Download or read book The Hollywood Economist the Final Edition written by Edward EPSTEIN and published by . This book was released on 2021-10-27 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a Freakonomics-meets-Hollywood saga, veteran investigative reporter Edward Jay Epstein goes undercover to explore Hollywood's "invisible money machine," probing the dazzlingly complicated finances behind the hits and flops, while he answers a surprisingly difficult question: How do the studios make their money? He further asks in this 2021 final edition, what will happen to this finely-tuned money nachine in the age of streaming? + How and why the studios harvest silver from old film prints ... + Why stars do--or don't do--their own stunts ... + The future of Netflix + What it costs to insure Nicole Kidman's right knee... + How Hollywood manipulates Wall Street: including the story of the acquisition of MGM... wherein a consortium of banks and hedge funds lost some $5 billion... while Hollywood made millions. + Why Arnold Schwarzenegger is considered a contract genius... + The fate of serious fare: How HBO, AMC, and Showtime have found ways to make money offer adult drama, while the Hollywood studios prefer to cater to teen audiences. Editorial Reviews Praise for The Hollywood Economist "The answer to [the] mysteries of modern-day film financing can be found in The Hollywood Economist, Edward Jay Epstein's latest foray into the seamy underbelly of Hollywood spreadsheets." --The Wall Street Journal Praise for Edward Jay Epstein's The Big Picture "A rich adventure that will change the way you look at movies." --BusinessWeek "Edward Jay Epstein is here to tell us that when it comes to Hollywood these days, we've got it all wrong." --The Washington Post Book World "One of the virtues of The Big Picture is Mr. Epstein's astonishing access to numbers that movie studios go to great lengths to keep secret....A groundbreaking work that explains the inner workings of the game." --The Wall Street Journal "Hollywood has needed one of these for a long time--a user's manuel. This one could not be more complete....[Grade] A." --Entertainment Weekly
Download or read book The Hollywood Economist written by Edward Jay Epstein and published by Melville House. This book was released on 2012 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Epstein penetrates the dazzlingly complicated economics of Hollywood to uncover what he calls the studios' 'invisible money machine' - the bizarre financial schemes behind the hits and flops. These include harvesting the silver from old film prints, complicated foreign rights auctions, the manipulation of outside investors and filming in obscure locations to get subsidies and avoid taxes. Along the way, Epstein enlightens the reader about the star system and what makes Hollywood tick.
Download or read book The Hollywood Economist written by Edward Jay Epstein and published by Melville House. This book was released on 2010-03-09 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a Freakonomics meets Hollywood saga, veteran investigative reporter Edward Jay Epstein goes undercover to explore Hollywood’s “invisible money machine,” probing the dazzlingly complicated finances behind the hits and the flops, while he answers the surprisingly puzzling question: How do the studios make their money? Along the way we also learn much about star system and what makes the business tick: + What it costs to insure Nicole Kidman’s right knee ... + How and why the studios harvest silver from old film prints ... + Why stars do—or don’t do—their own stunts ... + Why Arnold Schwarzenegger is considered a contract genius ... + How Hollywood goes about doping outside investors and hedge fund managers ... + Why Lara Croft: Tomb Raider is considered a “masterpiece” of financing ...
Download or read book Hollywood Economics written by Arthur S. De Vany and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Billion Dollar Whale written by Bradley Hope and published by Hachette Books. This book was released on 2018-09-18 with total page 395 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Named a Best Book of 2018 by the Financial Times and Fortune, this "thrilling" (Bill Gates) New York Times bestseller exposes how a "modern Gatsby" swindled over $5 billion with the aid of Goldman Sachs in "the heist of the century" (Axios). Now a #1 international bestseller, Billion Dollar Whale is "an epic tale of white-collar crime on a global scale" (Publishers Weekly), revealing how a young social climber from Malaysia pulled off one of the biggest heists in history. In 2009, a chubby, mild-mannered graduate of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business named Jho Low set in motion a fraud of unprecedented gall and magnitude--one that would come to symbolize the next great threat to the global financial system. Over a decade, Low, with the aid of Goldman Sachs and others, siphoned billions of dollars from an investment fund--right under the nose of global financial industry watchdogs. Low used the money to finance elections, purchase luxury real estate, throw champagne-drenched parties, and even to finance Hollywood films like The Wolf of Wall Street. By early 2019, with his yacht and private jet reportedly seized by authorities and facing criminal charges in Malaysia and in the United States, Low had become an international fugitive, even as the U.S. Department of Justice continued its investigation. Billion Dollar Whale has joined the ranks of Liar's Poker, Den of Thieves, and Bad Blood as a classic harrowing parable of hubris and greed in the financial world.
Download or read book The Big Goodbye written by Sam Wasson and published by Flatiron Books. This book was released on 2020-02-04 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the New York Times bestselling author of Fifth Avenue, Five A.M. and Fosse comes the revelatory account of the making of a modern American masterpiece Chinatown is the Holy Grail of 1970s cinema. Its twist ending is the most notorious in American film and its closing line of dialogue the most haunting. Here for the first time is the incredible true story of its making. In Sam Wasson's telling, it becomes the defining story of the most colorful characters in the most colorful period of Hollywood history. Here is Jack Nicholson at the height of his powers, as compelling a movie star as there has ever been, embarking on his great, doomed love affair with Anjelica Huston. Here is director Roman Polanski, both predator and prey, haunted by the savage death of his wife, returning to Los Angeles, the scene of the crime, where the seeds of his own self-destruction are quickly planted. Here is the fevered dealmaking of "The Kid" Robert Evans, the most consummate of producers. Here too is Robert Towne's fabled script, widely considered the greatest original screenplay ever written. Wasson for the first time peels off layers of myth to provide the true account of its creation. Looming over the story of this classic movie is the imminent eclipse of the '70s filmmaker-friendly studios as they gave way to the corporate Hollywood we know today. In telling that larger story, The Big Goodbye will take its place alongside classics like Easy Riders, Raging Bulls and The Devil's Candy as one of the great movie-world books ever written. Praise for Sam Wasson: "Wasson is a canny chronicler of old Hollywood and its outsize personalities...More than that, he understands that style matters, and, like his subjects, he has a flair for it." - The New Yorker "Sam Wasson is a fabulous social historian because he finds meaning in situations and stories that would otherwise be forgotten if he didn't sleuth them out, lovingly." - Hilton Als
Download or read book Entertainment Industry Economics written by Harold L. Vogel and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2007-04-23 with total page 503 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this newly revised book, Harold L. Vogel examines the business economics of the major entertainment enterprises: movies, music, television programming, broadcasting, cable, casino gambling and wagering, publishing, performing arts, sports, theme parks, and toys and games. The seventh edition has been further revised and broadened and differs from its predecessors by restructuring and repositioning the previous Internet chapter, including new material on the economics of networks and advertising, adding a new section on policy implications, and further expanding the section on recent theoretical work pertaining to box-office behaviour. The result is a comprehensive up-to-date reference guide on the economics, financing, production, and marketing of entertainment in the United States and overseas. Investors, business executives, accountants, lawyers, arts administrators, and general readers will find that the book offers an invaluable guide to how entertainment industries operate.
Download or read book War Movies and Economics written by Laura J. Ahlstrom and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-05-20 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: War Movies and Economics: Lessons from Hollywood’s Adaptations of Military Conflict applies ongoing research in the relatively new genre of economics in popular media to Hollywood’s war movies. Whether inadvertently or purposefully, these movies provide numerous examples of how economic principles often play an important role in military conflict. The authors of the chapters included in this edited collection work to illustrate economics lessons portrayed in adaptations such as Band of Brothers, Conspiracy, The Dirty Dozen, Dunkirk, Memphis Belle, Saving Private Ryan, Schindler’s List, Spartacus, Stalag 17, and Valkyrie. Aspects of these stories show how key economic principles of scarcity, limited resources, and incentives play important roles in military conflict. The movies also provide an avenue for discussion of the economics of public goods provision, the modern economic theory of bureaucracy, and various game-theoretic concepts such as strategic moves and commitment devices. Where applicable, lessons from closely related fields such as management are also provided. This book is ideal reading for students of economics looking for an approachable route to understanding basic principles of economics and game theory. It is also accessible to amateur and professional historians, and any reader interested in popular culture as it relates to television, movies, and military history.
Download or read book The Political Economy of Hollywood written by James McMahon and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2022-02-25 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Hollywood, the goals of art and business are entangled. Directors, writers, actors, and idealistic producers aspire to make the best films possible. These aspirations often interact with the dominant firms that control Hollywood film distribution. This control of distribution is crucial as it enables the firms and other large businesses involved, such as banks that offer financing, to effectively stand between film production and the market. This book analyses the power structure of the Hollywood film business and its general modes of behaviour. More specifically, the work analyses how the largest Hollywood firms attempt to control social creativity such that they can mitigate the financial risks inherent in the art of filmmaking. Controlling the ways people make or watch films, the book argues, is a key element of Hollywood’s capitalist power. Capitalist power—the ability to control, modify, and, sometimes, limit social creation through the rights of ownership—is the foundation of capital accumulation. For the Hollywood film business, capitalist power is about the ability of business concerns to set the terms that will shape the future of cinema. For the major film distributors of Hollywood, these terms include the types of films that will be distributed, the number of films that will be distributed, and the cinematic alternatives that will be made available to the individual moviegoer. Combining theoretical analysis with detailed empirical research on the financial performance of the major Hollywood film companies, the book details how Hollywood’s capitalist goals have clashed with the aesthetic potentials of cinema and ultimately stymied creativity in the pursuit of limiting risk. This sharp critique of the Hollywood machine provides vital reading for students and scholars of political economy, political theory, film studies, and cinema.
Download or read book The Twelve Lives of Alfred Hitchcock An Anatomy of the Master of Suspense written by Edward White and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2021-04-13 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the 2022 Edgar Award for Best Biography An Economist Best Book of 2021 A fresh, innovative biography of the twentieth century’s most iconic filmmaker. In The Twelve Lives of Alfred Hitchcock, Edward White explores the Hitchcock phenomenon—what defines it, how it was invented, what it reveals about the man at its core, and how its legacy continues to shape our cultural world. The book’s twelve chapters illuminate different aspects of Hitchcock’s life and work: “The Boy Who Couldn’t Grow Up”; “The Murderer”; “The Auteur”; “The Womanizer”; “The Fat Man”; “The Dandy”; “The Family Man”; “The Voyeur”; “The Entertainer”; “The Pioneer”; “The Londoner”; “The Man of God.” Each of these angles reveals something fundamental about the man he was and the mythological creature he has become, presenting not just the life Hitchcock lived but also the various versions of himself that he projected, and those projected on his behalf. From Hitchcock’s early work in England to his most celebrated films, White astutely analyzes Hitchcock’s oeuvre and provides new interpretations. He also delves into Hitchcock’s ideas about gender; his complicated relationships with “his women”—not only Grace Kelly and Tippi Hedren but also his female audiences—as well as leading men such as Cary Grant, and writes movingly of Hitchcock’s devotion to his wife and lifelong companion, Alma, who made vital contributions to numerous classic Hitchcock films, and burnished his mythology. And White is trenchant in his assessment of the Hitchcock persona, so carefully created that Hitchcock became not only a figurehead for his own industry but nothing less than a cultural icon. Ultimately, White’s portrayal illuminates a vital truth: Hitchcock was more than a Hollywood titan; he was the definitive modern artist, and his significance reaches far beyond the confines of cinema.
Download or read book The Pursuit of Power written by Richard J. Evans and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2016-09-01 with total page 848 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ECONOMIST BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2016 'A scintillating, encyclopaedic history, rich in detail from the arcane to the familiar... a veritable tour de force' Richard Overy, New Statesman 'Transnational history at its finest ... .. social, political and cultural themes swirl together in one great canvas of immense detail and beauty' Gerard DeGroot, The Times 'Dazzlingly erudite and entertaining' Dominic Sandbrook, The Sunday Times A masterpiece which brings to life an extraordinarly turbulent and dramatic era of revolutionary change. The Pursuit of Power draws on a lifetime of thinking about nineteenth-century Europe to create an extraordinarily rich, surprising and entertaining panorama of a continent undergoing drastic transformation. The book aims to reignite the sense of wonder that permeated this remarkable era, as rulers and ruled navigated overwhelming cultural, political and technological changes. It was a time where what was seen as modern with amazing speed appeared old-fashioned, where huge cities sprang up in a generation, new European countries were created and where, for the first time, humans could communicate almost instantly over thousands of miles. In the period bounded by the Battle of Waterloo and the outbreak of World War I, Europe dominated the rest of the world as never before or since: this book breaks new ground by showing how the continent shaped, and was shaped by, its interactions with other parts of the globe. Richard Evans explores fully the revolutions, empire-building and wars that marked the nineteenth century, but the book is about so much more, whether it is illness, serfdom, religion or philosophy. The Pursuit of Power is a work by a historian at the height of his powers: essential for anyone trying to understand Europe, then or now.
Download or read book Contemporary Film and Economics written by Samuel R. Staley and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2018-07-04 with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What does the movie Lion tell us about why some societies grow rich and others remain poor? What can the global box office juggernaut, Jurassic World tell us about entrepreneurs and the ethics of business? Can the movie Passengers give us insight into human motivation and decision making? This book surveys more than 40 movies to answer these questions and much more. Movies do more than entertain. They project important insights, often unintentional, into the way the world works and the values society cares about. Indeed, their stories are often grounded in the real-world experiences of everyday people. As part of this, movies also provide a window into understanding and evaluating economic behavior. Economics is, after all, the study of how scarce resources like labor, capital, and technology are used to improve (or reduce) our welfare. It also helps us to more fully understand the consequences in our lives that result from those choices and decisions. Through exploring a wide range of films from Passengers to Victoria and Abdul, this book delves into economic concepts such as opportunity costs, profit maximization, greed, business ethics, monopoly, economic growth, and entrepreneurship. Contemporary Film and Economics is a must read for anyone interested in how movies project and interpret economic ideas, craft popular narratives for how economies operate, and explore motivations for economic behavior. Economists will find it useful in starting discussions on key concepts, while filmmakers will find the discussions of economic concepts a provocative way of thinking about how to craft engaging stories that are grounded in practical experience.
Download or read book Machine Dreams written by Philip Mirowski and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 674 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first cross-over book into the history of science written by an historian of economics. It shows how 'history of technology' can be integrated with the history of economic ideas. The analysis combines Cold War history with the history of postwar economics in America and later elsewhere, revealing that the Pax Americana had much to do with abstruse and formal doctrines such as linear programming and game theory. It links the literature on 'cyborg' to economics, an element missing in literature to date. The treatment further calls into question the idea that economics has been immune to postmodern currents, arguing that neoclassical economics has participated in the deconstruction of the integral 'self'. Finally, it argues for an alliance of computational and institutional themes, and challenges the widespread impression that there is nothing else besides American neoclassical economic theory left standing after the demise of Marxism.
Download or read book A Textbook of Cultural Economics written by Ruth Towse and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2010-01-07 with total page 627 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What determines the price of a pop concert or an opera? Why does Hollywood dominate the film industry? Does illegal downloading damage the record industry? Does free entry to museums bring in more visitors? In A Textbook of Cultural Economics, one of the world's leading cultural economists shows how we can use the theories and methods of economics to answer these and a host of other questions concerning the arts (performing arts, visual arts and literature), heritage (museums and built heritage) and creative industries (the music, publishing and film industries, broadcasting). Using international examples and covering the most up-to-date research, the book does not assume a prior knowledge of economics. It is ideally suited for students taking a course on the economics of the arts as part of an arts administration, business, management, or economics degree.
Download or read book An Economist Walks into a Brothel written by Allison Schrager and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2019-04-02 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Financial Times Book of the Month pick for April! Is it worth swimming in shark-infested waters to surf a 50-foot, career-record wave? Is it riskier to make an action movie or a horror movie? Should sex workers forfeit 50 percent of their income for added security or take a chance and keep the extra money? Most people wouldn't expect an economist to have an answer to these questions--or to other questions of daily life, such as who to date or how early to leave for the airport. But those people haven't met Allison Schrager, an economist and award-winning journalist who has spent her career examining how people manage risk in their lives and careers. Whether we realize it or not, we all take risks large and small every day. Even the most cautious among us cannot opt out--the question is always which risks to take, not whether to take them at all. What most of us don't know is how to measure those risks and maximize the chances of getting what we want out of life. In An Economist Walks into a Brothel, Schrager equips readers with five principles for dealing with risk, principles used by some of the world's most interesting risk takers. For instance, she interviews a professional poker player about how to stay rational when the stakes are high, a paparazzo in Manhattan about how to spot different kinds of risk, horse breeders in Kentucky about how to diversify risk and minimize losses, and a war general who led troops in Iraq about how to prepare for what we don't see coming. When you start to look at risky decisions through Schrager's new framework, you can increase the upside to any situation and better mitigate the downside.
Download or read book How America Lost Its Secrets written by Edward Jay Epstein and published by Knopf. This book was released on 2017 with total page 381 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "After details of American government surveillance were published in 2013, Edward Snowden, formerly a subcontracted IT analyst for the NSA, became the center of an international controversy: was he a hero, traitor, whistleblower, spy? Was his theft legitimized by the nature of the information he exposed? When is it necessary for governmental transparency to give way to subterfuge? Edward Jay Epstein [examines] these and other questions, delving into both how our secrets were taken and the man who took them"--Amazon.com.
Download or read book Income and Wealth written by Alan Reynolds and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2006-09-30 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why some people are rich and others poor can be explained in a number of ways. Income and Wealth focuses on who gets what and why. It explains the dynamics of income generation, how it is measured, and how such dramatic disparities in distribution come about. The book first defines various characteristics of income, with an emphasis on the gap between the rich and the poor, and reviews several theories to explain the disparities. Subsequent chapters discuss such timely topics as the vanishing middle class and the sky-high salaries of CEOs, Hollywood stars, and athletes. The final chapters consider the implications of policies, such as the minimum wage, taxes, immigration, and trade quotas, and expand the discussion to consider international comparisons. Featuring graphs and charts, a glossary of key terms, and a listing of references and resources, Income and Wealth explains the intricate, and often controversial, effects of economic policies on individuals, families, and communities. Moreover, it shows how the numbers can be manipulated by policymakers, pundits, journalists, and academics to promote various agendas—and shows readers how to recognize hyberbole and make better-informed decisions.
