Showbiz Sandbox 516: What Went Wrong With Quibi
October 27, 2020
Quibi, the bite-sized content platform founded by media mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg and business leader Meg Whitman, has been mocked since it was first announced. Now after six months and $2 billion, Quibi is kaput. Unable to find an audience, and despite a fruitless attempt to find a buyer, Quibi is officially shutting down.
The company insists people were gunning for them from the start, but the simple truth is that Quibi always seemed like a solution in search of a problem. Besides, however good the content may have been, it was going to be very hard to convince people to plunk down $5 a month just to watch random videos while commuting.
Of course we also cover some of the week’s top entertainment headlines including Netflix misses its third quarter subscriber goal, television ratings for live sports events plummets and box office continues to soar in China and Japan.
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Showbiz Sandbox 482: Entertainment Industry Facing Coronavirus Challenge
February 24, 2020
For the past four weeks the Chinese government has mandated that all of its cinemas remain closed in hopes of preventing further spread of the Coronavirus, also known as COVID-19. Not that anyone would actually show up even if movie theaters were open since a majority of China’s population are avoiding public venues and gatherings. Having the second largest movie market in the world out of business for so long will surely affect the global box office, not to mention release dates.
As the Coronavirus reaches other countries and turns into a full-blown pandemic, cinemas in Northern Italy are shutting their doors in the wake of infestations and the popular Korean boy band BTS moved a press conference for its upcoming album to an online only event, rather than meet journalists in-person.
In the United States, the popular indie-cinema chain Alamo Drafthouse launched its own long-awaited subscription plan. We debate the merits of Alamo’s new program and what theater operators need to consider when adopting such a scheme.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including soaring occupancy rates for Broadway productions, the United Kingdom embraces streaming in earnest and HBO Max will launch with a reunion of “Friends.”
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Showbiz Sandbox 475: Broadway Attendance Was Up and Box Office Was (Slightly) Down in 2019
January 6, 2020
Broadway produced its second highest grossing year in history during 2019, earning $1.7 billion, just 3% down from the year before. The season still managed to set a record for attendance, selling more tickets than any other season in modern history. Indeed, during the last decade attendance at Broadway shows was up 20% as ticket prices rose a whopping 70%.
Speaking of financial figures, the worldwide movie box office numbers are still being finalized for last year but it looks as if France and China may have set new records. So did Disney, whose movies grossed $11.1 billion globally, accounting for 33% of North America’s ticket sales.
Meanwhile, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association lent their voices to this year’s awards season by handing out their Golden Globes for achievement in film and television. Despite a few unexpected winners there was no indication there choices will hold sway of the Oscars in February.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including why the Kingdom of Jordan is banning a movie it helped fund, the Coachella Music Festival announces this year’s lineup and some popular works enter the public domain.
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Showbiz Sandbox 466: How Hollywood Kowtows to China
October 28, 2019
Entertainment companies are finding themselves in compromising positions when it comes to avoiding political pitfalls in China. Movie studios and media conglomerates don’t want to disrupt their bottom line by appeasing Chinese authorities while surrendering their creative freedom. The result is that companies distributing content in China find themselves censoring themselves.
“South Park,” on the other hand, chose an alternative path; directly offending the Chinese government and immediately being banned throughout the country. Even when companies do kowtow to the Chinese government, they find themselves getting into trouble at home and abroad. Just ask the producers of the animated film “Abominable,” an animated film which was banned in the country for showing a map that favored China’s disputed territorial claims.
Meanwhile, the new television season started. Not that you’d know it based on the ratings, which are down almost any way you slice them. And the clear message is this: people’s viewing habits have changed, probably forever, and it’s not going to help TV channels trying to sell eyeballs to advertisers.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including a tie for this year’s Booker Prize, Netflix somehow adds even more subscribers and a big Hollywood talent agency scraps its long awaited IPO.
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Showbiz Sandbox 465: Ang Lee’s Latest Science Project
October 14, 2019
Filmmaker Ang Lee is arguably one of the best directors to ever step behind a camera. He’s made acclaimed films such as “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” “Brokeback Mountain” and “Life of Pi,” winning three Oscars along the way. However Lee’s latest efforts have been more concerned with filmmaking technology than their script.
That was certainly the case with “Gemini Man,” an action film that stars Will Smith playing an assassin opposite a digitally de-aged version of himself. Geoff Boucher of Deadline spoke with Lee about the challenges of making the film, which was shot in high frame rate at 120 frames per second.
Meanwhile, China deleted “South Park” from the airwaves (and the internet) after a new episode mocked the country’s human rights record. Then China canceled the broadcast of an NBA basketball game being played in Shanghai after a league executive showed support for anti-government protestors in Hong Kong. We discuss what this means for all the businesses that want a piece of the Chinese market but don’t want to damage their brand worldwide.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including the Nobel Prize for Literature is awarded to a controversial writer, a new K-Pop supergroup storms the music charts and Apple launches an in-house production studio with some big name talent.
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Showbiz Sandbox 284: Taylor Swift Takes A Bite Out of Apple
June 22, 2015
When Apple announced its new streaming music service earlier this month certain members of the music industry were quick to voice their dismay over the terms the tech giant was offering. Specifically, indie record labels weren’t happy to see that Apple wouldn’t be paying licensing fees during the three month trial period the company was offering new subscribers. As the chorus of opposition grew louder it was none other than Taylor Swift who pushed Apple to reverse its payment policy.
In an open letter published to her website, the country musician turned pop star criticised the world’s largest music retailer for not compensating writers, producers, or artists during a new subscriber’s three month trial period. She says new artists, young songwriters and independent producers depend on such royalties to survive. In a move that some will argue demonstrates Swift’s influence within the industry, Apple actually relented.
Another entertainment business model currently being disrupted is that of television. With more consumers opting to cut their cable cord for over the top solutions, the NBA announced they would let basketball fans purchase out-of-market games on a per-game and per-team basis. This has huge implications for the broadcast industry as programming continues to slowly become unbundled.
Of course, we also cover the week’s top entertainment news stories including the box office success of “Jurassic World” and “Inside Out”, a big payday for Jennifer Lawrence on her next film and gambling on who will be the next actor to play James Bond.
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