Showbiz Sandbox 658: Searching for Winners at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival
May 29, 2024
The general consensus among attendees was that, unlike last year, the 2024 Cannes Film Festival was not one of its strongest editions. Few of the selections made a huge impact and, indeed, there were a few titles that left festival goers scratching their heads. Yet, it seemed more indicative of a general malaise affecting the entire film industry rather than the Cannes itself.
Indeed, some of those award prizes in Cannes are sure to make their way into the cultural conversation in the months ahead, including Palme d’Or winner “Anora,” from director Sean Baker and Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Perez.” However, entries from Francis Ford Coppola, Kevin Costner and David Cronenberg mostly underwhelmed audiences and critics.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including the bundling of streaming services, the SXSW festival heads to London and the Department of Justice officially sues Live Nation for antitrust.
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Showbiz Sandbox 657: New Streaming Business Models Require New Measurement Tools
May 7, 2024
Streaming services seem to have settled on engagement as the metric by which to measure the success of a series or movie or even the platform itself. However, the industry has yet to decide a method for how to measure and report such figures in a consistent way. Some services publish random viewership figures citing how many subscribers sampled specific programming without describing how that figure is calculated.
This is becoming a big problem now that labor unions depend on reliable data to make sure studios, networks and streamers are keeping their end of the bargain when it comes to sharing profits for big hits.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including this year’s Tony nominations for Broadway shows, television producer Dan Schneider sues the filmmakers behind the “Quiet On Set” Documentary, and Madonna performs in Rio de Janeiro for more than 1.5 million fans.
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