Showbiz Sandbox

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. […] The post Showbiz Sandbox 659: Hollywood Continues To Turn Itself Inside Out appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox.

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 […] The post Showbiz Sandbox 657: New Streaming Business Models Require New Measurement Tools appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox.

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 […] The post Showbiz Sandbox 655: Netflix Stops Sweating (and Reporting) Subscriber Growth appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox.

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 […] The post Showbiz Sandbox 653: Godzilla and Kong, Once Again, Prove Movie Theaters Aren’t Dead appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox.

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 […] The post Showbiz Sandbox 651: The Next Hit Song May Be Written and Performed by AI appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox.

The superhero movie is facing its biggest enemy yet – audience indifference. “Madame Web” is just the latest superhero flick to open to poor reviews and/or bad box office. Entertainment journalist Geoff Boucher, who has covered the comic book world for over two decades and is a bigwig at ComicCon, discusses the declining popularity of […] The post Showbiz Sandbox 649: Hollywood’s Superhero Movie Problem appeared first on Showbiz Sandbox.

Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox are teaming up to deliver a new subscription streaming service that will combine all of their sports programming on a non-exclusive basis. It will have 14 channels including ESPN, ABC, FS1, Fox, TNT and TBS. The surprise announcement has generated more questions than answers, especially over whether any antitrust […] The post Showbiz Sandbox 647: Disney Teams Up For Sports Streaming Service 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.