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Having moderated dozens of Hollywood Reporter Roundtables over the years, I sometimes get approached by people who ask me to reveal stuff that doesn’t make it into print. (Highlights: Mickey Rourke’s dog Loki relieving himself on the floor of the Beverly Wilshire; another major star who once replaced his ice water on the table with a glass of pure vodka.) But perhaps the most frequent question is, “Would you ever let me come watch one live?” As of now, the answer is yes. On Dec. 7, THR is expanding its nearly twodecade- old Roundtable franchise to include a live event with a studio audience. We’re gathering six actors in the awards race, mixing male and female performers for the first time, and letting a crowd of invited guests watch in…
Film Marvel vs. DC Why the fight isn’t just Thor versus Justice League p. 24 Digital Facebook Feed Inside a new push for better, more professional shows. p. 26 Heat Index Rian Johnson The Last Jedi director gets a vote of confidence from Lucasfilm and Disney with a rich deal to create a new Star Wars movie trilogy. Evan Spiegel The Snapchat founder sees his company’s stock plunge as user growth slows, revenue disappoints and an app redesign seeks to make it easier to use. Taylor Swift The artist sells more than 1 million copies of her latest album, Reputation, in just five days without making it available on streaming services. Marc Shmuger The EuropaCorp CEO is stepping down from Luc Besson’s French company after it posts a record $135 million…
CHINA’S DWINDLING INVESTMENT IN THE U.S. ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY Why did Paramount’s $1 billion slate financing deal with China’s Huahua Media and Shanghai Film Group finally come undone on Nov. 8? Parent Viacom’s explanation fit the pattern industry watchers recently have come to expect from deals involving China: “Changes to Chinese foreign investment policies” were to blame, the company said. But sources close to Huahua, however, counter to THR that the Shanghai-based company deliberately aborted the pact because of the poor performance of Paramount’s recent releases and dismal projections it was seeing for the studio’s lineup. Paramount declined to comment, and Huahua did not respond to requests for on-therecord comment. The failed Paramount pact joins a scrap heap of aborted deals totaling billions, including China buyouts of Dick Clark Productions, Voltage…
The November slugfest between Marvel Studios’ Thor: Ragnarok and Warner Bros.’ DC film Justice League is bigger than just the box office. It’s a fight for comic supremacy. On Nov. 7, days after Ragnarok opened to $122.7 million in the U.S., DC Comics lured superstar Brian Michael Bendis away from Marvel, where he had spent the past 17 years penning best-sellers including Ultimate Spider-Man and The Avengers, which helped inspire multiple films and TV shows. Bendis inked a “multifaceted” deal that sources say could give him input on Warner Bros.’ growing stable of DC films. While Marvel put on a professional face, calling Bendis a great partner and appreciating his creativity and professionalism, several sources tell THR that staffers were taken by surprise at the poaching move. “He was one…
Is a 70mm film rebirth ahead? The wide, high-resolution format — used to display classics like Ben-Hur and Lawrence of Arabia — is a movie buff favorite, but its use has been limited since the start of the digital cinema era. That may be changing. A 70mm presentation of Fox’s Murder on the Orient Express opened the Camerimage international cinematography festival Nov. 11, and the film unspooled in the format on four screens in New York and Los Angeles. The grosses for the film were solid but not spectacular, according to exhibition insiders (the sampling was too small for Fox to break out). When Warner Bros. released Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk on July 21, it included 31 Imax 70mm screens and roughly 100 standard 70mm sites, making it among the largest wide-format…
Box-office source: comScore; estimates in $ millions; ()Weekends in release; *Territories. Broadcast source: Nielsen, live-plus-3, week of Oct. 30. Cable TV source: Nielsen, live-plus-3 scripted series, week of Oct. 30. Less than three months after Facebook began rolling out its video tab, Watch, the social network is prioritizing premium programming. Several digital media executives tell THR that they expect Facebook to stop partially funding videos from publisher and producer partners as it focuses on buying high-end projects outright. The move is expected to provide more funding opportunities for shows that keep viewers coming back and watching for longer periods of time, as opposed to oneoff viral hits. These fully funded projects, known internally as “hero” shows, include ambitious TV-style series such as recent pickups Five Points, a teen drama exec…
