From KCRW and KCRW.com, I'm Kim Masters, and this is The Business.

You listen, if you listen and learn, then you're going to be able to do anything you want next time.

Everybody thinks his business, really, really, all right life. He doesn't clean.

What's with him?

Oh, I'm afraid he's gone Hollywood.

Hollywood.

This week on the business, a former Obama speechwriter comes to Hollywood

and teams up with the director who helped make modern family an out-of-the-gate hit.

They'll talk about creating NBC's New Comedy 1600 Penn.

But first, the Hollywood news banter.

Stick around. It's the business from KCRW.

I can imagine Hollywood everything is really driven by making money.

What's with him?

I'm joined by my fellow banterer, John Horn of the Los Angeles Times.

Hello, John. Happy New Year.

Happy New Year, Kim. So, John, huge good news for the studios at last. A great year end and a record box office year.

2012 ended with $10.8 billion, which was a 6.5% improvement over 2011. And important to note that the box office gains were driven by more admissions,

1.36 billion, which is a 6.3% increase from 2011. Still not close to the record, said in 2002 of

1.6 billion admissions, but pretty good news overall for the box office, driven in large part by

the fourth quarter and the outsized performance

of adult dramas like Lincoln and Argo. Yeah, and of course, it's like The Hobbit and Skyfall,

which has gone over a billion dollars worldwide. And as you say, very important that there are

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