Hollywood Nights

Hollywood is king. They put out around 800 films a year, which are then shown on around 40,000 movie screens across the United States. Billions of dollars are involved in film production every year, and the American film industry, largely based in Hollywood, CA, has been the dominant force in the world's cinema since the 1920s. 

The dominance of Hollywood is staggering. The 10 highest grossing movies ever (adjusted for inflation) are Gone With The Wind, Avatar, Star Wars, Titanic, The Sound of Music, E.T, The Ten Commandments, Dr. Zhivago, Jaws, and Snow White. All classic, timeless movies.

All American. 

The United States isn't even the country that produces the most films; that honor goes to India, which produces around twice as many films as the United States every year. India's films, however, are primarily viewed in, well... India.

But no matter where you go in the world, the Hollywood influence is apparent. In the past five years, every movie that made the top-20 box office for the year was backed by an American company or its partners (1). The Hollywood studios have a near monopoly in the United States, and their influence around the world is very strong as well. With blockbuster movies, the American box office may be the tip of the iceberg. Hollywood films now make over 60 percent of their money outside the US (2), and demand for Hollywood films is insatiable around the world. For instance, protests ensued when China tried to remove the Hollywood film Avatar from theaters. Around the world, Hollywood films pull in 63 percent of all box office revenue (3).

1 - http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/04/business/media/hollywood-works-to-maintain-its-world-dominance.html?_r=0

2 - http://foreignpolicy.com/2012/02/24/how-hollywood-conquered-the-world-all-over-again/

3 - http://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2013/apr/02/hollywood-hold-global-box-office

The Nashville, TN Radio Market

I live in White House, TN, a small town around 20 miles north of Nashville, TN. While White House is not large enough to have a major radio station, our nearby major city of Nashville ensures that a large number of stations come in loud and clear to our radios.

This website provides a comprehensive profile of ratings of Nashville stations:

http://ratings.radio-online.com/cgi-bin/rol.exe/arb073

Analyzing the list, several trends emerge. While over a dozen different companies own at least one radio station, the top 10 radio stations (which control around 65 percent of the market) are all owned by one of three companies: Midwest Communications, iHeartMedia, and Cumulus Media. In addition to the top 10, iHeartMedia and Cumulus Media each own one station outside the top 10. This means that these three companies, between them, control around 70 percent of the market. Pick ten random people listening to radio in the Nashville area, and seven are on a Midwest Communications, iHeartMedia, or Cumulus Media station. 

You can find a fairly diverse range on Nashville radio. The most popular songs are there, but you can also get talk radio, classical, gospel, news, and public radio. Not surprisingly, a few genres control most of the market. 3 of the top 10 stations are country music, not surprising given Nashville's status as a country music center. 2, including the number-one rated Mix 92.9, play adult contemporary music. One each play hip-hop/R&B, sports, classic rock, oldies, and contemporary hits. 

The diversity of broadcast radio is trounced by that of satellite radio, and I can tell you this from personal experience. Satellite radio is easily accessible; many cars come with it, and aftermarket receivers are easily available. I have found stations dedicated to music from just one decade (every decade from 1950s-2000s), stations dedicated to comedy, news from a specific view point, and even stations dedicated to music from just one artist. The downside is that it costs a monthly fee.

The Tennessean in 2015

I live in White House, TN, and we are served by the Tennessean, a newspaper produced by Gannett and published out of Nashville, TN. The Tennessean serves the Middle Tennessee area and has a circulation of about 101,000 during the week and 228,000 on Sunday as of March 2013. The circulation has declined over the past few years; in November 2005, circulation was approximately 178,000 on weekdays and 251,000 on Sunday. The decline is due to the general decline in newspapers.
The Tennessean's target audience tends to be more affluent and educated than average. 53 percent of readers have an annual income of over $50,000, and 78 percent own their own home. College graduates are 13 percent more likely to read the Tennessean than the general population.
The Tennessean launched its online presence in September 1998, a year after its now closed competitor, the Nashville Banner. The online Tennessean does well, but overall, the publication is declining. It is likely not going anywhere soon, though.

Books, Movies, and their Influences on One Another

Here are the top 20 grossing movies of 2015 (as of mid August)

1. Jurassic World - series is book-based

2. Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron - comic-based

3. Furious 7

4. Inside Out 

5.Minions 

6. Cinderella - fairytale-based

7. Pitch Perfect 2 - original movie adapted from a book

8. Home

9. Fifty Shades of Grey - book-based

10. The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water

11. San Andreas

12. Mad Max: Fury Road - comic book based on movie

13. Ant-Man - comic-based

14. Insurgent - book-based

15. Spy

16. Tomorrowland

17. Get Hard

18. Terminator Genisys

19. Trainwreck

20. Ted 2

Source: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls073655785/

The movie industry is a hit-driven business, so filmmakers are constantly looking for new ideas that they think will make the next blockbuster film. What works well under one form of media frequently translates well into another, so it's no surprise that popular books often make popular movies. 

That's the case with many of this year's popular movies. Jurassic World, for instance, is this year's highest grossing movie so far and is the fastest movie ever to break $1 billion box office, achieving this feat in only 13 days. Jurassic World is the fourth movie of the Jurassic Park series. This series began as the novel Jurassic Park, written by Michael Crichton and published in 1990. The movie adaptation was released three years later, beginning the series. Although the third and fourth Jurassic Park series movies are not directly based on a novel, they draw heavily from the novels and continue the movie series that began as a novel adaptation. 

Two movies, Fifty Shades of Gray and Insurgent, were directly based on books. Pitch Perfect 2 is the sequel to Pitch Perfect, a movie which was loosely based on a book. Two more movies owe their base to comic books, and one to a fairytale. In total, 7 of 20 movies - 35 percent - owe some of their pedigree to printed media. One additional movie inspired a comic book. 

Most book based movies that are made by major studios were already popular; for instance, Fifty Shades of Gray has been a best-seller, while Insurgent has also enjoyed strong sales. But the movie does help the book along greatly in many cases. The Jurassic Park novel enjoyed increased fame and sales following the release of the 1993 movie.

A movie adaptation can greatly increase awareness and sales of a book, but typically the studios stick to the tried-and-true. While it seems that movies are more popular than books, they don't "overshadow" them, as evidenced by the great number of popular novels today, most of which never see a movie adaptation.