Including a 2024 preface, this book reveals the money requisites that define the movies and TV series you see. In a Freakonomics -meets-Hollywood saga, veteran investigative reporter Edward Jay Epstein goes undercover to explore Hollywood’s “invisible money machine,” probing the dazzlingly complicated finances behind the hits and flops, while he answers a surprisingly difficult question: How do the studios make their money? He further asks in this 2021 final edition, what will happen to this finely-tuned money nachine in the age of streaming? + How and why the studios harvest silver from old film prints ... + Why stars do—or don’t do—their own stunts ... + The future of Netflix + What it costs to insure Nicole Kidman’s right knee… + How Hollywood manipulates Wall Street: including the story of the acquisition of MGM… wherein a consortium of banks and hedge funds lost some $5 billion… while Hollywood made millions. + Why Arnold Schwarzenegger is considered a contract genius… + The fate of serious fare: How HBO, AMC, and Showtime have found ways to make money offer adult drama, while the Hollywood studios prefer to cater to teen audiences. Editorial Reviews Praise for The Hollywood Economist "The answer to [the] mysteries of modern-day film financing can be found in The Hollywood Economist , Edward Jay Epstein's latest foray into the seamy underbelly of Hollywood spreadsheets." — The Wall Street Journal Praise for Edward Jay Epstein's The Big Picture "A rich adventure that will change the way you look at movies." — BusinessWeek "Edward Jay Epstein is here to tell us that when it comes to Hollywood these days, we've got it all wrong." — The Washington Post Book World "One of the virtues of The Big Picture is Mr. Epstein's astonishing access to numbers that movie studios go to great lengths to keep secret....A groundbreaking work that explains the inner workings of the game." — The Wall Street Journal "Hollywood has needed one of these for a long time—a user's manuel. This one could not be more complete....[Grade] A." —Entertainment Weekly