Showbiz Sandbox 190: How The Academy’s New Voting Rules Will Affect The Oscars?
May 6, 2013
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced it will now be allowing members to vote in all 24 Oscar categories, including Documentary Short Subject and Foreign Language Film. Anne Thompson, Indiewire’s editor-at-large and host of the Oscar Talk podcast, believes the change is long overdue. She explains what the old voting rules were and how these new ones will affect the Oscars moving forward.
The Rolling Stones are also making changes, at least to the ticket prices for their current North American tour. With face-value prices upwards of $600 has the legendary UK band and its tour promoters misjudged fan’s appetites for paying top dollar for big acts? Based on the number of unsold tickets to the first few shows of the tour, the answer is yes.
Meanwhile on Broadway, the Tony Award nominations were announced last week. “Kinky Boots”, “Matilda” and “Lucky Guy” lead the pack with the most nominations. We try to make educated predictions, and blind guesses, as to who might walk home with a Tony in June.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including six billion hours of YouTube videos, trademarking superheroes and why studios don’t want to pay a tax on movie tickets in China.
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Robert Downey Jr. Confirms $50 Million ‘Avengers’ Payday
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/robert-downey-jr-confirms-50-451707
Academy Opens All 24 Categories to All Voting Members
http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/academy-opens-all-24-categories-to-voting-members
Academy Celebrates Heavy Voter Turnout, But Most Members Still Chose Paper Ballots
http://www.thewrap.com/awards/column-post/academy-celebrates-heavy-voter-turnout-most-members-still-chose-paper-ballots-89491
CinemaCon Heavyweight Panel Debates Windows, Social Media, State of Industry
http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/cinemacon-heavyweight-panel-debates-windows-social-media-state-of-industry
Stones Tickets Disaster
http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2013/05/01/stones-tickets/
Rolling Stones Face Pay Cut As Poor Sales Force Them To Slash US Ticket Prices
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2013/may/04/rolling-stones-face-pay-cut-ticket-prices-slashed
‘Kinky Boots’ Leads With 13 Tony Nominations; Tom Hanks Gets Nod for ‘Lucky Guy’
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/30/tony-awards-2013-nominations-live-blog/
2013 Tony Awards Ballot
http://projects.nytimes.com/tonys/2013/ballot/3xapuz40
‘Lucky Guy’ Pays Off for Investors
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/03/lucky-guy-pays-off-for-investors/
Home Entertainment Spending Rises 5% Overall
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/home-entertainment-spending-jumps-5-450192
Hachette Makes E-Books Available To Libraries
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/digital/content-and-e-books/article/57049-hachette-makes-full-e-book-catalogue-available-to-libraries.html
Soaps Producers Sue ABC For Allegedly Sabotaging Online Relaunch Of Soaps
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/soaps-producer-sues-abc-allegedly-442259
FOX Renews “Glee” For Fifth And Sixth Season
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/fox-renews-glee-seasons-5-6-425918
Comic Book Creator Fights Marvel, DC
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/comic-book-creator-fights-term-superhero-article-1.1327860
‘Mockingbird’ Author Lee Sues Over Copyright In NY
http://online.wsj.com/article/APad7397cc1b244f3cbf68591e2fd848a7.html
YouTube Users Now Watch 6 Billion Hours of Videos A Month
http://gigaom.com/2013/05/01/youtube-users-now-watch-6-billion-hours-of-videos-a-month/
Study: Half of Moviegoers Think Trailers Give Away All the Best Scenes
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/study-moviegoers-think-trailers-give-450336
Hollywood Pushes Back Against New China Tax
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100014241278873247….
Thomas Adjani’s “Revenge on a Ghost”
http://www.brightsunproductions.com/
With the Rolling Stones facing so many unsold tickets they have to slash prices and the Yankees on a winning streak but playing to a half empty stadium in NYC, will the era of insanely overpriced tickets to sports and entertainment finally come to an end? No. If we’re lucky, it just means prices won’t rise quite so fast for the next year or two.