Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Hollywood is facing unprecedented challenges - and is changing rapidly and radically as a result. In this major new study of the contemporary film industry, leading film historian Tino Balio explores the impact of the Internet, declining DVD sales and changing consumer spending habits on the way Hollywood conducts its business. Today, the major studios play an insignificant role in the bottom lines of their conglomerate parents and have fled to safety, relying on big-budget tentpoles, franchises and family films to reach their target audiences. Comprehensive, compelling and filled with engaging case studies (TimeWarner, DreamWorks SKG, Spider Man, The Lord of the Rings, IMAX, Netflix, Miramax, Sony Pictures Classics, Lionsgate and Sundance), Hollywood in the New Millennium is a must-read for all students of film studies, cinema studies, media studies, communication studies, and radio and television.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Introduction (p. 1)
• 1 Mergers and Acquisitions: The Quest for Synergy (p. 7)
• 2 Production: Tentpoles and Franchises (p. 25)
• 3 Distribution: Open Wide (p. 66)
• 4 Exhibition: Upgrading Moviegoing (p. 88)
• 5 Ancillary Markets: Shattering Windows (p. 101)
• 6 Independents: 'To the Rear of the Back End' (p. 114)
• Conclusion (p. 149)
• References and Further Reading (p. 152)
• Index (p. 163)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

In this sharp, perceptive volume written with his usual assurance and business acumen, Balio (emeritus, Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison) traces the various ways Hollywood has adapted to the emerging digital era in matters of production, distribution, audience reception, and exhibition. The author, a renowned film business historian, begins his overview at the turn of the 21st century. He moves smoothly to such topics as the hyperconglomeration of the film industry in which companies swallow each other in a search for market dominance; the production of tentpole and franchise films, now more a part of the cinema landscape than ever before; how changing patterns of distribution have affected both the content and box-office receipts for films; the various ways in which studios wring every possible additional dollar out of their films with ancillary merchandising; and finally, how independent producers are coping in the new marketplace, which is more difficult than ever for a nonmajor studio. This excellent book is accessible, surefooted, and absolutely on top of rapidly changing Hollywood business practices. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-level undergraduates and above. G. A. Foster University of Nebraska--Lincoln