Today's bad news comes courtesy of the International Licensing Industry Merchandisers Assn. (or LIMA for short -- we're stumped as to why it's not called ILIMA ). As you might have guessed, it tracks licensing dollars for consumer products and most of that business is made up of movies, TV, music and sports.
In its annual North American survey, LIMA found that the movie and television industry took in $2.6 billion in royalty revenue in 2009, a 4% drop from 2008, which was up only 1.1% from 2007. In other words, this is a trend as opposed an anomaly.
Sports, which includes leagues and individual players, took an even bigger hit, falling 9.2% to $740 million while music lost 6.4% in royalty revenue to $117 million.
So where was licensing revenue was up? The collegiate category, which grew 3.5% to $208 million. Go Bobcats! (I went to NYU).
Here's the stats:
Estimated Licensing Revenue (in millions of dollars)
2008 2007 Change
Art $154 $175 (12.0%)
Characters (Entertainment/TV/Movie) $2,605 $2,710 (3.9%)
Collegiate $208 $201 3.5%
Fashion $775 $810 (4.3%)
Music $117 $125 (6.4%)
Non-Profit (Museums, etc.) $39 $43 (9.3%)
Sports (Leagues, Individuals) $740 $815 (9.2%)
Trademarks/Brands $975 $1,160 (8.0%)
Publishing $37 $41 (9.8%)
Other $6 $9 (33.0%)
Total $5,656 $5,989 (5.6%)
For the full report, click here.
-- Joe Flint
'Burn Notice' provides pure pleasure; 'Royal Pains,' not so much
Casting can do a lot for a show. In the case of the extremely enjoyable "Burn Notice" (9 p.m. Eastern Thursday, USA; three and a half stars), great casting took a good premise and kicked it up to another level.
Casting isn't the only guarantee of success, but thanks to an ensemble that clicks beautifully and increasingly strong writing, by its second season, “Burn Notice†had become unmissable. The wait for Season 3 has only been a few months, but it seemed endless. (There's a clip from the new season here.)
Michael Westen (Jeffrey Donovan) is a former international spy who was unexpectedly “burned,†or blacklisted, by his former employers. He ended up in Miami doing odd jobs, which usually consist of helping ordinary folks out of jams that threaten their bank accounts or their lives.
Donovan brings an edge of danger to Michael, who is methodical and inventive (he’s the MacGyver of improvised spy devices), but also scarily relentless. At the end of the previous season, Michael finally found the mysterious cabal that burned him and got those people to back off, but he’s still obsessed with restoring his good name and going back to work for the intelligence agencies.
“Burn Notice†is among television’s greatest escapes, but there’s real dramatic weight to this show. Partly because of Donovan’s focused performance, there's a compelling subtext to Michael: You do not want to cross this man. And he won’t stop until he gets what he wants.
One thing “Burn Notice†excelled at in the previous season was showing us slivers of Michael’s emotions, which, at some cost to himself and those around him, he keeps carefully hidden. When Michael reveals the depths of his feelings for his improvised family, which consists of his on-again, off-again girlfriend, weapons expert Fiona Glenanne (Gabrielle Anwar), and former espionage buddy Sam Axe (the wonderful Bruce Campbell), the display is as impressive as any explosion Fiona has ever rigged up.
The new season of “Burn Notice†gives Michael a fresh problem to solve: Now that the group that burned him has backed off, his not-quite-legal activities are on the radar screens of local cops. It’s too soon to tell whether Moon Bloodgood, who has a recurring role as a Miami cop investigating Michael, will be an essential addition to the show. Last season, Tricia Helfer played Carla, a somewhat similar character -- a woman determined to tame Michael -- and though Helfer was fine in the role, the character ended up feeling a bit underused.
Still, the emotional impact of the Season 2 finale was powerful. As Victor, the well-cast Michael Shanks brought both pathos and sly sarcasm to his role, and he was an excellent foil for Donovan.
Jay Karnes, a veteran of “The Shield,†is also a perfect fit for “Burn Notice,†and his Season 2 character, a sardonic arms dealer named Brennen, returns in the strongest episode of the three that were sent for review.
On paper, the new series “Royal Pains†(10 p.m. Eastern Thursday, USA; two stars) should be every bit as enjoyable as “Burn Notice," but “Royal Pains,†which isn't nearly as quietly inventive as the Michael Westen chronicles, didn’t get the casting right. Though the show apes “Burn Notice’s†beachside vibe, the new program is too predictable to make much of an impression.
“Royal Pains†is essentially “‘Burn Notice’ Goes to the Hamptons.†The pilot finds an energetic doctor, Hank Lawson (Mark Feuerstein), denied the right to practice his profession. In a funk, he travels to the summer playground of the rich, where he gets drawn into their world of extreme privilege.
Feuerstein, while likable, doesn’t give any subtext to his blandly written character. The only person I wanted to see again was Boris, a mega-rich German played by Campbell Scott.
Boris has all the charisma that the “Royal†physician lacks. Come to think of it, it'd be nice if Boris visited Miami on his next vacation.
Photos: Jeffrey Donovan and Gabrielle Anwar as Michael Westen and Fiona Glennane; Bruce Campbell as Sam Axe.
Amazon's Burn Notice StoreCirque du Soleil founder to become Canada's first space tourist
TORONTO — Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte is set to become Canada's first space tourist when he travels on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in September.
Reagan Statue Goes In Capitol — And One Goes Out
The addition of a likeness of Ronald Reagan to the Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol means a statue of another Californian had to be removed — a once-famous orator credited with helping to keep the state in the Union during the Civil War.
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