia - 28 October 2010
Norway - 29 October 2010
Poland - 5 November 2010
Italy - 11 November 2010
Malaysia - 11 November 2010
Argentina - 21 October 2010
India - 21 October 2010
Japan - 23 October 2010
Russia - 25 November 2010
Portugal - 9 December 2010
Singapore - 30 December 2010

Facebook is now just about synonymous with any sort of marketing trend today as well. If you are a 'bricks & mortar' or a total 'virtual' business and you don't have a Facebook presence for it, it is considered unusual.

Below consider the market aspect for gaining marketing exposure both for general and virtual marketing and the wealth of experience in those whom have used and continue to use Facebook everyday, for both personal and professional reasons.

There is something for everyone.

IMDB reports that the film grossed an opening week of 23 million at the US domestic box office on the opening of the 4th October, and currently this week sitting at a gross of 88 million, an adequate return on a cost of 50 million production.

It would be interesting to compare this to the film 'Pirates Of Silicon Valley' a film about the conception and rise of both Apple and Microsoft, except that it was made for TV, not a theatrical release.

Final Box Office Results -

USA - $96,962,694
Rest Of World - $127,957,621

Which as of now, equates to about 45 cents going to each person on Facebook.