Is there pay discrimination against female movie stars? Helaine Olen at Reuters thinks so. She writes: Why should we begrudge [Robert] Downey a $50 million payday for The Avengers? The film brought in $1.5 billion globally. Downey’s take was a mere 3 percent of the haul. However ... Hunger Games producers first signed [Jennifer] Lawrence to a deal in 2011. She was still a relative unknown, albeit one with an Oscar nomination on her credits. So they could sign her to play the lead, Katniss Everdeen, for less than $1 million — a relative … [Read more...]

Legislation is proposed to bring droit de suite - a rule in which some artists receive a share of proceeds from some resales of their art - to the United States. The New York Times reports here, and blog neighbour Lee Rosenbaum analyses the proposal here. I will just deal with one point. Patricia Cohen in the Times writes: Artists have long complained that unlike composers, filmmakers or writers, they do not receive a share of future sales. But that is a very partial view. All artists in all genres can receive one or both of two kinds of … [Read more...]

It never ends: production companies asking for, and getting, tax credits for local production when the economic case is cloudy, to say the least. The Washington Post reports: A few weeks before Season 2 of “House of Cards” debuted online, the show’s production company sent Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley a letter with this warning: Give us millions more dollars in tax credits, or we will “break down our stage, sets and offices and set up in another state.” ... Both seasons of “House of Cards” were filmed in Maryland, mostly in Baltimore and … [Read more...]

The Guardian reports on Swedish tax incentives: The glittering hotpants, sequined jumpsuits and platform heels that Abba wore at the peak of their fame were designed not just for the four band members to stand out – but also for tax efficiency, according to claims over the weekend. Reflecting on the group's sartorial record in a new book, Björn Ulvaeus said: "In my honest opinion we looked like nuts in those years. Nobody can have been as badly dressed on stage as we were." And the reason for their bold fashion choices lay not just in … [Read more...]

Were there people who thought '$4 is an awful lot for a pops concert, I think I'll just go for a $2 seat'? Via Matt Yglesias. … [Read more...]

My last post criticizing a recent study on the distribution of the benefits of NEA funding generated a lot of commentary. I thank everyone for contributing, and will try to respond to at least some of the points raised. First, I was not staking any claim on whether public funding of the arts is a good thing. As it turns out, I do think it is a good thing - I'll post my thoughts on this later - but all I was doing in the initial post was saying that the recent study out of SMU on arts funding was flawed. That the study was trying to say … [Read more...]

Are rich voters more likely to favor candidates from the Republican Party? The richest states by per capita income are Maryland, Alaska, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. Of these five, four are pretty reliably "blue" - i.e. leaning Democrat - with Alaska being the outlier. The five poorest states by per capita income are Alabama, Kentucky, Arkansas, West Virginia, and Mississippi, all of which are "red" - typically Republican. So the rich actually tend to vote Democrat, right? Wrong. That inference is an example of what statisticians … [Read more...]

Today the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times report on statements from the Metropolitan Opera regarding recent changes in prices and box office revenues. The WSJ reports, under the headline "Met Opera Suffers Budget Shortfall From Pricing Backlash":       The Metropolitan Opera's $311 million budget fell short by $2.8 million last year, after a ticket price increase backfired and caused attendance to drop, according to a newly released financial-disclosure document. Last February, Met officials announced a … [Read more...]

It is great to be back at Artsjournal, after a fall semester of teaching a couple of courses, taking an introductory course in Mandarin, finishing up some academic papers and, most relevant to this space, completing a manuscript of a book on strategic pricing in the arts. I'll give updates as that moves along. For now, I plan on getting back to regular posting, and I welcome suggestions for any questions on pricing in the arts that might occur to you. To get started, I came across this article in the journal Psychological Science by Andrew … [Read more...]