The all-new Hollywood Reporter offers unprecedented access to the people, studios, networks and agencies that create the magic in Hollywood. Published weekly, the oversized format includes exceptional photography and rich features.
TELEVISION’S BIGGEST WINNERS OF THE 2015-16 season are barely winners at all. The few returning broadcast series that saw zero ratings movement are considered the hits, as fractured viewing and the era of Peak TV rewrite the rules of conventional audience measurement. That’s why this season might be the last judged by Nielsen’s current live-plus-7-day measuring stick. Despite the May axing of 19 first-year series and such surprise dumpings as ABC’s Castle and Nashville, cancellations are proving rarer, even as linear ratings shrink. That’s because, of the 60 returning scripted series to air on the five main broadcast networks this season, only one finished with improved ratings from the previous year. And that show premiered in the ’90s. Law & Order: SVU’s modest gain, up an incremental 4 percent during…
SHARI REDSTONE Sumner’s daughter takes pole position in the battle for his empire as the removal of Philippe Dauman from the family trust and company board paves the way for her to exert control, even as the fracas heads to court. JOHNNY DEPP Alice Through the Looking Glass tanks with $34.2 million during Memorial Day weekend, a fraction of the $116.1 million his 2010 original grossed over only three days. Did his estranged wife’s abuse claims hurt box office? DRAKE The rapper’s Views tops the Billboard 200 album chart for a fourth straight week and owns the four biggest-streaming weeks for any album. BILL WOLFF The showrunner of Chelsea Handler’s Netflix talk show exits after only three weeks and nine episodes amid poor reviews and a lack of buzz. SHOWBIZ…
MARCO HUSGES WAS ON vacation in Croatia in 2013 when inspiration struck. “For some reason, ‘emoji’ came into my mind,” says the German former video game executive. So he was the first to file for commercial trademarks for the word around the world in a first-come, first-served competition. (Emoji were created by mobile-phone operators in Japan in the late 1990s.) Husges, 45, doesn’t own the rights to the wildly popular digital icons on phones and social media, but as founder of The Emoji Co., he also created more than 3,000 of his own icons and trademarked and licensed them for use on an array of merchandise. Husges also trademarked such titles as “emojiplanet” and “emojitown.” So Husges says he was surprised when Sony Pictures Animation announced The Emoji Movie, dated…
NEAR THE END OF BLOCKBUSTER BROADWAY MUSICAL Hamilton, George Washington (Christopher Jackson) sings “One Last Time,” a farewell to the presidency and his treasury secretary, Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton star Lin-Manuel Miranda soon will be singing the same tune. On July 9, less than a month after the Tonys, where Hamilton has a record 16 nominations, the contracts of many members of the current company — including Miranda, who also wrote the show’s book and music — will expire, sources close to the production tell THR. Miranda, 36, has told confidants he will depart the show then to work on other projects. He wrote music for the Disney animated musical Moana (in theaters Nov. 23); The Weinstein Co. has picked up movie rights to his first Broadway musical, In the Heights;…
Lethal Weapon (Warner Bros. TV) The remake of the 1987 film emerged as a favorite among the 1,600 foreign buyers in L.A. in late May. The appeal, per Warners’ worldwide TV distribution president Jeffrey Schlesinger: “It’s a well-known franchise, it’s got action, it’s got heart, it’s not heavily serialized and it’s repeatable. It hits the bull’seye on every level.” This Is Us (20th Century Fox TV) Dan Fogelman’s NBC dramedy is the only original concept to generate the buzz of the reboots and spinoffs. “It emotionally sucks you in within the first five minutes, and you suddenly care about these people,” says German buyer Rudiger Boss. “It’s like Love Actually without the Christmas theme.” 24: Legacy (20th TV) Despite initial concerns about a Kiefer Sutherland-less 24, new star Corey Hawkins…
WHAT’S UP DAVID Copperfield’s sleeve? A burgeoning side career as Hollywood’s go-to guy when movies meet magic. The famed illusionist quietly has been consulting on major films including Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige and Martin Scorsese’s Hugo. His next project, Now You See Me 2, arrives June 10. Fans might wonder why Copperfield — with an empire worth an estimated $850 million, 38 Emmy nominations, 11 Guinness World Records and a successful Las Vegas residency — would need a part-time consulting gig. The reason: “Cinema is where I began — that’s what inspired me,” he says. “People in my business say Harry Houdini was their idol, or [Harry] Kellar or [John-Eugene] Robert-Houdin. My idols were Victor Fleming and Walt Disney and Orson Welles. I was really good at magic, but all…
