Showbiz Sandbox 583: The Long and Winding Road to Box Office Recovery
May 10, 2022
With each new superhero blockbuster that hits multiplexes it is clear that big well-done movies can score big at the box office. However it is a huge mistake to treat every new release as the barometer of whether cinema is back. Especially when smaller films like “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and family movies like “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” are proving just as successful in getting post-pandemic audiences back into theaters.
Meanwhile, record labels and streaming services have been fighting with music publishers over mechanical royalties for years now.
However, in a tentative deal on actual music sales, the mechanical royalty will rise more than 30% from 9.1 cents per track to 12 cents. Moving forward, the royalty will be pegged to inflation.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including this year’s Tony Nominations, Dave Chappelle gets attacked on stage during a performance and a new class of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees.
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Showbiz Sandbox 549: Second Guessing Disney’s “Black Widow” Distribution Strategy
July 20, 2021
In its second weekend the latest Marvel movie “Black Widow” dropped over 67% at the box office; the largest decline for any film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Could it be that the movie’s availability via premium video on demand cannibalized its theatrical returns? The ongoing pandemic makes it difficult to draw any conclusions, though one thing is clear; “Black Widow” is one of the most pirated movies of the year.
Meanwhile, the Cannes Film Festival wrapped up over the weekend with Spike Lee and his jury awarding Julia Ducournau’s “Titane” with the Palme d’Or. It is only the second time in the festival’s history that a woman has taken home the prize. Whether it will go on to Oscar glory like “Parasite” did two years ago remains to be seen, but the feeling was this year’s festival may not generate a lot of awards-worthy movies.
Of course we also cover some of the week’s top entertainment headlines including how artificial intelligence helped bring Anthony Bourdain back to life, the United Kingdom wants to revise music copyright and filmmaker Frank Darabont settles his lawsuit over “The Walking Dead.”
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Showbiz Sandbox 546: The Best Music You’ve Never Heard — 100 Flop Albums
June 22, 2021
Musician Sal Maida and music writer Mitchell Cohen have been thumbing through record store bins for decades looking for great albums. Now they’ve teamed up to write “The White Label Promo Preservation Society: 100 Flop Albums You Oughta Know,” a book that dives deep into great music which doesn’t make the usual “best of” lists but is definitely worth a listen. Plus, they recruited a lot of their friends like Marshall Crenshaw, Peter Holsapple and Jim Farber.
Kevin Feige may be in charge of Marvel Studios but is a little puzzled too about how to add up streaming numbers. He mentioned that since Nielsen doesn’t publish streaming viewership he doesn’t know how to tell if “WandaVision” or “Loki” are hits. Could this be true? We find it a bit unlikely that Disney is hiding such data from Marvel.
Of course we also cover some of the week’s top entertainment headlines including Amazon Studios plans for diversity, Roku claims the Quibi shorts are actually popular after all and the “Book of Mormon” musical may get a rewrite when it reopens.
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Showbiz Sandbox 273: Bringing The ‘Blurred Lines’ Verdict Into Focus
March 16, 2015
A federal jury decided last week that the hit song “Blurred Lines” was improperly derived from Marvin Gaye’s 1977 classic “Got to Give It Up” and ordered songwriters Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams to Pay $7.4 Million for copyright infringement. Though the verdict was a surprise, Eriq Gardner, a senior editor for The Hollywood Reporter, tells us it may not have the wide ranging implications for the music industry everyone now predicts.
Gardner explains some of the legal positions taken by both sides in the case. Usually for a copyright lawsuit to be successful the melody, harmony or lyrics must be infringed upon, though in this instance it was extended to include the style and “vibe” of the work. What will this mean for songwriters in the future?
Meanwhile, the MPAA published their verdict on last year’s box office figures. The good news is the organization’s annual report looks at the entire world, and not just the U.S. The bad news, at least according to some, is that box office receipts only increased 1% during what was a record breaking year in Asia.
Of course, we also cover the week’s top entertainment news stories including Sony’s plans for a Ghostbuster’s universe, the worldwide premiere of next season’s “Game of Thrones” and Disney announces a sequel to “Frozen”.
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