Showbiz Sandbox 659: Hollywood Continues To Turn Itself Inside Out
June 26, 2024
In the midst of the summer entertainment news doldrums, as Hollywood laments a fading (for now) box office, along comes Pixar with “Inside Out 2.” The sequel earned nearly $300 million in its opening weekend proving, once again, that all the industry really needs for audiences to head back to movie theaters is… well, movies.
Meanwhile, after nixing an acquisition at the eleventh hour, Shari Redstone continues to keep Wall Street, the industry and potential suitors in suspense over whether she’ll sell Paramount Global.
This will be the last episode of Showbiz Sandbox for the foreseeable future as we take an indefinite hiatus. Don’t unsubscribe as we’ll likely be back from time to time when news, festivals and events warrant. Thanks for listening for the past 15 years.
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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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Showbiz Sandbox 656: Yes, People Still Buy Books
April 30, 2024
Two recent opinion pieces stirred up some heated debate in the book publishing business. One insists no one buys books anymore. The other says the proliferation of book roundup lists is a bunch of nonsense. One is very wrong, even when it’s right. The other is right, but for the wrong reasons. Michael is our book guy and in fact does book roundups every week! So let’s put him on the hot seat.
Meanwhile, Nielsen recently overcame some technological hurdles and got cooperation from several new sources of streaming data. The result? A number of shows popped onto the streaming charts for the first time or with renewed force. The big beneficiary is Hulu, with Peacock a distant second.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including why Harvey Weinstein’s sexual assault conviction was overturned by a New York court, Taylor Swift’s latest album breaks all sorts of streaming records and an update on a potential acquisition of Paramount Global.
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Showbiz Sandbox 655: Netflix Stops Sweating (and Reporting) Subscriber Growth
April 23, 2024
Netflix first quarter earnings report showed growth in all areas from subscribers, to revenue and income. But with Netflix clearly dominating competitors and entering a mature market, the streaming giant will no longer provide subscriber figures on a regular basis. Instead, Netflix will concentrate on profit and the amount of time each of their 270 million subscribers spend viewing programming on their platform.
Meanwhile, the long gestating sale of Paramount Global got a lot more interesting last week when Sony entered the picture with its own bid for the media conglomerate. Unfortunately, indie production house Participant Media was unable to find a buyer and abruptly shuttered.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including this year’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees, Taylor Swift breaks her own sales records with the release of her album “The Tortured Poets Department” and the Sundance Film Festival may be in search of a new home.
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Showbiz Sandbox 654: CinemaCon Promotes A Bright Future for Movie Theatres
April 16, 2024
CinemaCon, the annual gathering of cinema operators in Las Vegas, was filled with anxiety this year thanks to a lack of wide releases due to the recent labor strikes. However, most Hollywood studios showed up with a few movie stars to hawk an increasing number of big titles due later in the year and into 2025. As well, technology companies introduced some exciting new advances in projection and image quality. In all, the conference pointed toward better days ahead for movie theaters.
In even better news, it looks as if the many behind-the-scenes craft people who work on films and television shows may not go on strike like the writers and actors did last year. The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) appears to be having very positive negotiations with Alliance of Motion Picture Television Producers on a new contract.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including how Disney won its shareholder battle, the winners of this year’s Writers Guild Awards and CBS whips up a new streaming news service.
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Showbiz Sandbox 653: Godzilla and Kong, Once Again, Prove Movie Theaters Aren’t Dead
April 2, 2024
The monstrous global box office opening of “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” may have been a surprise to film critics or anyone paying attention to industry tracking in advance of its release, but it surely proves that if you put movies in movie theaters, audiences will show up. Especially if those theaters offer premium auditoriums like IMAX. Even “Oppenheimer” opened well in Japan over this past weekend, becoming filmmaker Christopher Nolan’s biggest debut.
Meanwhile, the Walt Disney Company and the State of Florida have made overtures toward settling their recent legal disputes. As we predicted, despite the battle in the court of public opinion, it will all come to nothing.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including Paramount Global’s ongoing financial woes, the discovery of some new Marvin Gaye music and how vinyl records are outselling compact discs.
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Showbiz Sandbox 652: Comscore, Nielsen and the Battle Over TV Ratings
March 26, 2024
The way audiences watch television has changed radically over the past ten years, bet it when, where or how. Nielsen, long the king of TV ratings, is facing competition from upstarts like Comscore. With viewership on mobile and over-the-top devices not always being measured, advertisers are beginning to include social media awareness into account when determining the success of their marketing campaigns.
Meanwhile filmmaker Jonathan Glazer’s Oscar acceptance speech for the movie “Zone of Interest,” in which he referenced the ongoing conflict in Gaza and Israel, has generated a lot of debate with nearly 1,000 industry professionals signing a petition denouncing his statements.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including this year’s IRA Awards, a controversial hire at NBC News and IMAX heads to the Paris Summer Olympics.
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Showbiz Sandbox 651: The Next Hit Song May Be Written and Performed by AI
March 18, 2024
In what Rolling Stone magazine has dubbed ChatGPT for music, a new service called Suno is trying to democratic music by using artificial intelligence to allow anyone to create a hit song. With no need to learn how to play an instrument or sing, the latest advances in generative AI are creating tunes with a few text prompts that are indistinguishable from those created by trained musicians.
The creators of Suno aren’t saying what content was used to train their AI. That is probably why the European Union is passing legislation to regulate the use of AI, requiring developers to provide a list of copyrighted material used to train their technology.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including why Neil Young’s music is back on Spotify, Iranian filmmaker Ashgar Farhadi wins his plagiarism case and Roman Polanski is headed back to court.
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Showbiz Sandbox 650: “Oppenheimer” Gives Christopher Nolan His Oscar Moment
March 12, 2024
As expected, “Oppenheimer” dominated the 96th Academy Awards winning seven categories including Best Actor, Best Picture and, for Christopher Nolan, Best Director. “Barbie” only picked up a single trophy for Best Original Song. Anne Thompson, Indiewire’s Editor-at-Large attended this year’s Oscar ceremony and joins us to describe what it was like to be in the room where it happened.
Meanwhile, a recent Supreme Court ruling ending affirmative action based college admissions has led to a reverse discrimination lawsuit against CBS by a script coordinator of the show “SEAL Team.” The outcome could determine whether it becomes the first of many more such legal actions.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including how the BBC is going all in on the streaming service BritBox, the launch of a new author driven publishing house and Kanye West’s latest album tops the charts despite not being on streaming services.
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