This book explores the complex, multifaceted and contested subject of risk in the film business. How risk is understood and managed has a substantial impact upon which films are financed, produced and seen. Founded on substantial original research accessing the highest level of industry practitioners, this book examines the intertwined activity of independents, large media companies including major studios, the international marketplace, and related audio-visual sectors such as high-end television. The book shows how risk is generally framed, or even intuited, rather than calculated, and that this process occurs across a sliding scale of formality. This work goes beyond broad creative industries characterisations of a "risky sector" and concentrations on Box Office return modelling, to provide a missing middle. This means a coherent analytic coverage of business organisation and project construction to address the complex practicalities that mobilise strategic operations in relation to risk, often in unseen business-to-business contexts. Informed by economic sociology’s concepts addressing market assemblage and valuation, alongside applications of science and technology studies to media and communications, the book respects both the powerful roles of social and institutional actors, and affordances of new technologies in dealing with the persistent known unknown – the audience. Examining a persistent business issue in a new way, this book analyses top level industry practice through established mechanisms, and innovations like data analytics. The result is a book that will be essential reading for scholars with an interest in the film business as well as risk management more broadly.

Why the future of popular culture will revolve around ever bigger bets on entertainment products, by one of Harvard Business School's most popular professors What's behind the phenomenal success of entertainment businesses such as Warner Bros., Marvel Entertainment, and the NFL—along with such stars as Jay-Z, Lady Gaga, and LeBron James? Which strategies give leaders in film, television, music, publishing, and sports an edge over their rivals? Anita Elberse, Harvard Business School's expert on the entertainment industry, has done pioneering research on the worlds of media and sports for more than a decade. Now, in this groundbreaking book, she explains a powerful truth about the fiercely competitive world of entertainment: building a business around blockbuster products—the movies, television shows, songs, and books that are hugely expensive to produce and market—is the surest path to long-term success. Along the way, she reveals why entertainment executives often spend outrageous amounts of money in search of the next blockbuster, why superstars are paid unimaginable sums, and how digital technologies are transforming the entertainment landscape. Full of inside stories emerging from Elberse's unprecedented access to some of the world's most successful entertainment brands, Blockbusters is destined to become required reading for anyone seeking to understand how the entertainment industry really works—and how to navigate today's high-stakes business world at large.

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.

"This book explores the complex, multifaceted and contested subject of risk in the film business. How risk is understood and managed has a substantial impact upon which films are financed, produced and seen. Founded on substantial original research accessing the highest level of industry practitioners, this book examines the intertwined activity of independents, large media companies including Major studios, the international marketplace, and related audio-visual sectors such as high-end television. The book shows how risk is generally framed, or even intuited, rather than calculated, and that this process occurs across a sliding scale of formality. This work goes beyond broad creative industries characterisations of a "risky sector" and concentrations on Box Office return modelling to provide a missing middle. This means a coherent analytic coverage of business organisation and project construction to address the complex practicalities that mobilise strategic operations in relation to risk, often in unseen business-to-business contexts. Informed by economic sociology's concepts addressing market assemblage and valuation, alongside applications of science and technology studies to media and communications, the book respects both the powerful roles of social and institutional actors, and affordances of new technologies in dealing with the persistent known unknown - the audience. Examining a persistent business issue in a new way, this book analyses top level industry practice through established mechanisms, and innovations like data analytics. The result is a book that will be essential reading for scholars with an interest in the film business as well as risk management more broadly"--

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.

Climate change threatens the economy of the United States in myriad ways, including increased flooding and storm damage, altered crop yields, lost labor productivity, higher crime, reshaped public-health patterns, and strained energy systems, among many other effects. Combining the latest climate models, state-of-the-art econometric research on human responses to climate, and cutting-edge private-sector risk-assessment tools, Economic Risks of Climate Change: An American Prospectus crafts a game-changing profile of the economic risks of climate change in the United States. This prospectus is based on a critically acclaimed independent assessment of the economic risks posed by climate change commissioned by the Risky Business Project. With new contributions from Karen Fisher-Vanden, Michael Greenstone, Geoffrey Heal, Michael Oppenheimer, and Nicholas Stern and Bob Ward, as well as a foreword from Risky Business cochairs Michael Bloomberg, Henry Paulson, and Thomas Steyer, the book speaks to scientists, researchers, scholars, activists, and policy makers. It depicts the distribution of escalating climate-change risk across the country and assesses its effects on aspects of the economy as varied as hurricane damages and violent crime. Beautifully illustrated and accessibly written, this book is an essential tool for helping businesses and governments prepare for the future.

Scholars of film studies will appreciate this daring and inventive collection, and readers with a general interest in film studies will enjoy its accessible style.