Showbiz Sandbox J. Sperling Reich & Michael Giltz

Two recent opinion pieces stirred up some heated debate in the book publishing business. One insists no one buys books anymore. The other says the proliferation of book roundup lists is a bunch of nonsense. One is very wrong, even when it’s right. The other is right, but for the wrong reasons. Michael is our book guy and in fact does book roundups every week! So let’s put him on the hot seat.

Meanwhile, Nielsen recently overcame some technological hurdles and got cooperation from several new sources of streaming data. The result? A number of shows popped onto the streaming charts for the first time or with renewed force. The big beneficiary is Hulu, with Peacock a distant second.

Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including why Harvey Weinstein’s sexual assault conviction was overturned by a New York court, Taylor Swift’s latest album breaks all sorts of streaming records and an update on a potential acquisition of Paramount Global.





Skadoosh!: ‘Kung Fu Panda 4’ Crosses $500M WW; ‘Challengers’ Widens Offshore Net; ‘The Fall Guy’ Starts Overseas Action

https://deadline.com/2024/04/kung-fu-panda-4-milestone-the-fall-guy-challengers-godzilla-x-kong-dune-roundup-punishment-global-international-box-office-1235897903/

Zendaya’s ‘Challengers’ Hits Target With $15M Opening for No. 1 Finish

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/zendaya-box-office-challengers-opening-1235885369/

Michael Giltz’s Books Coverage for Parade

https://parade.com/books/best-reads/author/michael-giltz

Parade’s Best New Releases April 30-May 6

https://parade.com/books/best-reads/best-new-book-releases-this-week-2024-april-30-may-6

Paramount Considers Removing CEO Bob Bakish as Turmoil Over Sale Talks Deepens

https://www.wsj.com/business/media/paramount-considers-removing-ceo-bob-bakish-as-turmoil-over-sale-talks-deepens-a48b0ec5

Writers Guild Of Canada “Overwhelmingly” Votes To Authorize Strike Action, CMPA Says “Labor Dispute Would Be Extremely Damaging” To Industry

https://deadline.com/2024/04/writers-guild-canada-vite-authorize-strike-action-cmpa-1235894681/

Taylor Swift Makes Historic Debut at No. 1 on Billboard 200 With ‘The Tortured Poets Department’

https://www.billboard.com/lists/taylor-swift-tortured-poets-department-debut-number-one-billboard-200-chart/

For First Time in Decades, Vinyl Record Sales Surpass CDs and DVDs in Brazil

https://apnews.com/video/brazil-music-anitta-d3cde6d835814a969f82793890c6605a

The Elysian: No One Buys Books

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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 million subscribers spend viewing programming on their platform.

Meanwhile, the long gestating sale of Paramount Global got a lot more interesting last week when Sony entered the picture with its own bid for the media conglomerate. Unfortunately, indie production house Participant Media was unable to find a buyer and abruptly shuttered.

Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including this year’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees, Taylor Swift breaks her own sales records with the release of her album “The Tortured Poets Department” and the Sundance Film Festival may be in search of a new home.





All The Records Taylor Swift’s ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ Has Broken (So Far)

https://www.forbes.com/sites/mollybohannon/2024/04/22/all-the-records-taylor-swifts-the-tortured-poets-department-has-broken-so-far/

‘Godzilla X Kong’ Storming Towards $500M WW As ‘Dune: Part Two’ Closes In On $700M

https://deadline.com/2024/04/godzilla-x-kong-dune-japan-china-global-international-box-office-1235891070/

‘Civil War’ Draws Blood to Beat ‘Abigail’ and Stay No. 1 With $11M Second Weekend

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/civil-war-box-office-drawing-blood-abigail-1235878317/

Justice Department to File Antitrust Suit Against Live Nation

https://www.wsj.com/business/media/live-nation-justice-department-antitrust-lawsuit-ab98c268

Sundance Without Park City? Festival Exploring Options for 2027 and Beyond

https://www.indiewire.com/news/festivals/sundance-film-festival-exploring-options-other-host-cities-2027-1234974957/

Hugh Grant Settles Privacy Case Against Sun Publisher

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-68834392

NMPA Accuses Spotify of ‘Attacking Songwriters’ as Streaming Service Changes How It Pays Out Mechanical Royalties in the US

https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/nmpa-accuses-spotify-of-attacking-songwriters-as-it-changes-how-it-pays-mechanical-royalties-in-the-us/

Netflix’s New Film Strategy: More About the Audience, Less About Auteurs

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/14/business/media/netflix-movies-dan-lin.html

Netflix Adds 9.3M Subscribers In Quarter, Growing Its Lead in Streaming

a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.

CinemaCon, the annual gathering of cinema operators in Las Vegas, was filled with anxiety this year thanks to a lack of wide releases due to the recent labor strikes. However, most Hollywood studios showed up with a few movie stars to hawk an increasing number of big titles due later in the year and into 2025. As well, technology companies introduced some exciting new advances in projection and image quality. In all, the conference pointed toward better days ahead for movie theaters.

In even better news, it looks as if the many behind-the-scenes craft people who work on films and television shows may not go on strike like the writers and actors did last year. The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) appears to be having very positive negotiations with Alliance of Motion Picture Television Producers on a new contract.

Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including how Disney won its shareholder battle, the winners of this year’s Writers Guild Awards and CBS whips up a new streaming news service.





‘Godzilla X Kong’ Roars Past $436M WW; ‘Kung Fu Panda 4’ Tops $450M; Latest ‘Detective Conan’ Huge In Japan

https://deadline.com/2024/04/godzilla-x-kong-kung-fu-panda-4-detective-conan-china-japan-global-international-box-office-1235885714/

‘Civil War’: Red States and Blue States Set Aside Their Differences for Alex Garland’s Movie

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/civil-war-red-states-and-blue-states-1235875216/

IATSE Has “Cautious Optimism” About General Negotiations With Studios As Union Aims To Finalize Craft-Specific Issues This Week

https://deadline.com/2024/04/iatse-general-negotiations-cautious-optimism-studios-craft-specific-issues-done-1235886109/

American Federation of Musicians Ratifies New Deal With Studios

https://deadline.com/2024/04/american-federation-of-musicians-ratifies-deal-studios-1235873942/

CBS News Plans Streaming Overhaul With New ‘Whip-Around’ Program

https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/cbs-news-streaming-overhaul-whip-around-1235965338/

Vince McMahon Sells $311 Million In Stock to TKO and Endeavor In Buyback

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2024-04-08/vince-mcmahon-sells-back-311-million-in-tko-stock-to-endeavor

Book Summaries and Other Knock Off Books Proliferate

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/apr/07/we-may-lose-ability-to-think-critically-at-all-the-book-summary-apps-accused-of-damaging-authors-sales

‘We May Lose Ability to Think Critically at All’: The Book-Summary Apps Accused of Damaging Authors’ Sales

a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/apr/07/we-may-lose-ability-to-think-critically-at-al...

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 auditoriums like IMAX. Even “Oppenheimer” opened well in Japan over this past weekend, becoming filmmaker Christopher Nolan’s biggest debut.

Meanwhile, the Walt Disney Company and the State of Florida have made overtures toward settling their recent legal disputes. As we predicted, despite the battle in the court of public opinion, it will all come to nothing.

Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including Paramount Global’s ongoing financial woes, the discovery of some new Marvin Gaye music and how vinyl records are outselling compact discs.





‘Godzilla X Kong’ Reigns With $194M Worldwide Bow; ‘Dune 2’ Rises To $626M & ‘Oppenheimer’ Opens In Japan

https://deadline.com/2024/03/godzilla-x-kong-the-new-empire-china-global-international-box-office-1235871670/

‘Godzilla x Kong: New Empire’ Roars to Monstrous $80M Box Office Opening, $194M Globally

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/godzilla-x-kong-new-empire-huge-box-office-opening-1235863501/

BBC Doc Looks At J-Pop Scandal, Says Near 1000 Men Came Forward to Discuss Abuse

https://deadline.com/2024/03/johnny-kitagawa-johnny-and-associates-abuse-1235869618/

Paramount Debt Is Cut to Junk on Worsening Outlook for TV

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-03-27/paramount-debt-is-cut-to-junk-on-deteriorating-outlook-for-tv

Collection of Unreleased Marvin Gaye Songs Found in Belgium

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/mar/31/collection-of-unreleased-marvin-gaye-songs-found-in-belgium

​​Vinyl Records Outsold CDs for the Second Year Running

https://www.popsci.com/technology/vinyl-sales-cds-2023/

Only 1 of the Top 20 Best-Selling Albums Globally Last Year Wasn’t by a K-Pop Act

https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/seventeen-taylor-swift-top-20-best-selling-albums-globally-in-2023/

NBC News Ousts Ronna McDaniel After Staff Uproar, CAA Drops Ex-RNC Chair

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/politics-news/nbc-news-ronna-mcdaniel-contributor-1235860170/

Disney Ends Its Fight With DeSantis Over Resort Development

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/27/business/disney-desantis-florida-lawsuit.html

The way audiences watch television has changed radically over the past ten years, bet it when, where or how. Nielsen, long the king of TV ratings, is facing competition from upstarts like Comscore. With viewership on mobile and over-the-top devices not always being measured, advertisers are beginning to include social media awareness into account when determining the success of their marketing campaigns.

Meanwhile filmmaker Jonathan Glazer’s Oscar acceptance speech for the movie “Zone of Interest,” in which he referenced the ongoing conflict in Gaza and Israel, has generated a lot of debate with nearly 1,000 industry professionals signing a petition denouncing his statements.

Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including this year’s IRA Awards, a controversial hire at NBC News and IMAX heads to the Paris Summer Olympics.





‘Kung Fu Panda 4’ Nears $300M Global; ‘Dune 2’ Closing In On $600M; ‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’ Traps $16M+ In Phase 1 Overseas Bow

https://deadline.com/2024/03/ghostbusters-frozen-empire-dune-part-two-kung-fu-panda-4-china-global-international-box-office-1235866885/

‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’ Scares Up Okay $45M Box Office Opening After All

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/ghostbusters-frozen-empire-box-office-opening-1235858952/

NBC Television Network’s Live Coverage of 2024 Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony to Make IMAX Debut

https://celluloidjunkie.com/wire/nbc-television-networks-live-coverage-of-2024-paris-olympics-opening-ceremony-to-make-imax-debut/

Jonathan Glazer Open Letter Gets More Than 500 Additional Signatures Overnight

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/jonathan-glazer-open-letter-oscars-speech-additional-signatures-1235855540/

The 49th Ira Film Awards: Only a “Monster” Would Ignore These Movies

http://popsurfing.blogspot.com/2024/03/the-49th-ira-film-awards-only-monster.html

IRA’s List of the Top 100 Films Of The Silent Era

http://popsurfing.blogspot.com/2024/03/the-iras-name-100-best-silent-films-of.html

‘The Elephant in the Room’: NBC’s McDaniel Hiring Sparks On-Air Criticism From One of Its Own

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/03/24/ronna-mcdaniel-roils-nbc-i-think-our-bosses-owe-you-an-apology-00148719

Ex-RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel: Biden won 2020 Election ‘Fair and Square’

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/25/republican-national-committee-chair-ronna-mcdaniel-biden-2020-election

NBC News Faces Growing Pressure as Its Journalists Rebel Against Ronna McDaniel

https:/...

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 few text prompts that are indistinguishable from those created by trained musicians.

The creators of Suno aren’t saying what content was used to train their AI. That is probably why the European Union is passing legislation to regulate the use of AI, requiring developers to provide a list of copyrighted material used to train their technology.

Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including why Neil Young’s music is back on Spotify, Iranian filmmaker Ashgar Farhadi wins his plagiarism case and Roman Polanski is headed back to court.





‘Dune: Part Two’ Nears $500M Global, Dusting 2021 Movie; ‘Kung Fu Panda 4’ Punches In At $177M As Rollout Expands

https://deadline.com/2024/03/dune-part-two-milestone-kung-fu-panda-china-global-international-box-office-1235860696

‘Kung Fu Panda 4’ Dethrones ‘Dune 2,’ Mark Wahlberg’s ‘Arthur the King’ Lacks Bite

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/box-office-kung-fu-panda-4-dune-part-two-lead-weekend-1235854014/

A New Publisher Promises Authors ‘the Lion’s Share of the Profit’

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/05/books/publisher-authors-equity.html

Asghar Farhadi Fully Cleared of ‘A Hero’ Plagiarism Allegations by Iranian Court

https://variety.com/2024/film/global/asghar-farhadi-cleared-iranian-court-plagiarism-a-hero-1235940549/

Neil Young Says His Music Is Returning to Spotify

https://www.billboard.com/business/streaming/neil-young-music-returning-spotify-1235631717/

A ChatGPT for Music Is Here. Inside Suno, the Startup Changing Everything

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/suno-ai-chatgpt-for-music-1234982307/

European Union Passes ‘World First’ AI Legislation That Would Safeguard Copyrighted Music

https://www.billboard.com/business/business-news/european-union-ai-legislation-laws-copyrighted-music-passes-1235631846/

Karaoke Inventor Shigeichi Negishi Dies at 100

https://www.npr.org/2024/03/15/1238840404/karaoke-inventor-shigeichi-negishi-dead

Byron Janis, One of the Great Pianists of the 20th Century, Dies at 95

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/music-news/byron-janis-dead-pianist-1235854358/

Dan Wakefield, Multifaceted Writer on a Spiritual Journey, Dies at 91