Showbiz Sandbox 563: The Grammy Nominations Are Bigger and More Baffling Than Ever

When this year’s Grammy nominations were announced last week the Recording Academy made a last minute decision to expand some of its biggest categories from eight to 10 nominees. This allowed popular artists like Taylor Swift, Kanye West and Lil Nas X to be included in this year’s list. While this generates a small amount of grumbling, we discuss why it may not be such a bad move.

Meanwhile the Thanksgiving weekend helped the worldwide box office continue to recover from the ongoing pandemic. Still some industry watchers are dismayed that popular releases like Disney’s “Encanto” and the latest “Ghostbusters” aren’t opening to bigger numbers. Though, when you have studios claiming blockbusters such as the Queen biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody” are still in the red after earning nearly a billion dollars, would it really matter if they doubled their opening weekend gross?

Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including how Adele got Spotify to stop shuffling around, The Weeknd breaks a long-standing record on the music charts and Netflix (sort of) becomes more transparent with viewership data.

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Showbiz Sandbox 562: The Death of Network Television Is Greatly Exaggerated

While the entertainment industry and Wall Street may be distracted by the growth of streaming services and their subscriber numbers, senior network television executives are reminding everyone that linear TV is far from dead. In fact, according to the latest viewing metrics, more audiences are tuning into network television programs on a consistent basis than actually watch streaming content.

Meanwhile, while the fall film festival season may be dominated by events in Toronto, Telluride and Venice, there are still a number of festivals taking place that are just as noteworthy, including the AFI Fest and Doc NYC. We’ll discuss some of this year’s official selections at both of these festivals.

Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including why a high profile director walked away from the next Star Wars movie, Peter Jackson sells his special effects toolkit and Spotify starts a new chapter in streaming.

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Showbiz Sandbox 561: After “Squid Game,” Korea Wants Netflix to Pay Up

Though Netflix’s expensive blockbuster “Red Notice” is getting little notice in movie theatres, the company’s signature streaming service is thriving. In fact, its series “Squid Game” is so popular around the world that in Korea Netflix is being barraged with questions about paying for the cost of the increased streaming traffic it continues to generate.

Meanwhile, a music festival in Houston headlined by Travis Scott left at least eight concertgoers dead and scores injured after they were crushed when the audience surged toward the stage. We’ll explore the poor choices made by Astroworld’s promoters that lead to the tragedy.

Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including why the BBC may lose funding, Netflix launches its mobile games and the Justice Department wants to stop two of the world’s largest book publishers from merging.

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Showbiz Sandbox 560: Should Hollywood Get Rid of the (Real) Guns?

In European film and television productions, real guns with either live or blank rounds are rare to non-existent. Instead, plastic replicas or airsoft blowback guns are used with muzzle flashes added during post-production. So why do Hollywood productions continue to rely on working firearms when it would be cheaper and safer for them not to? This is one of the questions the industry is asking itself after a tragic gun accident on Alec Baldwin’s latest film left the cinematographer dead.

In more positive news, October turned out to be the biggest for movies all over the world as the box office works its way back to pre-pandemic levels. Meanwhile, in Germany, exhibitors are rebelling against movies that are showing day and date on Disney+, while in France, cinema operators freaked out when Netflix tried to show movies in theaters instead of just streaming them.

Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including how “Squid Game” has dominated the streaming conversation, the controversy over Spain’s top literary prize and a glimpse at some post-COVID Broadway grosses.

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