Showbiz Sandbox 196: Hollywood’s Frivolous Five Year Plan
June 24, 2013
Hollywood movie studios have a history of announcing the release date for big tentpole films a year or more in advance. The goal has always been to secure a prime weekend that will force the competition to stear clear. Lately however studios have taken to scheduling releases five years in advance. With some untitled projects yet to start production or even complete a script, it appears that release dates are more important than the movies themselves.
With longstanding geographic monopolies in-place cable companies rarely have to worry about competition, other than from satellite providers. That may be why Time Warner Cable is facing a class-action lawsuit which claims customers, especially non-sports fans, are being forced to pay for the company-owned sports channels to help offset the cost of expensive licensing deals.
Speaking of lawsuits, the government wrapped up its anti-trust case against Apple over the fixing of prices for e-books. While the Justice Department went into the trial looking like a winner, in the end Apple may have proved it was innocent of any illegal activity.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including Robert Downey Jr.’s deal to play Iron Man in the next two “Avengers” movies, Billboard disses Jay-Z and Warner Bros. shakes up its top executives.
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Studios Now Setting Movie Release Dates Into 2018
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-mn-studios-now-dating-movies-into-2018-20130621,0,500145.story
‘SuperTicket’ For Seeing Movie At Theater, Home
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-fi-ct-new-movie-tickets-20130620,0,4640337.story
Time Warner Cable Sued For Passing Lakers-Dodgers Costs On To Customers
http://www.deadline.com/2013/06/time-warner-cable-lawsuit-dodgers-lakers-costs-customers/
Cable Giants Embrace Innovation to Battle Cord Cutting
http://homes.yahoo.com/news/cable-giants-embrace-innovation-to-battle-cord-cutting-230909403.html
Cord-cutting Learned In College, As Is Stealing Netflix and HBO Go
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-cord-cutters-netflix-hbo-go-20130621,0,5041139.story
Robert Downey Jr Back For Two more Avengers Films
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/robert-downey-jr-back-avengers-572536
Billboard Will Not Count Jay-Z’s Sales From Samsung Deal
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/21/billboard-will-not-count-jay-zs-sales-from-samsung-deal/
Food Network Dumps Paula Deen
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/food-network-wont-renew-paula-573391
Paula Deen Releases Video Statement
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/paula-deen-releases-video-statement-573345
Fox Says End Broadcast Indecency Oversight
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/fox-urges-end-broadcast-indecency-572512
Silvio Berlusconi Sentenced to 7 Years in Jail, Lifetime Politics Ban
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/silvio-berlusconi-sentenced-7-years-574054
‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ and Myspace Partner To Live-Stream Shows
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-myspace-jimmy-kimmel-live-partnership-20130615,0,2973728.story
Microsoft Kills XBoxOne Phone Home DRM
http://games.slashdot.org/story/13/06/19/219244/microsoft-kills-xbox-one-phone-home-drm
Jeff Robinov Negotiating Exit Of Warner Bros.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/jeff-robinov-set-negotiate-warner-572663
Robinov Is Out
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/official-jeff-robinov-at-warner-57409
‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ Movie Secures Director
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/fifty-shades-grey-movie-secures-571784
Netflix, DreamWorks and the Brave New Content Licensing World
http://www.adweek.com/news/television/netflix-inks-deal-dreamworks-exclusive-content-150432
‘PW’ Publishes ‘The Battle of $9.99’ E-book
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/digital/content-and-e-books/article/57896-pw-publishes-the-battle-of-9-99-e-book.html
The Winds Have Shifted In The Apple E-Book Trial
http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2013/06/20/apple-ebook-antitrust-summations/
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