A study released in 2017 by the Media, Diversity and Social Change Initiative at the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism looked at 1,256 films released between 2014 and 2017 and found that characters 60 and over were under- and misrepresented. While that demographic represented 18.5% of the U.S. population, it was reflected in only 11.8% of the films, the study found. – Los Angeles Times
Building Audiences
Visitors To A South Korea Gallery Defaced A Graffiti Piece
Of course, they didn’t mean to harm it – they believed it was participatory. Extra “Do Not Touch” signs have now been added. – BBC
Maybe Public Radio Stations Should Cut Two-Thirds Of Their Weekend Programming
Eric Nuzum: “The average number of unduplicated shows aired over Saturdays and Sundays is 25. Do all those programs help build audience? Station listeners — including even core listeners who love your station and are its heaviest users — usually listen for a total of one or two hours every weekend. By scheduling so many programs, most stations are offering a multiple of 10 times the amount of programming that most listeners will ever hear. If this programming so drastically overshoots that audience’s ability to consume it, why is it in your schedule?” – Current
Live-Streamed Stand-Up Comedy Might Just Outlast The Pandemic
“Many are skeptical, including fans who badly miss being surrounded by echoing laughter and stand-ups who are exhausted by performing for screens and who widely prefer telling jokes in the same room as crowds. While conceding that nothing replaces the traditional comedy format, [the CEO of the largest digital comedy club] said the doubts will look as shortsighted as early mockery of Twitter, podcasting and so many other now common internet forms. She has good reason for such swagger.” – The New York Times
The Pandemic Is Showing Us Plays Can Work Without Intermissions
Lyn Gardner: “Often an interval is only there to give audiences the opportunity to go to the lavatory and spend more money. It destroys the world of the play. Dispensing with the interval would remove another of those theatre conventions that are so much part of the experience that we’ve stopped questioning why they are there. The interval didn’t exist until theatre moved into playhouses and new candles were required to be lit to stop darkness descending.” – The Stage
The Boom And Bust Of The TikTok Artist Life
The app is garnering millions of views, and some artists earn thousands (or more) for each short video they post. Some young artists are even “bypassing art schools and student loans, quitting their survival jobs and pursuing careers as full-time artists on TikTok. But the app’s insatiable demand for content is also bending their aesthetics in unexpected ways. What happens when viewership plummets, copycats encroach and fans start dictating an artist’s taste? Fortunes can suddenly fizzle.” – The New York Times
The Globe Will Reopen This Summer, With Strict Protocols Including No Intermissions
Arrival times will be staggered, drinks and snacks must be pre-ordered, and the audience can go to the bathroom when it needs to – but there will be absolutely no stopping a play once it begins. Shakespeare might feel a bit too real. Consider Romeo and Juliet. There will be no need “to deny the hell of that play, the dystopia of that play, the broken society, the police brutality. Shakespeare does not shy away from the difficult conversations and neither will we.” – The Guardian (UK)
Spain’s Drive-In Movie Theaters Plead For Exemption From COVID Curfew
The country is already one time zone ahead of where it should be geographically (Spain is on Central European Time rather than GMT), so after clocks spring forward an hour this weekend, the sun won’t go down until almost 8:30 pm. That’s not enough time to show a movie and get the audience home before the 10 pm curfew, so the drive-ins will have to close unless the government makes an exception for them, and that has not (yet) been granted. – The Guardian
Berlin Does Series Of Dry Runs For Reopening Performance Venues
“The pilot project, backed by Berlin Culture Senator Klaus Lederer, includes a series of nine events, held at seven different venues, including theaters, opera houses, concert halls and even a club, from March 19 to April 4. The Berliner Ensemble theater launched the test phase’s first weekend.” – Deutsche Welle
Will The NFL’s New Media Deal Kill Local TV?
“The loss of broadcast exclusivity is going to accelerate cord cutting as younger viewers gravitate toward the streaming platforms. The loss of coveted younger viewers will reduce total local TV viewership. Still worse, as local TV stations fall into an inescapable vortex toward irrelevance to advertisers, it will become tougher and tougher for them to negotiate with their cable and satellite overlords.” – Shelly Palmer
What It’s Like Filming ‘The World’s Greatest Love Scene’ When You And Romeo Can’t Touch
Jessie Buckley is playing Juliet, and Josh O’Connor is playing Romeo, but there’s no audience – and there’s a huge audience. “When news first broke that Buckley and O’Connor would appear together in a contemporary version of Romeo & Juliet, there was huge excitement among theatregoers. The idea was for a short autumn run at the Lyttleton theatre, in a stage production directed by Simon Godwin. When Covid put a stop to audiences, Godwin brought his actors together for the dates they’d been booked and had them film Shakespeare’s play in the empty Lyttleton anyway.” – The Guardian (UK)
Streaming Passes 1 Billion Subscribers (But Theatre Box Office Tanks)
For the first time ever, subscriptions to streaming services surpassed one billion, reaching 1.1 billion globally. At the same time, box office receipts plummeted because movie theaters across the world were closed for a significant part of 2020. Global ticket sales tapped out at $12 billion, with North America accounting for $2.2 billion of that haul. (2019 saw $42 billion in revenue). – Variety
Arts In Chicago Set To Restart After IL Governor Raises Capacity Limits
“The new ‘phase 4A’ will allow for 25% fixed seating capacity in indoor and outdoor film, theater and performing arts venues of 200 seats or more. For fixed-seating venues with capacities under 200, the limit will increase to 50% capacity or 50 seats, whichever is fewer. .. The new plan will be implemented when 70% of Illinois residents 65 and over are vaccinated.” – Yahoo! (Chicago Tribune)
2020 Movie Box Office Down Big Time (But Home Streaming Offsets Much)
The U.S./Canada box office market was down 80% in 2020, to $2.2 billion, while tickets sold were down 81% to 0.24 billion. Still, that was offset by home and mobile entertainment, which increased to $30 billion, up 21% from a year earlier. The number of online video subscriptions increased 32% to 308.6 million. – Deadline
LA Movie Theatres Reopen And Sell Out Of Tickets
The No. 1 circuit’s Burbank location sold out 22 of its 32 showtimes, while Century City sold out 18 of its 30 showtimes yesterday. Remember, capacity is capped at 25%. But still, a good start as the motion picture industry looks to get the No. 1 box office market back in business. – Deadline
We’re Longing For The Communion That Only Theatre Can Provide
We mourn together for our lost months and years. “Every day the theatre is dark, an opportunity for transformation is lost—yes, for the performers, remaking themselves so completely that, on the best of days, they lack any tether to the real world. But just as importantly, for the audiences who find that bearing witness to those performances, has remade them just the same.” – American Theatre
How ABT Pivoted To TikTok
At least a little bit: “‘The expectation of an elite ballet company is that it’s going to be really cutthroat and really scary and really intimidating,’ Holloway said, but ABT is a big, supportive family who like to have fun” – and both the older Instagram and fairly new TikTok accounts emphasize that for their younger-skewing audiences. – PopSugar
Yahoo News Is On TikTok? Yes, And It Has Over A Million Followers
Yahoo may be seen by much of the minivideo app’s Gen Z core audience as a dinosaur, but Yahoo News has been on TikTok for only a year and is now the third most popular news outlet on the platform, ahead of CBS and NBC News and The Washington Post. The Yahoo News account’s bio reads “Yes, we still exist.” Sarah Scire reports on how the project got started and how its producers make it work. – Nieman Lab
What It Was Like At The Movies The First Weekend New York’s Cinemas Reopened
Capacity Limits: “Not really an issue for Chaos Walking, a poorly-reviewed mess of a sci-fi adventure.” Distancing: “Fortunately, AMC’s ordering system handles this well, automatically blocking off two seats on either side of your party.” Mask Compliance: “This is where the whole thing kind of falls apart.” – Gothamist
Disney+ Closes In On 100 Million Subscribers
The subscriber count is up from the 94.9 million accounts Disney reported last month for the quarter that ended in January. And the surge — fueled by hits such as “The Mandalorian” and “WandaVision” — has encouraged the company to spend more on growing its streaming businesses. Disney in December unveiled an aggressive plan to ramp up programming for the service to 100 new titles a year. – Los Angeles Times
Brown Paper Tickets Will Pay $9 Million To Stiffed Customers
Following a consent decree from the Washington S\state Attorney General’s office, Seattle ticketing company Brown Paper Tickets has agreed to pay $9 million in restitution to an estimated 45,000 customers at both ends of the company’s business model: ticket buyers owed refunds and event organizers owed box-office revenue.” – The Seattle Times
Will European Theatre Bounce Back?
Basically, the pandemic has changed the performing arts audience. “Fans have had access to virtual theater from all over the world. Some venues have expanded their audiences far beyond what’s possible in their physical spaces. Around 160,000 viewers watched a streamed performance of Carmen last year by the Berlin State Opera, whose auditorium seats 1,300. The shift has raised questions about whether audiences will return to theaters in the same numbers as before, and whether a blend of online and in-person viewing will become the new norm.” – The New York Times
There’s No Hollywood Ending For Movie Theatres Yet
Studios are fighting with movie theatre chains; not enough people have been vaccinated yet to feel comfortable going to theatres; and, well, there’s streaming. To be obvious: “‘It’s going to take some time for things to settle out,’ said David A. Gross, who runs Franchise Entertainment Research, a movie consultancy.” – The New York Times
Will European Audiences Come Back To The Theatre?
“The shift [to streamed performances during the lockdowns] has raised questions about whether audiences will return to theaters in the same numbers as before, and whether a blend of online and in-person viewing will become the new norm. … To find out how the pandemic might affect Europe’s theater scenes, both large and small, we spoke with theatergoers in seven different countries.” (Said one, “I couldn’t get into the theaters’ digital offerings. It’s not theater, it’s evidence of theater.”) – The New York Times
Illinois’s Reopening Rules Make No Sense For Chicago’s Arts Venues
Under the current Phase 4 of Gov. Pritzker’s five-phase plan, indoor gatherings are limited to a maximum capacity of 50% or 50 people per room, whichever is lower. That makes sense for restaurants, bars, multiplex cinemas and possibly even Chicago’s storefront theaters — but, Chris Jones points out, the Auditorium Theater, Orchestra Hall, the Civic Opera House, and other such venues can safely hold many more than 50 people. And there’s no intermediate stage between Phase 4 and reopening everything at full capacity. – Yahoo! (Chicago Tribune)