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46-548: Since 1997, the OFCS has given out annual awards that recognize the best films in about seventeen categories. These awards are noted in the established print media such as Variety and The Hollywood Reporter , and are included in their annual speculation about the ultimate winners of the Academy Awards . Critics whose primary media affiliation is a print publication, or radio or television, are excluded; this criterion distinguishes

92-422: A jargon called slanguage or Varietyese (a form of headlinese ) that refers especially to the movie industry, and has largely been adopted and imitated by other writers in the industry. The language initially reflected that spoken by the actors during the early days of the newspaper. Such terms as "boffo", "payola", and "striptease" are attributed to the magazine. In 1934, founder Sime Silverman headed

138-740: A 31-story office building on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile area. The building was dubbed the Variety Building because a red, illuminated " Variety " sign graced the top of it. In 2013, PMC, the parent company of Variety , announced plans to move Variety's offices to their new corporate headquarters at 11175 Santa Monica Blvd. in Westwood. There, Variety shares the 9-story building with parent company PMC, Variety Intelligence Platform, and PMC's other media brands, including Deadline.com , Rolling Stone , Vibe , Billboard , Robb Report and

184-547: A credits database, production charts and film calendar. Variety has been published since December 16, 1905, when it was launched by Sime Silverman as a weekly periodical covering theater and vaudeville , with its headquarters in New York City . Silverman had been fired by The Morning Telegraph in 1905 for panning an act which had taken out an advert for $ 50. He subsequently decided to start his own publication that, he said, would "not be influenced by advertising." With

230-496: A dispute with William Donaldson, the owner of Billboard . Silverman folded it two years later after spending $ 100,000, merging some of its features into Variety . The same year, he launched the Times Square Daily , which he referred to as "the world's worst daily" and soon scrapped. During that period, Variety staffers worked on all three papers. After the launch of The Hollywood Reporter in 1930, Silverman launched

276-407: A film producer, believed to be George Kleine , that they were wasting space criticizing moving pictures and others had suggested that favorable reviews brought too strong a demand for certain pictures to the exclusion of others. Despite the gap, Variety is still the longest unbroken source of film criticism in existence. In 1930 Variety also started publishing a summary of miniature reviews for

322-555: A list in Time magazine of the "ten modern Americans who have done most to keep American jargon alive". According to The Boston Globe , the Oxford English Dictionary cites Variety as the earliest source for about two dozen terms, including "show biz" (1945). In 2005, Welcome Books published The Hollywood Dictionary by Timothy M. Gray and J. C. Suares, which defines nearly 200 of these terms. One of its popular headlines

368-499: A loan of $ 1,500 from his father-in-law, he launched Variety as publisher and editor. In addition to The Morning Telegraph , other major competitors at the time of the company's launch were The New York Clipper and the New York Dramatic Mirror . The original logo, which is very similar to the current design, was sketched by Edgar M. Miller, a scenic painter, who refused payment. The front cover contained pictures of

414-751: The 1906 San Francisco earthquake , through Arab Spring in 2012, and argues that the entertainment industry needs to stay aware of changes in politics and tastes since those changes will affect their audiences. In a foreword to the book, Martin Scorsese calls Variety "the single most formidable trade publication ever" and says that the book's content "makes you feel not only like a witness to history, but part of it too." In 2013, Variety staffers tallied more than 200 uses of weekly or Daily Variety in TV shows and films, ranging from I Love Lucy to Entourage . In 2016, Variety endorsed Hillary Clinton for President of

460-438: The 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike has been considered Variety 's largest competitor in online showbiz news. In October 2012, Jay Penske , chairman and CEO of PMC, announced that the website's paywall would come down, the print publication would stay, and he would invest more into Variety ' s digital platform in a townhall . In March 2013, owner Penske appointed three co-editors to oversee different parts of

506-628: The Daily in Hollywood. Bart had worked previously at Paramount Pictures and The New York Times . Syd remained as publisher until 1990 when he was succeeded on Weekly Variety by Gerard A. Byrne and on Daily Variety by Sime Silverman's great-grandson, Michael Silverman. Syd became chairman of both publications. In April 2009, Bart moved to the position of "vice president and editorial director", characterized online as "Boffo No More: Bart Up and Out at Variety ". From mid-2009 to 2013, Timothy M. Gray oversaw

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552-612: The Variety Movie Guide containing a collection of 5,000 abridged reviews edited by Derek Elley . The last edition was published in 2001 with 8,500 reviews. Many of the abridged reviews for films prior to 1998 are published on Variety.com unless they have later posted the original review. The complete text of approximately 100,000 entertainment-related obituaries (1905–1986) was reprinted as Variety Obituaries , an 11-volume set, including alphabetical index. Four additional bi-annual reprints were published (for 1987–1994) before

598-512: The Weekly on U.S. and international coverage. Silverman passed on the editorship of the Weekly Variety to Abel Green as his replacement in 1933. He remained as publisher until his death later that year, soon after launching Daily Variety . Silverman's son Sidne succeeded him as publisher of both publications but upon contracting tuberculosis in 1936 he could no longer take a day-to-day role at

644-494: The 1935 headline " Sticks Nix Hick Pix "; in his obituary, Time said that if Variety was the Bible of show business, then Green "was its King James ". In 1951, Green collaborated with Joe Laurie Jr. on Show Biz: From Vaude to Video , a history of show business. He also edited The Spice of Variety in 1952, a compilation of Variety articles. Green co-wrote the 1933 film Mr. Broadway with Ed Sullivan . He appeared in

690-412: The 1970s started to contain republication of the film reviews published during the year. Older back issues of Variety are available on microfilm . In 2010, Variety.com allowed access to digitized versions of all issues of Variety and Daily Variety with a subscription. Certain articles and reviews prior to 1998 have been republished on Variety.com . The Media History Digital Library has scans of

736-562: The Hollywood-based Daily Variety in 1933 with Arthur Ungar as the editor. It replaced the Variety Bulletin issued in Hollywood on Fridays as a four-page wraparound to the Weekly . Daily Variety was initially published every day other than Sunday but mostly on Monday to Friday. The Daily and the Weekly were initially run as virtually independent newspapers, with the Daily concentrating mostly on Hollywood news and

782-881: The OFCS from associations, such as the Hollywood Foreign Press Association , which is responsible for the annual, widely televised Golden Globe Awards . Applicants for membership in the OFCS must have published at least 100 film reviews over at least two years, and are subject to a peer review process to establish the quality of their work. Of hundreds of applications that are received, only a "tiny number" are accepted. As of January 2020, there were 284 members worldwide. Its membership includes writers for such film-related websites as Apollo Movie Guide , DVDTalk , eFilmCritic.com , The Moving Arts Film Journal , FilmCritic.com (now defunct), FilmFocus , Film Threat , The Internet Movie Database , and Slant Magazine . (years are of film release; ceremonies are

828-787: The United States , marking the first time the publication endorsed a candidate for elected office in its 111-year history. Variety 's first offices were in the Knickerbocker Theatre located at 1396 Broadway on 38th and Broadway in New York. Later it moved to 1536 Broadway at the 45th and Broadway corner until Loew's acquired the site to build the Loew's State Theatre . In 1909, Variety set up its first overseas office in London. In 1920, Sime Silverman purchased an old brownstone building around

874-502: The West Coast offices of WWD and Footwear News . On January 19, 1907, Variety published what is considered the first film review in history. Two reviews written by Sime Silverman were published: Pathe 's comedy short An Exciting Honeymoon and Edison Studios ' western short The Life of a Cowboy directed by Edwin S. Porter . Variety discontinued reviews of films between March 1911 until January 1913 as they were convinced by

920-449: The archive of Variety from 1905 to 1963 available online. The first issue of Variety sold 320 copies in 1905. Paid circulation for the weekly Variety magazine in 2023 was 85,300. Each copy of each Variety issue is read by an average of three people, with an estimated total readership of 255,900. Variety.com has 32 million unique monthly visitors. For much of its existence, Variety 's writers and columnists have used

966-468: The beginning of January, normally with a review of the year and other charts and data, including, from 1938 onwards, lists of the top performing films of the year and, from 1949, the annually updated all-time rental chart. The editions also contained many advertisements from show business personalities and companies. The 100th anniversary edition was published in October 2005 listing Variety 's icons of

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1012-422: The century. Along with the large anniversary editions, Variety also published special editions containing lots of additional information, charts and data (and advertising) for three film festivals: Cannes Film Festival , MIFED Film Market, and American Film Market Daily Variety also published an anniversary issue each October. This regularly contained a day-by-day review of the year in show business and in

1058-502: The company as publisher of both the Weekly Variety in New York and the Daily Variety in Hollywood. Thomas M. Pryor, former Hollywood bureau chief of The New York Times , became editor of Daily Variety in 1959. Under Pryor, Daily Variety expanded from 8 pages to 32 pages and also saw circulation increase from 8,000 to 22,000. Green remained editor of Variety until he died in 1973, with Syd taking over. In 1987, Variety

1104-489: The corner at 154 West 46th Street in New York, which became the Variety headquarters until 1987, when the publication was purchased. Under the new management of Cahners Publishing, the New York headquarters of the Weekly Variety was relocated to the corner of 32nd Street and Park Avenue South. Five years later, it was downgraded to a section of one floor in a building housing other Cahner's publications on West 18th Street, until

1150-504: The direction of self-proclaimed "Real Estalker" Mark David, which later expanded to its own stand-alone site in 2019. October 2014 Eller and Wallenstein were upped to Co-Editors in Chief, with Littleton continuing to oversee the trade's television coverage. In June 2014, Penske Media Corporation entered into an agreement with Reuters to syndicate news from Variety and Variety Latino-Powered by Univision to distribute leading entertainment news to

1196-515: The films reviewed that week and in 1951 the editors decided to position the capsules on top of the reviews, a tradition retained today. Writing reviews was a side job for Variety staff, most of whom were hired to be reporters and not film or theatre critics. Many of the publication's reviewers identified their work with four-letter pen names ("sigs") rather than with their full names. The practice stopped in August 1991. Those abbreviated names include

1242-557: The following year) Variety (magazine) Variety is an American trade magazine owned by Penske Media Corporation . It was founded by Sime Silverman in New York City in 1905 as a weekly newspaper reporting on theater and vaudeville . In 1933, Daily Variety was launched, based in Los Angeles, to cover the motion-picture industry . Variety 's website features entertainment news, reviews, box office results, plus

1288-508: The following: Variety is one of the three English-language periodicals with 10,000 or more film reviews reprinted in book form. These are contained in the 24-volume Variety Film Reviews (1907–1996). Film reviews continue to be published in Variety . The other two periodicals are The New York Times (as The New York Times Film Reviews (1913–2000) in 22 volumes) and Harrison's Reports (as Harrison's Reports and Film Reviews (1919–1962) in 15 volumes). In 1992, Variety published

1334-399: The front. The old front-page box advertisement was replaced by a strip advertisement, along with the first photos published in Variety since Sime gave up using them in the old format in 1920: they depicted Sime, Abel, and Syd. For 20 years from 1989, Variety ' s editor-in-chief was Peter Bart , originally only of the weekly New York edition, with Michael Silverman (Syd's son) running

1380-639: The international news agency's global readership. This dissemination comes in the form of columns, news stories, images, video, and data-focused products. In July 2015, Variety was awarded a Los Angeles Area Emmy Award by the Television Academy in the Best Entertainment Program category for Variety Studio: Actors on Actors , a series of one-hour specials that take viewers inside Hollywood films and television programs through conversations with acclaimed actors. A second Los Angeles Area Emmy Award

1426-407: The key cities in the U.S. in the future and initially also reported results for ten other cities including Chicago and Los Angeles. They continued to report these grosses for films until 1989 when they put the data into a summarized weekly chart and only published the data by theatre for New York and Los Angeles as well as other international cities such as London and Paris. As media expanded over

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1472-613: The majority of operations were moved to Los Angeles . When Daily Variety started in 1933, its offices were in various buildings near Hollywood Blvd. and Sunset Blvd. In 1972, Syd Silverman purchased a building at 1400 North Cahuenga Blvd. which housed the Daily's offices until 1988, after which its new corporate owners and new publisher, Arthur Anderman, moved them to a building on the Miracle Mile on Wilshire Boulevard . In late 2008, Variety moved its Los Angeles offices to 5900 Wilshire ,

1518-520: The original editorial staff: Alfred Greason, Epes W. Sargeant (Chicot or Chic), Joshua Lowe, and Silverman. The first issue contained a review by Silverman's son Sidne , also known as Skigie (based on the childish lisping of his name) who was claimed to be the youngest critic in the world at seven years old. In 1922, Silverman acquired The New York Clipper which had been reporting on the stage and other entertainment since 1853, in an attempt to attract advertising revenue away from Billboard , following

1564-422: The paper. Green, the editor, and Harold Erichs, the treasurer and chief financial officer, ran the paper during his illness. Following Sidne's death in 1950, his only son Syd Silverman , was the sole heir to what was then Variety Inc. Young Syd's legal guardian Erichs, who had started at Variety as an office boy, assumed the presidency. Ungar remained editor of Daily Variety until his death in 1950. He

1610-455: The publication as Editor-in-Chief, after over 30 years of various reporter and editor positions in the newsroom. In October 2012, Reed Business Information , the periodical's owner, (formerly known as Reed-Elsevier, which had been parent to Cahner's Corp. in the United States) sold the publication to Penske Media Corporation (PMC). PMC is the owner of Deadline Hollywood , which since

1656-409: The publication's industry coverage; Claudia Eller as Editor, Film; Cynthia Littleton as Editor, TV; and Andrew Wallenstein as Editor, Digital. The decision was also made to stop printing Daily Variety with the last printed edition published on March 19, 2013, with the headline "Variety Ankles Daily Pub Hubbub". In June 2014, Variety launched a high-end real-estate breaking news site, Dirt , under

1702-535: The reprint series was discontinued. The annual anniversary edition published in January would often contain a necrology of the entertainment people who had died that year. Variety started reporting box office grosses for films by theatre on March 3, 1922, to give exhibitors around the country information on a film's performance on Broadway, which was often where first run showings of a film were held. In addition to New York City, they also endeavored to include all of

1748-489: The studios' attempt to reach other Hollywood professionals who will be voting on the many awards given out in the early part of the year, including the Academy Awards , the Golden Globes and various guild award honors. On December 15, 1906, Variety published its first anniversary number that contained 64 pages, double the size of a regular edition. It published regular bumper anniversary editions each year, most often at

1794-461: The week's hits and flops based on the box office results of 25 key U.S. cities. Later that year, a list of All-Time Top Grossers with a list of films that had achieved or gave promise of earning $ 4,000,000 or more in domestic (United States and Canada) rentals was published. An updated chart was published annually for over 50 years, normally in the anniversary edition each January. Abel Green Abel Green (June 3, 1900 – May 10, 1973)

1840-416: The years, charts and data for other media such as TV ratings and music charts were published, especially in the anniversary editions that were regularly published each January. During the 1930s, charts of the top performing films of the year were published and this tradition has been maintained annually since. In 1946, a weekly National Box Office survey was published on page 3 indicating the performance of

1886-403: Was an American journalist best known as the editor of Variety for forty years. Sime Silverman first hired Green as a reporter in 1918, and Green's byline first appeared on May 30, 1919. Green was born in New York, the son of Seymour A. Green and Berta Raines. He attended Stuyvesant High School , but dropped out of New York University . The first time his signature appeared in Variety

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1932-418: Was awarded in 2016. In June 2019, Variety shut down its Gaming section. A significant portion of the publication's advertising revenue comes during the film-award season leading up to the Academy Awards . During this "Awards Season", large numbers of colorful, full-page " For Your Consideration " advertisements inflate the size of Variety to double or triple its usual page count. These advertisements are

1978-757: Was during the Wall Street Crash of 1929 : " Wall St. Lays An Egg ". The most famous was " Sticks Nix Hick Pix " (the movie-prop version renders it as "Stix nix hix pix!" in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), Michael Curtiz 's musical – biographical film about George M. Cohan starring James Cagney ). In 2012, Rizzoli Books published Variety: An Illustrated History of the World from the Most Important Magazine in Hollywood by Gray. The book covers Variety ' s coverage of hundreds of world events, from

2024-496: Was followed by Joe Schoenfeld. In 1953, Army Archerd took over the "Just for Variety" column on page two of Daily Variety and swiftly became popular in Hollywood. Archerd broke countless exclusive stories, reporting from film sets, announcing pending deals, and giving news of star-related hospitalizations, marriages, and births. The column appeared daily for 52 years until September 1, 2005. Erichs continued to oversee Variety until 1956. After that date, Syd Silverman managed

2070-508: Was in the May 30, 1919, issue, when he reviewed the film Playthings of Passion , signing it "Abel". By 1925 he penned a column in the music section headed "Abel's Comment". Later, in 1928 he wrote a weekly column in Variety called "Around New York" and one called "Radio Rambles". After Silverman died in 1933, Green took over as editor of Variety . Green was responsible for the creation of much of Variety 's characteristic jargon, including

2116-455: Was sold to Cahners Publishing for $ 64 million. In December 1987, Syd handed over editorship of Variety to Roger Watkins. After 29 years as editor of Daily Variety , Tom Pryor handed over to his son Pete in June 1988. On December 7, 1988, Watkins proposed and oversaw the transition to four-color print . Upon its launch, the new-look Variety measured one inch shorter with a washed-out color on

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