Product Description

The entertainment industry is one of the largest sectors of the United States economy and fast becoming one of the most prominent globally. In this fully revised book, Harold L. Vogel examines the business economics of the major entertainment enterprises: movies, television, and cable programming, music, broadcasting, casino wagering and gambling, sports, publishing, performing arts, theme parks, and toys. He has also added a new section pertaining to recent theoretical work explaining box office performance. He offers new material that links the concept of cultural capital to the organizational aspects shared by all creative industries, expands the coverage of deal elements in the music industry, and provides additions to the sports economics chapter. The result is a comprehensive, up-to-date reference guide on the economics, financing, production, and marketing of entertainment in the U.S. and overseas. Investors, business executives, accountants, lawyers, arts administrators, and general readers will find that the book offers an invaluable guide to how entertainment industries operate. Harold L. Vogel has been selected as a top leisure industry analyst nine times by Industrial Investor. He is a member of the New York State Governor's Advisory Board for Motion Pictures and Television. Vogel was a senior analyst with Merrill Lynch for seventeen years and is an adjunct professor at the Graduate School of Business at Columbia University. He is also the author of Travel Industry Economics (Cambridge, 2000). Previous Edition Hb (2001): 0-521-79264-9

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #149327 in Books
• Published on: 2004-06-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 634 pages

Review
"Designed to be accessible to general readers, but may be used as a text for graduate or undergraduate students or as a reference for professionals." Journal of Economic Literature

Review
'From the death of vinyl to the rise of cable, Vogel has ferried investors through some major show business crises.' Matthew Benz, Billboard

About the Author
Harold L. Vogel is the author of Travel Industry Economics: A Guide for Financial Analysis (Cambridge University Press, 2001), a companion volume to this textbook. He was senior entertainment industry analyst at Merrill Lynch & Co. for 17 years and was ranked as top entertainment industry analyst for a record 10 years by Institutional Investor magazine. A chartered financial analyst, he formerly served on the New York State Governor's Motion Picture and Television Advisory Board and as adjunct professor of media economics at Columbia University's Graduate School of Business. Mr Vogel frequently writes and speaks on investment topics related to entertainment and media, leisure, and travel and currently heads an independent investment firm in New York City.

Customer Reviews

Great overview of the business of entertainment
This book is certainly the best economic text I've ever read. It covers all aspects of the entertainment business, including film, television, cable TV, music, gaming, and Broadway. People currently in the entertainment biz can add to their knowledge, while novices and those with a general background in economics will have a fantastic primer from Vogel.

Lays it all out
I had always wondered how claims of unprofitable multimillion dollar-grossing films could be substantiated; now I know. The author provides a very good presentation of the details of entertainment financing. I particularly liked its up-to-date financial information on specific films; as well as the explanation of the power balance among studios, producers and distributors. All of this, while providing a historical backdrop explaining how things got to this point made for compelling reading.

It may be a bit dry, but that's what you want from a text like this. Better that than to err on the side of being too insider-focussed, name-droppy, or "lite." This book explains how the money flows and that riveting enough for me.

Best used as a reference
This book is the most complete available dealing with the various industries that make up "entertainment " in our society. It has many nice figures and tables that can be used to illustrate a point if you're a student doing a report, or a teacher covering this area in a lecture. But, it is a very dry read otherwise. It works best for me as a reference text to be used in companion to other texts on the various subjects. It'll have to be updated anually to be a valid reference in this age of the internet... it could use a website to go along with it maybe? Good book to keep on the shelf and refer to when you need a stat.