
The Economics of Hollywood
03/06/21 • 18 min
$42 billion dollars. That is the amount of money grossed by films at the global box office in 2019. Impressive? Definitely. Surprising? Probably not, especially when you consider that global box office revenues have increased year-over-year since 2005. That was, of course, until COVID. As you’d expect, the pandemic has devastated Hollywood – resulting in an unprecedented seventy-one percent (71%) decline in global box office revenue. Worse yet, we all have to go another year without Daniel Craig’s No Time To Die – a title that has since taken-on somewhat of an eerie meaning. But putting the absence of James Bond aside ... movie ticket sales have actually been on the decline for nearly two decades – despite a steady increase in population over the same period. So, if people are going to movie theatres less often – and they are – then what exactly is driving the growth behind global box office revenue? [note] To answer this question, you have to understand the economics of Hollywood. How do movies get funded? What is the role of government subsidies and alternative revenue sources? How can a movie gross more than its budget and still lose money? And finally, what are the economics behind movie theatres and their twenty-dollar buckets of popcorn?
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀
Enjoyed the podcast? Comment below! 💬
⭑ Subscribe to Economics Explained Youtube Channel 👉 https://bit.ly/sub2ee ⭑ Enjoyed? Hit the like button! 👍 Q&A Streams on EEII (2nd channel) → https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOTgNyfQG4vVP5sCXrJaS4g ✉️ Business Enquiries → [email protected] 🎧 Listen to EE on Spotify! 👉 https://anchor.fm/EconomicsExplained Follow EE on social media: Twitter 🐦 → https://twitter.com/EconomicsEx Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/EconomicsEx Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/EconomicsExplained Discord → https://discord.gg/MJGcTH6
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀
ECONOMICS EXPLAINED IS MADE POSSIBLE BY OUR PATREON COMMUNITY 👊🙏 Support EE by becoming a Patron today!
👉
https://www.patreon.com/EconomicsExplained
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
$42 billion dollars. That is the amount of money grossed by films at the global box office in 2019. Impressive? Definitely. Surprising? Probably not, especially when you consider that global box office revenues have increased year-over-year since 2005. That was, of course, until COVID. As you’d expect, the pandemic has devastated Hollywood – resulting in an unprecedented seventy-one percent (71%) decline in global box office revenue. Worse yet, we all have to go another year without Daniel Craig’s No Time To Die – a title that has since taken-on somewhat of an eerie meaning. But putting the absence of James Bond aside ... movie ticket sales have actually been on the decline for nearly two decades – despite a steady increase in population over the same period. So, if people are going to movie theatres less often – and they are – then what exactly is driving the growth behind global box office revenue? [note] To answer this question, you have to understand the economics of Hollywood. How do movies get funded? What is the role of government subsidies and alternative revenue sources? How can a movie gross more than its budget and still lose money? And finally, what are the economics behind movie theatres and their twenty-dollar buckets of popcorn?
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀
Enjoyed the podcast? Comment below! 💬
⭑ Subscribe to Economics Explained Youtube Channel 👉 https://bit.ly/sub2ee ⭑ Enjoyed? Hit the like button! 👍 Q&A Streams on EEII (2nd channel) → https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOTgNyfQG4vVP5sCXrJaS4g ✉️ Business Enquiries → [email protected] 🎧 Listen to EE on Spotify! 👉 https://anchor.fm/EconomicsExplained Follow EE on social media: Twitter 🐦 → https://twitter.com/EconomicsEx Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/EconomicsEx Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/EconomicsExplained Discord → https://discord.gg/MJGcTH6
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀
ECONOMICS EXPLAINED IS MADE POSSIBLE BY OUR PATREON COMMUNITY 👊🙏 Support EE by becoming a Patron today!
👉
https://www.patreon.com/EconomicsExplained
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Previous Episode

The "Perfect" Little Economy of New Zealand
This is new Zealand, a picturesque nation whos economy looks to exclusively rely on throwing their tourists off cliffs in increasingly imaginative ways and being left off of world maps.
But Australia’s little brother is so much more than that and it might truely be the world’s best managed economy. Everything from the world banks ease of doing business index, from multiple quality of life assessments puts new zealand in the top spot. Move aside Norway.
What’s more is that it has achieved this remarkable prosperity despite not having a huge supply of natural resources, or acting as some tax haven for global businesses like so many other apparent economic miracles we have explored before.
No New Zealand has got to where it is today by carefully managing a market economy and providing a safe, stable and confidence inspiring place to start a family, a business, and a career.
Of course there are still some problems and we will certainly get to them but after exploring the Economy of Argentina last week, it’s now time to get out your pen and paper and take notes on how to actually run an economy.
And to do this as always we are going to break the economy into some important categories.
What are the primary drivers of New Zealand's economic prosperity?
How has the nation been able to accommodate these where other nations fail to do so?
And what are the challenges the nation might face to keep this success going?
Once thats all done we can then put New zealand on the economics explained national leaderboard.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Next Episode

The Overleveraged Economy of Iceland
Aluminum smelting. Geothermal power. Bitcoin mining. What do all of these things have in common? ... Iceland! 🇮🇸 How has the nation weathered this economic turbulence without turning into a failed state? What end of the economic spectrum is the nation on today? And what industries drive this tiny little economy? All this and more in this episode of Economics Explained!
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀
Enjoyed the podcast? Comment below! 💬
⭑ Subscribe to Economics Explained Youtube Channel 👉 https://bit.ly/sub2ee
⭑ Enjoyed? Hit the like button! 👍 Q&A Streams on EEII (2nd channel) → https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOTgNyfQG4vVP5sCXrJaS4g
✉️ Business Enquiries → [email protected] 🎧 Listen to EE on Spotify! 👉 https://anchor.fm/EconomicsExplained
Follow EE on social media: Twitter 🐦 → https://twitter.com/EconomicsEx
Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/EconomicsEx
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/EconomicsExplained
Discord → https://discord.gg/MJGcTH6
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀
ECONOMICS EXPLAINED IS MADE POSSIBLE BY OUR PATREON COMMUNITY 👊🙏 Support EE by becoming a Patron today! 👉 https://www.patreon.com/EconomicsExplained
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
If you like this episode you’ll love
Episode Comments
Generate a badge
Get a badge for your website that links back to this episode
<a href="https://goodpods.com/podcasts/economics-explained-196323/the-economics-of-hollywood-19178356"> <img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/goodpods-images-bucket/badges/generic-badge-1.svg" alt="listen to the economics of hollywood on goodpods" style="width: 225px" /> </a>
Copy