Showbiz Sandbox 597: Audiobooks Are Changing Our Reading Habits
October 11, 2022
Audiobooks have slowly gained enough market share in the publishing industry that the medium now rivals print and ebooks in terms of sales and consumption. How audiobooks are changing the way we read is a question Karl Berglund of Uppsala University in Sweden set out to answer through a study analyzing a large amount of quantitative data from Swedish readers for his upcoming book “Reading Audio Readers: Book Consumption in the Streaming Age.” Berglund joins us to discuss his findings and what they could mean for the publishing industry.
Netflix has certainly changed viewing habits with all of its original programming streaming directly into homes. However, after striking a new deal with some of the world’s largest movie theater chains, the company will distribute the sequel to “Knives Out” for a single week in over 600 cinemas a full month before releasing the title on its own platform.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including how titles from four different streaming platforms all hit more than a billion minutes of viewing in the same week, what productions to see in London’s West End and Pink Floyd’s back catalog is up for sale.
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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 514: Has Disney Lost Its Soul?
October 13, 2020
As the COVID-19 pandemic wears on, things are not getting any easier for the Walt Disney Company. The company, long a cheerleader for the theatrical moviegoing experience, has just moved the latest Pixar film to its streaming platform, Disney+. Meanwhile, Disneyland still hasn’t been allowed to open and now a well known activist investor is making all sorts of problems for the media giant.
When cinemas do finally reopen there will be a glut of Marvel and DC titles trying to find release dates. Presently, they can only play at a drive-in, which by the way now qualifies a movie for an Academy Award. It’s also the only kind of movie theater New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is allowing to open.
Of course we also cover some of the week’s top entertainment headlines including why artists are debuting at the top of the music charts more frequently, why the ad spend during the TV upfronts is down this year and Broadway will remain closed until at least May of 2021.
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Showbiz Sandbox 513: How Can Movie Theaters Survive Without Movies?
October 6, 2020
Studios are pushing movie releases into 2021, with the latest James Bond thriller abandoning it’s scheduled November date in cinemas. Now major theater chains are shutting their doors once again. We’re joined by Patrick von Sychowski, the editor of Celluloid Junkie, to help us break down the present and predict the future of the cinema industry.
Meanwhile in China, movie theaters are not only open, they are bringing in big audiences who are off work during the country’s Golden Week. More than two films earned over $100 million at the Chinese box office this past week, proving cinemas can reboot after a coronavirus shutdown.
Of course we also cover some of the week’s top entertainment headlines including new charges against disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, some good news for junior players at United Talent Agency and some bad news for 28,000 former Disney employees.
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Showbiz Sandbox 504: Does The Entertainment Industry Need A Government Bailout?
July 29, 2020
Most of the world’s cinemas are closed. Studios are struggling to release films theatrically. Live theatre probably won’t return until at least 2021. Who knows when concerts can safely be held. Likewise, new movies and television shows can’t get made because producers can’t get production insurance. Is it time for governments to help the entertainment business bounce back the same way they help other industries?
Meanwhile, the Emmy nominations provided some good news, at least for HBO and Netflix who racked up a combined 267 nods. In a year where an Emmy ceremony is hardly likely, the major broadcast networks only scored one nomination for a top award. We go take a stab at predicting which shows will score an Emmy this year.
Of course we also cover some of the week’s top entertainment headlines including why TikTok signed a deal with record labels, Drake charts another music industry record and how Universal Music Group profits from local music acts.
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Showbiz Sandbox 480: “Parasite” Infects the Oscars With Historic Win
February 10, 2020
Though many Academy Awards pundits believed that “1917” would win the Oscar for Best Picture, the prize went to filmmaker Bong Joon-ho’s “Parasite.” Anne Thompson of Indiewire joins us to explain how the industry united behind the South Korean film, giving it four top Oscars, in a historic win; the first foreign language film to ever win the Best Picture Oscar.
Surely none of the Oscar winners will be getting a bump at the box office in China, even if they managed to get a release date. Movie theaters have been closed for the past three weeks due to a coronavirus which has completely upended which films will get into cinemas and when in a tight calendar they’ll reach audiences.
Meanwhile, the WGA overwhelmingly approved their demands for the upcoming contract talks with producers and studios. The existing contract is set to expire in the middle of this year and just about everyone in Hollywood is expecting and gearing up for another writers’ strike.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including why manufacturing vinyl records might get a lot harder, how YouTube is raking in revenue and Disney plans on bringing the Broadway musical “Hamilton” to movie theaters.
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Showbiz Sandbox 433: 2018 Was A Blockbuster Year at the Box Office
December 31, 2018
A string of big movie releases during the holidays helped the North American box office set a record in 2018, ending the year at $11.9 billion. Ticket sales also set a record in China where roughly $8.7 billion was earned. These two territories combined accounted for 48% of the $41.7 billion global box office.
However, growth in the second largest movie market in the world slowed to 9%, down from nearly 14% the year before. That’s why China ignored it’s quota on imported films at the end of 2018, allowing several Hollywood titles to be released. We’ll see if that trend continues into the new year.
In somewhat related news, a survey commissioned by the National Association of Theatre Owners showed that streaming services like Netflix do not adversely affect the frequency of moviegoing. Apparently people who watch a lot of movies at home, also like to watch movies in theaters. Go figure.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including the Aretha Franklin’s back taxes, Ed Sheeran’s blockbuster tour and why CBS wants to dump Nielsen.
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Showbiz Sandbox 415: Along With Box Office, Movie Star Salaries Are On The Rise In China
July 9, 2018
We’ve been told for years now that the theatrical box office in China will ultimately surpass that of North America, probably by 2017… or 2018, or definitely by 2020. But higher grosses have pushed the salaries for the country’s most sought after movie stars to astronomical proportions, something frowned upon in China. In fact, the Chinese government has now stepped in with a new set of regulations capping the salaries paid to talent on movies and television shows and have begun to scrutinize contracts more closely.
On the other hand, The Grammys have decided bigger is better. The Grammys are following the lead of most major awards and expanding its top categories. Instead of announcing the Best Five Album Of The Year nominees, they’ll be announcing eight. The same goes for Best Record and Best Song and Best New Artist. All other categories remain the same.
Meanwhile the group that votes on each year’s most coveted movie awards just got a little bigger. The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences invited a record 928 people to their club with half the invites going to women and 38% to people of color.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including how Spotify hopes to earn revenue by selling movie tickets, credible rumors about new “Star Trek” series and MoviePass officially adopts surge pricing.
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Showbiz Sandbox 406: Is Live Nation Bullying the Music Industry?
April 9, 2018
The merger of concert promoter Live Nation and ticketing giant Ticketmaster was supposed to increase competition, stabilize the price of live events and lower the cost of ticketing fees. Nine years later the deal has achieved none of those results. In fact, there are now reports that the Justice Department has opened an antitrust investigation on Live Nation. Who could have ever predicted that would happen when the merger was first proposed? Oh yes, that’s right… everyone (including us)!
As the recorded music industry slowly scratches it’s way back to 2008 revenue levels, one of the companies instrumental in the upswing is looking to cash in. More specifically, investors in Spotify are looking to reap the rewards of their ownership stake in Spotify, the streaming music giant, as it goes public. That begs the question however, do record labels with a piece of the company now have an incentive to give Spotify better terms? And where does that leave artists?
Meanwhile, the MPAA announced global box office reached a record high of $40.6 billion in 2017. North America contributed $11 billion to the total, a level reached mostly through increased ticket prices since attendance was at a 23 year low.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including some of the changes taking place at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Bruce Springsteen extends his stay on Broadway and online piracy continues to grow.
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Showbiz Sandbox 361: Forget Release Windows, CinemaCon Proves the Screen is the Future
April 4, 2017
Cinema operators gathered in Las Vegas last week to attend the annual CinemaCon trade show where they were able to preview upcoming film releases and learn about some of the new technology on offer for their theatres. Naturally, box office was a big topic with global ticket sales (barely) hitting a record $38.6 billion. Even with a strong U.S. dollar, international box office still made up 71% of the total.
Another issue on everyone’s mind were theatrical release windows; studios want to introduce a premium video on demand offering that brings new releases to the home sooner, though exhibitors are understandably pushing back.
Meanwhile, there may be no movies to show in cinemas if screenwriters goes on strike. The Writers Guild of America has been meeting with producers and studios, however the sides are far apart in their negotiations and a strike is looking more likely.
Of course, we also cover the week’s top entertainment news stories including Robert Downey Jr. as Dr. Dolittle, why major advertisers are upset with YouTube and Adam Sandler reups with Netflix.
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