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 442: Apple Finally Unveils Their Content Plans
March 26, 2019
After years of anticipation and endless speculation, the technology giant Apple finally announced its plans for its video streaming service. Not only will Apple TV now be available on all smart televisions and integrate with existing cable providers, it will offer a la carte over the top services. What’s more, Apple revealed a slate of six homegrown series marking its first foray into original content.
Apple is not starting small either, launching their service with shows from some of the biggest names in Hollywood, including Steven Spielberg, J.J. Abrams, Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, to name just a few. The only thing they didn’t make public about Apple TV+ is its subscription price.
And while new digital streaming platforms are all the rage, there is still plenty of money to be earned at the theatrical box office. Official numbers for 2018 have now been finalized, with North American box office rising 7%, helping boost worldwide receipts 2% to over $41 billion.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including the contentious talks between the WGA and talent agencies over packaging fees, Disney officially acquires Fox and the Library of Congress adds 25 new sound recordings to the National Recording Registry.
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Showbiz Sandbox 431: India Is Set for A Battle Over Streaming Market Share
December 3, 2018
By 2023 the country of India is forecast to have 550 million people streaming content, earning $18 billion in video streaming alone. Of course, most of people will be watching on their mobile devices, but big players like Amazon, Disney, Netflix and Spotify don’t care, so long as they wind up with the largest piece of the Indian market. One major hurdle; India makes its own content and doesn’t need Hollywood.
That is why streaming companies have begun to produce their own India-centric shows, though that can be challenging in a country with more than 20 languages and wildly diverse cultures. Plus all the major providers have to compete with the likes of YouTube, which is by far India’s most popular streaming service thanks to its advantageous price point; free.
Meanwhile, the awards season is clearly upon us with the National Board of Review and the New York Film Critics weighing in on their favorites. Los Angeles Film Critics will be making their picks shortly and Golden Globe nominations will be announced this week.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including a lucrative new deal at Warner Bros. for director and producer Ava DuVernay, actor Hugh Jackman is planning a worldwide concert tour and the collapse of independent bookstores.
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Showbiz Sandbox 429: Remembering the Genius of Stan Lee
November 13, 2018
In a career that spanned over six decades, Stan Lee became one of the most influential creators and publishers of comics that ever worked in the medium. He helped build Marvel Comics by creating dozens of superheroes including most notably Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk and X-Men. Geoff Boucher, the new genre editor at Deadline Hollywood, joins us to discuss how Lee’s enduring work has heavily influenced the modern pop culture landscape.
Boucher also tells us how he got the exclusive story on Fox’s plans to release a PG-13 version of “Deadpool 2” in the midst of the holiday season. You might be interested to hear how this led to the kidnapping of actor Fred Savage, best known for his role in “The Wonder Years”.
Meanwhile a team from China just won the 2018 “League of Legends” World Championship. Though 110 million people in China play the game, it’s the first time the country has ever captured one of the most prestigious prizes in e-sports.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including how we’re headed toward a record year at the North American box office, why Fox News is chastising some of its hosts and pay TV loses over one million subscribers in the third quarter.
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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 414: The MoviePass Effect Is Real and Here To Stay
June 25, 2018
The film industry can say what it wants about MoviePass, and it’s said plenty, but the subscription moviegoing service has made a huge impact on the market since lowering its price to just under $10 per month. Though skeptics abound on whether the company is financially sustainable, the subscription model it has popularized is quickly becoming a standard offering. Just last week AMC Theatres, the world’s largest cinema chain, announced its own subscription plan to compete directly with MoviePass.
Meanwhile, China is realizing that its growing movie and television industry is becoming overcrowded. With tens of thousands of film and TV companies having sprung up over the past decade and hundreds of films going unreleased each year, there is a fear that the country could be experiencing a media bubble that is about to burst.
Back in the United States, celebrities are suddenly are shocked to discover that the Fox News channel is peddling in propaganda and is not so concerned with actual news. While this may have been the case since the networks inception, creatives are now threatening to walk away from business with Fox Studios. Quick, somebody tell them that Fox Studios is about to have a new owner.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including the above average TV ratings for World Cup matches, “Roseanne” officially gets a spinoff series and a Michael Jackson musical may soon be coming to Broadway.
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Showbiz Sandbox 413: Let the Media Merger Mania Commence
June 18, 2018
In one of the most significant antitrust cases in decades, last week a federal judge cleared the way for AT&T to complete its acquisition of Time Warner, ruling that the Department of Justice failed to make a convincing argument the deal would be bad for consumers. The decision opens the door for what many believe will be a wave of corporate mergers as existing media outfits look to thwart off threats from tech giants entering the space such as Amazon, Apple and Netflix.
Evidence of this was apparent within days as Comcast made an official all-cash offer to acquire a majority of Twentieth Century Fox’s assets. The Fox board will meet this week to decide who will wind up acquiring them; Disney or Comcast.
We follow up the Tony Awards to applaud its big winner “The Band’s Visit,” celebrating the success of indie producers on a Great White Way dominated more and more by corporations. We also shoot down the idea that winning the Tony for Best Musical isn’t a boost at the box office.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including how Bryan Singer will wind up with director’s credit on the Queen biopic from which he was fired, Oprah Winfrey signs a deal with Apple and why a tax scandal in China over a major star’s salary has the industry on edge.
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Showbiz Sandbox 411: Everybody Has An Excuse For Lackluster “Solo”
May 28, 2018
On paper Han Solo seemed like the most obvious character for which to pursue a standalone Star Wars spinoff, however the resulting movie, “Solo,” opened to less than stellar numbers. What’s worse, the movie didn’t fly internationally either. Whether it was the film’s highly publicized production troubles or a case of franchise fatigue, everyone involved will be able to point the finger at someone else for the end result.
Meanwhile, just as Disney begins reexamining how many Star Wars films they should release in a single year, they may have to revise their offer for Twentieth Century Fox. Comcast came along last week and beat Disney’s purchase price, upping the ante to $60 billion in what would be an all-cash deal.
Production coordinators aren’t asking for that kind of money, but they are asking to be unionized. Such a move might help those who are employed in what has become an essential position on any film or television crew from having to renegotiate their fees on every new production.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including a K-Pop band tops the billboard charts, Harvey Weinstein is charged with sexual assault and James Bond heads to Universal Pictures.
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Showbiz Sandbox 408: CinemaCon Shrugs Off Unwanted Disruptions
April 30, 2018
Movie theater owners from around the world descended upon Las Vegas for CinemaCon last week. Studios wooed exhibitors with clips from upcoming film releases while industry manufacturers lured attendees with the latest technology, including high-resolution LED screens as a method of showing movies to the masses. Much like the subscription service MoviePass, the screens left cinema operators wondering if they were just one more “innovation” nobody had asked for.
Meanwhile “Avengers: Infinity War” broke box office records both in North America and globally when it opened over the weekend. The latest Marvel superhero movie earned over $640 million in just three days, putting it on track to pass the billion dollar mark.
Speaking of “war,” one is brewing between the Writers Guild of America and talent agencies. The WGA wants to cancel their current agency agreements and rewrite them to prevent franchised agents from profiting off of packaging deals with television networks. Such arrangements currently allow agents to double dip and at times earn more than their clients for a project.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including Steven Spielberg signing on to direct the movie adaptation of DC Comic’s “Blackhawk,” the next “Star Trek” film lands a female director and Bill Cosby is found guilty of sexual assault.
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Showbiz Sandbox 405: Hollywood Adopts A Queer Gaze as LGBTQ Films Go Mainstream
March 26, 2018
Hollywood studios are no strangers to coming-of-age romantic comedies (see any John Hughes film), but never before has a mainstream film centered around a gay teenager. Even so, Twentieth Century Fox didn’t cover up the subject matter of “Love, Simon” and instead used it in their marketing campaign.
What’s more, such films are now being made by members of the LGBTQ community lending them a sense of credibility through what Los Angeles Times film reporter Tre’vell Anderson calls the “queer gaze”. Anderson joins us to discuss the present state of queer films and the future of a genre that is becoming more prominent.
Meanwhile the music industry has something to celebrate as 2017 marked the second year in a row with double digit revenue growth. Streaming services accounted for more than half the year’s total earnings, which are finally back at 2008 levels.
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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