About the Book:

HARD TO FIND BOOK, only a very limited number of copies are still available.

A genuine behind-the-scenes look into the Hollywood by the ultimate insider.

Tinseltown is an edgy place where risk-taking is a way of life – and the risks now run into the hundreds of millions of dollars. The Gross is an all-access pass to the movers, shakers, and fakers who make Hollywood run. Industry insider Peter Bart knows the movie business inside and out. He interviews all the key players, including studio executives, producers, directors, and stars, to show how creativity and commerce hang in a dangerous balance in the new Hollywood. Summertime, when the studios unfurl their most expensive and effects-laden "tent-pole pictures," has become the only season in which Hollywood makes money.

For anyone interested in the inner workings of the movie business, Peter Bart delivers a behind-the-scenes look at the surprise hits and flops, the ego battles between stars and producers, the marketing strategies that succeeded and failed and the zany insanity of the 1998 summer movie season. The Gross is a week-by-week account detailing many of the intriguing events surrounding the making and release of such summer films as Saving Private Ryan, Deep Impact, The Mask of Zorro, Armageddon, Godzilla, The Horse Whisperer, Bulworth, and There's Something About Mary. Why did Godzilla, the most heavily hyped movie of that summer, fail? How did Spielberg triumph with Saving Private Ryan? Peter Bart is a master-class player of the box-office guessing game. He shows why the summer season of 1998 provides an ideal microcosm for scrutinizing the mega-budget-driven revolution that has forever changed the movie business. It is essential reading if you want to handicap this coming summer's releases.

What people say:

"The Gross is an intelligent and informed tale of a business based more on gambling than foresight." — Chicago Tribune

"Peter Bart's The Gross offers shrewd analyses of an industry on the verge of nervous collapse." — New York Times Book Review

"Bart brings a remarkably plugged-in perspective to the movie community's annual demolition derby." — Entertainment Weekly

"Bart's columns are very smart, very well written and very quotable." — New York Magazine

"Bart offers a savvy, gossipy, nuts-and-bolts look at the corporate machinations behind the summer films ... Bart has that rare bird's-eye view of the business that allows him to discern ... the economic forces shaping American cinema." — Publishers Weekly

"Bart's insider status ensures that we get the lowdown ... [This book] has a far more compelling story line than any of the summer films he dissects, and the characters are far better developed." — Detroit Free Press

About the Author:

Peter Bart is an American journalist and film producer. He moved to the trade journal Deadline as Editor-at-Large in 2016 from his longtime home at Variety, where he had been a fixture since 1989 as that trade's Editor-In Chief. He began his career as a staff reporter for The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times before his entry into the movie business, becoming Vice President for Production at Paramount. At that studio, he played a key role in such films as The Godfather, Rosemary's Baby and Harold & Maude. He later served as Senior Vice President for Production at MGM and, later, as President of Lorimar films. He is the author of several books on the movie industry, including The Gross, and two novels. His columns in Deadline are widely respected, if not feared, in the industry.