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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ICE Apprehends 21 Savage, Claims Rapper Is British and Overstayed Visa
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/ice-apprehends-21-savage-claims-rapper-is-british-and-overstayed-visa-789370/
Comscore Announces Official Worldwide Box Office Results for Weekend of February 3, 2019
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/comscore-announces-official-worldwide-box-office-results-for-weekend-of-february-3-2019-300788750.html
CinemaCon Shake-Up: Sony Sitting Out Annual Gathering
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/cinemacon-shake-up-sony-sitting-annual-gathering-1178819
Viacom CEO Bob Bakish’s Annual Pay Falls Slightly
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/viacom-ceo-bob-bakishs-annual-pay-falls-slightly-1171011
Australia Box Office Recovers, Grows 3.6% in 2018
https://variety.com/2019/film/asia/australia-box-office-recovers-in-2018-1203113594/
Japan Box Office Dips 3% in 2018, Holds Above $2 Billion
https://variety.com/2019/film/asia/japan-box-office-down-in-2018-1203121975/
Another Record Year for Polish Cinema
http://filmneweurope.com/news/poland-news/item/117534-another-record-year-for-polish-cinema
International Box Office Top 100 of 2018: Another Record Year, but Rise Is Slight
https://variety.com/2019/film/box-office/avengers-infinity-war-2018-international-box-office-1203112626/
Netflix Becomes First Streamer to Join the Motion Picture Association of America
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/netflix-advanced-talks-join-mpaa-1177926
SAG Awards Winners: Complete List
https://variety.com/2019/film/awards/2019-sag-awards-winners-list-1203119846/
DGA Awards: Winners List
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/dga-awards-2019-winners-list-full-1178563/item/outstanding-directorial-achievement-comedy-series-dga-nominations-2019-1172552
Oscars: Most of the Best Song Nominees Won’t Perform on Telecast (EXCLUSIVE)
https://variety.com/2019/film/awards/oscars-lady-gaga-kendrick-lamar-best-song-performers-cut-1203117143/
MoviePass Subscribers File Class Action Suit for ‘Bait and Switch’ Scheme
https://variety.com/2019/biz/news/moviepass-class-action-subscriber-1203126638/
The Falconer by Dana Czapnik – BookFilter
http://bookfilter.com/2018/05/28/the-falconer-2/
Hulu Raises Price for Live TV Bundle, Discounts Ad-Supported Offering
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hulu-price-increase-live-tv-bundle-discounts-ad-supported-offering-1178244
JD Salinger’s unseen writings to be published, family confirms
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/feb/01/jd-salingers-unseen-writings-to-be-published-family-confirms
SoundCloud, Making $100 Million a Year, Is Back on Solid Ground
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/soundcloud-100-million-a-year-785911/
Hamilton helps West End achieve highest-grossing year ever
https://www.thestage.co.uk/news/2019/hamilton-helps-west-end-achieve-highest-grossing-year-ever/
Spotify Makes It Easy to Mute R. Kelly (Or Any Other Artist)
https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/8494233/spotify-mute-artist-feature-dont-play-button-skip
Spotify Could Launch in India by End of January
https://variety.com/2019/digital/news/spotify-could-launch-in-india-by-end-of-january-1203106997/
Vice Media Cuts 250 Jobs, 10% of Workforce
https://www.wsj.com/articles/vice-media-cuts-250-jobs-or-10-of-workforce-11549033923
Reggie Young, Guitarist Heard on Hundreds of Hits, Dies at 82
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/21/obituaries/reggie-young-dead.html
Jonas Mekas, ‘Godfather’ of American Avant-Garde Film, Is Dead at 96
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/23/obituaries/jonas-mekas-dead.html
James Frawley, Director of ‘The Monkees,’ ‘The Muppet Movie,’ Dies at 82
https://variety.com/2019/film/news/james-frawley-dead-dies-monkees-muppet-movie-1203117008/
Michel Legrand, Oscar-Winning Composer, Dies at 86
https://variety.com/2019/film/news/michel-legrand-dies-dead-oscar-winning-composer-1203119247/
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