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 97: What The Failure Of “Mars Needs Moms” Means For Hollywood
March 22, 2011
When Disney’s animated film “Mars Needs Moms” flopped at the box office, film industry insiders struggled to pinpoint a possible cause. Was it the motion-capture animation style? The lackluster storyline? Are multiplexes saturated with too animated family films? Have higher 3D ticket prices caused moviegoers to become more picky? We are joined by New York Times media reporter Brooks Barnes who faults a long list of culprits for the movies failure.
Meanwhile, music industry big shots trekked to Austin, Texas last week hoping to find undiscovered artists at the South by Southwest music conference. However, 13-year-old Rebbecca Black didn’t have to attend SxSW to attract attention. She became the world’s latest pop-star in under a week when her much maligned song and music video turned into a viral Internet sensation.
Streaming video continues to change the television landscape. Video streaming service Netflix made the jump into original programming by picking up a television series. Such a move was aimed at keeping Netflix ahead of an endless assortment of competitors entering the market.
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