Entertainment Industry Economics

Fully updated, this edition offers a unique, integrated approach to the economics and financing of entertainment and media sectors.

This book provides everything a financial analyst of entertainment needs to know of the sector.

Movies expected to perform well can flop, whilst independent movies with low budgets can be wildly successful. In this text, De Vany casts his eye over all aspects of the business to present some intriguing conclusions.

"Entertainment Industrialised is the first study to compare the emergence and economic development of the film industry in Britain, France and the United States between 1890 and 1940. Gerben Bakker investigates the commercialisation and industrialisation of live entertainment in the nineteenth century and analyses the subsequent arrival of motion pictures, revealing that their emergence triggered a process of incessant creative destruction, development and productivity growth that continues in the entertainment industry today. He argues that cinema industrialised live entertainment by automating it, standardising it and making it tradeable, a process that was largely demand led, and that a quality race between firms changed the structure of the international entertainment market. While a hundred years ago, European enterprises were supplying half of all films shown in the US, the quality race resulted in today's industry, in which a handful of American companies dominate the global entertainment business."--Publisher's description

The entertainment industry has long been dominated by legendary screenwriter William Goldman’s “Nobody-Knows-Anything” mantra, which argues that success is the result of managerial intuition and instinct. This book builds the case that combining such intuition with data analytics and rigorous scholarly knowledge provides a source of sustainable competitive advantage – the same recipe for success that is behind the rise of firms such as Netflix and Spotify, but has also fueled Disney’s recent success. Unlocking a large repertoire of scientific studies by business scholars and entertainment economists, the authors identify essential factors, mechanisms, and methods that help a new entertainment product succeed. The book thus offers a timely alternative to “Nobody-Knows” decision-making in the digital era: while coupling a good idea with smart data analytics and entertainment theory cannot guarantee a hit, it systematically and substantially increases the probability of success in the entertainment industry. Entertainment Science is poised to inspire fresh new thinking among managers, students of entertainment, and scholars alike. Thorsten Hennig-Thurau and Mark B. Houston – two of our finest scholars in the area of entertainment marketing – have produced a definitive research-based compendium that cuts across various branches of the arts to explain the phenomena that provide consumption experiences to capture the hearts and minds of audiences. Morris B. Holbrook, W. T. Dillard Professor Emeritus of Marketing, Columbia University Entertainment Science is a must-read for everyone working in the entertainment industry today, where the impact of digital and the use of big data can’t be ignored anymore. Hennig-Thurau and Houston are the scientific frontrunners of knowledge that the industry urgently needs. Michael Kölmel, media entrepreneur and Honorary Professor of Media Economics at University of Leipzig Entertainment Science’s winning combination of creativity, theory, and data analytics offers managers in the creative industries and beyond a novel, compelling, and comprehensive approach to support their decision-making. This ground-breaking book marks the dawn of a new Golden Age of fruitful conversation between entertainment scholars, managers, and artists. Allègre Hadida, Associate Professor in Strategy, University of Cambridge

In this updated edition of the industry staple, veteran media executive Jeff Ulin relates business theory and practice across key global market segments—film, television, and online/digital—providing you with an insider’s perspective that can't be found anywhere else. Learn how an idea moves from concept to profit and how distribution dominates the bottom line: Hollywood stars may make the headlines, but marketing and distribution are the behind-the-scenes drivers converting content into cash. The third edition: Includes perspectives from key industry executives at studios, networks, agencies and online leaders, including Fox, Paramount, Lucasfilm, Endeavor, Tencent, MPAA, YouTube, Amazon, and many more; Explores the explosive growth of the Chinese market, including box office trends, participation in financing Hollywood feature films, and the surge in online usage; Illustrates how online streaming leaders like Netflix, Amazon, Apple, YouTube, Hulu and Facebook are changing the way TV content is distributed and consumed, and in cases how these services are moving into theatrical markets; Analyzes online influences and disruption throughout the distribution chain, and explains the risks and impact stemming from changing access points (e.g., stand-alone apps), delivery methods (over-the-top) and consumption patterns (e.g., binge watching); Breaks down historical film windows, the economic drivers behind them, and how online and digital delivery applications are changing the landscape. Ulin provides the virtual apprenticeship you need to demystify and manage the complicated media markets, understand how digital distribution has impacted the ecosystem, and glimpse into the future of how film and television content will be financed, distributed and watched. An online eResource contains further discussion on topics presented in the book.

In this volume, Paolo Sigismondi explores the dynamics of global media and entertainment, specifically analyzing the implications of the global rise of non-scripted entertainment (as reality TV programs) and the impact and consequences of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) revolution on the content, delivery platforms, and overall business models of the media and entertainment landscape. This work aims at bridging the gap between media theories and industry practices in a rapidly evolving global mediascape, building on scholarship in the field and enriched by case studies and insights from business practice. This work demonstrates that the paradigms of the landscape are shifting, introducing the digital “glocalization” of entertainment, through which successful media crossing national and cultural borders incorporate both global and local features. Key questions raised include: Is the ICT revolution an example of disruptive technology for the global media and entertainment industry? Is the existing status quo challenged, and in, particular Hollywood’s global leadership? What are the global entities emerging as Hollywood’s main competitors in this technologically evolving landscape? Sigismondi argues that as new players are entering the field, new threats to Hollywood’s dominance are emerging. The global leaders in non-scripted entertainment, for example, are European-based global entities operating outside the Hollywood system. Meanwhile, the ICT revolution is modifying the contours and boundaries of the global mediascape. Sigismondi’s approach provides unique insight into how the forces of technology and globalization are transforming television, cinema, and online entertainment.