Showbiz Sandbox 91: Super Bowl Ads Suffer Their Own Recession
February 8, 2011
More than 111 million people watched this year’s Super Bowl telecast; more viewers than any broadcast in U.S. television history. That’s great news for companies that spent big money to run ads during the game. Unfortunately, most of the usually entertaining commercials were downright dreadful. Whether praiseworthy or offensive, we give you the low down on all the adverts.
Documentary filmmaker Michael Moore is taking the Weinstein Brothers to court, suing them for the $2.7 million in “Fahrenheit 9/11” proceeds Moore claims he’s owed. Is it safe to say the Weinstein Company won’t be releasing Moore’s next film?
Turns out nobody will be releasing the White Stripes next album. Jack and Meg White have decided to call it quits. Meanwhile theater critics were so eager to see the new “Spider-Man” musical they couldn’t wait until it opened. Based on their scathing reviews, it’s probably best if it never makes it out of previews.
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Showbiz Sandbox 90: Pick Up Artists Score At Sundance
February 1, 2011
The Sundance Film Festival was held in Park City, Utah over the past two weeks and word is that this year’s official selections were well worth the trip. Just back from the festival, Anne Thompson of IndieWire’s Thompson On Hollywood blog fills us in on all the buzzworthy films and why so many of them were picked up for distribution. Could it be the death of independent film has been greatly exaggerated?
After winning top prizes at the Director’s Guild and Screen Actor’s Guild over the weekend “The King’s Speech” has overtaken “The Social Network” as the favored Best Picture Oscar winner. More often than not Academy members follow the guild’s lead when doling out trophies in major categories, but that doesn’t mean they won’t have a few surprises in store.
Netflix continues to do battle with HBO, not only over the networks own content, but also over Warner Bros. films. Meanwhile, rumors abound that Amazon may soon be joining Netflix in the video streaming business.
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Showbiz Sandbox Special Episode: Dissecting This Year’s Oscar Nominations
January 25, 2011
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced this year’s Oscar nominees yesterday and we were happy to see there were a few surprises.
While “The Social Network” has been a favorite among critics, Academy voters favored “The King’s Speech”, nominating the historical drama for 12 awards including Best Picture. Even the Coen Brothers’ adaptation of “True Grit” beat out “The Social Network’s” eight nominations by garnering 10, including Best Actor for Jeff Bridges, Best Director and Best Picture.
Though there are categories where the winner seems obvious (Best Actor going to Colin Firth for “The King’s Speech”) there are still a few, like cinematography, that are harder to call. that gives us plenty of reason to tune into the ceremony on February 27th, which is to be hosted by Best Actor nominee James Franco and actress Anne Hathaway.
In this episode we analyze all the major nominations along with a few of the Academy’s oversights.
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Showbiz Sandbox 89: The Rising Fortunes Of Lady Gaga
January 24, 2011
Lady GaGa may be well on her way to earning more than $100 million dollars this year. With a new album and a world tour, Zack O’Malley Greenburg, a staff writer at Forbes, believes the pop star has the potential to become one of 2011’s highest paid musical performers. Greenburg stops by to help us do the math on Gaga’s ever increasing fortunes.
One event which won’t be contributing to Lady Gaga’s income is the Coachella Music Festival. Coachella, which is held in Southern California every April, anounced its lineup for this year’s event and Gaga isn’t on the bill. Even so, this year’s fest is overstuffed with acts you don’t want to miss and Los Angeles Times pop critic Ann Powers fills us in on all of them.
Meanwhile, MTV has a new hit on its hands with “Skins”, but advertisers and parents groups are protesting the show over its portrayal of teenage sex and drug use. At least three big advertisers have already pulled their support of the show. Over on Fox, Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez have joined a revamped “American Idol”, which despite dropping 13% in the ratings still managed to beat out all its competitors.
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Showbiz Sandbox 88: How Many Producers Does A Movie Need?
January 17, 2011
Other than some pointed barbs from comedian Ricky Gervais this year’s Golden Globe Awards were truly predictable. Nicole Sperling of the Los Angeles Times attended the ceremony and tells us all about it. She also explains why the Academy Awards only allow three producers to be nominated for each Best Film nominee. Relativity’s Ryan Kavanaugh is one of six producers on “The Fighter”, but not when it comes to the Oscars.
We are also joined by Aaron Rich, the gentleman blogger behind All The Movies I Watch and They’ll Love It In Pomona. While many media outlets are cutting back on movie critics, Aaron is part of a wave “amateur” critics who are making use of the Internet to share their passion for cinema.
Taylor Swift continues to make news with her new album. “Speak Now” topped the Billboard 200 chart again, but did so by selling the fewest units ever for a number one album. And the record industry isn’t alone in suffering from decreased sells. Video game revenue dropped 6% in 2010.
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Showbiz Sandbox 87: The Oscars Have A Mommy Complex
January 10, 2011
It seems as if this year’s supporting actress awards are being overrun by a handful of horrible mothers. “The Fighter” and “Animal Kingdom” feature just the kind of evil matriarchs Oscar voters have reward in the past. Stephen Farber of the Daily Beast and Hollywood Reporter discusses the evolution of flawed movie mommies from “Mildred Pierce” to “Precious”.
Ben Fritz of the Los Angeles Times tells us that Hollywood studios are hoping to make selling films online a bit easier and explains how Academy members may soon be able to download awards screeners from iTunes .
Last week during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas it seemed as if television manufacturers were on the defensive over the lackluster sales of 3D televisions. The music industry isn’t fairing much better as Nielsen reported album sales Fell 12.8% in 2010 and digital downloads were flat.
Of course we also review the week’s top entertainment headlines including a new film version of Gypsy starring Barbara Streisand, the return of “Jersey Shore”, Quentin Tarantino’s flawed top 20 list and Broadway’s record setting box office.
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Showbiz Sandbox 86: Why TV Viewing Is Rising As Moviegoing Declines
January 3, 2011
On more than a few occasions during 2010 one could hardly fault moviegoers for feeling as if they’d been duped as they left theaters. Movieline journalist and author Alonso Duralde believes that in at least seven instances films were misrepresented by their marketing campaigns. He discusses, among others, the arthouse movie that was sold as an action thriller, the riotous comedy that isn’t funny at all, and a princess tale disguised as a swashbuckling adventure.
Marketing could hardly be the primary reason 2010’s box office was down slightly from the previous year’s record earnings. With ticket sales off by an estimated 5.36% the only thing propping up film grosses were higher ticket prices, which noticeably rose over the past year.
On the other hand, Nielsen reports that Americans are watching more television than last year, around 34 hours per week. Unfortunately for the major broadcast networks which once ruled the airwaves, viewership has become fractured as it spread out across hundreds of cable channels. The only big TV winner during 2010 was living sporting events, which accounted for eight of the top ten highest rated shows of the year.
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