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.
MONEY IN HOLLYWOOD — WHO’S making it, how much they’re making and what they spend it on — is a recurring topic in The Hollywood Reporter, as it is in the executive suites and assistant banks of every studio lot and talent agency. Many would call it an industry obsession, especially considering how close-to-the-vest most of Hollywood keeps such information. That’s why so many of us gasped when the Sony Pictures hack in November threw open the books of an entire company, putting salaries on display for everyone from Jennifer Lawrence and Jeremy Renner to grips and gaffers. All of a sudden, agents were able to peruse film budgets to see if a Sony business affairs executive was lying when she promised an actor was being taken care of. A…
AFTER THIS SUMMER’S DEBACLE over Fantastic Four, it’s easy to understand why 20th Century Fox executives got nervous when director Rupert Wyatt began to seem skittish about directing its next Marvel character movie, Gambit. THR reported Sept. 16 that Wyatt exited the film, citing a scheduling conflict with an unnamed project. But multiple sources say the real split arose after the studio began to question whether Wyatt was in fact committed to moving ahead on the project, which has an Oct. 7, 2016, release date. Says one highlevel source with knowledge of the situation: “Ambivalence is not a good way to go into an expensive movie.” Wyatt, 42, was one of those directors — like Gareth Edwards (Godzilla), Colin Trevorrow (Jurassic World) and Josh Trank (Fantastic Four) — who was…
STEVE MOSKO The Sony TV exec is upped to chairman, finally putting him on equal footing with the studio’s film chief after years of second-class status. ROLAND EMMERICH The director’s Stonewall flops with $112,834 in a limited opening amid criticism from LGBT groups about a revisionist portrayal of the 1969 riots. ROGER AILES His Fox News finishes the quarter as the most watched cable network in primetime, beating football-boosted ESPN, as Donald Trump ends his weeklong boycott of the channel. KATIE O’CONNELL The Gaumont TV CEO steps down in a reorganization that puts Gene Stein in charge of the European power’s U.S. operations (Narcos, Hemlock Grove). SHOWBIZ STOCKS $4.21 (+2%) REALNETWORKS (RNWK) The digital media company and Rhapsody parent bucks a weeklong downtrend where the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell…
EACH NETWORK BOASTS AT LEAST ONE WIN, BUT TV’s annual fall premiere week brought a reminder that the days of counting on same-day viewers are over. The Big Four’s primetime ratings among adults 18-to-49 dropped 13 percent, year to year. As they downplay those numbers, here are other trends that quickly are emerging. 1. Schedules Still Matter While live audiences are declining, plenty still watch the old-fashioned way — so scheduling is important. Fox’s Rosewood, with dismal reviews, benefitted from its Empire adjacency to earn a 2.8 rating in the key demo over three days. Shonda Rhimes’ three-hour Thursday lineup remains lucrative for ABC, as are its Wednesday comedies. Says analyst Brad Adgate: “There are vestiges of these programming strategies from years ago that still work.” 2. Blaming Doesn’t Work…
EARLY IN THE MORNING OF SEPT. 14, the Kardashian sisters launched a suite of subscription-based lifestyle apps. By that afternoon, all four apps — one each for Kim Kardashian West, Khloe Kardashian, Kendall Jenner and Kylie Jenner (Kourtney Kardashian’s will launch later this year) — shot to the top of Apple’s App Store charts, led by Kylie’s, the most downloaded free app in the U.S. for two straight days. The Kardashian sisters’ ability to attract an audience has been well documented. But digital media observers are closely watching the performance of the E! stars’ apps as the landscape shifts away from ad-supported services to standalone subscription offerings. “We’ve been living in a world where there’s been one pure-play big bundle, and now we’re going to find out over the next…
WHY IS A MOVIE made seven years ago finally getting to U.S. theaters now? The Weinstein Co. won’t say why it has set an Oct. 2 release on about 100 screens for Mikael Hafstrom’s Shanghai, starring John Cusack. Though the 1940s-set mysterythriller opened internationally in 2010, Weinstein kept it on the domestic shelf. The project was the brainchild of producer Mike Medavoy, born in Shanghai in 1941, who developed the screenplay but became largely hands-off once Weinstein took it on in 2007. (Johnny Depp was sought to star, but Harvey Weinstein refused to pay his $20 million fee.) Unaware that the film is now set to open, Medavoy says, “I certainly want it to do well and am rooting for it.” Released in 2010 in China, where it grossed $6.7 million,…
