Showbiz Sandbox 443: Netflix Dominates CinemaCon Conversation
April 8, 2019
Movie theater owners from around the world gathered in Las Vegas last week to see what upcoming releases studios have in store for them. Sony skipped this year’s CinemaCon leaving many puzzled as to why and Fox showed up with their new owner, Disney. Yet it was a company that doesn’t willingly release films in cinemas that generated some of the biggest buzz; Netflix.
What we learned from attending this year’s CinemaCon is that theatrical windows aren’t disappearing anytime soon, neither are moviegoing subscription services, but 3D grosses have collapsed everywhere but in Asia. Saudi Arabia, the hot topic of last year’s show, was barely mentioned.
You’d think during a year in which worldwide box office set a new record, cinema operators would be rejoicing, however exhibitor and studio consolidation has everyone on edge, as they wait and see how Disney handles its acquisition of Fox.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including a big ratings decline for “The Walking Dead,” the WGA and talent agencies continue their contentious discussions and the Justice Department goes after the Academy.
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Showbiz Sandbox 442: Apple Finally Unveils Their Content Plans
March 26, 2019
After years of anticipation and endless speculation, the technology giant Apple finally announced its plans for its video streaming service. Not only will Apple TV now be available on all smart televisions and integrate with existing cable providers, it will offer a la carte over the top services. What’s more, Apple revealed a slate of six homegrown series marking its first foray into original content.
Apple is not starting small either, launching their service with shows from some of the biggest names in Hollywood, including Steven Spielberg, J.J. Abrams, Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, to name just a few. The only thing they didn’t make public about Apple TV+ is its subscription price.
And while new digital streaming platforms are all the rage, there is still plenty of money to be earned at the theatrical box office. Official numbers for 2018 have now been finalized, with North American box office rising 7%, helping boost worldwide receipts 2% to over $41 billion.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including the contentious talks between the WGA and talent agencies over packaging fees, Disney officially acquires Fox and the Library of Congress adds 25 new sound recordings to the National Recording Registry.
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Showbiz Sandbox 441: Music Industry Gets Into The Stream of Things
March 18, 2019
In February the RIAA reported that music sales in the United States reached $9.8 billion in 2018, up nearly 12% over the previous year. Total worldwide sales were up over 13% reaching $18.9 billion. What’s remarkable is of that figure $9.6 billion, or 51%, came from streaming revenue, the first time that figure has outpaced digital and physical sales.
While some might see this as just a bunch of numbers and sales figures, labels and artists are beginning to see more revenue from streaming. In fact, musicians selling directly to fans grew 35% last year, topping out at $643 million, none of which went to record labels or middlemen.
Meanwhile, “Captain Marvel” continues to top the box office and looks to be headed toward $1 billion with the release of “Avengers: End Game” just a month or so behind. In China, the Oscar winning “Green Book” is doing surprisingly well.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including the head of Warner Bros. resigns amid a sexual misconduct scandal, Netflix cancels “One Day At A Time” and MySpace loses it’s music (or at least some of it) .
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Showbiz Sandbox 440: Why The Writers Guild Battle With Agents Needs A Rewrite!
March 11, 2019
The showdown between the Writers Guild of America and talent agents is growing ever more heated. The WGA wants to upend the way business has been done in Hollywood for decades while agents continue to increase their conflicts of interest through lucrative television packaging fees. Thankfully we have Jonathan Handel, an entertainment attorney and a contributing editor at the Hollywood Reporter, to help figure out what all the bickering is about.
Actually, the WGA has been quite busy lately, making headlines after filing an arbitration claim against Netflix over how the streamer calculates (or more specifically, doesn’t calculate) residuals on residuals. Apparently Netflix has a conflict of interest too.
Meanwhile, the MoviePass rival Sinemia has jettisoned it’s one-movie-per-day subscription plan and replaced it with a buffet of options that are harder to explain but perhaps easier on the bottom line.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including why the creators of the hit 1970s TV show “Columbo” are taking Universal Studios to court, Amazon Prime gets serious about India and the nominees for this year’s Olivier Awards.
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Showbiz Sandbox 439: Fox Suffers “Bones” Shaking Legal Defeat
March 4, 2019
Fox lost a blockbuster lawsuit to the stars and creative talent behind their smash television series “Bones.” An independent arbitrator used scathing language to describe 21st Century Fox executives, calling them out for lying, cheating and “reprehensible” studio fraud.
Though Fox says the will appeal the ruling, it could have a big impact on sweetheart deals between studios, their own networks, their own cable channels and their own streamers. There’s no bones about it.
Meanwhile book publishers and the National Writers Union, along with many others, are decrying the practice of Controlled Digital Lending, or CDL. As publishers restrict e-book access and raise their prices, libraries that own a physical copy of a book are making a digital PDF available for loans to patrons. When a digital PDF is borrowed, the physical copy is removed from circulation until the digital copy is returned. So what’s the problem?
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including why a hologram of Amy Winehouse will not be going on tour, why the movie theater chain Cineworld dumped BAFTA and box office in China is down 5% this year despite rosier forecasts.
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Showbiz Sandbox 437: Sinemia Seeks Profit In Subscription Moviegoing
February 11, 2019
Sinemia is taking on MoviePass in hopes of achieving what no movie subscription service has ever attained before: profitability. We are joined by Rıfat Oğuz, the CEO of Sinemia, who discusses the history of the service, how they chose their $30 price point and what lies ahead for this emerging business. If it catches on, it could dramatically change when and how often people go to the movies.
Meanwhile, in a complete reversal of fortunes, this year’s Grammy Awards finally honored female musicians as well as handing out prizes to hip-hop artists. Maybe next year some of the big stars won’t shrug off the ceremony like they seemed to do this past Sunday.
In the United Kingdom “The Favourite” was the favorite at the BAFTA Awards winning seven prizes, but it was Alfonso Cuaron’s Netflix film “Roma” which took home Best Picture, Best Director and Best Cinematography.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including the deal between Actor’s Equity and the Broadway League, why NBC is dumping its live telecast of “Hair” and Spotify finally turns a profit.
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Showbiz Sandbox 436: A Wealth in Diversity at Sundance
February 5, 2019
This year’s Sundance Film Festival was more diverse than it usually is in every way one might imagine. Sure, there were the usual crop of independent films and documentaries, but the predominance of women and people of color and queer voices was more notable than ever. In fact, female filmmakers took home most of the festival’s top prizes.
Sundance also proved to be a feeding frenzy for independent distributors with Amazon swooping in to spend more money than any other studio has ever spent during a single year at the festival. Usually, if one selection sells for over $10 million it makes headlines. This year there were at least three films that fell into that category.
Meanwhile the Super Bowl weekend proved to be a bust both at the box office, which was reached a 20-year-low, as well as on television, where the broadcast of the big game fell to a 10-year-low.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including Peter Jackson’s Beatles documentary, Hulu raises its prices and Spotify turns on a feature that allows users to turn off artists.
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Showbiz Sandbox 435: Netflix By The Numbers
January 21, 2019
Despite having cultivated a reputation for keeping its viewership statistics under tight wraps, Netflix has made a complete about face and is now boasting about how many subscribers are tuning in to its original content. The company says nearly 45 million accounts watched its hit movie “Bird Box” and nearly as many watched its latest series “Sex Education”. In the midst of all this success, Netflix has decided to raise it’s monthly subscription fee by $2 in certain territories, including North America.
Unlike the Netflix subscription price, a number not on the rise is the theatrical box office in Germany. After edging up slightly in 2017, grosses in the 8th biggest movie-going market in the world were down 16% last year. Hollywood titles grabbed 75% of the $965 million box office as attendance also dipped 15.5%.
Meanwhile, award season continues with no clear frontrunner emerging as this year’s Oscar nominations are about to be revealed. We take a glance at the makeup, costume and directors guilds awards, not to mention the BAFTAS and nods from one group that really matters; the Producers Guild.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including why RCA Records is dropping R. Kelley from its label, the Emmys are dumping DVD screeners and sportscaster Bob Costas is leaving NBC.
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Showbiz Sandbox 434: The Golden Globes Are Full of Surprises
January 7, 2019
As the 2019 award season continues its steady pace toward the Oscars, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association kicked the year off by confounding pundits when they gave Golden Globes to a few underdogs. While many thought “A Star Is Born” or “Roma” would run the table at this year’s ceremonies, it was “Green Book” and “Bohemian Rhapsody” that took the night’s top prizes.
Though the Golden Globes may be a swanky affair and an honor to receive, the nominations that are more telling of who might walk off with an Oscar are those from the craft guilds. This week the unions representing Art Directors, Cinematographers, Editors, Producers and Writers all announced their 2019 nominees. We’ll tell you what their selections mean for the Academy Awards.
We also revisit the Great White Way, where we take a look back at some of the predictions we made about the fall Broadway season. Most of the productions we thought might not fare so well are, indeed, underperforming, or in some cases, have closed already.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including the continuing kerfuffle over whether Kevin Hart should host the Oscars, Apple buys an indie record label and why dozens of works will enter the public domain this year as their copyrights expire.
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Showbiz Sandbox 433: 2018 Was A Blockbuster Year at the Box Office
December 31, 2018
A string of big movie releases during the holidays helped the North American box office set a record in 2018, ending the year at $11.9 billion. Ticket sales also set a record in China where roughly $8.7 billion was earned. These two territories combined accounted for 48% of the $41.7 billion global box office.
However, growth in the second largest movie market in the world slowed to 9%, down from nearly 14% the year before. That’s why China ignored it’s quota on imported films at the end of 2018, allowing several Hollywood titles to be released. We’ll see if that trend continues into the new year.
In somewhat related news, a survey commissioned by the National Association of Theatre Owners showed that streaming services like Netflix do not adversely affect the frequency of moviegoing. Apparently people who watch a lot of movies at home, also like to watch movies in theaters. Go figure.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including the Aretha Franklin’s back taxes, Ed Sheeran’s blockbuster tour and why CBS wants to dump Nielsen.
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