Drea Knufken
Combating boredom has always been good business. Whether it’s paying $20 for a 3-D Shrek movie or being one of 11 million people to buy a copy of Halo 3, consumers always seem to have entertainment money on hand.
The US is the biggest entertainment market in the world, raking in an estimated $726 billion this year (PWC projection). The lowly TV, it turns out, still has a lot of cash-cow power. TV ads are estimated to make more than $200 million of that. Hollywood movie studios will make most of their profits from come from TV licensing. Computer and video game software, meanwhile, made $11.7 billion in 2008. The number of games sold worldwide continues to grow.
On the international stage, Asia is catching up, with a projected $425 billion entertainment market this year. China is leading the pack; some say the Chinese film industry will be bigger than the US’s by 2050. Even if we’re all watching movies on our iPads in a few years, entertainment in its many forms will continue to be one of the most lucrative markets around.
