UCLA to host film distribution, prediction and financing workshop

The UCLA Entertainment & Media Management Institute (EMMI) at UCLA Anderson School of Management today announced that it will host the annual Bruce Mallen Business and Economics Scholars Workshop November 7-8, 2008 in Los Angeles, California. The Workshop will bring together top academic scholars and industry professionals to discuss research focused on measuring, predicting and/or impacting performance in film financing, production, marketing, distribution and exhibition.

Now in its eighth year, the Bruce Mallen Workshop provides attending researchers with critical peer and industry feedback prior to completion and publication. Past research has been published in a wide range of technical, business and academic journals including Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, and Journal of Business Research.

Research topics to be discussed this year include:

  • Prizefighting and the Birth of Movie Censorship (Baraky Y. Orbach, University of Arizona)
  • Knowledge Integration in Bollywood (Jamal Shamsie, Michigan State University)
  • Providing Hollywood Access to the World’s Capital Markets (Arthur De Vany, Extremal Security Partners)
  • MGM and Tom Cruise (Anita Elberse, Harvard University)
  • Union Activism in 21st Century Hollywood (Alan Paul, Giant Angstrom Partners)
  • Dilution & Enhancement of Celebrity Brands through Sequential Movie Releases (Lan Luo, University of Southern California)
  • Leveraging Entertainment Brands (Sanjay Sood, UCLA Anderson School of Management)
  • Advertising Content and Film Revenues (S. Abraham Ravid, University of Pennsylvania)
  • Product Differentiation and Film Programming Choices (Darlene C. Chisholm, Suffolk University)

Previously presented papers by scholars in the field have explored the profitability of films with sexual and violent content versus family-oriented films, and how big box-office openings may not be correlated to large box-office gross revenues. Industry attendees at workshops have included Gary Concoff, of Troy and Gould Law offices in L.A.; Frank Davis, former Sr. Executive V.P. MGM; Peter J. Dekom, Weissman, Wolf, et. al.; Hamid Hashemi, CEO Muvico Theaters; Arthur Hiller, director; William Immerman, CAO and General Council, Yari Film Group; Thom Mount, founder of the Mount Company and former President of Universal Pictures; Barry Reardon former head of Domestic Distribution at Warner Bros.; Daniel Selznick, producer.

RSVP to UCLA Entertainment & Media Management Institute at 310-825-6870.

The Workshop will commence on Friday, November 7 in conjunction with the participants attending at the Finance Conference of the American Film Market. It will continue later in the evening with a cocktail reception at the Fowler Museum on the UCLA Campus (7:30pm). On Saturday, November 8, the Workshop presentations will begin at 8:30am and continue the afternoon, with an industry luncheon at noon. The Workshop will conclude in the evening with a dinner and award ceremony, presenting The Carol & Bruce Mallen Lifetime Achievement Award for scholarly contributions to motion picture industry studies and the UCLA Entertainment & Media Management Institute Award for outstanding business leader in the motion picture industry.