Showbiz Sandbox 602: Avatar Sequel Makes A Splash at the Box Office
December 20, 2022
Filmmaker James Cameron delivered his long-awaited sequel to “Avatar,” the highest grossing movie of all-time and it delivered the blue Christmas movie theaters were hoping for. “Avatar: The Way of Water” is getting mostly glowing reviews for its visuals, less so for its story, and opened to huge admissions figures around the world. Whether it will surpass the success of the original film is questionable, but it should reign over the box office through the end of January.
Meanwhile, it turns out Warner Bros. Discovery wasn’t done making post-merger cuts. The media conglomerate increased the write-down of its existing content, pulling shows off of HBO Max and upending the DC Universe in the process.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including the latest entrants to the National Film Registry, an update on Bad Bunny’s Ticketmaster fiasco and an early prediction for the 2023 global box office total.
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Showbiz Sandbox 601: Middle East Film Industry On Display at Red Sea Film Festival
December 14, 2022
The second Red Sea International Film Festival just came to a close in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, a country which didn’t even have movie theaters until four years ago. In fact, several Saudi films premiered at the event which put an emerging Middle East film industry on full display.
Meanwhile there is no debating that we are in the throes of the awards season. The National Board of Review, the Los Angeles Film Critics and the Golden Globes are handing out kudos even though none of them really matter when it comes to the Oscars.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including why highbrow films are losing audiences, the Sight & Sound poll of best movies of all time is published and Ticketmaster messes up in Mexico.
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Showbiz Sandbox 600: The Return of Bob Iger at Disney
November 29, 2022
We were just as surprised as everyone else to hear that The Walt Disney Company was firing their CEO Bob Chapek and replacing him with their longtime former head, Bob Iger. Iger is returning to a markedly different media company than the one he left less than a year ago and his second stint as CEO will be measured by how he sets up Disney to survive into the future. Finding the right successor will be one of his top priorities.
Meanwhile, we try to unravel how Ticketmaster fumbled the sale of tickets to Taylor Swift’s upcoming concert tour. The company is claiming verified fans were unable to get tickets due to unprecedented demand and automated ticket-buying bots. The incident caused such a stir it even attracted the attention of politicians eager to hold hearings about it.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including why a big book publishing merger is called off, Amazon gets serious about film distribution and Agatha Christie’s “Mousetrap” heads to Broadway.
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Showbiz Sandbox 599: The Grammy Awards Have A Timing Problem
November 18, 2022
The nominees for the 65th Annual Grammy Awards were announced this week and as expected Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar, Adele and Harry Styles will all be competing for top awards. Yet some of the year’s biggest albums weren’t even eligible to be nominated because they were released after September. This is a continuous problem for the Grammys, since their deadline is always before the busy holiday season when many artists release albums.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including why how Netflix is eyeing live sporting events, workers are headed for a strike at publisher Harper Collins and the “Black Panther” sequel opens to big box office.
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Showbiz Sandbox 598: Streaming Growth Goes International
November 9, 2022
It’s no secret that streaming services have been affecting every part of the entertainment business in one way or another, from movies and television to music sales and book publishing. After the latest round of earnings announcements from major media conglomerates a few realities become clear; producing original content for direct-to-consumer streaming offerings is costing a fortune and any significant subscriber growth is going to come from overseas territories.
Meanwhile, Taylor Swift’s latest album, “Midnights” might be topping the sales and Billboard charts, however it won’t be eligible for a Grammy in 2023 because it was released after September 30th of this year. The same goes for Bruce Springsteen, Charlie Puth, Gorillaz, Red Hot Chili Peppers, 1975, Carly Rae Jepsen, Arctic Monkeys and Smashing Pumpkins. On the other hand, Silk Sonic have decided not to have their debut album compete for an Album of the Year Grammy.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including why K-Pop phenoms BTS are headed to the army, how the performing rights organization BMI is becoming a for-profit entity and embattled actor Kevin Spacey is found not liable in a sex abuse lawsuit.
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Showbiz Sandbox 597: Audiobooks Are Changing Our Reading Habits
October 11, 2022
Audiobooks have slowly gained enough market share in the publishing industry that the medium now rivals print and ebooks in terms of sales and consumption. How audiobooks are changing the way we read is a question Karl Berglund of Uppsala University in Sweden set out to answer through a study analyzing a large amount of quantitative data from Swedish readers for his upcoming book “Reading Audio Readers: Book Consumption in the Streaming Age.” Berglund joins us to discuss his findings and what they could mean for the publishing industry.
Netflix has certainly changed viewing habits with all of its original programming streaming directly into homes. However, after striking a new deal with some of the world’s largest movie theater chains, the company will distribute the sequel to “Knives Out” for a single week in over 600 cinemas a full month before releasing the title on its own platform.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including how titles from four different streaming platforms all hit more than a billion minutes of viewing in the same week, what productions to see in London’s West End and Pink Floyd’s back catalog is up for sale.
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Showbiz Sandbox 596: The Compact Disc Turns 40 Years Old
October 4, 2022
It’s hard to believe that the compact disc format was first launched forty years ago this week. Billboard has a great oral history about the launch of the CD format and how it initially faced stiff resistance from record labels before kicking off a boom in music sales that lasted until digital MP3s took over 20 years later. We discuss our own
Meanwhile, the Washington Post has a very lengthy, multi-media feature about the search for the best sound in music, and whether that means lossless audio digital files, a newly remastered album on 180-gram vinyl or maybe, or just maybe, an old LP you find for $10 in a record store.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including how Netflix plans to license comedy specials rather than own them outright, Trevor Noah steps down as host of “The Daily Show” and why September was the worst month at the domestic box office in 26 years.
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Showbiz Sandbox 595: Vinyl Sales and Payola on the Rise in Music Industry
September 28, 2022
With mid-year music revenue figures finally tallied it appears the growth of streaming music has begun to slow as vinyl sales has increase. Also on the rise are reports of payola as indie music artists can’t seem to get played on the radio without paying promoters for the privilege of being put in rotation. These promoters are using a loophole in the law which prevents record labels from paying radio stations in exchange for airplay.
Another loophole allows radio stations in the United States to avoid paying musical performers and creators when their song is actually played. The American Music Fairness Act looks to change that which will have a big impact on terrestrial radio.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including how James Earl Jones will continue to provide the voice of Darth Vader thanks to artificial intelligence, Spotify gets into Audiobooks and Rihanna heads to the Super Bowl for the halftime show.
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Showbiz Sandbox 594: Fall Film Festivals Set The Stage For Awards Season
September 20, 2022
The annual film festivals in Venice, Telluride and Toronto overlap not only in their timing but often in their official selections and this year was no exception. As usual, titles that begin their festival tour as anticipated awards season contenders sometimes wind up as afterthoughts while unexpected discoveries gain wide recognition. The movie that took home the top prize in Toronto comes from a distinguished filmmaker who might be headed for a close encounter with an Oscar come Academy Awards time.
Speaking of filmmakers, and despite widespread reports to the contrary, Woody Allen says he’s not retiring after his next film, which is being shot in Paris entirely in French. He just said he was thinking of not making movies since most of them go straight to streaming services these days, which for a filmmaker, is kind of like… you know, retiring.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including how the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences plans to get its act together, big changes at CNN and The Phantom of the Opera winds up its historic Broadway run.
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Showbiz Sandbox 593: This Year’s Emmy Awards Turns Into A Rerun
September 16, 2022
The 74th Annual Prime Time Emmy Awards were held this week and they managed to honor most of the winners from last year’s ceremony. The same shows, and at times the same actors, continue to top most of the big categories. This begs the perennial question, what is the actual purpose of the Emmy Awards?
Meanwhile, the world’s second largest movie theater chain officially filed for bankruptcy. We discuss what this will mean not only for Cineworld, but also whether the move will affect the industry-at-large.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including how “CoComelon” is creating video games for toddlers, the Sundance Film Festival names a new head director and a Bollywood movie tops the worldwide box office.
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