Showbiz Sandbox 534: Do All The Streaming Numbers Add Up?
March 23, 2021
With world-wide subscriptions surpassing 1 billion last year, every movie studio and every television network is pouring money into streaming video services. They’re hoping to make more money with subscribers than the untold billions they’ve been raking in for decades at the box office, through advertising, in syndication or sales of Blu-Rays. And while these services are quick to tell us how many subscribers they have, it’s anyone’s guess as to how many people are actually tuning in to their programming.
Theatrical box office is another statistic that has gotten harder to track during the pandemic with many distributors delaying the reporting of grosses. Even so, the Motion Picture Association added up all the numbers for 2020 and reported that global box office was down over 70 percent to $12 billion.
Of course we also cover some of the week’s top entertainment headlines including the NFL’s new relationship with Amazon, Hollywood agencies are getting into celebrity estate management and a trip to this year’s SXSW Film Festival.
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Showbiz Sandbox 528: Crunching The Numbers On Cinema Attendance Trends
February 9, 2021
With media reports constantly declaring that cinema admissions have been steadily declining for the past two decades, we set out to determine if such proclamations are actually true. Has moviegoing kept pace with population growth or fallen off? With some help from our listeners we do the math to answer the question once and for all.
Meanwhile, the Writers Guild of America is taking a victory lap after they reached a deal with William Morris Endeavor, the last of the major Hollywood talent agencies yet to sign a new franchise agreement. This means that television packaging fees and ownership of affiliated production companies will be winding down at agencies over the next two years.
Of course we also cover some of the week’s top entertainment headlines including why TikTok will start paying for music, Nielsen revamps its streaming charts and this year’s SAG Award nominations.
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Showbiz Sandbox 525: A Non-Netflix Show Finally Tops Nielsen’s Streaming Charts
January 19, 2021
For the first time in history, or at least since Nielsen started its U.S. weekly streaming chart, a non-Netflix show claimed the top spot. For the week ending December 20th “The Mandalorian” was the number one steamed show in the nation, with over 1.33 billion total minutes viewed by Disney+ subscribers. As more streaming services come online with their own original programming, Netflix’s domination of the Nielsen chart may ultimately fade.
Speaking of ratings, a new leader among cable news networks has emerged since last year’s presidential election. For the first time since 2000, CNN and MSNBC beat out Fox News. Do these ratings reflect the unprecedented political crises we’ve been facing or a sea change in viewership?
Of course we also cover some of the week’s top entertainment headlines including country star Morgan Wallen’s new streaming record, Disneyland ditches annual passes and Shakira sells the publishing rights to her music.
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Showbiz Sandbox 523: Who Owns The Copyright For The Ratatouille Musical?
January 8, 2021
The Pixar film “Ratatouille” is enjoying new life. The tale of a rat who becomes a gourmet Parisian chef has gone from one of Pixar’s animated blockbusters, to a TikTok meme taken on by a collaborative community to an actual honest to goodness online musical, complete with Broadway stars. But with so many people from all over the world working on the production, who owns the rights?
Meanwhile, in the ongoing dispute between William Morris Endeavor and the Writers Guild, the agency keeps insisting they’ve got a deal on a new code of conduct but the WGA keeps saying, not so fast.
Of course we also cover some of the week’s top entertainment headlines including how Amazon’s podcast maneuver, Quibi may have found a new home and why “The Great Gatsby” is now in the public domain.
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Showbiz Sandbox 522: Relief In Sight for Stages and Screens
December 22, 2020
Just in time for the holidays, the United States Congress finally passed a COVID relief bill which will help independent concert halls, live theatres and movie theaters with some $15 billion in grants and loans. Shuttered since the beginning of the pandemic, many of these venues would probably close for good without financial assistance.
Meanwhile, Creative Artists Agency and the Writers Guild have now officially buried the hatchet, reaching a deal on a new franchise agreement. William Morris Endeavor is now the only talent agency that hasn’t agreed to the WGA’s terms.
Of course we also cover some of the week’s top entertainment headlines including why the video game Cyberpunk 2077 has been trying to work the bugs out with its release, Mariah Carey returns to the top of the music charts with her Christmas hit and film critics associations from New York to Los Angeles name the years best movies.
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Showbiz Sandbox 519: A Year Without A Blockbuster Comic Book Movie
December 1, 2020
Though 2020 saw DC Films launch a Harley Quinn vehicle and Marvel finally released an X-Men spin-off “The New Mutants,” neither film set the world on fire. As “Wonder Woman 1984” heads to a hybrid streaming and theatrical release, it’s the final gasp of almost an entire year without any big comic book movies.
We ask veteran entertainment journalist Geoff Boucher whether we needed a break from all the cinematic heroics. As someone who has hosted countless CinemaCon panels, Boucher explains whether, after an endless stream of blockbuster Marvel and DC films, a year without a major comic book movie is such a bad thing.
Of course we also cover some of the week’s top entertainment headlines including this year’s Grammy Award nominations, Conan O’Brien is ending his late night talk show and why Quentin Tarantino’s next release may be headed straight to libraries.
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Showbiz Sandbox 515: Disney Restructures Its Magical Kingdom
October 20, 2020
One week after the Walt Disney Company announced that it would be premiering its latest Pixar film on Disney+ rather than in movie theaters, the media giant says it will reorganize its corporate structure to focus the company’s content creation on streaming. Is this a hasty pivot, long in the works, or just making official the obvious? The move left many industry watchers a bit confused.
Meanwhile, movie theaters in most of New York state can reopen, except in New York City itself. Even so, studios still won’t be releasing a blockbuster soon enough to help struggling cinema operators like AMC, who claims they will run out of money before the end of the year.
Of course we also cover some of the week’s top entertainment headlines including why Kevin Hart is taking over for Jerry Lewis on the muscular dystrophy telethon, K-Pop boy band BTS might be enlisting in the South Korean military (literally) and this year’s slimmed-down Tony nominations.
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Showbiz Sandbox 510: Studios Play Hide and Seek With Box Office Data
September 15, 2020
Now that new movies are once again playing in reopened cinemas, studios are reluctant to report their pandemic crippled grosses lest their films be deemed publicly as financial flops. At least two studios are delaying box office reports of their latest releases in what many industry insiders fear is a new trend. Is it appropriate for distributors to break with a decades old tradition of reporting weekend grosses in the midst of COVID-19 or do they have the right to keep box office on their titles confidential?
Meanwhile, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced a new diversity initiative for the Oscars. Now for a film to be eligible for the Best Picture category it has to meet at least two of four diversity requirements. It’s a thoughtful move, even if almost every film made in the last ten years can easily meet the new requirements
Of course we also cover some of the week’s top entertainment headlines including why Disney’s “Mulan” is stirring up unwanted controversy, a major talent agency finally agrees to the Writers Guild code of conduct and sales of vinyl records surpass compact discs for the first time in over 30 years.
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Showbiz Sandbox 507: Movie Theaters Come To Terms with Christopher Nolan’s “Tenant”
August 25, 2020
After COVID-19 forced movie theaters around the world to close for nearly six months, they are now set to reopen with one of the most anticipated films of the year; Christopher Nolan’s “Tenant.” There’s only one catch, the film rental terms Warner Bros. is asking for may make cinema operators want to manipulate time and go back to the simpler days when a studio got 50% of the box office and was happy. What’s more, increased film rental terms may be the new normal for movie theaters.
Meanwhile China may be showing the world how to reopen movie theaters as the historic drama “The Eight Hundred” rockets to more than $100 million at the box office. And to think just a few months ago the Chinese government banned the film.
Of course we also cover some of the week’s top entertainment headlines including how the Berlin Film Festival is going gender neutral, Ron Meyer is out at NBCUniversal and the Tony Awards may happen this year after all.
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Showbiz Sandbox 506: Apple Gets Into An Epic Battle Royale
August 18, 2020
Online gaming allows participants to take part in massive multiplayer battles, but no one ever gets hurt. Well, in real life, Epic Games, the company behind Fortnite is taking on both Apple and Google with an antitrust lawsuit and one of these companies is definitely going to get hurt where it counts most…the bottom line.
Meanwhile, as movie theaters around the world start to re-open after being shut down for months due to the coronavirus pandemic, the box office is sputtering back to life. Even Comscore has started publishing a weekend box office report again. Still, the industry has lost billions of dollars and is far from returning to normal grosses.
Of course we also cover some of the week’s top entertainment headlines including why thousands of actors may lose their health insurance, women are ruling the Billboard music charts and how Warner Music Group is getting a bit more social.
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