Showbiz Sandbox 402: How the 90th Annual Oscars Took Shape
March 5, 2018
The 90th Academy Awards went down pretty much as everyone expected it would. After a lengthy awards season there were few surprises over who would go home with Oscars. There were no upsets (or mistakes) when it came time to announce Best Picture, as Guillermo del Toro’s “The Shape of Water” won the honor.
During a year which saw the rise of the #MeeToo movement, the vociferous calls from the Oscar stage for gender inclusion and racial diversity within the motion picture industry were also highly anticipated. Anne Thompson, Indiewire’s editor-at-large, was backstage during the ceremony and she joins us to share her insights about.
Meanwhile, though Comcast may have been turned down by 20th Century Fox, the cable giant hasn’t given up on growing its conglomerate through acquisitions. Last week they made a $31 billion offer to buy Europe’s Sky Broadcasting, something Fox has been struggling to do for some time now.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including how Spotify is finally going public, the Swiss back public broadcasting and why YouTube is punishing a prominent conservative conspiracy theorist.
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Showbiz Sandbox 390: The Government Takes Aim At Media Mega Mergers and Net Neutrality
November 27, 2017
The Justice Department filed suit to block the merger of AT&T and TimeWarner. Since President Donald Trump promised to oppose the deal and repeatedly complained about CNN news coverage many see this as political payback. Ironically, however, many impartial observers agree with the Trump administration’s stance, just not for the same reasons. They see the merger as a questionable convergence of media power and vertical integration.
At the same time the Ajit Pai, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission wants to kill net neutrality regulations that he claims are crippling the internet. Pai’s proposal, which is certain to pass in December, is despised by consumer groups, tech companies and just about everyone other than the handful of giant telecommunications companies it is aimed to help.
Meanwhile, the number of sexual harassment allegations against power players in Hollywood, the media and politics continues to grow, though now we’re calling it sexual misconduct. We’ll touch on the latest entrants to the list including journalist Charlie Rose and Pixar’s John Lasseter.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including Netflix’s first Colombian production, Time Inc. gets a new owner, and the nominations for this year’s Spirit Awards.
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Showbiz Sandbox 389: The Ever-Growing List of Hollywood’s Sexual Harassment Accusations
November 20, 2017
Six weeks after allegations of sexual abuse and harassment against media mogul Harvey Weinstein were first reported by the New York Times, there seems no end to the number of Hollywood players being accused of misconduct. Kevin Spacey and Louis C.K. may be the biggest stars to have their careers upended thus far, but they won’t be the last as everyone from actor Jeffrey Tambor to talent agents to politicians and even journalists are having similar claims made against them.
The unanswered question is how the entertainment industry will implement changes to ensure sexual harassment will come to an end. Instead, there is concern of a backlash should the public grow tired of hearing about the latest offense to come out of Hollywood’s ranks.
Meanwhile, suing someone these days as become the industry’s second favorite past-time, right after wondering whose vile behavior will finally come back to haunt them. The hit TV show “Supernatural” is apparently losing money after years on the air, while director George Miller says “Mad Max: Fury Road” did not go over budget and he’s suing Warner Bros. to prove it.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including some new FCC media ownership rules, Sony nabs Quentin Tarantino’s next movie and the NFL is still proving attractive to advertisers.
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Showbiz Sandbox 376: Cord Cutters Are Using An Old Hack To Watch Television – It’s Called An Antenna
August 7, 2017
As the Federal Communications Commission seeks to further deregulate cable television companies and do away with net neutrality, consolidation within the industry has caused rates to increase dramatically. We’ll explain how more and more people are growing fed up with high cable bills and what they’re doing about it. Some millennials have even discovered an amazing hack to get the broadcast networks for free! And it’s totally legal!
We’ll also tell you about how some big name players are getting fed up with Hollywood’s opaque accounting system. Sylvester Stallone is suing Warner Bros. over profit participation for his 1990s hit movie Demolition Man while filmmaker Steven Soderbergh is taking the distribution of his latest movie into his own hands.
In China, “Wolf Warrior 2” has earned nearly half a billion dollars at the global box office and looks set to become the country’s highest grossing movie ever. Meanwhile, Wonder Woman is still playing strong in theatres around the world and may surpass “Spider-Man” to claim the crown as the biggest comic book movie debut in history.
Of course, we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including why legendary TV producer Norman Lear is boycotting the Kennedy Center Honors reception, when Bette Midler is leaving “Hello Dolly” and why Netflix acquired a comic book company.
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Showbiz Sandbox 348: Hollywood Studios Get Serious About Shortening Theatrical Windows
December 19, 2016
Studios have been itching to shorten the theatrical release window for their movies since the moment they learned how much money they could make on home video. Of course, cinema owners aren’t too keen on the idea and refuse to book films that can be viewed at home less than three months after they hit theaters. With reports that Apple is talking to Hollywood in hopes of getting early access to movies for iTunes, have the stakes been raised?
Oscar season is heating up as the guilds begin weighing in. First up was the Screen Actors Guild who announced the nominees for their annual awards helping confirm a few front runners. When it comes to foreign language features, the Academy narrowed the list of eligible contenders down to nine, leaving out a few of this year’s favorites.
Meanwhile the Library of Congress announced a selection of 25 titles to enter the National Film Registry including silent films starring Buster Keaton, “The Princess Bride”, “Thelma & Louise” and “Rushmore”.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including the executive shakeup at Warner Bros. Pictures, Julia Roberts comes to television and Amazon goes global with its video streaming service.
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Showbiz Sandbox 341: AT&T Deal For Time Warner Makes Vertical Integration Trendy Again
October 24, 2016
Last weekend, in a sudden and unexpected deal, telecommunications giant AT&T agreed to buy the media conglomerate Time Warner for $85 billion. As its current offerings become more commoditized AT&T is looking to add content to its portfolio through picking up Time Warner, a company that counts among its assets networks such as HBO and CNN, not to mention Warner Bros. Pictures. However, this marriage is far from certain will surely come under the scrutiny of antitrust regulators.
As awards season gets underway, studios have begun releasing some of their high profile title in hopes of going after Oscar glory. Historically, that meant opening arty films in a limited number of cinemas before going wide after gaining word of mouth. We explain why that’s happening less often these days.
Meanwhile, the Wanda Group is inviting all of Hollywood, and frankly anyone producing film and TV, to its new movie studios in Qingdao, China. They are offering a 40% incentive in hopes of luring productions to the multi-billion dollar facilities, but will anyone take them up on it?
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including why Bob Dylan might not be interested in commenting on his recent Nobel Prize award, why the “Deadpool” sequel lost its director and Garth Brooks signs an exclusive deal to stream his music on Amazon’s new service.
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Showbiz Sandbox 340: Bob Dylan Is A Poet and We Didn’t Know It
October 18, 2016
When Bob Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature last week there were cries of joy and jeers of contempt over the decision. Music Journalist Sal Nunziato joins us to ponder whether Dylan’s work is in fact literature. He explains why, out of all the musicians that could have received such an award, it had to be Dylan.
Nunziato explains who out of this year’s 19 nominees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame should actually get in. Will Kraftwerk finally make the cut? Joan Baez seems like a no-brainer and nobody would be shocked if Pearl Jam makes it through on their first attempt, but what about bands like Depeche Mode and hip-hop stars such as Tupac Shakur?
Meanwhile, there’s never been more ways to listen to music thanks to streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music. Now Amazon has entered the world of music streaming and hopes that soon every song request begins with the word “Alexa.”
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including an expansion of the latest Harry Potter franchise, Billy Bush reaches a settlement to depart “Today” and Netflix gives comedian Chris Rock a huge payday.
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Showbiz Sandbox 335: FCC Has Big Plans For Television Set-Top Boxes
September 12, 2016
In a widely expected move, the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Tom Wheeler, laid out a regulatory plan that would allow consumers to use the set-top box of their choice to access television. Naturally, pay television providers weren’t happy since they earn $20 billion annually by forcing their customers to rent such equipment. They claim Wheeler’s mandate is overreaching and his call for universal streaming app adoption could stifle innovation.
The September box office has kicked off the run up to the holiday moviegoing season in fine form. While ticket sales for the month are slightly higher than last year in the United States, it is international markets that continue to outperform. In fact, some films do so much better in China than in North America, that industry pundits wonder whether certain sequels should be China-centric and simply skip a U.S. release.
We’ll be back next week with our regular show that will cover all the news making headlines around the entertainment world.
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Showbiz Sandbox 320: Is Comcast the New Disney?
May 2, 2016
Comcast announced last week that it would acquire Dreamworks Animation for $3.8 billion, taking another step toward transforming themselves from a cable giant into a full fledged media conglomerate. Meg James, a corporate media reporter for the Los Angeles Times, join us to discuss how, though the deal may not have been anticipated, it makes a lot of sense for both companies.
The purchase is the most recent in a string of acquisitions that have closely mirrored the strategy Disney has executed over the past decade as they gobbled up companies such as Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm. Comcast has proven quite adept at turning undervalued assets such as NBCUniversal and Universal Studios theme parks into profitable entities.
Meanwhile, as the Tony Awards season officially kicks off, Broadway is suffering from what is being referred to as The Hamilton Effect. This is a condition in which you open a musical that blends hip-hop and history in a way that not only makes the show a cultural phenomenon, but the inevitable winner of this year’s much coveted Best Musical Tony.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including the Daytime Emmy winners, why Fox is pulling out of this year’s Comic-Con convention and how French law enforcement is preparing for the Cannes Film Festival.
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Showbiz Sandbox 319: The Changing Tide of Music Distribution
April 25, 2016
Almost three years after Beyoncé made a big splash by releasing a secret album via iTunes, the pop star has snuck up the world once again with her latest work, a video album called “Lemonade”. This time however Beyoncé was strategic in how she distributed her album, premiering it with an HBO special, then exclusively to the streaming music service Tidal, before ultimately turning back to iTunes. More and more, big name acts are controlling how and to whom their music gets distributed.
Multi-genre musician Prince was way ahead of his time when it came to controlling how his music reaches the world. The legendary artist died suddenly last week leaving behind a lifetime of work a great deal of which was never released. We discuss the many fascinating ways the unexpected death of Prince was covered by the media and his sometimes unique distribution methods.
We’ll also take a look at the introduction of a new cinematic camera that has the potential to revolutionize filming and post-production by allowing to filmmakers “to effectively capture the color, direction and placement of every ray of light”.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including some behind the scenes drama at the morning talk shows, why China shut down some of the Apple iTunes stores and how Hollywood is making its way to West Africa.
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