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Decoding the Movies Photoshopped onto Listing Photo TVs

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One of our favorite silly trends in super-expensive house listings is the movie Photoshopped onto the flat screen TV--somewhere along the line it became the visual equivalent of baking bread during an open house. Is there deep, significant meaning in which movies real estate agents put on which TVs? Probably not, but we decided to take a stab at it anyway:

Mulholland Drive screening at "newly completed Spanish style custom estate" in Irvine. Asking $7.295 million.

Living in a 9,923 square foot new-build in Irvine has a strange, dreamlike quality that gradually descends into nightmare. Possibility for steamy lesbian action.

Cowboys & Aliens screening at "sexy, modern with traditional appeal" above the Sunset Strip. Leasing for $45,000 per month.

According to the listing, this house is both "sexy, modern" and has "traditional appeal," so it makes sense to choose a movie that pairs sexy and modern (aliens, Daniel Craig) with traditional appeal (cowboys, Harrison Ford). There's also the implication that this house has magic, illegal, and/or studio-executive-controlled TVs that can show movies that aren't available on DVD yet.


Movie about the actual mansion screening at "newly completed magnificent Tuscan home" in Malibu. Asking price is $49 million.

Once you have a 9,000 square foot mansion on 37 acres in Malibu, with vineyards, orchards, and a guard house, what movie could possibly hold your attention? How about a movie about your own 9,000 square foot mansion? The TV in this listing photo is just showing one of the other listing photos--making for an Inception-style descent into narcissism.


NBA Live 10 video game screening at "16,000 square foot french manor on over 20 usable acres" in Thousand Oaks. Asking price is $19.995 million.

In this economy, who's going to drop $20 mil on a monster French-ish estate in Thousand Oaks? Maybe a Laker? And one thing we've learned from watching MTV Cribs is that professional athletes love to play video game versions of themselves, so this listing draws them in with Lakers vs. some other team in what looks to be EA's NBA Live 10.


Hanna screening at a new house with "classic European elegance and state of the art details" in Bel Air. Asking price is $17.95 million.

You'll live a quiet and idyllic life in this Bel Air mansion, training your body in the home gym, until one day you realize that your real estate agent used to work for the CIA and has been training you to be a super-assassin this whole time. Well, no, but if you're a bored rich person with anxiety about living just behind the West Gate you might want to think so.


Casablanca screening at "the ideal California Contemporary situated on one of the best sections of sandy beach in Malibu Colony." Asking price is $18 million.

Here's a solid method--pick a movie that's universally admired, but is in black and white so that it doesn't distract too much from the house on display. Unfortunately, in this case, it really would have helped to distract from whatever that thing is around the TV.