Showbiz Sandbox 577: Why The Biggest Japanese Game Is Actually Chinese
March 21, 2022
Over the last year the mobile video game “Genshin Impact” has earned over $2 billion. From its anime-like visuals to its bug-eyed characters the role-playing game appears to be Japanese in every way. However, while Japan may have a reputation as the world’s leading video game developer, “Ghensin Impact” was made in China. We explain why this is so significant and what it means for those playing the game.
Meanwhile, there is only one week to go before this year’s Oscars ceremony. All the guilds have now weighed in with their top honorees making it even more difficult to predict which movie will win Best Picture.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including how HBO Max and Discovery+ will be combined into a single streaming service, Netflix wants you to pay for sharing accounts and the world’s largest movie theater chain is going for the gold (quite literally).
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Showbiz Sandbox 200: Should George Clooney Run For President?
August 5, 2013
Hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb began buying up Sony stock earlier this year and is now pressuring the electronics manufacturer to spin-off its entertainment divisions. After comparing two of Sony’s summer releases to historic flops such as “Waterworld”, actor/director/producer George Clooney could take no more. In an intelligent, coherent and well thought out rant, Clooney argues that, “ A guy from a hedge fund entity is the single least qualified person to be making these kinds of judgments.”
Karen Woodward, our former co-host, joins us for our 200th episode and was quick to point out that Clooney not only sounded smart in his statements, but also like a future political candidate. Given the state of American politics however, Clooney might find the back stabbing nature of Hollywood more friendly.
These days it seems a little political muscle is required to work in the entertainment industry. After all, Time Warner Cable has blacked out the CBS network for millions of customers over an ongoing retransmission dispute. Meanwhile, Hollywood studios haven’t been paid all year for movies they’ve released in China.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including the Academy’s historic new leader, a new Doctor Who and how holograms are replacing musicians at concerts in Korea.
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