Showbiz Sandbox 620: This Year’s Tony Awards Were Unscripted, Yet Predictable
June 14, 2023
This 76th annual Tony Awards ceremony was held last weekend honoring the best and brightest Broadway productions from the past year. Although there was no script for host Ariana DeBose to work due to the writer’s strike. But while the telecast may have been refreshingly unscripted, the winners were fairly predictable with “Kimberly Akimbo” winning Best Musical, Tom Stoppard’s “Leopoldstadt” taking home Best Play and “Parade” picking up the Best Musical Revival trophies. The only question now is which shows will turn their Tony wins into box office gold.
Speaking of labor relations in Hollywood, the DGA released some more info on its proposed deal with producers and the reviews are decidedly mixed, especially for helmers who also write. Meanwhile SAG-AFTRA members made it loud and clear that they are ready to strike as well.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including the PGA’s controversial move to merge with a competitive golf league, CNN axes its CEO and network shows continue to sink in TV ratings.
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Showbiz Sandbox 617: Why the Writers Strike Will Last for Months, Not Weeks
May 9, 2023
There are few people that know more about labor issues in the entertainment business than attorney and journalist Jonathan Handel. So when members of the Writers Guild of America went on strike last week, grinding most television production to a halt, we asked him to join us to discuss all the nuanced details. Handel not only tells us how the last writers strike was resolved in 2007, but explains why the writers are facing an existential problem after the entertainment business was disrupted by streamers.
As well, Handel reminds us that the Directors Guild of America and Screen Actors Guild contracts both end on June 30th, forcing producers, studios and networks to negotiate three different contracts at the same time. This is why nobody, not even Handel, believes the writers’ strike will end before July.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including what Ed Sheeran’s copyright trial victory may mean for the music business, Kevin Costner walks away from “Yellowstone” and this year’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees.
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Showbiz Sandbox 586: Tony Awards Help Broadway Get Its Groove Back
June 14, 2022
After all of the obstacles the pandemic forced plays and musicals to deal with, this year’s Tony Awards looked to raise the curtain on a revived Broadway. The ceremony managed to honor some of the best productions and performances from last season while celebrating the efforts the Broadway community made just to stay in business. We’ll look at how they might help and hurt this year’s batch winners and mention a few of our favorite performances.
Meanwhile, just as movie theaters are looking to rebound from the pandemic, exhibitors in the United Kindom found themselves in a difficult position over a film depicting the early days of Islam. And Disney is saying au revoir to theatrical in France unless that country changes its rules on theatrical release windows.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including some new categories for the Grammy Awards, the rare disorder forcing Justin Bieber to cancel tour dates and why a top executive at Disney is being forced out of the company.
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Showbiz Sandbox 583: The Long and Winding Road to Box Office Recovery
May 10, 2022
With each new superhero blockbuster that hits multiplexes it is clear that big well-done movies can score big at the box office. However it is a huge mistake to treat every new release as the barometer of whether cinema is back. Especially when smaller films like “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and family movies like “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” are proving just as successful in getting post-pandemic audiences back into theaters.
Meanwhile, record labels and streaming services have been fighting with music publishers over mechanical royalties for years now.
However, in a tentative deal on actual music sales, the mechanical royalty will rise more than 30% from 9.1 cents per track to 12 cents. Moving forward, the royalty will be pegged to inflation.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including this year’s Tony Nominations, Dave Chappelle gets attacked on stage during a performance and a new class of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees.
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Showbiz Sandbox 582: Movie Theaters Come Roaring Back at CinemaCon
May 3, 2022
When cinema operators from around the world gathered in Las Vegas for CinemaCon last week, it quickly became obvious that movie theaters ain’t dead yet. Though a global pandemic may have decimated their business model for several years, audiences seem to slowly be returning to movie theaters. So have Hollywood studios who are starting to realize they can’t survive on streaming revenue alone.
Speaking of streaming, a poor earnings report in which Netflix announced they lost subscribers for the first time in a decade, has served as a moment for self-reflection for the company as well as the industry-at-large.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including an abrupt end to CNN+, “Fast & Furious 10” loses its director and Europe’s new media laws.
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Showbiz Sandbox 557: Talent Agents Strike A Deal… for Themselves
October 5, 2021
In yet another sign that the entertainment industry is consolidating, Creative Artists Agency, one of Hollywood’s most powerful talent agencies, announced it would acquire ICM Partners, the fourth largest player in the space. Is the move meant to help CAA gain leverage when negotiating with streaming giants like Netflix, or is it all about ensuring success on Wall Street for its biggest investor? And what will this mean for smaller agencies which may actually stand to benefit from the deal?
Meanwhile, this year’s Tony Awards honoring Broadway’s brightest were finally held with a live audience. However, some productions in both New York and London are stumbling as they turn on their marquees for the first time since the COVID pandemic began.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including how James Bond and Venom are competing for box office glory, Scarlett Johansson settles her “Black Widow” lawsuit with Disney and the labor strike that could shut down Hollywood.
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Showbiz Sandbox 515: Disney Restructures Its Magical Kingdom
October 20, 2020
One week after the Walt Disney Company announced that it would be premiering its latest Pixar film on Disney+ rather than in movie theaters, the media giant says it will reorganize its corporate structure to focus the company’s content creation on streaming. Is this a hasty pivot, long in the works, or just making official the obvious? The move left many industry watchers a bit confused.
Meanwhile, movie theaters in most of New York state can reopen, except in New York City itself. Even so, studios still won’t be releasing a blockbuster soon enough to help struggling cinema operators like AMC, who claims they will run out of money before the end of the year.
Of course we also cover some of the week’s top entertainment headlines including why Kevin Hart is taking over for Jerry Lewis on the muscular dystrophy telethon, K-Pop boy band BTS might be enlisting in the South Korean military (literally) and this year’s slimmed-down Tony nominations.
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Showbiz Sandbox 507: Movie Theaters Come To Terms with Christopher Nolan’s “Tenant”
August 25, 2020
After COVID-19 forced movie theaters around the world to close for nearly six months, they are now set to reopen with one of the most anticipated films of the year; Christopher Nolan’s “Tenant.” There’s only one catch, the film rental terms Warner Bros. is asking for may make cinema operators want to manipulate time and go back to the simpler days when a studio got 50% of the box office and was happy. What’s more, increased film rental terms may be the new normal for movie theaters.
Meanwhile China may be showing the world how to reopen movie theaters as the historic drama “The Eight Hundred” rockets to more than $100 million at the box office. And to think just a few months ago the Chinese government banned the film.
Of course we also cover some of the week’s top entertainment headlines including how the Berlin Film Festival is going gender neutral, Ron Meyer is out at NBCUniversal and the Tony Awards may happen this year after all.
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Showbiz Sandbox 453: The Biggest Disaster in the History of the Music Industry
July 2, 2019
When a fire ripped through Universal Studios in Los Angeles back in 2008 it was initially feared that all of the historic films and music locked away in the vaults that burned were lost forever. At the time Universal reported that, quite miraculously, very little damage had occurred and that few, if any, of the master recordings in the vaults were damaged.
However, in an in-depth investigative piece The New York Times reports that the fire actually wiped out hundreds of thousands of invaluable masters of legendary recording artists such as Louis Armstrong, Chuck Berry, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Elton John, Nirvana and possibly hundreds of others. Universal Music Group continues to insist the loss is overstated, but artists are clamoring for more information and the first class action lawsuit has already been filed.
Meanwhile talks between the Writers Guild of America and the Association of Talent Agents over packaging fees and affiliate productions have stalled and now lawsuits have started to fly.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including which Broadway shows got a post-Tony Awards bump in grosses, J.J. Abrams lands at WarnerMedia and Celine Dion is leaving Las Vegas.
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Showbiz Sandbox 447: The Madness of Media Moguls Making Mega-Millions
May 6, 2019
While the exorbitant salaries of the entertainment industry’s top executives are not a new phenomenon, the subject cropped up again recently after a relative of Walt Disney objected to the $65 million paycheck Disney CEO Robert Iger earned last year. That amounts to 1,424 times more than the average salary of a Disney employee. We debate whether Hollywood moguls should be earning hundreds of times more than their employees and why their compensation is so high in the first place.
On Broadway, Tony nominations were announced last week and they pack more drama and excitement than the creatively weak season that just ended. We’ll take a look and predict which shows will benefit the most from awards and the chance to perform live on TV.
Meanwhile, “Avengers: Endgame” continues to dominate the worldwide box office, earning $2 billion in just 11 days, faster than any film in history. That said, we wonder why Hollywood studios neglect to mention that their tentpole movies often begin showing on Thursdays.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including big changes at CBS News, YouTube scores some Major League Baseball games and why the London production of “Les Miserables” is getting a makeover
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