Deconstructing Pop Culture

Stephen J. Cannell died on September 30, 2010. Laudatory obituaries now have appeared in both the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times. What this style of Hollywood eulogy invariably misses is that the person they are lauding frequently was a jerk. Such was my experience with Cannell. Back in 2000 I financed an [...]

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In the late 1990s – early 2000s, most independent films were produced using a “structured financing”-type structure.  Various collateral items were comprised including foreign pre-sales; syndicated tax benefits; and domestic theatrical, television and video rights.  These were used as collateral for a bank loan to finance production.  Portfolios of these loans were amassed and syndicated [...]

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Here is a copy of Weintraub Entertainment Group’s Form 10-K for 1988, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. This mainly is of interest because of Jerry Weintraub’s failed attempt to resuscitate United Artists Films and United Artists Records (the latter apparently without license from Capitol-EMI, which accquired it in 1978). For further discussion, [...]

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Here are the annual reports for Transamerica Corporation for 1980 and 1981. They mainly are of interest in connection with United Artists Records and United Artists Films, owned by Transamerica at the time. Here is a post describing Capitol’s acquisition of United Artists Records in further detail. Transamerica Corp. 1980 10-K Transamerica Corp. 1981 Annual [...]

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Historical financial information about companies primarily is derived from their annual reports and Form 10-Ks filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.  As a shareholder in various entertainment firms, over time I have compiled a collection of these documents, which I have scanned and posted as downloadable files elsewhere on this site.  To my [...]

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RIAA is the trade association for the U.S. record industry. It is the counterpart to the Motion Picture Association of America (“MPAA”), which is the trade association for the U.S. film industry. One of their activities is compiling and disseminating statistics pertinent to each of their respective businesses. I have maintained a database of RIAA [...]

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Here are copies of most of MCA’s annual reports or Forms 10-K since 1966. One item of note is the 1969 annual report where management specifically identifies large write-offs on the films “Sweet Charity” and “The Loves of Isadora.” This level of detail is unusual. MCA 1966 Annual Report MCA 1967 Annual Report MCA 1968 [...]

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The actress Jennifer Jones died on December 17, 2009; her death was reported in today’s New York Times and Los Angeles Times. I remember attending several receptions at her home in Bel Air. It was a novel sensation to see multi-million dollar works of art casually displayed on a wall in a hallway where others [...]

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Lions Gate’s fourth quarter results were mediocre, as was its FY 2008 – 2009.  There are several reason for this, including developing softness in the DVD market; over-spending on marketing and promotion; its ill-advised acquisition of the TV Guide cable channel; and a distribution deal it made with the kiddie-video firm Hit Entertainment.  See Joe [...]

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Here is a selection of annual reports from CBS. I post these to support this article and as part of my on-going project to make accessible earlier reports from influential entertainment companies. The same caveats that pertain to the Warner Communications reports also apply here. CBS 1970 Annual Report CBS 1972 Annual Report CBS 1973 [...]

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