“The summer movie release schedules show around 25 “major” productions poised for release – most on a near-simultaneous global rollout, to foil the pirates – at an average cost, we’ve worked out, of $85m. It must be remembered that actual box-office takings are now a minor part of a film’s income-generating potential: it’s taken as read that individual movies now act as a brand, developing ancillary products from soundtracks to video games to DVDs that – if all goes according to the business plan – will far dwarf what cinemagoers themselves fork out. The pressures to get it right are now so huge that one thing is clear: Hollywood is deeply reluctant to get involved with anything that hasn’t already proved itself.”
Tag: 04.05.05
An Arts Pulitzer Primer
Wondering about the winners of this year’s arts Pulitzers? Here’s an archive of reviews and features about the play, music and writing that won.
I Starbucks, Major Music Label?
Starbucks has had big success selling music in its 4000+ US stores. Building on that success, the coffee retailer is introducing its first album by a little-known band, a next step in building a major music business.
Why Does Opera Get A Pass For Bad Taste?
How does the English National Opera get away with portraying Brünnhilde as a suicide bomber? “We confuse medium and message. In other words, more bluntly, if something – be it a person or an art form – is posh, it can play with as much fire as it likes, and if it isn’t, it can’t even play with matches. As Twilight of the Gods shows, this scheme obtains regardless of the gravitas the subject is actually accorded. If you’d seen a suicide bomber used this flippantly on Holby City, there’d have been resignations by now.”