Showbiz Sandbox 527: Sundance Film Festival Overcomes Pandemic Hurdle
February 4, 2021
How do you hold a film in the midst of an infectious health crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic? Just ask the Sundance Film Festival who managed to pull off a virtual film festival that felt quite similar to the real deal right down to the blockbuster acquisition deals for this year’s most popular titles. There was even a virtual bar for attendees to hang out and network with one another. We’ll fill you in on all the movies from this year’s festival that you’ll be hearing about throughout 2021.
Meanwhile, last year’s noteworthy movies and television shows are heading into a delayed awards season with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association announcing their Golden Globe Nominees. If the Globes are any indication, which is not always the case, then streaming services may dominate this year’s round of awards.
Of course we also cover some of the week’s top entertainment headlines including the AMC stock price surge, Warner Music goes solo and we may finally have seen the end of Peak TV.
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Showbiz Sandbox 476: Four Movies Top This Years Oscar Nominations
January 14, 2020
When the nominations for the 92nd Annual Academy Awards were announced on Monday morning, for the first time in history four films wound up earning ten or more nods; “1917,” “The Irishman,” “Joker,” and “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood.” While the media will focus on who was snubbed or the lack of diversity among nominees, the real story is just how wide open this year’s highly competitive Oscar race truly is.
Will this be the year that Netflix wins a Best Picture trophy? They wound up earning more total nominations than any other studio (or streamer). As well, a record 62 women received nominations, though filmmaker Greta Gerwig was overlooked as a director for “Little Women”.
Meanwhile, as CES wrapped up in Las Vegas last week a new standard could make televisions a lot friendlier when it comes to showing movies. And Jeffrey Katzenberg showed up to tout his new short-form video streaming service.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including “Hamilton” closes in Chicago after earning $400 million, some drama in the romance literary world and streaming music hits an all time high.
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Showbiz Sandbox 432: Peak TV Just Got Peakier
December 17, 2018
When John Landgraf, head of the FX network, proclaimed we had reached a state of “peak TV” back in 2015, he predicted the 422 television shows being produced at the time would inevitably decline since there was no way for audiences to keep up. Last year however, that number rose to 495 series being produced. To put this increase in perspective, there were 182 shows on the air in 2002.
It’s safe to assume these numbers are bound to rise with new entrants into the video streaming market launching in 2019 including Disney and WarnerMedia. What’s more, the annual amount of money being spent on all this content is astonishing with the likes of Netflix and Amazon each spending $8 billion and $5 billion respectively. And that’s nothing compared to the $22 billion Disney is shelling out.
Meanwhile, the awards season is underway with all sorts of groups weighing in on their favourites, including the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the Golden Globes and the first awards that matter: the Screen Actors Guild. Spoiler alert: “Roma” just hit a roadblock.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including the Grammy nominations, new entrants to the National Film Registry and Mariah Carey’s latest chart-topping hit is a quarter century-old Christmas song.
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Showbiz Sandbox 305: Should “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” Box Office Records Require An Asterisk?
December 21, 2015
The release of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” shattered box office records the world over and became the biggest movie opening of all time by earning $529 million. We explain why in countries such as Japan and South Korea, the latest “Star Wars” not only didn’t win the weekend, but in some cases earned less than earlier installments of the franchise. We also look at the breakdown of which formats audiences favored when buying tickets.
George Lucas’ original “Star Wars” movie was released in 1977 and was added to the National Film Registry in 1989. We weigh in on the annual list of films added to the registry by the Library of Congress, charged with selecting new entrants. It always makes for a fascinating mix; we’ll discuss what made this year’s cut there and why. Hint: It’s not always artistry that counts… and no we’re not looking at you “Top Gun.”
In music news, it turns out online radio services such as Pandora will soon be paying more to license songs. Meanwhile, Adele is trying to prevent her fans from having to pay more to purchase tickets to see her in concert. We’ll tell you about the growing backlash against the secondary market for concert tickets and what some artists are doing about it.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including how “Star Wars” bumped Quentin Tarantino’s latest movie out of a historic movie theater, Howard Stern signs a new deal with SiriusXM and the list of this year’s inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
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Showbiz Sandbox 292: There Is Simply Too Much Television
August 31, 2015
Television network executives have begun publicly acknowledging a predicament their audiences recognized some time ago; there is simply too much television. In the midst of what has been dubbed a “golden age” of television, viewers are becoming reluctant to sign up for yet another new or existing series.
In fact, John Landgraf, the head of FX Networks, recently told the Television Critics Association that the glut of TV content means it has become more difficult to “cut through the clutter and create real buzz” when producing a show. With so much programming available, great shows can often go unnoticed or take longer to find an audience.
Then there are countries in which content is being suppressed. In Russia a politically active Ukrainian filmmaker was recently handed a 20 year prison sentence drawing international criticism that the charges were fabricated. Bangladesh meanwhile has banned a banned a new movie because it shed light on the country’s billion dollar garment industry, which is well known for exploiting its workers.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including why Warner Bros. is headed to China, Spongebob Squarepants is headed to Broadway and how Netflix is about to lose more than 1000 movie titles.
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