Showbiz Sandbox 473: There Is A Disturbance In The Chinese Force
December 23, 2019
The “Star Wars” franchise was never a huge phenomenon in China the way it was elsewhere in the world, so it wasn’t much of a shock when the latest installment, “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” flopped in its opening weekend in the country. It even came in second behind a local martial arts epic from Donnie Yen. In fact, eight out of the top ten earning movies in China during 2019 were homegrown hits as the country’s annual box office reached new heights.
The box office won’t break any records in North America this year, despite the strong opening of “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.” A film version of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical “Cats” sure isn’t helping either. It opened to scathing reviews and grosses to match. Good news though, a new version of the film should be in theaters for its second week.
Meanwhile, Netflix released subscriber info region by region and investors liked what they heard. Obviously, Netflix has hit peak subscribership in the United States, but when you look at how the company is doing in the rest of the world, you can see its customer base is growing substantially.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including a new owner for Miramax, NBC/Universal reveals the pricing for the upcoming streaming service and “South Park” rules cable television for the seventh year in a row.
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Showbiz Sandbox 196: Hollywood’s Frivolous Five Year Plan
June 24, 2013
Hollywood movie studios have a history of announcing the release date for big tentpole films a year or more in advance. The goal has always been to secure a prime weekend that will force the competition to stear clear. Lately however studios have taken to scheduling releases five years in advance. With some untitled projects yet to start production or even complete a script, it appears that release dates are more important than the movies themselves.
With longstanding geographic monopolies in-place cable companies rarely have to worry about competition, other than from satellite providers. That may be why Time Warner Cable is facing a class-action lawsuit which claims customers, especially non-sports fans, are being forced to pay for the company-owned sports channels to help offset the cost of expensive licensing deals.
Speaking of lawsuits, the government wrapped up its anti-trust case against Apple over the fixing of prices for e-books. While the Justice Department went into the trial looking like a winner, in the end Apple may have proved it was innocent of any illegal activity.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including Robert Downey Jr.’s deal to play Iron Man in the next two “Avengers” movies, Billboard disses Jay-Z and Warner Bros. shakes up its top executives.
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