From KCRW in Santa Monica, I'm Claude Brodesser Ackner, and this is The Business.

So you still want to do the show business, and you think that you got what it takes.

I mean, you really got a rap and be all at, but prepare yourself for the breaks.

Check it out.

This week on the business, Hollywood Studios are slashing producer deals in record numbers.

What are these producer packs?

And what does it mean for the kinds of movies that we'll be seeing?

Plus, when it comes to production companies, what's in the name?

But first, it's the Hollywood News Caravan.

Go Nowhere, it's the business from NPR.

Music Things got a little hairy last week for Barnes & Noble and for Hollywood.

For starters, the bookseller posted a drop in quarterly profit last week and cut its full year's sales forecast. Now, sure, the economy is in the deathly hallows, but it was the lack of a certain sorcerer that did the most damage.

With no new Harry Potter book on the shelves this year, sales at Barnes & Noble stores open at least a year fell 4.7%.

How important is Mr. Potter? Well, when you exclude last year's Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,

same store sales fell only 1.5%. In related Harry news, two weeks ago, Warner Brothers said it was

moving Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince,

the sixth film in its wildly profitable Potter franchise,

from November of this year to July of next.

Warner's PR machine spun the move as something made possible because the Dark Night had exceeded expectations,

taking pressure off this year's box office.

But what is likely the real reason was revealed last week. Warner's

needs a guaranteed moneymaker next year, and they may not be able to release their 2009 blockbuster,

...