2010 Was Tough, Challenging Year For Entertainment Industry

“Broad swaths of the entertainment business declined in 2010. DVD sales were off 13%. Music CD purchases plummeted 19%. Video game sales as well as concert and theater attendance also fell. Even the turnout for America’s favorite pastimes — baseball and NASCAR — was down. And swift changes in technology will make it difficult for Hollywood to capture pre-recession levels of revenue.”

How Mega-Musicals Are Like McDonald’s

“These are the shows in which liveness takes second place to smooth reproducibility. When a new production of Cats or The Phantom of the Opera or The Lion King opens, it’s not really a new production at all. The new opening will be a faithful reproduction of the original, all the way from the choreography to the lights, from the costumes to the merchandising.”