The Hollywood Economist

“One of the virtues of
The Big Picture
is Mr. Epstein’s astonishing access to numbers that the movie studios go to great lengths to keep secret. … [A] groundbreaking work that explains the inner workings of the game.”

—The Wall Street Journal

“Illuminating. … Startling. … By the time Epstein is through it’s abundantly clear that what we think of as Hollywood is, in accounting terms, a high-stakes hall of mirrors.”

—The New York Times

“Edward Jay Epstein is here to tell us that when it comes to Hollywood these days, we’ve got it all wrong. … Epstein argues, and most persuasively, that we persist in thinking about Hollywood in terms that no longer exist: the ‘dream factories’ that were the old studios—MGM, RKO, Paramount, Columbia, Fox, Universal and Warner Bros.—where movies were the only products, stars and lesser actors were bound to studios by rigid contracts, and theaters were owned by the studios that supplied them. … [Epstein] is a bulldog researcher, he’s brought a great deal of interesting material together and he has interesting things to say.”

—Jonathan Yardley
,
The Washington Post Book World

“In his adroit charting of the confidence flow between the various entities and eras Mr. Epstein kicks up lots of little surprises. … Edward Jay Epstein is quite good.”

—Larry McMurtry
,
The New York Review of Books

“Hollywood has needed one of these for a long time—a user’s manual. This one could not be more complete. … [Grade] A. Keep it in your car … and you’ll never get lost in this town again.”

—Entertainment Weekly

“I pick no nits with his thesis of a paradigm-dropping shift in the industry.”

—William Safire
,
The New York Times Magazine

“Mr. Epstein rightly describes Hollywood as a close-knit community with a stronger hold on its employees’ loyalty than any single company within it.”

—The Economist

“… [A] valuable education for those seeking to enter and understand the entertainment industry. … Factually impressive.”

—Joel Hirschhorn
,
Variety

“[The Big Picture]
fascinatingly describes the evolution of the modern marketing- and brand-driven global media giants. … For anybody who is a film buff,
The Big Picture
will be a fine adventure. But once you learn what goes on behind the scenes, you may never again look at a movie the same way.”

—BusinessWeek

“Epstein peels away the Hollywood facade and gives a nuts-and-bolts view of how the six entertainment empires—Viacom, Fox, NBC/Universal, Time Warner, Sony, and Disney—create and distribute intellectual property today. … [He] presents a fascinating look at the unbelievable efforts that must be coordinated to produce a film.”

—Booklist

“In vivid detail, he describes the current process of how a film is made, from the initial pitch to last-minute digital editing. There’s a refreshing absence of moral grandstanding in Epstein’s work. With no apparent ax to grind, he simply and comprehensively presents the industry as it is: the nuts and bolts, the perks and pitfalls and the staggering fortunes that some in the business walk away with. This is the new indispensable text for anyone interested in how Hollywood works.”

—Publishers Weekly

“[A] meticulously reported new book.”

—The Baltimore Sun

“What one learns from these investigations is that the deepest, darkest secrets in Tinseltown have nothing to do with sex, drugs, blasphemy, or politics, and everything to do with money.”

—The Weekly Standard

“Edward Jay Epstein blew the lid off Hollywood’s dirty little open secret.”

—The Washington Times

“Compelling. … [Epstein] demystifies the contemporary process of film-making in the digital age.”

—The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette