Showbiz Sandbox 609: Consumers Are Spending A Fortune on Home Entertainment
February 28, 2023
According to Digital Entertainment Group, consumers in North America spent $37 billion on home entertainment in 2022. That includes not only spending on streaming services, but also DVD, Blu-ray and digital sales. Not to mention physical and digital rentals. And none of these figures includes spending on cable television.
Meanwhile, awards season is in full swing with the SAG Awards, PGA Awards, Annies and the Cesars all being handed out over the past week. We’ll give you the quick summary and what it all means for the Oscars.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including how Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramout are in a dispute over “South Park,” Stephen Fry will host “Jeopardy” in the United Kingdom and new “Lord of the Rings” movies are in the works.
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Showbiz Sandbox 604: Which Awards Actually Matter?
January 17, 2023
As we get deeper into this year’s awards season we’re finally hearing from groups whose opinions mean something. For instance, the guilds for directors, producers and cinematographers have all nominated their top picks from last year’s movies. In other instances however, awards are handed out in so many different categories, it seems like every film released gets a gold star.
Meanwhile, as the Grammy Awards are nearly upon us, we are learning that last year’s top five songs are generating less interest than the top five songs from 2021. In fact, the ten biggest songs of each year are drawing fewer and fewer listeners year-after-year, becoming a smaller piece of the streaming pie.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including why Amazon is parting ways with Jeremy Clarkson, how Cathleen Hoover dominated the 2022 best seller lists and a first look at last year’s global box office tally.
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Showbiz Sandbox 536: Blockbuster Box Office Begins Pandemic Recovery
April 14, 2021
After remaining dormant for most of the past year “Godzilla vs. Kong” revived the box office with the best opening weekend since the COVID-19 pandemic bega. The monster movie has taken in over $350 million globally despite being available on HBO Max. in $38 million despite being available on HBO Max. Does this mean big blockbuster movies can open day-and-date and score big even if they’re available online via a streamer? Uh, no.
Meanwhile, politics is stressing out Hollywood. Whether it’s human rights issues in China or voting rights issues in Georgia, Hollywood is not happy about being forced to take sides.
Of course we also cover some of the week’s top entertainment headlines including producer Scott Rudin being exposed as a bully after decades of bad behavior, “Game of Thrones” may be headed to Broadway and singer Lil Nas X stirs up some controversy with his latest chart topper.
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Showbiz Sandbox 528: Crunching The Numbers On Cinema Attendance Trends
February 9, 2021
With media reports constantly declaring that cinema admissions have been steadily declining for the past two decades, we set out to determine if such proclamations are actually true. Has moviegoing kept pace with population growth or fallen off? With some help from our listeners we do the math to answer the question once and for all.
Meanwhile, the Writers Guild of America is taking a victory lap after they reached a deal with William Morris Endeavor, the last of the major Hollywood talent agencies yet to sign a new franchise agreement. This means that television packaging fees and ownership of affiliated production companies will be winding down at agencies over the next two years.
Of course we also cover some of the week’s top entertainment headlines including why TikTok will start paying for music, Nielsen revamps its streaming charts and this year’s SAG Award nominations.
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Showbiz Sandbox 501: Are Movie Studios Starting To Panic?
July 8, 2020
With most of the world’s cinemas having been closed for the past five months due to the coronavirus pandemic, Hollywood studios and other film distributors have been unable to release new movies theatrically. However, even if movie theaters are able to open their doors, will studios be willing to release expensive blockbusters at a time when a new COVID-19 outbreak could shut them down again at any moment?
Meanwhile the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences invited over 800 new professionals from around the world this year, achieving their goal of diversifying the organization’s membership base.
Of course we also cover some of the week’s top entertainment headlines including the WGA avoids a strike by reaching a deal on a new contract with producers, Beavis and Butt-Head grow up and the United Kingdom pledges to $2 billion for arts programs.
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Showbiz Sandbox 477: The Recording Academy Upstages Itself During Grammy Week
January 21, 2020
Even before this year’s Grammys are handed out next Sunday the Recording Academy is making headlines, not necessarily in a good way. In a controversial move, the organization put its CEO Deborah Dugan on administrative leave after less than six months on the job, citing reports of alleged misconduct. However, this came after Dugan sent a memo to the academy’s board highlighting voting irregularities, financial mismanagement, exorbitant legal bills as well as conflicts of interest with the organization’s board members, executive committee and outside lawyers.
It will take some time to sort out what is actually going on within the Recording Academy’s executive ranks, though we should know who takes home the Album of the Year Grammy by next week. If the academy plays it safe, it just might be Vampire Weekend, but we think Lizzo should be a frontrunner.
Meanwhile, Chinese New Year is upon us, the biggest movie-going week in the Middle Kingdom. As usual the country has blacked out Hollywood film releases to help bolster attendance of homegrown movies. Yet this may not even be necessary since lately domestic titles are doing better than imported content.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including this year’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees, Netflix plans to spend billions on content and why we might be headed for another writers strike.
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Showbiz Sandbox 472: The Growing Dominance of Netflix Movies During Awards Season
December 16, 2019
As Hollywood’s major guilds begin announcing their nominations for best films of the year a trend seems to be emerging; Netflix is becoming a player in prestige cinema. Similar to how cable networks disrupted the domination of broadcast companies at the Emmys, the streaming giant has a growing number of entries vying for top awards.
In China the government has had to pivot from censoring basketball to worrying about how to deal with soccer now that one of the sports star players has spoken out over the protests taking place in Hong Kong. Can the government continue to pull sports off the airwaves without creating a huge programming problem?
Meanwhile, there has been some industry murmurings about the lack of big titles from Marvel or Lucasfilm on next year’s release schedule, leading some to believe box office will be down significantly. We take a quick look at some of the upcoming 2020 releases and explain why there is no need to panic.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including the controversy that might break the reality show “Survivor,” why Billboard is adding video streaming to its album charts and the National Film Registry announces its latest selections.
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Showbiz Sandbox 436: A Wealth in Diversity at Sundance
February 5, 2019
This year’s Sundance Film Festival was more diverse than it usually is in every way one might imagine. Sure, there were the usual crop of independent films and documentaries, but the predominance of women and people of color and queer voices was more notable than ever. In fact, female filmmakers took home most of the festival’s top prizes.
Sundance also proved to be a feeding frenzy for independent distributors with Amazon swooping in to spend more money than any other studio has ever spent during a single year at the festival. Usually, if one selection sells for over $10 million it makes headlines. This year there were at least three films that fell into that category.
Meanwhile the Super Bowl weekend proved to be a bust both at the box office, which was reached a 20-year-low, as well as on television, where the broadcast of the big game fell to a 10-year-low.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including Peter Jackson’s Beatles documentary, Hulu raises its prices and Spotify turns on a feature that allows users to turn off artists.
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Showbiz Sandbox 396: Has the #MeToo Movement Pushed Actress Salaries Higher?
January 22, 2018
As Hollywood continues to grapple with how to handle decades of sexual misconduct one immediate benefit for women throughout the industry may come in the form of higher paychecks. Take actress Ellen Pompeo, for instance. The star of “Grey’s Anatomy” for the past 13 years dished the dirt on her contract with ABC and after years of trying to be paid as much as the male leads of the show, she now makes $20 million per season.
Naturally not everyone working in television who is looking to be paid what they are worth, or even what they are owed contractually, is a woman. Frank Darabont, who created the hit series “The Walking Dead” has been suing AMC for years over profit participation in the show he was fired from. Now Darabont is returning to court armed with even more evidence the network tried to hoodwink him.
Meanwhile the awards season plows on with some claiming there are no front runners in the Oscars race. That seems strange when “The Shape of Water” (The Producers Guild) and “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” (SAG Awards) keep winding up at the top of most lists.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including why the Huffington Post is saying goodbye to its bloggers, YouTube sets new guidelines for its partner program and MoviePass gets into the film distribution game.
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Showbiz Sandbox 393: Disney Acquisition of Fox Underscores Hollywood’s Digital Transition
December 18, 2017
In one of the largest deals Hollywood has ever seen, the Walt Disney Company announced it had agreed to buy most of 21st Century Fox in a transaction valued at $66.1 billion. Disney will scoop up Fox assets that include 20th Century Fox film and TV studios, 300 cable channels, 22 regional sports networks, control over the Hulu streaming service and a stake in Sky. Fox will keep its news, sports and broadcast networks, as well as its publishing empire.
The move underscores how movie studios have become an intellectual property business where scale matters. Rupert Murdoch feared Fox never scaled properly to compete in the age of digital on-demand consumption of content and that his company was at the peak of its value. Selling a portion of his empire also avoids a family power struggle over who would take control of the company once he steps down.
Meanwhile, the first award nominations from a guild have arrived courtesy of the Screen Actors Guild. And the Library of Congress added 25 new works to the National Film Registry, including fiction and documentaries, features and shorts. We’ll discuss what significant works they’ve enshrined.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including the FCC officially ditches net neutrality regulation, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announces this year’s entries and why Norway is switching off FM radio.
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