The Hollywood Economist: The Hidden Financial Reality Behind the Movies PDF
Preview The Hollywood Economist: The Hidden Financial Reality Behind the Movies
PRAISE FOR EDWARD JAY EPSTEIN’S THE BIG PICTURE “One of the virtues of The Big Picture is Mr. Epstein’s astonishing access to numbers that the movie studios go to great lengths to keep secret. … [A] groundbreaking work that explains the inner workings of the game.” —The Wall Street Journal “Illuminating. … Startling. … By the time Epstein is through it’s abundantly clear that what we think of as Hollywood is, in accounting terms, a high-stakes hall of mirrors.” —The New York Times “Edward Jay Epstein is here to tell us that when it comes to Hollywood these days, we’ve got it all wrong. … Epstein argues, and most persuasively, that we persist in thinking about Hollywood in terms that no longer exist: the ‘dream factories’ that were the old studios—MGM, RKO, Paramount, Columbia, Fox, Universal and Warner Bros.—where movies were the only products, stars and lesser actors were bound to studios by rigid contracts, and theaters were owned by the studios that supplied them. … [Epstein] is a bulldog researcher, he’s brought a great deal of interesting material together and he has interesting things to say.” —Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post Book World “In his adroit charting of the confidence flow between the various entities and eras Mr. Epstein kicks up lots of little surprises. … Edward Jay Epstein is quite good.” —Larry McMurtry, The New York Review of Books “Hollywood has needed one of these for a long time—a user’s manual. This one could not be more complete. … [Grade] A. Keep it in your car … and you’ll never get lost in this town again.” —Entertainment Weekly “I pick no nits with his thesis of a paradigm-dropping shift in the industry.” —William Safire, The New York Times Magazine “Mr. Epstein rightly describes Hollywood as a close-knit community with a stronger hold on its employees’ loyalty than any single company within it.” —The Economist “… [A] valuable education for those seeking to enter and understand the entertainment industry. … Factually impressive.” —Joel Hirschhorn, Variety “[The Big Picture] fascinatingly describes the evolution of the modern marketing-and brand-driven global media giants. … For anybody who is a film buff, The Big Picture will be a fine adventure. But once you learn what goes on behind the scenes, you may never again look at a movie the same way.” —BusinessWeek “Epstein peels away the Hollywood facade and gives a nuts-and-bolts view of how the six entertainment empires—Viacom, Fox, NBC/Universal, Time Warner, Sony, and Disney—create and distribute intellectual property today. … [He] presents a fascinating look at the unbelievable efforts that must be coordinated to produce a film.” —Booklist “In vivid detail, he describes the current process of how a film is made, from the initial pitch to last-minute digital editing. There’s a refreshing absence of moral grandstanding in Epstein’s work. With no apparent ax to grind, he simply and comprehensively presents the industry as it is: the nuts and bolts, the perks and pitfalls and the staggering fortunes that some in the business walk away with. This is the new indispensable text for anyone interested in how Hollywood works.” —Publishers Weekly “[A] meticulously reported new book.” —The Baltimore Sun “What one learns from these investigations is that the deepest, darkest secrets in Tinseltown have nothing to do with sex, drugs, blasphemy, or politics, and everything to do with money.” —The Weekly Standard “Edward Jay Epstein blew the lid off Hollywood’s dirty little open secret.” —The Washington Times “Compelling. … [Epstein] demystifies the contemporary process of film-making in the digital age.” —The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ALSO BY EDWARD JAY EPSTEIN Inquest: The Warren Commission and the Establishment of Truth Counterplot: Garrison vs. the United States News from Nowhere: Television and the News Between Fact and Fiction: The Problem of Journalism Agency of Fear: Opiates and Political Power in America Cartel: A Novel Legend: The Secret World of Lee Harvey Oswald The Rise and Fall of Diamonds: The Shattering of a Brilliant Illusion Who Owns the Corporation?: Management vs. Shareholders Deception: The Invisible War Between the KGB and the CIA The Assassination Chronicles: Inquest, Counterplot, and Legend Dossier: The Secret History of Armand Hammer The Big Picture: Money and Power in Hollywood For Susana Duncan CONTENTS INTRODUCTION Why Journalists Don’t Understand Hollywood PART I The Popcorn Economy Ten Years Ago, I Learned the Real Secret is the Salt Why Do Most New Movie Theaters Have Fewer than 300 Seats? Sex in the Cinema: Asset or Liability? The Vanishing Box Office The Reel Silver Lining PART II Star Culture The Contract’s the Thing—If Not for Hamlet, for Arnold Schwarzenegger Movie Stars Come in Two Flavors: $20 Million and Free The Angst Question in Hollywood: What Is Your Cash Breakeven? The Sad Lesson of Nicole Kidman’s Knee—Or What a Star Needs to Get a Part The Starlet’s Dilemma There Is No Net The Video Windfall Nobody Gets Gross “I Do My Own Stunts” PART III Hollywood’s Invisible Money Machine Why Lara Croft: Tomb Raider Is Considered a Masterpiece of Studio Financing Money-For-Nothing from Germany How Does a Studio Make a Windfall out of Being on the Losing Side of a Japanese Format War? Romancing the Hedge Funds Ever Wonder Why the US Looks Like Canada in the Movies? Pushing the Pseudo Reality Envelope The New Civil War among the States The Rise and Fall of Pay Television For Whom Does the Movie Business Toll? PART IV Hollywood Politics In the Picture Paranoia for Fun and Profit: The Saga of Fahrenheit 9/11 The Saga Continues Plus Ça Change: Paramount’s Regime Change Tom Cruise, Inc. An Expert Witness in Wonderland PART V The New Studio System The Oscar Deception Teens and Car Crashes Go Together The Studios—Required Reading The Midas Formula You Can’t Make Money on Movies in Theaters The Foreign Mirage The Quest for the Digitalized Couch Potato Unoriginal Sin The Samurai Embrace Downloading For Dollars
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