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 552: Disney and the Great “Shang-Chi” Experiment
August 19, 2021
First Disney tried to shame Scarlett Johansson for daring to sue them over the studios distribution strategy on “Black Widow.” Then during an earnings call the company’s CEO described the upcoming Marvel “Shang-Chi and the Legend Of The Ten Rings” as an “interesting experiment.” Simu Liu, the star of “Shang-Chi,” was quick to push back on such thinking, saying “We are the underdog; the underestimated.”
Meanwhile, actor Johnny Depp believes he is an underdog as well these days, claiming in an interview with The Sunday Times that Hollywood is boycotting him. International film festivals are doing the exact opposite however, honoring Depp for his body of work.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including “Funny Girl” is headed back to Broadway, the television game show “Jeopardy” officially has two new hosts and production of “The Lord of the Rings” Amazon series moves from New Zealand to the United Kingdom.
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Showbiz Sandbox 521: Words In Bubbles – Behind the Scenes of the Comic Book Industry
December 16, 2020
Everyone in the entertainment industry has suffered the disruption caused by the COVID pandemic, including those who create and publish independent comic books. Kyle Higgins knows a thing or two about that. He’s known for his work on the Batman franchise for DC and the Power Rangers franchise for Boom Studios, not to mention his own ground-breaking work on originals like C.O.W.L.
We talk to Higgins about his latest creation, “Radiant Black” as well as the challenges of creating comics during a pandemic. He gives us a unique peak into the world of conceiving, creating and publishing independent comic books.
Of course we also cover some of the week’s top entertainment headlines including the fallout from Warner Bros. sending all their movies to HBO Max, all the big announcements from Disney’s investor day and the latest additions to the National Film Registry.
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Showbiz Sandbox 520: Writing Hollywood’s Obituary… Again
December 8, 2020
The film industry is facing an existential crisis due to the COVID pandemic; film productions are struggling to continue, cinema chains have become burdened with debt and studios are sending their blockbuster releases directly to streaming services. In fact, last week Warner Bros. announced that its entire 2021 slate of movies would be released both in theatres and on their streaming service HBO Max, at least in the United States.
Brooks Barnes, a reporter for the New York Times, recently wrote a feature story detailing the death of Hollywood…again. Literally the headline used the word obituary. Barnes joins us to discuss the unprecedented challenges and disruption the industry is facing and helps us understand their overall ramifications.
Of course we also cover some of the week’s top entertainment headlines including why Disney is putting the Fox film library back in its vault, Bob Dylan sells the publishing rights to all of his songs and an all-Spanish album tops the Billboard charts for the first time in its 64 year history.
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Showbiz Sandbox 518: The Cord Cutting Epidemic Is Growing
November 17, 2020
This year, consumers have continued to migrate from pay television providers to over-the-top services at an increasing rate. In the United States alone, the number of cable and satellite subscribers has dropped 25% to 73 million in just five years. Many industry watchers are expecting that number to bottom out at 50 million by 2025.
Yet people are watching more television than ever; they’re just doing it on services such as Roku, HBO Max and Hulu. Last week Disney reported that their new streaming service has attracted 73 million subscribers. Their original target was 60 million by 2024. They reached that number their first nine months.
Of course we also cover some of the week’s top entertainment headlines including how Spotify is investing more in podcasting, Ticketmaster makes a plan to safely hold concerts again, and the Super Bowl has booked its halftime show.
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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 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 483: China Presents Hollywood With A Trillion Dollar Dilemma
March 2, 2020
Between intellectual property theft, forced joint ventures and strict government regulation, the entertainment industry has come to learn that doing business in China is difficult at best, complicated at worst. Chris Fenton, the CEO of Media Capital Technologies, knows a thing or two about doing film industry business in China, having worked in the Middle Kingdom on various project for decades. He joins us to explain the dilemma facing Hollywood in China as well as his upcoming memoir “Feeding the Dragon.”
China is, in fact, where the coronavirus originated before it spread to other countries throughout the world. Now, movie theaters in Italy and South Korea are joining their Chinese counterparts in shutting down, hoping to prevent further spread of the virus, and leading to what could be billions in box office losses.
Meanwhile, the CEO of Disney, Bob Iger, decided to suddenly step down last week and instead take on the role of Chairman. Disney theme park head Bob Chapek will be the company’s new CEO. We cover all the reasons for the executive shuffle.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including the winners of this year’s Berlin Film Festival, Placido Domingo apologizes for past behavior (sort of) and why YouTube can’t censor content.
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Showbiz Sandbox 456: The TV Shows That Will Benefit Most From An Emmy Nomination
July 22, 2019
Television audiences have become so fragmented these days that almost every show can benefit from Emmy Awards attention. Sure, you think everyone knows about shows like “Stranger Things” and “The Handmaid’s Tale” We ask which series might get a needed ratings boost from being in this year’s Emmys race.
HBO took home the most Emmy nominations helped by “Game of Thrones” which set a record earning 32 nods, the most ever for a single show. However, with “GoT” and “Veep” in their final seasons is HBO’s award enjoying a swan song over its Emmy dominance?
Meanwhile, Disney’s latest live-action adaptation opened internationally to $531 million on its way to what is likely another billion dollar gross for the studio. In fact, Disney may have five billion dollar movies this year alone.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including the headlines from Comic-Con, Netflix subscribership drops and why you may not be able to find that hot new album at your local record store.
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Showbiz Sandbox 449: Staying Up Late In Cannes
May 20, 2019
Stories about women empowerment and a growing discontent among the middle or working class have taken center stage at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. A spotlight has also been given to diversity with the 2019 program filled with titles by filmmakers from all over the world, as well as a number of women, including the first female African director. Some selections from legendary filmmakers such as Pedro Almodovar and Terrence Malick are being hailed as masterpieces, despite any dissenting minority.
Keep in mind we are only half-way through the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, which is always a marathon, more than a sprint. Attendees watch hundreds of movies across more than four different categories and, as of this year, the press no longer gets to see the films ahead of their premiere. We discuss what that means for the filmmakers and why journalists may be losing sleep over the new protocol.
Meanwhile, it seems that some talent agencies have begun to sign the Writers Guild of America’s new code of conduct contract, albeit none of them are firms that package television shows or are even in the Association of Talent Agents. Are the agencies going to crack or are writers beginning to realize that maybe agents aren’t as important as they once were.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including Disney takes full control of Hulu, the entertainment industry continues to work out how or whether to shoot their productions in Georgia and ITV cancels the Jeremy Kyle Show after one of its guests commits suicide.
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