Showbiz Sandbox

This year’s Sundance Film Festival reflected the current state of the contracting industry itself, offering fewer films at fewer venues for fewer in-person attendees. Yet, as festivals like Sundance work toward rekindling post-pandemic financial support, this year’s official selections were just as noteworthy as those that have appeared throughout its 40 year history. We’ll give […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 646: A Slimmed Down Sundance Still Shines appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

Unlike most major streaming services, which allow new subscribers to choose between a more expensive ad-free plan and a cheaper ad-supported tier, Amazon has taken an opt-out approach with Prime. When Prime Video begins streaming ads in late-January one of the biggest streaming services in the world with at least 150 million subscribers, will immediately […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 645: Amazon Prime Video Set To Dominate Advertising Market appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association held its first Golden Globes awards ceremony under a new and supposedly improved organization under new ownership. Organizers scrambled to find both a network to broadcast this year’s show, not to mention a host. In the end, the winners weren’t surprising with “Oppenheimer” and “Succession” each taking home five, but […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 644: The Golden Globes Lose Their Luster appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

Two annual ratings roundups of television viewing in the United States show that audiences for traditional broadcast and linear cable are in serious decline. The list of the 100 most watched broadcast episodes is mostly sports. And the top ranked channels reveal cable isn’t even really trying to program their networks anymore. Meanwhile, the domestic […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 643: Linear Television Viewership Sinks to New Lows appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

Last week Netflix released a huge data dump detailing the viewership of all its programming for the first six months of 2023. The streaming giant is calling it a victory for transparency. While it’s a long way from the granular detail the industry has long sought, it does reveal that almost nobody watches 25% of […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 642: What Netflix Subscribers Really Watch appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

In its third year the Red Sea International Film Festival continues to build on its reputation for programming some of the most engaging and important movies being made in the Middle East. Held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, RSIFF has gone a step further by financially backing productions from the region, which until five years ago […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 641: Red Sea Film Festival Highlights Emerging Film Market appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

If moviegoers have grown tired of endless sequels and franchise reboots, as some will have you believe, then Hollywood studios may be in big trouble. In 2024, a new sequel will be released every other week, including another Godzilla movie, Dune 2, a new Ghostbusters, a new Kung Fu Panda, another Mad Max film, Deadpool […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 640: Hollywood Has Always Been Addicted To Sequels appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

Hollywood’s dual writers and actors strikes may finally be over, with significant gains in earnings, residuals and AI protections, but the many systemic issues that caused the labor disruption aren’t entirely history. As more of the details of the SAG-AFTRA contract become public we take a look at what they mean for actors and the […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 639: Hollywood Deals With Post-Strike Fallout appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

After 118 days the actor’s strike finally came to an end as SAG-AFTRA reached an agreement on a new three-year employment contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). Entertainment attorney Jonathan Handel joins us to explain all of the major achievements in wages increases, residuals and artificial intelligence protections the union […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 638: What the Actors Won in Their New Contract appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

Spotify is changing how it pays out royalties in an effort to deter fraud, demonetize the flood of new music that almost no one listens to and frustrate those gaming the system. None of the changes will alter the amount of money paid out in royalties each year. But Spotify believes the move may add […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 637: Spotify Fighting Fraud With New Payment Plan appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

When Netflix announced its earnings for the third quarter of 2023 it also confirmed that it would be increasing prices for those that don’t want to view ads. Amazon recently said it would also be raising the price for the ad-free tier of Prime Video. It turns out these streaming services have discovered they make […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 636: Why Streaming Subscriptions Are Getting More Expensive appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

Hollywood studios often try to camouflage the success or failure of their movies. Sometimes they claim a film is unprofitable, yet go on to make several sequels, as Nu Image did with the “Has Fallen” franchise. Other times a studio insists a movie is a modest box office hit despite paying hundreds of millions for […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 635: Deciphering Hollywood Hits and Misses appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

Spotify, the music streaming service, is going all in on audiobooks in hopes of attracting and maintaining subscribers. Previously, Spotify offered some audiobooks for sale. Now the company’s 220 million premium subscribers get 15 hours of free audiobook listening each month. The service is launching with 150,000 titles and will pay publishers based on consumption. […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 634: Spotify Gets Book Smart appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

The Writers Guild of America released details of the new contract they negotiated with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers ending their historic 148 day strike. The 94-page document is filled with big gains for writers in pay and protection from artificial intelligence. It’s also a compromise to the deal the WGA initially […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 633: Dissecting the New Writers Guild Contract appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

The Writer’s Guild of America reached a tentative agreement on a new contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) potentially ending its strike after 146 days. Entertainment attorney Jonathan Handel wrote the book on Hollywood strikes, literally, and is a contributing writer at Puck where he covers labor issues. He fills […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 632: Pickets Down – Hollywood Writers Strike A Tentative Deal appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

Every annual awards season has its own strange rhythm and unexpected twists. But with both actors and writers on strike, unable to promote certain movies, surely this year’s awards season will be the strangest of all. At the heart of the madness is Anne Thompson, the Editor-at-Large of Indiewire. The awards season expert is back […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 631: Telluride and Toronto Film Festivals Kick Off Unusual Awards Season appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

The 1923 silent film “The Spanish Dancer” starring Pola Negri is the latest restoration project being theatrically released by Milestone Film & Video, one of the key players over the past 30 years in resurrecting forgotten and neglected films. We are joined by Dennis Doros, the co-founder of Milestone, who tells us how he turned […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 630: Resurrecting Silent Films Can Be Profitable (Theoretically) appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

Carriage disputes between cable companies and media companies are nothing new. They happen regularly around big events like the Super Bowl, FIFA World Cup or the Oscars. However this time Charter Communications, the second largest cable operator in the United States, has pulled all of Disney’s 19 networks from its service, refusing to pay the […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 629: Disney vs. Charter Feud Could Finally Unbundle Cable appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

The recent success of the television series “Suits” on Netflix has shined a spotlight on how much money writers make on a cable or broadcast hit versus one on a streaming service. Last week one of the show’s writers revealed the vast difference in residual payments he received between linear and streaming underscoring why the […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 628: An Inside Look at Streaming’s Microscopic Residual Payments appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

The number of households in the United States subscribing to traditional pay television services has dropped below 50% for the first time in the two years Nielsen has been tracking such metrics. And it’s not that viewers are cutting the cable cord, they’re just watching their favorite television shows and movies on streaming services more […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 627: Linear TV Drops Below 50% In U.S. For First Time appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

Though Disney had previously dismissed the idea of venturing into sports betting, saying it didn’t fit the company’s image, the media giant signed a billion dollar agreement this week with a little known online gambling company. The move comes as Disney’s linear television revenue is declining with no end in sight and losses for its […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 626: Will Disney’s Big Wager On Sports Betting Pay Off? appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

One of the key disputes striking actors are having with the AMPTP (the studios and the streamers) is over artificial intelligence and how it will be used in movies and television shows in the future. What rights will actors have and will they get paid if their image and likeness is used through AI? We […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 625: SAG-AFTRA Concerns Over AI Are Justified appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

The idea of counter-programming the simultaneous global release of “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” over the same summer weekend always seemed like a gamble. But somehow Greta Gerwig’s comedy about a popular toy doll and a Christopher Nolan’s biopic of the renowned nuclear physicist wound up becoming a worldwide phenomenon breaking all sorts of box office records […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 624: Hollywood Is Bungling Its Barbenheimer Momentum appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

Film and television production ground to a halt last week in Hollywood (and elsewhere) when actors joined the already striking writers on the picket line. This marks the first time in 63 years that the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild has been on strike at the same time and it is […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 623: Actors Join Writers In Historic Dual-Strike appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

The Writers Guild of America members have been on strike for over two months now and might soon be joined by the Screen Actors Guild. When it comes to artificial intelligence however both guilds agree; when their members’ work is used to train AI, actors and writers should be paid. Some writers are now taking […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 622: Actors and Writers Agree That AI Ain’t So Smart appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

In a year which boasted a bevy of summer blockbusters, moviegoers haven’t been turning up at theaters for some of the more highly anticipated releases. Instead, big budget titles such as “The Little Mermaid,” “Elemental,” “The Flash,” and even “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” among others have all had underwhelming opening weekends. Is […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 621: Summer Box Office Is Much Cooler Than Expected appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

This 76th annual Tony Awards ceremony was held last weekend honoring the best and brightest Broadway productions from the past year. Although there was no script for host Ariana DeBose to work due to the writer’s strike. But while the telecast may have been refreshingly unscripted, the winners were fairly predictable with “Kimberly Akimbo” winning […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 620: This Year’s Tony Awards Were Unscripted, Yet Predictable appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

The Directors Guild of America reached a deal with studios, networks and streamers on a new three-year contract avoiding what some believed would be the first true strike in its 87 year history. Entertainment and technology attorney Jonathan Handel joins us to explain the proposed agreement the directors negotiated with producers. He wrote the book […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 619: Directors Strike Deal for New Contract With Producers appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

The 76th annual Cannes Film Festival wrapped up over the weekend handing out prizes to some of the 21 official selections appearing in competition this year. Justine Triet’s film “Anatomy of a Fall” took home the Palme d’Or though that was one of many deserving titles programmed at what many festival goers felt was one […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 618: The 2023 Cannes Film Festival Lives Up to the Hype appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

There are few people that know more about labor issues in the entertainment business than attorney and journalist Jonathan Handel. So when members of the Writers Guild of America went on strike last week, grinding most television production to a halt, we asked him to join us to discuss all the nuanced details. Handel not […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 617: Why the Writers Strike Will Last for Months, Not Weeks appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

Movie theater operators from around the world gathered in Las Vegas last week for CinemaCon. Though the last two pandemic suppressed editions of the conference were filled with artificial optimism about the business, this year’s event showcased an industry that had survived and is indeed thriving thanks to a robust release schedule with plenty of […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 616: Movie Theaters Celebrate Recovery at CinemaCon appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

Warner Bros. Discovery had long promised to merge its two major streaming services HBO Max and Discovery+ into a single, combined offering. This past week the media giant unveiled the name of the new service to the public; Max. Despite having decades of positive brand recognition, HBO will be dropped from the name. The company […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 615: Warner Bros. Takes Streaming to the Max appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

When the recording industry first moved online in the early 2000’s piracy was driven by fans illegally downloading music through services like Napster. These days piracy is being committed by the music industry itself through streaming fraud. Artists and/or record labels are generating millions of fake automated streams to pump up playback numbers with the […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 614: Streaming Fraud Is Costing Musicians Billions appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

James Patterson has been a perennial presence on the New York Times best seller list after his most recent book failed to make the list, he accused the newspaper of “cooking the books” in the way it compiles its lists. According to BookScan, which uses actual sales figures, Patterson’s latest book should have made the […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 613: Author James Patterson Questions New York Times Best Seller List appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

Everyone from fans of popular music groups to Broadway regulars are still facing angst and high prices when buying tickets. When the English rock band The Cure decided to forego dynamic pricing and charge only $20 to verified fans for tickets to their upcoming tour, the service fees and facility charges added up to more […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 612: No Easy Cure for Concert Ticket Troubles appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

As everyone expected, the big winner at this year’s Oscars was “Everyone Everywhere All At Once,” taking home seven of the 11 awards it was nominated for. Anne Thompson of Indiewire was at the ceremony and joins us to give us the scoop on what happened behind the scenes at this year’s Academy Awards, including […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 611: This Year’s Oscars Were Everything Everyone Could Have Asked For appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

The current Writers Guild of America contract with signatories ends on May 1st of this year. Television networks and studios are bracing for what feels like an inevitable writers strike. The guild, which represents TV and movie writers, recently settled on a list of demands it is seeking during upcoming contract negotiations. Meanwhile AMC is […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 610: Hollywood Writers Prep For A Contentious Strike appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

According to Digital Entertainment Group, consumers in North America spent $37 billion on home entertainment in 2022. That includes not only spending on streaming services, but also DVD, Blu-ray and digital sales. Not to mention physical and digital rentals. And none of these figures includes spending on cable television. Meanwhile, awards season is in full […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 609: Consumers Are Spending A Fortune on Home Entertainment appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

Major television networks, cable channels and even streamers are all reeling from all of the changes the industry has been undergoing recently. New shows are being canceled before they air. Others disappear after only a single season with all their episodes yanked from streaming libraries. Ratings for linear and cable are way down causing every […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 608: The Television Landscape Is Changing FAST appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

AMC Theatres, the world’s largest cinema chain, announced plans to start charging moviegoers based on where they sit in an auditorium. Preferred seats will cost a few dollars more than standard seats and those in the first two rows will cost less. At a time when movie theaters are having trouble attracting patrons back into […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 607: AMC Sets Sights On Upending Movie Ticket Prices appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

Though Beyoncé led the 2023 Grammy Award nominations with nine nods, in the end she did not win the top prize for Album of the Year for “Renaissance.” Much to the dismay of some, that honor went to Harry Styles for “Harry’s House,” though Beyoncé did break the record for the most Grammy wins ever. […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 606: Beyoncé Makes Grammy History As Harry Styles Wins Album of the Year appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

This year’s Sundance Film Festival came to a close over the weekend marking the first time the event has been held in-person since 2020 due to the pandemic. This year’s Sundance was considered light on acquisitions, raising the perennial debate over the viability of the festival’s official selection whether it be theatrically or on streaming. […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 605: The Future For This Year’s Sundance Movies appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

As we get deeper into this year’s awards season we’re finally hearing from groups whose opinions mean something. For instance, the guilds for directors, producers and cinematographers have all nominated their top picks from last year’s movies. In other instances however, awards are handed out in so many different categories, it seems like every film […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 604: Which Awards Actually Matter? appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

With 2022 now officially over, Nielsen announced the 100 highest rated primetime broadcasts of the year and sports programming dominated the list. Football was a big winner taking the top nine spots. The Oscars telecast was the only non-sports broadcast in the top 31 programs. “60 Minutes,” “NCIS,” “NCIS Hawaii,” “FBI” and other similar fare […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 603: Sports Programming Rules The Ratings In 2022 appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

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 […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 602: Avatar Sequel Makes A Splash at the Box Office appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

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 […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 601: Middle East Film Industry On Display at Red Sea Film Festival appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

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 […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 600: The Return of Bob Iger at Disney appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

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 […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 599: The Grammy Awards Have A Timing Problem appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

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 […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 598: Streaming Growth Goes International appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

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 […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 597: Audiobooks Are Changing Our Reading Habits appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

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 […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 596: The Compact Disc Turns 40 Years Old appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

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 […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 595: Vinyl Sales and Payola on the Rise in Music Industry appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

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 […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 594: Fall Film Festivals Set The Stage For Awards Season appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

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? […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 593: This Year’s Emmy Awards Turns Into A Rerun appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

At a time when streaming services are hoarding content in an attempt to attract subscribers and capture market share, Warner Bros. Discovery has taken the opposite approach with HBO Max; they are removing shows from their platform. Now comes reports that pulling shows from its library can save the company around $100 million annually. We […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 592: Why Is HBO Max Dumping Content? appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

There is no better evidence that the streaming wars are still in full swing than the news that streaming services are accounting for more viewing than cable television for the first time in history. As streaming media companies fight for market share, they have turned to live sports as a means of driving subscriber growth. […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 591: Live Sports Becomes the Costliest Battle of the Streaming Wars appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

The newly merged Warner Bros. Discovery held its first earnings call last week making so many headlines it was all anyone in the entertainment industry could talk about. The company has a ton of debt, but a plan to get into better financial shape; stop producing expensive scripted shows, shelve pricey projects and layoff thousands […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 590: New Warner Bros. Discovery Strategy Is A Little Batty appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

In an effort to make music valuable again, producer T Bone Burnett is getting behind a technology that allowed him and Bob Dylan to create a one-off re-recording of “Blowin’ In The Wind” and then auction it off for $1.8 million. But can recordings be treated the same way as paintings are in the art […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 589: Should Music Be Produced and Sold Like Fine Art? appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

Though the entertainment industry may be infatuated infatuated with streaming, the legacy media companies behind all the new subscription services haven’t quite found the right way to profit from them. NBC/Universal earned nearly a billion dollars in committed ad revenue with Peacock this year, causing them to take a hard look at all of their […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 588: Keeping Track of Ever-Shifting Streaming Strategies appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

With this year’s Tony Awards having been doled out, the 29 shows currently running on Broadway are taking stock of what’s working, which ones should stick around and which should stop raising their curtains. At least 14 have announced closing dates or are expected to soon, including some big musical productions. Others are recasting their […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 587: How To Succeed on Broadway After a Global Pandemic appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

After all of the obstacles the pandemic forced plays and musicals to deal with, this year’s Tony Awards looked to raise the curtain on a revived Broadway. The ceremony managed to honor some of the best productions and performances from last season while celebrating the efforts the Broadway community made just to stay in business. […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 586: Tony Awards Help Broadway Get Its Groove Back appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

Social justice and political issues have been making life complicated for movie studios, record labels and concert promoters. Whether you’re casting a movie, choosing a director, booking a live performance or releasing a new album, you’ll also be having to deal with their past, present and sometimes even future behavior. Just ask Johnny Depp, filmmaker […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 585: Entertainment Industry Stumble Into Sociopolitical Pitfalls appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

After the COVID pandemic hampered the Cannes Film Festival over the last two years, the 2022 edition moved back to its usual May time frame with all the glamor and artistry that has made it one of the most important annual cinematic events in the world. Despite critics’ complaints about what was deemed a weak […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox: Movies Were the Stars at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

Unlike some years, there was no frontrunner or obvious favorite to win the Palme d’Or at the 75th annual Cannes Film Festival which concluded over the weekend. Instead, the social satire “Triangle of Sadness” from Swedish filmmaker Ruben Östlund took the festival’s top prize, the second time he has won the award. We discuss the […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 584: Cannes Film Festival Showcases Industry Revival appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

With each new superhero blockbuster that hits multiplexes it is clear that big well-done movies can score big at the box office. However it is a huge mistake to treat every new release as the barometer of whether cinema is back. Especially when smaller films like “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and family movies like […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 583: The Long and Winding Road to Box Office Recovery appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

When cinema operators from around the world gathered in Las Vegas for CinemaCon last week, it quickly became obvious that movie theaters ain’t dead yet. Though a global pandemic may have decimated their business model for several years, audiences seem to slowly be returning to movie theaters. So have Hollywood studios who are starting to […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 582: Movie Theaters Come Roaring Back at CinemaCon appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

A new industry study claims the five largest producers of original content in the United States also happen to be some of the biggest streamers in the world. Nearly half the content offered by Discovery, Disney, Paramount, the former WarnerMedia and Comcast are original productions which increasingly premiere on their subscription streaming services. Turns out […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 581: Streamers Double Down On Original Programming appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

Last week Discovery closed its $43 billion deal to acquire WarnerMedia from telecom giant AT&T. Discovery topper David Zaslav immediately installed his own executive team to run Warner Bros. Discovery forcing the existing management team to head for the door. We discuss the fallout from the merger and the what the future may look like […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 580: Warner Bros. Enters Its Discovery Phase appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

The coronavirus pandemic once again nearly foiled the Grammy Awards, delaying the ceremony and forcing the event to relocate to Las Vegas. Yet once again, the show’s producers managed to do a stellar job of putting together all-star performances that helped promote and celebrate music. We discuss our thoughts on the telecast and all the […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 579: The Award For Best Awards Show Goes To The Grammys! appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

If there was ever a year to speak with Indiewire Editor-at-Large Anne Thompson the day after the Oscars it would be this one. In what should have been a celebration of first’s; from the first deaf actor to win an Oscar (Troy Kotsur), to the first openly gay actress to win a prize (Ariana DeBose) […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 578: The Oscars Get Slappy With It appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

Over the last year the mobile video game “Genshin Impact” has earned over $2 billion. From its anime-like visuals to its bug-eyed characters the role-playing game appears to be Japanese in every way. However, while Japan may have a reputation as the world’s leading video game developer, “Ghensin Impact” was made in China. We explain […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 577: Why The Biggest Japanese Game Is Actually Chinese appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

Frank Marshall is probably best known as a producer of some of Hollywood’s biggest films, but he has also directed four successful narrative features throughout his career. More recently he has turned to directing documentaries, including “Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story,” which he co-directs with Ryan Suffern. Marshall joins us to discuss the film, […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 576: Director Frank Marshall Strikes A New Note With Jazz Fest appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

The opening weekend of “The Batman” was the anticipated blockbuster everyone was expecting, though an ongoing pandemic and a political crisis in Europe softened its global take. AMC Theatres on the other hand saw an opportunity to raise ticket prices, but only for the latest entrant to the Batman franchise. Is this a strategy that […]

The post Showbiz Sandbox 575: Should Movie Theaters Charge More For Blockbusters? appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox .

After Russia invaded Ukraine it didn’t take long for various sectors of the global entertainment industry to respond by canceling concerts, sporting events and film releases in the territory. While this is insignificant in comparison to the loss of life and liberty currently taking place in Ukraine, it still serves to show how art, culture […]

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