thank you very much l william burdett-coutts. thank you william burdett—coutts.he global box office. it means greta gerwig has become the first woman to reach the milestone as a solo director. sandro monetti is the editor—in—chief of the hollywood international filmmaker magazine. well, no, because the marketing campaign was one of the best i've seen for any product in history. and, yes, a plastic doll, created back in 1959, has saved the cinema industry. because when you think about it, the familiar death knell was ringing yet again for movie theatres. it's because the summer 2023 box office had started off with a lot of disappointing films, which had performed below expectations, and then came barbie and blew everything away. it's a barbie world now, we just live in it. it is especially an event for the still largely underserved female audience, you can grab your girl squad and head down to the multiplex, or as you'll be calling it afterwards, your mojo dojo casa house. magled that up a bit! people are drawn in by the marketing campaign. and when they get there

i spoke earlier to the artistic director at assembly william burdett—coutts.ten to what he said. if you talk to any of the venues here that run any of the major venues in edinburgh it is a very thin layer of ice holding things together at the moment. the cost base with increasing costs, inflation, accommodation costs have gone absolutely mad in edinburgh. so ticket prices can't keep pace with the increased costs. it makes the whole thing fundamentally really on the knife edge at the moment. i mean, in terms of our situation, we have obviously been trying to get money out of coventry and also the department for culture, media and sport. the latter have been slightly disingenuous and they're given the £7 million grant to the fringe society implying it is coming to us but it doesn't. the fringe macro society as a central coordinating body that does ticketing and a brochure doesn't put money back into the event. that is something that has to be addressed. but the event. that is something that has to be addressed.— has to be addressed. but lots of --eole has to be