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The Hollywood Economist: The Hidden Financial Reality Behind the Movies |  | Author: Edward Jay Epstein
Publisher: Melville House
Category: Book
List Price: $16.95
Buy New: $8.46
as of 9/9/2010 19:35 MDT details
You Save: $8.49 (50%)
New (32) Used (8) from $8.46
Seller: BRILANTI BOOKS
Rating:  16 reviews
Sales Rank: 11509
Media: Paperback
Pages: 240
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.4 x 0.7
ISBN: 1933633840
Dewey Decimal Number: 384
EAN: 9781933633848
ASIN: 1933633840
Publication Date: February 23, 2010
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
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 ...
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 16
An Insightful read September 8, 2010
Stefan.P.Gillard (Sydney)
With the business of movie making looking to new ways of delivery & production, "the hollywood economist" helps demystify the market forces that are forcing the industry to re-engineer itself. For anyone looking to get up to speed quickly on a quick primer of the production & dealmaking landscape of hollywood production this is a great introduction. Filled with relevant and enlightening case studies and examples.
 informative & fun September 5, 2010
Leung Hoi Tung (Hong Kong)
i learned as much as i enjoyed reading this book, a tight, concise interplay of sharp arguments and real-life examples.
A quick informative peak at the dollars behind the make up July 25, 2010
John E. Drury (Washington, DC United States)
Epstein has had a distinguished journalistic career breaking stories as varied as disclosures surrounding the Kennedy assassination, the diamond trade and the spy craft between the KGB and the CIA. He turns his eye and energies in this 2010 book to an astute analysis of movie financials. In short pointed chapters, he digresses little and wastes few words in making his points about the risk money behind movie production, distribution, actors' salaries, creative accounting and tax incentives in the US and abroad. His prediction, at the end, about the portent of the demise of independent movies is presumably true, but sad nonetheless.
 Not original and not substantive June 20, 2010
Don McGowan
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is perfectly average in its genre. The articles are as short as newspaper columns (average seems to be about 300-500 words) and so there's not much ability to discuss a topic in any depth. The longest piece is the first one, so if you download the Kindle sample you'll get a wrong idea of how much depth you'll find in this book.
That said, the actual pieces are decently-written. The author probably has some interesting insights into the entertainment business, even if they don't come out very often because of the short length of his sections. There are better books out there on this topic: Jason Squire's "The Movie Business Book" for an overview of the industry and Arthur De Vany's "The Hollywood Economist" for a more economics-wonk analysis. Buy those instead.
Helpful if dry June 2, 2010
Meredith Grahl (Mostly Michigan)
I had never heard of Epstein's previous book on the movie business, but after hearing him interviewed on the radio I was excited for this one. The author knows what hes' talking about, clearly explains the ins and outs of film finance and he gives interesting examples. I will be thinking about Arnold Schwarzenegger's elaborate contracts for a while now.
My two gripes? It's just, well, it's a little boring. This might be partly my fault, as I just finished William Goldman's fantastic, more general Adventures in the Screen Trade. Goldman has such a lively voice and illustrates his points with longer gossipy anecdotes. Switching to this was like eating a granny smith after a bowl of ice cream. I know it's good for me but it's not as fun. Issue two is that it's so short. 219 pages and an appendix is slim to begin with but the margins on my paperback copy are huge. The actual text on each page takes up about the space of a postcard. Parts of the book appeared previously in magazines, which makes me feel like four articles were slapped together here.
The Hollywood Economist is serious about its subject, professorial in tone, should be very helpful to anyone working in the movies or aggravated that so few good ones get funded.
The cover is also beautiful, if you're into that sort of thing.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 16
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