Showbiz Sandbox 571: Want Ratings? Get Joe Rogan To Host The Oscars!
February 9, 2022
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences brought an end to the endless speculation of countless awards pundits by announcing this year’s Oscars nominations. Now we’ll all have to deal with the griping about who was snubbed along with seven weeks of incessant reports about which Best Picture nominee is gaining momentum with Oscar voters.
Perhaps we should thank the Oscars for stealing the headlines from comedian Joe Rogan whose podcast has caused no end of controversy and grief for Spotify, its exclusive distributor. The only good news out of the Rogan mess is that it’s finally brought the band Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young back together, at least in regards to their desire to remove their music from the streaming service.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including how a Disney soundtrack is dominating the music charts, viewership of the Winter Olympics plummets and the head of CNN is suddenly ousted.
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Showbiz Sandbox 564: Film Critics Start Selecting the Best Movies of 2021
December 7, 2021
It’s that time of year when Film Critics Start Selecting the Best Movies of 2021 for newspapers, magazines and websites begin naming their favorite movie releases. The National Board of Review named its favorite film of the 2021, then proceeded to name 32 more in various categories. The New York Film Critics were tougher however, naming five top films in categories like nonfiction, debut film, animated feature and foreign language. We discuss where any awards season favorites are beginning to stand out.
Thankfully, movie theatres around the world are mostly open, allowing audiences to catch up with some of the critics top picks. However, a new COVID variant named after what would appear to be a character out of a Transformers movie, is temporarily shuttering cinemas in various parts of the world such as China and Russia.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including why CNN fired the host of its highest rated news program, the Grammys clarify who can be nominated as a songwriter and the reason Middle Eastern countries won’t show Steven Spielberg’s take on “West Side Story.”
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Showbiz Sandbox 563: The Grammy Nominations Are Bigger and More Baffling Than Ever
November 30, 2021
When this year’s Grammy nominations were announced last week the Recording Academy made a last minute decision to expand some of its biggest categories from eight to 10 nominees. This allowed popular artists like Taylor Swift, Kanye West and Lil Nas X to be included in this year’s list. While this generates a small amount of grumbling, we discuss why it may not be such a bad move.
Meanwhile the Thanksgiving weekend helped the worldwide box office continue to recover from the ongoing pandemic. Still some industry watchers are dismayed that popular releases like Disney’s “Encanto” and the latest “Ghostbusters” aren’t opening to bigger numbers. Though, when you have studios claiming blockbusters such as the Queen biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody” are still in the red after earning nearly a billion dollars, would it really matter if they doubled their opening weekend gross?
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including how Adele got Spotify to stop shuffling around, The Weeknd breaks a long-standing record on the music charts and Netflix (sort of) becomes more transparent with viewership data.
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Showbiz Sandbox 163: Plenty To Feel Good About at Telluride and Toronto
September 17, 2012
Anne Thompson has just returned from two whirlwind weeks at the Telluride and Toronto Film Festivals. The editor of Indiewire’s Thompson On Hollywood blog is happy to report that, despite all the doomsayers, there is still reason to believe there are plenty of good studio and independent movies awaiting release this year. Thompson joins us for a discussion about this year’s festivities and tells us which films came out ahead as the awards season kicks off in earnest.
Someone who knows a few things about good how to make good movies is Tom Rothman, the Co-Chairman of Twentieth Century Fox Filmed Entertainment along with Jim Gianopulos. Rothman announced he would be stepping down on January 1st, ending his 18-year tenure as head of the studio. Gianopulos, on the other hand, is sticking around to run the studio on his own.
The new TV season ramped up last week with the debut of Katie Couric’s daytime talk show and the season premiere of “Sons of Anarchy” pulling in big ratings.
Of course, we cover the week’s top entertainment news stories including this year’s Kennedy Center honorees, two new judges on “American Idol” and why streaming music could be bad for the environment.
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Showbiz Sandbox 162: Did The Justice Department Destroy The Literary Ecosystem With E-Book Settlement?
September 10, 2012
Despite strong opposition from authors, publishers, retailers and the public, the U.S. Department of Justice settled their anti-trust case with three major publishers over e-book price fixing. Even an explanatory comic strip from a well regarded copyright attorney couldn’t prevent a ruling that some industry analysts say will enable Amazon to dominate the market. However, not all involved parties have settled, with Apple, Macmillan and Penguin awaiting trial on the charges.
The headlines weren’t any better for the movie business, where theatrical attendance over the past weekend was the worst on record in more than 10 years. It probably doesn’t help that Fox announced they would make movies available for digital download shortly after they hit theaters.
On the other hand, magazine publishers have a lot to cheer about for a change, especially when it comes to the skyrocketing sales of overseas titles.
Of course we cover all the week’s top entertainment news including the return of ratings powerhouse “Sunday Night Football”, Daniel Craig’s future as James Bond and why the Oscars telecast will be singing a new tune next year.
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