Showbiz Sandbox 176: Hollywood Unchained – 2012 Sets Another Box Office Record

January 7, 2013

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Once again Hollywood raked in record earnings at the North American box office in 2012, though this time it wasn’t because of increased ticket prices.  In fact, both revenue and attendance were up nearly 6% during the year as 1.36 billion tickets were sold to set a new annual box office record of $10.8 billion.

Internationally box office receipts were off slightly.  After a string of years with record grosses, Hollywood movies raked in $13.5 billion outside North America.  The new year is looking up as well since nine films pegged as Oscar contenders are all still raking in big grosses.

The music business didn’t have such good news.  Album sales during 2012 declined 4.4% in the United States where Adele spent a second year at the top of the heap.  What’s noteworthy is that digital downloads outpaced physical album sales for the first time according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Of course, we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including the sale of Al Gore’s cable network, the rising ratings for Big Bang Theory and why YouTube is deleting views for music videos.

Coachella keeps Rolling Stones rumors moving along
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-coachella-moves-along-rolling-stones-rumors-20130105,0,7165357.story

Holiday Box Office: ‘Hobbit’ No. 1 With $32.9 Mil; ‘Django’ Easily Beats ‘Les Mis’ for No. 2
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/holiday-box-office-hobbit-no-407124

Record Year At Movie Theaters: $10.8 Billion
http://money.cnn.com/2012/12/31/news/companies/record-box-office/index.html

Global Growth Brings B.O. Role Reversal
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118064235/

Sony Pictures No. 1 in 2012 Worldwide Box Office Market Share
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/sony-pictures-no-1-2012-407575

Producer’s Guild Film Nominations Revealed
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/producers-guild-film-nominations-revealed-407551

WGA Award Nominations Announced
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/wga-awards-nominations-408430

Senate Intelligence Committee To Probe Zero Dark Thirty’s CIA Access
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/zero-dark-thirty-senate-intelligence-407782

Digital Retailers Now Account For The Majority of Album Purchases
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-most-music-now-purchased-online-20130104,0,60443.story

Irving Azoff Exits Live Nation, Will Retain Artist Clients
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-irving-azoff-exits-live-nation-20121231,0,5264112.story

Warner Bros Settles Big “Smallville” Vertical Integration Suit
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/warner-bros-settles-big-smallville-407821

Andrew Sullivan and His Blog Exit Newsbeast
http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/andrew-sullivan-and-his-blog-exit-newsbeast-146223

Andrew Sullivan Q&A at the New York Times
http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/04/andrew-sullivan-on-going-back-to-future-as-an-indie-blogger/?hp

New Sony Patent Blocks Second Hand Games
http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/01/03/report-new-sony-patent-blocks-second-hand-games

Al Jazeera Said To Be Acquiring Current TV
http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/02/al-jazeera-said-to-be-acquiring-current-tv/?smid=tw-share

Google Removes Two Billion Fake Views on YouTube
http://www.ubergizmo.com/2012/12/google-removes-2-billion-fake-views-on-youtube/

Gerard Depardieu’s New Russian Passport Comes With Free Russian Apartment
http://www.vulture.com/2013/01/depardieus-russian-passport-comes-with-housing.html

Big Bang Theory Hits Series High
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/tv-ratings-big-bang-theory-408352

E-Reader Market Shrinks Faster Than Many Predicted
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/20/e-book-reader-tablets-cannibalized/

Patrick Dempsey beats Starbucks, will pay $9.15 million for Tully’s
http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-patrick-dempsey-starbucks-tullys-coffee-20130104,0,3638691.story

Copyright Act of 1976
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Act_of_1976

What Could Have Entered The Public Domain on January 1, 2013
http://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday/2013/pre-1976

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