Expert Witness Network Blog

Entertainment expert witness and article author Kathryn Arnold discusses the challenges an entertainment expert witness may face and when such an expert may be needed to support attornies.  The following is an excerpt from her article "The Entertainment Industry – Points to Consider When Evaluating a Case":

Of the thousands of screenplays written every year, only 450 to 500 of these are "lucky" enough to be made into motion pictures. Of those produced, less than half are released in theatres and of those remaining, only a portion are released directly to DVD.

Those released directly to DVD and other media do not warrant the costs associated with a theatrical release and thus the producer/distributor mitigates the risk of negative cash flow. While major movie studios finance a number of these motion pictures, the range of stories they are interested in telling is limited, requiring producers to finance their movies outside the studio system and navigate the world of "independent film financing."

Whether a movie is produced by a major studio or independently, the expansion in world film revenues since 1970 has grown from $1.2 billion to over $15 billion annually.1 The MPAA further estimates that the entertainment industry generated $27.5 billion in California in 1996, compared with a U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis estimate of $13.1 billion. The entertainment industry is big business. To put it in perspective, of the core industries that drive California’s economy by exporting goods outside the state, motion pictures are the tenth largest and the fourth most rapidly growing.2 It is a high-wage sector, with average salaries 70 percent higher than salaries in other businesses statewide. A similar study conducted by Monitor Company, found that the movie and television industries contributed over $16 billion to the State of California’s economy, directly employing 164,000 and indirectly employing another 184,000 people. This allure of riches entices many into the industry, but very few succeed.

Read the full article here: "The Entertainment Industry – Points to Consider When Evaluating a Case":

Please visit Witness.net to see additional entertainment expert witness resources available in our FREE expert witness directory.