Blockbusters: Hit-making, Risk-taking, and the Big Business of Entertainment Author: | Language: English | ISBN:
B00FP0PQ5Y | Format: EPUB
Blockbusters: Hit-making, Risk-taking, and the Big Business of Entertainment Description
Why the future of popular culture will revolve around ever bigger bets on entertainment products, by one of Harvard Business School's most celebrated 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 audiobook, 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 listening for anyone seeking to understand how the entertainment industry really works - and how to navigate today's high-stakes business world at large.
- Audible Audio Edition
- Listening Length: 11 hours and 45 minutes
- Program Type: Audiobook
- Version: Unabridged
- Publisher: Brilliance Audio
- Audible.com Release Date: October 15, 2013
- Whispersync for Voice: Ready
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00FP0PQ5Y
I am generally leery of books where the author posits a provocative wide-ranging thesis. Its probably largely Malcolm Gladwell's fault. So naturally I approached Anita Elberse's Blockbusters with some trepidation. She makes the claim that focusing on high-stakes major campaigns is essential to succeeding in today's entertainment industry and she employs a plethora of examples and research from movies, sports, books, music, and television to support her case. While it can be a bit dry at times, Blockbusters is a very informative and often fascinating examination of the current and future state of the entertainment industry and the increasing importance of tentpole products and campaigns.
Elberse is a professor at the Harvard Business School who understandably brings a wealth of knowledge regarding the industry. She also has experience researching topics such as the economic effects of the unbundling of songs from albums on the music industry (bad for record labels). Elberse has built up quite an impressive list of contacts (she actually just co-wrote an article with Sir Alex Ferguson), which greatly enriches the book. Blockbusters is able to glean insights from major players such as Maria Sharapova's agent and Alan Horn, the former president of Warner Bros. Rather than speculating on the strategies behind campaigns, Elberse is able to pick the brains of decision makers.
The book's main concept is an intriguing and seemingly counter-intuitive approach to entertainment. Essentially, the strategy of hedging bets with a diverse portfolio of products is not the path to profitability for entertainment entities. They should instead promote a few projects and bet big on their success.
A decent, breezy summary of the "hit" mentality that has overtaken most of popular culture. Short on specifics and essentially devoid of any real analysis. The book ultimately fails in that it lacks any kind of over-arching thesis, point of view....or point at all fr that matter. The sports teams are doing what they do to win games, that seems clear enough and was a point made so very much better in "Moneyball." There is little to suggest that they act in any other way.
Lacking in the book is an explanation for the behavior in the entertainment industry. Certainly "blockbuster" movies can generate large profits, but they can generate enormous losses as well - overall returns for film and TV production are atrocious by any standard, raising the question as to why the executives follow the strategy they are clearly following. AE ascribes success by implying that big box office is its own payday, but the leaders of the film business (her favorite, Alan Horn in particular) have "bought" large grosses for a handful of films while allowing the business overall to atrophy and shrink. The net result, Horn was fired from Warner Brothers - as he was previously fired at Fox. Even his own company, Castle Rock, was no paragon of success with two "Mr. Saturday Nights" for every "Harry Met Sally." I took Elberse's course at HBS and she is totally star struck by Horn, to the detriment of any substantive analytical insights into film industry behavior. If there is any rhyme or rhythm to the "Blockbuster" mentality, why are studio results so consistently poor year after year? What explanation is there for continually shrinking production, shrinking output, declining attendances and so forth?
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